title: KK (singer)

text: On 29 August 2015, KK appeared in season two of the television singing-reality show "Indian Idol Junior" as a judge and guest jury member. On 13 September of that year, he appeared on the Sony Mix show "Baaton Baaton Mein". In a 2019 "Hindustan Times" interview, KK said that he was active in the music industry with live performances and playback singing. Live performances made him happy; he did not want to abandon his "commitment to the audience", and wanted to release a new album after the 2008 success of his second album.


title: KK (singer)

text: On 31 May 2022, KK performed a concert at a college festival at Nazrul Mancha in South Kolkata. After the concert, he returned to his hotel in Esplanade. KK complained of feeling unwell on the way back to his hotel, where he experienced cardiac arrest. He collapsed, and efforts to revive him at the hotel were unsuccessful. KK was rushed to Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) at about 10:30 pm, where he was declared dead. He was 53 years old.


title: KK (singer)

text: On 1 June 2022, Kolkata Police registered a case of unnatural death to investigate KK's death. His autopsy was videographed; the report cited myocardial infarction (heart attack) as the probable cause of death, ruling out foul play. According to the doctor who conducted the autopsy, KK could have survived if he had received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) immediately after losing consciousness. He had complained to his wife about pain in his shoulder and arm for several days before his death, thinking it was caused by digestive problems. According to the autopsy report, KK's heart had an 80-percent blockage. Three public interest litigations (PILs) related to the singer's death were registered in the Calcutta High Court.


title: KK (singer)

text: KK was given a gun salute by the West Bengal government at Rabindra Sadan in Kolkata. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was present for the salute; film- and music-industry figures and politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offered their condolences. KK's remains were brought to Mumbai, and his funeral was held at the Versova Hindu Cemetery on the following day (2 June). It was attended by family members, friends and colleagues.


title: KK (singer)

text: Reporting KK's death, "Deccan Herald" called him the "voice of love". According to "The Times of India," he was Bollywood's most versatile singer. An article in "The Hindu" said, "Till the end, he remained a rage in the concert circuit and will be remembered as the singer who became the voice of the heart".


title: KK (singer)

text: In a "Hindustan Times" interview, KK was asked if he was bothered by being nominated for a number of awards but seldom winning. He said no: "As a singer, I haven't felt any lesser by not getting an award. Winning or not winning an award doesn't affect me. I just like to do my work in the best possible manner. I am happy getting good songs. I am happy not getting awards."


title: Mughal emperors

text: The Mughal emperors () were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled themselves as "padishah", a title usually translated from Persian as "emperor". They began to rule parts of India from 1526, and by 1707 ruled most of the sub-continent. After that they declined rapidly, but nominally ruled territories until the Indian Rebellion of 1857.


title: Mughal emperors

text: The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. Their founder Babur, a Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley (modern-day Uzbekistan), was a direct descendant of Timur (generally known in western nations as Tamerlane) and also affiliated with Genghis Khan through Timur's marriage to a Genghisid princess.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Many of the later Mughal emperors had significant Indian Rajput and Persian ancestry through marriage alliances as emperors were born to Rajput and Persian princesses. Akbar, for instance, was half-Persian (his mother was of Persian origin), Jahangir was half-Rajput and quarter-Persian, and Shah Jahan was three-quarters Rajput.


title: Mughal emperors

text: During the reign of Aurangzeb (), the empire, as the world's largest economy and manufacturing power, worth over 25% of global GDP, controlled nearly all of the Indian subcontinent, extending from Chittagong in the east to Kabul and Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri River basin in the south.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Its population at the time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million (a quarter of the world's population), over a territory of more than 4 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles). Mughal power rapidly dwindled during the 18th century and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was deposed in 1857, with the establishment of the British Raj.


title: Mughal emperors

text: The Mughal empire was founded by Babur, a Timurid prince and ruler from Central Asia. Babur was a direct descendant of the Timurid Emperor Tamerlane on his father's side, and the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan on his mother's side. Ousted from his ancestral domains in Turkistan by Sheybani Khan, the 40-year-old Prince Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions. He established himself in Kabul and then pushed steadily southward into India from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass. Babur's forces occupied much of northern India after his victory at Panipat in 1526. The preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India. The instability of the empire became evident under his son, Humayun, who was driven into exile in Persia by rebels. Humayun's exile in Persia established diplomatic ties between the Safavid and Mughal Courts and led to increasing West Asian cultural influence in the Mughal court. The restoration of Mughal rule began after Humayun's triumphant return from Persia in 1555, but he died from an accident shortly afterwards. Humayun's son, Akbar, succeeded to the throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped consolidate the Mughal Empire in India.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Through warfare and diplomacy, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the Godavari river. He created a new ruling elite loyal to him, implemented a modern administration, and encouraged cultural developments. He increased trade with European trading companies. The Indian historian Abraham Eraly wrote that foreigners were often impressed by the fabulous wealth of the Mughal court, but the glittering court hid darker realities, namely that about a quarter of the empire's gross national product was owned by 655 families while the bulk of India's 120  million people lived in appalling poverty. After suffering what appears to have been an epileptic seizure in 1578 while hunting tigers, which he regarded as a religious experience, Akbar grew disenchanted with Islam, and came to embrace a syncretistic mixture of Hinduism and Islam. Akbar allowed freedom of religion at his court and attempted to resolve socio-political and cultural differences in his empire by establishing a new religion, Din-i-Ilahi, with strong characteristics of a ruler cult. He left his son an internally stable state, which was in the midst of its golden age, but before long signs of political weakness would emerge.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Akbar's son, Jahangir, "was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came under the influence of rival court cliques. During the reign of Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, the splendour of the Mughal court reached its peak, as exemplified by the Taj Mahal. The cost of maintaining the court, however, began to exceed the revenue coming in.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal Dara Shikoh, became regent in 1658, as a result of his father's illness. Dara championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim religion and culture. With the support of the Islamic orthodoxy, however, a younger son of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, seized the throne. Aurangzeb defeated Dara in 1659 and had him executed. Although Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness, there was a succession war for the throne between Dara and Aurangzeb. Finally, Aurangzeb succeeded the throne and kept Shah Jahan under house arrest.


title: Mughal emperors

text: During Aurangzeb's reign, the empire gained political strength once more, and it became the world's largest economy, over a quarter of the world GDP, but his establishment of Sharia caused huge controversies. Aurangzeb expanded the empire to include a huge part of South Asia. At its peak, the kingdom stretched to 3.2 million square kilometres, including parts of what are now India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. After his death in 1707, "many parts of the empire were in open revolt". Aurangzeb's attempts to reconquer his family's ancestral lands in Central Asia were not successful while his successful conquest of the Deccan region proved to be a Pyrrhic victory that cost the empire heavily in both blood and treasure. A further problem for Aurangzeb was the army had always been based upon the land-owning aristocracy of northern India who provided the cavalry for the campaigns, and the empire had nothing equivalent to the Janissary corps of the Ottoman Empire. The long and costly conquest of the Deccan had badly diminished the "aura of success" that surrounded Aurangzeb, and from the late 17th century onwards, the aristocracy became increasingly unwilling to provide forces for the empire's wars as the prospect of being rewarded with land as a result of a successful war was seen as less and less likely.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Furthermore, at the conclusion of the conquest of the Deccan, Aurangzeb had very selectively rewarded some of the noble families with confiscated land in the Deccan, leaving aristocrats unrewarded with confiscated land feeling strongly disgruntled and unwilling to participate in further campaigns. Aurangzeb's son, Shah Alam, repealed the religious policies of his father and attempted to reform the administration. "However, after his death in 1712, the Mughal dynasty sank into chaos and violent feuds. In the year 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne".


title: Mughal emperors

text: During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the empire began to break up, and vast tracts of central India passed from Mughal to Maratha hands. Mughal warfare had always been based upon heavy artillery for sieges, heavy cavalry for offensive operations and light cavalry for skirmishing and raids. To control a region, the Mughals had always sought to occupy a strategic fortress in some region, which would serve as a nodal point from which the Mughal army would emerge to take on any enemy that challenged the empire. This system was not only expensive but also made the army somewhat inflexible as the assumption was always the enemy would retreat into a fortress to be besieged or would engage in a set-piece decisive battle of annihilation on open ground. The Hindu Marathas were expert horsemen who refused to engage in set-piece battles, but rather engaged in campaigns of guerrilla warfare upon the Mughal supply lines. The Marathas were unable to take the Mughal fortresses via a storm or formal siege as they lacked the artillery, but by constantly intercepting supply columns, they were able to starve Mughal fortresses into submission.


title: Mughal emperors

text: Successive Mughal commanders refused to adjust their tactics and develop an appropriate counter-insurgency strategy, which led to the Mughals losing more and more ground to the Maratha. The Indian campaign of Nader Shah of Persia culminated with the Sack of Delhi and shattered the remnants of Mughal power and prestige, as well as capturing the imperial treasury, thus drastically accelerating its decline. Many of the empire's elites now sought to control their own affairs and broke away to form independent kingdoms. The Mughal Emperor, however, continued to be the highest manifestation of sovereignty. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the Maratha, Hindu, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial acknowledgements of the emperor as the sovereign of India.


