title: Bill Browder

text: In October 2018, Browder received the Coalition for Integrity's Integrity Award for "his courageous fight to expose state-sponsored corruption and shine a light on individuals whose wealth is built on wrongdoing, so that they are denied safe havens anywhere in the world."


title: Bill Browder

text: In June 2019, Browder was presented with the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards. The committee noted Browder's "relentless fight against human rights abuses, corruption, and his work spearheading the Magnitsky Act."


title: Bill Browder

text: In September 2019, Browder received the Trinity College (Dublin) SMF award for outstanding contributions to finance.


title: Bill Browder

text: In 2019, Browder received the Lantos Human Rights Prize from the Lantos Foundation for his work as the "driving force behind the Magnitsky Sanctions, the most consequential enforcement mechanism of the modern human rights movement."


title: Bill Browder

text: A documentary by Andrei Nekrasov, "The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes" (2016), available on YouTube, according to "The Daily Beast", "absolves the Russian government of any responsibility for Magnitsky's death" and claims that Browder was behind the $230-million tax-rebate fraud. "The Washington Post" commented in an editorial: "The film is a piece of agitprop that mixes fact and fiction to blame Magnitsky for the fraud and absolve Russians of blame for his death."


title: Bill Browder

text: Several of the key figures interviewed in the movie have declared it mendacious. "The Washington Post" described it as part of "a campaign to discredit Mr. Browder and the Magnitsky Act".


title: Bill Browder

text: Some European theater screenings and a television broadcast of the film were canceled after threats of libel suits from Browder. According to Browder's 2017 testimony to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya hired a former "Wall Street Journal" reporter, Chris Cooper of the Potomac Group, to organise its US premiere. Over Browder's objections, the Newseum in Washington, D.C. held a screening in June 2016 hosted by Seymour Hersh. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)'s office actively promoted the screening, sending out invitations from the office of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, which Rohrabacher chaired at the time; he was described by "The Daily Beast" as "a long-standing Russia ally".


title: Bill Browder

text: On July 16, 2018, during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that Browder had funneled $400 million to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, an effort that he claimed involved members of the U.S. intelligence community who, Putin said, "accompanied and guided these transactions." The statement was made after Putin said he would allow special counsel Robert Mueller's team to come to Russia for their investigation—as long as there was a reciprocal arrangement for Russian intelligence to investigate in the U.S.


title: Bill Browder

text: Putin said:For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder, in this particular case. Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia and never paid any taxes neither in Russia or the United States and yet the money escaped the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent [a] huge amount of money, $400,000,000, as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. (Later, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office spokesman Alexander Kurennoy clarified that it was not $400 million, but rather $400,000.) Well that’s their personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself but the way the money was earned was illegal. So we have solid reason to believe that some [US] intelligence officers accompanied and guided these transactions. So we have an interest in questioning them.<nowiki> </nowiki>"The Washington Post" and "The New York Times" rated Putin's claim about the funding "false," noting that there is no evidence to substantiate it. "Politifact" gave it a "pants on fire" rating. Bill Browder, in his own article for "Time", called the accusation "so ludicrous and untrue that it falls into delusion." He maintains that Putin continues to make false allegations against him in response to Browder's involvement with the Magnitsky Act. Browder also says that he is a British citizen and no longer American, therefore Trump would be unable to respond to Putin's request.


