title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun said of Egypt, "He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam." While other Islamic regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife, Mamluk Egypt enjoyed prosperity and high culture. In 1384, the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq, made Khaldun professor of the "Qamhiyyah Madrasah" and appointed him as the Grand qadi of the Maliki school of "fiqh" (one of four schools, the Maliki school was widespread primarily in Western Africa). His efforts at reform encountered resistance, however, and within a year, he had to resign his judgeship. Also in 1384, a ship carrying Khaldun's wife and children sank off of Alexandria.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: After his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated on teaching at various Cairo madrasas. At the Mamluk court he fell from favor because during revolts against Barquq, he had, apparently under duress, with other Cairo jurists, issued a fatwa against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq returned to normal, and he was once again named the Maliki "qadi". Altogether, he was called six times to that high office, which, for various reasons, he never held long.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his son Faraj, Ibn Khaldūn took part in a military campaign against the Mongol conqueror, Timur, who besieged Damascus in 1400. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and really wanted to stay in Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left his army to its own devices in Syria and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the city wall by ropes to negotiate with Timur, in a historic series of meetings that he reported extensively in his autobiography. Timur questioned him in detail about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb. At his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long report about it. As he recognized Timur's intentions, he did not hesitate, on his return to Egypt, to compose an equally-extensive report on the history of the Tatars, together with a character study of Timur, sending them to the Merinid rulers in Fez (Maghreb).


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldūn spent the next five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and judge. Meanwhile, he was alleged to have joined an underground party, "Rijal Hawa Rijal", whose reform-oriented ideals attracted the attention of local political authorities. The elderly Ibn Khaldun was placed under arrest. He died on 17 March 1406, one month after his sixth selection for the office of the Maliki "qadi" (Judge).


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Concerning the discipline of sociology, he described the dichotomy of sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the inevitable loss of power that occurs when warriors conquer a city. According to the Arab scholar Sati' al-Husri, the "Muqaddimah" may be read as a sociological work. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept of "'aṣabiyyah", which has been translated as "social cohesion", "group solidarity", or "tribalism". This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Some of Ibn Khaldun's views, particularly those concerning the "Zanj" people of sub-Saharan Africa, have been cited as racist, though they were not uncommon for their time. According to the scholar Abdelmajid Hannoum, Ibn Khaldun's description of the distinctions between Berbers and Arabs were misinterpreted by the translator William McGuckin de Slane, who wrongly inserted a "racial ideology that sets Arabs and Berbers apart and in opposition" into his translation of part of"`Ibar" translated under the title Histoire des Berbères.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization, its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group of barbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Georgetown University Professor Ibrahim Oweiss, an economist and historian, notes that Schumpeter and David Hume both proposed a labor theory of value, though Khaldun did not refer to it as either a labor theory of value or theory.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun also called for the creation of a science to explain society and went on to outline these ideas in his major work, the "Muqaddimah", which states that “Civilization and its well-being, as well as business prosperity, depend on productivity and people’s efforts in all directions in their own interest and profit”.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun diverged from norms that Muslim historians followed and rejected their focus on the credibility of the transmitter and focused instead on the validity of the stories and encouraged critical thinking.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: He argued that poverty was a result of the destruction of morality and human values. He also looked at what factors contribute to wealth, such as consumption, government, and investment. Khaldun also argued that poverty was not necessarily a result of poor financial decision-making but of external consequences and therefore the government should be involved in alleviating poverty. Researchers from Malaysia's Insaniah University College and Indonesia's Tazkia University College of Islamic Economics created a dynamics model based upon Ibn Khaldun's writings to measure poverty in the Muslim nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun also believed that the currency of an Islamic monetary system should have intrinsic value and therefore be made of gold and silver (such as the dirham). He emphasized that the weight and purity of these coins should be strictly followed: the weight of one dinar should be one "mithqal" (the weight of 72 grains of barley, roughly 4.25 grams) and the weight of 7 dinar should be equal to weight of 10 dirhams (7/10 of a "mithqal" or 2.96 grams).


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun's writings regarding the division of labor are often compared to Adam Smith's writings on the topic.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Both Ibn Khaldun and Smith shared the idea that the division of labor is fundamental to economic growth, however, the motivations and context for such division differed between them. For Ibn Khaldun, "asabiyyah" or social solidarity was the underlying motive and context behind the division of labor; for Smith it was self-interest and the market economy.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun's epistemology attempted to reconcile mysticism with theology by dividing science into two different categories, the religious science that regards the sciences of the Qur'an and the non-religious science. He further classified the non-religious sciences into intellectual sciences such as logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, etc. and auxiliary sciences such as language, literature, poetry, etc. He also suggested that possibly more divisions will appear in the future with different societies. He tried to adapt to all possible societies’ cultural behavior and influence in education, economics and politics. Nonetheless, he didn't think that laws were chosen by just one leader or a small group of individual but mostly by the majority of the individuals of a society.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: To Ibn Khaldun, the state was a necessity of human society to restrain injustice within the society, but the state means is force, thus itself an injustice. All societies must have a state governing them in order to establish a society. He attempted to standardize the history of societies by identifying ubiquitous phenomena present in all societies. To him, civilization was a phenomenon that will be present as long as humans exist. He characterized the fulfillment of basic needs as the beginning of civilization. At the beginning, people will look for different ways of increasing productivity of basic needs and expansion will occur. Later the society starts becoming more sedentary and focuses more on crafting, arts and the more refined characteristics. By the end of a society, it will weaken, allowing another small group of individuals to come into control. The conquering group is described as an unsatisfied group within the society itself or a group of desert bandits that constantly attack other weaker or weakened societies.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In the Muqaddimah, his most important work, he discusses an introduction of philosophy to history in a general manner, based on observable patterns within a theoretical framework of known historical events of his time. He described the beginnings, development, cultural trends and the fall of all societies, leading to the rise of a new society which would then follow the same trends in a continuous cycle. Also, he recommended the best political approaches to develop a society according to his knowledge of history. He heavily emphasized that a good society would be one in which a tradition of education is deeply rooted in its culture.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun (1987) introduced the word "asabiya" (solidarity, group feeling, or group consciousness), to explain tribalism. The concept of asabiya has been translated as "social cohesion," "group solidarity," or "tribalism." This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups (Rashed,2017).


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun believed that too much bureaucracy, such as taxes and legislations, would lead to the decline of a society, since it would constrain the development of more specialized labor (increase in scholars and development of different services). He believed that bureaucrats cannot understand the world of commerce and do not possess the same motivation as a businessman.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In his work the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun emphasizes human beings' faculty to think ("fikr") as what determines human behavior and ubiquitous patterns. This faculty is also what inspires human beings to form into a social structure to co-operate in division of labor and organization. According to Zaid Ahmand in "Epistemology and the Human Dimension in Urban Studies", the "fikr" faculty is the supporting pillar for all philosophical aspects of Ibn Khaldun's theory related to human beings’ spiritual, intellectual, physical, social and political tendencies.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Another important concept he emphasizes in his work is the mastery of crafts, habits and skills. This takes place after a society is established and according to Ibn Khaldun the level of achievement of a society can be determined by just analyzing these three concepts. A society in its earliest stages is nomadic and primarily concerned with survival, while a society at a later stage is sedentary, with greater achievement in crafts. A society with a sedentary culture and stable politics would be expected to have greater achievements in crafts and technology.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun also emphasized in his epistemology the important aspect that educational tradition plays to ensure the new generations of a civilization continuously improve in the sciences and develop culture. Ibn Khaldun argued that without the strong establishment of an educational tradition, it would be very difficult for the new generations to maintain the achievements of the earlier generations, let alone improve them.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Another way to distinguish the achievement of a society would be the language of a society, since for him the most important element of a society would not be land, but the language spoken. He was surprised that many non-Arabs were really successful in the Arabic society, had good jobs and were well received by the community. "These people were non-Arab by descent, but they grew up among the Arabs who possessed the habit of Arabic," Ibn Khaldun once recalled, "[b]ecause of this, they were able to master Arabic so well that they cannot be surpassed." He believed that the reason why non-Arabs were accepted as part of Arab society was due to their mastery of the Arabic language.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Advancements in literary works such as poems and prose were another way to distinguish the achievement of a civilization, but Ibn Khaldun believed that whenever the literary facet of a society reaches its highest levels it ceases to indicate societal achievements anymore, but is an embellishment of life. For logical sciences he established knowledge at its highest level as an increase of scholars and the quality of knowledge. For him the highest level of literary productions would be the manifestation of prose, poems and the artistic enrichment of a society.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: From other sources we know of several other works, primarily composed during the time he spent in North Africa and Al-Andalus. His first book, "Lubābu l-Muhassal", a commentary on the Islamic theology of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, was written at the age of 19 under the supervision of his teacher al-Ābilī in Tunis. A work on Sufism, "Shifā'u l-Sā'il", was composed around 1373 in Fes, Morocco. Whilst at the court of Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, Ibn Khaldūn composed a work on logic, "ʻallaqa li-s-Sulṭān".