title: Mughal emperors

text: In the next decades, the Afghans, Sikhs, and Marathas battled against each other and the Mughals, revealing the fragmented state of the empire. The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II made futile attempts to reverse the Mughal decline, but he ultimately had to seek the protection of outside powers. In 1784, the Marathas under Mahadaji Shinde won acknowledgement as the protectors of the emperor in Delhi, a state of affairs that continued until after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Thereafter, the British East India Company became the protectors of the Mughal dynasty in Delhi. After 1835 the Company no longer recognised the authority of the emperor, accepting him only as 'King of Delhi' and removing all references to him from their coinage. After a crushed rebellion which he nominally led in 1857–58, the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British, who then assumed formal control of a large part of the former empire, marking the start of the British Raj.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: A triad () is a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate based in Greater China and has outposts in various countries with significant overseas Chinese diaspora populations.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Hong Kong triad is distinct from mainland Chinese criminal organizations. In ancient China, the triad was one of three major secret societies. It established branches in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas. Known as "mainland Chinese criminal organizations", they are of two major types: “dark forces” (loosely-organized groups) (）and “Black Societies" () (more-mature criminal organizations). Two features which distinguish a black society from ordinary "dark forces" or low level criminal gangs are the extent to which the organisation is able to control local markets and the degree of police protection able to be obtained. The Hong Kong triad refers to traditional criminal organizations operating in (or originating from) Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and south-east Asian countries and regions, while organized-crime groups in mainland China are known as "mainland Chinese criminal groups".


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", "triad" is a translation of the Chinese term "Sān Hé Huì" 三合會 (Three United Association), referring to the union of heaven, earth and humanity. Another theory posits that the word "triad" was coined by British officials in colonial Hong Kong as a reference to the triads' use of triangular imagery. It has been speculated that triad organizations took after, or were originally part of, revolutionary movements such as the White Lotus, the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions and the Heaven and Earth Society.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The generic use of the word "triads" for all Chinese criminal organizations is imprecise; triad groups are geographically, ethnically, culturally and structurally unique. "Triads" are traditional organized-crime groups originating from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Criminal organizations operating in, or originating from, mainland China are "mainland Chinese criminal groups" or "black societies". After years of repression, only some elements of triad groups are involved with illegal activities. Triads in Hong Kong are less involved with "traditional" criminal activity and are becoming associated with white-collar crime; traditional initiation ceremonies rarely take place to avoid official attention.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triad, a China-based criminal organization, secret association or club, was a branch of the secret Hung Society, a secret society formed with the intent of overthrowing the then ruling Qing Dynasty. Triads therefore first began as part of an organised patriotic movement to overthrow Qing rule which was considered tyrannical and foreign to the Han ethnic majority since the Qing dynasty was composed of ethnic Manchus. At the turn of the 19th century, Chinese triads were involved in revolutionary and underground activities designed to subvert the ruling ailing Qing which was considered corrupt and unable to reform.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Secret societies in the Qing Dynasty era were synonymous with patriotism, with groups operating under the banner of: "Oppose the Qing Dynasty and Restore Ming" (). Triads were also allegedly enlisted by the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party during republican era China in order to assassinate political opponents and attack political enemies, notable organisations included the green gang which participated in the Shanghai massacre of Communist party members in 1927.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, secret societies in mainland China were suppressed in campaigns ordered by Mao Zedong and subsequently by Deng Xiaoping during the "Strike Hard" campaigns against organised crime in 1978. As a result, most Chinese secret societies, including the triads and some of the remaining Ching Gang (a group which splintered from the originally fragmented Hung Society), relocated to the British colony of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and overseas countries (particularly the United States) and competed with the Tong and other ethnic Chinese criminal organisations. Gradually, Chinese secret societies turned to drugs and extortion for income.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Heaven and Earth Society (天地會, Tiandihui), a fraternal organization, was founded during the 1760s possibly either in 1760 or 1769. As the society's influence spread throughout China, it branched into several smaller groups with different names; one was the Three Harmonies Society (三合會, Sānhéhuì). These societies adopted the triangle as their emblem, usually accompanied by decorative images of swords or portraits of Guan Yu (关羽, Guān Yǔ) (the Chinese god of war


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Such societies were seen as legitimate ways of helping immigrants from China settle into their new place of residence and through employment and development of local connections. Secret societies were banned by the British colonial government in Singapore during the 1890s, and slowly reduced in number by successive colonial governors and leaders. Rackets which facilitated the economic power of Singapore triads, the opium trade and prostitution were also banned. Immigrants were encouraged to seek help from a local "kongsi" instead of turning to secret societies, which contributed to the societies' decline. During the incredibly bloody Taiping Rebellion, many either decided or were forced to aid the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom out of opposition to the interfering Qing Dynasty.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: After the Second World War, the secret societies saw a resurgence as gangsters took advantage of the uncertainty to re-establish themselves. Some Chinese communities, such as "new villages" in Kuala Lumpur and Bukit Ho Swee in Singapore, became notorious for gang violence. When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 in mainland China, law enforcement became stricter and a government crackdown on criminal organizations forced the triads to migrate to British Hong Kong. An estimated 300,000 triad members lived in Hong Kong during the 1950s. According to the University of Hong Kong, most triad societies were established between 1914 and 1939 and there were once more than 300 in the territory. The number of groups has consolidated to about 50, of which 14 are under police surveillance. There were nine main triads—Wo Hop To, Wo Shing Wo, Rung, Tung, Chuen, Shing, Sun Yee On, 14K and Luen—operating in Hong Kong. They divided land by ethnic group and geographic locations, with each triad in charge of a region. Each had their own headquarters, sub-societies and public image. After the 1956 riots, the Hong Kong government introduced stricter law enforcement and the triads became less active.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: On 18 January 2018, Italian police arrested 33 people connected to a Chinese triad operating in Europe as part of its Operation China Truck (which began in 2011). The triad were active in Tuscany, Veneto, Rome and Milan in Italy, and in France, Spain and the German city of Neuss. The indictment accuses the Chinese triad of extortion, usury, illegal gambling, prostitution and drug trafficking. The group was said to have infiltrated the transport sector, using intimidation and violence against Chinese companies wishing to transport goods by road into Europe. Police seized several vehicles, businesses, properties and bank accounts.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: According to the expert in terrorist organizations and mafia-type organized crime Antonio De Bonis, there is a close relationship between the Triads and the Camorra, and the port of Naples is the most important landing point of the trades managed by the Chinese in cooperation with the Camorra. Among the illegal activities in which the two criminal organizations work together are the human trafficking and illegal immigration aimed at the sexual and labor exploitation of Chinese immigrants into Italy, synthetic drug trafficking and the laundering of illicit money through the purchase of real estate. In 2017 investigators discovered an illicit industrial waste transportation scheme jointly run by the Camorra and Triads. The waste was transported from Italy to China, leaving from Prato in Italy and arriving in Hong Kong- a scheme which prior to its discovery had been netting millions of dollars' worth of revenue for both organizations.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads engage in a variety of crimes, from fraud, extortion and money laundering to trafficking and prostitution, and are involved in smuggling and counterfeiting goods such as music, video, software, clothes, watches and money.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Since the first opium bans during the 19th century, Chinese criminal gangs have been involved in worldwide illegal drug trade. Many triads switched from opium to heroin, produced from opium plants in the Golden Triangle, refined into heroin in China and trafficked to North America and Europe, in the 1960s and 1970s. The most important triads active in the international heroin trade are the 14K and the Tai Huen Chai. Triads have begun smuggling chemicals from Chinese factories to North America (for the production of methamphetamine), and to Europe for the production of MDMA. Triads in the United States also traffic large quantities of ketamine.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads have been engaging in counterfeiting since the 1880s. During the 1960s and 1970s, they were involved in counterfeiting currency (often the Hong Kong 50-cent piece). The gangs were also involved in counterfeiting expensive books for sale on the black market. With the advent of new technology and the improvement of the average standard of living, triads produce counterfeit goods such as watches, film VCDs and DVDs and designer apparel such as clothing and handbags. Since the 1970s, triad turf control was weakened and some shifted their revenue streams to legitimate businesses.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads use numeric codes to distinguish ranks and positions within the gang; the numbers are inspired by Chinese numerology and based on the "I Ching". The Mountain (or Dragon Master Head) is 489, 438 is the Deputy Mountain Master, 432 indicates Straw Sandal rank; the Mountain Master's proxy, Incense Master (who oversees inductions into the triad), and Vanguard are 438 or 2238 (who assists the Incense Master). Law enforcement and intel have it that the Vanguard may actually hold the highest power or final word. A military commander (also known as a Red Pole), overseeing defensive and offensive operations, is 426; 49 denotes a soldier, or rank-and-file member. The White Paper Fan (415) provides financial and business advice, and the Straw Sandal (432) is a liaison between units. An undercover law-enforcement agent or spy from another triad is 25, also popular Hong Kong slang for an informant. Blue Lanterns are uninitiated members, equivalent to Mafia associates, and do not have a designating number. According to De Leon Petta Gomes da Costa, who interviewed triads and authorities in Hong Kong, most of the current structure is a vague, low hierarchy; the traditional ranks and positions no longer exist.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Similar to the Indian "thuggees" or the Japanese "yakuza", triad members participate in initiation ceremonies. A typical ceremony takes place at an altar dedicated to Guan Yu (關羽, GuānYǔ), with incense and an animal sacrifice (usually a chicken, pig or goat). After drinking a mixture of wine and blood (from the animal or the candidate), the member passes beneath an arch of swords while reciting the triad's oaths. The paper on which the oaths are written will be burnt on the altar to confirm the member's obligation to perform his duties to the gods. Three fingers of the left hand are raised as a binding gesture. The triad initiate is required to adhere to 36 oaths.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Similar to triads, Tongs originated independently in early immigrant Chinatown communities. The word means "social club", and tongs are not specifically underground organizations. The first tongs formed during the second half of the 19th century among marginalized members of early immigrant Chinese-American communities for mutual support and protection from nativists. Modeled on triads, they were established without clear political motives and became involved in criminal activities such as extortion, illegal gambling, drug and human trafficking, murder and prostitution.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads were also active in Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia. When Malaysia and Singapore (with the region's largest population of ethnic Chinese) became crown colonies, secret societies and triads controlled local communities by extorting protection money and illegal money lending. Many conducted blood rituals, such as drinking one another's blood, as a sign of brotherhood; others ran opium dens and brothels.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Remnants of these former gangs and societies still exist. Due to government efforts in Malaysia and Singapore to reduce crime, the societies have largely faded from the public eye (particularly in Singapore).


