title: Dr. John

text: He played keyboards on the highly successful 1979 solo debut album by Rickie Lee Jones. He toured with Willy DeVille and contributed to his albums "Return to Magenta" (1978), "Victory Mixture" (1990), "Backstreets of Desire" (1992), and "Big Easy Fantasy" (1995). In 1997 he contributed piano and vocals to the Spiritualized song "Cop Shoot Cop" which appears on their album, "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space". His music was featured in many films, including "New Looks" in "National Lampoon's European Vacation" in 1985 and "Such a Night" in "Colors" in 1988. In 1992, Dr. John released the album "Goin' Back to New Orleans", which included many classic songs from New Orleans. Many great New Orleans-based musicians, such as Aaron Neville, the Neville Brothers, Al Hirt and Pete Fountain, backed up Dr. John on this album. He also performed as the first American artist at the Franco Follies festival in 1992.


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John's longtime confidant and former personal manager, Paul Howrilla, was responsible for moving Dr. John from Los Angeles to New York and securing "crossover" work, as well as modifying Dr. John's image from the 1970s to the 1990s. Paul Howrilla was the brains behind the scenes, as Dr. John would attest. They remained close friends. Dr. John also provided vocals for Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits' "Luv dat chicken  ..." jingle, as well as the theme song ("My Opinionation") for the early-1990s television sitcom "Blossom". A version of "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" with Harry Connick Jr. was released on Connick's album "20" and VHS "Singin' & Swingin'" in 1990. Dr. John moved back to Louisiana in 2009.


title: Dr. John

text: From the late 1970s to 1991, Dr. John co-wrote over 115 songs with legendary Brill Building songwriter Doc Pomus. Some of the songs created with Pomus were recorded by Marianne Faithfull, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Johnny Adams, and others. On March 17, 1991, Dr. John performed "My Buddy" at the funeral for Pomus.


title: Dr. John

text: His movie credits included Martin Scorsese's documentary "The Last Waltz", in which he joined the Band for a performance of his song "Such a Night", the 1978 Beatles-inspired musical "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and "Blues Brothers 2000", in which he joined the fictional band the Louisiana Gator Boys to perform the songs "How Blue Can You Get" and "New Orleans". His version of the Donovan song "Season of the Witch" was also featured in this movie and on the soundtrack. In 1996, he performed the song "Cruella de Ville" during the end credits of the film "101 Dalmatians".


title: Dr. John

text: He wrote and performed the score for the film version of John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" released in 1982. His hit song "Right Place Wrong Time" was used extensively in the movies "Dazed and Confused", "Sahara" and the series "". Dr. John was also featured in several video and audio blues and New Orleans piano lessons published by Homespun Tapes. Other documentary film scores include the New Orleans dialect film "Yeah You Rite!" (1985) and "American Tongues" in 1987.


title: Dr. John

text: Between July and September 1989, Dr. John toured in the first Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, alongside Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Nils Lofgren, Jim Keltner, Joe Walsh, Billy Preston and Clarence Clemons. The tour produced the 1990 live album "Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band".


title: Dr. John

text: In 1997, he appeared on the charity single version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day". In the same year, he played piano on the Spiritualized song "Cop Shoot Cop ...", from their critically acclaimed album "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space". Frontman Jason Pierce, a fan of Dr. John's music, reciprocated by guesting on Dr. John's 1998 album "Anutha Zone" along with drummer Damon Reece and guitarist Thighpaulsandra. He recorded the live album "Trippin' Live" with drummer Herman V.Ernest III, David Barard, bass, Tommy Moran, guitar, trumpeter Charlie Miller, tenor Red Tyler, and baritone sax Ronnie Cuber.


title: Dr. John

text: In September 2005, he performed Bobby Charles' "Walkin' to New Orleans", to close the "" telethon. This was for the relief of Hurricane Katrina victims, following the devastation of his hometown of New Orleans. In November 2005, he released a four-song EP, "Sippiana Hericane", to benefit New Orleans Musicians Clinic, Salvation Army, and the Jazz Foundation of America. On February 5, 2006, he joined fellow New Orleans native Aaron Neville, Detroit resident Aretha Franklin and a 150-member choir for the national anthem at Super Bowl XL as part of a pre-game tribute to New Orleans. On February 8, 2006, he joined Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, The Edge, and Irma Thomas to perform "We Can Can" as the closing performance at the Grammy Awards of 2006. In 2014 he performed at the NBA All Star Game as did Pharrell Williams and Janelle Monáe.


title: Dr. John

text: On May 12, 2006, Dr. John recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for "Live from Abbey Road". His performance was aired alongside those of LeAnn Rimes and Massive Attack on the Sundance Channel in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. He performed the opening theme music to the PBS children's program "Curious George", broadcast since 2006.


title: Dr. John

text: On July 30, 2006, Dr. John performed a solo piano benefit for New Orleans composer and arranger Wardell Quezergue (King Floyd's "Groove Me") at a New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit at the Black Orchid Theatre in Chicago. Special guest Mike Mills of R.E.M. was in attendance, along with an all-star funk band.


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John performed the theme music to the Fox drama "K-Ville". In 2007, he contributed to "", performing "Don't Leave Me This Way". In January 2008, Dr. John was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Later, in February, he performed at All-Star Saturday Night, part of the NBA All-Star Weekend hosted by New Orleans. The same year, Dr. John released his Grammy Award-winning "City that Care Forgot", about Hurricane Katrina's devastation in New Orleans.


title: Dr. John

text: In the 2009 Disney film "The Princess and the Frog", Dr. John sang the opening tune, "Down in New Orleans". He reigned as King of the Krewe du Vieux for the 2010 New Orleans Mardi Gras season. On May 13, 2010, Dr. John played alongside The Roots on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (episode 246) and was warmly greeted by Jimmy's first guest, Keith Richards. In June 2010, Dr John played at the Glastonbury festival, Shepton Mallet, UK.


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John played keyboards and had a major role in shaping Gregg Allman's 2011 album "Low Country Blues", which was produced by T-Bone Burnett. In 2011, he collaborated with Hugh Laurie on the song "After You've Gone" on Laurie's album "Let Them Talk". The same year, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and The Meters performed "Desitively Bonnaroo" at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, as part of the festival's tenth year celebration. The name of the festival was taken from the 1974 Dr. John album, "Desitively Bonnaroo". The same year he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Darlene Love and Tom Waits.


title: Dr. John

text: In 2012, Dr. John released "Locked Down", a collaboration with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who produced the record and played guitar on it. The album received very positive reviews for its raw, Afrobeat-influenced sound. The "Los Angeles Times" said that it showed Dr. John "exiting a period of relative creative stagnation by creating something magical, the embodiment of everything he's done but pushed in a clear new direction". It won a Grammy Award, as did Auerbach for producing it.


title: Dr. John

text: In 2014, Dr. John released a Louis Armstrong tribute album, "", on Concord Records USA and Proper Records in Europe. Dr. John described the inspiration of the album as Louis Armstrong coming to him in a dream and telling him "do my music your way". The "Los Angeles Times" said, "Tribute albums come and go, but it's a real rarity that can snap a listener to attention like Dr. John's new salute to jazz founding father Louis Armstrong." That spring, "The Musical Mojo of Mac", a New Orleans concert to honor Dr. John, was introduced by Brian Williams and kicked off by Bruce Springsteen singing "Right Place, Wrong Time", with Dr. John and an all-star band which included event producer Don Was on bass.


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John recorded "Let 'Em In" in the Paul McCartney tribute album "The Art of McCartney". "It's a wonder to behold, as the ageless Dr. John re-envisions "Let 'Em In" as a laconic come on, an invitation to party or maybe something more, once a few more glasses have been raised", wrote Something Else. "At the same time, he ends up lacing the song with darker feelings, as well."


title: Dr. John

text: Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl interviewed Dr. John about music in the New Orleans-themed episode of their HBO series "Sonic Highways" "(including the hypnotic reveal of Dr. John's given name)", wrote a Decider reviewer.


title: Dr. John

text: From 2014 to 2016, Dr. John performed with an alternate band, including at a Hollywood Bowl tribute "Yes We Can Can" for his late friend Allen Toussaint on July 20, 2016. Also performing Allen Toussaint compositions were New Orleans artists Irma Thomas, Cyril Neville, the band Galactic, and the Allen Toussaint Band. In 2016, a double album and DVD of the concert, "The Musical Mojo of Dr. John: Celebrating Mac and his Music", was released.


title: Dr. John

text: In 2017, Members of Dr. John's band The Gris Gris Krewe with music director Roland Guerin performed "Right Place Wrong Time" in the video kicking off the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. The same year, Dr. John was a headliner on The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Tour with Music Directors Warren Haynes and Don Was, reprising his "Such a Night" performance from the original concert and film with The Band.


title: Dr. John

text: 2017 also saw his first single "Storm Warning", recorded as a tribute to Bo Diddley, featured on the "Logan Lucky" soundtrack. In April, he joined John Legend (who inducted him into the Rock Hall) and Jon Batiste on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", and he appeared in Tig Notaro's critically acclaimed Amazon TV series "One Mississippi".


title: Dr. John

text: On November 1, 2017, Dr. John celebrated Mac Month as proclaimed by the New Orleans City Council in a reception at Napoleon House, and his birthday was proclaimed Dr. John Day in the City of New Orleans for the fact that he "rose to international recognition for his musical funkitude in performing, writing and producing." Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also issued a Statement of Recognition to Dr. John for "embodying the culture of the state from New Orleans to the Bayou."