title: Bill Browder

text: On November 22, 2019, German news magazine "Der Spiegel" published an article in which it claimed Browder accusations concerning the "Magnitsky Case", do not withstand thorough examination. The English version appeared on November 26, 2019. After Browder filed a complaint against this article with chief editorship of "Der Spiegel" and the German Press Council, "Der Spiegel" published a further article, releasing its evidence and emphasising its stance on the matter.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Elizabeth Copeland ( Kociański; born November 24, 1980), known professionally as Beth Phoenix, is an American professional wrestler. She is a former WWE Divas Champion and a three-time WWE Women's Champion.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Kociański had a successful amateur wrestling career in high school, winning several tournaments before being trained for professional wrestling by the All Knighters. After her debut in May 2001, she wrestled for numerous independent promotions. She also appeared at the inaugural Shimmer Women Athletes shows. In 2004, she began working for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and signed a developmental contract with WWE in October 2005. She debuted on WWE's Raw brand in May 2006 but suffered a legitimate broken jaw the following month. As a result, she had numerous surgeries and returned to OVW for further training. While there, she won the OVW Women's Championship twice, although her second reign is not officially recognized by OVW.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: She returned to the Raw brand in July 2007, and was heavily pushed, dominating the other WWE Divas and gaining the nickname, "The Glamazon". She won her first WWE Women's Championship at the No Mercy pay-per-view in October, and held it for six months. She then developed an on-screen relationship with Santino Marella, dubbed "Glamarella", and won the Women's Championship for a second time in August 2008, holding it until January 2009. In January 2010, at the Royal Rumble, she became the second woman in the history of the event to enter the men's Royal Rumble match, and went on to win the Women's Championship for the third time in April, holding it for a month. In October 2011, Phoenix won the WWE Divas Championship for the first time and lost it in April 2012. Phoenix retired and left WWE in October 2012 due to creative frustrations with the treatment of women in WWE, and to focus on her family life with boyfriend and later husband Adam Copeland, famous in WWE as Edge, with whom she subsequently had two daughters.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: In 2017, Phoenix returned to WWE upon being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2017 class, also becoming a part-time color commentator for the company; her induction made her the quickest female to be inducted after her retirement and the youngest inductee in history at age 36. In 2019, she also became the first woman to be inducted in the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, a hall of fame dedicated to professional wrestlers with an amateur background. Phoenix has occasionally wrestled since her return, notably at WrestleMania 35; she also took part in the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match in 2018, making her the first wrestler to have participated in both the men's and women's matches. In May 2019, she was promoted to a full-time color commentator on NXT.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Elizabeth Kociański was born in Elmira, New York and raised by Polish parents. When she was eleven years old, she won a coloring contest with a prize of tickets to a television taping for the World Wrestling Federation. Kociański credits this as when she fell in love with professional wrestling. She cites Bret Hart, Sgt. Slaughter, Owen Hart, and Ted DiBiase as her favorite wrestlers. Kociański attended Notre Dame High School in Elmira, where she played tennis and ran track. She was voted prom queen in her senior year. Kociański is a graduate from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and Public Relations. While wrestling in OVW, Kociański also worked as a waitress at a local restaurant known to Elmira natives as Lights Bakery and Coffee Shop.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Elizabeth Kociański began wrestling on the Notre Dame High School scholastic wrestling team. She was the first female varsity wrestler in the school's history. She became the North-East freestyle women's champion in 1999, and also won at the New York State Fair Tournament the same year. At the time, she was also a member of USA Wrestling, a freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling association. Her life goal was, according to her, to become a professional wrestler, and she believed that having a solid amateur background would help her reach it.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: After graduating from high school in 1998, she enrolled in both a professional wrestling school and Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Her first choice for wrestling school was Stu Hart's Dungeon, but because of the location, she decided on a more local school. At the school, she was trained by the All Knighters (Joey Knight and Robin Knightwing), who themselves had trained in the Hart Dungeon. She later stated that Nora Greenwald, who was known in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as Molly Holly, had paid for her to attend wrestling school after Carolan had given her a demo tape of her work. Her professional wrestling debut match was against Alexis Laree. She then worked for various independent promotions, including Cleveland All Pro Wrestling and Apocalypse Wrestling, against both male and female wrestlers, using the name "Phoenix". In 2002, she was one of the first wrestlers in GLORY, an independent organization for women, and was the inaugural GLORY Champion. She then joined Far North Wrestling (FNW), and was the only female wrestler in the promotion. She defeated Joey Knight and Kevin Grace in 2003 to become the FNW Cruiserweight Champion. Later in 2003 she took part in World Xtreme Wrestling's annual Women's Elite 8 tournament where she made it to the final, before losing to April Hunter. She returned two years later and defeated Nikki Roxx, but was bested in the second round by eventual winner Alicia. The following month, Phoenix appeared at the inaugural taping for the Ring of Honor sister promotion Shimmer Women Athletes; during "Volume 1" she was pinned by Shimmer founder Allison Danger but scored an upset victory in a non-title match against NWA Midwest Women's Champion MsChif.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Kociański was invited to a tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2004, and then relocated to Louisville, Kentucky to work for their then-developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). She debuted on OVW television in July 2004, having changed her ring name to "Beth Phoenix", and became the on-screen girlfriend and valet of Chris Masters. The storyline was short-lived, and the following month Phoenix was repackaged as the manager of Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. She signed a developmental contract with WWE on October 20, 2005, the same month that she broke her hand. The duo was then joined by Shelly Martinez, who Phoenix soon feuded within early 2006.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix debuted on WWE's main roster on the May 8, 2006, episode of "Raw" as a face by attacking Mickie James while James was assaulting Trish Stratus. After this incident, James berated Phoenix for "ruining everything" and questioned why she showed up in the first place. A week later, Phoenix was formally introduced by Stratus and then attacked a distracted James on Stratus's behalf. When James finally escaped, Phoenix claimed that James had "ruined her life", and would not let her get away with it, before calling her a "psycho". On the following episode of "Raw", Phoenix attacked James after her match with Torrie Wilson. Then, on the May 29 episode of "Raw", Phoenix and Wilson, with Stratus in their corner, teamed together to defeat Candice Michelle and Victoria, who had James in their corner. During the June 5 episode of "Raw", Phoenix suffered a legitimately fractured mandible during a match with Victoria, but was able to continue the match, and emerged victorious despite the injury. Phoenix's jaw was entirely severed and subsequent surgeries left a portion of her face permanently numb. She spent a year having surgeries and recovering, including getting a titanium plate and nine screws placed in her jaw, but she was only out of action for two months, as she returned to action in OVW instead of on the main roster.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: After sustaining her injury on the main roster, Phoenix returned to action in OVW on August 16, 2006, defeating Serena. Phoenix began regularly competing for the OVW Women's Championship, unsuccessfully challenging the champion ODB in a battle royal and a four-way match, which was won by Serena. At the October 4 OVW television tapings, however, Phoenix defeated Serena to win the championship. She lost the championship to Victoria Crawford in a gauntlet match on October 20, and won it back the next day; however, Crawford's title reign is not officially recognized, and as a result, neither is Phoenix's second reign. Phoenix officially dropped the championship in a gauntlet match at the November 1 television taping, after she was eliminated by Katie Lea, who eventually won the match.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On the November 6 episode of OVW, Phoenix came out with her championship and claimed to still be the women's champion. As a result, a ladder match was set up, where the winner would become the undisputed OVW Women's Champion. Lea won the match and was presented with the title belt on the first show of 2007. Throughout 2007, Phoenix continued to wrestle in numerous women's matches in OVW. Phoenix made her last appearance in OVW at their August 15 television tapings where she lost to Lea in a number one contenders match.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On the July 9, 2007, episode of "Raw", Phoenix returned as a villain, when Melina claimed to be injured. Phoenix replaced Melina in a tag team match as Jillian Hall's partner, and the two lost to Candice Michelle and Mickie James. At the SummerSlam pay-per-view, Phoenix won the Interpromotional Divas battle royal to become the number one contender for Michelle's WWE Women's Championship. Phoenix was then pushed as a dominating Diva, dubbing herself "The Glamazon" and attacking James, Hall, and Michelle on the September 10 episode of "Raw". At Unforgiven, however, she failed to capture the Women's Championship from Michelle. Their storyline rivalry continued when Phoenix pinned Michelle during a non-title mixed tag team match on "Raw" on September 24.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: At No Mercy in October, Phoenix defeated Michelle to win her first WWE Women's Championship. She retained the title on the October 22 episode of "Raw" in a two out of three falls match, in which Candice Michelle was injured by Phoenix shaking the rope, causing her to fall off the top turnbuckle and legitimately break her clavicle.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: During a 10-Diva tag team match at Survivor Series, Phoenix's team lost after Melina was pinned by Mickie James. On the November 26 episode of "Raw", James defeated Melina in a number one contenders match for Phoenix's Women's Championship, setting up a title match between the two at Armageddon, a match in which Phoenix successfully defended her Women's title. On New Year's Eve 2007, Phoenix successfully defended her title in a Triple Threat match against Melina and James, after pinning Melina.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix, along with then-ally Melina, took part in the "Playboy" BunnyMania Lumberjack match at WrestleMania XXIV, where she defeated the team of Ashley and Maria. On April 14, 2008 Phoenix faced Mickie James with her Women's Championship on the line and lost, ending her reign as champion. Phoenix received a rematch on the May 5 episode of "Raw" in a lumberjill match, but lost after Melina unintentionally hit her in the face with her boot. On the May 12 episode of "Raw", Melina and Phoenix partnered to face Maria and James. During the match, Melina unintentionally knocked Phoenix off of the ring apron, resulting in Phoenix abandoning Melina, which allowed James and Maria to pick up the win. Later that night, Melina and Phoenix brawled in a backstage segment, ending their alliance. At Judgment Day, Phoenix failed to regain the Women's Championship in a Triple Threat match after James pinned Melina to retain the title. At One Night Stand, Phoenix defeated Melina in the first women's "I Quit" match in WWE history. The next night on "Raw", Phoenix teamed with Katie Lea Burchill to defeat Melina and James in a tag team match. She was pinned by James one week later in a non-title match, and was once again attacked by Melina post-match.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: After a month absence from television, Phoenix returned on the July 14 episode of "Raw", where she defeated Santino Marella after he issued an open challenge to any WWE wrestler backstage. The storyline continued the following week after Marella lost to the returning D-Lo Brown. Phoenix confronted Marella after the match, and they briefly grappled with each other before unexpectedly sharing a kiss, to which both expressed considerable confusion.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: The two then became an on-screen power couple, and the pairing of Phoenix and Marella later became known by the portmanteau Glamarella. Within the team, she acted as the "straight-woman" of sorts, berating Marella or reacting in disbelief to his over-the-top, embarrassing antics. At SummerSlam, they defeated Kofi Kingston and Mickie James in an intergender tag team match. Phoenix pinned James, winning the Women's Championship, while Marella won Kingston's Intercontinental Championship. She successfully defended the Women's Championship against Candice Michelle at No Mercy. At Survivor Series in November, Phoenix was team captain of the victorious Raw Diva team which defeated the SmackDown Divas in a five-on-five elimination match; she eliminated Maryse and became the sole survivor of the team.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On December 8, 2008, Phoenix received the "Slammy Award" for Diva of the Year. Phoenix then began feuding with Melina, who had returned from injury in November. This storyline included the debut of Rosa Mendes, who was introduced as Phoenix's "superfan". At the Royal Rumble in January 2009, Phoenix lost the Women's Championship to Melina. At WrestleMania XXV, Phoenix competed in the 25-Diva "Miss WrestleMania" battle royal; despite scoring 12 eliminations, more than any other participant, she lost when Marella, who competed in drag, claiming to be his twin sister "Santina", last eliminated her. After WrestleMania, Glamarella separated, as Phoenix was unhappy with Santino pretending to be "Santina". Phoenix had a brief scripted rivalry with both "Santina" and Marella, and challenged "Santina" for the "Miss WrestleMania" title at Backlash, but was unsuccessful.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: After a brief hiatus, Phoenix returned on the July 27 episode of "Raw", teaming with Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes in a losing effort to Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Kelly Kelly. Phoenix had her first opportunity for the WWE Divas Championship, being narrowly defeated by the defending champion, Mickie James, on the August 31 episode of "Raw", after winning a number one contender's battle royal that same night.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On the October 12 episode of "Raw", it was announced that Phoenix had been traded to the SmackDown brand. Phoenix made her in-ring debut for the brand on the October 30 episode of "SmackDown", defeating Jenny Brooks, an "enhancement talent". In January 2010, at the Royal Rumble, she entered the Royal Rumble match and eliminated The Great Khali, before she was eliminated by CM Punk. With her entry, she became the second woman in history to enter the Royal Rumble match, the first being Chyna.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: After being told by Vickie Guerrero, the SmackDown consultant, that she would not be receiving a Women's Championship opportunity, Phoenix turned face after she saved Tiffany from an attack by Guerrero and LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla) on the March 12 episode of "SmackDown". She then went on to defeat McCool and Layla in a tag team match involving Tiffany. The feud with McCool continued at WrestleMania XXVI, where they were on opposing teams in a 10-Diva tag team match, which Phoenix's team lost, although they won a rematch the following night on "Raw". On the April 23 episode of Smackdown, Phoenix teamed with Mickie James to face McCool and Layla. After the match, LayCool beat down and humiliated Phoenix by smearing make-up on her face and body while she was unconscious. This resulted in Phoenix receiving a match for the Women's Championship against McCool at Extreme Rules, where she defeated McCool in an "Extreme Makeover" match to win her third Women's Championship. On the May 6 episode of "Superstars", Phoenix tore her ACL in a match against Rosa Mendes, and as a result, one week later on "SmackDown", McCool invoked her rematch clause to face Phoenix in a two-on-one handicap match along with Layla, where Layla pinned Phoenix to become the new Women's Champion.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix returned from her injury at November's Survivor Series pay-per-view, and attacked the former co-champions Michelle McCool and Layla, after they lost the WWE Divas Championship to Natalya. Phoenix and Natalya then formed an alliance, and at in December, Phoenix and Natalya defeated LayCool in the first Divas Tag Team Tables match in WWE history.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: As part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft on April 26, 2011, Phoenix returned to the Raw brand. On the August 1 episode of "Raw", Phoenix won a battle royal to become the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship, and afterward attacked champion Kelly Kelly to provoke a feud and turning heel in the process. Phoenix later declared that she was tired of the "perky bimbos" that comprised the rest of the Divas division, and was on a mission to make a mockery of the other Divas, and was joined by Natalya to form The Divas of Doom. Phoenix went on to unsuccessfully challenge Kelly for the championship at SummerSlam. Throughout September, The Divas of Doom feuded with Kelly and Eve Torres on "Raw" and The Chickbusters (AJ and Kaitlyn) on "SmackDown". Phoenix challenged Kelly for the Divas Championship again at Night of Champions, but was unsuccessful. At Hell in a Cell in October, Phoenix defeated Kelly to win the Divas Championship for the first time, with help from Natalya. In a rematch on the October 14 episode of "SmackDown", Phoenix successfully retained the championship. At Vengeance, Phoenix successfully defended the championship against Eve Torres, with both Natalya and Kelly banned from ringside. Phoenix successfully retained her championship against Torres again at Survivor Series on November 20 in a Lumberjill match, and against Kelly at on December 18.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Further successful defenses followed against Torres on the January 30, 2012, episode of "Raw" and Tamina Snuka at Elimination Chamber on February 19. After this, Phoenix competed only sporadically for a few months, including a tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII, where she and Eve Torres were defeated by Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos. On the April 6 episode of "SmackDown", Phoenix lost to Nikki Bella in a non-title match, following Kelly's interference. On the April 23 episode of "Raw", Phoenix lost her Divas Championship to Nikki Bella in a Lumberjill match, after suffering a storyline ankle injury. At Extreme Rules, Phoenix was scheduled to face Nikki in a rematch for the Divas Championship, however she was not medically cleared to compete and was replaced by the returning Layla, who ended up winning the title. Phoenix made two unsuccessful attempts at regaining the Divas Championship from Layla at Over the Limit in May and at No Way Out in June, respectively. Phoenix lost 19 times against Divas champion Layla in various live events.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: In September, Kaitlyn was attacked by an unknown assailant before her championship match at Night of Champions. Upon her return, she announced her assailant had blonde hair, and Assistant SmackDown General Manager Eve Torres accused Phoenix before attacking her. On the September 28 episode of "SmackDown", after defeating Natalya, Phoenix was suspended by Torres, but the suspension was later reversed by SmackDown General manager Booker T. On the October 1 episode of "Raw", Phoenix lost to Torres. Phoenix turned heel again on the October 18 episode of "Superstars", when she berated Kaitlyn for thinking that Phoenix attacked her and demanded respect from Kaitlyn, before losing to her in a singles match. On the October 29 episode of "Raw", Phoenix was defeated by AJ Lee in a singles match, but the match was restarted by Raw Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero, allowing Phoenix to win. After the match, in the storyline, Guerrero fired Phoenix for her poor performance. In reality, Phoenix had given her notice to WWE in September and had decided to leave the company; although she originally claimed that she had left to focus on her family, in September 2019, she revealed that she had been "really frustrated with where the women were at from a company standpoint, and the investment that was being made in us. I felt in my heart I had done my best, and I'd try hard to change things but, at some point, I just got frustrated."


