title: AFC Wimbledon

text: On 13 June 2002, a new manager, a playing strip and badge based on that of the original Wimbledon FC, and a stadium were unveiled to fans and the media at the packed-out Wimbledon Community Centre. In order to assemble a competitive team at very short notice, AFC Wimbledon held player trials on 29 June 2002 on Wimbledon Common, open to any unattached player who felt he was good enough to try out for the team. The event attracted 230 hopeful players, from whom the club's squad for their inaugural season was eventually chosen.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In the 2002–03 season, AFC Wimbledon competed in the Combined Counties League Premier Division under the management of former Wimbledon F.C. player Terry Eames, who was appointed on 13 June 2002. Their first ever game, a pre-season friendly against Sutton United on 10 July 2002, resulted in a 4–0 loss in front of a crowd of 4,657. At the end of their debut season, AFC Wimbledon finished third in the league and narrowly failed to win promotion to the Isthmian League First Division, despite a strong end to the season that involved winning their final 11 league fixtures.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In 2003–04, AFC Wimbledon won their first 21 league games before a 2–2 draw against Sandhurst Town on 10 January 2004, giving them 32 consecutive wins in league games over two seasons. Manager Terry Eames was suspended on 13 February 2004 and sacked five days later on the grounds of gross misconduct, after evidence was produced which showed him to have firstly made unauthorised and untrue representations to a number of the coaching staff, secondly, that he had falsely informed members of the coaching staff that the club had decided not to support his plans for youth football and required him to make immediate budgetary cut-backs and thirdly that he dispensed with the services of members of the coaching staff citing untrue reasons. Assistant manager Nick English took charge with immediate effect. The team went on to finish as champions of the Combined Counties League with an unbeaten record for the season of 42 wins and four draws. AFC Wimbledon also won the league's Premier Challenge Cup after beating North Greenford United 4–1 in the Final on 30 April 2004, completing a double for the season.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Dave Anderson was appointed as new manager on 11 May 2004. Under his leadership AFC Wimbledon took their good form into the 2004–05 season during which they competed in the Isthmian League First Division — they remained top of the division for the duration of the season, and were convincing title-winners, sealing promotion to the League's Premier Division. The Dons secured another double by defeating Walton & Hersham 2–1 in the Final of the Surrey Senior Cup on 3 May 2005. Over the course of the season, AFC Wimbledon set a new record for the longest run of unbeaten league games at any level of senior football in the United Kingdom. The team remained unbeaten for 78 league matches between 22 February 2003 (a 2–0 defeat at home to Withdean 2000) and 4 December 2004 (a 2–0 defeat at Cray Wanderers).