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John's birth date was corrected in 2018 when his hometown newspaper, "The Times-Picayune", discovered in their records that he was actually born on November 20, 1941, as opposed to the commonly listed November 21, 1940. He added a year to his age as an underage prodigy with a local hit, so he could get into gigs.


title: Dr. John

text: On September 23, 2022, Rounder Records and the Dr. John estate released Dr. John's posthumous country & western album "Things Happen That Way" with guests Aaron Neville, Willie Nelson, and Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. "The New Orleans piano man who embodied the musical mélange of his hometown had the kind of drawly, lived-in voice that only improved with age," "The New York Times" wrote. "So Things Happen That Way, Dr. John's final album, recorded the year he died, 2019 - captures him in peak form." The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album in November, 2022.


title: Dr. John

text: Dr. John's music style encompassed New Orleans blues, swamp blues, boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, New Orleans R&B, jazz, soul, funk, psychedelic funk, blues rock, rock and roll, swamp rock and country music.


title: Dr. John

text: He had a heroin addiction; however, in December 1989, he completed his final rehabilitation stint with the help of Narcotics Anonymous, and remained clean for the rest of his life.


title: Dr. John

text: On June 6, 2019, Dr. John died of a heart attack. His family announced through his longtime publicist Karen Dalton Beninato that he died at break of day, and "he created a unique blend of music which carried his home town, New Orleans, at its heart, as it was always in his heart."


title: Dr. John

text: The winner of six Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend in March 2011.


title: Dr. John

text: In May 2013 Rebennack received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Tulane University. His posthumous album "Things Happen That Way" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album in November, 2022.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges; all four convicted were pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2020.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. The Iraqi government and Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul stated that the killings were unprovoked. The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. The U.S. State Department has said that "innocent life was lost", and according to "The Washington Post", a military report appeared to corroborate "the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault". The Iraqi government vowed to punish Blackwater. The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Just before noon on September 16, 2007, a car bomb exploded near the Izdihar Compound where US and Iraqi officials were meeting, and a 19-man Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST) consisting of a convoy of four trucks, answering to the call sign "Raven 23", took up positions on the south side of Nisour Square to secure an evacuation route for the US officials and another Blackwater team providing security for them.  The Blackwater commander, Jimmy Watson, had received an order to stand by and not leave the Green Zone upon reaching a checkpoint, but he made a "tactical decision" to advance to Nisour Square after waiting for a few minutes; upon informing the Blackwater Tactical Operations Center of this, he was ordered to return to the Green Zone. However, after "Raven 23" entered Nisour Square, Watson was ordered to "lock down the traffic circle to expedite the travel of [the other Blackwater team]". Shortly after assuming their positions, "Raven 23" began firing on civilians in response to an approaching car, killing fourteen and wounding twenty more.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: During opening arguments for a criminal trial held in 2014, defense lawyers representing former Blackwater members of Raven 23 argued the men felt the approaching Kia was a credible threat as a possible car bomb, and opened fire in self-defense. Prosecutors argued the men did not face hostile gunfire when they began shooting, and continued to shoot despite the lack of threats. The driver of the Kia was shot once in the head by a Blackwater contractor and was killed. The Kia continued to roll forward after the driver was killed, according to an eyewitness, and Raven 23 continued to fire on it, killing the passenger (the driver's mother); eventually, the Kia was struck by a grenade and was incinerated.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: A State Department spot report published the same day as the incident stated that eight to ten attackers opened fire on Raven 23 "from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms" after the convoy had entered Nisour Square, starting at 12:08 p.m. The report added that another Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST 22), who had escorted the officials and TST 4 back to the Green Zone, was redirected to support Raven 23. Raven 23 "returned defensive fire" and withdrew from Nisour Square with one of its BearCat vehicles in tow. As Raven 23 was departing Nisour Square, several members continued to discharge their weapons, causing additional civilian deaths and injuries. TST 22 arrived at Nisour Square after Raven 23 had left; when TST 22 tried to withdraw, its route was blocked by Iraqi Army and Police vehicles. A U.S. Army convoy arrived at 12:39 p.m., backed by air cover, to escort TST 22 back to the Green Zone.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: An Iraqi government account of the incident stated that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her adult son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer's whistle to clear a path for the convoy. According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded. Iraqi investigators also alleged that Blackwater helicopters fired into the cars from the air, as at least one car had bullet holes in its roof; Blackwater has denied any of its aerial units discharged weapons.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The account by the Blackwater firm differed from the Iraqi government's account; Blackwater's account stated the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car, possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing the car towards the Blackwater TST. In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policeman, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men, who communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: "Contact, contact, contact! We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police." According to Blackwater vice-president Marty Strong, the convoy was hit with "a large explosive device" and "repeated small arms fire" which disabled a vehicle. Several sources have stated that the explosion was caused by a mortar round, though this is not reflected in the State Department's incident report.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On September 27, 2007, "The New York Times" reported that during the chaotic incident at Nisour Square, one member of the Blackwater security team continued to fire on civilians despite urgent cease-fire calls from colleagues. It remains unclear whether the team member mistook the civilians for insurgents. The incident was allegedly resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident later said that they believed the shootings were unjustified.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Blackwater's rights to conduct work in Iraq were temporarily suspended. Several Iraqi and American investigations have been conducted into the incident. The incident caused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater USA, and for the Iraqi government to push for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable". The US House passed a bill, titled the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. courts.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On September 18, 2007, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Blackwater is "not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq". However, the company was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement took effect. A spokesman stated that the ban would last for the duration of the investigation, and that it would not be permanent. The banning was described by P. W. Singer, an expert on the private military industry, as "inevitable", given the US government's reliance on and lack of oversight of the private military industry in Iraq.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The Private Security Company Association of Iraq, in a document last updated on July 3, 2007, listed Blackwater as not having a license to operate in Iraq despite their attempts to apply for one. Blackwater's operations on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the CIA may be unaffected by license revocation. Also, it is not clear whether the license revocation is permanent.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On September 19, as a result of the incident, the United States temporarily suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The order confines most Americans to a area in the center of the city so that they are unable to visit other areas without traveling in a helicopter. The order did not say when the suspension would expire. On September 21, CNN reported that Blackwater would resume normal operations the following day.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Blackwater, which had been operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license, applied for one after the incident, but the application was rejected by Iraqi officials in January 2009. The Iraqi government ordered Blackwater to leave Iraq as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finished drafting new guidelines on private contractors under the Iraqi-U.S. security agreement. On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that it would not be renewing its security contract with the company.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The U.S. State Department said it planned to investigate what it called a "terrible incident". According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised a "fair and transparent" investigation into the incident. The State Department announced an American-Iraqi joint commission to investigate both the shooting and the broader issue of employing private security contractors. The committee was co-chaired by Abd al Qadir, the Iraqi Minister of Defense, and Patricia A. Butenis, the Chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held hearings on the use of Private Security Contractors in February 2007, said his committee would hold hearings "to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests". Waxman stated that "the controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors."


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On October 4, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it would be taking the lead in the investigation of the shooting incident.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: An Interior Ministry spokesman said Iraqi authorities had completed their investigation into the shooting and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. U.S. military reports appear to corroborate the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault in the incident.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On October 2, 2007, the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report stating that Blackwater USA guards had used deadly force weekly in Iraq and had inflicted "significant casualties and property damage". The report found that the guards fired their weapons 195 times from the beginning of 2005 through the second week of September 2005. The report further said that Blackwater had reported that its forces fired first in over 80 percent of the cases.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On October 4, 2007, U.S. military reports indicated Blackwater's guards had opened fire without provocation and used excessive force. "It was obviously excessive", a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity told the "Washington Post". "The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the I.P. (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them", the official continued. The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns, according to the report.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On October 13, 2007, the FBI reported that it had concluded that at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis who died in the square had been killed without cause. The three justifiable killings were those of the two passengers in the white Kia sedan and an unidentified Iraqi nearby. A Blackwater spokeswoman responded to the findings by saying Blackwater "supports the stringent accountability of the industry. If it is determined that one person was complicit in the wrongdoing, we would support accountability in that. The key people in this have not spoken with investigators."