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads were also common in Vietnamese cities with large Chinese (especially Cantonese and Teochew) communities. During the French colonial period, many businesses and wealthy residents in Saigon (particularly in the Chinatown district) and Haiphong were controlled by protection-racket gangs.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: With Vietnamese independence in 1945, organized crime activity was drastically reduced as Ho Chi Minh's governments purged criminal activity in the country. According to Ho, abolishing crime was a method of protecting Vietnam and its people. During the First Indochina War, Ho's police forces concentrated on protecting people in his zone from crime; the French cooperated with criminal organisations to fight the Viet Minh. In 1955, President Ngô Đình Diệm ordered the South Vietnamese military to disarm and imprison organized-crime groups in the Saigon-Gia Định-Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu region and cities such as Mỹ Tho and Cần Thơ in the Mekong Delta. Diem banned brothels, massage parlours, casinos and gambling houses, opium dens, bars, drug houses and nightclubs, all establishments frequented by the triads. However, Diệm allowed criminal activity to finance his attempts to eliminate the Viet Minh in the south. Law enforcement was stricter in the north, with stringent control and monitoring of criminal activities. The government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam purged and imprisoned organized criminals, including triads, in the Haiphong and Hanoi areas. With pressure from Ho Chi Minh's police, Triad affiliates had to choose between elimination or legality. During the Vietnam War, the triads were eliminated in the north; in the south, Republic of Vietnam corruption protected their illegal activities and allowed them to control US aid. During the 1970s and 1980s, all illegal Sino-Vietnamese activities were eliminated by the Vietnamese police. Most triads were compelled to flee to Taiwan, Hong Kong or other countries in Southeast Asia.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Triads are also active in other regions with significant overseas-Chinese populations: Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. They are often involved in migrant smuggling. Shanty and Mishra (2007) estimate that the annual profit from narcotics is $200 billion, and annual revenues from human trafficking into Europe and the United States are believed to amount to $3.5 billion.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: In Australia, the major importer of illicit drugs in recent decades has been 'The Company', according to police sources in the region. This is a conglomerate run by triad bosses which focuses particularly on methamphetamine and cocaine. It has laundered money through junkets for high-stakes gamblers who visit Crown Casinos in Australia and Macau.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Due to their history of "patriotic" work in support of various political movements and factions, triads are alleged to be connected to the Chinese government; specifically the Chinese Communist Party both at local and mid-to central levels. Triad members are alleged to be members acting as agents of the state in achieving its political objectives of suppressing dissent, quelling protests and silencing, intimidating and coercing critics both at home and abroad, particularly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and countries with high concentrations of ethnic Chinese diasapora. This is demonstrated through the alleged involvement of triads in the Yuen Long attack against pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong in 2019. Hong Kong police were subsequently accused of collusion with triad criminal syndicates due to the notable absence of officers at the time of scene despite heavy police presence at protest events in weeks prior. The activities of triads are enabled by both local government corruption and law enforcement authorities who turn a blind eye to criminal behavior when influenced by the seniority of corrupt officials out of political convenience.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) is the division of the Hong Kong Police Force responsible for triad countermeasures. The OCTB and the Criminal Intelligence Bureau work with the Narcotics and Commercial Crime Bureaus to process information to counter triad leaders. Other involved departments include the Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department and the Independent Commission Against Corruption. They cooperate with the police to impede the expansion of triads and other organized gangs. Police actions regularly target organised crime, including raids on triad-controlled entertainment establishments and undercover work. The journal "Foreign Policy" reported in its August 2019 edition, alleged triad involvement in repressing the Hong Kong protests.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: At the national (and, in some cases, provincial) level, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Organized Crime Branch is responsible for investigating gang-related activities (including triads). The Canada Border Services Agency Organized Crime Unit works with the RCMP to detain and remove non-Canadian triad members. Asian gangs are found in many cities, primarily Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Guns and Gangs Unit of the Toronto Police Service is responsible for handling triads in the city. The Asian Gang Unit of the Metro Toronto Police was formerly responsible for dealing with triad-related matters, but a larger unit was created to deal with the broad array of ethnic gangs.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Organized Crime and Law Enforcement Act provides a tool for police forces in Canada to handle organized criminal activity. The act enhances the general role of the Criminal Code (with amendments to deal with organized crime) in dealing with criminal triad activities. Asian organized-crime groups were ranked the fourth-greatest organized-crime problem in Canada, behind outlaw motorcycle clubs, aboriginal crime groups and Indo-Canadian crime groups.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: In 2011, it was estimated that criminal gangs associated with triads controlled 90 percent of the heroin trade in Vancouver, British Columbia. Due to its geographic and demographic characteristics, Vancouver is the point of entry into North America for much of the heroin produced in Southeast Asia (much of the trade controlled by international organized-crime groups associated with triads). From 2006 to 2014, Southeast, East and South Asians accounted for 21 percent of gang deaths in British Columbia (trailing only Caucasians, who made up 46.3 percent of gang deaths.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: In June 2022, commissioner of the Australian Federal Police Reece Kershaw stated at the Five Eyes law enforcement group (FVLEG) that foreign governments were collaborating with criminal syndicates in the West and that: "state actors and citizens from some nations are using our countries at the expense of our sovereignty and economies". While no country was mentioned in particular, China was notably included, with the implication of involvement of Chinese organised crime in Australia.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: In August 2022, reporting by the "Australian Broadcasting Corporation" revealed that Hong Kong based jewellery and realestate development conglomerate Chow Tai Fook was endorsed by the Queensland state government as a 25% shareholder in The Star casino's Queen's wharf development.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The Chow Fook Tai conglomerate is owned by Cheng Yu Teng who was believed to have affiliations with the 14K triad and was alleged to have connections with Hong Kong and Macau organised crime syndicates, specifically through business connections with Wan Kuok Kui, "Broken Tooth" or "Broken Tooth Koi" in triad circles.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The 14K, Sun Yee On triads were believed to have been closely affiliated with Cheng and used as enforcers for the collection of gambling debts as in addition to being engaged in prostitution, human and drug trafficking. Kui has been the subject of sanctions by the United States Department of Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Act for corruption, embezzlement and "misappropration of state assets" as of 2020.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Primary laws addressing triads are the Societies Ordinance and the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance. The former, enacted in 1949 to outlaw triads in Hong Kong, stipulates that any person convicted of being (or claiming to be) an officeholder or managing (or assisting in the management) of a triad can be fined up to HK$1 million and imprisoned for up to 15 years.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: The power of triads has also diminished due to the 1974 establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The commission targeted corruption in police departments linked with triads.


title: Triad (organized crime)

text: Being a member of a triad is an offence punishable by fines ranging from HK$100,000 to HK$250,000 and three to seven years imprisonment under an ordinance enacted in Hong Kong in 1994, which aims to provide police with special investigative powers, provide heavier penalties for organized-crime activities and authorize the courts to confiscate the proceeds of such crimes.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Fairy Tail is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha's "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" from August 2006 to July 2017, with the individual chapters collected and published into 63 "tankōbon" volumes. The story follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel, a member of the popular wizard guild Fairy Tail, as he searches the fictional world of Earth-land for the dragon Igneel.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The manga has been adapted into an anime series produced by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., Satelight, Bridge, and CloverWorks which was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 2009 to March 2013. A second series was broadcast from April 2014 to March 2016. A third and final series was aired from October 2018 to September 2019. The series has also inspired numerous spin-off manga, including a prequel by Mashima, "Fairy Tail Zero", and a sequel storyboarded by him, titled "". Additionally, A-1 Pictures has developed nine original video animations and two animated feature films.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The manga series was originally licensed for an English release in North America by Del Rey Manga, which began releasing the individual volumes in March 2008 and ended its licensing with the 12th volume release in September 2010. In December 2010, Kodansha USA took over the North American release of the series. The Southeast Asian network Animax Asia aired an English-language version of the anime for seven seasons from 2010 to 2015. The manga was also licensed in the United Kingdom by Turnaround Publisher Services, in Australia by Penguin Books Australia, and in Argentina by Editorial Ivrea. The anime has been licensed by Crunchyroll for an English release in North America. As of February 2020, "Fairy Tail" had 72 million copies in print.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The world of Earth-land is home to numerous guilds where wizards apply their magic for paid job requests. Natsu Dragneel, a Dragon Slayer wizard from the Fairy Tail guild, explores the Kingdom of Fiore in search of his missing adoptive father, the dragon Igneel. During his journey, he befriends a young celestial wizard named Lucy Heartfilia and invites her to join Fairy Tail. Natsu, Lucy, and the cat-like Exceed Happy form a team, which is joined by other guild members: Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard; Erza Scarlet, a magical knight; and Wendy Marvell and Carla, another Dragon Slayer and Exceed duo. The team embark on numerous missions together, which include subduing criminals, illegal dark guilds, and ancient Etherious demons created by Zeref, a wizard cursed with immortality and deadly power.