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2005–06 season proved far more competitive than previous seasons – as after winning their first few games, AFC Wimbledon found themselves struggling to remain in the play-off places. After fluctuating form they eventually reached the play-offs after a 1–0 win against Anderson's former club, Hendon, on 22 April 2006. However, a 2–1 defeat at Fisher Athletic on 2 May 2006 prevented the club from achieving three back-to-back promotions. The Dons once again reached the final of the Surrey Senior Cup, however, this time they were narrowly defeated 1–0 by Kingstonian in a fiercely contested derby.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Much of the 2006–07 season was overshadowed by the threat of a proposed 18-point deduction by the FA for the club's fielding of Jermaine Darlington who, it transpired, had not been registered correctly by the club and had therefore played in three games whilst still officially ineligible. However, this punishment was eventually reduced to a three-point deduction and a £400 fine on appeal, after the FA finally acknowledged that the club had made a simple administrative error. The 'Darlington affair' also resulted in expulsion from the Surrey Senior Cup and the FA Trophy that year. Although AFC Wimbledon did enough to qualify for the play-offs, they once again missed out on promotion, this time as a result of losing 1–0 to Bromley in the play-off semi-final on 1 May 2007. Manager Dave Anderson subsequently left the club by mutual consent on 2 May 2007.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Terry Brown was appointed as the new AFC Wimbledon manager on 15 May 2007. During 2007–08, he led the club to promotion to the Conference South in his first season in charge, a feat which predecessor Dave Anderson had proved unable to achieve, having lost two consecutive play-off final opportunities in the previous two seasons. The Dons made steady progress throughout the season, qualifying for the play-offs after finishing third in the League. AFC Wimbledon beat AFC Hornchurch 3–1 in the play-off semi-final on 29 April 2008 and went on to triumph 2–1 over Staines Town in the play-off final on 3 May 2008.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon spent most of the 2008–09 season near the top of the league table, eventually finishing as champions and earning promotion to the Conference Premier after defeating St Albans City 3–0 on 25 April 2009. The match set an attendance record of 4,722 for Kingsmeadow stadium, which at that time was full capacity.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2009–10 season was the club's first in the Conference Premier. Overall the Dons finished eighth, 14 points short of the play-off zone. This was the first season in which the club had failed to make the top five in the league table.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In 2010–11 AFC Wimbledon finished as runners-up of the Conference Premier, qualifying for the play-offs. The Dons faced fifth placed Fleetwood Town in the play-off semi-finals, whom they went on to thrash 8–1 on aggregate. This aggregate scoreline set a record as the largest winning margin recorded since the Conference Premier first introduced the play-off system at the beginning of the 2002–03 season. In the play-off final at the City of Manchester Stadium on 21 May 2011, in front of a crowd of 18,195, AFC Wimbledon beat Luton Town 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out, after the match had ended 0–0 in extra time. The victory resulted in promotion to the Football League and represented the club's fifth promotion in nine years. The club's achievement of attaining League status after just nine seasons of existence is considered to be one of the fastest ascents for a new club since automatic promotion to the Football League first commenced in the 1980s. AFC Wimbledon also hold the record of being the first club to be formed in the 21st century to make it into the Football League, making them the youngest club in the Football League by some distance.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2011–12 season saw AFC Wimbledon's promotion to League Two. The team started the season well, winning seven out of their first 12 matches, but failed to keep the momentum going and had a poor run, eventually finishing the season ranked 16th, 10 points clear of the relegation zone.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2012–13 campaign marked the 10th anniversary of AFC Wimbledon's inaugural season. After an abysmal start to the season, manager Terry Brown was sacked on 19 September 2012 along with assistant manager Stuart Cash, with AFC Wimbledon sitting just above the relegation zone. First team coach Simon Bassey took over as caretaker manager with immediate effect. Bassey was in charge just four matches, however, before former Wimbledon player Neal Ardley was appointed as Terry Brown's permanent replacement on 10 October 2012, naming former Watford and Cardiff City teammate Neil Cox as his assistant manager. On 2 December 2012, AFC Wimbledon faced Milton Keynes Dons in the second round of the FA Cup, in the first ever meeting between the two sides following the relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes, with the match ending as a 2–1 defeat for AFC Wimbledon. The Dons secured their Football League status on the final day of the 2012–13 season, despite having started the day in the relegation zone, by beating Fleetwood Town 2–1 at Kingsmeadow on 27 April 2013.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In the 2013–14 season, a match involving AFC Wimbledon was at the centre of a failed match-fixing plot. Shortly after the club's 1–0 loss against Dagenham & Redbridge on 26 November 2013, businessmen Krishna Ganeshan and Chann Sankaran and three Whitehawk players—Michael Boateng, Moses Swaibu and Hakeem Adelakun—were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery over a failed plot to fix the game. Ganeshan, Sankaran and Boateng were convicted. The club had a disappointing season overall, only managing to replicate the 20th placed league finish of the season before after the club were docked three points for the ineligible fielding of Jake Nicholson after failing to obtain international clearance for him after he joined from Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton on 19 February 2014.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2014–15 season saw AFC Wimbledon face Milton Keynes Dons once again in a competitive fixture on 12 August 2014 in the first round of the Football League Cup, with MK Dons eventually winning the match 3–1. The two sides met once again on 7 October 2014, with AFC Wimbledon achieving a first 3–2 win over their rivals in the second round of the Football League Trophy following a late goal from Adebayo Akinfenwa. The Dons also reached the FA Cup third round for the first time in their history on 5 January 2015, eventually succumbing 2–1 to Liverpool with Steven Gerrard scoring both goals. AFC Wimbledon finished the season in a mediocre 15th place after a disappointing run of form saw them finish the season without a win in their last eight league fixtures.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2015–16 season was AFC Wimbledon's fifth consecutive season in League Two. Despite getting the season off to a mediocre start, the Dons finished the season strongly, winning seven out of their last 10 league matches to ensure that the club would confirm their highest ever League Two finish of seventh place and qualification to the 2016 Football League play-offs. A record home attendance of 4,870 turned out to see AFC Wimbledon beat Accrington Stanley 1–0 in the first leg of the play-off semi-final on 14 May 2016 (exactly 28 years to the day since the original Wimbledon won the 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool) following a dramatic extra time winner from academy product Tom Beere. This goal ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides as AFC Wimbledon went on to win 3–2 on aggregate after a 2–2 draw in the reverse fixture. This win earned them a place in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium against Plymouth Argyle. The fixture was scheduled for 30 May 2016, exactly 14 years to the day since the club's foundation. AFC Wimbledon ultimately triumphed 2–0 on the day in front of a crowd of 57,956.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The 2016–17 season saw AFC Wimbledon compete in League One for the first time in their history. They remained unbeaten in the South London derby fixtures, recording two draws against Millwall, a home draw against Charlton Athletic, and a 2–1 away win at The Valley on 17 September 2016. Promotion also placed AFC Wimbledon in the same division as Milton Keynes Dons, who had simultaneously been relegated from the Championship. This ensured the club would face Milton Keynes Dons for the first time at Kingsmeadow which they did on 14 March 2017, going on to triumph 2–0. The club ultimately finished 15th in the league, after a disappointing slump saw them win just five out of their last 22 league matches between January and April.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon made an equally slow start to the 2017–18 campaign, managing just five wins in their first 20 league matches between August and December. On 3 December 2017, the club recorded a 3–1 win over South London derby rivals Charlton Athletic in the second round of the FA Cup. The club were subsequently rewarded by being drawn away against Tottenham Hotspur in the third round with the match being played at Wembley Stadium on 7 January 2018. On 13 December 2017, the club received a further boost after being granted permission to begin work on constructing a new 9,300-seater stadium (which could be expanded to hold up to 20,000 in the future) on the site of Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium. The new ground will be only away from the original Plough Lane (1912–98), Wimbledon's home from 1912 until 1991. The club was eventually able to secure another season in League One with a draw in their penultimate game, meaning that for the first time, AFC Wimbledon would be playing in a higher division than the Milton Keynes Dons, who were relegated that season.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon saw a disastrous start to the 2018–19 season, losing twelve of their first seventeen league games. Manager Neal Ardley departed the club by mutual agreement on 12 November 2018 after a tenure of 6 years, 1 month, 2 days, making him the longest serving manager to date. One bright spot in their season was the club's first ever appearance in the FA Cup 5th Round after beating West Ham United 4–2 in the 2018–19 FA Cup. On 4 December 2018, Glyn Hodges joined Wally Downes as AFC Wimbledon's assistant manager. After being rooted to the bottom of the table for most of 2019, they lost only 1 of their last 12 league games to lift them out of the relegation zone, ultimately staying up on goal difference on the last day of the season after a 0–0 draw with already relegated Bradford City. On 25 September 2019, Glyn Hodges took over the management of the first team on a temporary basis following the suspension of Wally Downes after being charged by the FA for betting misconduct. The club's youth coach, Mark Robinson, replaced Hodges on 30 January 2021, after a run of poor results; Robinson turned the season around and the club avoided relegation on the second-last matchday.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The club crest, which is based on the coat of arms of the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon, features a black double headed eagle in reference to a local legend that Julius Caesar once made camp on Wimbledon Common, this symbol being his own attributed coat of arms.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The colours that were chosen for the AFC Wimbledon kit were the royal blue and yellow traditionally associated with the rise of the original Wimbledon F.C. to the top of the Football League (rather than the darker navy blue and yellow that Wimbledon F.C. were wearing at the time, which had been a recent adaptation in 1993). The first ever kit, which was used only during the pre-season friendlies of 2002, consisted of a royal blue shirt, white shorts and white socks. Since then, the home kit has always been predominantly all royal blue with yellow detailing. The away kit used between 2002 and 2004 was white, however since then it has usually been predominantly yellow with blue detailing.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: To mark their first game in the Football League on 6 August 2011 against Bristol Rovers, the team wore a white and blue commemorative kit which was based on that worn by the original Wimbledon F.C. during 1977–78 in order to remember their own first season as a member of the Football League in the old Fourth Division (now League Two). To prevent copyright infringement, a single blue stripe replaced the three trade mark stripes of the Adidas original and the shirts were emblazoned with a modified crest for the occasion.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: On 14 May 2020 the club released a new, slightly modified, official club crest to mark 32 years since Wimbledon's 1988 FA Cup victory, as well as the forthcoming opening of the new stadium at Plough Lane.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon's shirts have been sponsored by computer games developers Sports Interactive since the club's inception in 2002. The kit used by the club is currently manufactured by Puma. Previous manufacturers have been Umbro (2002), Tempest Sports (2002–14), and Admiral Sportswear (2014–17). Other club sponsors are Reston Waste, Cherry Red Records, and author and YouTuber John Green.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In April 2022, the club announced that it would be switching its kit manufacturer for start of the 2022–23 season to Hummel, a nostalgic link up with the kit manufacturer of the former Wimbledon F.C. in 1988–89 & 1989–99 seasons.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In 2006, AFC Wimbledon introduced a new mascot to represent the club, a Womble known as ""Haydon"" after Haydons Road, the nearest railway station to both Wimbledon F.C.'s original home ground, Plough Lane (1912–98), and the current Plough Lane.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The most obvious of AFC Wimbledon's rivals are Milton Keynes Dons, the club which resulted from the relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes in 2003. However there is some debate amongst AFC Wimbledon supporters as to whether this should be considered a rivalry. Since some supporters do not recognise the legitimacy of the club, it is argued they cannot be considered rivals. The two sides have met three times in cup competitions, all games at Milton Keynes, of which AFC Wimbledon have won one. Owing to MK Dons' relegation from the Championship in the 2015–16 season, alongside AFC Wimbledon's promotion from League Two, AFC Wimbledon and Milton Keynes Dons competed in the same league division for the first time in the 2016–17 season. Both clubs won one and lost one in that season's league matches.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: One of AFC Wimbledon's main rivals have been Crawley Town. This is purely due to their frequently fractious meetings at a non-league level since 2009. The two sides did not play each other between 2012 and 2015 due to Crawley's promotion to League One. However Crawley's relegation during the 2014–15 Football League One season meant the two sides played each other on 15 August 2015 which the Dons won 2–1 after going a goal down.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Since Wimbledon's 2016 promotion into League One, they have met just once competitively in the 2nd round of the 2020/2021 Emirates FA Cup with Crawley Town winning 2–1.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon had never shared a league with Sutton United before 2022, but due to the geographical proximity the two clubs share a friendly rivalry. Sutton were the first team to play the reformed Dons on 10 July 2002, defeating them 4–0 at Gander Green Lane. Before they met in the FA Cup in 2017, the most recent competitive match between the two sides was in the 2013 Surrey Senior Cup semi-final at Gander Green Lane on 11 April 2013, a game which Sutton won 5–2. The clubs played each other in the third round of the FA Cup on 7 January 2017, which resulted in a 0–0 draw. The replay took place at Kingsmeadow on 17 January 2017, with Sutton winning 3–1. The two clubs will both be in League Two for the 2022–23 season.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Since its inception in 2002, AFC Wimbledon had stated that one of its primary aims was to play in Merton, with a new stadium close to what it regards as its "spiritual home" of the original Plough Lane, where the original Wimbledon F.C. had played for over 80 years. This aim formed the basis of a project to create a new purpose-built stadium on the site of the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, located on Plough Lane approximately 250 yards from where the old football stadium had stood.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Plans to develop the greyhound stadium site as either a multi-purpose stadium or as a football stadium were publicised frequently by the club and the media prior to 2013. In 2013 AFC Wimbledon announced that discussions were underway with Merton Council over a joint bid for the greyhound stadium and surrounding land, in cooperation with developer Galliard Homes, to build a new football stadium, 600 residential units and a wide range of shops and community facilities.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The plans for the football stadium were approved unanimously by Merton Council on 10 December 2015. Clearance of the site in preparation for the new football stadium and housing was begun on 16 March 2018. The stadium's opening was initially planned for summer 2019, however, delays have caused the approximate completion date to moved to 25 October 2020. The land's freehold was transferred to an AFC Wimbledon subsidiary on 24 December 2018, among other transactions that also formally transferred ownership of Kingsmeadow to Chelsea.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Wimbledon played the first four home matches of the 2020–21 season at Loftus Road whilst Plough Lane was being completed. The club played its first match at Plough Lane on the evening of 3 November 2020 with a 2–2 draw against Doncaster Rovers.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon started the 2020–21 season at Loftus Road after agreeing a temporary groundshare agreement with Queens Park Rangers, while construction of Plough Lane was completed. They played four league games at the ground, plus two cup ties, before departing at the end of October 2020. Due to the coronavirus restrictions in place at that time, all of the club’s games at Loftus Road were played behind closed doors.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The club played at the 4,850 capacity Kingsmeadow in Kingston upon Thames until May 2020. Until 2017, AFC Wimbledon groundshared with Kingstonian with the Dons being the landlords and Kingstonian the tenants since the summer of 2003; before then the roles were reversed. In November 2015 AFC Wimbledon supporters voted to approve the selling of Kingsmeadow to Chelsea F.C. to help fund a planned new ground in Merton, On 13 December 2017, the contract was signed for the new stadium to be built, with Kingstonian leaving the ground in 2017 as a result.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Upon their foundation in 2002, AFC Wimbledon entered into a ground–sharing arrangement with Kingstonian to play home fixtures at Kingsmeadow in the neighbouring borough of Kingston upon Thames.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: After Kingstonian entered administration to avoid bankruptcy and lost the Kingsmeadow lease in October 2001. It was assigned in April 2002 by the administrators to a property developer, Rajesh Khosla, who was also by then owner of the club.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: After an SGM, it was felt by the AFC Wimbledon board of directors that securing ownership of Kingsmeadow would safeguard the ground for the future of both clubs. In March 2003 the Dons Trust members voted to purchase part of the lease for Kingsmeadow and in June 2003 the contract for buying the lease to the stadium was agreed with Rajesh Khosla; £3 million needed to be raised.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon were already sub-tenants at Kingsmeadow, before raising £2.4 million to buy the lease from Khosla in June 2003, with a view to making Kingsmeadow their home. Kingstonian secured a 25-year sub-tenancy agreement with AFC Wimbledon, with customary break clauses. The clubs operated a ground-sharing arrangement, with Kingstonian receiving preferentially cheap rental terms.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: At the end of the 2011–12 season, AFC Wimbledon commenced work on building a new 1,000 capacity all-seater stand to replace the existing Kingston Road End. This was completed by 13 October 2012 game against Cheltenham Town which saw an attendance of 4,409. The new stand was named the North Stand before being renamed The Nongshim Stand and in July 2015 the John Green Stand following sponsorship deals. The work increased the stadium capacity to approximately 4,850 with 2,265 seats.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In 2015, AFC Wimbledon agreed plans to sell Kingsmeadow to Chelsea in order to help finance their plans to move to a new stadium in Merton. Chelsea's intention was to use the ground for their own youth and women's teams and were not willing to accommodate Kingstonian. This was met with protests from Kingstonian fans, as the club would be left without a home ground of their own. Since the sale, Kingstonian have had to groundshare with Leatherhead and then Corinthian-Casuals. AFC Wimbledon departed Kingsmeadow in May 2020.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFCW plc was placed under the ownership of The Dons Trust, a supporters' group which is pledged to retain at least 75% control of that ownership. In 2003 a minority interest was sold in a share issue in order to finance the purchase of Kingsmeadow; given the circumstances of the club's formation, this decision raised concerns among some members but was quickly accepted.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The Dons Trust is an industrial and provident society registered with the Financial Services Authority as "Wimbledon Football Club Supporters' Society Limited". This is not to be confused with Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association (WISA) although WISA has as one of its stated constitutional aims "to purchase shares in AFC Wimbledon's holding company".