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On January 19, 2008, "The New York Times" reported that the contractor responsible for many of the deaths in the engagement, previously known only as "turret gunner no. 3", is named Paul Slough. He enlisted in 1999, and served in Bosnia with the 3rd Infantry Division. He received an honorable discharge in 2002 and then enlisted in the Texas National Guard. He served one tour in Iraq before being hired as a Personal Security Specialist in Iraq.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Radio logs released in December 2008 seemed to affirm that the guards had been responding to an attack on September 16. The logs depicted "a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police".


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On April 1, 2009, the Associated Press reported that forensic tests on bullets were inconclusive. None of the bullets the lab had available could be matched to the rifles used by the guards.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On April 1, 2011, the Associated Press reported on Erik Prince's seven-hour testimony about what allegedly transpired. Prince strongly criticized the way in which federal authorities had handled the investigation and disputed the claims that U.S. or Blackwater personnel were to blame for the shootings. In his testimony, Prince noted that, "It seems the ballistics analysis was done to prove the guilt of the Americans, not to just try to identify what happened there." Erik Prince said that he didn't believe the FBI had fully investigated the sources of all the used bullets in Nisour Square, arguing that it would have been helpful if the defense had been in possession of a complete ballistics report. FBI scientists couldn't match bullets from the square to guns carried by the Blackwater guards and FBI investigators found foreign cartridge cases of a kind not used by U.S. or Blackwater personnel. As shootings in the square were not uncommon, it is unclear whether the shells were from the shooting in question or from other incidents.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that stated that private contractors, although hired as "security guards", were performing military duties. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under international law; however, the United States is not a signatory of the 1989 UN Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries. Nor is the US a signatory of the 1977 additional protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions in which Article 47 specifies that mercenaries are civilians who "take a direct part in the hostilities" and are "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain". (The Protocol makes no distinction between defensive and offensive actions, but the U.S. does make such a distinction, in that it does not regard defensive actions by security guards to be combat.)


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News, "We see the security firms ... doing whatever they want in the streets. They beat citizens and scorn them. ... [I]f such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it?" Hasan Jaber Salman, a lawyer who was one of the wounded, said that "no one did anything to provoke Blackwater" and that "as we turned back they opened fire at all cars from behind" An Iraqi police officer who was directing traffic at the scene said Blackwater guards "became the terrorists" when they opened fire on civilians unprovoked, while a businessman said he wasn't seeking compensation but only "the truth" from the guards. After a group of Iraqi ministers backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry's decision to shut down Blackwater USA's operations in Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the U.S. government to end its contract with Blackwater and called on Blackwater to pay the families $8 million in compensation.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: A U.S. judge's decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater on January 1, 2010, sparked outrage in the Arab world.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before Congress that the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors, but that commanders lack sufficient "means and resources" to exercise adequate oversight. On October 4, 2007, the U.S. House passed a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: and thus prosecution by U.S. courts. Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to pass similar legislation as soon as possible.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Richard J. Griffin, the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, who made key decisions regarding the department's oversight of private security contractor Blackwater USA, resigned in November 2007, after a critical review by the House Oversight Committee found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors during the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. Howard Krongard, who was appointed Inspector General of the U.S. State Department in 2005, resigned in December 2007 after he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into the Blackwater Baghdad shootings.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On September 24, 2007, the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior announced it would file criminal charges against the Blackwater staff involved in the shooting, although it is unclear how some of them will be brought to trial. A senior aide to al-Maliki said that three of the Blackwater guards were Iraqis and could be subject to prosecution. The aide also said that the Iraqi government was pushing for an apology, compensation for victims or their families and for the guards involved in the shooting to be held "accountable".


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On October 11, 2007, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against Blackwater USA under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of an injured Iraqi and the families of three of the seventeen Iraqis who were killed by Blackwater employees during the September 16, 2007, shooting incident. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum in January 2010. A second civil lawsuit filed jointly by the families of six victims against Blackwater was settled on January 6, 2012 for an undisclosed sum.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: In December 2008, the United States Department of Justice announced it was filing criminal charges against five of the Blackwater employees, and ordered them to surrender to the FBI. Five were charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, New Hampshire; Nicholas Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tennessee, and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas. A sixth Blackwater guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, struck a deal with prosecutors on December 4, 2008 and pleaded guilty to one count each of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and aiding and abetting, and agreed to testify against the other five men.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The trial was set for early 2010, but the charges were dismissed by United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ricardo Urbina on December 31, 2009, who ruled that the Justice Department had mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights. In the memorandum opinion, Judge Urbina ruled the cases against Slough, Liberty, Heard, Ball, and Slatten had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity; that evidence included statements the guards had been compelled to give to State Department investigators, and as these statements would have been self-incriminating, they could not be used as evidence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "Prosecutors should therefore have built their case against the men without them", a BBC report explained. The opinion elaborated "the government failed to establish that the Iraqi witnesses it presented to the second grand jury were not in any way influenced by their previous exposure to the defendants' compelled statements. This evidentiary use of tainted information constitutes yet another "Kastigar" violation." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. Three weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden, who was overseeing U.S. policy in Iraq, promised Iraqi leaders the U.S. would appeal the dismissal of these charges.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On April 22, 2011, after closed-door testimony, a federal appeals-court panel revived the Justice Department's prosecution of the former Blackwater Worldwide guards by reinstating the manslaughter charges against the five men. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found "systemic" errors in the district court's 2009 decision to dismiss charges against the five former Blackwater guards and added "We find that the district court's findings depend on an erroneous view of the law". On June 5, 2012, the US Supreme Court declined to review the Appeal Court ruling, allowing the trial to proceed.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: In September 2013, the charges against Ball were dropped. Prosecutors stated they reached their decision after an "assessment of the admissible evidence against him".


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: The other four went on trial starting on June 17, 2014; ten weeks of testimony and 28 days of jury deliberations resulted in convictions for all four men on October 22, 2014. Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter charges, and of using a machine gun to commit a violent crime. Jurors sided with prosecutors' contention that the shooting was a criminal act, not a battlefield encounter gone wrong. Slatten faced a potential sentence of life in prison. The other three guards faced decades in prison; the weapons charges carried a minimum 30-year sentence under a law enacted during the 1990s cocaine epidemic. Bringing the weapons charges was disputed within the Justice Department, which initially opposed including them in the indictment. After it was added, defense attorneys contended a 30-year sentence would be too severe, since the law was intended to deter gang members from carrying automatic weapons.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On April 13, 2015, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Slatten to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison each.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On August 4, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned Slatten's murder conviction and ordered the other defendants to be re-sentenced to time already served. The panel also recommended that Slatten undergo a re-trial on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's fractured "per curiam" decision first found that Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act authorized the prosecutions, over the partial dissent of Judge Janice Rogers Brown. However, the court then found that the mandatory minimum sentences as applied to the defendants were unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishments, over the partial dissent of Judge Judith W. Rogers.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On December 19, 2018, Slatten was found guilty of murder and again was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2019. Heard, Liberty, and Slough were resentenced on September 5, 2019 to terms approximately half the original 30-year periods.


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard. A White House statement said the men had a "long history of service to the nation" as veterans of the US Armed Forces, and that there was strong support for the pardons from the public and elected officials. The White House further stated that the Court of Appeals "ruled that additional evidence should have been presented at Mr Slatten's trial", and recently that prosecutors said "that the lead Iraqi investigator, who prosecutors relied heavily on to verify that there were no insurgent victims and to collect evidence, may have had ties to insurgent groups himself".


title: Nisour Square massacre

text: Clemency caused outrage among Iraqi citizens and family members of the victims. UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said that forgiveness "contributes to impunity and has the effect of encouraging others to commit such crimes in the future". The Iraqi Foreign Ministry urged the United States to reconsider, declaring the pardons "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed".