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun's historical method had very few precedents or followers in his time. While Ibn Khaldun is known to have been a successful lecturer on jurisprudence within religious sciences, only very few of his students were aware of, and influenced by, his Muqaddimah. One such student, Al-Maqrizi, praised the Muqaddimah, although some scholars have found his praise, and that of others, to be generally empty and lacking understanding of Ibn Khaldun's methods.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun also faced primarily criticism from his contemporaries, particularly Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani. These criticisms included accusations of inadequate historical knowledge, an inaccurate title, disorganization, and a style resembling that of the prolific Arab literature writer, Al-Jahiz. Al-Asqalani also noted that Ibn Khaldun was not well-liked in Egypt because he opposed many respected traditions, including the traditional judicial dress, and suggested that this may have contributed to the reception of Ibn Khaldun's historical works. The notable exception to this consensus was Ibn al-Azraq, a jurist who lived shortly after Ibn Khaldun and quoted heavily from the first and fourth books of the Kitab al-‘Ibar, in developing a work of mirrors for princes.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Ibn Khaldun's work found some recognition with Ottoman intellectuals in the 17th century. The first references to Ibn Khaldun in Ottoman writings appeared in the middle of the 17th century, with historians such as Kâtip Çelebi naming him as a great influence, while another Turkish Ottoman historian, Mustafa Naima, attempted to use Ibn Khaldun's cyclical theory of the rise and fall of empires to describe the Ottoman Empire. Increasing perceptions of the decline of the Ottoman Empire also caused similar ideas to appear independently of Ibn Khaldun in the 16th century, and may explain some of the influence of his works.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In Europe, Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of the Western world in 1697, when a biography of him appeared in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's "Bibliothèque Orientale". However, some scholars believe that Ibn Khaldun's work may have first been introduced to Europe via Ibn Arabshah's biography of Tamerlane, translated to Latin, which covers a meeting between Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane. According to Ibn Arabshah, during this meeting, Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane discussed the Maghrib in depth, as well as Tamerlane's genealogy and place in history. Ibn Khaldun began gaining more attention from 1806, when Silvestre de Sacy's "Chrestomathie Arabe" included his biography together with a translation of parts of the "Muqaddimah" as the "Prolegomena". In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a more detailed description on the "Prolegomena". More details on and partial translations of the "Prolegomena" emerged over the years until the complete Arabic edition was published in 1858. Since then, the work of Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world with special interest. Reynold A. Nicholson praised Ibn Khaldun as a uniquely brilliant Muslim sociologist, but discounted Khaldun's influence. Spanish Philosopher José Ortega y Gasset viewed the conflicts of North Africa as a problem that stemmed from a lack of African thought, and praised Ibn Khaldun for making sense of the conflict by simplifying it to the relationship between the nomadic and sedentary modes of life.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: British historian Arnold J. Toynbee has called Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah "the greatest work of its kind." Ernest Gellner, once a professor of philosophy and logic at the London School of Economics, considered Khaldun's definition of government the best in the history of political theory.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Arthur Laffer, for whom the Laffer curve is named, acknowledged that Ibn Khaldun's ideas, as well as others, precede his own work on that curve.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Economist Paul Krugman described Ibn Khaldun as "a 14th-century Islamic philosopher who basically invented what we would now call the social sciences".


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: 19th century Scottish theologian and philosopher Robert Flint praised him strongly, "as a theorist of history he had no equal in any age or country until Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later. Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him". Ibn Khaldun's work on evolution of societies also influenced Egon Orowan, who termed the concept of "socionomy". While Ibn Khaldun's record-keeping is usually passed over in favor of recognizing his contributions to the science of history, Abderrahmane Lakhsassi wrote "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of the Berbers can do without his historical contribution."


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: Public recognition of Ibn Khaldun has increased in recent years. In 2004, the Tunisian Community Center launched the first Ibn Khaldun Award to recognize a Tunisian/American high achiever whose work reflects Ibn Khaldun's ideas of kinship and solidarity. The Award was named after Ibn Khaldun for the convergence of his ideas with the organization's objectives and programs. In 2006, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation launched an annual essay contest for students named in Ibn Khaldun's honor. The theme of the contest is "how individuals, think tanks, universities and entrepreneurs can influence government policies to allow the free market to flourish and improve the lives of its citizens based on Islamic teachings and traditions." In 2006, Spain commemorated the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun by orchestrating an exhibit titled "Encounter of Civilizations: Ibn Khaldun."


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In 2007, İbn Haldun Üniversitesi has opened in Istanbul, Turkey to commemorate his name. The university promotes a policy of trilingualism. The languages in question are English, Modern Turkish, and Arabic and its emphasis is on teaching social sciences.


title: Ibn Khaldun

text: In 1981 U.S. President Ronald Reagan cited Ibn Khaldun as an influence on his supply-side economic policies, also known as Reaganomics. He paraphrased Ibn Khaldun, who said that "in the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments," and that "at the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments." Reagan said his goal is "trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues."


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, Sabrina Spellman, Josie and the Pussycats and Katy Keene. The company is also known for its long-running "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic series, which it published from 1992 until 2016.


title: Archie Comics

text: The company began in 1939 as M.L.J. Magazines, Inc., which primarily published superhero comics. The initial Archie characters were created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana, in collaboration with writer Vic Bloom. They first appeared in "Pep Comics" #22 (cover-dated Dec. 1941). With the creation of Archie, publisher John Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney.


title: Archie Comics

text: "Archie Comics" was also the title of the company's longest-running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #70, the title was shortened to simply "Archie." The flagship series was relaunched from issue #1 in July 2015 with a new look and design suited for a new generation of readers, although after #32 it reverted to its historic numbering with #699. Archie Comics characters and concepts have also appeared in numerous films, television programs, cartoons, and video games.


title: Archie Comics

text: Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater formed M.L.J. Magazines, Inc. and started publishing in September 1939. The company name was derived from the initials of the partners' first names.


title: Archie Comics

text: Coyne served as M.L.J.'s bookkeeper and CFO. Coyne and Silberkleit had been partners in Columbia Publications, a pulp company that published its last pulp in 1960. Silberkleit had a college degree from St. John's University, was a licensed and registered pharmacist, and had a law degree from New York Law School. His efforts were focused on the business, printing, separating, distribution and financial ends of the company. John Goldwater served as editor-in-chief. Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Magazine Association of America, and he served as its president for 25 years. (The Comics Magazine Association of America is best known to comic fans for its Comics Code Authority.) Goldwater was also a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League.


title: Archie Comics

text: M.L.J.'s first comic book, published in September 1939 (with a November cover date), was "Blue Ribbon Comics" with the first half full color and the last half in red and white tints. The first issue featured Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog. In November 1939 (with a January 1940 cover date), "Pep Comics" debuted with the Shield, the first USA patriotic comic book hero, created by writer and managing editor Harry Shorten and designed by artist Irv Novick. "Top Notch Comics" was launched in December 1941. Until March 1944, the cover feature of "Pep" was the Shield when Archie took over the cover. The Shield was a forerunner for Joe Simon's and Jack Kirby's Captain America, being published 13 months earlier.


title: Archie Comics

text: The Andy Hardy movies were an inspiration for Goldwater to have a comic book about a relatable normal person. Teenaged Archibald "Chick" Andrews debuted with Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones in "Pep Comics" #22 (Dec. 1941), in a story by writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana. Archie soon became M.L.J. Magazines' headliner, which led to the company changing its name to Archie Comic Publications in 1946. Siberkleit and Coyne discontinued Columbia Publications. In the late 1950s, Archie Publishing launched its "Archie Adventure Series" line with a new version of the Shield and two new characters.


title: Archie Comics

text: The February 1962 issue of Harvey Kurtzman's "Help!" magazine featured his parody of the Archie characters in its "Goodman Beaver" story, "Goodman Goes Playboy", which was illustrated by frequent collaborator Will Elder. "Help!" publisher Jim Warren received a letter on December 6, 1961, accusing "Help!" of copyright infringement and demanding removal of the offending issue from newsstands. Warren was unable to recall the magazine, but he agreed to settle out of court rather than risk an expensive lawsuit. Warren paid Archie Comics $1,000, and ran a note of apology in a subsequent issue of "Help!" The story was reprinted in the book collection "Executive Comic Book" in 1962, with the artwork modified by Elder to obscure the appearance of the Archie characters. Archie Comics found their appearance still too close to its copyrighted properties, and threatened another lawsuit. Kurtzman and Elder settled out of court by handing over the copyright to the story. Archie Comics held onto the copyright and refused to allow the story to be republished. A request from Denis Kitchen in 1983 to include the story in his "Goodman Beaver" reprint collection was turned down. After "The Comics Journal" co-owner Gary Groth discovered that Archie Comics had allowed the copyright on "Goodman Goes Playboy" to expire, he had the story reprinted in "The Comics Journal" #262 (September 2004), and made it available as a PDF on the magazine's website.


title: Archie Comics

text: In the mid-1960s, during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, Archie switched its superheroes to a new imprint, "Mighty Comics Group," with the MLJ heroes done in the campy humor of the Batman TV show. This imprint ended in 1967.


title: Archie Comics

text: In the early 1970s, Archie Enterprises Inc. went public. Just over 10 years later, Louis Silberkleit's son Michael and John Goldwater's son Richard returned Archie Comic Publications to private ownership. Michael Silberkleit served as chairman and co-publisher, while Richard Goldwater served as president and co-publisher. Coyne retired in the 1970s as CFO.


title: Archie Comics

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, Spire Christian Comics, a line of comic books by Fleming H. Revell, obtained license to feature the Archie characters in several of its titles, including "Archie's Sonshine," "Archie's Roller Coaster," "Archie's Family Album," and "Archie's Parables." These comics used Archie and his friends to tell stories with strong Christian themes and morals, sometimes incorporating Bible scripture. In at least one instance, the regular characters meet a Christ-like figure on the beach, and listen as he gently preaches Christian values.


