title: Hestia

text: Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation. She is the eldest daughter of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Poseidon, and Zeus. Immediately after their birth, Cronus swallowed all his children (Hestia was the first who was swallowed) except the last and youngest, Zeus. Instead, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his siblings and led them in a war against their father and the other Titans. As "first to be devoured . . . and the last to be yielded up again", Hestia is thus both the eldest and youngest daughter; this mythic inversion is found in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (700 BC).


title: Hestia

text: Zeus assigned Hestia a duty to feed and maintain the fires of the Olympian hearth with the fatty, combustible portions of animal sacrifices to the gods. Wherever food was cooked, or an offering was burnt, she thus had her share of honor; also, in all the temples of the gods, she has a share of honor. "Among all mortals she was chief of the goddesses".


title: Hestia

text: The gods Poseidon and Apollo both (her brother and nephew respectively) fell in love with Hestia and vied for her hand in marriage. But Hestia would have neither of them, and went to Zeus instead, and swore a great oath, that she would remain a virgin for all time and never marry. In the "Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite," Aphrodite is described as having "no power" over Hestia.


title: Hestia

text: At Athens, "in Plato's time," notes Kenneth Dorter "there was a discrepancy in the list of the twelve chief gods, as to whether Hestia or Dionysus was included with the other eleven. The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, but the east frieze of the Parthenon had Dionysus instead." However, the hearth was imovable, and "there is no story of Hestia's "ever having been removed from her fixed abode". Burkert remarks that "Since the hearth is immovable Hestia is unable to take part even in the procession of the gods, let alone the other antics of the Olympians".


title: Hestia

text: Her mythographic status as firstborn of Rhea and Cronus seems to justify the tradition in which a small offering is made to Hestia before any sacrifice ("Hestia comes first"), though this was not universal among the Greeks. In "Odyssey" "14", 432–436, the loyal swineherd Eumaeus begins the feast for his master Odysseus by plucking tufts from a boar's head and throwing them into the fire with a prayer addressed to all the powers, then carved the meat into seven equal portions: "one he set aside, lifting up a prayer to the forest nymphs and Hermes, Maia's son."


title: Hestia

text: Hestia is identified with the hearth as a physical object, and the abstractions of community and domesticity, in contrast to the fire of the forge employed in blacksmithing and metalworking, the province of the god Hephaestus. Portrayals of her are rare and seldom secure. In classical Greek art, she is occasionally depicted as a woman simply and modestly cloaked in a head veil. At times, she is shown with a staff in hand or by a large fire. She sits on a plain wooden throne with a white woolen cushion and, Robert Graves declares, "did not trouble to choose an emblem for herself". Her associated sacrificial animal was a domestic pig.


title: Hestia

text: Her Roman equivalent is Vesta; Vesta has similar functions as a divine personification of Rome's "public", domestic, and colonial hearths, binding Romans together within a form of extended family. The similarity of names between Hestia and Vesta is, however, misleading: "The relationship "hestia-histie-Vesta" cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," according to Walter Burkert.


title: Hestia

text: Herodotus equates Hestia with the high ranking Scythian deity Tabiti. Procopius equates her with the Zoroastrian holy fire ("atar") of the Sasanians in Adhur Gushnasp.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Susan Kay Quatro (born June 3, 1950) is an American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, and actress. In the 1970s, she scored a string of hit singles that found greater success in Europe and Australia than in her homeland, reaching No. 1 in the UK, other European countries and Australia with her singles "Can the Can" (1973) and "Devil Gate Drive" (1974).


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro released her self-titled debut album in 1973. Since then, she has released fifteen studio albums, ten compilation albums, and one live album. Her other solo hits include "48 Crash", "Daytona Demon", "The Wild One", and "Your Mama Won't Like Me". Following a recurring role as bass player Leather Tuscadero on the popular American sitcom "Happy Days", her duet "Stumblin' In" with Smokie's lead singer Chris Norman reached No. 4 in the US.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Between 1973 and 1980, Quatro was awarded six Bravo Ottos. In 2010, she was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame. She is reported to have sold over 50 million records worldwide, and continues to perform live. Quatro's most recent studio album, "The Devil in Me", was released in 2021 and saw the collaboration of her son Richard Tuckey who had already taken part in "No Control" in 2019. Quatro also remains active in radio broadcasting.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Her paternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant to the U.S. Her family name of "Quattrocchi" ("four eyes", meaning "bespectacled") was shortened to Quatro. Quatro's family was living in Detroit when she was born. She has three sisters, a brother, and one older half-sister. Her parents fostered several other children while she was growing up. Her father, Art, was a semi-professional musician and worked at General Motors. Her mother, Helen, was Hungarian. In this environment, Quatro grew to be "extrovert but solitary", according to Philip Norman of "The Sunday Times", and she only became close to her mother after leaving the U.S. for Britain.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Her sister Arlene is the mother of actress Sherilyn Fenn. Her sister Patti joined Fanny, one of the earliest all-female rock bands to gain national attention. Quatro has a brother, Michael Quatro, who is also a musician.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: She was influenced at the age of six by seeing Elvis Presley perform on television. She has said that she had no direct female role models in music, but was inspired by Billie Holiday and liked the dress sense of Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las "because she wore tight trousers and a waistcoat on top she looked hot".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro received formal training in playing classical piano and percussion—her first instrument was bongos. She taught herself how to play the bass, after her sister asked her to learn it for her first band, the Pleasure Seekers. Her father gave her a 1957 Fender Precision bass guitar in 1964, which she still uses in the studio.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro played drums or percussion from an early age as part of her father's jazz band, the Art Quatro Trio. Sources vary regarding whether her playing in the band began at the age of seven or eight, and whether the instrument she played was a drum kit or percussion (bongo or congas). Subsequently, she appeared on local television as a go-go dancer in a pop music series.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1964, after seeing a television performance by the Beatles, Quatro's older sister, Patti, had formed an all-female garage rock band called the Pleasure Seekers with two friends. Quatro joined too and assumed the stage name of Suzi Soul; Patti Quatro was known as Patti Pleasure. Suzi would sing and play bass in the band. The band also later featured another sister, Arlene. Many of their performances were in cabaret, where attention was (initially) focused more on their physical looks than their actual music. They sometimes had to wear miniskirts and hair wigs, which Quatro later considered to be necessary evils in the pursuit of success. However, they would become well-known fixtures in the burgeoning Detroit music community.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: The Pleasure Seekers recorded three singles and released two of these: "Never Thought You'd Leave Me" / "What a Way to Die" (1966) and "Light of Love" / "Good Kind of Hurt" (1968). The second of these was released by Mercury Records, with whom they briefly had a contract before breaking away due to differences of opinion regarding their future direction. They changed their name to Cradle in late 1969, not long after another Quatro sister, Nancy, had joined the band and Arlene had left following the birth of her child.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro moved to England in 1971, after being spotted by the record producer Mickie Most, who had by that time founded his own label, Rak Records. Most had been persuaded to see Cradle by Michael, the brother of the Quatro sisters who had assumed a managerial role for the band. In common with many in the record industry at the time, Most was seeking a female rock singer who could fill the void that the death of Janis Joplin had created. According to the "Encyclopedia of Popular Music", his attention to Quatro was drawn by "her comeliness and skills as bass guitarist, singer and chief show-off in Cradle."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: She had also been attracting attention from Elektra Records and subsequently explained that "According to the Elektra president, I could become the new Janis Joplin. Mickie Most offered to take me to England and make me the first Suzi Quatro – I didn't want to be the new anybody." Most had no interest in the other band members and he had no idea at that time of how he might market Quatro. She spent a year living in a hotel while being nurtured by Most, developing her skills and maturing. Most later said that the outcome was a reflection of her own personality.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro's first single, "Rolling Stone", was successful only in Portugal, where it reached No. 1 on the charts. This was a solo effort, although aided by people such as Duncan Browne, Peter Frampton and Alan White. Subsequently, with the approval of Most, she auditioned for a band to accompany her. It was also after this record that Most introduced her to the songwriting and production team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote songs specifically to accord with her image. She agreed with Most's assessment of her image, saying that his influence, at which some of his artists such as Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart balked, did not extend to manufacture and that "If he tried to build me into a Lulu, I wouldn't have it. I'd say 'go to hell' and walk out." This was the height of the glam rock period of the 1970s and Quatro, who wore leather clothes, portrayed a wild androgynous image while playing music that "hinged mostly on a hard rock chug beneath lyrics in which scansion overruled meaning."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1972, Quatro embarked as a support act on a UK tour with Thin Lizzy and headliners Slade. Rak Records arranged for her to use Thin Lizzy's newly acquired PA system during this, incurring a charge of £300 per week that enabled the Irish band to effectively purchase it at no cost to themselves. In May 1973, her second single "Can the Can" (1973) which Philip Auslander describes as having "seemingly nonsensical and virtually unintelligible lyrics" was a No. 1 hit in parts of Europe and in Australia.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: "Can the Can" was followed by three further hits: "48 Crash" (1973), "Daytona Demon" (1973) and "Devil Gate Drive" (1974). "Can the Can", "48 Crash" and "Devil Gate Drive" each sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs, although they met with little success in her native United States, where she had toured as a support act for Alice Cooper. Rak Records' artists had generally not succeeded in the US and her first album, "Suzi Quatro", was criticised by Alan Betrock for its lack of variety, for its Quatro-written "second-rate fillers" and for her voice, described as "often too high and shrill, lacking punch or distinctive phrasing." Writing for "Rolling Stone", Greg Shaw was also downbeat, saying that the album "may be a necessary beginning".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1973, Quatro played on the Cozy Powell hit "Dance With the Devil", a track written by Mickie Most while Cozy Powell was part of the Rak Records roster.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Musicians who acted as her backing band around this period included Alastair McKenzie, Dave Neal and Len Tuckey, with Robbie Blunt also being listed by some sources. Tuckey's brother, Bill, acted as tour manager.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: With the exception of Australia, her chart success faltered thereafter, as proven with her 1975 hit "Your Mamma Won't Like Me", which proved to be a moderate success in the UK. Further singles "I Bit off More Than I Could Chew" and "I May Be Too Young", both failed to reach the UK Top 50. Quatro recorded the album "Aggro-Phobia" in 1976 and released a new single in 1977 called "Tear Me Apart" which reached the UK Top 30, her first hit to have done so in three years. It would take another year for another big hit, this time with a change to a more mellow style giving Quatro a 1978 single "If You Can't Give Me Love" that became a hit there and in the United Kingdom. Later that year, "Stumblin' In", a duet with Chris Norman of the band Smokie, reached No. 4 in the US. Both tracks were featured on the "If You Knew Suzi..." album. A year later, Quatro released "Suzi ... and Other Four Letter Words," but none of her other work had much US success. This featured the hits "She's in Love with You", which made No. 11 in Britain, "Mama's Boy" (number 34), and "I've Never Been in Love" (number 56).