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expansion franchise in 1969, and has played in four World Series, winning in 1985 and 2015, and losing in 1980 and 2014. Outside of a dominant 10 year stretch between 1976 to 1985, and a brief, albeit dominant resurgence from 2014 to 2015, the Royals have been one of the worst franchises in baseball, missing the playoffs 34 of the previous 36 years.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The name "Royals" pays homage to the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show, rodeo, and championship barbecue competition held annually in Kansas City since 1899, as well as the identical names of two former Negro league baseball teams that played in the first half of the 20th century. (One a semi-pro team based in Kansas City in the 1910s and 1920s that toured the Midwest and a California Winter League team based in Los Angeles in the 1940s that was managed by Chet Brewer and included Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson on its roster.) The Los Angeles team had personnel connections to the Monarchs but could not use the Monarchs name. The name also fits into something of a theme for other professional sports franchises in the city, including the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, the former Kansas City Kings of the NBA, and the former Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In 1968, the team held a name-the-team contest that received more than 17,000 entries. Sanford Porte, a bridge engineer from the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, was named the winner for his “Royals” entry. His reason had nothing to do with royalty. “Kansas City’s new baseball team should be called the Royals because of Missouri’s billion-dollar livestock income, Kansas City’s position as the nation’s leading stocker and feeder market and the nationally known American Royal parade and pageant,” Porte wrote. The team's board voted 6–1 on the name, with the only opposition coming from team owner Ewing Kauffman, who eventually changed his vote and said the name had grown on him.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Entering the American League in 1969 along with the Seattle Pilots, the club was founded by Kansas City businessman Ewing Kauffman. The franchise was established following the actions of Stuart Symington, then-U.S. Senator from Missouri, who demanded a new franchise for the city after the Athletics (Kansas City's previous major league team that played from 1955 to 1967) moved to Oakland, California in 1968. Since April 10, 1973, the Royals have played at Kauffman Stadium, formerly known as Royals Stadium.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The new team quickly became a powerhouse, appearing in the playoffs seven times from 1976 to 1985, winning one World Series championship and another AL pennant, led by stars such as Amos Otis, Hal McRae, John Mayberry, George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson, and Bret Saberhagen. The team remained competitive throughout the early 1990s, but then had only one winning season from 1995 to 2012. For 28 consecutive seasons (1986–2013), the Royals did not qualify to play in the MLB postseason, one of the longest postseason droughts during baseball's current wild-card era. The team broke this streak in 2014 by securing the franchise's first wild card berth and advancing to the 2014 World Series, where they lost to the San Francisco Giants in seven games. The Royals followed this up by winning the team's first AL Central division title in 2015 and defeating the New York Mets in five games in the 2015 World Series to win their second World Series championship.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: When the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland after the 1967 season, Kansas City was left without major league baseball or, for the first time since 1883, professional baseball at all. The team was led by Charlie Finley, who explored many elaborate relocation plans and essentially shunned Kansas City before the team even relocated. An enraged Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri threatened to introduce legislation removing baseball's antitrust exemption unless Kansas City was granted a team in the next round of expansion. Major League Baseball complied with a hasty round of expansion at the 1967 winter meetings. Kansas City was awarded one of four teams to begin play in 1971. However, Symington was not satisfied with having Kansas City wait three years for baseball to return, and pressured MLB to allow the new teams to start play in 1969. Symington's intervention may have contributed to the financial collapse of the Royals' companion expansion team, the Seattle Pilots, who had to begin play in 1969 before they were ready (the league required new franchises to enter in pairs to preserve symmetry for scheduling purposes).


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Pharmaceutical executive Ewing Kauffman won the bidding for the new Kansas City team. He conducted a contest to determine the best and most appropriate name for the new franchise. Sanford Porte from Overland Park, Kansas submitted the name Royals, in recognition of Missouri's billion-dollar livestock industry. His suggestion was that the American Royal best exemplified Kansas City through its pageantry and parade, so the new team should be named the Royals. The name was selected out of 17,000 submissions and the Royals Board voted 6–1 to adopt the name. The one dissenting vote was Mr Kauffman's. He eventually changed his mind after the name grew on him. (Some sources say it was in honor of the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro leagues team.) The team's logo, a crown atop a shield with the letters "KC" inside the shield, was created by Shannon Manning, an artist at Hallmark Cards, based in Kansas City.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals began play in 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri. In their inaugural game, on April 8, 1969, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4–3 in 12 innings. The Royals went 69–93 in their first season, highlighted by Lou Piniella, who won the AL Rookie of the Year Award.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The team was quickly built through a number of trades engineered by its first General Manager, Cedric Tallis, who picked up center fielder Amos Otis, who became the team's first great star, first baseman John Mayberry, who provided power, second baseman Cookie Rojas, shortstop Fred Patek, designated hitter Hal McRae, and others. The Royals also invested in a strong farm system and soon developed such future stars as pitchers Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, and Steve Busby, infielders George Brett and Frank White, and outfielder Al Cowens. Under these young players, the Royals started to build a young core set up for future success.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In 1971, the Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon leading them to a second-place finish. In 1973, under manager Jack McKeon, the Royals adopted their iconic "powder blue" road uniforms and moved from Municipal Stadium to the brand-new Royals Stadium (now known as Kauffman Stadium).


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The 1973 All-Star Game was hosted at Royals Stadium, with Otis and Mayberry in the AL starting lineup. The event was previously held at Municipal Stadium in 1960, when the Athletics were based in Kansas City.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Manager Whitey Herzog replaced McKeon in 1975, and the Royals quickly became the dominant franchise in the American League's Western Division. After a second-place, 91 win season, they won three straight division championships from 1976 to 1978, including the franchise's only 100-win season in 1977. However, the Royals lost to the New York Yankees in three straight American League Championship Series encounters.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: After the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was fired and replaced by Jim Frey. Under Frey and a legendary .390 season from George Brett, the Royals rebounded in 1980 and advanced to the ALCS, where they again faced the Yankees. The Royals vanquished the Yankees in a three-game sweep punctuated by Brett's home run off of Yankees' star relief pitcher Goose Gossage. After reaching their first World Series, the Royals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games. Game 6 was also significant because it remains the most-watched game in World Series history with a television audience of 54.9 million viewers.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In July 1983, while the Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the team's rivalry with the New York Yankees occurred. In what has come to be known as "the Pine Tar Incident", umpires discovered illegal placement of pine tar (more than 18 inches up the handle) on third baseman George Brett's bat after he had hit a two-run home run off Gossage that put the Royals up 5–4 in the top of the 9th. After Yankee Manager Billy Martin came out of the dugout to talk to home plate umpire Tim McClelland, McClelland and the other umpires mulled over the bat (measuring it over home plate, touching it, etc.). McClelland then pointed to Brett in the dugout and gave the "out" sign, disallowing the home run. Enraged, Brett stormed out of the dugout toward McClelland and Martin, and McClelland ejected Brett. The homer was later reinstated by AL President Lee MacPhail, and the Royals won the game after it was resumed several weeks later.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The 1983 season was also notable for some transitional changes in the Royals organization. First, owner Ewing Kauffman sold 49% of his interest to Memphis developer Avron Fogelman. Second, John Schuerholz was named general manager. Schuerholz soon bolstered the farm system with pitchers Bud Black, Danny Jackson, Mark Gubicza, David Cone, and Bret Saberhagen, as well as hitters such as Kevin Seitzer.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Thanks to the sudden and surprising maturation (specifically, in pitching) of most of the aforementioned players, the Royals won their fifth division championship in 1984, relying on Brett's bat and the young pitching staff of Saberhagen, Gubicza, Charlie Leibrandt, Black and Jackson. The Royals were then swept by the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. The Tigers went on to win the World Series.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In the 1985 regular season the Royals topped the Western Division for the sixth time in ten years, led by Bret Saberhagen's Cy Young Award-winning performance and George Brett's self-described best "all around year." Throughout the ensuing playoffs, the Royals came back from 2–0 and 3–1 deficits, but managed to win the Series. In game three, with KC down 2 games to 0, George Brett homered twice and doubled off the fence in right field to put Kansas City back into the series. With the Royals down three games to one in the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Royals eventually rallied to win the series 4–3.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In the 1985 World Series (nicknamed the "I-70 Series" because the two teams are both located in the state of Missouri and connected by Interstate 70) against the cross-state St. Louis Cardinals, the Royals again fell behind, three games to one. After Danny Jackson pitched the Royals to a 6–1 win in game five, the Cardinals and Royals headed back to Kansas City for game six. Facing elimination, the Royals trailed 1–0 in the bottom of the 9th inning, when Jorge Orta led off, hitting a bouncing ground ball to Cardinals 1st basemen Jack Clark, who flipped the ball back to pitcher Todd Worrell at first base. The ball beat Orta to the bag, but umpire Don Denkinger called him safe, and following a dropped popup by Clark and a passed ball, The Royals rallied to score two runs, winning on a walk-off single from pinch hitter Dane Iorg to send the series to game seven. In game seven Bret Saberhagen shutout the Cardinals as Kansas City dominated the Cardinals 11–0, clinching their first title in franchise history.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals maintained a reputation as one of the American League West's top teams throughout the late 1980s. The club posted a winning record in three of the four seasons following its 1985 World Series championship, while developing young stars such as Bo Jackson, Tom Gordon, and Kevin Seitzer. The Royals finished the 1989 season with a 92–70 record (third-best in the major leagues) but did not qualify for the playoffs, finishing second in their division behind the eventual World Series champion Oakland Athletics.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: At the end of the 1989 season, the team boasted a powerhouse pitching rotation, including the AL Cy Young Award-winner Bret Saberhagen (who set franchise record 23 wins that year), two-time All-Star Mark Gubicza (a 15-game winner in 1989) and 1989 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Tom Gordon (who won 17 games that year). But the organization felt it was still missing a few necessary pieces to give its divisional rival Oakland Athletics a run for their money. So prior to the 1990 season, the Royals acquired Mark Davis, the 1989 National League Cy Young Award-winner and league leader in saves, signing him to a 4-year, $13 million contract (the largest annual salary in baseball history at the time). The Royals also signed starting pitcher Storm Davis, who was coming off a career-high 19-game win season (third-best in the AL), to a three-year $6 million contract. Despite the promising off-season moves, the team suffered critical bullpen injuries while both newly signed Davises experienced lackluster seasons in 1990. The Royals concluded the season with a 75–86 record, in second-to-last place in the AL West (and with the worst franchise record since 1970). Bo Jackson—the team's potential future franchise player—suffered a devastating hip injury while playing football in the off-season, so the Royals waived him during spring training in 1991.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Though the team dropped out of contention from 1990 to 1992, the Royals still could generally be counted on to post winning records through the strike-shortened 1994 season. With no playoff appearances despite the winning records during this era, many of the team's highlights instead centered around the end of George Brett's career, such as his third and final batting title in 1990—which made him the first player to win batting titles in three different decades—and his 3,000th hit.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In 1994, the Royals moved from the AL West to the newly created AL Central along with the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, joined by the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers from the AL East. The Brewers left for the NL Central in 1998, replaced by the Detroit Tigers that moved from the AL East.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: At the start of the 1990s, the Royals had been hit with a double-whammy when General Manager John Schuerholz departed in 1990 and team owner Ewing Kauffman died in 1993. Shortly before Kauffman's death, he set up an unprecedented complex succession plan to keep the team in Kansas City. The team was donated at his death to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts with operating decisions of the team decided by a five-member group chaired by Wal-Mart executive David Glass. According to the plan the Royals had six years to find a local owner for the team before opening ownership to an outside bidder. The new owners would be required to say they would keep the team in Kansas City. Kauffman had feared that new owners would move it noting, "No one would want to buy a baseball team that consistently loses millions of dollars and had little prospect of making money because it was in a small city." If no owner could be found the Kauffman restrictions were to end on January 1, 2002, and the team was to be sold to the highest bidder. In 1999, New York City lawyer and minor league baseball owner Miles Prentice, vowing not to move the team, bid $75 million for the team. This was the minimum amount Kauffman had stipulated the team could be sold for. MLB rejected Prentice's first bid without specifying any reason. In a final round of bids on March 13, 2000, the Foundation voted to accept Glass' bid of $96 million, rejecting Prentice's revised bid of $115 million.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: During the interregnum under Foundation ownership, the team declined. In the 1994 season, the Royals reduced payroll by trading pitcher David Cone and outfielder Brian McRae, then continued their salary dump in the 1995 season. The team payroll, which had previously remained among the league's highest, was sliced in half from $40.5 million in 1994 (fourth-highest in the major leagues) to $18.5 million in 1996 (second-lowest in the major leagues).