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie launched a short-lived fantasy and horror imprint, Red Circle Comics, in the 1970s. The company revived that imprint in the 1980s for its brief line of superheroes comics. Later in the 1980s, Archie planned to publish superheroes again with the Spectrum Comics imprint, featuring a number of high-profile talents, but it cancelled this attempt before publishing a single issue.


title: Archie Comics

text: Having licensed Archie's MLJ Superheroes in 1991, DC Comics launched its imprint Impact Comics with these heroes.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1992, Archie partnered with Sega to create a four-part "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic book miniseries based on the video game series of the same name. This was continued with a full series launch in 1993, which incorporated elements from the 1993 animated series by DiC Entertainment. The series ran for over 20 years, becoming the longest-running comic series based on a video game by 2008.


title: Archie Comics

text: On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta was scheduled to debut a new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, "Archie's Weird Fantasy," which depicted Riverdale's most famous resident coming out of the closet and moving to New York. The day before the play was scheduled to open, Archie Comics issued a cease and desist order, threatening litigation if the play proceeded as written. Dad's Garage artistic director Sean Daniels said, "The play was to depict Archie and his pals from Riverdale growing up, coming out and facing censorship. Archie Comics thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image." It opened a few days later as "Weird Comic Book Fantasy" with the character names changed. In 2014, Aguirre-Sacasa would become Archie's Chief Creative Officer.


title: Archie Comics

text: Bill Yoshida learned comic book lettering from Ben Oda and was hired in 1965 by Archie Comics, where he averaged 75 pages a week for 40 years for an approximate total of 156,000 pages.


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie Comics sued music duo The Veronicas for trademark infringement in 2005 over the band's name, which Archie Comics alleges was taken from the comic book character. Archie Comics and Sire Records (The Veronicas's record label) reached a settlement involving co-promotion.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2008, Archie Publications once again licensed DC Comics its MLJ Super heroes for a DC Universe integrated line, Red Circle.


title: Archie Comics

text: Following Richard Goldwater's death in 2007 and Michael Silberkleit's in 2008, Silberkleit's widow Nancy and Goldwater's half brother Jonathan became co-CEOs in 2009. Nancy Silberkleit, a former elementary-school art teacher, was given responsibility for scholastic and theater projects, and Jon Goldwater, a former rock/pop music manager, was responsible for running the company's day-to-day publishing and entertainment efforts. The company sued Silberkleit in July 2011, and Goldwater filed another lawsuit against her in January 2012, alleging she was making bad business decisions and alienating staff; she in turn sued him for defamation. As of February 2012, New York Supreme Court Judge Shirley Kornreich, in Manhattan, had fined Silberkleit $500 for violating the court's autumn order temporarily barring her from the company's headquarters, and said the court might appoint a temporary receiver to protect the company's assets. , these legal proceedings had been resolved.


title: Archie Comics

text: Beginning in 2010, the company partnered with Random House Publisher Services for its bookstore distribution which included trade paperbacks, original graphic novels and additional book formats. Archie Comics saw its graphic novel and collected edition output increase from 11 book titles that year to 33 in 2012, and 40 in 2013. The company's sales also increased by 410% for books and 1,000% for e-books since 2010.


title: Archie Comics

text: Beginning in July 2010, the first issue of "Life with Archie" was launched. The series featured two different storylines exploring two possible futures — a world where Archie marries Betty and a world where he marries Veronica. The series also incorporated more contemporary themes including death, marriage woes, same-sex marriage, cancer, financial problems and gun control.


title: Archie Comics

text: Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first gay character, debuted in "Veronica" #202 in September 2010. The character was created out of a conversation between Goldwater and longtime Archie Comics writer-artist Dan Parent during the company's first creative summit, about bringing more diversity to Riverdale. The issue sold out at the distributor level, prompting Archie Comics for the first time to issue a second edition of a comic. In June 2011, Keller was featured in his own four-part miniseries. A bimonthly Kevin Keller series launched with writer-artist Parent in early 2012 received a GLAAD award for Outstanding Comic Book the following year.


title: Archie Comics

text: In March 2011, a copy of "Archie Comics" #1, first published in 1942, was sold at auction for $167,300, a record for a non-superhero comic book.


title: Archie Comics

text: In April 2011, Archie Comics became the first mainstream comic-book publisher to make its entire line available digitally on the same day as the print release. At the New York Comic Con in October 2011, Archie Comics announced that its superheroes would return as an all-digital line under the Red Circle imprint, a subscription model with back-issue archive access. The imprint started in 2012 with a new "New Crusaders" series.


title: Archie Comics

text: In October 2013, Archie Comics launched its first horror title, "Afterlife with Archie," depicting Archie and the gang dealing with a zombie apocalypse that begins in their hometown of Riverdale. Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by artist Francesco Francavilla, "Afterlife with Archie" was also the first Archie Comics title to be sold exclusively to comic shops and to carry a rating of "Teen+". The series adapted the Archie characters into a world with adult themes and horror tropes including zombies, the occult, demons, and Cthulhu.


title: Archie Comics

text: The success of "Afterlife with Archie" led to a second horror series, "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," which launched in October 2014 from Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Robert Hack. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" takes place in the 1960s in the neighboring town of Greendale, and follows a 16-year-old Sabrina Spellman as she struggles to balance her responsibilities as a witch-in-training, with her feeling for her boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle.


title: Archie Comics

text: On April 9, 2014, Archie Comics announced that the adult version of Archie Andrews featured in the "Life with Archie" series would die in issue #36 (July 2014), which would also be the second-to-last issue. Goldwater said Archie's final fate would be the same in both of the possible parallel futures covered by the series. This version of Archie was killed saving Senator Kevin Keller from an assassination attempt.


title: Archie Comics

text: In July 2014, Archie Comics announced that its superhero imprint Red Circle Comics would be rebranded as Dark Circle Comics in 2015. The new imprint focuses on self-contained stories featuring the superheroes from the Red Circle library while exploring the crime, horror, and adventure genres. The first wave included the superheroes the Black Hood, the Fox, and the Shield. Dark Circle Comics debuted with "The Black Hood" #1 (Feb. 2015) by writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Michael Gaydos in February 2015. The mature-readers title introduced policer officer Gregory Hettinger, the new Black Hood, who struggles with an addiction to painkillers as a result of a shooting outside a school in Philadelphia. The launch continued with "The Fox" (April 2015), picking up where Red Circle's "The Fox" series had left. The series was co-written by Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid with art by Haspiel. "The Shield" #1 (Oct. 2015) from co-writers Chuck Wendig and Adam Christopher and artist Drew Johnson debuted a new, female Shield named Victoria Adams. "The Hangman" #1 (Nov. 2015) introduced a supernatural horror series from writer Frank Tieri and artist Felix Ruiz about mob hit-man Mike Minetta making a deal with the devil to become the new Hangman after the previous person to wear the mantle ascended to Heaven.


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie Comics launched a $350,000 Kickstarter in May 2015 campaign to help the publisher get three additional series out to the public sooner than otherwise: "Life with Kevin", focusing on Kevin Keller, and new "Jughead" and "Betty and Veronica" series. Five days later, Archie Comics cancelled the campaign after critical response. The company stated that the three titles would still be published at a later time.


title: Archie Comics

text: In March 2015, Archie Comics announced that its two delayed horror series would return under a new imprint, Archie Horror, with "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" #2 and "Afterlife with Archie" #8 being released in April and May.


title: Archie Comics

text: In December 2014, Archie Comics announced that its flagship series "Archie" would relaunch with a new first issue in July 2015. The new series would be a modern take on the Archie characters by writer Mark Waid and artist Fiona Staples, featuring serialized storylines. After the first three issues, Annie Wu drew an issue, followed by new regular artist Veronica Fish. The new title received IGN's "Best New Comic Series of 2015" award.


title: Archie Comics

text: The first title in the company's "New Riverdale" universe, "Archie" was released with a July 2015 cover date and came in at #7 for comic book sales for the month. The next title, "Jughead", was released in October. In April 2015, Archie Comics announced "Betty and Veronica" which debuted in July 2016. Also announced was "Life with Kevin", a digital-first mini-series that debuted in June 2016. "Josie and the Pussycats" and "Reggie and Me" followed in September and December 2016.


title: Archie Comics

text: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, playwright, screenwriter and comic book writer, was appointed Archie Comics chief creative officer in March 2014. Archie characters landed a live-action TV series, "Riverdale", at Fox with a script deal plus penalty in October 2014. Warner Bros Television and Berlanti Productions were producing. However, the show was not picked up until January 29, 2016, when it was picked up by the CW.


title: Archie Comics

text: In February 2017, Marvel had licensed Archie Comics to publish Marvel Digests collections for the newsstand market starting in November 2017. With three TV series at various stages, Archie Comics expanded its film and television operations in February 2019 to a division, Archie Comics Studios, with the hire of two executives, Siobhan Bachman, senior vice-president of film and television, and Matthew Lottman, head of development & production.


title: Archie Comics

text: The headquarters is in a property in the Sanborn Map Building in Pelham, New York. It was in a facility Mamaroneck, New York with warehouse facilities and of office space until May 2015, when it moved to its current location. Due to changes in the comics industry with digitization, the company needed more office space and less warehouse space.


title: Archie Comics

text: The "New York Times" postulated that "the cartoonist Bob Montana inked the original likenesses of Archie and his pals and plopped them in an idyllic Midwestern community named Riverdale because Mr. Goldwater, a New Yorker, had fond memories of time spent in Hiawatha, Kansas." However, others have noted resemblance between Riverdale and Haverhill, Massachusetts where Bob Montana attended Haverhill High School.


title: Archie Comics

text: Initially, MLJ started out publishing humor and adventure strips in anthology comic books as was the standard, but quickly added superheroes in their first title's second issue, "Blue Ribbon Comics" #2, with Bob Phantom. In January 1940, "Pep Comics" debuted featuring the Shield, America's first patriotic comic book hero, by writer and managing editor Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick. MLJ's Golden Age heroes also included the Black Hood, who also appeared in pulp magazines and a radio show; and the Wizard, who shared a title with the Shield.


title: Archie Comics

text: Later revivals of the MLJ superheroes occurred under a number of imprints: Archie Adventure Series, Mighty Comics, Red Circle Comics and one aborted attempt, Spectrum Comics. Archies Publications then licensed them out to DC Comics in the 1990s for Impact Comics universe imprint then again in 2008 for a DC Universe integrated Red Circle line.