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The original chief executive was Erik Samuelson, a retired accountant, who carried out his full-time duties in return for the nominal sum of one guinea a year, because "it sounded posher than a pound". Samuelson retired in 2019; he was replaced by the club's former COO, Joe Palmer.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The club places great emphasis on its role as a social focus for the entire local community, and part of this role is to offer the chance to play football to all. For this reason AFC Wimbledon established the Community Football Scheme (CFS) in 2004. On 1 May 2010, AFC Wimbledon's Community Football Scheme was awarded the FA Charter Standard Community Club Award, the highest graded award attainable in the FA Charter Standard Club Programme, in recognition of the club's outstanding coaching facilities in the local community. The club offer a number of different football courses open to children of any ability aged 4–14, who receive coaching from FA qualified coaches. The club aim to reach as many children as possible through their football and multi-sports programme by having vital links with their surrounding boroughs, most notably Merton and Kingston, which has allowed them to become one of the main providers of sports coaching in their local community.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: AFC Wimbledon also offers a Schools Coaching Programme in Merton, Kingston and neighbouring boroughs. The club look to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle for both Primary and Secondary school children through football and a range of other sports. The sessions are run with an emphasis on learning, development and health awareness in a fun coaching environment. On 15 March 2012, coaches from the CFS, in partnership with the Football League's main sponsor nPower, engaged in a community outreach scheme promoting the FA's 'Respect' campaign to school pupils. Nearly 2,000 children aged 10 and 11 were taught how abusive verbal and physical behaviour on the pitch to both players and referees should never be tolerated under any circumstances. The aim of the nationwide 'Respect' scheme in schools is to eradicate racism, homophobia, violence and dissent from the next generation of footballers and supporters.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: On 27 March 2012, AFC Wimbledon became the first football club to be presented with the Prime Minister's Big Society Award for outstanding contributions to the local community. The club was recognised for the honour because it offers a wide range of community development schemes including 19 youth and women's teams, school health and sport projects (hundreds of children a week participate in the outreach schemes provided) and a range of innovative activities, including a stadium school to help children get to grips with maths by using football as a teaching aid.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: A group formed by the club's fans, the Dons Local Action Group, stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ensuring community members were distributed sufficient food and that students locked down at home had the technology they needed to keep up with classes.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: The following table shows players who have previously been selected to be club captain, have been The Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association (WISA) player of the year and have been the player who scored the most league goals in a season (including penalties) in chronological order:


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: "For a list of all AFC Wimbledon players who hold appearance or goal-scoring records see List of AFC Wimbledon records and statistics."


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: As part of WISA's campaign to try and reclaim the history of Wimbledon Football Club, the Wimbledon Old Players Association (WOPA) was formed in 2005. Membership of WOPA is open to all former Wimbledon F.C. and AFC Wimbledon players and managers. Among the sixty founding members were Glenn Mulcaire, who scored AFC Wimbledon's first ever goal in 2002 and Kevin Cooper, who remains the club's all-time highest goal scorer with 107 goals between August 2002 and May 2004, as well as retaining the title for the most goals scored in a season with 66 during 2003–04. Others that joined included some of the legends of the old Wimbledon F.C. such as John Fashanu, Dave Beasant, Efan Ekoku, Neil Sullivan, Dave Bassett, Wally Downes, Marcus Gayle, Neal Ardley, Alan Kimble, Andy Thorn, Roger Joseph, Dickie Guy, Allen Batsford, Roger Connell, Ian Cooke, Roy Law and Steve Galliers. On 16 July 2006, WOPA fielded a team in the Masters Football Tournament at Wembley Arena, with AFC Wimbledon's backing. The team included Carlton Fairweather, Scott Fitzgerald, Marcus Gayle, and Dean Holdsworth.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: In June 2010, Vinnie Jones, another former player of Wimbledon F.C., donated his 1988 FA Cup winners medal to the fans of AFC Wimbledon. The medal is on display at Kingsmeadow.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: These statistics incorporate results for league matches (including Play-off matches) and results in all major League Cup competitions (including the Combined Counties League Premier Challenge Cup, the Isthmian League Cup, the Conference League Cup, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy) as well as results in the FA Vase, the FA Trophy and the FA Cup.


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: "* Terry Eames was suspended as manager on 13th February for disciplinary reasons, but was not officially dismissed until 18th February 2004. Following his suspension, the role was undertaken by his assistant Nicky English."


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: "** Wally Downes was suspended as manager on 25th September 2019 after he was charged by the Football Association over bets placed on games, with his assistant Glyn Hodges taking over his duties. Downes was not officially dismissed until 20th October 2019, when he was suspended by the FA after admitting breaching Football Association rules around betting. Hodges was then named his permanent replacement."


title: AFC Wimbledon

text: Wimbledon Women's former player Sophie Hosking won an Olympic gold medal for Team GB in the women's lightweight double sculls at the London 2012 games. Hosking continues to be an avid supporter of AFC Wimbledon and demonstrated as such when she painted her fingernails in the club's royal blue and yellow colours for the Olympic final at Dorney Lake on 4 August 2012.


title: Doria Ragland

text: Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956) is an American social worker, and former makeup artist and yoga instructor. She is the mother of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.


title: Doria Ragland

text: Doria Ragland was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011), an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets. Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Nettie Arnold, respectively worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator at the Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. Her parents moved to Los Angeles when Ragland was a baby and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow, who is near to Ragland's age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce. Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph (known as "JJ"; 1949–2021) and Saundra Johnson (born 1952), and a younger paternal half-brother, Alvin Joffrey Ragland. According to inferred conclusions and information passed down (much of it verbally) from earlier generations, the Ragland family descend from Richard Ragland, born into slavery in Jonesboro, Georgia, in 1830; he lived long enough to experience the abolition of slavery in 1865. His surname came from slave-owner William Ragland, a Methodist planter and land speculator who had emigrated during the eighteenth century from Cornwall, England to North America.


title: Doria Ragland

text: After leaving Fairfax High School, Ragland worked as a temp assistant makeup artist and met her future husband, Thomas Markle, while employed on the set of the television show "General Hospital". Later on, Thomas Markle was left in charge of caring for their daughter as Ragland took a job as an air stewardess. Doria later worked as a travel agent and owned a small business, before filing for bankruptcy in the mid-2000s. Ragland completed a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. In 2011, she earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California. After passing California's licensing exam in 2015, she was a social worker for three years at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services clinic in Culver City. Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor. In 2020, it was reported that she would teach a jewelry making course at Santa Monica College. In the same year, Ragland became CEO, CFO and secretary of a care home firm in Beverly Hills, called Loving Kindness Senior Care Management.


title: Doria Ragland

text: Ragland married lighting director Thomas Markle Sr. on December 23, 1979, at Hollywood's Paramahansa Yogananda Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in a ceremony performed by Brother Bhaktananda. Their daughter, Meghan, was born in 1981. The couple split when their daughter was two years old. They divorced in 1987. Both parents contributed to raising Meghan until the age of 9, when Thomas Markle was left in charge of caring for their daughter as Ragland pursued a career.