title: Kansas City Royals

text: As attendance slid and the average MLB salary continued to rise, rather than pay higher salaries or lose their players to free agency, the Royals traded their remaining stars such as Kevin Appier, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye. By 1999, the team's payroll had fallen again to $16.5 million. Making matters worse, most of the younger players that the Royals received in exchange for these All-Stars proved of little value, setting the stage for an extended downward spiral. Indeed, the Royals set a franchise-low with a .398 winning percentage (64–97 record) in 1999, and lost 97 games again in 2001.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In the middle of this era, in 1997, the Royals declined the opportunity to switch to the National League as part of a realignment plan to introduce the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays as expansion teams. The Milwaukee Brewers made the switch instead.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In 2002, the Royals set a new team record for futility, losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history. They fired manager Tony Muser, and he was replaced by Tony Peña.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The 2003 season saw a temporary end to the losing, when manager Tony Peña, in his first full season with the club, guided the team to its first winning record (83–79) since 1994 and finished in third place in the AL Central. He was named the American League Manager of the Year for his efforts and shortstop Ángel Berroa was named AL Rookie of the Year.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: From the 2004 season through the 2012 season, the Royals posted nine consecutive losing records, the longest streak in team history. In six of those seasons, the team finished in last place in the American League Central, and in eight of those nine seasons the team lost at least 90 games. The worst seasons came in 2004–2006, when the Royals lost at least 100 games each year and set the franchise's all-time record for losses (56–106 in 2005).