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On February 27, 2017, WWE announced that Phoenix would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2017 class. Her induction made her the quickest female to be inducted after her retirement, as she had retired only five years prior, and made her and her husband Edge the first real-life couple to both be inducted.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: In 2018, Phoenix became a part-time color commentator for WWE, mainly for women-related events, starting from January 16 to April 3, 2018 for the first season of the "WWE Mixed Match Challenge", commenting the tournament each week alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves. On January 28, 2018 at the Royal Rumble event, she made a one-night wrestling return as a face for the first time since 2012 by entering the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match as a competitor, making her the first person to appear in both a men's and women's Royal Rumble. She entered at number 24 and lasted over two minutes before being eliminated by Natalya.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix went on to continue to work as a guest commentator at various events and mainly women's matches such as the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34, the 2018 Mae Young Classic, the women's Royal Rumble match at the 2019 Royal Rumble event, and the Elimination Chamber match to determine the inaugural WWE Women's Tag Team Champions at the 2019 Elimination Chamber event.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On March 10, 2019, at the Fastlane pay-per-view, Phoenix acted as commentator on the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match between defending champions The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) and Nia Jax and Tamina. After their defeat, Jax and Tamina attacked Bayley and Banks; Phoenix came to their aid, soon joined by Natalya, but the four were still overpowered by Jax and Tamina. The following day on "Raw", Phoenix accompanied Natalya to her match against Jax, eventually causing a disqualification by attacking Jax.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On the March 18, 2019 episode of "Raw", Phoenix announced that she was coming out of retirement; she and Natalya reformed their 2011–2012 tag team The Divas of Doom, and challenged The Boss 'n' Hug Connection for a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 35; however, Tamina ambushed Phoenix after a distraction from Jax during a one-on-one match between Natalya and Banks. On the April 1 episode of "Raw", Phoenix wrestled her first match in nearly seven years, where she teamed with Natalya, Bayley and Banks, to face off against Jax, Tamina, and The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), where Phoenix's team emerged victorious after she pinned Royce following a "Glam Slam". At WrestleMania, Phoenix and Natalya lost to The IIconics during a fatal four-way tag team match for the Women's Tag Team Championship, when, after Phoenix performed a "Glam Slam" from the second rope on defending champion Bayley without realizing that The IIconics' Billie Kay had tagged Phoenix out, was thrown outside the ring by Kay's partner Peyton Royce, who allowed Kay to successfully pin Bayley.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On May 15, 2019, Phoenix joined the commentary team of "NXT" alongside Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness, replacing Percy Watson; this marked her first time as full-time commentator, and her first time commenting matches that did not involve women. Her first NXT TakeOver as announcer was on June 1, 2019. She was a member of the commenting team when "NXT" started airing live on September 18, 2019, and was extended from a 50-minutes runtime to 120 minutes.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix returned to the ring for the first time since the previous year's WrestleMania during the Women's Royal Rumble match at the 2020 Royal Rumble event, entering at number 19 and lasting over 23 minutes before being eliminated by Shayna Baszler, finishing in third place. She suffered a head injury early in the match when Bianca Belair slapped her chest and caused the back of Phoenix's neck to hit one of the ring posts around the ring, but was able to finish the match.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On the March 2 episode of "Raw," Phoenix would make an appearance, to provide a medical update on her husband Edge, who was kayfabe injured by Randy Orton. However, Orton would interrupt and explain his actions, which caused Phoenix to slap and kick Orton, who retaliated by hitting her with an RKO.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: At WWE Day 1, Phoenix returned to help her husband Edge win a match against The Miz. The couple then started a feud with The Miz and Maryse which resulted in a mixed tag team match at Royal Rumble where the former won the match. On the August 22 episode of "Raw", Phoenix returned to watch Edge’s match against Damian Priest. After the match, The Judgment Day (Priest, Finn Bálor and Rhea Ripley) attacked Edge, but Phoenix stepped in to stop the assault. She interfered in Edge's "I Quit" match against Bálor at Extreme Rules, but despite her heroic efforts, Edge ultimately lost. After he said "I Quit", Rhea Ripley attacked Phoenix with a violent Con-chair-to, severely injuring her (kayfabe).


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix, along with Candice Michelle and Layla El, appeared in the February 2009 issue of "FLEX Magazine".


title: Beth Phoenix

text: Phoenix has appeared in 9 WWE video games. She made her in-game debut in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009" and appears in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011", "WWE '12", "WWE '13", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20", "WWE 2K Battlegrounds", and "WWE 2K22".


title: Beth Phoenix

text: On November 9, 2021, Copeland announced that her debut EP "Stone Rose & Bone" will be released on all major streaming platforms on November 12, 2021.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: In 2001, she was married to Joey Carolan, known by the ring name Joey Knight, but they divorced in 2010.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: In September 2011 she began a relationship with Adam Copeland, known in WWE as Edge, and on December 12, 2013 their daughter Lyric Rose Copeland was born. Their second daughter, named Ruby Ever Copeland, was born on May 31, 2016. The couple married on October 30, 2016.