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1980, after Quatro's contract with Mickie Most had expired, she signed with Chapman's Dreamland Records.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In the same year, she released the album "Rock Hard"; both the album and title single went platinum in Australia. "Rock Hard" was also used in the cult film "Times Square" and was included on the soundtrack album. The single reached No. 11 in Australia, but only 68 in the UK due to distribution problems. It was clear at this point that the hit single career was beginning to wane. A second single from the "Rock Hard" album, titled "Lipstick", was released in February 1981, but radio refused to play it as they claimed it sounded too much like "Gloria" by Them. "Suzi Quatro's Greatest Hits", which was released in 1980, peaked at No. 4 in the UK charts, becoming her highest-charting album there.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Her last UK hit for some time was "Heart of Stone" in late 1982. In 1983 another single "Main Attraction" was released. It failed to chart, but did become a moderate airplay hit. She commented in an article for "Kerrang!" in 1983, after playing a successful show at Reading Festival on August 27, that she did not care about being in the charts, but was more interested in releasing what she wanted to; commenting that she started in 1964, and did not become famous for nine years "I would never accept having my career molded by other people ... I've kept working consistently even though I've not been in the charts." Around this time, Quatro recorded a new album that was shelved until 1997, when it was issued as "Unreleased Emotion". Quatro briefly returned to recording for two more singles, "I Go Wild" in 1984, and in 1985 her "Tonight I Could Fall in Love"/"Good Girl (Looking for a Bad Time)" single reached No. 140 in the UK charts. Quatro also collaborated with Bronski Beat and members of the Kinks, Eddie and the Hot Rods and Dr. Feelgood on the Mark Cunningham-produced cover version of David Bowie's "Heroes", released the following year as the 1986 BBC "Children in Need" single. Quatro also released a cover version of "Wild Thing" in November 1986, as a duet with The Troggs singer Reg Presley. "Can the Can"/"Devil Gate Drive" were re-released in 1987 as a single and reached number 87 in the UK charts. She was also part of the Ferry Aid charity single "Let It Be", which was a UK No. 1, 13 years and 26 days after Quatro's last UK No. 1.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1989, Quatro released a prerecorded backing track single "Baby You're a Star", which was released in the UK, though it failed to chart. By the late 80's, it was clear that Quatro's hitmaking days were over, though she still recorded persistently despite lack of chart success. During the 1990s, Quatro released four new albums, though "Unreleased Emotion" had been recorded several years previously. "What Goes Around – Greatest & Latest" was released in 1995 and consisted of mainly older hits rerecorded; this proved a success in Denmark. Except for 1999's "Free the Butterfly" self-help album, it would take a further 11 years for Quatro to release a new album. "Back to the Drive" in 2006 showed a return to Quatro's harder rock roots, rather than the smoother sounds of her previous albums. "Back to the Drive" also returned Quatro to the worldwide charts – her first album to do so since 1980s "Rock Hard". "Back to the Drive" also produced a download only single "I'll Walk Through the Fire with You". Quatro released "In the Spotlight" in 2011 with the lead single, "Whatever Love Is". Quatro marked her 50th anniversary in the music industry with an anthology, "Girl from Detroit", in 2014 with two new tracks.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Around 2005, a documentary chronicling Quatro's life, "Naked Under Leather", named after a 1975 bootleg album recorded in Japan, directed by a former member of the Runaways, Victory Tischler-Blue, was made, but this has never been released. In February 2006, Quatro released "Back to the Drive", produced by Sweet guitarist Andy Scott. The album's title track was written by her former collaborator, Chapman. In March 2007, Quatro released a cover version of the Eagles song "Desperado", followed by the publication of her autobiography, "Unzipped". By this time, Quatro had sold 50 million records.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: On June 11, 2010, she headlined the 'Girls Night Out' at the Isle of Wight Festival. Quatro was also inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame in 2010, following an on-line vote.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In August 2011, Quatro released her fifteenth studio album, "In the Spotlight" (and its single, "Spotlight"). This album is a mixture of new songs written by Mike Chapman and by herself, along with some cover versions. A second single from the album, "Whatever Love Is", was subsequently released. On November 16, 2011, a music video (by Tischler-Blue) for the track "Strict Machine" was released onto the "Suzi Quatro Official" YouTube channel. The track is a cover of Goldfrapp's "Strict Machine", but Quatro's version contains two lines from "Can the Can", referencing the similarity of the tunes for the two songs.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In April 2013, she performed in America for the first time in over 30 years, at the Detroit Music Awards where she received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to her by her sister, Patti.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 2017, Quatro released her sixteenth studio album backed by Andy Scott from Sweet on guitar and Don Powell from Slade on drums.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro is possibly best known in the United States for her role as the bass player Leather Tuscadero on the television show "Happy Days". The show's producer, Garry Marshall, had offered her the role without having an audition after seeing a photograph of her on his daughter's bedroom wall. Toby Mamis, who was acting as her U.S. representative at that time, helped broker the deal and generate enormous media attention to it, elevating Quatro's profile in her home country. Leather was the younger sister of Fonzie's former girlfriend, motorcycle trick rider Pinky Tuscadero. Leather fronted a rock band joined by principal characters Richie Cunningham, Potsie Weber, Ralph Malph, Chachi Arcola & even Joanie Cunningham once. The character returned in other guest roles, including once for a date to a fraternity formal with Ralph Malph. Marshall offered Quatro a "Leather Tuscadero" spin-off, but she declined the offer, saying she did not want to be typecast.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Other acting roles include a 1982 episode of the British comedy-drama series "Minder" (called "Dead Men Do Tell Tales") as Nancy, the singer girlfriend of Terry (Dennis Waterman). In 1985, she starred as a mentally disturbed ex-MI5 operative in "Dempsey and Makepeace" – "Love you to Death". In February 2022 Quatro gave an exclusive interview to Paul Stenning regarding her appearance in both shows.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1994, she made a cameo appearance as a nurse in the "Hospital" episode of the comedy "Absolutely Fabulous". She also was filmed in the 1990 Clive Barker horror film "Nightbreed", but the studio cut out her character. In 2006, Quatro performed the voice of Rio in the "Bob the Builder" film "Built to Be Wild", and appeared in an episode of the second season of "Rock School", in Lowestoft. She has also appeared in the episode "The Axeman Cometh" of "Midsomer Murders" in the role of Mimi Clifton.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro has also performed in theatre. In 1986, she appeared as Annie Oakley in a London production of "Annie Get Your Gun" and in 1991 she performed the title role in a musical about the life of actress Tallulah Bankhead. Titled "Tallulah Who?", this musical was co-written by her and Shirlie Roden, adapted from a book by Willie Rushton. It ran from February 14 to March 9 at Hornchurch, England, where it was billed as "You'll be amazed how Tallulah did it, and to whom and how often!" The show received favorable reviews from the majority of critics.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In more recent times, Quatro has hosted weekly rock and roll programs on BBC Radio 2. The first one was titled "Rockin' with Suzi Q", while her second programme was given the title "Wake Up Little Suzi".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: She started writing songs alone, then collaborated with other songwriters (such as Len Tuckey, Rhiannon Wolfe, and Shirley Roden), and now mainly writes songs alone once again.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro's early recorded songwriting was deliberately limited to album tracks and the B-sides of singles. She said in late 1973, that "...  [the] album tracks are a very different story from [the] singles. The two-minute lo-and-behold commercial single will not come out of my brain, but ain't I gonna worry about it."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: She describes creating a new song: "From sitting at my piano in my front room, writing down a title (always first), picking up my bass, figuring out the groove, going back to the piano ... working on the lyrics, playing electric guitar ... and finally I type out the lyrics. Only then is it officially a song. Next it goes down on my tiny 8-track, [with] me playing everything ... this is the version all muso's use to get into the tune ... then into the studio and we go from there."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro married her long-time guitarist, Len Tuckey, in 1976. They had two children together (Laura in 1982 and Richard Leonard in 1984) and divorced in 1992. Before 1993, Quatro lived with her two children in a manor house in Essex, England that she and Tuckey bought in 1980.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: She married German concert promoter Rainer Haas in 1993. In 2006, her daughter and grandchild moved into the manor house again. Toward the end of 2008, Quatro's children moved out of the house and she temporarily put it up for sale, stating that she had empty nest syndrome. Quatro continues to live in Essex and Hamburg, and sometimes in Detroit.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Since 2011, she has published music videos on YouTube. On March 31, 2012, Quatro broke her right knee and left wrist while boarding an aircraft in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she had performed the night before. She had to cancel her appearance at the Detroit Music Awards, where she was to be inducted into the Detroit Hall of Fame along with her sisters, scheduled for April 27. This would have been her first performance in America in over 30 years. Quatro also had to reschedule other concert dates, while some were canceled altogether.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In a 2012 interview, Quatro was asked what she thought she had achieved for female rockers in general. She replied:


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In a 1973 interview, Quatro sympathized with many of the opinions voiced by the women's liberation movement while distancing herself from it because she considered that the participants were The interviewer, Charles Shaar Murray, considered her viewpoint to be "... somewhat anomalous, because unless the woman in question happens to be well known, she has no way of letting people hear her unless she unites with other women and then elects a spokesman." He also noted the apparent contradiction that Quatro seemed proud that girls were writing to her saying that they were emulating her look and her attitude. In 1974, Quatro believed that, unlike men, women were burdened with emotional responses and that it was more difficult for them to succeed in the music industry because they are more prone to jealousy and thus female audiences tend not to buy the recordings of female artists.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Her unusually free use of swear words in conversation was often picked upon by interviewers in the 1970s, as have been her diminutive stature and boy-ish nature. In 1974, Philip Norman said that


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In October 2016, Quatro received an honorary doctorate in music from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK along with Dr. Feelgood's Wilko Johnson.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: On August 15, 2019, an Australian-made film on the life of Quatro premiered in Melbourne, Victoria. "Suzi Q" is noted as the first official documentary to ever be released about her. It was described by Quatro as a "warts and all" look into her career, focusing on both her successes and challenges faced along the way, particularly as she left her sisters in Detroit to pursue a solo career in London. Quatro stated that she was drawn to having Melbourne-based director Liam Firmager make the film, "Because although he liked my music, he wasn't particularly "A Fan", which meant he was objective, and wouldn't spend all his time telling me how great I am... I like that, he was the right guy for the job".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: "Bravo" is the largest magazine for teenagers in German-speaking Europe. Each year, the readers of this magazine select the Bravo Otto award winners.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In August 1974, Simon Frith spotted a problem with the formula that was working outside the US, saying that


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In 1983, journalist Tom Hibbert wrote that Quatro may have overstated her role as a leading light among female rock musicians. He said that


title: Suzi Quatro

text: In his 2008 paper "Suzi Quatro: A prototype in the archsheology of rock", Frank Oglesbee writes that "The rebellion of rock music was largely a male rebellion; the women—often, in the 1950s and '60s, girls in their teens—in rock usually sang songs as personæ utterly dependent on their macho boyfriends". He describes Quatro as "a female rock pioneer, in some ways "the" female rock pioneer ... a cornerstone in the archaeology of rock." He said she grew up to become "the first female lead singer and bassist, an electric ax-woman, who sang and played as freely as the males, inspiring other females."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Philip Auslander says that "Although there were many women in rock by the late 1960s, most performed only as singers, a traditionally feminine position in popular music". Though some women (like Quatro herself) played instruments in American all-female garage rock bands, none of these bands achieved more than regional success. So they "did not provide viable templates for women's on-going participation in rock". When Quatro emerged in 1973, "no other prominent female musician worked in rock simultaneously as a singer, instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader". Auslander adds that in 2000 Quatro saw herself as "kicking down the male door in rock and roll and proving that a female "musician" ... and this is a point I am extremely concerned about ... could play as well if not better than the boys".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro has influenced various female musicians. Musician Tina Weymouth, who played bass guitar in Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, among other bands, first learned to play bass by listening to Quatro albums.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro had a direct influence on the Runaways and Joan Jett, as well as Girlschool and Chrissie Hynde. Musician Kathy Valentine, best known for her work as bass player for The Go-Go's, cited Quatro as a major influence in her 2020 autobiography "All I Ever Wanted."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Mid-1990s American indie rock band Tuscadero was named after Quatro's "Happy Days" character Leather Tuscadero, and their song "Leather Idol", from their 1994 album "The Pink Album", was an ode to both Quatro and her TV character.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: On the cover of Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall's 2007 album "Drastic Fantastic", Tunstall is dressed like Quatro, as a deliberate homage.