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Picked by many to win their division in 2004 after faring well in the free agent market, the Royals got off to a disappointing start and by late June were back in a rebuilding mode, releasing veteran reliever Curtis Leskanic and trading veteran reliever Jason Grimsley and superstar center fielder Carlos Beltrán for prospects, all within a week of each other.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The team subsequently fell apart completely, losing 104 games and breaking the franchise record set just two years earlier. The Royals did, however, see promising seasons from two rookies, center fielder David DeJesus and starting pitcher Zack Greinke. The team continued a youth movement in 2005, but finished with a 56–106 record (.346), a full 43 games out of first place, marking the third time in four seasons that the team reestablished the mark for worst record in franchise history. The season also saw the Royals lose 19 games in a row, a franchise record. During the season manager Tony Peña quit and was replaced by interim manager Bob Schaefer until the Indians' bench coach Buddy Bell was chosen as the next manager. Looking for a quick turnaround, general manager Allard Baird signed several veteran players prior to the 2006 season, including Doug Mientkiewicz, Mark Grudzielanek, Joe Mays and Scott Elarton. Nevertheless, the Royals struggled through another 100-loss season in 2006, becoming just the eleventh team in major league history to lose 100 games in three straight seasons. During the season Baird was fired as GM and replaced by Dayton Moore.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Kansas City entered the 2007 season looking to rebound from four out of five seasons ending with at least 100 losses. The Royals outbid the Cubs and Blue Jays for free agent righty Gil Meche, signing him to a five-year, $55 million contract, the largest contract in Royals history. Reliever Octavio Dotel also inked a one-year, $5 million contract. The team also added several new prospects, including Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Among Dayton Moore's first acts as General Manager was instating a new motto for the team: "True. Blue. Tradition." In June 2007, the Royals had their first winning month since July 2003 and followed it up with a winning July. The Royals finished the season 69–93, but 2007 marked the club's first season with fewer than 100 losses since 2003. Manager Buddy Bell resigned following the 2007 season.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals hired Trey Hillman, formerly the manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters and a minor league manager with the New York Yankees, to be the 15th manager in franchise history. The 2008 season began with the release of fan-favorite Mike Sweeney and the trade of Ángel Berroa to the Dodgers. Through 13 games in 2008, the Royals were 8–5 and in first place in the AL Central, a vast improvement over their start from the previous season. However, by the All-Star break, the Royals were again in losing territory, with their record buoyed only by a 13–5 record in interleague play, the best in the American League. The team finished the season in fourth place in the division with a 75–87 record.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Prior to the 2009 season, the Royals renovated Kauffman Stadium, and after the season began, the Royals ended April at the top of the AL Central, both of which raised excitement levels among fans. However, the team faded as the season progressed and finished the year with a final record of 65–97, in a tie for fourth place in the AL Central. The season was highlighted by starter Zack Greinke, who did not allow an earned run in the first 24 innings of the season, went on to finish the year with a Major League-leading 2.16 earned run average, and won the American League Cy Young Award. Greinke joined Bret Saberhagen (in 1985 and 1989) and David Cone (in 1994) as only the third player in Royals history to receive the award.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals began the 2010 season with a rocky start, and after the team's record fell to 12–23, manager Trey Hillman was fired. Former Milwaukee Brewers skipper Ned Yost took over as the 16th manager in franchise history, At the end of the 2010 season, the Royals finished with a 67–95 record, in last place in the division for the sixth time in seven years. The Royals also set a dubious franchise record during the season, allowing 42 runs in a three-day span from July 25 to 27. The Royals began 2011 with a hot start, compiling 10–4 record after 14 games, but success faded as the season progressed. The Royals last had a .500 record at 22–22, and by the All-Star break, the Royals had a record of 37–54, the worst in the American League. Almost all of the Royals' bullpen was made up of 2011 minor league call ups, in addition to the infielders Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Johnny Giavotella, and catchers Salvador Pérez and Manny Piña. Hosmer won the AL Rookie of the Month award in July and September and finished the season with 19 home runs. Moustakas collected a fifteen-game hitting streak, which tied the longest such streak by a Royals rookie. The Royals finished the 2011 season with a 71–91 record, in fourth place in the AL Central. The 2012 team saw more of the same, as they improved by one game to 72–90, but finished one spot better in the division.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was hosted by the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 10, 2012 (in addition to the 2012 Home Run Derby, All-Star Futures Game and Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game during the All-Star break), which the National League won 8–0. The 2012 season marked the third time the "Midsummer Classic" was held in Kansas City.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: On December 10, 2012, in an attempt to strengthen the pitching staff (which was among the worst in baseball in 2012), the Royals traded for Rays pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis, giving Tampa top prospects Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and Patrick Leonard in return. This trade helped catalyze a return to winning records.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: For most of the 2013 season, the Royals hovered near .500. The team also did not commit an error in its first seven games (for innings) for the first time in team history. On September 22, the Royals won their 82nd game of the season to clinch the franchise's first winning season since 2003. The Royals finished the season 86–76 and in third place in the AL Central, securing the team's best winning percentage since 1994.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The 2014 season was even more successful, featuring a return to the postseason for the first time in 29 years, and what would unfold as a historic playoff run from the Wild Card all the way to the 2014 World Series.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Anchored by the "HDH" trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland, the bullpen became one of the most dominant in MLB history.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Entering the 2014 season, the Royals had the longest playoff drought of any team in the four main American professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA). On July 21, 2014, the Royals had a losing record (48–50) and were eight games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central standings. But spurred by a 22–5 record from July 22 to August 19 coinciding with a mediocre 12–15 stretch by the Tigers, the team surged into first place in the AL Central. The Royals reached the top of the division standings on August 11, after winning their eighth game in a row. This marked the latest date the Royals had led their division since August 29, 2003. The team retained its division lead for a month, before falling out of first-place permanently on September 12. They finished the 2014 regular season with a record 89–73, still the most wins for the Royals since 1989. Though the team finished one game behind Detroit in the AL Central, the Royals secured their first-ever wild card berth.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: After qualifying for the postseason, the Royals embarked on a record-setting eight-game winning streak. They hosted the Oakland Athletics in the 2014 American League Wild Card Game and won 9–8 on a Salvador Pérez walk-off single in the 12th inning, having earlier rallied back from a 7–3 deficit in the eighth. The Royals then swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 2014 American League Division Series. In Game 1 of the ALDS, the score was 2–2 going into the 11th inning, when Mike Moustakas hit a game-winning solo home run. The next day, Kansas City beat the Angels 4–1 in another extra-innings affair, in the process setting an MLB postseason record of three straight extra-inning wins. The Royals then completed the sweep at home, winning 8–3 in game three and advancing to the 2014 American League Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In the opening game of the ALCS on October 11, 2014, the Royals defeated the Orioles 8–6, with two home runs in the 10th inning. Thus, in eight extra innings over five postseason games in 2014, they succeeded in hitting four homers in extra innings, more than any team in the history of Major League Baseball. In the second ALCS game, the Royals again beat the Orioles 6–4, behind Lorenzo Cain's four hits, including an RBI single. After game three, the ALCS was delayed one day due to rainy weather, when the Royals hosted the Orioles at Kauffman Stadium on October 14, 2014. Pitcher Jeremy Guthrie allowed only one run as KC beat the Orioles 2–1, taking a 3–0 lead in the series. In game four, the Royals completed the sweep of the Orioles with another 2–1 win to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1985. The win marked the team's eighth consecutive postseason win in one year, breaking a major league record previously held by the Colorado Rockies in 2007 and Cincinnati Reds in 1976. It also marked the Royals' 11th win in a row overall in postseason play, dating back to the franchise's final three wins of the 1985 Series, the third-longest multi-year postseason streak in baseball history.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals faced the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series. They had home-field advantage, due to the American League's win in the 2014 All-Star Game.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: After setting an AL record by winning eight straight games to reach the World Series, the Royals opened the series by losing 7–1 in the first game against starter Madison Bumgarner. The Royals bounced back with a 7–2 win in game two to tie the series at 1–1. The Royals won game three in San Francisco 3–2 to take the series lead for the first time. In game four, the Royals lost 11–4, which tied the series with the Giants. In game five, they lost 5–0 to the Giants against starter Madison Bumgarner. In game six, the Royals beat the Giants 10–0. In game seven, the Royals started Jeremy Guthrie against Giants pitcher Tim Hudson. Guthrie lasted innings before he was replaced by Kelvin Herrera, who himself lasted innings. He was then replaced by Wade Davis, who pitched in two innings. Closer Greg Holland ended the game. On the Giants side, Hudson lasted only innings before he was replaced by Jeremy Affeldt, who was later replaced by Madison Bumgarner. The Royals lost game seven, 3–2, with the tying run (Alex Gordon) on third base in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, when Salvador Pérez fouled out to Pablo Sandoval to end the game and the series.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: After earning a wild card entry to the playoffs in 2014, in 2015, the Royals won the franchise's first division title since 1985 and first Central division title ever. The Royals went on to win the 2015 World Series – the first championship for the Royals since 1985 – beating the New York Mets four games to one.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals entered the 2015 All-Star break with the best record in the American League at 52–34. The team continued its momentum into the second half of the season, and on July 26, Royals management traded three prospects Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb, and Cody Reed for 2014 All-Star pitcher Johnny Cueto to help bolster its starting pitching rotation, as well as trading two pitchers to the Oakland Athletics for super-utility player Ben Zobrist. The team ended the regular season with a record of 95–67, the best in the entire American League, and the organization's best record since 1980.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals faced the Houston Astros in the ALDS. Down 2–1 in the series and trailing 6–2 in the 8th inning of Game 4, the Royals rallied for 5 runs en route to a 9–6 win before Cueto's gem in Game 5 powered the Royals to a second consecutive ALCS. The Royals defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6, to win the 2015 ALCS and earn a trip to face the New York Mets in the 2015 World Series.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals beat the New York Mets 4 games to 1 to become the 2015 World Series champions. It was the Royals' first World Series title since 1985. The series win was sealed after the Royals beat the Mets 7–2 in the 12th inning of Game 5. The Royals rallied in the 9th inning down 2–0 to tie the score 2–2, forcing the game into extra innings. The five-run 12th inning was initiated by a Salvador Pérez single, with Jarrod Dyson pinch-running for him. This was followed by a single from Christian Colon and doubles from both Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, scoring runs from Jarrod Dyson, Colon, Paulo Orlando (who reached base on an error by Daniel Murphy), Escobar and Ben Zobrist (who was intentionally walked). Wade Davis, who hadn't allowed a run yet that postseason, closed out the game with a flawless 12th, allowing one hit and striking out Wilmer Flores to end the game and win the World Series for the Royals. Upon conclusion of the final game, catcher Salvador Perez was named World Series MVP.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals followed up their World Series victory with an underachieving, injury-riddled campaign in 2016. The Royals had an inconsistent season in which they ultimately finished 81–81, third place in the division and out of playoff contention. This season is notable for the debut of future star Whit Merrifield. The 2017 season marked the end of the World Series core: pitcher Yordano Ventura was killed in a car accident on January 22, and the Royals wore patches that said 'ACE 30' on their jerseys for the 2017 season to honor him; Wade Davis was traded in the offseason. In 2017, the Royals finished similarly to 2016 at 80–82, third place in the division, and missed the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Stars Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer became free agents after the season and signed contracts with the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres, respectively.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Although Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain left in free agency, the Royals were able to re-sign Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar. In 2018, the team started a new rebuild, trading Moustakas mid-season for prospects, and giving playing time to young players like Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O'Hearn, and Brad Keller. Despite this, the team finished with only 58 wins, the team's lowest win total since 2005. The 2018 season also marked the emergence of Whit Merrifield as a star, as he led the MLB in hits (192) and stolen bases (45).