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie's Silver Age relaunch of its superheroes under the Archie Adventure Series imprint and then the Mighty Comics imprint began with a new version of the Shield and two new characters the Jaguar and the Fly. In the mid-1960s with the Silver Age of Comics, Archie switched the heroes to a new imprint, "Mighty Comics Group", with the revival of all the MLJ heroes done as Marvel parodies with "the campy humor of the Batman TV show." This imprint shift soon brought the company its first super hero team book similar to Marvel's Avengers with the Mighty Crusaders. This imprint ended in 1967.


title: Archie Comics

text: With the conversion of Archie's Red Circle Comics from horror to superheroes in the 1980s, the Mighty Crusaders, Black Hood, the Comet, the Fly and two version of the Shields had their own titles.


title: Archie Comics

text: Archie planned to publish superheroes again in the late 1980s with an imprint called Spectrum Comics, featuring a number of high-profile talents, including Steve Englehart, Jim Valentino, Marv Wolfman, Michael Bair, Kelley Jones, and Rob Liefeld. Planned Spectrum titles included "The Fly", "The Fox", "Hangman", "Jaguar", "Mister Justice", and "The Shield". Ultimately, Archie cancelled Spectrum Comics before publishing a single issue.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2012, Archie Comics relaunched its superhero imprint, Red Circle Comics, as an all-digital line under a subscription model with back issues archive access starting with New Crusader.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2015, Archie Comics rebranded its superhero imprint under the new title Dark Circle Comics. It was launched in February with The Black Hood followed by the launch of "The Fox" in April, while "The Shield" and "The Hangman" followed in September and November.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2007, Archie Comics launched a "new look" series of stories, featuring Archie characters drawn in an updated, less cartoony style similar to the characters' first appearance. There are a total of seven storylines and each one was published as a four-part storyline in a digest series. Also each "new look" story was based on a Riverdale High novel, a series of twelve novels; seven that are published, five that are not. They were published in the 1990s.


title: Archie Comics

text: The United States Postal Service included Archie in a set of five 44-cent commemorative postage stamps on the theme "Sunday Funnies", issued July 16, 2010. The Archie stamp featured Veronica, Archie, and Betty sharing a chocolate milkshake. The other stamps depicted characters from the comic strips "Beetle Bailey", "Calvin and Hobbes", "Garfield", and "Dennis the Menace".


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1968, CBS began airing episodes of "The Archie Show", a cartoon series produced by Filmation. Although it only lasted for a single season, it aired in reruns for the next decade, and was followed by several spin-off programs, which used segments from this original Archie show and new material. In 1970, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch got her own animated series, also produced by Filmation. In 1970, another Archie property received the Saturday morning cartoon treatment: "Josie and the Pussycats". Unlike Archie and Sabrina, Josie's show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, the company behind such animated hits as "Yogi Bear", "The Flintstones", "The Jetsons", and "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?". The show was followed by a spin-off, "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space," in 1972. "The Archie Show", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", "Josie and the Pussycats", and several of the spin-off shows including "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space" are currently available on DVD in complete series boxed sets.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1987, DIC Entertainment produced an NBC Saturday morning cartoon, "The New Archies". This children's television cartoon re-imagined the teenage students of Riverdale High School as pre-teens in junior high. Fourteen episodes of the show were produced, which aired during the show's only season in 1987 and were repeated in 1989. A short-lived Archie Comics series was produced bearing the same title and set in the same universe as the animated series. Reruns of the series ran on The Family Channel's Saturday morning lineup from 1991 to 1993, and on Toon Disney from 1998 to 2002. The cast was basically the same, but Dilton Doiley was replaced as the "intellectual" character by an African American named Eugene. Eugene's girlfriend Amani was another addition to the cast. Archie also gained a dog named Red.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1999, another animated program featuring Archie and his friends was produced by DIC Entertainment. "Archie's Weird Mysteries" featured core Archie characters solving mysteries occurring in their hometown of Riverdale. The show ran on the PAX network for only a single 40-episode season, and continues to air sporadically in reruns on various other networks. The complete series was released on DVD in 2012. As a companion to the Archie series, DIC also produced "", "Sabrina's Secret Life" and ""; the cartoons featured Sabrina and her aunts at a younger age than they were in the comic books. Tie-in comic book titles were produced for all of these series.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2012, it was announced that MoonScoop would produce a new Sabrina the Teenage Witch series titled "". It ran for a single 26-episode season on Hub Network from October 2013 until June 2014.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2013, MoonScoop announced that it would produce a new Archie animated series titled "It's Archie", featuring Archie and friends in junior high. The first season was set to feature 52 11-minute episodes, however the series never aired.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2021, a television series, titled "Superhero Kindergarten", was produced by Genius Brands. The series is based on the comic series of the same name written by Stan Lee.


title: Archie Comics

text: In the mid-1970s, two live-action specials of Archie and the Archie characters were aired on U.S. television. "Archie," which aired on December 19, 1976, was a one-hour pilot episode as part of the ABC Saturday Comedy Special, and "The Archie Situation Comedy Musical Variety Show," a TV Movie, which aired on August 5, 1978. Both specials featured the same actors cast in their respective roles. In 1990, NBC aired "" (titled "Archie: Return to Riverdale" on video), a TV movie featuring Christopher Rich as a 30-something Archie Andrews who returns to his hometown for a high school reunion, and reunites with Betty, Veronica, and several other original comic book characters.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1996, cable network Showtime aired "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", a live-action TV movie starring Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina. The film served as the pilot for a TV series, also starring Hart, which began airing in the fall of 1996 on ABC. The sitcom was relatively faithful to the comic book series (despite major revisions to the character's backstory that were later retconned into the comic books), and enjoyed a lengthy run until 2003. It is now available in its entirety on DVD, as is the original TV movie.


title: Archie Comics

text: By October 2014, Greg Berlanti was developing a drama series for Fox titled "Riverdale" with Berlanti and Sarah Schechter as executive producers through Berlanti Productions, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writing the series. It would feature Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Cheryl, Toni, Sweetpea, Fangs, Reggie, Kevin, Josie & the Pussycats, and all of the parents. In July 2015, the pilot was moved to The CW. In addition to the series offering a bold, subversive take on the gang, Aguirre-Sacasa has described "Riverdale" as "Archie meets "Twin Peaks"". The pilot was ordered by the network in January 2016 with filming set to begin in the spring. Archie is portrayed by actor KJ Apa.


title: Archie Comics

text: In September 2017, it was reported that a live-action television series was being developed for The CW by Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions, with a planned release in the 2018–2019 television season. Based on the comic series, featuring the Archie Comics character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the series would be a companion series to "Riverdale". Lee Toland Krieger will direct the pilot, which will be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Both are executive producers along with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Jon Goldwater. In December 2017, the project had moved to Netflix under a yet-to-be-announced new title. Two seasons, comprising ten episodes each, have been ordered by the streaming service. Filming for first season will begin on March 19, 2018. It is expected to film back-to-back with the second season.


title: Archie Comics

text: In January 2018, it was announced that Kiernan Shipka has signed on to play the lead role of Sabrina Spellman, and CW president Mark Pedowitz noted that, "at the moment, there is no discussion about crossing over" with "Riverdale". Throughout February and mid-March 2018, the remaining starring cast members were cast, including Jaz Sinclair as Rosalind Walker, Michelle Gomez as Mary Wardell / Madam Satan, Chance Perdomo as Ambrose Spellman, Lucy Davis as Hilda Spellman, Miranda Otto as Zelda Spellman, Richard Coyle as Father Blackwood, Ross Lynch as Harvey Kinkle, and Tati Gabrielle as Prudence. Salem Saberhagen also appears in the series.