title: Doria Ragland

text: Ragland resides in View Park–Windsor Hills, California, in a house inherited from her father in 2011. She has accompanied Meghan to public events and attended her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry in Berkshire. Ragland became a grandmother on May 6, 2019. She flew to the UK to see her grandson, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and his parents. In July, she attended Archie's christening at the private chapel at Windsor Castle. Her granddaughter, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on June 4, 2021 in Santa Barbara, California.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Though some have mistakenly credited Johnson for starting the riots, Johnson was always forthcoming about having not been present when the riots began.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera. Johnson was also a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene, modeling for Andy Warhol, and performing onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches. Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street" due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992. Initially (and quickly) ruled a suicide by the NYPD, controversy and protest followed, eventually leading to a re-opening of the case as a possible homicide.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Michaels' father, Malcolm Michaels Sr., was an assembly line worker at General Motors, while Michaels' mother, Alberta Claiborne, was a housekeeper. Michaels and their six siblings were raised in the Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church. Commenting on this upbringing, Johnson said, "I got married to Jesus Christ when I was sixteen years old, still in high school."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson first began wearing dresses at the age of five but stopped temporarily due to harassment by boys who lived nearby. In a 1992 interview, Johnson described being the young victim of rape by a thirteen-year-old boy. After this, Johnson described the idea of being gay as "some sort of dream", rather than something that seemed possible, and so chose to remain sexually inactive until leaving for New York City at 17. Johnson's mother reportedly said that being homosexual is like being "lower than a dog", but Johnson said that Alberta was unaware of the LGBT community. Johnson's mother also encouraged her child to find a "billionaire" boyfriend or husband to take care of (Johnson) for life, a goal Johnson often talked about.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: After graduating from Edison High School (now the Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy) in Elizabeth in 1963, Johnson left home for New York City with $15 and a bag of clothes. Johnson waited tables after moving to Greenwich Village in 1966. After Johnson began hanging out with the street hustlers near the Howard Johnson's at 6th Avenue and 8th Street, their life changed. Johnson came out and said "my life has been built around sex and gay liberation, being a drag queen" and sex work.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha" but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting "Johnson" from the restaurant Howard Johnson's on 42nd Street, stating that the "P" stood for "pay it no mind" and used the phrase sarcastically when questioned about gender, saying "it stands for 'pay it no mind'". Johnson said the phrase once to a judge, who was amused by it, leading to Johnson's release. Johnson variably identified as gay, as a transvestite, and as a queen (referring to drag queen or "street queen"). According to Susan Stryker, a professor of human gender and sexuality studies at the University of Arizona, Johnson's gender expression could perhaps most accurately be called "gender non-conforming"; Johnson never self-identified with the term "transgender", but the term was also not in broad use while Johnson was alive.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: The definitions used by Rivera and Johnson were not always the same as those documented in the more mainstream literature of the era. For instance, Rivera insisted on claiming "transvestite" solely for use by gay people, writing in the essay "Transvestites: Your Half Sisters and Half Brothers of the Revolution", "Transvestites are homosexual men and women who dress in clothes of the opposite sex." In an interview with Allen Young, in 1972's, "Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation", Johnson discussed being a "Street Transvestite Action Revolutionary", saying, "A transvestite is still like a boy, very manly looking, a feminine boy." Johnson distinguishes this from "transsexual", defining transsexuals as those who are on hormones and getting surgery. Also discussed are Johnson's experiences of the dangers of working as a street prostitute in drag, and Johnson's husband who was murdered. Johnson and Rivera's interviews and writings in this era also at times used terminology in ways that were sarcastic and camp, other times serious, or all of the above at once.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson's style of drag was not serious ("high drag" or "show drag") due to being unable to afford to purchase clothing from expensive stores. Johnson received leftover flowers after sleeping under tables used for sorting flowers in the Flower District of Manhattan, and was known for wearing crowns of fresh flowers. Johnson was tall, slender and often dressed in flowing robes and shiny dresses, red plastic high heels and bright wigs, which tended to draw attention. As Edmund White writes in his 1979 "Village Voice" article, "The Politics of Drag", Johnson also liked dressing in ways that would display "the interstice between masculine and feminine". A feature photo of Johnson in this article shows Johnson in a flowing wig and makeup, and a translucent shirt, pants and parka – highlighting the ways that, quoting Kate Millett's "Sexual Politics", White says, "she is both masculine and feminine at once."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: There is some existing footage of Johnson doing full, glamorous, "high drag" on stage, but most of Johnson's performance work was with groups that were more grassroots, comedic, and political. Johnson sang and performed as a member of J. Camicias' international, NYC-based, drag performance troupe, Hot Peaches, from 1972 through to shows in the 1990s. When The Cockettes, a similar drag troupe from San Francisco, formed an East Coast troupe, The Angels of Light, Johnson was also asked to perform with them. In 1973, Johnson performed the role of "The Gypsy Queen" in the Angels' production, "The Enchanted Miracle", about the Comet Kohoutek. In 1975, Johnson was photographed by famed artist Andy Warhol, as part of a "Ladies and Gentlemen" series of Polaroids. In 1990, Johnson performed with The Hot Peaches in London. Johnson, who was also HIV positive, became an AIDS activist and appeared in The Hot Peaches production "The Heat" in 1990, singing the song "Love" while wearing an ACT UP, "Silence = Death" button.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: While the photos of Johnson in dramatic, femme ensembles are the most well-known, there are also photos and film footage of Johnson dressed down in more daily wear of jeans and a flannel shirt and cap, or in shorts and a tank top, and no wig, such as at the Christopher Street Liberation March in 1979, or singing with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus at an AIDS memorial in the 1980s, or marching in a protest in Greenwich Village in 1992.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Though generally regarded as "generous and warmhearted" and "saintly" under the Marsha persona, Johnson's angry, violent side could sometimes emerge when Johnson was depressed or under severe stress. Some felt that it was more common for this to happen under Johnson's "male persona as Malcolm". During those moments when Johnson's violent side emerged, according to an acquaintance Robert Heide, Johnson could be aggressive and short-tempered and speak in a deeper voice and, as Malcolm, would "become a very nasty, vicious man, looking for fights". This dual personality of Johnson's has been described as "a schizophrenic personality at work". When this happened, Johnson would often get in fights and wind up hospitalized and sedated, and friends would have to organize and raise money to bail Johnson out of jail or try to secure release from places like Bellevue. In the 1979 "Village Voice" article, "The Drag of Politics", by Steven Watson, and further elaborated upon by Stonewall historian Carter, it had perhaps been for this reason that other activists had been reluctant at first to credit Johnson for helping to spark the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s. Watson also reported that Johnson's saintly personality was "volatile" and listed a roster of gay bars from which Johnson had been banned.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson was one of the first drag queens to go to the Stonewall Inn, after they began allowing women and drag queens inside; it was previously a bar for only gay men. On the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall uprising occurred. While the first two nights of rioting were the most intense, the clashes with police would result in a series of spontaneous demonstrations and marches through the gay neighborhoods of Greenwich Village for roughly a week afterwards.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson has been named, along with Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona, by a number of the Stonewall veterans interviewed by David Carter in his book, "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution", as being "three individuals known to have been in the vanguard" of the pushback against the police at the uprising. Johnson denied starting the uprising. In 1987, Johnson recalled arriving at around "2:00 [that morning]", that "the riots had already started" by that time and that the Stonewall building "was on fire" after police set it on fire. The riots reportedly started at around 1:20 that morning after Stormé DeLarverie fought back against the police officer who attempted to arrest her that night.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Carter writes that Robin Souza had reported that fellow Stonewall veterans and gay activists such as Morty Manford and Marty Robinson had told Souza that on the first night, Johnson "threw a shot glass at a mirror in the torched bar screaming, 'I got my civil rights'". Souza told the Gay Activists Alliance shortly afterwards that it "was the shot glass that was heard around the world". Carter, however, concluded that Robinson had given several different accounts of the night and in none of the accounts was Johnson's name brought up, possibly in fear that if he publicly credited the uprising to Johnson, then Johnson's well-known mental state and gender nonconforming, "could have been used effectively by the movement's opponents". The alleged "shot glass" incident has also been heavily disputed. Prior to Carter's book, it was claimed Johnson had "thrown a brick" at a police officer, an account that was never verified. Johnson also confirmed not being present at the Stonewall Inn when the rioting broke out, but instead had heard about it and went to get Sylvia Rivera who was at a park uptown sleeping on a bench to tell her about it. However, many have corroborated that on the second night, Johnson climbed up a lamppost and dropped a bag with a brick in it down on a police car, shattering the windshield.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Following the Stonewall uprising, Johnson joined the Gay Liberation Front and was active in the GLF Drag Queen Caucus. On the first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, on June 28, 1970, Johnson marched in the first Gay Pride rally, then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day. One of Johnson's most notable direct actions occurred in August 1970, staging a sit-in protest at Weinstein Hall at New York University alongside fellow GLF members after administrators canceled a dance when they found out was sponsored by gay organizations. Shortly after that, Johnson and close friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) organization (initially titled "Street Transvestites Actual Revolutionaries"). The two of them became a visible presence at gay liberation marches and other radical political actions. In 1973, Johnson and Rivera were banned from participating in the gay pride parade by the gay and lesbian committee who were administering the event stating they "weren't gonna allow drag queens" at their marches claiming they were "giving them a bad name". Their response was to march defiantly ahead of the parade. During a gay rights rally at New York City Hall in the early '70s, photographed by Diana Davies, a reporter asked Johnson why the group was demonstrating, Johnson shouted into the microphone, "Darling, I want my gay rights now!"