title: Kansas City Royals

text: On June 3, 2019, the Royals selected Bobby Witt Jr. with the second pick in the MLB draft. Widely considered one of the top prospects in baseball, Witt is regarded as one of the biggest prospects to be drafted by Kansas City since Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: On August 30, 2019, it was announced that John Sherman, a minority owner of the Cleveland Indians, had agreed to purchase the team from David Glass for a reported amount of $1 billion. In September, manager Ned Yost announced that he would retire at the end of the season after ten seasons and a franchise-record 746 wins. The Royals finished the 2019 season one game better than 2018, at 59–103. Whit Merrifield once again led the league in hits, while Jorge Soler led the American League with 48 home runs and three Royals players paced the league in triples (Mondesi, Merrifield and Hunter Dozier, with 10 apiece). On October 31, 2019, the Royals announced the hiring of former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny to replace Ned Yost. In 2020, the season was shortened to 60 games because of the COVID-19 pandemic; the Royals finished with a 26–34 record (a .433 winning percentage), good for fourth place in the AL Central. Overall in 2021, the Royals finished with a 74–88 record (a .457 winning percentage), landing in fourth place in the AL Central but seeing improvement over both 2019 and 2020, as catcher Salvador Pérez led MLB in both home runs and runs batted in and Bobby Witt Jr. continued to emerge as one of the top prospects in Minor League Baseball.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Beginning with the 2022 season, Dayton Moore was promoted to the team's President of Baseball Operations and J. J. Picollo began his tenure as general manager. Moore was fired by the end of the season. The Royals spent 2022 blending their roster with several rookies (including Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, and Vinnie Pasquantino among others), often fielding lineups with six or more rookies on a given night. The team finished in fourth place of the AL Central with a 65–97 record, and Mike Matheny was fired after their season finale in Cleveland. Team owner John Sherman announced in November 2022 that the team plans to leave Kauffman Stadium prior to the end of their lease in 2030 and build a stadium in downtown Kansas City.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals' home uniform remained almost unchanged from its first season. The original design featured blue arm and neck piping, along with "Royals" in blue and in script lettering. The road uniform was inverted from the home uniform, with "Kansas City" written in blue, in script lettering and in an arch arrangement. For the 1971 season the "Kansas City" on the road uniforms were changed to block lettering, while both uniforms added a roundel containing the team logo on the left sleeve. The blue cap with "KC" stitched in front was also introduced and remains in use today.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals switched to pullover uniforms for the 1973 season. While the home uniform did not deviate much from its original design, the road uniform changed to a powder blue base and white letters. Names were added in the 1978 season.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals returned to wearing buttoned uniforms for the 1983 season. The most notable change came on the powder blue uniform, where "Royals" in script replaced "Kansas City". Both uniforms added numbers on the left chest.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: For the 1992 season, the Royals resumed wearing grey uniforms on the road, but the uniforms retained the "Royals" script and letters in blue with white trim. In 1994 a blue alternate uniform was introduced, with "Royals" script and letters in white. The following season, the road uniforms were tweaked to feature "Kansas City" in block letters, while neck piping was removed. A grey cap with blue brim and "KC" in blue was also used for a few games.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Before the 2002 season, the Royals added black to the color scheme, and this was also reflected on the team's uniforms. Initially, the home uniforms were only updated to remove blue piping and include black drop shadows, but in 2003, the Royals went with sleeveless uniforms with blue undershirts. The grey uniforms also removed the sleeves and piping, and were paired with black undershirts and a black cap with blue brim. Letters were also given black drop shadows. The Royals also went with a black alternate uniform, featuring blue piping and "Royals" written in blue with white trim. The sleeve patch was updated without the roundel on the home and blue alternate uniforms, while a new "Royals" roundel logo was placed on the grey undershirt and black alternates.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: In 2006, black was eliminated from the uniforms, and the Royals returned to wearing sleeved uniforms with arm piping. The road uniforms brought back the "Kansas City" script, albeit written diagonally, with a slight adjustment in size prior to the 2012 season. For a few games in 2006, the black uniforms were used, albeit with the "Kansas City" script, before it was retired. In 2008, the Royals introduced a new powder blue alternate with "Royals" in blue with white trim, and letters in white with blue trim; the color lettering scheme in front was reversed starting in 2012. The uniforms were briefly paired with a powder blue cap with blue brim in 2010. Unlike the previous powder blue uniform, this set is paired with the home white pants.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Powder blue was added as a trim color when the Royals issued a new blue alternate in 2014. The "KC" insignia replaced "Royals" and the number in front, while piping was added. After winning the 2015 World Series, the Royals began wearing an alternate white uniform, featuring "Royals" in metallic gold with blue trim. In 2017, the uniform was updated with the team name in blue with gold trim, and numbers in gold and blue trim. A new blue cap with "KC" in gold was paired with this uniform.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals unveiled a fresh uniform set for the 2022 season. The primary home uniform remained the same save for the thicker sleeve stripes. The road primary and blue road alternate returned to the block "Kansas City" wordmark the team used from 1971 to 1982, adding chest numbers on both uniforms. The alternate home powder blue uniform removed the royal blue elements, with the numbers taking the same color as the "Royals" script.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Also in 2022, the Royals wore "City Connect" uniforms in homage to Kansas City's "City of Fountains" moniker. The top of the uniform is navy blue with powder blue accents, with a stylized "KC" insignia on the left chest. The "KC" insignia was shaped to resemble a fountain of water shooting up. Pants worn are white with a powder blue stripe on each side. Caps are all-navy while helmets are navy with powder blue brim; both designs incorporate the "KC" in front.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals' most prominent rivalry is with the intrastate St. Louis Cardinals. For geographic reasons, the teams long played exhibition games, but a true rivalry began with the Royals' victory over the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, known as the "I-70 Series." Notably, the manager for the Cardinals in the series was Whitey Herzog, who had been the Royals' manager from 1975 to 1979, and led Kansas City to the franchise's first three playoff appearances – in 1976, 1977, and 1978 – before getting fired just shortly after the Royals were eliminated from the playoffs in 1979. Interleague play in 1997 allowed the I-70 Series to be revived in non-exhibition games. The first few seasons of the series were rather even, with the Cardinals holding a slight advantage with a 14–13 record through the 2003 season. Through the 2019 season, the Cardinals hold the series advantage 62–42.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: From 1976 to 1980, the Royals faced the New York Yankees four times in five years in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees won in 1976, 1977 and 1978, while the Royals won in 1980. In a 2013 article about the 1983 Pine Tar Incident involving the two teams, Lou Pinella said: "As a team, we didn't really like Kansas City. We had played them in the '76, '77 and '78 postseason and beaten them every time. There was no love lost between the teams. We didn't like each other. They were our big rivals..." George Brett agreed: "I hated everyone on the Yankees, I really did. I hated 'em all, back in that era." Kansas City also held historic grudges against the Yankees in general, as during the Athletics' residency under Arnold Johnson's ownership, it was effectively a "de facto" "farm team" for the Bronx Bombers due to lopsided trades in favor of New York.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: The Royals have retired the numbers of former players George Brett (No. 5) and Frank White (No. 20). Former manager Dick Howser's No. 10 was retired following his death in 1987. Former Brooklyn Dodgers player Jackie Robinson's No. 42 is retired throughout Major League Baseball.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: No. 29, worn by Royals greats Dan Quisenberry (238 saves, 2.55 ERA) and Mike Sweeney (.299 batting average, 197 home runs, 837 RBI), has not been assigned since Sweeney's departure in 2007.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: , the Royals affiliate radio station is KCSP 610AM, the station having entered into a new four-year deal starting from the 2020 season. The station had been carrying games since 2008. The radio announcers are Denny Matthews and Ryan Lefebvre, with Steve Stewart and Steve Physioc.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Televised games are aired on Bally Sports Kansas City, a branch of Bally Sports Midwest. For the 2012 season, Ryan Lefebvre was joined by Jeff Montgomery for about 20 games while the rest of the broadcasts were covered by former Angels announcer duo of Rex Hudler and Steve Physioc. During the 2016 season, the Royals averaged an 11.7 rating and 105,000 viewers on primetime TV broadcasts. Selected Royals games previously aired in the 2000s on the Royals Network, and its former flagship was KMCI-TV.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: On February 22, 2007, Matthews was selected as the 2007 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: Sluggerrr is the mascot of the Royals. Sluggerrr is a lion, and made his first appearance on April 5, 1996.


title: Kansas City Royals

text: On game day, Sluggerrr can be found giving aggressive encouragement to players and fans, pitching in the "Little K", and firing hot dogs from an air cannon into the stands between innings.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engine-powered generator. Most PHEVs are passenger cars, but there are also PHEV versions of commercial vehicles and vans, utility trucks, buses, trains, motorcycles, mopeds, and even military vehicles.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Similar to all-electric vehicles (BEVs), PHEVs displace greenhouse gas emissions from the car tailpipe exhaust to the power station generators powering the electricity grid. These centralized generators may be of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind or hydroelectric) and largely emission-free, or have an overall lower emission intensity than individual internal combustion engines. Compared to conventional hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), PHEVs have a larger battery pack that can be charged from the power grid, which is also more efficient and can cost less than using only the on-board generator, and also often have a more powerful electric output capable of longer and more frequent EV mode driving, helping to reduce operating costs. A PHEV's battery pack is smaller than all-electric vehicles for the same vehicle weight (due to the necessity to still accommodate its combustion engine and hybrid drivetrain), but has the auxiliary option of switching back to using its gasoline/diesel engine like a conventional HEV if the battery runs low, alleviating range anxiety especially for places that lack sufficient charging infrastructure.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Mass-produced PHEVs have been available to the public in China and the United States since 2010. By the end of 2017, there were over 40 models of highway-legal series-production PHEVs for retail sales, and are available mainly in China, Japan, the United States, Canada and Western Europe. The top-selling models are the Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV, the Chevrolet Volt family and the Toyota Prius PHV.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: , the global stock of PHEVs totaled 2.4 million units, representing one-third of the stock of plug-in electric passenger cars on the world's roads. , China had the world's largest stock of PHEVs with 767,900 units, followed by the United States with 567,740, and the United Kingdom with 159,910.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: A plug-in hybrid's all-electric range is designated by PHEV-"[miles]" or PHEV"[kilometers]"km in which the number represents the distance the vehicle can travel on battery power alone. For example, a PHEV-20 can travel twenty miles (32 km) without using its combustion engine, so it may also be designated as a PHEV32km.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: For these cars to be battery operated, they go through charging processes that use different currents. These currents are known as Alternating Current (AC) used for on board chargers and Direct Current (DC) used for external charging.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Other popular terms sometimes used for plug-in hybrids are "grid-connected hybrids", "Gas-Optional Hybrid Electric Vehicle" (GO-HEV) or simply "gas-optional hybrids". GM calls its Chevrolet Volt series plug-in hybrid an "Extended-Range Electric Vehicle".