title: Fairy Tail

text: After several adventures, Natsu and his companions find Zeref living in isolation on Fairy Tail's sacred ground of Sirius Island, where he expresses a desire to die for the atrocities he has committed. A battle over Zeref ensues between Fairy Tail and the dark guild Grimoire Heart, which attracts the attention of the evil black dragon Acnologia. The Fairy Tail wizards survive Acnologia's assault when the spirit of their guild's founder and Zeref's estranged lover, Mavis Vermillion, casts the defensive Fairy Sphere spell that places them into seven years of suspended animation. Later, Fairy Tail wages war against Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious who aim to unseal a book believed to contain Zeref's ultimate demon, E.N.D. When Acnologia returns to annihilate both guilds, Igneel – revealed to have sealed himself within Natsu – emerges to battle Acnologia, only to be killed in front of a helpless Natsu, who departs on a training journey to avenge Igneel.


title: Fairy Tail

text: After Natsu returns one year later, Fiore is invaded by the Alvarez Empire, a military nation ruled by Zeref, who intends to acquire Fairy Heart, a wellspring of infinite magic power housed within Mavis's equally cursed body preserved beneath Fairy Tail's guild hall. While battling Zeref, Natsu is informed of his own identity as both Zeref's younger brother and the true incarnation of E.N.D. (Etherious Natsu Dragneel), whom Zeref resurrected as a demon with the intention of being killed by him. When Natsu fails to do so, Zeref absorbs Fairy Heart from Mavis in a bid to rewrite the present timeline with one where he might prevent his own curse and Acnologia's rise to power. After Natsu defeats Zeref to stop the drastic changes to history his actions would create, Mavis lifts her and Zeref's curse by reciprocating his love, which kills them both.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Meanwhile, Fairy Tail and their allies detain Acnologia within a space-time rift created by the use of Eclipse, Zeref's time travel gate. However, Acnologia escapes while his disembodied spirit traps all of the present Dragon Slayers within the rift to maintain his godlike power. Lucy and many other wizards across the continent immobilize Acnologia's body within Fairy Sphere, while Natsu accumulates the other Dragon Slayers' magic and destroys Acnologia's spirit, killing him and freeing the Dragon Slayers from captivity. The following year, Natsu and his team depart on a century-old guild mission, continuing their adventures together.


title: Fairy Tail

text: After finishing his previous work, "Rave Master", Hiro Mashima found the story sentimental and sad at the same time, so he wanted the storyline of his next manga to have a "lot of fun." His inspiration for the series was sitting in bars and partying with his friends. He also described the series as being about young people finding their calling, such as a job. Mashima drew a one-shot titled "Fairy Tale" that was published in "Magazine Fresh" on September 3, 2002, which served as a pilot. Mashima's later concept for the serialized version involved Natsu as a fire-using member of a courier guild who carries various things on assignments. Mashima then came up with the idea to have different types of wizards hanging out in one place, and eventually coerced his editor into allowing him to change the concept to a wizard guild. The title was changed from "Tale" to "Tail" in reference to the tail of a fairy, which the author said may or may not prove to be a "pivotal point." Mashima stated that while he tried to consider both his own interests and the fans' on what would happen next in "Fairy Tail", the fans' took precedence.


title: Fairy Tail

text: In the period between "Rave Master" and "Fairy Tail", all but one of Mashima's assistants left, and the artist said making sure that the three new ones knew what to do was the hardest thing throughout the first year of serialization. Mashima described his weekly schedule for creating individual chapters of "Fairy Tail" in 2008: script and storyboards were written on Monday, rough sketches the following day, and drawing and inking were done Wednesday through Friday; time in the weekends was for "Monster Hunter Orage", a monthly series Mashima was writing at the same time. He usually thought up new chapters while working on the current ones. Mashima had six assistants in 2008 that worked in an area with seven desks, as well as a sofa and TV for video games. In 2011, he stated that he worked six days a week, for 17 hours a day.


title: Fairy Tail

text: For the characters of the series, Mashima drew people he had known in his life. In establishing the father-son relationship between Natsu and Igneel, Mashima cited his father's death when he was a child as an influence. He took Natsu's motion sickness from one of his friends, who gets sick when they take taxis together. When naming the character, the author thought western fantasy names would be unfamiliar to Japanese audiences, so he went with the Japanese name for summer; Natsu. Mashima based the reporter character Jason on American manga critic Jason Thompson, who interviewed him at 2008's San Diego Comic-Con, and another on an employee from Del Rey Manga, the original North American publisher of "Fairy Tail". He based the humorous aspects of the series on his daily life and jokes his assistants would make.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima, "Fairy Tail" was serialized in the manga anthology "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017. The 545 individual chapters were collected and published into 63 "tankōbon" volumes by Kodansha between December 15, 2006 and November 17, 2017. In 2008, a special crossover one-shot between "Fairy Tail" and Miki Yoshikawa's "Flunk Punk Rumble", titled , was published in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine". It was later included in "Fairy Tail+", an official fanbook released on May 17, 2010. Another crossover with Mashima's first series "Rave" was published in 2011. A special issue of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine", published on October 19, 2013, featured a small crossover between "Fairy Tail" and Nakaba Suzuki's "The Seven Deadly Sins", where each artist drew a "yonkoma" (four-panel comic) of the other's series. An actual crossover chapter between these two ran in the magazines' combined 4/5 issue of 2014, which was released on December 25, 2013. A two-volume series called "Fairy Tail S", which collects short stories by Mashima that were originally published in various Japanese magazines through the years, was released on September 16, 2016.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Del Rey Manga. The company released the first volume of the series on March 25, 2008 and continued until the release of the 12th volume in September 2010. After Del Rey Manga shut down, Kodansha USA acquired the license and began publishing "Fairy Tail" volumes in May 2011. They published the 63rd and final volume on January 23, 2018. Kodansha USA began publishing a larger omnibus version of the series in November 2015. Called "Fairy Tail: Master's Edition", each installment corresponds to five regular-sized volumes. They published the first volume of "Fairy Tail S: Tales from Fairy Tail" on October 24, 2017.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The manga has also been licensed in other English-speaking countries. In the United Kingdom, the volumes are distributed by Turnaround Publisher Services. In Australia and New Zealand, the manga is distributed by Penguin Books Australia.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Eight spin-off manga series based on "Fairy Tail" have been released. The first two series—"Fairy Tail Zero" by Mashima and "" by Yūsuke Shirato—began with the launch of a monthly magazine titled "Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine" on July 17, 2014, and ended in the magazine's thirteenth and final issue published on July 17, 2015. A third series, "Fairy Tail Blue Mistral" by Rui Watanabe, ran in Kodansha's "shōjo" manga magazine "Nakayoshi" from August 2, 2014 to December 1, 2015, while another, "Fairy Girls" by Boku, was released in Kodansha's "Magazine Special" from November 20, 2014 to August 20, 2015. Kyōta Shibano created a three-part meta-series titled "Fairy Tail Gaiden", which was launched in Kodansha's free weekly "Magazine Pocket" mobile app. The series began in 2015 with "Twin Dragons of Saber Tooth" from July 30 to November 4, continued with "Rhodonite" from November 18, 2015 to March 30, 2016, and concluded with "Lightning Gods" in 2016 from May 4 to September 14. "", a sequel to the original manga, began serialization on "Magazine Pocket" on July 25, 2018. It is storyboarded by Mashima and illustrated by Atsuo Ueda. Another spin-off, "" by Kenshirō Sakamoto, began on July 26 on the same app. On June 27, 2018, Mashima announced another spin-off manga for the app, "Fairy Tail City Hero", written and illustrated by Ushio Andō.


title: Fairy Tail

text: All eight "Fairy Tail" spin-off manga, including all three installments of "Gaiden", are licensed for English release by Kodansha USA.