title: Archie Comics

text: In August 2018, Aguirre-Sacasa revealed that another "Riverdale" spin-off was in development at The CW. He said that the series would be "very different from "Riverdale"" and that it would be produced "in [the 2018–19] development cycle." By January 2019, The CW issued a pilot order for the series stating that the plot will: "[follow] the lives and loves of four iconic Archie Comics characters — including fashion legend-to-be Katy Keene — as they chase their twenty-something dreams in New York City. This musical dramedy chronicles the origins and struggles of four aspiring artists trying to make it on Broadway, on the runway and in the recording studio." In February of the same year, it was announced that Ashleigh Murray, who portrays Josie McCoy in "Riverdale", had been cast in a lead role for "Katy Keene", leading to her exit from the former. By August 2019, Michael Grassi announced that there is a crossover between "Riverdale" and "Katy Keene" being developed. The crossover episode aired on February 5, 2020.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 1994, a planned live-action "Archie" movie to be released by Universal Studios in 1995 was announced. In 1996, it was said that the script was being finalized and the film was scheduled for release in 1997. In 1997 it was still reported that Universal was developing the film's script.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2001, Universal Studios and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released "Josie and the Pussycats", based on the comic of the same name.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2003, Miramax announced that they were working on a Betty and Veronica movie, but the project was cancelled.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2013, it was announced that Warner Bros. would produce a live-action "Archie" film, directed by Jason Moore and written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.


title: Archie Comics

text: An Indian feature film adaptation of "The Archies" directed by Zoya Akhtar is currently in production for Netflix and will be released by 2023.


title: Archie Comics

text: In 2015, Archie Comics announced that they would be bringing Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and the rest of the Riverdale gang to Broadway with an all-new musical. Adam McKay is set to write the book for the show while Funny or Die will serve as a presenting partner. CEO Jon Goldwater and CCO Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will oversee production. Triptyk Studios packaged the partnership and Tara Smith, B. Swibel and Adam Westbrook will oversee development of the musical for the company. At this time no creative team for the musical has been announced.


title: Archie Comics

text: According to the publisher, the official "Archie" website receives 40 million hits a month. There have been many "Archie" licensing deals and products.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey (September 22, 1947 – February 18, 2017), also known by the pseudonym "Jane Roe", was the plaintiff in the landmark American legal case "Roe v. Wade" in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that individual state laws banning abortion were unconstitutional.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Later in her life, McCorvey became an Evangelical Protestant and in her remaining years, a Roman Catholic, and took part in the anti-abortion movement. McCorvey stated then that her involvement in "Roe" was "the biggest mistake of [her] life". However, in the Nick Sweeney documentary "AKA Jane Roe", McCorvey said, in what she called her "deathbed confession", that "she never really supported the antiabortion movement" and that she had been paid for her anti-abortion sentiments.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: McCorvey was born in Simmesport, Louisiana, and spent her early childhood at her family's residence in Lettsworth in Pointe Coupee Parish. Later in her childhood, the family moved to Houston. McCorvey's father, Olin Nelson, a TV repairman, left the family when McCorvey was 13 years old, and her parents subsequently divorced. She and her older brother were raised by their mother, Mary (née Gautreaux), a violent alcoholic. McCorvey's father died on December 28, 1995. McCorvey's mother was raised a Pentecostal but McCorvey's father led her and the family as Jehovah's Witnesses.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: McCorvey had trouble with the law that began at the age of ten, when she robbed the cash register at a gas station and ran away to Oklahoma City with a friend. They tricked a hotel worker into letting them rent a room, and were there for two days when a maid walked in on her and her female friend kissing. McCorvey was arrested and taken to court, where she was declared a ward of the state and a judge sent her to a Catholic boarding school, though she didn't become Catholic until 1998.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Later, McCorvey was sent to the State School for Girls in Gainesville, Texas, on and off from ages 11 to 15. She said this was the happiest time of her childhood, and every time she was sent home, would purposely do something bad to be sent back. After being released, McCorvey lived with her mother's cousin, who allegedly raped her every night for three weeks. When McCorvey's mother found out, her cousin said McCorvey was lying.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: While working at a restaurant, Norma met Woody McCorvey (born 1940), and she married him at the age of 16 in 1963. She later left him after he allegedly assaulted her. She moved in with her mother and gave birth to her first child, Melissa, in 1965. After Melissa's birth, McCorvey developed a severe drinking and drug problem. Soon after, she began identifying as a lesbian. In her book, she stated that she went on a weekend trip to visit two friends and left her baby with her mother. When she returned, her mother replaced Melissa with a baby doll and reported Norma to the police as having abandoned her baby, and called the police to take her out of the house. She would not tell her where Melissa was for weeks, and finally let her visit her child after three months. She allowed McCorvey to move back in. One day, she woke McCorvey up after a long day of work; she told McCorvey to sign what were presented as insurance papers, and she did so without reading them. However, the papers she had signed were adoption papers, giving her mother custody of Melissa, and McCorvey was then kicked out of the house. Her mother disputed that version of the events, and said that McCorvey had agreed to the adoption.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: The following year, McCorvey again became pregnant and gave birth to a baby, Jennifer, who was placed for adoption.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: In 1969, at the age of 21, McCorvey became pregnant a third time and returned to Dallas. According to McCorvey, friends advised her that she should assert falsely that she had been raped by a group of black men and that she could thereby obtain a legal abortion under Texas's law, which prohibited most abortion; sources differ over whether Texas law had such a rape exception. Due to a lack of police evidence or documentation, the scheme was not successful, and McCorvey later said it was a fabrication. She attempted to obtain an illegal abortion, but the recommended clinic had been closed down by authorities. Her doctor, Richard Lane, suggested that she consult Henry McCluskey, an adoption lawyer in Dallas. McCorvey stated that she was only interested in an abortion, but agreed to meet with McCluskey.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Eventually, McCorvey was referred to attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were looking for pregnant women who were seeking abortions. The case, "Roe v. Wade" (Henry Wade was the district attorney), took three years of trials to reach the Supreme Court of the United States, and McCorvey never attended a single trial. During the course of the lawsuit, McCorvey gave birth and placed the baby for adoption. McCorvey told the press that she was "Jane Roe" soon after the decision was reached, stating that she had sought an abortion because she was unemployable and greatly depressed. In 1983, McCorvey told the press that she had been raped; in 1987, she said the rape claim was untrue.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: In 2021, Shelley Lynn Thornton, McCorvey's third child stated she was "neither pro-life nor pro-choice". She grew up not knowing that she was the fetus at the center of the "Roe" case until her birth mother appeared on the "Today show" in 1989 and spoke of her desire to meet her daughter. In response, a journalist for the "National Enquirer" found Thornton as a teenager and told her about her prenatal history, which greatly upset her. In 1991, Thornton became pregnant and did not have an abortion because abortion was "not part of who I was". By 2021, she had met her two half-siblings, but not her birth mother. On the phone in 1994, according to Thornton, McCorvey told her that she should have thanked her for not having an abortion. Thornton's visceral reaction was "What! I'm supposed to thank you for getting knocked up... and then giving me away?" She told her birth mother that she "would never, ever thank her for not aborting me". She reflected that "When someone's pregnant with a baby, and they don't want that baby, that person develops knowing they're not wanted."


title: Norma McCorvey

text: In 1994, McCorvey published her autobiography, "I Am Roe". At a book signing, McCorvey was befriended by Flip Benham, an evangelical minister and the national director of the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue. She converted to Evangelical Protestantism and was baptized on August 8, 1995, by Benham, in a Dallas, Texas, backyard swimming pool—an event that was filmed for national television. Two days later, she announced that she had quit her job at an abortion clinic and had become an advocate of Operation Rescue's campaign to make abortion illegal. She voiced remorse for her part in the Supreme Court decision and said she had been a pawn for abortion activists.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: On August 17, 1998, McCorvey was received into the Catholic Church in a Mass celebrated by Father Edward Robinson and concelebrated by Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church in Dallas. McCorvey's second book, "Won by Love", described her religious conversion and was published in 1998. In the book, she said that her change of heart occurred in 1995, when she saw a fetal development poster in an Operation Rescue office.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: In 2004, McCorvey sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn "Roe v. Wade", saying that there was now evidence that the procedure harms women, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2005. On January 22, 2008, McCorvey endorsed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul because of his anti-abortion position.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: McCorvey remained active in anti-abortion demonstrations, including one she participated in before President Barack Obama's commencement address to the graduates of the University of Notre Dame. McCorvey was arrested on the first day of U.S. Senate hearings for the confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States of Sonia Sotomayor after McCorvey and another protester began shouting during Senator Al Franken's opening statement. McCorvey appeared in the 2013 film "Doonby", in which she delivers an anti-abortion message. She is also the subject of Joshua Prager's 2021 book, "".


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Soon after giving birth a third time, as "Roe v. Wade" made its way through the courts, McCorvey met and began a long-term relationship with Connie Gonzalez. They lived together in Dallas for 35 years.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: After converting to Catholicism, McCorvey continued to live with Gonzalez, though she described their relationship as platonic. Later in life, McCorvey stated that she was no longer a lesbian, although she later said that her religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity and renouncement of her sexuality were financially motivated. McCorvey moved out of the house she shared with Gonzalez in 2006, shortly after Gonzalez suffered a stroke.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: On May 22, 2020, a documentary titled "AKA Jane Roe" aired on FX, describing McCorvey's life and the financial incentives to change her views on abortion. In an interview conducted for the film shortly before her death, in what she referred to as her "deathbed confession", McCorvey said her anti-abortion activism had been "all an act", which she did because she was paid, stating that she did not care whether a woman got an abortion. "I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they'd put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That's what I'd say," McCorvey said. "If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that's no skin off my ass. That's why they call it choice," she added.