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: During another incident around this time Johnson was confronted by police officers for hustling in New York. When the officers attempted to perform an arrest, Johnson hit them with a handbag, which contained two bricks. When asked by the judge for an explanation for hustling, Johnson claimed to be trying to secure enough money for a tombstone for Johnson's husband. During a time when same-sex marriage was illegal in the United States, the judge asked what "happened to this alleged husband", Johnson responded, "Pig shot him". Initially sentenced to 90 days in prison for the assault, Johnson's lawyer eventually convinced the judge to that Bellevue Hospital would be more suitable.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: With Rivera, Johnson established STAR House, a shelter for homeless gay and trans youth in 1970, and paid the rent for it with money they made themselves as sex workers. While the House was not focused on performance, Johnson was a "drag mother" of STAR House, in the longstanding tradition of "Houses" as chosen family in the Black and Latino LGBT community. Johnson worked to provide food, clothing, emotional support and a sense of family for the young drag queens, trans women, gender nonconformists and other gay street kids living on the Christopher Street docks or in their house on the Lower East Side of New York. While the original location of STAR House was evicted in 1971 and the building was destroyed, the household existed in different configurations and at different locations over the years.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: By 1966, Johnson lived on the streets and engaged in survival sex. In connection with sex work, Johnson claimed to have been arrested over 100 times, and was also shot once, in the late 1970s. Johnson spoke of first having a mental breakdown in 1970. According to Bob Kohler, Johnson would walk naked up Christopher Street and be taken away for two or three months to be treated with chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic medication. Upon returning, the medication would wear off over the course of one month and Johnson would then return to normal.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Between 1980 and Johnson's death in 1992, Johnson lived with a friend, Randy Wicker, who had invited Johnson to stay the night one time when it was "very cold out—about 10 degrees [Fahrenheit]" (), and Marsha had just never left. When Wicker's lover, David, became terminally ill with AIDS, Johnson became his caregiver. After visiting David and other friends with the virus in the hospital during the AIDS pandemic, Johnson, who was also HIV-positive, became committed to sitting with the sick and dying, as well as doing street activism with AIDS activist groups including ACT UP.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: In David France's documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Johnson is seen participating in a 1980s memorial service and action for those who've died of AIDS, along with members of the Gay Men's Health Crisis. In 1992, gay bashing was epidemic in New York. According to Matt Foreman, former director of the Anti-Violence Project, "Anti-LGBT violence was at a peak. That year we had 1,300 reports of bias crime. ... and 18% of those were based on violence perpetrated by police." It was an "unrelenting wave of attacks." In response, marches were organized, and Johnson was one of the activists who marched in the streets, demanding justice. Only weeks later, Johnson would also turn up dead under similar circumstances.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: In 1992, George Segal's sculpture, "Gay Liberation" was moved to Christopher Park as part of the new Gay Liberation Monument. Johnson commented, "How many people have died for these two little statues to be put in the park to recognize gay people? How many years does it take for people to see that we're all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race? I mean how many years does it take for people to see that we're all in this rat race together."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson remained devoutly religious in later life, often lighting candles and praying at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hoboken, saying in 1992: "I practice the Catholic religion because the Catholic religion is part of the Santería of the saints, which says that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson would also make offerings to the saints and spirits in a more personal manner, keeping a private altar at home when possible. As friend James Gallagher related in the "Pay it No Mind" documentary interviews, "Marsha would always say she went to the Greek Church, she went to the Catholic Church, she went to the Baptist Church, she went to the Jewish Temple - she said she was covering all angles." In the summer of 1991, Johnson participated in the interfaith AIDS memorial service at the Church of Saint Veronica in Greenwich Village. When asked about religion in the last interview, Johnson said "I use Jesus Christ the most in my prayers, most of the time." A neighbor also said Johnson would pray, prostrate on the floor in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church across from Randy Wicker's apartment (where Johnson lived in later years). Johnson's friend Sasha McCaffrey added, "I would find her in the strangest churches. She'd be wearing velvet and throwing glitter."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson expressed a relationship with the Divine that was direct and personal, saying in the last interview (June 1992), about leaving home in 1963, "I got the Lord on my side, and I took him to my heart with me and I came to the city, for better or worse. And he said, 'You know, you might wind up with nothing.' 'Cause you know, me and Jesus is always talking. And I said, Honey, I don't care if I never have nothing ever till the day I die. All I want is my freedom." "I believe [Jesus is] the only man I can truly trust. He's like the spirit that follows me around, you know, and helps me out in my hour of need."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: In "Pay it No Mind" friends Bob Kohler and Agosto Machado talk about Johnson's relationship with Neptune. Kohler tells a story of sunbathing at the Christopher Street Piers in the West Village when Johnson, naked, began grabbing at Kohler's shirt, shouting, "My father needs those clothes!" Johnson succeeded in pulling Kohler's shirt off and throwing it into the Hudson River. "These were sacrifices to her father, and to Neptune, who got all mixed up together," explains Kohler. Agosto Machado continues, "She was making offerings of flowers and change to King Neptune as an appeasement to help her friends who are on the other side."


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Near the time of Johnson's death in 1992, Randy Wicker said Johnson was increasingly sick and in a fragile state. However, none of Johnson's friends or relatives believed Johnson was suicidal.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Shortly after the 1992 Gay pride parade, Johnson's body was discovered floating in the Hudson River. Police initially ruled the death a suicide, but Johnson's friends and other members of the local community insisted Johnson was not suicidal and noted that the back of Johnson's head had a massive wound.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson's suspicious death occurred during a time when anti-LGBT violence was at a peak in New York City, including bias crime by police. Johnson was one of the activists who had been drawing attention to this epidemic of violence against the community, participating in marches and other activism to demand justice for victims, and an inquiry into how to stop the violence. Johnson had been speaking out against the "dirty cops" and elements of organized crime that many believed responsible for some of these assaults and murders, and had even voiced the concern that some of what Randy Wicker was stirring up, and pulling Johnson into, "could get you murdered." This added to the suspicions of foul play and possible murder.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Johnson's body was cremated and, following a funeral at a local church, and a march down Seventh Avenue, friends released Johnson's ashes over the Hudson River, off the Christopher Street Piers. Police allowed Seventh Avenue to be closed while Johnson's ashes were carried to the river. After the funeral, a series of demonstrations and marches to the police precinct took place, to demand justice for Johnson.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: According to Sylvia Rivera, their friend Bob Kohler believed Johnson had committed suicide due to an ever-increasing fragile state, which Rivera herself disputed, claiming she and Johnson had "made a pact" to "cross the 'River Jordan' (aka Hudson River) together". Those who were close to Johnson considered the death suspicious; many claimed that while Johnson did struggle mentally, this did not manifest itself as suicidal ideation. Randy Wicker later said that Johnson may have hallucinated and walked into the river, or may have jumped into the river to escape harassers, but stated that Johnson was never suicidal.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Several people came forward to say they had seen Johnson harassed by a group of "thugs" who had also robbed people. According to Wicker, a witness saw a neighborhood resident fighting with Johnson on July 4, 1992. During the fight he used a homophobic slur, and later bragged to someone at a bar that he had killed a drag queen named Marsha. The witness said that when he tried to tell police what he had seen his story was ignored. Other locals stated later that law enforcement was not interested in investigating Johnson's death, stating that the case was about a "gay black man" and wanting little to do with it at the time.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: In December 2002, a police investigation resulted in reclassification of Johnson's cause of death from "suicide" to "undetermined".


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: Former New York politician Tom Duane fought to reopen the case, because "Usually when there is a death by suicide the person usually leaves a note. She didn't leave a note." In November 2012, activist Mariah Lopez succeeded in getting the New York police department to reopen the case as a possible homicide.


title: Marsha P. Johnson

text: In 2016, Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project also tried to get Johnson's case reopened, and succeeded in gaining access to previously unreleased documents and witness statements. She sought out new interviews with witnesses, friends, other activists, and police who had worked the case or had been on the force at the time of Johnson's death. Some of her work to find justice for Johnson was filmed by David France for the 2017 documentary "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson".