title: Fairy Tail

text: A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Entertainment, and Satelight produced an anime adaptation of the manga. The anime, also titled "Fairy Tail" and directed by Shinji Ishihira, premiered on TV Tokyo on October 12, 2009. The series ended its run on March 30, 2013, with reruns beginning to air on April 4, 2013 under the title "Fairy Tail Best!". Forty-one DVD volumes containing four episodes each have been released. The Southeast Asian network Animax Asia aired the series locally in English. On January 18, 2011, British anime distributor Manga Entertainment announced on Twitter that the company would release the anime series in bilingual format at the end of the year. On April 21, 2011, they had confirmed that the first volume with 12 episodes would be released in February 2012; however, they later announced that the first volume would be released on March 5, 2012. In 2011, North American anime distributor Funimation Entertainment announced that they had acquired the first season of the ongoing series. The series made its North American television debut on November 22, 2011 on the Funimation Channel. The anime is also licensed by Madman Entertainment, who streamed and simulcasted the series on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand Melanesian Region (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), Polynesian Region (Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu). Funimation announced that the ninth installment would get the DVD/Blu-ray release on March 25, 2014.


title: Fairy Tail

text: On March 4, 2013, Mashima announced on his Twitter account that the anime would not end yet, and confirmed on July 11 that a sequel series was greenlit. The sequel series was officially confirmed in "Weekly Shonen Magazine" on December 28, 2013 with a special edition chapter. The sequel is produced by A-1 Pictures and Bridge, featuring character designs by Shinji Takeuchi; the original series' voice actors also returned to the project along with director Shinji Ishihira and writer . The official website for the sequel was launched on January 7, 2014. The series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2014, and was being simulcast by Funimation Entertainment. The second series concluded its run on March 26, 2016. On March 22, 2016, Mashima announced via Twitter that another "Fairy Tail" series was being developed. On July 20, 2017, Mashima confirmed on Twitter that the final season of "Fairy Tail" would air in 2018. The final season of "Fairy Tail" aired from October 7, 2018 to September 29, 2019. A-1 Pictures, CloverWorks, and Bridge produced and animated the final season, which ran from October 7, 2018 to September 29, 2019. for 51 episodes.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Nine original video animations (OVAs) of "Fairy Tail" have been produced and released on DVD by A-1 Pictures and Satelight, each bundled with a limited edition "tankōbon" volume of the manga. The first OVA, is an adaptation of the manga omake of the same name, and was released with Volume 26 on April 15, 2011. The second, is also an adaptation of the omake of the same name, and was released together with Volume 27 on June 17, 2011. The third, was released together with Volume 31 on February 17, 2012, and features an original story written by series creator Hiro Mashima. The fourth, "Fairies' Training Camp", is based on chapter 261 of the manga, and was released with Volume 35 on November 16, 2012. The fifth, is based on chapter 298 of the manga and was released with Volume 38 of the manga on June 17, 2013. A sixth OVA, titled is an adaptation of the omake of the same name and was released on August 16, 2013, with Volume 39 of the manga.


title: Fairy Tail

text: An anime film adaptation of "Fairy Tail", titled "", was released on August 18, 2012. It was directed by Masaya Fujimori, and its screenplay was written by anime staff writer . Series creator Hiro Mashima was involved as the film's story planner and designer for guest characters appearing in the film. To promote the film, Mashima drew a 30-page prologue manga , which was bundled with advance tickets for the film. The DVD was bundled with a special edition release of Volume 36 of the manga on February 13, 2013, and included an animated adaptation of "Hajimari no Asa" as a bonus extra. The film was aired on Animax Asia on March 23, 2013. Funimation has licensed North American distribution rights to the film. The English dub premiered at Nan Desu Kan on September 13, 2013, and was released on Blu-ray/DVD on December 10, 2013.


title: Fairy Tail

text: A second anime film was announced on May 15, 2015. On December 31, 2016, the official title of film was revealed as "", which was released on May 6, 2017 in Japan.


title: Fairy Tail

text: An action video game for the PlayStation Portable, titled was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show. The game was developed by Konami Examu Games inc. and was released on June 3, 2010. Two sequels to "Portable Guild" have also been released for the PlayStation Portable—the first, subtitled "Portable Guild 2", was released on March 10, 2011; the second, was released on March 22, 2012. The characters Natsu and Lucy also appeared as playable characters in the crossover video game "" for the PSP in 2009.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Two fighting games, and were released for the Nintendo DS on July 22, 2010 and April 21, 2011, respectively. In 2016, a browser game developed by GameSamba titled "Fairy Tail: Hero's Journey" was announced to be open for closed beta testing.


title: Fairy Tail

text: On September 5, 2019, it was announced that a role-playing video game titled "Fairy Tail", developed by Gust Co. Ltd. and published by Koei Tecmo would be released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam on March 19, 2020 worldwide; the game was later delayed to June 25. The game was then delayed to July 30, 2020 in Japan and Europe, and in North America on July 31, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.


title: Fairy Tail

text: The music for the anime was composed and arranged by Yasuharu Takanashi. Four original soundtrack CDs have been released, containing music from the anime: the first soundtrack volume was released on January 6, 2010, the second volume on July 7, 2010, the third soundtrack volume on July 6, 2011, and the fourth soundtrack volume on March 20, 2013. Character song singles were also produced; the first single, featuring Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu) and Yuichi Nakamura (Gray) was released on February 17, while the second single, featuring Aya Hirano (Lucy) and Rie Kugimiya (Happy), was released on March 3, 2010. Another character song album, entitled "Eternal Fellows," was released on April 27, 2011. Two of the songs from the album, performed by anime cast members Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu) and Aya Hirano (Lucy), were used for both OVAs as the opening and ending themes, respectively. Other songs on the volume are performed by Yuichi Nakamura (Gray), Sayaka Ohara (Erza), Satomi Satō (Wendy), Wataru Hatano (Gajeel), and a duet by Rie Kugimiya (Happy) and Yui Horie (Carla).


title: Fairy Tail

text: An internet radio program began airing on HiBiKi Radio Station on February 11, 2012, featuring anime voice actors Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu) and Mai Nakahara (Juvia) as announcers.


title: Fairy Tail

text: As of February 2020, the "Fairy Tail" manga had 72 million collected volumes in circulation. In France, the series had sold over 7.7 million copies by 2018. According to Oricon, "Fairy Tail" was the eighth best-selling manga series in Japan for 2009, fourth best in 2010 and 2011, fifth best of 2012, dropped to ninth in 2013, to 17th in 2014, and was 15th in 2015. The fifth volume of "Fairy Tail" was ranked seventh in a list of the top ten manga, and the series once again placed seventh after the release of the sixth volume. About.com's Deb Aoki listed "Fairy Tail" as the Best New Shōnen Manga of 2008. "Fairy Tail" won Best Manga Series of 2008 at the 2009 Anime & Manga Grand Prix held by French magazine "AnimeLand". It also won the 2009 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga. At the 2009 Industry Awards for the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, the organizers of Anime Expo, "Fairy Tail" was named Best Comedy Manga. It also won Best Shōnen Manga at the 2009 Japan Expo Awards. Volume 9 of the manga was nominated in the Youth Selection category at the 2010 Angoulême International Comics Festival.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Reviewing the first volume, Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network (ANN) felt "Fairy Tail" followed standard shōnen action manga tropes, writing "the mix of goofy humor, face-crushing action, and teary-eyed sap is so calculated as to be mechanical." Carlo Santos, also of Anime News Network, agreed in his review of volume three; having positive views towards the art, particularly the action scenes, but citing a lack of story and character development. By volume 12 Santos suggested that Mashima's true talent lies in "taking the most standard, predictable aspects of the genre and somehow still weaving it into a fun, fist-pumping adventure." Reviewing the first 11 volumes, ANN's Rebecca Silverman wrote that while the art in the early arcs of "Fairy Tail" may not be its best, the stories arguably are. She also praised Lucy and Erza as strong female characters. Her colleague Faye Hopper was more critical, calling the manga a "somewhat mediocre shounen series [that] pushes enough buttons" so as to make her want to read more.


title: Fairy Tail

text: Kimlinger, Silverman, and A.E. Sparrow of "IGN" all felt Mashima's artwork had strong similarities to Eiichiro Oda's in "One Piece". While Sparrow used the comparison as a compliment and said it had enough unique qualities of its own, Kimlinger went so far as to say it makes it difficult to appreciate Mashima's "undeniable technical skill."


title: Fairy Tail

text: The anime has also received a positive response from critics and viewers alike. In Southeast Asia, "Fairy Tail" won Animax Asia's "Anime of the Year" award in 2010. In 2012, the anime series won the "Meilleur Anime Japonais" (best Japanese anime) award and the best French dubbing award at the 19th Anime & Manga Grand Prix in Paris, France.


title: Fairy Tail

text: In reviewing the first Funimation Entertainment DVD volumes, Carlo Santos of Anime News Network praised the visuals, characters, and English voice acting, as well as the supporting characters for its comedic approach. However, Santos criticized both the anime's background music and CGI animation. In his review of the second volume, Santos also praised the development of "a more substantial storyline," but also criticized the inconsistent animation and original material not present in the manga. In his review of the third volume, Santos praised the improvements of the story and animation, and said that the volume "finally shows the [anime] series living up to its potential." In his reviews of the fourth and sixth volumes, however, Santos praised the storyline's formulaic pattern, though saying that "unexpected wrinkles in the story [...] keep the action from getting too stale," but calling the outcomes "unpredictable".


title: Enola Gay

text: The Enola Gay () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the destruction of about three quarters of the city. "Enola Gay" participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in a secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead.


title: Enola Gay

text: After the war, the "Enola Gay" returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. In May 1946, it was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Later that year, it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and spent many years parked at air bases exposed to the weather and souvenir hunters, before being disassembled and transported to the Smithsonian's storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, in 1961.