title: Suzi Quatro

text: On October 24, 2013, Quatro received the Woman of Valor Award from the organization Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women (MEOW) for her role inspiring and influencing generations of female musicians. The award was bestowed by Kathy Valentine (formerly of The Go-Go's) at a dinner in her honor in Austin, Texas, at the Austin Renaissance Hotel. Quatro performed five songs with a local band that included her sister Patti and Tony Scalzo of the band Fastball on "Stumblin In".


title: Suzi Quatro

text: Quatro's music covers several genres. Her primary genres are hard rock and glam rock. Academic Philip Auslander wrote that "she has appeared on occasion just as a bass player, not a singer, and [also] demonstrates her instrumental prowess with an extended bass guitar solo during her own concerts."


title: Suzi Quatro

text: With the Pleasure Seekers, their musical styles and genres included power pop, garage rock and Motown. Quatro also performs musicals.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. He was the AIADMK's founder and J. Jayalalithaa's mentor. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film "Sathi Leelavathi" in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography "Naan Yaen Piranthaen" ("Why I was Born") was published in 2003.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, British Ceylon, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film "Sathi Leelavathi", directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he rose to popularity with the 1954 film "Malaikkallan". He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 "Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum". He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film "Rickshawkaran" in 1972.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: His 1973 blockbuster "Ulagam Sutrum Valiban" broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film "Ullagam Suthi Paru", in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953  M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing "Arasakattalai", M.G.R. acted in Devar's film "Vivasaayee" against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film "Kaavalkaaran" were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film "Kaavalkaran" in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: "Petralthaan Pillaya" was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary. later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like "Netru Indru Naalai" (1974), "Idhayakani" (1975), "Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga" (1977), etc.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 4 crore rupees to the LTTE.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of "Thai" weekly magazine and "Anna" daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday on 17 January 1988. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: His body was kept in state at Rajaji Hall for public to pay their tribute for two days. On 25 December 1987, His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college in the name of Dr. MGR-Janaki College of Arts and Science for Women.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, "Dr. M.G.R. Salai"—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed "Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand" and Omalur Main Road was renamed "M.G.R. Salai" in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed "Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand" in Tirunelveli and two parks were named "Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park" and "M.G.R. Park" in Thoothukudi.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.


title: M. G. Ramachandran

text: On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as "Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai" by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.


title: NBA G League

text: The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) from 2005 until 2017. The league started with eight teams until NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the NBA D-League to 15 teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with each NBA D-League team affiliated with one or more NBA teams in March 2005. At the conclusion of the 2013–14 NBA season, 33% of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League, up from 23% in 2011. As of the 2020–21 season, the league consists of 30 teams, 28 of which are either single-affiliated or owned by an NBA team, along with the NBA G League Ignite exhibition team.


title: NBA G League

text: In the 2017–18 season, Gatorade became the title sponsor of the D-League, and it was renamed the NBA G League.


title: NBA G League

text: The league began its play as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) in the 2001–02 season; the original eight franchises were all located in the southeastern United States (specifically in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia).


title: NBA G League

text: In 2005, the league's name was changed to NBA Development League (NBA D-League) as part of the new collective bargaining agreement with the NBA and a bid to appeal to more fans by showing their connection to the major league. In the same offseason, Southwest Basketball, LLC led by David Kahn was granted permission by the league to operate four new teams. Southwest Basketball then purchased three existing franchises and one expansion team: the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Austin Toros, Fort Worth Flyers and the Tulsa 66ers. The Arkansas RimRockers were also added from the ABA for the 2005–06 season. In February 2006, the D-League expanded to California for the first time with the addition of the Bakersfield Jam. Two months later, the league announced that four teams from the Continental Basketball Association were joining the league: the Dakota Wizards, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Idaho Stampede, and a team originally slated for CBA expansion, the Colorado 14ers. Shortly after, the league announced expansion teams in the Anaheim Arsenal and the Los Angeles D-Fenders. The D-Fenders became the first D-League team to be directly owned by an NBA parent team, the Los Angeles Lakers.


title: NBA G League

text: However, the westward expansion contributed to the contraction of the NBA-owned Roanoke Dazzle and Fayetteville Patriots for that season. The Florida Flame suspended operations due to arena scheduling difficulties. After the 2006–07 season, there would be no more teams in the southeastern United States until the 2016 expansion team, the Greensboro Swarm.


title: NBA G League

text: After the 2006 to 2009 expansions, the league membership was fairly consistent with only a few relocations and suspensions. In 2009, the Houston Rockets entered into the first single-affiliation partnership, called the hybrid model, with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. This began a wave of NBA and D-League teams entering into single-affiliation agreements of both the hybrid and parent-team owned varieties. With more NBA involvement, the league once again began to expand and spread its footprint.


title: NBA G League

text: By 2015, the last multiple-affiliate team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, was purchased by the Indiana Pacers leading to the first season where all D-League teams were affiliated with only one NBA team. As there were no longer any unaffiliated D-League teams left, the remaining NBA teams began purchasing expansion franchises or hybrid partnership teams and placing them near the parent team. In 2015, the Toronto Raptors placed their own team, Raptors 905, in the Greater Toronto Area in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2016, the D-League expanded by three more NBA parent club-owned teams for the largest D-League expansion since 2007. The Charlotte Hornets created the Greensboro Swarm, the Brooklyn Nets created the Long Island Nets, and the Chicago Bulls created the Windy City Bulls.


title: NBA G League

text: In the 2017–18 season, the D-League entered into a multi-year partnership with Gatorade and announced it would be rebranded as the NBA Gatorade League, which was officially shortened to "NBA G League" prior to the season. It also continued its membership changes with the relocation of the Erie BayHawks to Lakeland, Florida, as the Lakeland Magic, a new Erie BayHawks franchise; and expansions in the Agua Caliente Clippers in Ontario, California (now known as the Ontario Clippers); the Memphis Hustle in Southaven, Mississippi; and the Wisconsin Herd in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Los Angeles D-Fenders would also re-brand to the South Bay Lakers.


title: NBA G League

text: In December 2017, the NBA and the live streaming website Twitch announced that they would broadcast G League games on Twitch. Games have also been aired on the ESPN Plus subscription service.


title: NBA G League

text: For the 2019–20 season, the G League will begin to offer select contracts to players that are not yet eligible to enter the NBA Draft. Since 2006, players that are not at least nineteen years old by the end of the calendar year have been ineligible, creating what became known as the "one-and-done" rule where players joined a college basketball team for one season and would then leave for the NBA. The new select contract is to be an alternative for players who do not want to or cannot attend a college, worth up to $125,000 for a season. The league launched its prospects team, the NBA G League Ignite, in 2020.


title: NBA G League

text: Following the COVID-19 pandemic-curtailed 2019–20 season, the G League postponed the start of the following season. In January 2021, the league announced it would play all games at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, using the same isolation bubble as the 2020 NBA Bubble. Many teams opted out of participation, with 17 of the 28 teams from the 2019–20 season plus the new Ignite prospects team choosing to take part in the abbreviated bubble season beginning in February 2021.