title: Beth Phoenix

text: During her reign, Phoenix lost the title to Victoria Crawford, later winning it back; Crawford's reign is not officially recognized by OVW, and therefore Phoenix is considered to have had a single, uninterrupted reign.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Police Academy is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson in his directorial debut, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Its story follows a new recruitment policy for an unnamed police department's academy that is required to take in any recruit who wishes to try out to be a police officer. The film stars Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, and G.W. Bailey.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: The film was produced by The Ladd Company. It premiered on March 23, 1984. It grossed $8.5 million in its opening weekend and over $149 million worldwide, against a budget of $4.5 million, and remains the most successful film of the series as of 2022. The film spawned six sequels in the "Police Academy" franchise.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Due to a shortage of police officers, Mary Sue Beal, the mayor of an unnamed city, requires the police department to accept all recruits. Easy-going Carey Mahoney, who has repeatedly gotten in legal trouble while standing up to arrogance, is given a choice by Police Captain Reed: enroll in the police academy or go to jail. Mahoney agrees to the former, but plans to be such a bad student that he's expelled. But he cannot quit, if he quits he can go to jail. The chief of police, Henry Hurst, outraged by the Mayor's plan, decides to make the experience so bad for the new recruits that they give up.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris makes their lives miserable, though Commandant Eric Lassard wants to give the new cadets a chance. Harris appoints Copeland and Blankes as squad leaders to help him.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Lassard reveals to Mahoney his deal with Capt. Reed to keep him at the police academy for the full term. Mahoney falls in love with cadet Karen Thompson and befriends fellow cadets Larvell Jones, a human beatbox, ladies' man George Martin, gun-obsessed security guard Eugene Tackleberry, cowardly man Leslie Barbara, accident-prone Douglas Fackler and gentle giant Moses Hightower.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Blankes and Copeland investigate a party organized by Mahoney, who tricks them by saying that the party is at the Blue Oyster, a gay bar. The pair plant a prostitute in Mahoney's dormitory, to be found during room checks. While smuggling her off the campus, Mahoney is forced to hide with her under a lectern as Commandant Lassard leads in a group of officers. While Mahoney is not looking, the prostitute performs fellatio on Lassard. Mahoney steps out from under the lectern but finds Lassard still present, leading Lassard to assume Mahoney did it.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Hightower reveals to Mahoney that he has not driven a car since he was 12. To help Hightower prepare for a driving test, they steal Copeland's car. After Hightower passes the test, Copeland racially insults cadet Laverne Hooks for an accident. Hightower, angered by the insult, overturns the car with Copeland inside. Harris ejects Hightower from the academy, upsetting the other cadets.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Blankes and Copeland fail to trick Mahoney into fighting them after they find Copeland's destroyed car. Barbara stands up for Mahoney and knocks Copeland out with a lunch tray. Blankes retaliates, and Mahoney becomes involved in a brawl. When Harris asks who started the fight, Mahoney takes the blame to protect Barbara's standing and is expelled.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: While downtown, Fackler throws an apple out of a police car, which hits a man on the back of the head; this triggers a chain reaction of violence which quickly escalates into a general riot. Mahoney, just about to leave, instead joins the other cadets to pacify the crowd. The cadets are accidentally transported to the epicenter of the rioting, and one criminal steals Blankes and Copeland's revolvers, whereupon the two hide out in the Blue Oyster Bar. A rioter gang captures Harris, with their group leader taking him as a hostage. Mahoney attempts to rescue Harris but is also taken hostage. Hightower appears, deceives the madman, and knocks him down a set of stairs, to be arrested by Hooks.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Mahoney and Hightower are both reinstated, and for rescuing Harris and capturing his kidnapper, they receive the academy's highest commendation and medals. The film ends with all cadets graduating.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: The producers considered Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks and Judge Reinhold for the role of Carey Mahoney. Bruce Willis auditioned for the role of Carey Mahoney.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: I noticed a bunch of ludicrous-looking police cadets being dressed down by a frustrated sergeant. They were an unbelievable bunch-including a lady who must have weighed over 200 pounds and a flabby man of well over 50. I asked the sergeant about them, and he explained that the mayor had ordered the department to accept a broad spectrum for the academy. "We have to take them in,"...[he said] ..."And the only thing we can do is wash them out."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Maslansky said he wondered "But what if they actually made it?" He took the idea to Alan Ladd Jr who agreed to finance.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: It's a matter of block comedy scenes. Perhaps the most recognizable was the obvious results of guys eating beans in `Blazing Saddles.' If you have four or five of these block comedy scenes in a teen-age comedy, you have a hit. If your block comedy scenes are very, very strong ones, you have a blockbuster.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Dom DeLuise was considered to direct the film but he was unavailable. Hugh Wilson was hired as director based on his success with "WKRP in Cincinnati" even though he was not familiar with many films of this genre. He then saw a lot of those sort of movies and says "it was fairly discouraging. This immediately convinced me to cut down on the sleaze. I asked for, and got, the power to refine the Israel-Proft script. Maintaining that `funny is money,' I wanted to go for real laughter rather than going for the elements such as gratuitous sex and anti-Establishment exploits. I wanted jokes which were rooted in reality."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Maslansky says Wilson "took a lot of the vulgarity out; some of the very things I considered necessary. I worried that it was becoming more homogenized, and I told Hugh, `Let's keep some of the flatulence in.'"


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Wilson says "I found out that the shower scene, the party scene and the fellatio scene were obligatory; I had to put them in. So I was stuck with trying to make those scenes as artistic as possible."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: According to the "Los Angeles Times", about "20 of the major elements in the movie" remain from the Israel and Proft version. Israel says that when Wilson and Maslansky turned in their rewrite to the Ladd Company, "it was rejected and the project was almost shelved. Only when they put back in dozens of our gags did the project get the go ahead."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Some of the scenes Wilson was unhappy with included the fellatio scene and the scene where a police sergeant was hurled into the back of a horse. A compromise was reached where these acts were not actually shown.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: "I realize that you can carry grossness, rudeness and crudeness just so far before the audience finds it terribly repetitive and not so funny," said Wilson. "After the enormous success of "Police Academy", I no longer believe that you have to show the female breast or make cruel ethnic jokes-not to mention the rampant sexism. And you don't have to reproduce the sounds that an overfed body makes."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Opening scenes were shot in Toronto, Ontario. The camera booth scene was shot on the Cherry Street Bridge in Toronto. The Academy itself was previously the site of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Etobicoke, and has since become the Lakeshore campus of Humber College. The studio scenes were shot at Lakeshore Film Studios; the city scenes were filmed in various parts of Toronto. The riot scenes was filmed at Kensington Market in Toronto, The Silver Dollar Room on Spadina Avenue is the real name of the bar were was filmed for the "Blue Oyster Bar" scenes.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: "Police Academy" opened in the number 1 spot in 1,587 U.S. theaters on March 23, 1984, to a first weekend total gross of $8.6 million. The film went on to gross $81.2 million, becoming the 6th highest grossing American film of 1984. It grossed $68.6 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $149.8 million. The film made a profit of $35 million.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 57% based on 30 reviews. The critical consensus reads, ""Police Academy" is rude, crude, and proudly sophomoric -- which is either a condemnation or a ringing endorsement, depending on your taste in comedy." On Metacritic the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave the film zero stars out of four, commenting that "It's really something. It's so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you're sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don't know what bad is". Ebert's zero-stars review of the film became famous because (unlike many other films he gave zero star ratings to, including I Spit On Your Grave and Freddy Got Fingered), he did not state that "Police Academy" was diseased or morally deficient: he simply found it to be a comedy nadir that not only had no laughs, but didn't seem to be trying to make people laugh. Gene Siskel also hated the film, and noted that the movie had a lot of what looked like setups for jokes and punchlines but would then not have either of them.


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Critic Vincent Canby of "The New York Times", gave the film a mixed review, saying "The movie plows through one outrageous sequence to the next with the momentum of a freight train".


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Rita Kemply of "The Washington Post" wrote: "Attention all units: Slapstick in progress in the vicinity of Police Academy. Suspects wanted for mugging the camera and possession of night shtiks with intent to incite a laugh riot. Please respond to this blues burlesque, a uniformly funny hit sure to have a long run. Its target audience -- those who can take their T&A with a grain of assault. Its plot -- a combo of "Animal House" and "An Officer and a Gentleman". Its stars -- a rainbow coalition of hot newcomers and dependable, unexpendable pros."


title: Police Academy (film)

text: Producer Paul Maslansky says that original feedback on the film was that it was not gross enough. "What are you trying to do?, make a damned "Tootsie"?" said one executive. "Paul, it doesn't fit the formula; it needs more flatulence, more slobbishness, more T&A.," said another.


title: Russian Republic

text: The Russian Republic, referred to as the Russian Democratic Federal Republic in the 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state which controlled, "de jure", the territory of the former Russian Empire after its proclamation by the Russian Provisional Government on 1 September (14 September, ) 1917 in a decree signed by Alexander Kerensky as Minister-Chairman and Alexander Zarudny as Minister of Justice.


title: Russian Republic

text: The Government of the Russian Republic was dissolved after the Bolsheviks seized power by force on 7 November 1917. Nonetheless, a partially democratic election of the Constituent Assembly still took place later in November. On 18 January 1918, this assembly issued a decree, proclaiming Russia a democratic federal republic under the name "Russian Democratic Federative Republic", but had also been illegally dissolved by the Bolsheviks on the next day after the proclamation.


title: Russian Republic

text: The Bolsheviks also used the name "Russian Republic" until the name "Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic" was officially adopted in the Constitution of July 1918. The term "Russian Republic" is sometimes used erroneously for the period between the abdication of the Emperor Nicholas II on 3 March 1917 (16 March, N.S.) and the declaration of the Republic in September. However, during that period the future status of the monarchy remained unresolved.


title: Russian Republic

text: Following the February Revolution, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated his throne and a Provisional Government was formed, under the leadership of Prince Georgy Lvov. The status of the monarchy was left unresolved.


title: Russian Republic

text: Officially, the Republic's government was the Provisional Government, although "de facto" control of the country was contested between it, the soviets (chiefly the Petrograd Soviet), and various ethnic-based separatists (such as the Central Council of Ukraine). Soviets were political organizations of the proletariat, strongest in industrial regions, and were dominated by left-wing parties. Soviets, whose influence was supplemented with paramilitary forces, were occasionally able to rival the Provisional Government which had an ineffective state apparatus.


title: Russian Republic

text: During his first weeks as prime minister, Lvov presided over a series of fleeting reforms which sought to radically liberalise Russia. Universal adult suffrage was introduced, freedoms of press and speech were granted, capital punishment abolished, and all legal restrictions of religion, class and race were removed. Unable to rally sufficient support, he resigned in July 1917 in favour of his Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky.


title: Russian Republic

text: The Government's control of the military was tenuous. Seamen of the Baltic Fleet, for example, had far-left views and openly engaged in political activism in the capital. Right-wing proclivities among the army officers were also a problem – Kerensky's attempt to dismiss Gen. Lavr Kornilov led to a failed coup.


title: Russian Republic

text: Following the failure of Kornilov's coup, Kerensky proclaimed Russia to be a Republic on 1 September, establishing a Provisional Council as temporary parliament, in preparation to the elections of a Constituent Assembly. However, on 7 November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power and dissolved both the Provisional Government and the Provisional Council.


title: Russian Republic

text: Nonetheless, a partially democratic election of the Constituent Assembly still took place later in November. On 18 January 1918, this assembly issued a decree, proclaiming Russia a democratic federal republic under the name "Russian Democratic Federative Republic", but had also been dissolved by the Bolsheviks on the next day after the proclamation.