title: Enola Gay

text: In the 1980s, veterans groups engaged in a call for the Smithsonian to put the aircraft on display, leading to an acrimonious debate about exhibiting the aircraft without a proper historical context. The cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the National Mall, for the bombing's 50th anniversary in 1995, amid controversy. Since 2003, the entire restored B-29 has been on display at NASM's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The last survivor of its crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on 28 July 2014 at the age of 93.


title: Enola Gay

text: The "Enola Gay" (Model number B-29-45-MO, Serial number 44-86292, Victor number 82) was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company (later part of Lockheed Martin) at its bomber plant in Bellevue, Nebraska, located at Offutt Field, now Offutt Air Force Base. The bomber was one of the first fifteen B-29s built to the "Silverplate" specification— of 65 eventually completed during and after World War II—giving them the primary ability to function as nuclear "weapon delivery" aircraft. These modifications included an extensively modified bomb bay with pneumatic doors and British bomb attachment and release systems, reversible pitch propellers that gave more braking power on landing, improved engines with fuel injection and better cooling, and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets.


title: Enola Gay

text: "Enola Gay" was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the commander of the 509th Composite Group, on 9 May 1945, while still on the assembly line. The aircraft was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 18 May 1945 and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. Crew B-9, commanded by Captain Robert A. Lewis, took delivery of the bomber and flew it from Omaha to the 509th base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on 14 June 1945.


title: Enola Gay

text: Thirteen days later, the aircraft left Wendover for Guam, where it received a bomb-bay modification, and flew to North Field, Tinian, on 6 July. It was initially given the Victor (squadron-assigned identification) number 12, but on 1 August, was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bombardment Group as a security measure and had its Victor number changed to 82 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th Bombardment Group aircraft. During July, the bomber made eight practice or training flights and flew two missions, on 24 and 26 July, to drop pumpkin bombs on industrial targets at Kobe and Nagoya. "Enola Gay" was used on 31 July on a rehearsal flight for the actual mission.


title: Enola Gay

text: The partially assembled Little Boy gun-type fission weapon L-11, weighing , was contained inside a × × wooden crate that was secured to the deck of the . Unlike the six uranium-235 target discs, which were later flown to Tinian on three separate aircraft arriving 28 and 29 July, the assembled projectile with the nine uranium-235 rings installed was shipped in a single lead-lined steel container weighing that was locked to brackets welded to the deck of Captain Charles B. McVay III's quarters. Both the L-11 and projectile were dropped off at Tinian on 26 July 1945.


title: Enola Gay

text: On 5 August 1945, during preparation for the first atomic mission, Tibbets assumed command of the aircraft and named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, who, in turn, had been named for the heroine of a novel. When it came to selecting a name for the plane, Tibbets later recalled that:


title: Enola Gay

text: In the early morning hours, just prior to the 6 August mission, Tibbets had a young Army Air Forces maintenance man, Private Nelson Miller, paint the name just under the pilot's window. Regularly-assigned aircraft commander Robert Lewis was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for this important mission and became furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of 6 August to see it painted with the now-famous nose art.


title: Enola Gay

text: Hiroshima was the primary target of the first nuclear bombing mission on 6 August, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternative targets. "Enola Gay", piloted by Tibbets, took off from North Field, in the Northern Mariana Islands, about six hours' flight time from Japan, accompanied by two other B-29s, "The Great Artiste", carrying instrumentation, and a then-nameless aircraft later called "Necessary Evil", commanded by Captain George Marquardt, to take photographs. The director of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie R. Groves Jr., wanted the event recorded for posterity, so the takeoff was illuminated by floodlights. When he wanted to taxi, Tibbets leaned out the window to direct the bystanders out of the way. On request, he gave a friendly wave for the cameras.


title: Enola Gay

text: After leaving Tinian, the three aircraft made their way separately to Iwo Jima, where they rendezvoused at and set course for Japan. The aircraft arrived over the target in clear visibility at . Navy Captain William S. "Deak" Parsons of Project Alberta, who was in command of the mission, armed the bomb during the flight to minimize the risks during takeoff. His assistant, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, removed the safety devices 30 minutes before reaching the target area.


title: Enola Gay

text: The release at 08:15 (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy took 53 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at to the predetermined detonation height about above the city. "Enola Gay" traveled before it felt the shock waves from the blast. Although buffeted by the shock, neither "Enola Gay" nor "The Great Artiste" was damaged.


title: Enola Gay

text: The detonation created a blast equivalent to . The U-235 weapon was considered very inefficient, with only 1.7% of its fissile material reacting. The radius of total destruction was about one mile (1.6 km), with resulting fires across . Americans estimated that of the city were destroyed. Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. Some 70,000–80,000 people, 30% of the city's population, were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm, and another 70,000 injured. Out of those killed, 20,000 were soldiers and 20,000 were Korean slave laborers.


title: Enola Gay

text: "Enola Gay" returned safely to its base on Tinian to great fanfare, touching down at 2:58 pm, after 12 hours 13 minutes. "The Great Artiste" and "Necessary Evil" followed at short intervals. Several hundred people, including journalists and photographers, had gathered to watch the planes return. Tibbets was the first to disembark and was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross on the spot.


title: Enola Gay

text: The Hiroshima mission was followed by another atomic strike. Originally scheduled for 11 August, it was brought forward by two days to 9 August owing to a forecast of bad weather. This time, a nuclear bomb code-named "Fat Man" was carried by B-29 "Bockscar", piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney. "Enola Gay", flown by Captain George Marquardt's Crew B-10, was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura, the primary target. "Enola Gay" reported clear skies over Kokura, but by the time "Bockscar" arrived, the city was obscured by smoke from fires from the conventional bombing of Yahata by 224 B-29s the day before. After three unsuccessful passes, "Bockscar" diverted to its secondary target, Nagasaki, where it dropped its bomb. In contrast to the Hiroshima mission, the Nagasaki mission has been described as tactically botched, although the mission did meet its objectives. The crew encountered a number of problems in execution and had very little fuel by the time they landed at the emergency backup landing site Yontan Airfield on Okinawa.


title: Enola Gay

text: Of mission commander Parsons, it was said: "There is no one more responsible for getting this bomb out of the laboratory and into some form useful for combat operations than Captain Parsons, by his plain genius in the ordnance business."


title: Enola Gay

text: On 6 November 1945, Lewis flew the "Enola Gay" back to the United States, arriving at the 509th's new base at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico, on 8 November. On 29 April 1946, "Enola Gay" left Roswell as part of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. It flew to Kwajalein Atoll on 1 May. It was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll and left Kwajalein on 1 July, the date of the test, reaching Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Field, California, the next day.


title: Enola Gay

text: The decision was made to preserve the "Enola Gay", and on 24 July 1946, the aircraft was flown to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, in preparation for storage. On 30 August 1946, the title to the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and the "Enola Gay" was removed from the USAAF inventory. From 1946 to 1961, the "Enola Gay" was put into temporary storage at a number of locations. It was at Davis-Monthan from 1 September 1946 until 3 July 1949, when it was flown to Orchard Place Air Field, Park Ridge, Illinois, by Tibbets for acceptance by the Smithsonian. It was moved to Pyote Air Force Base, Texas, on 12 January 1952, and then to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on 2 December 1953, because the Smithsonian had no storage space for the aircraft.


title: Enola Gay

text: It was hoped that the Air Force would guard the plane, but, lacking hangar space, it was left outdoors on a remote part of the air base, exposed to the elements. Souvenir hunters broke in and removed parts. Insects and birds then gained access to the aircraft. Paul E. Garber of the Smithsonian Institution became concerned about the "Enola Gay"s condition, and on 10 August 1960, Smithsonian staff began dismantling the aircraft. The components were transported to the Smithsonian storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, on 21 July 1961.


title: Enola Gay

text: "Enola Gay" remained at Suitland for many years. By the early 1980s, two veterans of the 509th, Don Rehl and his former navigator in the 509th, Frank B. Stewart, began lobbying for the aircraft to be restored and put on display. They enlisted Tibbets and Senator Barry Goldwater in their campaign. In 1983, Walter J. Boyne, a former B-52 pilot with the Strategic Air Command, became director of the National Air and Space Museum, and he made the "Enola Gay"s restoration a priority. Looking at the aircraft, Tibbets recalled, was a "sad meeting. [My] fond memories, and I don't mean the dropping of the bomb, were the numerous occasions I flew the airplane ... I pushed it very, very hard and it never failed me ... It was probably the most beautiful piece of machinery that any pilot ever flew."


title: Enola Gay

text: Restoration of the bomber began on 5 December 1984, at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland-Silver Hill, Maryland. The propellers that were used on the bombing mission were later shipped to Texas A&M University. One of these propellers was trimmed to for use in the university's Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel. The lightweight aluminum variable-pitch propeller is powered by a 1,250 kVA electric motor, providing a wind speed up to . Two engines were rebuilt at Garber and two at San Diego Air & Space Museum. Some parts and instruments had been removed and could not be located. Replacements were found or fabricated, and marked so that future curators could distinguish them from the original components.