title: NBA G League

text: Ownership models vary across the NBA G League. Growing willingness among NBA organizations to invest in the G League has led to two main models: direct ownership of G League teams by parent NBA clubs and single-affiliate partnerships in which the G League team remains independently owned while the parent club runs and finances basketball operations.


title: NBA G League

text: Parent club direct ownership began in 2006 when the Los Angeles Lakers bought their own NBA D-League franchise, originally known as the Los Angeles D-Fenders and since 2017–18 as the South Bay Lakers. This was followed by the San Antonio Spurs purchasing the Austin Toros (now the Austin Spurs) in 2007, and the Oklahoma City Thunder purchasing the Tulsa 66ers (now the Oklahoma City Blue) in 2008. This led to more NBA teams to either purchase existing franchises or create expansion teams in order to have their own single-affiliation teams. In 2011, the Cleveland Cavaliers purchased the New Mexico Thunderbirds to become the Canton Charge and the Golden State Warriors purchased the Dakota Wizards, with the Warriors moving the Wizards a year later to become the Santa Cruz Warriors. In 2013, the Philadelphia 76ers purchased the inactive Utah Flash and moved them to Newark, Delaware as the Delaware 87ers (now the Delaware Blue Coats, and playing in that state's largest city of Wilmington). In 2014, the New York Knicks became the seventh team to fully own and operate their own NBA D-League affiliate in the Westchester Knicks. In 2015, the Toronto Raptors created their own expansion franchise, the Raptors 905. In 2017, the Timberwolves purchased the Iowa Energy and renamed the team the Iowa Wolves.


title: NBA G League

text: In 2009, the Houston Rockets and Rio Grande Valley Vipers pioneered the single-affiliate partnership, also known as the hybrid model. In November 2010, the New Jersey Nets and Springfield Armor announced they would enter into a single-affiliate partnership that began in 2011–12. In June 2011, the New York Knicks and Erie BayHawks announced they would be singly-affiliated. In May 2012, the Portland Trail Blazers entered into a single-affiliation partnership with the Idaho Stampede. The following month, the Boston Celtics and Maine Red Claws announced a single-affiliation partnership. In June 2013, the Miami Heat announced that they had entered into a single-affiliated partnership with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. In July 2013, the Sacramento Kings and Reno Bighorns (now the Stockton Kings) entered into a single-affiliation. The Stampede ended their affiliation with the Trail Blazers after the 2013–14 season and in June 2014 announced their affiliation with the Utah Jazz. The Armor moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after the 2013–14 season and affiliated with the Detroit Pistons. From 2014 to 2017, the Memphis Grizzlies had a single-affiliation with the Iowa Energy. In 2015, the last multiple affiliate team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, was purchased by the Indiana Pacers making the 2015–16 season the first with all teams having single-affiliations.


title: NBA G League

text: In some cases, the hybrid affiliation led to the parent team buying their affiliate's franchise outright. On March 24, 2015, the Utah Jazz purchased their affiliate, the Idaho Stampede, and after one more season in Boise relocated the team to Salt Lake City. On April 11, 2016, the Phoenix Suns purchased their affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam, and announced the immediate relocation of the team to Prescott Valley, Arizona, as the Northern Arizona Suns beginning with the 2016–17 season. In 2021, the team relocated to Detroit after being purchased by the Pistons, becoming the Motor City Cruise. On October 20, 2016, the Sacramento Kings bought the majority ownership of their affiliate of the previous eight seasons, the Reno Bighorns, and would eventually move the team to Stockton, California as the Stockton Kings after the 2017–18 G League season. On December 14, 2016, the Magic purchased their affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, with the intention to relocate the team to Lakeland, Florida, in 2017. In 2017, the Miami Heat purchased the controlling interest in the Sioux Falls Skyforce after being its primary affiliate since 2013. In July 2019, the Boston Celtics acquired its affiliate, Maine Red Claws.


title: NBA G League

text: Expansion in the league was slow for the first years, but has rapidly increased since the movement towards single-affiliate teams has become the norm.


title: NBA G League

text: On October 24, 2018, the Pelicans announced plans to place their G League team in Birmingham, Alabama, to play in Legacy Arena located in the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex by 2021 or 2022. As the arena needed to be renovated, the Pelicans' affiliate began play the 2019–20 season as the Erie BayHawks after the Atlanta Hawks' affiliate moved to College Park. The team was confirmed to relocate for the 2021–22 season and the BayHawks ceased operations following the 2020–21 season when it could not obtain a fourth franchise and NBA partner.


title: NBA G League

text: On December 7, 2017, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that he was looking into having a G League expansion team in Mexico City potentially as early as 2018. In September 2019, Raúl Zárraga of NBA Mexico stated that the league is working on adding a team in Mexico for the 2020–21 season. On December 12, 2019, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that current Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional team, Capitanes de Ciudad de México will be joining the G League in the 2020–21 season on a five-year agreement. During the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, a normal 2020–21 season did not occur and the Capitanes were not mentioned as members for the G League's 2021 season. They announced they still plan on joining in 2021–22. It would be the NBA's first official team in Mexico after testing the market with exhibition and regular season games in the city.


title: NBA G League

text: On July 29, 2020, the Detroit Pistons announced that they had purchased the Northern Arizona Suns from the Phoenix Suns and will move the team to Detroit to play in the new Wayne State Arena for the 2021–22 season as the Motor City Cruise.


title: NBA G League

text: NBA G League players generally do not sign contracts with the individual teams, but with the league itself. G League team rosters consist of a total of 12 players, 10 (or fewer) being G League players and two (or more) NBA players. The rosters are made up in a number of ways: the previous years' players, players taken in the G League draft, allocation players (meaning players who are assigned to a team with which they have a local connection, such as a University of Texas player being assigned to the Austin Spurs) and NBA team assignments. Each team also has local tryouts, and one player from the tryouts is assigned to the team.


title: NBA G League

text: The minimum age to play in the G League is 18, unlike the NBA which requires players to be 19 years old and one year out of high school in order to sign an NBA contract or be eligible for the draft. The base annual salary is US$35,000 plus housing and insurance benefits. Players who are called up for NBA get bonuses totalling up to US$50,000.


title: NBA G League

text: The tallest player ever to be assigned was Hasheem Thabeet at 7'3", the second player selected in the 2009 NBA draft. The tallest player to ever play in the G League was England's Paul Sturgess at 7'8", who played with the Texas Legends during the 2013–14 season.


title: NBA G League

text: The NBA G League Draft occurs each season and is the major source from which teams build their rosters. Team rosters are made up of returning players (players who were on the team during the previous season), players waived by an NBA team who are designated as an "affiliate player" to their respective G League affiliate, allocated players (players who have local significance), and drafted players. The 8 round draft utilizes a serpentine format, meaning the order alternates in each round; Team A who selected first in Round 1 will select last in Round 2, while Team B who selected last in Round 1 will get the first pick in Round 2. Round 3 was added in 2014,


title: NBA G League

text: The league holds an annual Player Invitational, where prospects hope to earn eligibility for the upcoming draft.


title: NBA G League

text: Since 2014–15, an NBA team that declines to sign an NBA draft pick can have them sign directly with their G League affiliate. Previously, an unsigned NBA pick could not be protected by the organization's G League affiliate, and the player might have ended up on the G League team of another organization.


title: NBA G League

text: Players waived by an NBA team during training camp and up until the start of the regular season can be designated as "affiliate players" and allocated to the NBA team's G League affiliate. Each team is allowed four affiliate players. These are players that an NBA team is interested in developing in their own system. The affiliate players, however, still remain as free agents that any NBA team can sign.