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three months after the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed due to the resignation of the First Minister, Paul Givan (DUP), in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: In the sixth assembly, elected in 2017, eight parties had Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs): the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), latterly led by Jeffrey Donaldson; Sinn Féin, led by Michelle O'Neill; the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), latterly led by Doug Beattie; the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), led by Colum Eastwood; Alliance, led by Naomi Long; the Greens, led by Clare Bailey; People Before Profit (PBP), who have a collective leadership; and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), led by Jim Allister.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Sinn Féin became the largest party, marking the first time an Irish nationalist/republican party won the most seats in an assembly election in Northern Ireland, and has the right to nominate Northern Ireland's first nationalist First Minister. The DUP's vote share dropped almost 7% and it lost three seats; despite this, unionists won two more seats than nationalists—37 seats to 35—and a marginally higher share of the vote. Alliance also made large gains, overtaking the UUP and the SDLP to become the third-largest party in the Assembly. The Greens lost both seats they held before the election and were unrepresented in the Assembly for the first time since 2003.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: As Northern Ireland's government is based on power-sharing, the DUP (as the largest unionist party) must nominate a deputy First Minister for the Executive to be formed; however, they said they will not do so until their issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol are dealt with.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: In May 2013, Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that the next Assembly election would be postponed to May 2016, and would be held at fixed intervals of five years thereafter. Section 7 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 specifies that elections will be held on the first Thursday in May on the fifth calendar year following that in which its predecessor was elected, which would be 5 May 2022; however, there are several circumstances in which the Assembly can be dissolved before the date scheduled by virtue of section 31(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union, although Northern Ireland voted to remain. The process of withdrawal held particular uncertainty for Northern Ireland due to the potential for customs on the UK–Ireland border. Meanwhile, an early election was held to the Northern Ireland Assembly in March 2017. After the election, Sinn Féin stated that it would not return to a power-sharing arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party without significant changes in the party's approach, including Arlene Foster not becoming First Minister until an investigation into the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal was complete. Over the next few years, the deadline to form an executive was repeatedly extended as negotiations continued with no success.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: On 18 April 2017, Theresa May, Prime Minister of the UK, called for a general election to be held on 8 June 2017. The Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority and sought a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP to remain in government. The DUP and the Conservatives reached an agreement on 26 June.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: In 2019, the UK experienced significant political turbulence over the question of how to proceed with Brexit. The European Parliament election in May 2019 saw the Alliance Party take the third MEP place from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). DUP support for the Conservative government broke down with disagreements over the government's Brexit plans. The Conservative government sought a new election, held in December 2019, which they won with a large majority. In Northern Ireland, for the first time, traditional Irish nationalist parties won more seats than traditional unionist parties. The SDLP and Alliance returned to the House of Commons, while the DUP and Sinn Féin saw vote share declines of more than 5%.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: A DUP/Sinn Féin executive was re-established on 10 January 2020 with the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) agreement, forestalling an immediate new election. By the end of February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Northern Ireland.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: On 15 January 2022, the UK government was accused of interfering in the election by reintroducing dual mandates, which had been abolished in 2016. This would enable MPs like Donaldson to have seats in Stormont as well as Westminster, but plans were withdrawn four days later.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: On 28 April 2021, Arlene Foster announced that she would be resigning as DUP leader on 28 May and First Minister in June 2021 after more than 20 DUP MLAs and four DUP MPs signed a letter "...voicing no confidence in her leadership". Edwin Poots narrowly won the subsequent May 2021 DUP leadership election, but announced his resignation 21 days later. The runner-up in the election, Jeffrey Donaldson, stood unopposed in the June 2021 DUP leadership election and with no other candidates the party chose not to hold a ballot (some parties still do a leadership vote or ballot with one candidate with the other option to re-open nominations). Donaldson was ratified as the party's leader on 30 June 2021. Meanwhile, after Poots elected not to replace Foster as First Minister, Paul Givan took up the position on 17 June 2021.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Steve Aiken announced his resignation as leader of the UUP on 8 May 2021, with Doug Beattie taking up the post nine days later after standing unopposed.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Northern Ireland Protocol is a protocol to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that governs the unique customs and immigration issues at the border in the island of Ireland between the United Kingdom and the European Union, and on some aspects of trade in goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Its terms were negotiated in 2019 and agreed and concluded in December 2020. Due to a thirty-year internecine conflict in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles, the UK–Ireland border has had a special status since that conflict was ended by the Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement of 1998. As part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process, the border has been largely invisible, without any physical barrier or customs checks on its many crossing points; this arrangement was made possible by both countries' common membership of both the European Single Market and EU Customs Union, and of their Common Travel Area.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The DUP threatened to pull out of Stormont's power-sharing government on 9 September 2021, triggering a snap election "within weeks" unless the protocol was scrapped. Donaldson warned: "I say not as a threat but as a matter of political reality that our political institutions will not survive a failure to resolve the problems the Protocol has created." The following week, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood accused the DUP of having a "petulant strop" and called for a new law to stop an early election. He told peers that the "delicate constitutional balance" in Northern Ireland was "too fragile for people to play games with".


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: On 3 February 2022, Givan resigned as First Minister in protest over the protocol, which automatically resulted in the Deputy First Minister losing her role and the Northern Ireland Executive collapsing. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the UK government would "reform" the protocol if the EU did not, whilst it was also reported that Westminster was planning legislation that would give ministers powers to abolish the protocol altogether. During a rally in Ballymena on 30 April, TUV leader Jim Allister said that the Executive would not be returning unless the protocol was removed.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Following the collapse of the Assembly, Sinn Féin and the DUP both called for the election to be brought forward, but the UUP, SDLP and Alliance Party opposed the idea. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis ruled out an early election, saying that the priority was to get the Assembly up and running again. Two weeks later, however, Lewis claimed there was "a real risk" that the Executive would not return after the election.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Prior to the election, parties, commentators and the media had noted the possibility of a nationalist party, Sinn Féin, topping the poll for the first time. In such a case, under the St Andrews Agreement of 2006, Sinn Féin would have the right to nominate the First Minister regardless of whether the Unionist bloc was larger or not. The high polling of the non-sectarian Alliance Party also presented a challenge to the consociational nature of the Assembly; were they to become the second largest party in the Assembly, it would be unlikely that they would have the right to nominate a deputy First Minister, as the right of nomination is reserved to the largest party of the largest designation which did not nominate the First Minister.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: A total of 239 candidates contested the 90 available seats in the Assembly, an increase from 228 in 2016. Eighty-seven women ran as candidates in the election, which is the highest number in history. The seats were spread over 18 constituencies, with each constituency having five seats. The election was conducted using the single transferable vote system.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Sinn Féin campaign avoided talk of a united Ireland, instead focusing on "bread and butter" issues. Sinn Féin called for a £230 payment to help people with the cost of living. A threat to destroy a Sinn Féin billboard was reported to the police. The Social Democratic and Labour Party's campaign had reportedly been difficult. Candidate Elsie Trainor was attacked by youths in Belfast who also hurled sectarian abuse. Leader Colum Eastwood urged tactical voting. Aontú was the only Irish nationalist party to campaign on an anti-abortion platform.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Democratic Unionist Party campaign focused on their opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sinn Féin and the prospect of a referendum on Irish unity. The Traditional Unionist Voice said that opposing the Northern Ireland Protocol is "top priority". They received a number of defections from the DUP. In contrast to the DUP, the Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said a united Ireland would not happen in his or his children's lifetime, thus "we can set it aside in order to concentrate on the issues affecting the daily lives of our people who live here". All three unionist leaders attended a series of rallies against the Protocol. In March, Beattie announced he would continue to oppose the Protocol but would no longer take part in the rallies. Beattie said they had been hijacked by loyalists to raise tensions "that now see a resurgence in UVF activity". Following this, his constituency office in Portadown was attacked, and an election poster with a noose around his neck appeared at a loyalist rally in Lurgan.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Alliance Party advocated reform of the Stormont institutions to remove the designation system and avoid a "cycle of collapse". It also advocated health reform and the introduction of a child payment scheme to support people with the cost of living. The party further promised to build Casement Park, positioned itself as the "centre ground" and campaigned in constituencies west of the River Bann, where they have never won any seats.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Green Party pledged the establishment of a bill of rights, an independent Environmental Protection Agency, and rent controls. The People Before Profit manifesto was launched on 22 April. In it, they promised a £1,000 to help with cost of living. On 30 April, PBP candidate Hannah Kenny was attacked by three men in East Belfast, who also subjected her to "sectarian and misogynistic" abuse.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: On 13 April, it was reported that the Police Service of Northern Ireland had been notified of 41 political poster incidents.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Votes were counted on 6 and 7 May. Sinn Féin became the largest party, marking the first time an Irish nationalist/republican party had won the most seats in an election in Northern Ireland, and has the right to nominate Northern Ireland's first nationalist First Minister. As Northern Ireland's government is based on power-sharing, the DUP (as second-largest party) must nominate a deputy First Minister for the Executive to be formed; however, they said they will not do so until their issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol are dealt with.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The DUP's vote share dropped almost 7% and lost three seats; despite this, unionists won two more seats than nationalists—37 seats to 35—and a marginally higher share of the vote. This being said, socialist party People Before Profit—who returned one candidate to the Assembly—favour a united socialist Ireland, though they officially designated themselves as Socialist, rather than Nationalist or Unionist, on the electoral register. Indeed, both nationalist parties (4) and unionist parties (3) lost seats overall to 'Others', who gained 7 seats for their highest ever proportion of seats in the assembly, 18 seats, or 20% of those available, despite both Green candidates losing their seat. Unionist parties lost greater combined vote share, losing just over 2.5% of the total vote, whereas nationalist parties (including newcomers Aontú) lost only around 0.5% of vote share combined.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Alliance achieved their highest ever first-preference vote share in an Assembly election, becoming the third-largest party in the Assembly and adding over 50% to their vote share, going from 9% to over 13.5%. They overtook the UUP (who lost one seat) and the SDLP (who lost four), who both received their lowest ever vote shares. The TUV also achieved their highest vote share, tripling their share and up 5% from the last election, but they did not win any more seats. The Greens lost both seats they held before the election and were shut out of the Assembly for the first time since 2003. Alex Easton, who left the DUP in 2021, was re-elected as an independent unionist, as was the returning former Justice Minister, Claire Sugden. Colum Eastwood believed SDLP voters gave their support to Sinn Féin in this election, saying "there's a tide there and people wanted to send a message, they wanted to kick the DUP and I think this is how they decided to do it".