title: Enola Gay

text: "Enola Gay" became the center of a controversy at the Smithsonian Institution when the museum planned to put its fuselage on public display in 1995 as part of an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The exhibit, "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War," was drafted by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum staff, and arranged around the restored "Enola Gay".


title: Enola Gay

text: Critics of the planned exhibit, especially those of the American Legion and the Air Force Association, charged that the exhibit focused too much attention on the Japanese casualties inflicted by the nuclear bomb, rather than on the motives for the bombing or the discussion of the bomb's role in ending the conflict with Japan. The exhibit brought to national attention many long-standing academic and political issues related to retrospective views of the bombings. After attempts to revise the exhibit to meet the satisfaction of competing interest groups, the exhibit was canceled on 30 January 1995. Martin O. Harwit, Director of the National Air and Space Museum, was compelled to resign over the controversy. He later reflected that


title: Enola Gay

text: The forward fuselage went on display on 28 June 1995. On 2 July 1995, three people were arrested for throwing ash and human blood on the aircraft's fuselage, following an earlier incident in which a protester had thrown red paint over the gallery's carpeting. The exhibition closed on 18 May 1998 and the fuselage was returned to the Garber Facility for final restoration.


title: Enola Gay

text: Restoration work began in 1984, and eventually required 300,000 staff hours. While the fuselage was on display, from 1995 to 1998, work continued on the remaining unrestored components. The aircraft was shipped in pieces to the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia from March–June 2003, with the fuselage and wings reunited for the first time since 1960 on 10 April 2003 and assembly completed on 8 August 2003. The aircraft has been on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center since the museum annex opened on 15 December 2003. As a result of the earlier controversy, the signage around the aircraft provided only the same succinct technical data as is provided for other aircraft in the museum, without discussion of the controversial issues. It read:


title: Enola Gay

text: The display of the "Enola Gay" without reference to the historical context of World War II, the Cold War, or the development and deployment of nuclear weapons aroused controversy. A petition from a group calling themselves the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy bemoaned the display of "Enola Gay" as a technological achievement, which it described as an "extraordinary callousness toward the victims, indifference to the deep divisions among American citizens about the propriety of these actions, and disregard for the feelings of most of the world's peoples". It attracted signatures from notable figures including historian Gar Alperovitz, social critic Noam Chomsky, whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg, physicist Joseph Rotblat, writer Kurt Vonnegut, producer Norman Lear, actor Martin Sheen and filmmaker Oliver Stone.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with critically acclaimed performances as Mio Romagna in "Winterset" (1936), George Milton in "Of Mice and Men" (1939), and Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945).


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was known later in his career for his appearances on "The Twilight Zone" and for portraying The Penguin in the 1960s TV series "Batman" and boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the "Rocky" film series. For his performances in "The Day of the Locust" (1975) and "Rocky" (1976), he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He later appeared in the comedy "Foul Play" (1978) and the fantasy film "Clash of the Titans" (1981). He narrated numerous films and documentaries during his long career.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: "Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in "The New York Times", "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others."


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess; 1861–1933) and Dr. William George Meredith (1861–1938), a Canadian-born physician of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a religion to which he adhered throughout his lifetime.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He graduated from Hoosac School in 1926 and then attended Amherst College (class of 1931). He left Amherst and became a reporter for the "Stamford Advocate".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In 1929, he became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre company in New York City. Although best known to the larger world audience for his film and television work, Meredith was an influential actor and director for the stage. He made his Broadway debut as Peter in Le Gallienne's production of "Romeo and Juliet" (1930) and became a star in Maxwell Anderson's "Winterset" (1935), which became his film debut the following year. His early life and theatre work were the subject of a "New Yorker" profile. In 1935, he starred along with Hugh Williams at the Martin Beck Theatre in John Van Druten's "Flowers of the Forest".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He garnered critical acclaim in the 1935 Broadway revival of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" starring Katharine Cornell. She subsequently cast him in several of her later productions. Other Broadway roles included Van van Dorn in "High Tor" (1937), Liliom in "Liliom" (1940), Christy Mahon in "The Playboy of the Western World" (1946), and Adolphus Cusins in "Major Barbara" (1956). He created the role of Erie Smith in the English-language premiere of Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie" at the Theater Royal in Bath, England in 1963. He played Hamlet in "avant garde" theatrical and radio productions of the play.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: A distinguished theatre director, he earned a Tony Award nomination for his 1974 Broadway staging of "Ulysses in Nighttown", a theatrical adaptation of the "Nighttown" section of James Joyce's "Ulysses". Meredith also shared a Special Tony Award with James Thurber for their collaboration on "A Thurber Carnival" (1960). In the late seventies, he directed Fionnula Flanagan's one-woman multi-role play "James Joyce's Women", which toured for several years.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Early in his career, Meredith attracted favorable attention, especially for playing George in a 1939 adaptation of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and as war correspondent Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945). He was featured in many 1940s films, including three—"Second Chorus" (1940), "Diary of a Chambermaid" (1946), and "On Our Merry Way" (1948) — co-starring his then-wife Paulette Goddard. As a result of the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation, Meredith was placed on the Hollywood blacklist, and was largely absent from film for the next decade, though he remained involved in stage plays and radio during this time.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was a favorite of director Otto Preminger, who cast him in "Advise and Consent" (1962), "The Cardinal" (1963), "In Harm's Way" (1965), "Hurry Sundown" (1967), "Skidoo" (1968), and "Such Good Friends" (1971). He was in "Madame X" (with Lana Turner, 1966) and "Stay Away Joe" (1968), appearing as the father of Elvis Presley's character. He was acclaimed by critics for his performance as Harry Greener in "The Day of the Locust" (1975) and received nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award for best supporting actor. Meredith then played Rocky Balboa's trainer Mickey Goldmill in the first three "Rocky" films (1976, 1979, and 1982). Though his character died in the third "Rocky" film, he returned briefly in a flashback in the fifth film, "Rocky V" (1990). His portrayal in the first film earned him his second consecutive nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith played an old Korean War veteran Captain J. G. Williams in "The Last Chase" (1981) with Lee Majors. He appeared in Ray Harryhausen's last stop-motion feature "Clash of the Titans" (also 1981) in a supporting role. Meredith appeared in "" (1985) and was a voice actor in "" (1989). In his last years, he played Jack Lemmon's character's sex-crazed 95-year-old father in "Grumpy Old Men" (1993) and its sequel, "Grumpier Old Men" (1995).


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith directed the movie "The Man on the Eiffel Tower" (1949) starring Charles Laughton, which was produced by Irving Allen. Meredith also was billed in a supporting role in this film. In 1970, he directed (as well as co-wrote and played a supporting role in) "The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go", an espionage caper starring James Mason and Jeff Bridges.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith appeared in four different starring roles in the anthology TV series "The Twilight Zone", tying him with Jack Klugman for the most appearances on the show in a starring role.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In his first appearance in 1959, "Time Enough at Last", he portrayed a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the sole survivor of an unspecified apocalypse which leads him to contemplate suicide until he discovers the ruins of the library. In 1961's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith played the title character, a timid weakling who receives superhuman strength from an extraterrestrial experiment in human nature. Also that year in "The Obsolete Man", Meredith portrayed a librarian sentenced to death in a dystopic totalitarian society. Lastly, in 1963's "Printer's Devil", Meredith portrayed the Devil himself. He later played two additional roles in Rod Serling's other anthology series, "Night Gallery". Meredith was the narrator for "" in 1983.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He appeared in various other television programs, including the role of Christopher Norbert III, in the 1962 episode "Hooray, Hooray, the Circus Is Coming to Town" of the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, "The Eleventh Hour", starring Wendell Corey and Jack Ging. He also guest starred in the ABC drama about psychiatry, "Breaking Point", in the 1963 episode titled "Heart of Marble, Body of Stone".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith appeared in various western series, such as "Rawhide" (four times), "The Virginian" (twice), "Wagon Train", "Branded", "The Wild Wild West", "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters", "Laredo", "Bonanza", and "Daniel Boone". In 1963, he appeared as Vincent Marion in a five-part episode of the last season of the Warner Bros. ABC detective series "77 Sunset Strip". He appeared three times in "Burke's Law" (1963–1964), starring Gene Barry.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was also well known for his portrayal of the Penguin in the television series "Batman" from 1966 to 1968 and in the 1966 film based on the TV series. His role as the Penguin was so well-received that the show's writers always had a script featuring the Penguin ready whenever Meredith was available. Meredith made 21 appearances on the series as the Penguin. He also made a brief cameo appearance as the Penguin in the 1968 episode of "The Monkees" titled "Monkees Blow Their Minds".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: From 1972 to 1973, Meredith played V. C. R. Cameron, director of "Probe Control", in the television movie/pilot "Probe" and then in "Search", the subsequent TV series (the name was changed to avoid conflict with a program on PBS).