title: NBA G League

text: Each NBA team can assign two first-year or second-year players who are under a standard NBA contract to its affiliated G League team. If more than two NBA players are assigned to a team, the team must reduce the number of G League players to keep the total roster size to 12. An NBA player will continue to be paid his NBA salary and will continue to be included on his NBA team's roster on the inactive list while playing in the G League.


title: NBA G League

text: NBA teams can call up players as many times as they choose, and there is no limit to the number of times an NBA player with three years or less experience can be assigned to the G League. Starting in 2011–12, veteran NBA players could be assigned with their consent. The first example of such was with Yi Jianlian, who the Dallas Mavericks assigned to the Texas Legends for two games.


title: NBA G League

text: The 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement for the NBA, which took effect with the 2017–18 season, included changes allowing each NBA team to sign two players on two-way contracts. Those players spend most of their time on the team's G League roster, but can freely move to their respective NBA team for up to 45 days in the regular season, as well as be a part of the team's roster before the start of the season (including NBA training camps) and after the conclusion of the G League's regular season (though they are not allowed to be on a team's playoff roster or play in a playoff game). Only players with four or less years of NBA experience are eligible for two-way contracts.


title: NBA G League

text: Unlike other G League players, who can be called up by any NBA team, two-way players can only be called up by their contracted NBA team. Players under two-way contracts are not counted against the NBA team's regular roster limit, and can be assigned to a G League affiliate for development while also getting a larger salary whenever they are called up to the parent team. For teams that do not have a one-to-one affiliation with a G League team, a process similar to the "flexible assignment" rule is being used to determine the placement for their own two-way contracts in the G League until every team has their proper affiliation underway.


title: NBA G League

text: In addition, salaries for two-way players are much higher than those for regular G League players. As of the 2017–18 season, G League players who are not on two-way contracts earn either $19,500 or $26,000 during the league's season. By contrast, two-way players' salaries while in the G League, which are pro-rated according to the number of days the player is with his G League team, are based on an annual salary between $50,000 and $75,000, and while these players are with their NBA team, they will earn a pro-rated portion of the NBA minimum rookie salary (which was $815,615 in the 2017–18 season).


title: NBA G League

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way players in 2020–21 were initially allowed to play up to 50 games in the NBA. Late in the season, restrictions were further lifted, allowing them to play more than 50 games as well as being eligible for the NBA playoffs.


title: NBA G League

text: Many former NBA draftees, waived players and undrafted players have played in the NBA D-League. Bobby Simmons, Aaron Brooks, and Pascal Siakam are the only former D-League players to win an NBA end-of-season award; all won the Most Improved Player Award with Simmons getting it with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2004–05, Brooks earning it with the Houston Rockets in 2009–10 and Siakam receiving it with the Toronto Raptors in the 2018-19 NBA season. Khris Middleton became the first former D-League player to be named an NBA All-Star when he was selected to participate in the 2019 All-Star Game.


title: NBA G League

text: In the 2008 NBA draft, the Idaho Stampede's Mike Taylor was drafted 55th by the Portland Trail Blazers. He became the first player from the NBA D-League to be drafted by an NBA team. He was subsequently traded and signed a rookie contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. In the 2014 draft, two D-League players were selected for the first time: P. J. Hairston was drafted 26th (which was also the first time a D–League player was drafted in the first round in the NBA) and Thanasis Antetokounmpo was the 51st pick.


title: NBA G League

text: Other noteworthy D-League call-ups include 2019 NBA Champion Jeremy Lin; Hassan Whiteside; 2011 NBA champion J. J. Barea; 2014, 2019 and 2020 NBA champion Danny Green; 2015, 2017 and 2018 NBA champion Shaun Livingston; and 2017 NBA champion Matt Barnes.


title: NBA G League

text: The league held its first All-Star game February 17, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was part of the NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas. As with the NBA's showcase game, a fan vote determined the starting lineup for each team. The East won, 114 to 100, with Pops Mensah-Bonsu named the game's MVP.


title: NBA G League

text: The second annual All-Star game was held on February 16, 2008, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The Blue team beat the Red team, 117–99, and Jeremy Richardson was named the MVP. In addition to the NBA D-League All-Star Game, the league debuted its first Dream Factory Friday Night events, which modeled after the NBA All-Star Saturday Night events. The events consists of Three-Point Shootout (won by Adam Harrington), Slam Dunk Contest (won by Brent Petway) and game of H-O-R-S-E (won by Lance Allred).


title: NBA G League

text: The 2009 D-League All-Star game was held on February 14, 2009, at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The Red Team defeated the Blue Team, 113–103, and Blake Ahearn and Courtney Sims were named co-MVPs. Along with the All-Star game, the NBA D-League ran their second annual Dream Factory Friday Night events. H-O-R-S-E was won by Will Conroy of the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. The Three-Point Shootout was won by Blake Ahearn of the Dakota Wizards, and the Slam Dunk Contest was won by James White of the Bakersfield Jam.


title: NBA G League

text: The 2010 D-League All-Star game was held on February 13, 2010, at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas. The Western Conference team defeated the Eastern Conference Team, 98–81. Bakersfield Jam center Brian Butch, who scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, was named as the MVP of the game. The NBA D-League also ran their third annual Dream Factory Friday Night events. The inaugural Shooting Stars Competition was won by a team of Pat Carroll, Trey Gilder and Carlos Powell. The Three-Point Shootout was won by Andre Ingram of the Utah Flash, and the Slam Dunk Contest was won by Dar Tucker of the Los Angeles D-Fenders.


title: NBA G League

text: The game continued until 2017, with games continuing to be held during NBA All-Star Weekend at the same site. In 2018, it was replaced by a game between G League all-stars and the Mexico national team held in Los Angeles. After that, this contest did not return in any form.


title: NBA G League

text: The league stages an annual NBA G League Showcase in which all of the league's teams play each other in a "carnival" format. The showcase was first played in 2005 was originally intended solely as a scouting event for NBA general managers and scouts, but evolved into a four-day event in which each team plays two games apiece. From 2005 to 2017, 15 players were called-up or recalled during or immediately following the Showcase.


title: NBA G League

text: As of 2019, the event's location was the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Because of limited space at the conference center site, all games are played without spectators, although TV and Internet coverage is available for all games. The 2019 showcase was a series of mini-tournaments in which the winning team shared a $100,000 grand prize.


title: NBA G League

text: Before Las Vegas, host cities were Columbus, Georgia (2005), Fayetteville, North Carolina (2006), Sioux Falls, South Dakota (2007), Boise, Idaho (2008), Orem, Utah (2009), Boise, Idaho (2010), South Padre Island, Texas (2011), Reno, Nevada in 2012 and 2013, Santa Cruz, California in 2015, and Mississauga, Ontario in 2017 and 2018. It was not held in 2016.


title: Viking Age

text: The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germanic Iron Age. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia but also to any place significantly settled by Scandinavians during the period. The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as "Vikings" as well as "Norsemen", although few of them were Vikings in sense of being engaged in piracy.


title: Viking Age

text: Voyaging by sea from their homelands in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Norse people settled in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in eastern Europe, where they were also known as Varangians. They also briefly settled in Newfoundland, becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. The Norse-Gaels, Normans, Rus' people, Faroese, and Icelanders emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings founded several kingdoms and earldoms in Europe: the kingdom of the Isles ("Suðreyjar"), Orkney ("Norðreyjar"), York ("Jórvík") and the Danelaw ("Danalǫg"), Dublin ("Dyflin"), Normandy, and Kievan Rus' ("Garðaríki"). The Norse homelands were also unified into larger kingdoms during the Viking Age, and the short-lived North Sea Empire included large swathes of Scandinavia and Britain. In 1021, the Vikings achieved the feat of reaching North America—the date of which was not specified until a millennium later.