title: Russian Republic

text: The Republic "de jure" continued to exist until the Bolsheviks proclaimed the creation of the Russian Soviet Republic on 25 January 1918. In response, anti-Bolshevik forces proclaimed the Russian State in September 1918, under the leadership of the Provisional All-Russian Government.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouring ceremonial counties. Three rivers provide most of the county's boundaries; the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. A line of hills forms the northern boundary with Hertfordshire.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex county's name derives from its origin as the Middle Saxon Province of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Essex, with the county of Middlesex subsequently formed from part of that territory in either the ninth or tenth century, and remaining an administrative unit until 1965. The county is the second smallest, after Rutland, of the historic counties of England.


title: Middlesex

text: The City of London became a county corporate in the 12th century; this gave it self-governance, and it was also able to exert political control over the rest of Middlesex as the Sheriff of London was given jurisdiction in Middlesex, though the county otherwise remained separate. To the east of the City, the Tower Division (or Tower Hamlets) had considerable autonomy under its own Lord Lieutenant.


title: Middlesex

text: As London expanded into rural Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the City of London boundaries into the county, posing problems for the administration of local government and justice. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East and West Ends of London. In 1855, in response to these challenges the densely populated southeast, together with sections of Kent and Surrey, came under the Metropolitan Board of Works for certain infrastructure purposes, while remaining a part of Middlesex.


title: Middlesex

text: When county councils were introduced in 1889, about 20% of the area of the historic county, along with a third of its population, was incorporated into the new administrative County of London, with the rest forming the administrative county of Middlesex, governed by the Middlesex County Council that met regularly at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster. Further suburban growth, stimulated by the improvement and expansion of public transport, and the setting up of new industries led to the creation of Greater London in 1965, an area which included almost all of the historic county of Middlesex, with the rest included in neighbouring ceremonial counties.


title: Middlesex

text: The county has its roots in the Middle Saxon Province of the Kingdom of Essex. The extent of the province is not clear, and probably varied over time, but it is clear that it occupied at least the area of the current county and much of Hertfordshire. Although the province is only ever recorded as a part of the East Saxon kingdom, charter evidence shows that it was not part of their core territory.


title: Middlesex

text: At times, Essex was ruled jointly by co-Kings, and it thought that the Middle Saxon Province is likely to have been the domain of one of these co-kings. This link to Essex endured through the Diocese of London, re-established in 604 as the East Saxon see, and its boundaries continued to be based on the Kingdom of Essex until the nineteenth century.


title: Middlesex

text: The name means "territory of the middle Saxons". The word is formed from the Old English, 'middel' and 'Seaxe' ('Saxons') ( Essex, Sussex and Wessex). In 704, it is recorded as "Middleseaxon" in an Anglo-Saxon chronicle, written in Latin, about land at Twickenham. The Latin text reads: ""in prouincia quæ nuncupatur Middelseaxan Haec"".


title: Middlesex

text: The Saxons derived their name, "Seaxe" in their own tongue, from the "seax", a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax appears in the heraldry of the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, each of which bears three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem, or rather the Tudor heralds' idea of what a seax looked like, portrayed in each case like a falchion or scimitar. The names 'Middlesex', 'Essex', 'Sussex' and 'Wessex', contain the name 'Seaxe'.


title: Middlesex

text: It is not known exactly when Middlesex was established as a county, possibly the early tenth century, but it is clear that it did not cover the whole of the former Middle Saxon Province of Essex. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow (Isleworth in all later records), Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the thirteenth century and became a county in its own right, a county corporate. Middlesex also included Westminster, which was separate from the City of London. Westminster Abbey dominated the area of Westminster, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries greatly reduced its influence. A Court of Burgesses was established, in 1585, to fill the power vacuum left behind by the Abbey.


title: Middlesex

text: Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London. During the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower. The county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex outside the metropolitan area remained largely rural until the middle of the 19th century and so the special boards of local government for various metropolitan areas were late in developing. Other than the Cities of London and Westminster, there were no ancient boroughs. The importance of the hundred courts declined, and such local administration as there was divided between "county business" conducted by the justices of the peace meeting in quarter sessions, and the local matters dealt with by parish vestries. As the suburbs of London spread into the area, unplanned development and outbreaks of cholera forced the creation of local boards and poor law unions to help govern most areas; in a few cases parishes appointed improvement commissioners. In rural areas, parishes began to be grouped for different administrative purposes. From 1875 these local bodies were designated as urban or rural sanitary districts.


title: Middlesex

text: The Tower division, better known as the Tower Hamlets, was an area in the Southeast of the county covering what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as well as most of what is now the London Borough of Hackney. The territory had its origin in the medieval Manor of Stepney.


title: Middlesex

text: The area was unusual in combining Hundred and many County responsibilities, to form a "county within a county" comparable to one of the Ridings of Yorkshire. Of particular note was its military autonomy: it had its own Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets and was thus independent of the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex.


title: Middlesex

text: By the 19th century, the East End of London had expanded to the eastern boundary with Essex, and the Tower division, an area which approximated to the East End, had reached a population of over a million. When the railways were built, the north western suburbs of London steadily spread over large parts of the county. The areas closest to London were served by the Metropolitan Police from 1829, and from 1840 the entire county was included in the Metropolitan Police District. Local government in the county was unaffected by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and civic works continued to be the responsibility of the individual parish vestries or "ad hoc" improvement commissioners. From 1855, the parishes of the densely populated area in the south east, but excluding the City of London, came within the responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works for certain infrastructure purposes, though the area remained a part of Middlesex. Despite this innovation, the system was described by commentators at the time as one "in chaos".


title: Middlesex

text: In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888, the metropolitan area of approximately became part of the administrative County of London. The Act also provided that the part of Middlesex in the administrative county of London should be "severed from Middlesex, and form a separate county for all non-administrative purposes".


title: Middlesex

text: The part of the County of London that had been transferred from Middlesex was divided in 1900 into 18 metropolitan boroughs:


title: Middlesex

text: Following the Local Government Act 1888, the remaining county came under the control of Middlesex County Council except for the parish of Monken Hadley, which became part of Hertfordshire. The area of responsibility of the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex was reduced accordingly. Middlesex did not contain any county boroughs, so the county and administrative county (the area of county council control) were identical. At this time, Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199.


title: Middlesex

text: The Local Government Act 1894 divided the administrative county into four rural districts and thirty-one urban districts, based on existing sanitary districts. One urban district, South Hornsey, was an exclave of Middlesex within the County of London until 1900, when it was transferred to the latter county. The rural districts were Hendon, South Mimms, Staines and Uxbridge. Because of increasing urbanisation these had all been abolished by 1934. Urban districts had been created, merged, and many had gained the status of municipal borough by 1965. The districts as at the 1961 census were:


title: Middlesex

text: After 1889, the growth of London continued, and the county became almost entirely filled by suburbs of London, with a big rise in population density. This process was accelerated by the Metro-land developments, which covered a large part of the county. The expanding urbanisation had, however, been foretold in 1771 by Tobias Smollett in "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker", in which it is said:


title: Middlesex

text: Public transport in the county, including the extensive network of trams, buses and the London Underground came under control of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 and a New Works Programme was developed to further enhance services during the 1930s. Partly because of its proximity to the capital, the county had a major role during the Second World War. The county was subject to aerial bombardment and contained military establishments, such as RAF Uxbridge and RAF Heston, which were involved in the Battle of Britain.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex arguably never, and certainly not since 1789, had a single, established county town. The City of London could be regarded as its county town for most purposes and provided different locations for the various, mostly judicial, county purposes. The county assizes for Middlesex were held at the Old Bailey in the City of London. Until 1889, the High Sheriff of Middlesex was chosen by the City of London Corporation. The sessions house for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions was Hicks Hall in Clerkenwell (just outside the City boundary) from 1612 to 1782, and Middlesex Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green from 1782 to 1921. The quarter sessions performed most of the limited administration on a county level prior to the creation of the Middlesex County Council in 1889. New Brentford was first promulgated as the county town in 1789, on the basis that it was where elections of knights of the shire (or Members of Parliament) were held from 1701. Thus a traveller's and historian's London regional summary of 1795 states that (New) Brentford was "considered as the county-town; but there is no town-hall or other public building". Middlesex County Council took over at the Guildhall in Westminster, which became the Middlesex Guildhall. In the same year, this location was placed into the new County of London, and was thus outside the council's area of jurisdiction.


title: Middlesex

text: The population of inner London (then the County of London) declined after its creation in 1889 as more residents moved into the outer suburbs. In the interwar years, suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, and the setting up of new industries.


title: Middlesex

text: After the Second World War, from 1951 to 1961, the populations of the administrative county of London and of inner Middlesex were in steady decline, with population growth continuing in the outer parts of Middlesex. According to the 1961 census, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hendon, Heston & Isleworth, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden and Twickenham had each reached a population greater than 100,000, which would normally have entitled each of them to seek county borough status. If this status were to be granted to all those boroughs, it would mean that the population of the administrative county of Middlesex would be reduced by over half, to just under one million.


title: Middlesex

text: Evidence submitted to the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London included a recommendation to divide Middlesex into two administrative counties of North Middlesex and West Middlesex. However, the commission instead proposed abolition of the county and merging of the boroughs and districts. This was enacted by Parliament as the London Government Act 1963, which came into force on 1 April 1965.


title: Middlesex

text: The Act abolished the administrative counties of Middlesex and London. The Administration of Justice Act 1964 abolished the Middlesex magistracy and lieutenancy, and altered the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court.