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: The Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid, produced as early as 1899, was the first hybrid electric car. Early hybrids could be charged from an external source before operation. However, the term "plug-in hybrid" has come to mean a hybrid vehicle that can be charged from a standard electrical wall socket. The term "plug-in hybrid electric vehicle" was coined by UC Davis Professor Andrew Frank, who has been called the "father of the modern plug-in hybrid".


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: The July 1969 issue of "Popular Science" featured an article on the General Motors XP-883 plug-in hybrid. The concept commuter vehicle housed six lead–acid batteries in the trunk area and a transverse-mounted DC electric motor turning a front-wheel drive. The car could be plugged into a standard North American 120 volt AC outlet for recharging.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2003, Renault began selling the Elect'road, a plug-in series hybrid version of their popular Kangoo, in Europe. In addition to its engine, it could be plugged into a standard outlet and recharged to 95% range in about 4 hours. After selling about 500 vehicles, primarily in France, Norway and the UK, the Elect'road was redesigned in 2007.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: With the availability of hybrid vehicles and the rising gas prices in the United States starting around 2004, interest in plug-in hybrids increased. Some plug-in hybrids were conversions of existing hybrids; for example, the 2004 CalCars conversion of a Prius to add lead acid batteries and a range of up to using only electric power.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2006, both Toyota and General Motors announced plans for plug-in hybrids. GM's Saturn Vue project was cancelled, but the Toyota plug-in was certified for road use in Japan in 2007.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2007, Quantum Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild, LLC announced the launch of a joint venture in Fisker Automotive. Fisker intended to build a US$80,000 luxury PHEV-50, the Fisker Karma, initially scheduled for late 2009.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2007, Aptera Motors announced their Typ-1 two-seater. However, the company folded in December 2011.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2007, Chinese car manufacturer BYD Auto, owned by China's largest mobile phone battery maker, announced it would be introducing a production PHEV-60 sedan in China in the second half of 2008. BYD exhibited it in January 2008 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Based on BYD's midsize F6 sedan, it uses lithium iron phosphate (LiFeP0)-based batteries instead of lithium-ion, and can be recharged to 70% of capacity in 10 minutes.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In 2007 Ford delivered the first Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid of a fleet of 20 demonstration PHEVs to Southern California Edison. As part of this demonstration program Ford also developed the first flexible-fuel plug-in hybrid SUV, which was delivered in June 2008. This demonstration fleet of plug-ins has been in field testing with utility company fleets in the U.S. and Canada, and during the first two years since the program began, the fleet has logged more than 75,000 miles. In August 2009 Ford delivered the first Escape Plug-in equipped with intelligent vehicle-to-grid (V2G) communications and control system technology, and Ford plans to equip all 21 plug-in hybrid Escapes with the vehicle-to-grid communications technology. Sales of the Escape PHEV were scheduled for 2012.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: On January 14, 2008, Toyota announced they would start sales of lithium-ion battery PHEVs by 2010, but later in the year Toyota indicated they would be offered to commercial fleets in 2009.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: On March 27, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) modified their regulations, requiring automobile manufacturers to produce 58,000 plug-in hybrids during 2012 through 2014. This requirement is an asked-for alternative to an earlier mandate to produce 25,000 pure zero-emissions vehicles, reducing that requirement to 5,000. On June 26, Volkswagen announced that they would be introducing production plug-ins based on the Golf compact. Volkswagen uses the term 'TwinDrive' to denote a PHEV. In September, Mazda was reported to be planning PHEVs. On September 23, Chrysler announced that they had prototyped a plug-in Jeep Wrangler and a Chrysler Town and Country mini-van, both PHEV-40s with series powertrains, and an all-electric Dodge sports car, and said that one of the three vehicles would go into production.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: On October 3, the U.S. enacted the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. The legislation provided tax credits for the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles of battery capacity over 4 kilowatt-hours. The federal tax credits were extended and modified by the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, but now the battery capacity must be over 5 kWh and the credit phases out after the automaker has sold at least 200,000 vehicles in the U.S.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: On December 15, 2008, BYD Auto began selling its F3DM in China, becoming the first production plug-in hybrid sold in the world, though initially was available only for corporate and government customers. Sales to the general public began in Shenzhen in March 2010, but because the F3DM nearly doubles the price of cars that run on conventional fuel, BYD expects subsidies from the local government to make the plug-in affordable to personal buyers. Toyota tested 600 pre-production Prius Plug-ins in Europe and North America in 2009 and 2010.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Volvo Cars built two demonstration versions of Volvo V70 Plug-in Hybrids in 2009 but did not proceed with production. The V60 plug-in hybrid was released in 2011 and was available for sale.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In October 2010 Lotus Engineering unveiled the Lotus CityCar, a plug-in series hybrid concept car designed for flex-fuel operation on ethanol, or methanol as well as regular gasoline. The lithium battery pack provides an all-electric range of , and the 1.2-liter flex-fuel engine kicks in to allow to extend the range to more than .


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: GM officially launched the Chevrolet Volt in the U.S. on November 30, 2010, and retail deliveries began in December 2010. Its sibling the Opel/Vauxhall Ampera was launched in Europe between late 2011 and early 2012. The first deliveries of the Fisker Karma took place in July 2011, and deliveries to retail customers began in November 2011. The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid was released in Japan in January 2012, followed by the United States in February 2012. Deliveries of the Prius PHV in Europe began in late June 2012. The Ford C-Max Energi was released in the U.S. in October 2012, the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid in Sweden by late 2012.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: The Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid was released in selected U.S. markets in January 2013, and the Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV in Japan in January 2013, becoming the first SUV plug-in hybrid in the market. Deliveries of the Ford Fusion Energi began in February 2013. BYD Auto stopped production of its BYD F3DM due to low sales, and its successor, the BYD Qin, began sales in Costa Rica in November 2013, with sales in other countries in Latin America scheduled to begin in 2014. Qin deliveries began in China in mid December 2013.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Deliveries to retail customers of the limited edition McLaren P1 supercar began in the UK in October 2013, and the Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid began deliveries in the U.S. in November 2013. The first retail deliveries of the Cadillac ELR took place in the U.S. in December 2013. The BMW i8 and the limited edition Volkswagen XL1 were released to retail customers in Germany in June 2014. The Porsche 918 Spyder was also released in Europe and the U.S. in 2014. The first units of the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron and Volkswagen Golf GTE were registered in Germany in August 2014.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In December 2014 BMW announced the group is planning to offer plug-in hybrid versions of all its core-brand models using eDrive technology developed for its BMW i brand plug-in vehicles (BMW i3 and BMW i8). The goal of the company is to use plug-in technology to continue offering high performance vehicles while reducing emissions below 100g/km. At the time of the announcement the carmaker was already testing a BMW 3 Series plug-in hybrid prototype. The first model available for retail sales will be the 2016 BMW X5 eDrive, with the production version unveiled at the 2015 Shanghai Motor Show. The second generation Chevrolet Volt was unveiled at the January 2015 North American International Auto Show, and retail deliveries began in the U.S. and Canada in October 2015.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In March 2015 Audi said they planned on making a plug-in hybrid version of every model series, and that they expect plug-in hybrids, together with natural gas vehicles and battery-electric drive systems, to have a key contribution in achieving the company's targets. The Audi Q7 e-tron will follow the A3 e-tron already in the market. Also in March 2015, Mercedes-Benz announced that the company's main emphasis regarding alternative drives in the next years will be on plug-in hybrids. The carmaker plans to introduce 10 new plug-in hybrid models by 2017, and its next release was the Mercedes-Benz C 350 e, Mercedes' second plug-in hybrid after the S 500 Plug-In Hybrid. Other plug-in hybrid released in 2015 are the BYD Tang, Volkswagen Passat GTE, Volvo XC90 T8, and the Hyundai Sonata PHEV.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Global combined Volt/Ampera family sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in October 2015. By the end of 2015, over 517,000 highway legal plug-in hybrid electric cars have been sold worldwide since December 2008 out of total global sales of more than 1.25 million light-duty plug-in electric cars.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: In February 2016, BMW announced the introduction of the "iPerformance" model designation, which will be given to all BMW plug-in hybrid vehicles from July 2016. The aim is to provide a visible indicator of the transfer of technology from BMW i to the BMW core brand. The new designation will be used first on the plug-in hybrid variants of the new BMW 7 Series, the BMW 740e iPerformance, and the 3 Series, the BMW 330e iPerformance.


title: Plug-in hybrid

text: Hyundai Motor Company made the official debut of its three model Hyundai Ioniq line-up at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. The Ioniq family of electric drive vehicles includes the Ioniq Plug-in, which is expected to achieve a fuel economy of in all-electric mode. The Ioniq Plug-in is scheduled to be released in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2017.