title: Viking Age

text: Several things drove this expansion. The Vikings were drawn by the growth of wealthy towns and monasteries overseas and weak kingdoms. They may also have been pushed to leave their homeland by overpopulation, lack of good farmland, and political strife arising from the unification of Norway. The aggressive expansion of the Carolingian Empire and forced conversion of the neighboring Saxons to Christianity may also have been a factor. Sailing innovations had allowed the Vikings to sail further and longer to begin with.


title: Viking Age

text: Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from primary sources written by those the Vikings encountered, as well as archaeology, supplemented with secondary sources such as the Icelandic Sagas.


title: Viking Age

text: In England, the Viking attack of 8 June that destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne, a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in Northumberland, is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age. Judith Jesch has argued that the start of the Viking Age can be pushed back to , as it was unlikely that the Lindisfarne attack was the first attack, and given archeological evidence that suggests contacts between Scandinavia and the British isles earlier in the century. The earliest raids were most likely small in scale, but expanded in scale during the 9th century.


title: Viking Age

text: In the Lindisfarne attack, monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as slaves along with the church treasures, giving rise to the traditional (but unattested) prayer—"", "Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord." Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier (although due to a scribal error the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" dates this event to 787 rather than 789), but that incursion may have been a trading expedition that went wrong rather than a piratical raid. Lindisfarne was different. The Viking devastation of Northumbria's Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote: "Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared". Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. In medieval English chronicles, they are described as "wolves among sheep".


title: Viking Age

text: The first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a small readership in Britain. Linguistics traced the Viking Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas.


title: Viking Age

text: In Scandinavia, the 17th-century Danish scholars Thomas Bartholin and Ole Worm and Swedish scholar Olaus Rudbeck were the first to use runic inscriptions and Icelandic Sagas as primary historical sources. During the Enlightenment and Nordic Renaissance, historians such as the Icelandic-Norwegian Thormodus Torfæus, Danish-Norwegian Ludvig Holberg, and Swedish Olof von Dalin developed a more "rational" and "pragmatic" approach to historical scholarship.


title: Viking Age

text: By the latter half of the 18th century, while the Icelandic sagas were still used as important historical sources, the Viking Age had again come to be regarded as a barbaric and uncivilised period in the history of the Nordic countries.


title: Viking Age

text: Scholars outside Scandinavia did not begin to extensively reassess the achievements of the Vikings until the 1890s, recognising their artistry, technological skills, and seamanship.


title: Viking Age

text: The Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were mainly pagans from the same area as present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland (Caithness, the Hebrides and the Northern Isles), Greenland, and Canada.


title: Viking Age

text: Their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the precursor to present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a strong central authority appears to have been established in Jutland, and the Danes were beginning to look beyond their own territory for land, trade, and plunder.


title: Viking Age

text: In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries. Communities remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in lowland Denmark. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway.


title: Viking Age

text: The sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. In the eighth century, Scandinavians began to build ships of war and send them on raiding expeditions which started the Viking Age. The North Sea rovers were traders, colonisers, explorers, and plunderers who were notorious in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and other places in Europe for being brutal.


title: Viking Age

text: Many theories are posited for the cause of the Viking invasions; the will to explore likely played a major role. At the time, England, Wales, and Ireland were vulnerable to attack, being divided into many different warring kingdoms in a state of internal disarray, while the Franks were well defended. Overpopulation, especially near the Scandes, was a possible reason, although some disagree with this theory. Technological advances like the use of iron and a shortage of women due to selective female infanticide also likely had an impact. Tensions caused by Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia, and their subsequent attacks upon the Viking peoples, may have also played a role in Viking pillaging. Harald I of Norway ("Harald Fairhair") had united Norway around this time and displaced many peoples. As a result, these people sought for new bases to launch counter-raids against Harald.


title: Viking Age

text: Debate among scholars is ongoing as to why the Scandinavians began to expand from the eighth through 11th centuries. Various factors have been highlighted: demographic, economic, ideological, political, technological, and environmental.


title: Viking Age

text: These models constitute much of what is known about the motivations for and the causes of the Viking Age. In all likelihood, the beginning of this age was the result of some combination of the aforementioned models.


title: Viking Age

text: The Viking colonization of islands in the North Atlantic has in part been attributed to a period of favorable climate (the Medieval Climactic Optimum), as the weather was relatively stable and predictable, with calm seas. Sea ice was rare, harvests were typically strong, and fishing conditions were good.


title: Viking Age

text: The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 789, when according to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", a group of Danes sailed to the Isle of Portland in Dorset (it was wrongly recorded as 787). They were mistaken for merchants by a royal official. When asked to come to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods, they murdered the official. The beginning of the Viking Age in the British Isles is often set at 793. It was recorded in the "Anglo–Saxon Chronicle" that the Northmen raided the important island monastery of Lindisfarne (the generally accepted date is actually 8 June, not January):


title: Viking Age

text: In , according to the "Annals of Ulster", a serious attack was made on Lindisfarne's mother-house of Iona, which was followed in 795 by raids upon the northern coast of Ireland. From bases there, the Norsemen attacked Iona again in , causing great slaughter amongst the "Céli Dé" Brethren, and burning the abbey to the ground.


title: Viking Age

text: The Vikings primarily targeted Ireland until 830, as England and the Carolingian Empire was able to fight the Vikings off. However, after , the Vikings had considerable success against England, the Carolingian Empire, and other parts of Western Europe. After 830, the Vikings exploited disunity within the Carolingian Empire, as well as pitted the English kingdoms against each other.


title: Viking Age

text: The Kingdom of the Franks under Charlemagne was particularly devastated by these raiders, who could sail up the Seine with near impunity. Near the end of Charlemagne's reign (and throughout the reigns of his sons and grandsons), a string of Norse raids began, culminating in a gradual Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as Normandy in 911. French King Charles the Simple granted the Duchy of Normandy to Viking warleader Rollo (a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish origins) in order to stave off attacks by other Vikings. Charles gave Rollo the title of duke. In return, Rollo swore fealty to Charles, converted to Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers not only identified themselves as Norman, but also carried the Norman language (either a French dialect or a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon), and their Norman culture, into England in 1066. With the Norman Conquest, they became the ruling aristocracy of Anglo–Saxon England.


title: Viking Age

text: The clinker-built longships used by the Scandinavians were uniquely suited to both deep and shallow waters. They extended the reach of Norse raiders, traders, and settlers along coastlines and along the major river valleys of north-western Europe. Rurik also expanded to the east, and in 859 became ruler either by conquest or invitation by local people of the city of Novgorod (which means "new city") on the Volkhov River. His successors moved further, founding the early East Slavic state of Kievan Rus' with the capital in Kiev. This persisted until 1240, when the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus'.


title: Viking Age

text: Other Norse people continued south to the Black Sea and then on to Constantinople. The eastern connections of these "Varangians" brought Byzantine silk, a cowrie shell from the Red Sea, and even coins from Samarkand, to Viking York.


title: Viking Age

text: In 884, an army of Danish Vikings was defeated at the Battle of Norditi (also called the Battle of Hilgenried Bay) on the Germanic North Sea coast by a Frisian army under Archbishop Rimbert of Bremen-Hamburg, which precipitated the complete and permanent withdrawal of the Vikings from East Frisia. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Saxons and Slavs began to use trained mobile cavalry successfully against Viking foot soldiers, making it hard for Viking invaders to fight inland.