title: Middlesex

text: Eighteen of London County Council Metropolitan Boroughs were part of the ancient county of Middlesex. In 1965 these merged to form seven of the twelve current boroughs of Inner London:


title: Middlesex

text: In April 1965, nearly all of the area of the historic county of Middlesex became part of Greater London, under the control of the Greater London Council, and formed the new outer London boroughs of Barnet (part only), Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames (part only).


title: Middlesex

text: The remaining areas were Potters Bar Urban District, which became part of the administrative county of Hertfordshire, and Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District and Staines Urban District, which became part of the administrative county of Surrey. Following the changes, local acts of Parliament relating to Middlesex were henceforth to apply to the entirety of the nine "North West London Boroughs". In 1974, the three urban districts that had been transferred to Hertfordshire and Surrey were abolished and became the districts of Hertsmere (part only) and Spelthorne respectively. In 1995 the village of Poyle was transferred from Spelthorne to the Berkshire borough of Slough. Additionally, the Greater London boundary to the west and north has been subject to several small changes since 1965.


title: Middlesex

text: On its creation in 1965, Greater London was divided into five Commission Areas for justice. The one named "Middlesex" consisted of the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow. It was abolished on 1 July 2003.


title: Middlesex

text: The county lies within the London Basin and the most significant feature is the River Thames, which forms the southern boundary. The River Lea and the River Colne form natural boundaries to the east and west. The entire south west boundary of Middlesex follows a gently descending meander of the Thames without hills. In many places "Middlesex bank" is more accurate than "north bank" — for instance at Teddington the river flows north-westward, so the left (Middlesex) bank is the south-west bank. The largely low-lying county is dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south.


title: Middlesex

text: In the north, the boundary runs along a WSW/ENE aligned ridge of hills. From the Colne to Barnet Gate Wood, this boundary is marked by a 20 kilometre hedge of great antiquity. East of the wood the hedge continues, but no longer forms the county boundary, suggesting that the eastern part of the boundary is younger.


title: Middlesex

text: After Barnett Gate Wood the hedge continues east to Arkley where it divides into two branches, one continuing east to Chipping Barnet and Cockfosters, with another heading north to form the parish boundary between Shenley and Ridge, both in Hertforshire. Neither branch forms part of the county boundary. The change to the county boundary was probably caused in the late 8th century, before Middlesex took the form of a county, when the Liberty of St Albans was created from parts of the Dioceses of London and Lincoln.


title: Middlesex

text: The hills are broken by Barnet or 'Dollis' valleys. (South of the boundary, these feed into the Welsh Harp Lake or Brent Reservoir which becomes the River Brent). This forms a long protrusion of Hertfordshire into the county. The county was once well wooded, with much of it covered by the ancient Forest of Middlesex; Domesday returns for Middlesex indicate that it was around 30% wooded (much of it wood-pasture) in 1086, about double the English average. The highest point is the High Road by Bushey Heath at .


title: Middlesex

text: There were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county.The economy of the county was dependent on the City of London from early times and was primarily agricultural. A variety of goods were provided for the City, including crops such as grain and hay, livestock and building materials. Recreation at day trip destinations such as Hackney, Islington, Highgate and Twickenham, as well as coaching, inn-keeping and sale of goods and services at daily shops and stalls to the considerable passing trade provided much local employment and also formed part of the early economy. However, during the 18th century the inner parishes of Middlesex became suburbs of the City and were increasingly urbanised. The Middlesex volume of John Norden's "Speculum Britanniae" (a chorography) of 1593 summarises:


title: Middlesex

text: In 1803, Sir John Sinclair, president of the Board of Agriculture, spoke of the need to cultivate the substantial Finchley Common and Hounslow Heath (perhaps prophetic of the Dig for Victory campaign of World War II) and fellow Board member Middleton estimated that one tenth of the county, , was uncultivated common, capable of improvement. However, William Cobbett, in casual travel writing in 1822, said that "A more ugly country between Egham (Surrey) and Kensington would with great difficulty be found in England. Flat as a pancake, and until you come to Hammersmith, the soil is a nasty, stony dirt upon a bed of gravel. Hounslow Heath which is only a little worse than the general run, is a sample of all that is bad in soil and villainous in look. Yet this is now enclosed, and what they call 'cultivated'. Here is a fresh robbery of villages, hamlets, and farm and labourers' buildings and abodes." Thomas Babington wrote in 1843, "An acre in Middlesex is worth a principality in Utopia" which contrasts neatly with its agricultural description.


title: Middlesex

text: The building of radial railway lines from 1839 caused a fundamental shift away from agricultural supply for London towards large scale house building. Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield in the north developed first as working-class residential suburbs with easy access to central London. The line to Windsor through Middlesex was completed in 1848, and the railway to Potters Bar in 1850; and the Metropolitan and District Railways started a series of extensions into the county in 1878. Closer to London, the districts of Acton, Willesden, Ealing and Hornsey came within reach of the tram and bus networks, providing cheap transport to central London.


title: Middlesex

text: After World War I, the availability of labour and proximity to London made areas such as Hayes and Park Royal ideal locations for the developing new industries. New jobs attracted more people to the county and the population continued to rise, reaching a peak in 1951. Middlesex became the location of facilities for the film industry. Twickenham Studios were established in 1913. There were also studios at Cricklewood Studios, Gainsborough Pictures, Isleworth Studios, Kew Bridge Studios and Southall Studios.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex (abbreviated Middx) was a former postal county. Counties were an element of postal addressing in routine use until 1996, intended to avoid confusion between post towns, and are no longer required for the routing of the mail. The postal county did not match the boundaries of Middlesex because of the presence of the London postal district, which stretched into the county to include Tottenham, Willesden, Hornsey and Chiswick. Addresses in this area included "LONDON" which is the post town but any overlap with the then County of London was coincidental. In 1965, Royal Mail retained the postal county because it would have been too costly to amend addresses covering the bulk of Outer London. Exceptionally, the Potters Bar post town was transferred to Hertfordshire. Geographically the postal county consisted of two unconnected areas, apart. The first was in and around Enfield and the second, larger area was to the west. This led the retention of 25 Post Towns to this day:


title: Middlesex

text: The postal county had many border inconsistencies where its constituent post towns encroached on neighbouring counties, such as the villages of Denham in Buckinghamshire, Wraysbury in Berkshire and Eastbury in Hertfordshire which were respectively in the post towns of Uxbridge, Staines and Northwood and therefore in the postal county of Middlesex. Egham Hythe, Surrey also had postal addresses of Staines, Middlesex. Conversely, Hampton Wick was conveniently placed in Kingston, Surrey with its sorting offices just across the river. Nearby Hampton Court Palace has a postal address of East Molesey, therefore associating it with Surrey.


title: Middlesex

text: The Enfield post town in the EN postcode area was in the former postal county. All post towns in the HA postcode area and UB postcode area were in the former postal county. Most of the TW postcode area was in the former postal county.


title: Middlesex

text: The Middlesex Flag is included in the Flag Institute's registry of county and regional flags. The flag is a banner of the arms of the former Middlesex County Council, abolished in 1965. A similar design had been used traditionally as a local badge in Middlesex and neighbouring Essex for centuries.


title: Middlesex

text: Coats of arms were attributed by the mediaeval heralds to the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. That assigned to the Kingdom of Essex, of which the Middle Saxon Province was part, depicted three "seaxes" or short notched swords on a red background. The seaxe was a weapon carried by Anglo-Saxon warriors, and the term "Saxon" may be derived from the word. These arms became associated with the two counties that approximated to the kingdom: Middlesex and Essex. County authorities, militia and volunteer regiments associated with both counties used the attributed arms.


title: Middlesex

text: In 1910, it was observed that the county councils of Essex and Middlesex and the Sheriff's Office of the County of London were all using the same arms. Middlesex County Council decided to apply for a formal grant of arms from the College of Arms, with the addition of a heraldic "difference" to the attributed arms. Colonel Otley Parry, a justice of the peace for Middlesex and author of a book on military badges, was asked to devise an addition to the shield. The chosen addition was a "Saxon Crown", derived from the portrait of King Athelstan on a silver penny of his reign, stated to be the earliest form of crown associated with any English sovereign. The grant of arms was made by letters patent dated 7 November 1910.


title: Middlesex

text: The undifferenced arms of the kingdom were eventually granted to Essex County Council in 1932. Seaxes were also used in the insignia of many of the boroughs and urban districts in the county, while the Saxon crown came to be a common heraldic charge in English civic arms. On the creation of the Greater London Council in 1965 a Saxon crown was introduced in its coat of arms. Seaxes appear in the arms of several London borough councils and of Spelthorne Borough Council.


title: Middlesex

text: As well as the ancient county fyrd and militia, Middlesex military units have included the Middlesex Regiment, the Middlesex Yeomanry and their predecessors.


title: Middlesex

text: In the south-east, the Tower Division, effectively a separate county, had its own military arrangements.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex Day is celebrated each year on 16 May. This commemorates the actions of the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment in 1811, at the Battle of Albuera, during the Peninsular War.


title: Middlesex

text: During the battle, Lieutenant-Colonel William Inglis, despite his injuries, refused to retire from the battle but remained with the regimental colours, encouraging his men with the words "Die hard 57th, die hard!" as they came under intense pressure from a French attack. The regiment held and the battle was won. The 'Die Hards' subsequently became the West Middlesex's regimental nickname and the phrase Die Hard entered the language. In 2003, an early day motion in the House of Commons noted the celebration of 16 May, the anniversary of Albuhera, as Middlesex Day.