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Robert Schenck, a formerly anti-abortion evangelical pastor who worked with McCorvey, verified the claim made in the documentary of McCorvey receiving financial compensation. He acknowledged that his group paid McCorvey to speak against abortion, stating: "Her name and photo would command some of the largest windfalls of dollars for my group and many others, but the money we gave her was modest. More than once, I tried to make up for it with an added check, but it was never fair." According to tax documents, McCorvey received at least $450,000 from anti-abortion groups during her years as an activist. Schenck said that he was surprised that McCorvey said she favored abortion rights, although he said that he knew she "harboured doubts about the pro-life message she was telegraphing".


title: Norma McCorvey

text: Pavone, who had a decades long association with McCorvey, said that she was not on the payroll of his organization, Priests for Life, and said that he did not believe that McCorvey's activism was disingenuous saying, "I can even see her being emotionally cornered to get those words out of her mouth, but the things that I saw in 22 years with her—the thousands and thousands of conversations that we had—that was real." He later wrote, "So abortion supporters are claiming Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of "Roe v. Wade", wasn't sincere in her conversion. She was. I was her spiritual guide for 22 years, received her into the Catholic Church, kept regular contact, spoke with her the day she died, and conducted her funeral." Abby Johnson, who worked for Planned Parenthood before joining the anti-abortion movement, said that McCorvey called her on the phone days before her death to express remorse for abortion. Johnson said that she believed McCorvey was a damaged woman who should not have been thrust into the spotlight so quickly after turning against abortion saying, "I don't have any problem believing that in the last year of her life that she tried to convince herself abortion was OK. But I know at the end of her life, she did not believe that."


title: Wu Assassins

text: Wu Assassins is an American supernatural action streaming television series, created by John Wirth and Tony Krantz that premiered on Netflix on August 8, 2019. The series stars Iko Uwais, Byron Mann, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao, Celia Au, Li Jun Li, Tommy Flanagan, and Katheryn Winnick. The first season received positive reviews, with critics praising the fight choreography, although there was criticism of the plot.


title: Wu Assassins

text: In February 2021, a standalone film titled "Fistful of Vengeance" was announced. The film continues the story from the ending of the first season. It was released on February 17, 2022.


title: Wu Assassins

text: Kai Jin, a young Chinatown chef in present-day San Francisco, becomes entangled with the Chinese Triad's pursuit of deadly ancient powers known as the "Wu Xing". After an encounter with a mystical spirit, Kai reluctantly becomes the Wu Assassin, imbued with the skill and power of 1,000 monks who chose to die together to place their collective essence into an amulet. Having absorbed the amulet, Kai uses his enhanced martial arts skills to recover supernatural powers from five modern day criminals threatening to destroy the world. He is the 1,000th, and last, in the line of Wu Assassins.


title: Wu Assassins

text: On June 29, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a ten-episode first season. The series is co-created, executive produced and co-written by John Wirth. Other executive producers include co-creator Tony Krantz and Nomadic Pictures' Chad Oakes and Mike Frislev. Stephen Fung will direct the first two episodes, with Krantz expected to helm another. In addition to playing the lead, Uwais also will serve as producer, lead martial arts and fight choreographer and stunt coordinator.


title: Wu Assassins

text: In June 2018, Uwais was cast in the lead role of Kai Jin. In the same month, it was announced that Byron Mann was cast in the series regular role as Uncle Six. In July 2018, it was announced that Tzi Ma, Tommy Flanagan, Lewis Tan and Katheryn Winnick were cast in their respective main roles of Mr. Young, Alec McCullough, Lu Xin Lee and Christine Gavin. In August 2018, it was reported that JuJu Chan and Mark Dacascos were cast in recurring roles. In October 2018, Lawrence Kao and Celia Au joined the main cast. In November 2018, it was revealed that Summer Glau was cast in the minor role of Miss Jones. In January 2019, Li Jun Li joined the main cast in the role of Jenny Wah.


title: Wu Assassins

text: Principal photography for the first season took place on location in Vancouver, Canada from August 8, 2018, to November 20, 2018.


title: Wu Assassins

text: On February 26, 2021, Netflix ordered a 90-minute film project titled "Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance". It serves as a follow-up to the first season. Living Films was involved in the production of the film. Roel Reiné directed the film, with Cameron Litvack, Jessica Chou and Yalun Tu credited for the screenplay. After the film announcement, it was confirmed that Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao and Juju Chan would reprise their respective roles (Kai, Lu Xin, Tommy and Zan) in "Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance". Additionally, it was confirmed that Pearl Thusi, Francesca Corney, Jason Tobin, Rhatha Phongam and Simon Kuke were cast in the film. Filming for "Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance" took place in Thailand in early 2021. The film was released on February 17, 2022.


title: Wu Assassins

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported the first season had 83% approval rating based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.79/10. The critical consensus reads "Though its story at times leaves something to be desired, "Wu Assassins" exceptional choreography and bold aesthetic makes it an action packed delight."


title: Wu Assassins

text: Nick Allen for "RogerEbert.com" previewed the first three episodes and gave a positive review. Allen wrote: "[Wu Assassins] harnesses Uwais' energy as both a fighter and an actor in an exciting fashion, and creates a giddy opportunity for martial arts awesomeness to flourish."


title: Wu Assassins

text: Stephen Harber from "Den of Geek" wrote: "I think this show has potential. I like the cast. I like the premise. I like the Shaw Brothers vibes and that faint odor of tokusatsu I'm picking up on, too." He suggests the show is a "guilty pleasure" but is concerned about the B-stories and side characters, which he says feels padded out.


title: Wu Assassins

text: Isaac Feldberg of "The Boston Globe" says the show "isn't reinventing the wheel. But it does effectively showcase lead Iko Uwais" and praises the fight sequences, "brawls so carefully choreographed they play like bone-crunching ballets — "Wu" coasts on the same, all-important rule of cool every Hollywood action franchise [...] seems to have forgotten."


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Nerissa Jane Irene Bowes-Lyon (18 February 1919 – 22 January 1986) and Katherine Juliet Bowes-Lyon (4 July 1926 – 23 February 2014) were two of the daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and his wife Fenella (née Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis). John was the brother of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, so the two daughters were first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, sharing one pair of grandparents, Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Nerissa Bowes-Lyon was born on 18 February 1919 and Katherine Bowes-Lyon was born on 4 July 1926, the daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis. Their father, the second son of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, was a brother of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth II's mother. Their mother was the younger daughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: In 1987, it was revealed that, despite the 1963 edition of "Burke's Peerage" listing Nerissa and Katherine as having died in 1940 and 1961, respectively, the sisters were alive, and had been placed in Earlswood Hospital for mentally disabled people in 1941. In the terminology of the era, both were classified as "imbeciles", and neither learned to talk. Nerissa died in 1986, aged 66, with only hospital staff attending the funeral, while Katherine died in 2014, aged 87. The sisters received no money from the family other than £125 paid to Earlswood each year. Earlswood closed in 1997.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Suggestions of a cover-up were rejected in the press by Lord Clinton in 1987, who claimed that his aunt Fenella (the mother of the two women) had completed the form for "Burke's" incorrectly due to Fenella being 'a vague person'; however, "Burke's" included specific dates of death for both sisters. According to a 2011 television documentary about the sisters, "The Queen's Hidden Cousins", broadcast by Channel 4"," "throughout their time at the hospital, there is no known record that the sisters were ever visited by any member of the Bowes-Lyon or royal families, despite their aunt, the Queen Mother, being a Patron of Mencap" (a charity for people with learning disabilities). Nurses interviewed on the documentary said that, to their knowledge, the family never sent the sisters a birthday or Christmas gift or card. When Nerissa died in 1986, none of her family attended the funeral. She was buried at Redstone Cemetery. Her grave was marked with plastic tags and a serial number until her existence was revealed in the media, after which the family added a gravestone.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: The three grandchildren of Fenella and John (Lady Elizabeth Shakerley, the 5th Earl of Lichfield, and Katherine Somervell) organised the headstone for Nerissa Bowes-Lyon.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Three mentally disabled cousins of the girls also lived in Earlswood Hospital. Harriet Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis (1887–1958), sister of Nerissa and Katherine's mother Fenella, married Major Henry Nevile Fane, and three of their seven children lived in Earlswood Hospital: Idonea Elizabeth Fane (1912–2002), Rosemary Jean Fane (1914–1972), and Etheldreda Flavia Fane (1922–1996). David Danks, then director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, thought that a genetic disease in the Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis family may have killed male members of the family in early childhood and caused learning disabilities in females. In 1996, the surviving cousins were moved to Ketwin House care home in Surrey. When it closed in 2001, they were moved to another care home in Surrey.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Anne Tennant, Baroness Glenconner was, as a young woman and 1950s debutante of the year, engaged to Johnnie, Viscount Althorp, later the Earl Spencer and father to Princess Diana; his father objected to the match on the grounds of "mad blood", as one of her grandmothers was a Trefusis, and the engagement was broken off.


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: In November 2011, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about the sisters, "The Queen's Hidden Cousins". The documentary was directed by Kelly Close and made by Minnow Films, an independent production company, whose synopsis states that "Whilst their sisters Elizabeth and Anne enjoyed lives of privilege and inclusion in the upper echelons of the aristocracy, Katherine and Nerissa were all but forgotten, written out of family history." By telling the story of the individuals, and using the testimony of those who had lived alongside them in the asylum, the film hoped to contextualise "the changing attitudes to learning disability in British society over the twentieth century."