title: Viking Age

text: In Scandinavia, the Viking Age is considered to have ended with the establishment of royal authority in the Scandinavian countries and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion. The date is usually put somewhere in the early 11th century in all three Scandinavian countries. The end of the Viking era in Norway is marked by the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Although Olafr Haraldsson's (later known as Olav the Holy) army lost the battle, Christianity spread, partly on the strength of rumours of miraculous signs after his death. Norwegians would no longer be called Vikings. In Sweden, the reign of king Olov Skötkonung () is considered to be the transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, and he is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted until the 12th century. Olof being the last king in Scandinavia to adopt a Christianity marked a definite end to the Viking Age.


title: Viking Age

text: Scholars have proposed different end dates for the Viking Age, but most argue it ended in the 11th century. The year 1000 is sometimes used, as that was the year in which Iceland converted to Christianity, marking the conversion of all of Scandinavia to Christianity. The death of Harthacnut, the Danish King of England, in 1042 has also been used as an end date. The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by the failed invasion attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III (Haraldr Harðráði), who was defeated by Saxon King Harold Godwinson in 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge; in Ireland, the capture of Dublin by Strongbow and his Hiberno-Norman forces in 1171; and 1263 in Scotland by the defeat of King Hákon Hákonarson at the Battle of Largs by troops loyal to Alexander III. Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, William, Duke of Normandy. Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the Norse between the 13th and the 15th centuries; the Western Isles and the Isle of Man remained under Scandinavian authority until 1266. Orkney and Shetland belonged to the king of Norway as late as 1469. Consequently, a "long Viking Age" may stretch into the 15th century.


title: Viking Age

text: According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicles", Viking raiders struck England in 793 and raided Lindisfarne, the monastery that held Saint Cuthbert's relics, killing the monks and capturing the valuables. The raid marked the beginning of the "Viking Age of Invasion". Great but sporadic violence continued on England's northern and eastern shores, with raids continuing on a small scale across coastal England. While the initial raiding groups were small, a great amount of planning is believed to have been involved. The Vikings raided during the winter of 840–841, rather than the usual summer, having waited on an island off Ireland.


title: Viking Age

text: In 850, the Vikings overwintered for the first time in England, on the island of Thanet, Kent. In 854, a raiding party overwintered a second time, at the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary. In 864, they reverted to Thanet for their winter encampment.


title: Viking Age

text: The following year, the Great Heathen Army, led by brothers Ivar the Boneless (Halfdan and Ubba), and also by another Viking Guthrum, arrived in East Anglia. They proceeded to cross England into Northumbria and captured York, establishing a Viking community in Jorvik, where some settled as farmers and craftsmen. Most of the English kingdoms, being in turmoil, could not stand against the Vikings. In 867, Northumbria became the northern kingdom of the coalescing Danelaw, after its conquest by the Ragnarsson brothers, who installed an Englishman, Ecgberht, as a puppet king. By 870, the "Great Summer Army" arrived in England, led by a Viking leader called Bagsecg and his five earls. Aided by the Great Heathen Army (which had already overrun much of England from its base in Jorvik), Bagsecg's forces, and Halfdan's forces (through an alliance), the combined Viking forces raided much of England until 871, when they planned an invasion of Wessex. On 8 January 871, Bagsecg was killed at the Battle of Ashdown along with his earls. As a result, many of the Vikings returned to northern England, where Jorvic had become the centre of the Viking kingdom, but Alfred of Wessex managed to keep them out of his country. Alfred and his successors continued to drive back the Viking frontier and take York. A new wave of Vikings appeared in England in 947, when Eric Bloodaxe captured York.


title: Viking Age

text: In 1003, the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard started a series of raids against England to avenge the St. Brice's Day massacre of England's Danish inhabitants, culminating in a full-scale invasion that led to Sweyn being crowned king of England in 1013. Sweyn was also king of Denmark and parts of Norway at this time. The throne of England passed to Edmund Ironside of Wessex after Sweyn's death in 1014. Sweyn's son, Cnut the Great, won the throne of England in 1016 through conquest. When Cnut the Great died in 1035 he was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden. Harold Harefoot became king of England after Cnut's death, and Viking rule of England ceased.


title: Viking Age

text: The Viking presence declined until 1066, when they lost their final battle with the English at Stamford Bridge. The death in the battle of King Harald Hardrada of Norway ended any hope of reviving Cnut's North Sea Empire, and it is because of this, rather than the Norman conquest, that 1066 is often taken as the end of the Viking Age. Nineteen days later, a large army containing and led by senior Normans, themselves mostly male-line descendants of Norsemen, invaded England and defeated the weakened English army at the Battle of Hastings. The army invited others from across Norman gentry and ecclesiastical society to join them. There were several unsuccessful attempts by Scandinavian kings to regain control of England, the last of which took place in 1086.


title: Viking Age

text: In 795, small bands of Vikings began plundering monastic settlements along the coast of Gaelic Ireland. The Annals of Ulster state that in 821 the Vikings plundered Howth and "carried off a great number of women into captivity". From 840 the Vikings began building fortified encampments, "longphorts", on the coast and overwintering in Ireland. The first were at Dublin and Linn Duachaill. Their attacks became bigger and reached further inland, striking larger monastic settlements such as Armagh, Clonmacnoise, Glendalough, Kells, and Kildare, and also plundering the ancient tombs of Brú na Bóinne. Viking chief Thorgest is said to have raided the whole midlands of Ireland until he was killed by Máel Sechnaill I in 845.


title: Viking Age

text: In 853, Viking leader Amlaíb (Olaf) became the first king of Dublin. He ruled along with his brothers Ímar (possibly Ivar the Boneless) and Auisle. Over the following decades, there was regular warfare between the Vikings and the Irish, and between two groups of Vikings: the Dubgaill and Finngaill (dark and fair foreigners). The Vikings also briefly allied with various Irish kings against their rivals. In 866, Áed Findliath burnt all Viking longphorts in the north, and they never managed to establish permanent settlements in that region. The Vikings were driven from Dublin in 902.


title: Viking Age

text: They returned in 914, now led by the Uí Ímair (House of Ivar). During the next eight years the Vikings won decisive battles against the Irish, regained control of Dublin, and founded settlements at Waterford, Wexford, Cork, and Limerick, which became Ireland's first large towns. They were important trading hubs, and Viking Dublin was the biggest slave port in western Europe.


title: Viking Age

text: These Viking territories became part of the patchwork of kingdoms in Ireland. Vikings intermarried with the Irish and adopted elements of Irish culture, becoming the Norse-Gaels. Some Viking kings of Dublin also ruled the kingdom of the Isles and York; such as Sitric Cáech, Gofraid ua Ímair, Olaf Guthfrithson, and Olaf Cuaran. Sigtrygg Silkbeard was "a patron of the arts, a benefactor of the church, and an economic innovator" who established Ireland's first mint, in Dublin.


title: Viking Age

text: In , Máel Sechnaill Mór defeated the Dublin Vikings and forced them into submission. Over the following thirty years, Brian Boru subdued the Viking territories and made himself High King of Ireland. The Dublin Vikings, together with Leinster, twice rebelled against him, but they were defeated in the battles of Glenmama () and Clontarf (). After the battle of Clontarf, the Dublin Vikings could no longer "single-handedly threaten the power of the most powerful kings of Ireland". Brian's rise to power and conflict with the Vikings is chronicled in "Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib" ("The War of the Irish with the Foreigners").


title: Viking Age

text: While few records are known, the Vikings are thought to have led their first raids in Scotland on the holy island of Iona in , the year following the raid on the other holy island of Lindisfarne, Northumbria.