title: Middlesex

text: In 2002 Plantlife ran a county flowers campaign to assign flowers to each of the counties of the United Kingdom. The general public was invited to vote for the bloom they felt most represented their county. The wood anemone was chosen as the flower of Middlesex. The flower was a common sight in the Forest of Middlesex.


title: Middlesex

text: When the suburbs of London swept over Middlesex, many of its woods were bypassed and preserved. The wood anemone still blooms there to this day.


title: Middlesex

text: The London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS) was founded in 1855 for the study of the archaeology and local history of the City of London and the county of Middlesex. It works in close association with the Museum of London and with the Museum of London Archaeology. It has over 40 affiliated local history societies in Middlesex.


title: Middlesex

text: The interests of family historians in Middlesex are supported by two member organisations of the Federation of Family History Societies: The London, Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society and the West Middlesex Family History Society. For genealogical research Middlesex is assigned Chapman code MDX, except for the City of London ("square mile") assigned LND.


title: Middlesex

text: Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984, was born in 1906 in Gospel Oak and grew up in Highgate. He published several poems about Middlesex and suburban life. Many were featured in the televised readings "Metroland".


title: Middlesex

text: The Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, is based at Twickenham Stadium. The stadium hosts home test matches for the England national rugby union team.


title: Middlesex

text: Seven rugby union clubs at national league levels 1 to 4 have some or all of their other teams playing in Middlesex leagues (those marked * having grounds in Middlesex). These are Harlequins*, Saracens*, London Scottish, London Irish*, Richmond, Ealing Trailfinders*, and Barnes.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex Rugby is the governing body for rugby union in Middlesex. The union selects players from its 88 affiliated clubs for the Middlesex team in the County Championship. It runs the Middlesex RFU Senior Cup open to the top 8 Middlesex clubs that play between tiers 6–7 of the English rugby union system. It also runs the Middlesex RFU Senior Bowl and the Middlesex RFU Senior Vase for sides from lower down the pyramid. It helps run the Herts/Middlesex 1 (tier 9) and Herts/Middlesex 2 (tier 10) leagues. Middlesex Rugby is also active in promoting youth rugby and women's rugby in the county.


title: Middlesex

text: The Football Association, the governing body of association football in England, is based at Wembley Stadium. The stadium hosts major football matches including home matches of the England national football team, and the FA Cup Final.


title: Middlesex

text: There are 19 football clubs based in Middlesex in the top eight tiers of the English football league system (correct for 2018/9 season): Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Barnet, Hampton and Richmond Borough, Wealdstone, Enfield, Haringey Borough, Finchley and Wingate, Harrow Borough, Hayes and Yeading United, Hendon, Ashford Town (Middlesex), Bedfont Sports, Hanwell Town, and Northwood.


title: Middlesex

text: There are 4 women's football clubs based in Middlesex in the top two tiers of Women's football in England: Arsenal Women, Chelsea F.C. Women, London Bees and Tottenham Hotspur Ladies.


title: Middlesex

text: The Middlesex County Football Association regulates and promotes football in the county. The Middlesex F.A. organises many cup competitions, the most prestigious being the Middlesex Senior Cup (founded in 1889) and the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup (founded in 1901).


title: Middlesex

text: The Middlesex County Football League was founded in 1984 and currently comprises 5 divisions. The premier divisions sits at level 7 of the National League System.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. The club was founded in 1864 but teams representing the county have played top-class cricket since the early 18th century and the club has always held first-class status. Middlesex have won thirteen County Championship titles (including 2 shared titles), the most recent in 2016.


title: Middlesex

text: The Middlesex County Cricket League is the top-level competition for all recreational club cricket in the county. The League consists of nine divisions in total. The top division has been designated an ECB Premier League.


title: Middlesex

text: Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) was founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket in England and Wales and, as the sport's legislator, held considerable global influence. Lord's Cricket Ground is also home to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Lord's is widely referred to as the Home of Cricket.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Amateur Swimming Association organises training, competitions and representative county teams in swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Athletics Association is the organisation controlling Amateur Athletics in Middlesex under the direction of UK Athletics.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex Tennis, affiliated to the LTA, works to create more opportunities for people in Middlesex to play and compete in tennis at all levels of the game. The Middlesex County Championships are the highlight of Middlesex's Competition Calendar.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Badminton Association has over 80 affiliated clubs and organises men's, ladies' and mixed leagues.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex Squash & Racketball Association is responsible for organising and promoting squash in Middlesex. It was founded in the 1930s and ran the first Middlesex Open Championships in 1937.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex Small-Bore Rifle Association brings together small-bore rifle and airgun clubs in the county, and organises teams to represent the County in competitions.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Chess Association aims to foster chess throughout Middlesex. It has 15 affiliated clubs.


title: Middlesex

text: Middlesex County Bridge Association runs the Middlesex Cup and the Middlesex League and enters county teams in national and regional competitions.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.


title: Richard Widmark

text: He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, "Kiss of Death" (1947), for which he also won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Early in his career, Widmark was typecast in similar villainous or anti-hero roles in films noir, but he later branched out into more heroic leading and supporting roles in Westerns, mainstream dramas, and horror films among others.


title: Richard Widmark

text: For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Widmark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2002, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark was born December 26, 1914, in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, the son of Ethel Mae ("née" Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent, and his mother was of English and Scottish ancestry. Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and lived in Henry, Illinois for a short time, moving frequently because of his father's work as a traveling salesman. He attended Lake Forest College, where he studied acting and taught acting after he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech in 1936. The Army turned him down during World War II because of a perforated ear drum.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark made his debut as a radio actor in 1938 on "Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories". In 1941 and 1942, he was heard daily on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the title role of the daytime serial "Front Page Farrell", introduced each afternoon as "the exciting, unforgettable radio drama... the story of a crack newspaperman and his wife, the story of David and Sally Farrell." Farrell was a top reporter for the "Brooklyn Eagle". When the series moved to NBC, Widmark turned the role to Carleton G. Young and Staats Cotsworth.


title: Richard Widmark

text: During the 1940s, Widmark was also heard on such network radio programs as "Gang Busters", "The Shadow", "Inner Sanctum Mysteries", "Joyce Jordan, M.D.", "Molle Mystery Theater", "Suspense", and "Ethel and Albert". In 1952, he portrayed Cincinnatus Shryock in an episode of "Cavalcade of America" titled "Adventure on the Kentucky". He returned to radio drama decades later, performing on "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" (1974–82), and was also one of the five hosts on "Sears Radio Theater" (as the Friday "adventure night" host) from 1979 to 1981.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark appeared on Broadway in 1943 in F. Hugh Herbert's "Kiss and Tell" and in William Saroyan's "Get Away Old Man," directed by George Abbott, which ran for 13 performances. He was unable to join the military during World War II because of a perforated eardrum. He was in Chicago appearing in a stage production of "Dream Girl" with June Havoc when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark's first movie appearance was in the 1947 film noir "Kiss of Death", as the giggling, sociopathic villain Tommy Udo. In his most notorious scene, Udo pushed a woman in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs to her death. Widmark was almost not cast. He said, "The director, Henry Hathaway, didn't want me. I have a high forehead; he thought I looked too intellectual." Hathaway was overruled by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck. "Hathaway gave me kind of a bad time," recalled Widmark. "Kiss of Death" was a commercial and critical success: Widmark won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark followed "Kiss of Death" with other villainous performances in the films noir "The Street with No Name" and "Road House", and the western "Yellow Sky" (all 1948), the latter film with Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter. Another standout villainous role was in the racial melodrama "No Way Out" (1950), with Sidney Poitier in his film debut. Widmark and Poitier became good friends and worked in a number of films together in later years.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark played heroic roles in films, including "Down to the Sea in Ships", "Slattery's Hurricane" (both 1949), and Elia Kazan's "Panic in the Streets" (1950). His role as first mate Lunceford in the whaling movie Down to the Sea in Ships was his first starring role as the principal hero.


title: Richard Widmark

text: He also featured in "Halls of Montezuma" (1951) and "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952) (with Marilyn Monroe), and appeared in two films for director Samuel Fuller: "Pickup on South Street" (1953) and "Hell and High Water" (1954).


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark continued to appear in a number of successful films, including "The Tunnel of Love" (1959) with Doris Day, the Westerns "Warlock" (also 1959) with Henry Fonda, and John Wayne's "The Alamo" (1960), the courtroom drama "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961), and reuniting with Sidney Poitier in the adventure "The Long Ships" (1964).


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark produced and starred in the films "Time Limit" (1957), "The Secret Ways" (1961) — based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, which Widmark also directed (uncredited) due to clashes with original director Phil Karlson's proposed tongue-in-cheek direction of the screenplay — and "The Bedford Incident" (1965), his third film with Sidney Poitier and loosely based on the Herman Melville novel "Moby Dick".


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark began to drift into supporting roles during the 1970s, though he still played the occasional lead, for instance in the 1976 British-West German film "To the Devil a Daughter". He was part of an all-star cast in the 1974 film "Murder on the Orient Express" (playing the murder victim), the 1977 film "Rollercoaster" (as an FBI agent), and "The Swarm" (1978). He had a prominent supporting role in Michael Crichton's "Coma" (also 1978), with Geneviève Bujold and Michael Douglas.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark continued to appear in a number of films during the 1980s, again with Sidney Poitier who directed him in the comedy "Hanky Panky" (1982), with Gene Wilder. He also featured in the political thriller "Who Dares Wins" (also 1982), and "Against All Odds" (1984), with Jeff Bridges and James Woods.


title: Richard Widmark

text: In all, Widmark appeared in more than 60 films during his career, and he made his final film appearance in the 1991 drama "True Colors".


title: Richard Widmark

text: In an interview with Michael Shelden in 2002, Widmark complained that "movie-making has lost a lot of its magic". He thought it had become "mostly a mechanical process...All they want to do is move the camera around like it was on a rollercoaster. A great director like John Ford knew how to handle it. Ford didn't move the camera, he moved the people".