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Party affiliation of the five Assembly members returned by each constituency. The first column indicates the party of the Member of the House of Commons (MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the 2019 United Kingdom general election under the first-past-the-post voting method.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Percentage of each constituency's first-preference votes. Absolute majorities are in bold. The constituencies are arranged in the geographic order described for the table above; click the icon next to "Constituency" to see them in alphabetical order.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The totals given here are the sum of all valid ballots cast in each constituency, and the percentages are based on such totals. The turnout percentages in the last column, however, are based upon all ballots cast, which also include anything from twenty to a thousand invalid ballots in each constituency. The total valid ballots' percentage of the eligible electorate can correspondingly differ by 0.1% to 2% from the turnout percentage.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: All constituencies were five-seat constituencies, with members elected under the Single transferable vote system. The quota in each constituency was therefore approximately 16.67% of the vote in the constituency. However, in come cases, despite a party gaining more than that share of the vote, imperfect transfer discipline between candidates meant that a seat was not automatically gained.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: Shortly before the final results were announced, O'Neill said: "Today ushers in a new era. Irrespective of religious, political or social backgrounds, my commitment is to make politics work." Donaldson stated that the Executive would not sit unless the Northern Ireland Protocol was removed. He later announced that he would not take his Assembly seat, which was co-opted by Emma Little-Pengelly, and the DUP would not be nominating a Speaker until the UK government took "decisive action".


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The SDLP responded by accusing the DUP of treating voters with contempt and "mak[ing] our electoral process look like a bad joke". Naomi Long, leader of Alliance, said DUP Assembly Members should not be allowed to claim their salary while they prevented the Assembly from functioning. These disagreements continued a political crisis from before the election, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to visit Northern Ireland to discuss amendments to the Protocol.


title: 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election

text: The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refused to resume power sharing due to its stance on the protocol. As of October 2022, it was reported that this would potentially lead to an early Northern Ireland Assembly election.


title: John Woo

text: John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun fu genre in Hong Kong action cinema, before working in Hollywood films. He is known for his highly chaotic "bullet ballet" action sequences, stylized imagery, Mexican standoffs, frequent use of slow motion and allusions to "wuxia", film noir and Western cinema.


title: John Woo

text: Considered one of the major figures of Hong Kong cinema, Woo has directed several notable action films including "A Better Tomorrow" (1986), "The Killer" (1989), "Hard Boiled" (1992) and "Red Cliff" (2008/2009). His Hollywood films include "Hard Target" (1993), "Broken Arrow" (1996), "Face/Off" (1997) and "" (2000). He also created the comic series "Seven Brothers", published by Virgin Comics. He is the founder and chairman of the production company Lion Rock Productions.


title: John Woo

text: Woo is a winner of the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing, as well as a Golden Horse Award, an Asia Pacific Screen Award and a Saturn Award.


title: John Woo

text: Woo was born as Wu Yu-seng (Ng Yu-sum in Cantonese) on September 22, 1946 in Guangzhou, China, amidst the chaotic Chinese Civil War. Due to school age restrictions, his mother changed his birth date to 22 September 1948, which is what remains on his passport. The Woo family, who were Protestant Christians, faced persecution during Mao Zedong's early anti-bourgeois purges after the communist revolution in China, and fled to Hong Kong when he was five.


title: John Woo

text: Impoverished, the Woo family lived in the slums at Shek Kip Mei. His father was a teacher, though rendered unable to work by tuberculosis, and his mother was a manual laborer on construction sites. The family was rendered homeless by the Shek Kip Mei Fire of 1953. Charitable donations from disaster relief efforts enabled the family to relocate; however, violent crime had by then become commonplace in Hong Kong housing projects. At age three he was diagnosed with a serious medical condition. Following surgery on his spine, he was unable to walk correctly until eight years old, and as a result his right leg is shorter than his left leg.


title: John Woo

text: His Christian upbringing shows influences in his films. As a young boy, Woo had wanted to be a Christian minister. He later found a passion for movies influenced by the French New Wave especially Jean-Pierre Melville. Woo has said he was shy and had difficulty speaking, but found making movies a way to explore his feelings and thinking and would "use movies as a language".


title: John Woo

text: Woo found respite in Bob Dylan and in American Westerns. He has stated the final scene of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" made a particular impression on him in his youth: the device of two comrades, each of whom fire pistols from each hand, is a recurrent spectacle later found in his own work.


title: John Woo

text: In 1969, Woo was hired as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. In 1971, he became an assistant director at Shaw Studios. The same year, he watched Bruce Lee's "The Big Boss", which left a strong impression on him due to how different it was from earlier martial arts films. Lee's films inspired to direct his own action films. His directorial debut in 1974 was the feature film "The Young Dragons" (鐵漢柔情, "Tiě hàn róu qíng"). In the kung fu film genre, it was choreographed by Jackie Chan, and featured dynamic camera-work and elaborate action scenes. The film was picked up by Golden Harvest Studio where he went on to direct more martial arts films. He later had success as a comedy director with "Money Crazy" (發錢寒, "Fā qián hàn") (1977), starring Hong Kong comedian Ricky Hui and Richard Ng.


title: John Woo

text: By the mid-1980s, Woo was experiencing occupational burnout. Several of his films were commercial disappointments, and he felt a distinct lack of creative control. It was during this period of self-imposed exile that director/producer Tsui Hark provided the funding for Woo to film a longtime pet project, "A Better Tomorrow" (1986). The story of two brothers—one a law enforcement officer, the other a criminal—was a financial blockbuster. "A Better Tomorrow" became a defining achievement in Hong Kong action cinema for its combination of emotional drama, slow-motion gunplay, and gritty atmospherics. Its signature visual device of two-handed, two-gunned shootouts within confined quarters—often referred to as "gun fu"—was novel, and its diametrical inversion of the "good-guys-bad guys" formula in its characterization would influence later American films.


title: John Woo

text: Woo would make several more Heroic Bloodshed films in the late 1980s and early 1990s, nearly all starring Chow Yun-Fat. These violent gangster thrillers typically focus on men bound by honor and loyalty, at odds with contemporary values of impermanence and expediency. The protagonists of these films, therefore, may be said to present a common lineage with the Chinese literary tradition of loyalty among generals depicted in classics such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (三國演義).


title: John Woo

text: Woo gained international recognition with the release of "The Killer", which became the most successful Hong Kong film in America since Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (1973) and garnered Woo an American cult following. "Bullet in the Head" followed a year later, but failed to find an audience that accepted its political undertones, and failed to recoup its massive budget.


title: John Woo

text: His last Hong Kong film before emigrating to the United States was "Hard Boiled" (1992), a police thriller that served as the antithesis of his previous glorification of gangsters. Most notable of its numerous action scenes is a 30-minute climax set within a hospital. One particular long take follows two characters for exactly 2 minutes and 42 seconds as they fight their way between hospital floors. On the Criterion DVD and laserdisc, this chapter is referenced as "2 minutes, 42 seconds." The film was considerably darker than most of Woo's previous films, depicting a police force nearly helpless to stop the influx of gangsters in the city, and the senseless slaughter of innocents. As a result, it did not match the success of his other films, but nonetheless garnered positive critical reception and became one of his most popular films in later years.


title: John Woo

text: "John Woo: Interviews" includes a 36-page interview with Woo by editor Robert K. Elder, which documents the years 1968 to 1990. It includes Woo's early career in working on comedies, his work on kung fu films (during which time he gave Jackie Chan one of his first major film roles), and more recently, his gunpowder morality plays in Hong Kong.


title: John Woo

text: An émigré in 1993, the director experienced difficulty in cultural adjustment while contracted with Universal Studios to direct Jean-Claude Van Damme in "Hard Target". Like other foreign national film directors confronted with the Hollywood environment, Woo was unaccustomed to pervasive management concerns over matters such as limitations on violence and completion schedules. When initial cuts failed to yield an "R" rated film, the studio assumed control of the project and edited footage to produce a cut "suitable for American audiences". A "rough cut" of the film, supposedly the original unrated version, is still circulated among his admirers.


title: John Woo

text: A three-year hiatus saw Woo next direct John Travolta and Christian Slater in "Broken Arrow." A frenetic chase-themed film, the director once again found himself hampered by studio management and editorial concerns. Despite a larger budget than his previous "Hard Target," the final feature lacked the trademark Woo style. Public reception saw modest financial success.


title: John Woo

text: Reluctant to pursue projects which would necessarily entail front-office controls, the director cautiously rejected the script for "Face/Off" several times until it was rewritten to suit him. (The futuristic setting was changed to a contemporary one.) Paramount Pictures also offered the director significantly more freedom to exercise his speciality: emotional characterisation and elaborate action. A complex story of adversaries—each of whom surgically alters their identity—law enforcement agent John Travolta and terrorist Nicolas Cage play a cat-and-mouse game, trapped in each other's outward appearance. "Face/Off" opened in 1997 to critical acclaim and strong attendance. Grosses in the United States exceeded $100 million. "Face/Off" was also nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger) at the 70th Academy Awards.


title: John Woo

text: In 2003, Woo directed a television pilot entitled "The Robinsons: Lost in Space" for The WB Television Network, based on the 1960s television series "Lost in Space". The pilot was not purchased, although bootleg copies have been made available by fans.