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: Prior to the screening, the "Daily Express" reported that the Queen was said to be "hugely distressed" by it. Lady Elizabeth Shakerley, party planner to the queen and daughter of one of the other Bowes-Lyon cousins, responded at length, disputing both the assertions by the programme-makers of familial abandonment and the methods of "this supposedly factual documentary". She called it "cruel" and "intrusive" and said that "far from being a taboo subject, Katherine and Nerissa were very much a part of the family as sisters of her mother, the late Princess Anne of Denmark."


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: "The Daily Telegraph" described the documentary as "sad but revealing". Following the programme's broadcast, "The Guardian" reviewer John Crace wrote that "All we learned was just common knowledge." Crace observed that it was Nerissa's death in 1986 which had sparked the tabloid interest in the story the following year. He also commented on the absence of any attempt to find out why the sisters had been placed in care in 1941, writing "this was the one part of the story that was genuinely still a mystery."


title: Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon

text: The sisters were depicted in the seventh episode of the fourth season of the Netflix drama series "The Crown", "The Hereditary Principle", which premiered in 2020.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool Football Club is a professional association football club based in the seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Founded in 1887, the club played home games at Raikes Hall and the Athletic Grounds before moving to Bloomfield Road in 1901.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The club were founder members of the Lancashire League in 1889 and were invited into the Football League Second Division in 1896. They failed re-election in 1899 but had their Football League membership reinstated the following year. Blackpool remained in the Second Division until they won the league title in 1929–30, though they were relegated after three seasons in the First Division. Promoted again in 1936–37, the club entered a golden period under the stewardship of long-time manager Joe Smith. Blackpool lost the 1948 and 1951 FA Cup finals before winning the competition in 1953, in the so-called "Matthews Final", in which they beat Bolton Wanderers 4–3, overturning a 3–1 deficit in the closing stages of the game. That same year, four Blackpool players were in the England team which lost against Hungary at Wembley. In the 1950s they had four top-six finishes in the First Division, with their best position being runners-up to Manchester United in 1955–56. In 1956, Stanley Matthews was the inaugural recipient of the Ballon d'Or.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool were relegated out of the First Division in 1967 and again in 1971 after winning promotion in 1969–70. They dropped into the fourth tier after suffering relegations in 1978 and 1981, then gained promotion in 1984–85. Between 1987 and 2019, the club was owned by the Oyston family. Nine years after buying the club, Owen Oyston was jailed for the 1992 rape and indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl. His wife, Vicki, took over the chairmanship of the club during her husband's three-year prison term. The couple's son, Karl, took over in 1999 and remained in the role for 19 years. In 2018, after the Oyston family was found, in a High Court judgement, to have operated an "illegitimate stripping" of the club, paying out £26.77 million to companies they owned, Owen relieved Karl of his role and gave it to his daughter, Natalie. In June 2019, Simon Sadler, a 49-year-old Blackpool-born businessman, bought a 96.2% share in the club, completely removing the Oyston family from any involvement.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: During the long years of Oyston ownership, Blackpool were relegated into the fourth tier in 1990, promoted via the play-offs in 1992, then relegated again in 2000. Blackpool reached the Premier League in 2010, after becoming the first club to gain promotion from every division of the Football League via the play-off system; they won the 2001 Third Division play-offs, 2007 League One play-offs and the 2010 Championship play-offs. They spent one season in the Premier League, under manager Ian Holloway, and later suffered a double relegation into League Two by 2016, though gained immediate promotion by winning the 2017 League Two play-off final – their sixth success in the format in eight finals.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Football had developed in Blackpool by 1877, when Victoria F.C. were founded as a church club with a ground in Caunce Street. This team disbanded a few years later but some of its members are understood to have merged with old boys from St John's School to form a new club called Blackpool St John's. The two factions remained disunited, however, and on 26 July 1887, at a meeting in the Stanley Arms public house, the members resolved to wind up St John's and form a new club to represent the whole town. It was named Blackpool Football Club.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The new club managed to win two pieces of silverware in its first season in existence, 1887–88: the Fylde Cup and the Lancashire Junior Cup.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: At the conclusion of the following 1888–89 season, Blackpool became founder members of the Lancashire League. In their first season in the competition, the club finished fifth out of the 13 member clubs. They finished as runners-up over the following three seasons (to Bury twice and Liverpool once), before winning the championship themselves on their fourth attempt.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool's home at that point in time was Raikes Hall (also known as the Royal Palace Gardens), which was part of a large entertainment complex that included a theatre and a boating lake, amongst other attractions. This meant that the club's average attendances were around the 2,000 mark, making the club's formative years a financial success.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: After struggling to repeat the success of the 1893–94 season, the Blackpool board decided it was time to leave local football behind, so on 13 May 1896 the club became a limited company and applied for entry to the Football League.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Their application was successful, and for the club's debut season, 1896–97, they joined the 16-team Second Division. Blackpool's first-ever Football League game took place on 5 September 1896, at Lincoln City, which they lost 3–1 in front of around 1,500 spectators.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: For the 1897–98 campaign, the club played their home games at the Athletic Grounds (at the present-day Stanley Park). They remained there for the first seven home games of 1898–99, before returning to Raikes Hall for the remaining 10.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: After finishing third-bottom, the club were not re-elected at the end of the 1898–99 season, and spent the 1899–1900 term back in the Lancashire League. They finished third, and after the Football League's annual meeting, on 25 May 1900, were permitted back into Division Two. It was during this season out of the League that Blackpool amalgamated with local rivals South Shore and moved to Bloomfield Road.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: During the 10 seasons that followed, Blackpool could finish no higher than 12th place. The club's top goalscorers in the league included Bob Birket (10 goals in 1900–01), Geordie Anderson (12 goals in 1901–02) and Bob Whittingham (13 in 1908–09).