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith won an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for the 1977 television film "Tail Gunner Joe", a fictitious study of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the anticommunist politician active in the 1950s. He was cast as crusading lawyer Joseph Welch.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In 1992, Meredith narrated "The Chaplin Puzzle," a television documentary that provides a rare insight into Charles Chaplin's work, "circa" 1914, at Keystone Studios and Essanay, where Chaplin developed his Tramp character. Coincidentally, Meredith married actress Paulette Goddard in 1944 following her divorce from Chaplin.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In 1942, Meredith enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, reaching the rank of captain. After transferring to the Office of War Information, he made training and education films for America's armed forces.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In 1943 he performed in the USAAF's recruiting short "The Rear Gunner" and the U.S. Army training film "A Welcome to Britain" for troops heading to the UK in preparation for the liberation of Europe.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He was released from duty in 1944 to work on the movie "The Story of G.I. Joe", in which he played the war correspondent Ernie Pyle. He was discharged from the USAAF in 1945.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith also performed voice-over work. He provided the narration for the war film "A Walk in the Sun" (1945). As a nod to his longtime association with original "Twilight Zone" series, he served as narrator for the based on the series. He was a TV commercial voice for such clients as Bulova, Honda, Pioneer, Stokely-Van Camp, United Airlines, and Freakies breakfast cereal. He also provided the narration for the short film "Works Of Calder", a 1949-50 film by Herbert Matter which featured a musical soundtrack by the composer John Cage.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He supplied the narration for the 1974–75 ABC Saturday morning series "" and was the voice of Puff in the series of animated adaptations of the Peter, Paul, and Mary song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". In the mid-1950s, he was one of four narrators of the NBC and syndicated public affairs program, "The Big Story" (1949–58), which focused on courageous journalists. In 1991, he narrated a track on The Chieftains' album of traditional Christmas music and carols, "The Bells of Dublin".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: He acted in the Kenny G music video of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which was released in 1994. He played the main character, a projectionist at a movie theater.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: His last role before his death was the portrayal of both Hamilton Wofford and Covington Wofford characters in the 1996 video game "Ripper" by Take-Two Interactive. Meredith was considered to play the Penguin's father in the 1992 Tim Burton film "Batman Returns", but illness prevented him from appearing and the role was taken by Paul Reubens.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was married four times. His first wife, Helen Derby Merrien Burgess — the daughter of American Cyanamid president Harry L. Derby — committed suicide in 1940, nearly five years after their divorce. His next two wives, Margaret Perry and Paulette Goddard, were actresses; Goddard suffered a miscarriage in 1944. Meredith's last marriage, to Kaja Sundsten, lasted 46 years and produced two children, Jonathan (a musician) and Tala (a painter).


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was a lifelong Democrat and frequent donor to the party. He wrote in his 1994 autobiography "So Far, So Good" that he had violent mood swings caused by cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: On September 9, 1997, Meredith died at age 89 from complications of Alzheimer's disease and melanoma, and his remains were cremated. Friend Adam West spoke at his memorial service.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, in 1976 for "Rocky", and in 1975 for "The Day of the Locust", for which he also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. That performance brought him a BAFTA Award nomination.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: Meredith won a Primetime Emmy Award for Supporting Actor in 1977 for "Tail Gunner Joe", and was nominated for the same award the next year for "The Last Hurrah", a remake of the film starring Spencer Tracy. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films three times, in 1978, 1979, and 1982, and won the last two times, for "Magic" and "Clash of the Titans".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: In 1962, Meredith won a Best Supporting Actor award from the National Board of Review, for "Advise & Consent", and in 1985 he was nominated for a CableAce Award for his performance in "Answers".


title: Burgess Meredith

text: For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Meredith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For his onstage contributions, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.


title: Burgess Meredith

text: A park was named after him in Pomona, New York, and he provided the funding to incorporate the village.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration in 2022 marking the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952, the first British monarch to ever celebrate one.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: In the United Kingdom, there was an extra bank holiday on 3 June and the usual spring bank holiday was moved from the end of May to 2 June to create the four-day Platinum Jubilee Central Weekend from Thursday, 2 June, to Sunday, 5 June. It was the first time that any monarch in British history celebrated a platinum jubilee, as is the case in the histories of the other Commonwealth realms. Initiatives to commemorate the jubilee were announced by the governments of many realms—including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the United Kingdom—of territories, such as the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar, and celebrations were also held in other Commonwealth member states, like the Gambia, Malaysia, Malta, Pakistan, and Samoa. Leaders from across the world, including from China, France, Germany, Israel, and the United States, sent messages of congratulations to the Queen on reaching the milestone.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Commemorative stamps and coins were issued by several Commonwealth nations and beacons were lit in every Commonwealth capital for the first time. In many places, trees were planted in the Queen's honour.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Queen died in her Platinum Jubilee year, on 8 September 2022, at the age of 96. Her funeral was held on 19 September 2022, and she was buried at the King George VI Memorial Chapel later that day.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: In her 2022 Accession Day message, the Queen said that she hoped the platinum jubilee would bring together families and friends, neighbours, and communities. She said that the jubilee "affords me a time to reflect on the goodwill shown to me by people of all nationalities, faiths and ages in this country and around the world over these years". She thanked everyone for their support, loyalty and affection, and signed the message "Your Servant". She said of her 70-year reign and the future:


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Pictures and footage of the Queen working from her red boxes at Sandringham House were released. The then-Prince of Wales said that the Queen's devotion to the welfare of all her people inspired still greater admiration with each passing year.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Tributes and messages of congratulations came from leaders all over the world, including US President Joe Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Felipe VI of Spain, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Harald V of Norway, King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Royal Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint partnered to create a two-coin set, with each mint designing a coin for the set. The silver coin designed by the Royal Mint has an equestrian portrait of the Queen on the reverse and a royal mantle on the obverse. The silver coin designed by the Royal Canadian Mint has a reverse design that depicts the Queen in 1952, while the obverse has the effigy of the Queen used on Canadian coins since 2003.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey on 14 March reflected the jubilee with a special focus on the role that service plays in the lives of people and communities across the Commonwealth.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Members of the Royal Family undertook a series of royal tours of Commonwealth countries. The governors-general of Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Saint Lucia travelled to the United Kingdom in June to represent their respective countries at jubilee festivities.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: In the evening of 1 June, the official jubilee photograph of the Queen was released. The portrait, by Ranald Mackechnie, was taken in the Victoria Vestibule at Windsor Castle on 25 May. The photo shows the Queen in a blue dress, with the statue of Charles II seen behind a window in the background.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: In a special message, the Queen said "many happy memories will be created" over the next four days. She thanked everyone involved in convening communities, families, neighbours and friends to mark the Jubilee.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Earl and Countess of Wessex and Forfar visited Antigua and Barbuda in April. Ahead of the visit, the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission penned an open letter criticising the royal family's past comments on slavery. During their visit on 25 April, the couple interacted with local craftspeople, creatives and community groups, and visited Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and the National Sailing Academy. At Government House, they presented platinum jubilee medals to three people to recognise their service to national security. During their meeting with Prime Minister Gaston Browne and his cabinet, Browne stated that the country would continue to have the Queen as head of state but said it aspires "at some point to become a republic". He also asked the couple to use their "diplomatic influence" to get "reparatory justice" for Antigua and Barbuda.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Antigua and Barbuda Scout Association and the Rotary Club of Antigua lit a beacon at Government House, St John's on 2 June.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Queen Elizabeth II was the first Australian monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, and a range of national and community events were held across the country. "We plan to hold a range of events to coincide with key dates throughout 2022, to show our respect and appreciation for seven decades of service", said then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment also launched a tree planting initiative. The Australian Government will provide up to A$15.1 million of grant funding in 2022 to eligible groups and organisations for community-based tree planting events.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Australians were able to submit a personal message of congratulations and thanks to the Queen on the Australian Government's Platinum Jubilee website from 2 to 16 June 2022. Messages were collated and sent to Buckingham Palace and archived by the Commonwealth of Australia.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Australian Platinum Jubilee Emblem was unveiled by the Australian Government in March 2022. The emblem can be used for official and recognised events in Australia to celebrate the jubilee. The design is a stylised representation of the Queen's Wattle Spray Brooch, which was gifted to the Queen during her first visit to Australia in 1954. The emblem contains three colours – platinum, gold and purple. The platinum colour represents the Queen's 70 years on the throne, and the purple colour symbolises royalty. The gold is drawn from the golden wattle, Australia's national floral emblem. The font used is Perpetua, which means 'forever', which acknowledges that the Queen was Australia's "first platinum" monarch.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: On 6 February, buildings and monuments throughout Australia were lit in purple. Statements were released by Morrison, Governor-General David Hurley and the governors of the Australian states.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: Services were held in churches across Australia. In Canberra, evensong at St Paul's Church, Manuka was attended by the governor-general of Australia. Several state governors also attended evensong services, including the governor of New South Wales at St James' Church, Sydney, the governor of Tasmania at St David's Cathedral, Hobart, the governor of Victoria at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, the governor of Western Australia at St George's Cathedral, Perth, and the governor of South Australia at St Paul's Anglican Church, Port Adelaide. The latter event was also attended by the premier of South Australia.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: On 5 April, two commemorative stamps were released by Australia Post: a $1.10 stamp featuring an image of the Queen from 1952 by Dorothy Wilding, and a $3.50 stamp which displays a 2019 photograph of the Queen. A range of collectables accompanied the stamp release.


title: Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II

text: The Perth Mint released three celebratory coins on 5 April. The coins – two gold, and one silver – feature the shield of the royal coat of arms alongside the floral emblems of England, Ireland, Scotland and Australia on one side; and the Queen's first (1953) and current (2019) coin effigies on the other.