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark was a mystery guest on the CBS quiz show "What's My Line?" in 1954. The following year, he made a rare foray into comedy on "I Love Lucy", portraying himself when a starstruck Lucy trespasses onto his property to steal a souvenir. Widmark finds Lucy sprawled out on his living room floor underneath a bearskin rug.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Returning to television in the early 1970s, Widmark received an Emmy Award nomination for his performance as Paul Roudebush, the president of the United States, in the TV movie "Vanished!" (1971), a Fletcher Knebel political thriller. In 1972, he reprised his detective role from Don Siegel's "Madigan" (1968) with six 90-minute episodes on the "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie." He participated in a mini-series about Benjamin Franklin, transmitted in 1974, which was a unique experiment of four 90-minute dramas, each with a different actor impersonating Franklin: Widmark, Beau Bridges, Eddie Albert, Melvyn Douglas, and Willie Aames who portrayed Franklin at age 12. The series won a Peabody Award and five Emmys. During the 1980s, Widmark returned to TV with a half-dozen TV movies.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark was married to screenwriter Jean Hazlewood for 55 years from 1942 until her death in 1997. They had a daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, an artist and author who was married to baseball player Sandy Koufax from 1969 to 1982. In 1999, Widmark married Susan Blanchard, the daughter of Dorothy Hammerstein and stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II; she had been Henry Fonda's third wife.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark owned a cattle ranch near Green City, Missouri during the 1950s and 1960s. He contributed funds to the construction of an airport there, bearing his name in his honor.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Despite having spent a substantial part of his career appearing in gun-toting roles such as cowboys, police officers, gangsters and soldiers, Widmark disliked firearms and was involved in several gun-control initiatives. In 1976, he stated:


title: Richard Widmark

text: Retiring in 2001, Widmark died after a long illness on March 24, 2008, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, at the age of 93. Widmark's failing health in his final years was aggravated by a fall he suffered in 2007. He was buried at Roxbury Center Cemetery.


title: Richard Widmark

text: Widmark's performance in "Kiss of Death" inspired the name of mystery and crime writer Donald E. Westlake's best-known continuing pseudonym, Richard Stark, under which he wrote some of his darkest, most violent books. According to Westlake, "part of (Widmark's) fascination and danger is his unpredictability. He's fast and mean, and that's what I wanted the writing to be: crisp and lean, no fat, trimmed down ... "stark"."


title: Oscilloscope

text: An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetitive or single waveforms on the screen that would otherwise occur too briefly to be perceived by the human eye. The displayed waveform can then be analyzed for properties such as amplitude, frequency, rise time, time interval, distortion, and others. Originally, calculation of these values required manually measuring the waveform against the scales built into the screen of the instrument. Modern digital instruments may calculate and display these properties directly.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Oscilloscopes are used in the sciences, medicine, engineering, automotive and the telecommunications industry. General-purpose instruments are used for maintenance of electronic equipment and laboratory work. Special-purpose oscilloscopes may be used to analyze an automotive ignition system or to display the waveform of the heartbeat as an electrocardiogram, for instance.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Early high-speed visualisations of electrical voltages were made with an electro-mechanical oscillograph. These gave valuable insights into high speed voltage changes, but had a very low frequency respose, and were superseded by the oscilloscope which used a cathode ray tube (CRT) as its display element.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The Braun tube, forerunner of the Cathode Ray Tube was known in 1897, and in 1899 Jonathan Zenneck equipped it with beam-forming plates and a magnetic field for deflecting the trace, and this formed the basis of the CRT. Early cathode ray tubes had been applied experimentally to laboratory measurements as early as the 1920s, but suffered from poor stability of the vacuum and the cathode emitters. V. K. Zworykin described a permanently sealed, high-vacuum cathode ray tube with a thermionic emitter in 1931. This stable and reproducible component allowed General Radio to manufacture an oscilloscope that was usable outside a laboratory setting.


title: Oscilloscope

text: After World War II surplus electronic parts became the basis for the revival of Heathkit Corporation, and a $50 oscilloscope kit made from such parts proved its premiere market success.


title: Oscilloscope

text: An analog oscilloscope is typically divided into four sections: the display, vertical controls, horizontal controls and trigger controls. The display is usually a CRT with horizontal and vertical reference lines called the "graticule". CRT displays also have controls for focus, intensity, and beam finder.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The vertical section controls the amplitude of the displayed signal. This section has a volts-per-division (Volts/Div) selector knob, an AC/DC/Ground selector switch, and the vertical (primary) input for the instrument. Additionally, this section is typically equipped with the vertical beam position knob.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The horizontal section controls the time base or "sweep" of the instrument. The primary control is the Seconds-per-Division (Sec/Div) selector switch. Also included is a horizontal input for plotting dual X-Y axis signals. The horizontal beam position knob is generally located in this section.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The trigger section controls the start event of the sweep. The trigger can be set to automatically restart after each sweep, or can be configured to respond to an internal or external event. The principal controls of this section are the source and coupling selector switches, and an external trigger input (EXT Input) and level adjustment.


title: Oscilloscope

text: In addition to the basic instrument, most oscilloscopes are supplied with a probe. The probe connects to any input on the instrument and typically has a resistor of ten times the oscilloscope's input impedance. This results in a 0.1 (‑10×) attenuation factor; this helps to isolate the capacitive load presented by the probe cable from the signal being measured. Some probes have a switch allowing the operator to bypass the resistor when appropriate.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Most modern oscilloscopes are lightweight, portable instruments compact enough for a single person to carry. In addition to portable units, the market offers a number of miniature battery-powered instruments for field service applications. Laboratory grade oscilloscopes, especially older units that use vacuum tubes, are generally bench-top devices or are mounted on dedicated carts. Special-purpose oscilloscopes may be rack-mounted or permanently mounted into a custom instrument housing.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The signal to be measured is fed to one of the input connectors, which is usually a coaxial connector such as a BNC or UHF type. Binding posts or banana plugs may be used for lower frequencies.


title: Oscilloscope

text: If the signal source has its own coaxial connector, then a simple coaxial cable is used; otherwise, a specialized cable called a "scope probe", supplied with the oscilloscope, is used. In general, for routine use, an open wire test lead for connecting to the point being observed is not satisfactory, and a probe is generally necessary.


title: Oscilloscope

text: General-purpose oscilloscopes usually present an input impedance of 1 megohm in parallel with a small but known capacitance such as 20 picofarads. This allows the use of standard oscilloscope probes. Scopes for use with very high frequencies may have 50 Ω inputs. These must be either connected directly to a 50 Ω signal source or used with Z or active probes.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Less-frequently-used inputs include one (or two) for triggering the sweep, horizontal deflection for X‑Y mode displays, and trace brightening/darkening, sometimes called "z'‑axis inputs.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Open wire test leads (flying leads) are likely to pick up interference, so they are not suitable for low level signals. Furthermore, the leads have a high inductance, so they are not suitable for high frequencies. Using a shielded cable (i.e., coaxial cable) is better for low level signals. Coaxial cable also has lower inductance, but it has higher capacitance: a typical 50 ohm cable has about 90 pF per meter. Consequently, a one-meter direct (1×) coaxial probe loads a circuit with a capacitance of about 110 pF and a resistance of 1 megohm.


title: Oscilloscope

text: To minimize loading, attenuator probes (e.g., 10× probes) are used. A typical probe uses a 9 megohm series resistor shunted by a low-value capacitor to make an RC compensated divider with the cable capacitance and scope input. The RC time constants are adjusted to match. For example, the 9 megohm series resistor is shunted by a 12.2 pF capacitor for a time constant of 110 milliseconds. The cable capacitance of 90 pF in parallel with the scope input of 20 pF and 1 megohm (total capacitance 110 pF) also gives a time constant of 110 milliseconds. In practice, there is an adjustment so the operator can precisely match the low frequency time constant (called compensating the probe). Matching the time constants makes the attenuation independent of frequency. At low frequencies (where the resistance of "R" is much less than the reactance of "C"), the circuit looks like a resistive divider; at high frequencies (resistance much greater than reactance), the circuit looks like a capacitive divider.


title: Oscilloscope

text: The result is a frequency compensated probe for modest frequencies. It presents a load of about 10 megohms shunted by 12 pF. Such a probe is an improvement, but does not work well when the time scale shrinks to several cable transit times or less (transit time is typically 5 ns). In that time frame, the cable looks like its characteristic impedance, and reflections from the transmission line mismatch at the scope input and the probe causes ringing. The modern scope probe uses lossy low capacitance transmission lines and sophisticated frequency shaping networks to make the 10× probe perform well at several hundred megahertz. Consequently, there are other adjustments for completing the compensation.


title: Oscilloscope

text: Probes with 10:1 attenuation are by far the most common; for large signals (and slightly-less capacitive loading), 100:1 probes may be used. There are also probes that contain switches to select 10:1 or direct (1:1) ratios, but the latter setting has significant capacitance (tens of pF) at the probe tip, because the whole cable's capacitance is then directly connected.