title: John Woo

text: John Woo has made three additional films in Hollywood: "", "Windtalkers" and "Paycheck". "Mission: Impossible 2" was the highest-grossing film in America in 2000 despite its receiving mixed reviews. "Windtalkers" and "Paycheck" fared poorly at the box office and were summarily dismissed by critics. Woo directed and produced the 2007 video game "Stranglehold", which is a sequel to his 1992 film, "Hard Boiled". The game features Woo as a multiplayer playable character. That same year he produced the anime movie, "", the sequel to Shinji Aramaki's 2004 film "Appleseed".


title: John Woo

text: In 2008, Woo returned to Asian cinema with the completion of the two-part epic war film "Red Cliff", based on a historical battle from "Records of the Three Kingdoms". Produced on a grand scale, it is his first film in China since he emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States in 1993. Part 1 of the film was released throughout Asia in July 2008, to generally favourable reviews and strong attendance. Part 2 was released in China in January 2009.


title: John Woo

text: John Woo was presented with a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.


title: John Woo

text: He followed "Red Cliff" with another two-part film, "The Crossing", in 2014 and 2015. Featuring an all-star cast, the four-hour epic tells the parallel stories of several characters who all ultimately find themselves passengers on the doomed Taiping steamer, which sank in 1949 en route from mainland China to Taiwan and has been described as "China's "Titanic"".


title: John Woo

text: Following the box-office disappointment of "The Crossing", Woo and producer Terence Chang disbanded Lion Rock Productions.


title: John Woo

text: In May 2008, Woo announced in Cannes that his next movie would be "1949", an epic love story set between the end of World War II and Chinese Civil War to the founding of the People's Republic of China, the shooting of which would take place in China and Taiwan. Its production was due to begin by the end of 2008, with a theatrical release planned in December 2009. However, in early April 2009, the film was cancelled due to script right issues. Reports indicated that Woo might be working on another World War II film, this time about the American Volunteer Group, or the Flying Tigers. The movie was tentatively titled "Flying Tiger Heroes" and Woo is reported as saying it will feature "The most spectacular aerial battle scenes ever seen in Chinese cinema." It was not clear whether Woo would not be directing the earlier war film, or whether it was put on the back burner. Woo has stated that Flying Tiger Heroes would be an "extremely important production" and will "emphasise US-Chinese friendship and the contributions of the Flying Tigers and the Yunnan people during the war of resistance." Woo has announced he will be using IMAX cameras to film the "Flying Tigers" project. "It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format, and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today [...] Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience, and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies".


title: John Woo

text: In October 2021, it was announced that Woo will return to Hollywood to direct the action thriller "Silent Night", where a normal father heads into the underworld to avenge his young son’s death. Produced by Basil Iwanyk, the film will star Joel Kinnaman and will be told entirely without dialogue.


title: John Woo

text: Woo has been married to Annie Woo Ngau Chun-lung since 1976. They have two daughters, Kimberley Woo, Angeles Woo, and a son Frank Woo. He is a Christian and told BBC in an interview that he believes in God and has utmost admiration for Jesus, whom he calls a "great philosopher".


title: John Woo

text: He cites his three favorite films as David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samouraï".


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: Originating as a performing troupe called "Les Échassiers" (; "The Stilt Walkers"), they toured Quebec in various forms between 1979 and 1983. Their initial financial hardship was relieved in 1983 by a government grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to perform as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of Jacques Cartier's voyage to Canada. Their first official production "Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil" was a success in 1984, and after securing a second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to recreate it as a "proper circus". Its theatrical, character-driven approach and the absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as the contemporary circus ("nouveau cirque") that it remains today.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: After financial successes and failures in the late 1980s, "Nouvelle Expérience" was created—with the direction of Franco Dragone—which not only made Cirque du Soleil profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: Cirque du Soleil expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, growing from one show to 19 shows in over 300 cities on six continents. The company employed 4,900 people from 50 countries and generated an annual revenue of approximately US$1 billion in 2017. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night, 5% of the city's visitors, adding to the over 100 million people who have seen Cirque du Soleil productions worldwide.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: In 2000, Laliberté bought out Daniel Gauthier, and with 95% ownership continued to expand the brand. In 2008, Laliberté split 20% of his share equally between the investment groups Istithmar World and Nakheel of Dubai in order to further finance the company's goals. In partnership with these two groups, Cirque du Soleil had planned to build a residency show in the United Arab Emirates in 2012 directed by Guy Caron and Michael Curry. However, following Dubai's financial problems in 2010 caused by the 2008 recession, Laliberté stated that the project had been "put on ice"; that he might be looking for another financial partner to bankroll the company's future plans; and that he might even consider giving up another 10% of his share in the company. In 2015, TPG Capital, Fosun Industrial Holdings, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec purchased 90% of Cirque du Soleil while Laliberté retained a 10% stake in the company. The sale received regulatory approval from the Government of Canada on 30 June 2015. In February 2020, Laliberté sold his 10% ownership of the company to Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for $75 million.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: The company's creations have received numerous prizes and distinctions, including three Drama Desk Awards; seven Primetime Emmy Awards; multiple Gemini Awards; a Daytime Emmy Award; a Juno Award; and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, Cirque du Soleil was awarded the National Arts Centre Award, a companion award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, and in 2002 was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: In 1979, after having quit college and learned the art of fire breathing, Guy Laliberté organized a summer fair in Baie-Saint-Paul with the help of Daniel Gauthier and Gilles Ste-Croix. As part of a publicity stunt to convince the Quebec government to help fund this production, Ste-Croix walked the from Baie-Saint-Paul to Quebec City on stilts. This gave them funding for the stilt-walking troupe "Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul", which then toured Quebec the following year in 1980.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: Although well received by audiences and critics alike, "Les Échassiers" was a financial failure. Laliberté spent the following winter in Hawaii while Ste-Croix stayed in Quebec to set up a nonprofit holding company named "The High-Heeled Club" ("Club des Talons Hauts") to mitigate the losses of the previous summer. This allowed "Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul" to break even by fall 1981. The following summer, Laliberté and Ste-Croix founded "La Fête Foraine", a street performance festival that featured circus performances and workshops to teach the circus arts to the public. Laliberté managed and produced the fair for 2 more years, becoming a moderate financial success.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: In 1983, the government of Quebec gave him a $1.6 million grant to host a production the following year as part of Quebec's 450th anniversary celebration of the French explorer Jacques Cartier's arrival in Turtle Island (North America). This became Cirque du Soleil's first production "Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil".


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: The company's first production "Le Grand Tour" performed in Quebec for 13 weeks in summer 1984. Although several issues persisted during the first tour (including a collapsed tent and conflict between artists), it was a financial success. After securing funding from the Canadian government for a second year from the help of Quebec premier René Lévesque, Laliberté hired Guy Caron, head of the National Circus School, as Cirque du Soleil's artistic director. Laliberté and Caron reworked the company's performance style to emulate that of Moscow Circus by having the acts tell a story. Further influences from the Circus of China, Cirque Arlette Gruss, and Circus Roncalli led Cirque du Soleil to approach their shows in a more theatrical fashion with live music and no technical crew on stage. To assist in this shift towards a theatrical production, Laliberté and Caron hired Belgian director Franco Dragone to direct segments of their 1985 production, "Cirque du Soleil".


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: The company's first non-Quebec performances in Ontario in 1985 were unsuccessful, leading to a $750,000 deficit. To allow a 1986 tour to mount, the Desjardins Group covered $200,000 of bad checks, financier Daniel Lamarre represented the company for free, and the Quebec government allotted it an additional year of funding. "La Magie Continue", their 1986 production, proved more artistically successful with the direction of Franco Dragone. This extended to the creation of their 1987 show "Le Cirque Réinventé".


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: In the summer of 1987, Cirque du Soleil was invited to present "Le Cirque Réinventé" at the Los Angeles Arts Festival. Despite only having enough money to make a one-way trip, the company agreed to open for the festival in September of that year. "Le Cirque Réinventé"'s first American performances were an instant critical and financial hit, allowing them make a profit of over $1.5 million by the end of 1987. The show continued to tour Canada and the United States throughout 1988 and 1989, during which time plans for a second touring show named "Éclipse" started being developed. Due to artistic differences with these plans, Guy Caron, along with a number of artists, left the company causing the plans to be shelved. Gilles Ste-Croix, who had been away from the company since 1985, subsequently replaced Caron as artistic director.


title: Cirque du Soleil

text: By the end of 1989, the company once again faced deficit due to internal conflicts amongst the company's leaders as well as from lukewarm reception to their revamped tour of "Le Cirque Réinventé" in the United States. In response to this, Cirque du Soleil took their plans for their previously shelved show "Éclipse" and developed it into "Nouvelle Expérience". Franco Dragone returned as director in addition to a creative team made up of Dominique Lemieux, Michel Crête, René Dupéré, Luc Lafortune, and Debra Brown. "Nouvelle Expérience" premiered on 8 May 1990 in Montreal to critical acclaim, touring North America through the end of 1991 and later residing in Las Vegas in 1992 and 1993. Their following touring shows — "Saltimbanco", "Alegría", "Quidam", and "Dralion" — proved to be equally successful.