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: At the end of 1910–11, the club found themselves in seventh place, thanks largely to Joe Clennell's haul of 18 goals.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: It was a case of as-you-were, however, for the four seasons leading up to the First World War, with finishing positions of 14th, 20th, 16th and 10th. For the last of those seasons, Joe Lane netted 28 goals.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The outbreak of war forced the cancellation of League football for four years, during which time regional competitions were introduced. When normality resumed, in 1919–20, Blackpool had appointed their first full-time manager in the form of Bill Norman. Norman guided the club to fourth-placed finishes in his first two league seasons in charge (he was installed as manager during the final inter-war season), with Lane again netting close to 30 goals in the former.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The club's form nosedived in the 1921–22 season, with a finishing position of 19th, before bouncing back to a fifth-placed finish the following campaign. Harry Bedford, who had joined the club from Nottingham Forest, was the country's top league scorer, with 32 goals to his name.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Bedford repeated the feat the following season, this time under the watchful eye of new manager Frank Buckley, who replaced Bill Norman after his four years of service. Blackpool finished fourth in Buckley's first season in charge.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The 1924–25 season was not as successful; a 17th-placed finish tempered only slightly by the club's reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time. A single-goal defeat at fellow Lancastrians Blackburn Rovers ended "the Seasiders"<nowiki>'</nowiki> run.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Buckley guided Blackpool to top-10 finishes in his final two seasons as manager – with Billy Tremelling's 30 goals in the latter helping considerably – before he left to take the helm at Wolverhampton Wanderers.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Buckley's replacement was Sydney Beaumont, who took charge for the 1927–28 season, but he lasted only until the spring after the club finished in 19th position.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Harry Evans was installed as the new Blackpool manager, in an honorary capacity, for the 1928–29 campaign. Due in no small part to Jimmy Hampson's 40 goals, the club finished eighth. In his second season, Evans guided Blackpool to the Division Two championship (their only championship to date), finishing ahead of promotion rivals Chelsea and Oldham Athletic by three and four points respectively. Hampson had bagged 45 of the club's 98 league goals.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool lasted only three seasons in the First Division. Two third-bottom finishes were followed by a last-placed finish, and the club returned to the Second Division.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The club's relegation prompted the Blackpool board to install a recognised manager, and they opted for Sandy MacFarlane. MacFarlane occupied the Bloomfield Road hot seat for just two seasons, in which the club finished 11th and fourth. MacFarlane's final season, 1934–35, marked Jimmy Hampson's eighth successive (and final) season as Blackpool's top League goalscorer.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Joe Smith was appointed Blackpool's sixth manager in August 1935, a role in which he remained for the next 23 years.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The club finished 10th in Smith's first season, with Bobby Finan taking over from Hampson as top scorer, with 34 goals. It was Smith's second season in charge, however, that marked the starting point of the success to come. Blackpool finished the 1936–37 season as runners-up in the Second Division to Leicester City and were promoted back to the First Division.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Two seasons of Division One football were played before the Second World War intervened. Blackpool sat atop the table at the time the abandonment occurred. Regional competitions were implemented again between 1939 and 1945. For the 1945–46 season, after the war's conclusion, Blackpool spent one season in the Football League North.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Scottish defender Hugh Kelly had arrived at Blackpool in 1943, as had fellow defender Tommy Garrett in 1942. Forward Stan Mortensen joined the club after the war in 1946. Mortensen went on to become Blackpool's top League goalscorer for the next nine seasons, sharing the honour with Allan Brown in 1952–53. Stanley Matthews, who became a regular source of goals for Mortensen, joined Blackpool in 1947, as did centre-forward Jackie Mudie. Goalkeeper George Farm signed in 1948, followed by outside-left Bill Perry in 1949. Kelly, Garrett, Matthews, Mudie, Farm and Perry would play with the club throughout the 1950s, the most successful decade in the club's history.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Post-war Blackpool reached the FA Cup Final on three occasions, losing to Manchester United in 1948 and Newcastle United three years later, and winning it in 1953, captained by Harry Johnston.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: For the first and only time in the club's history, four Blackpool players (Johnston, Matthews, Mortensen and debutant Ernie Taylor) represented England in the infamous 6–3 defeat by Hungary at Wembley on 25 November 1953. Of the four, only Matthews would ever represent his country again.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: In 1955–56, and now captained by Kelly, Blackpool attained their highest-ever finish in the Football League: runners-up to Manchester United, despite losing their final four league games. It was a feat that could not be matched or bettered over the following two seasons, with fourth and seventh-placed finishes, and Smith left Blackpool as the club's most successful and longest-serving manager.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Smith was succeeded, in May 1958, by Ron Suart, the first former "Tangerine" to return to the club as manager. In his first season, he led the club to eighth in the First Division and the sixth round of the FA Cup. A 23-year-old Ray Charnley topped the club's goalscoring chart with 20, in his first season as a professional, and went on to repeat the feat for seven of the eight seasons that followed.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The League Cup came into existence in 1960–61. Blackpool were knocked out in the second round, the round in which they entered. The club's First Division status came under threat, but they managed to avoid relegation by one point, at the expense of Newcastle United. Local arch-rivals Preston North End were the other club to make the drop.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: In October 1961, Matthews, now aged 46, was sold back to Stoke City. Mid-table finishes in 1961–62 and 1962–63 (and an appearance in the League Cup semi-finals during the former) were offset by another lowly finish of 18th in 1963–64, with Alan Ball top-scoring with 13 goals. Much of the same ensued over the following two seasons, before relegation finally occurred in 1966–67. Blackpool finished bottom of the table, eight points adrift of fellow demotion victims Aston Villa. Suart had resigned four months before the end of the season. His replacement was another former Blackpool player, Stan Mortensen.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Mortensen picked up the pieces for the club's first season back in the Second Division in 30 years, guiding them to a third-placed finish. They had gone into the final game of the season at Huddersfield Town knowing that a win would likely secure a return to the First Division. They won 3–1, but once the premature celebrations had ended, they discovered that their nearest rivals, Queens Park Rangers, had scored a last-minute winner at Aston Villa. Q.P.R. were promoted by virtue of a better goal-average: 1.86, to Blackpool's 1.65.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: At the end of the following 1968–69 campaign, the Blackpool board made the decision to sack Mortensen after just over two years in the job. Their decision was met by fans with shock and anger, as Mortensen was as popular a manager as he was a player.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Les Shannon, who spent the majority of his playing career with Blackpool's Lancashire rivals Burnley, was installed as manager for the 1969–70 season. In his first season, he succeeded where Mortensen had failed, by guiding the club back to the top flight as runners-up behind Huddersfield Town. Their promotion had been sealed after the penultimate game of the season, a 3–0 victory at rivals Preston North End, courtesy of a Fred Pickering hat-trick. The result effectively relegated the hosts to the Third Division.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: As quickly as Shannon had taken Blackpool up, he saw them return whence they came. The club finished at the foot of the table and were relegated back to Division Two, along with Burnley. Before the season's conclusion, Shannon was briefly replaced by Jimmy Meadows as caretaker manager, who in turn was permanently replaced by Bob Stokoe. On 12 June 1971, well over a month after the conclusion of the League season, Blackpool won the Anglo-Italian Cup with a 2–1 victory over Bologna in the final. This was achieved without the services of Jimmy Armfield, who retired in May after 17 years and 627 appearances for the club.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool finished amongst the top 10 teams in the Second Division for six consecutive seasons, under three different managers: Stokoe, Harry Potts and Allan Brown. Twice Blackpool narrowly missed promotion to Division One, by two points in 1974 and 1977.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: In February 1978, midway through 1977–78, Brown's second season at the helm, Blackpool were seventh in the division. Having just beaten local rivals Blackburn Rovers 5–2, on 6 February 1978, Brown was sacked by chairman Billy Cartmell for personal reasons. The team won only one more game that season, which ended with their relegation to the Division Three for the first time in their history.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: On 1 April 1978, with six games to go, Blackpool were in eighth place, nine points off the third relegation slot. On 25 April, with one game to go, Blackpool were 14th, three points above Cardiff City in the third relegation slot. Four days later, Blackpool completed their programme and were 16th with 37 points – two points clear of Leyton Orient in the third relegation slot, with a vastly superior goal difference (−1, which was four better than fifth-placed Blackburn Rovers). At that point, all the teams below Blackpool still had games to play, apart from bottom placed Hull City. The bottom of the Division Two table read:


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The only other team in the division with games to play was Notts County, in 14th place with 38 points.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: After Millwall achieved safety by beating already-relegated Mansfield Town, the three remaining fixtures were Cardiff City v. Notts County, Leyton Orient v. Charlton Athletic, and Cardiff City v. Leyton Orient. Only one combination from the 27 possible outcomes of those three games would have resulted in all three teams getting more than 37 points and Blackpool being relegated. Inevitably, Cardiff City beat Notts County, Leyton Orient drew with Charlton and, in the final match, Leyton Orient, who up to that point had only won one away game all season, and had lost six out of their previous eight away games, with no wins, beat now-safe Cardiff City, who had lost only two home games all season and had won six out of their previous seven homes games, with no defeats. Blackpool were relegated with 37 points (the seven teams above them all having 38 ), and were not to return to the second tier for 29 years:


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Bob Stokoe returned for a second stint as manager for the 1978–79 campaign, at the end of which Blackpool finished mid-table. Stokoe resigned during the summer.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Stan Ternent became Blackpool's seventh manager in nine years, only to be replaced in February 1980 by Alan Ball, the popular former Blackpool midfielder who left the club for Everton 14 years earlier. Ball himself only lasted a year in the job, and departed when the club were relegated to the League's basement division.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Allan Brown had taken over from Ball in February 1981, and he remained in charge for the following 1981–82 term. Blackpool finished twelfth in their first season in Division Four; however, unable to handle the pressure of the job, Brown resigned during the close season.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Sam Ellis took over from Brown in June 1982, three years after he finished his playing career with Watford. His first season saw Blackpool finish 21st, with Dave Bamber topping the club's goalscoring chart for the second consecutive season with 10 strikes.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: It was Ellis's third season, however, that brought the success the club had been looking for. Blackpool finished second behind Chesterfield and were back in Division Three.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The club managed to finish in the top half of the table for their first three seasons in the Third Division, but slipped to 19th in Ellis's seventh and final season in charge.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: On 17 April 1986, the board of directors put the club on the market after councillors rejected plans to sell Bloomfield Road for a supermarket site in a £35 million redevelopment scheme. The club was then sold to Owen Oyston for £1.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: For the 1989–90 season, Blackpool appointed Jimmy Mullen as manager. Mullen's reign last only 11 months, however, and he left the club after their relegation back to Division Four.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Graham Carr replaced Mullen, but his spell in the manager's seat was even shorter – just four months. He was sacked in November 1990 with Blackpool in 18th place.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Carr's replacement was his assistant, Billy Ayre. Ayre guided the team to a fifth-placed finish and qualification for the play-offs. They lost only five of their 30 league games that remained at the time of Ayre's appointment. The run included 13 consecutive home league wins in an eventual 24–game unbeaten run at Bloomfield Road. The run was extended to 15 consecutive home wins at the start of the 1991–92 campaign, which remains the club record.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: After beating Scunthorpe United in the two-legged semi-finals of the play-offs, Blackpool lost to Torquay United in the Wembley final, on penalties after the score was tied 2–2 after regular and extra time.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The following 1991–92 season finished with Blackpool in fourth place, missing out on automatic promotion by one point, which meant another play-offs experience. This time they met Barnet in the semi-finals and won 2–1 on aggregate. They returned to Wembley, where they faced Scunthorpe United in the final, the team they knocked out of the play-offs 12 months earlier. Again the score was tied at the end of regular and extra time, but Blackpool were victorious in the penalty shootout and booked their place in the new Division Two.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Blackpool struggled in their first term back in the third tier of English football but pulled to safety in 18th place by the end. In late 1993 they were as high as fourth but tumbled down the table in the second half of that season to miss the drop by a whisker in 20th, avoiding relegation by virtue of a 4–1 victory over Leyton Orient on the final day of the season. Ayre was sacked in the summer of 1994 and was replaced by Sam Allardyce.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Allardyce led Blackpool to a mid-table finish in his first season and saw the club knocked out of both cup competitions at the first hurdle. Tony Ellis was the club's top scorer with 17 league goals.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: The 1995–96 season saw Blackpool finish third and claim a place in the play-offs for the third time in six seasons. In the semi-finals, Blackpool travelled to Bradford City and won 2–0. Three days later, they hosted the Yorkshiremen at Bloomfield Road and lost 3–0. Blackpool remained in Division Two, and Allardyce was sacked not long afterwards.


title: Blackpool F.C.

text: Former Norwich City manager Gary Megson replaced Allardyce, and attained a seventh-placed finish in his only season in charge. Nigel Worthington succeeded Megson in the summer of 1997, and in the Northern Irishman's two full campaigns in the hot seat, Blackpool finished 12th and 14th. Worthington resigned towards the end of the 1999–2000 season, and his seat was filled by the former Liverpool and England midfielder Steve McMahon.