title: Warrington

text: Warrington is developing a new Local Plan but plans to build 24,000 new homes were scaled back as government guidance changed. Included in the plans would be a new "Garden City Suburb" in the south of Warrington. The four main areas of growth as outlined in the planning were the waterfront around the River Mersey, the town centre, the Garden City Suburb and south west urban extension.


title: Warrington

text: The town has two main railway stations: Bank Quay is on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Glasgow Central and the Manchester Piccadilly to North Wales via Chester line, while Central is on the Liverpool to Manchester line (via Widnes and Warrington) with through services to Manchester Airport and to East Anglia. Bank Quay is much altered, but Central (built 1873) is of some architectural merit, featuring polychromatic brickwork. Both have undergone some refurbishment including new entrances. There are also railway stations in the suburbs at Padgate, Sankey, Glazebrook and Birchwood. A new railway station, Warrington West in Chapelford, near Great Sankey, opened in December 2019.


title: Warrington

text: The town lies close to the M62, M6 and M56 motorways and midway between Liverpool and Manchester airports. It also has five primary A roads, the A49, A50, A56, A57 and A580 (East Lancashire Road), which forms part of the northern boundary of the borough.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington's Own Buses, one of the few municipal bus companies to survive in public ownership, runs most bus services within the town. Go North West and Arriva North West provide bus links to surrounding destinations such as Manchester, the Trafford Centre, Liverpool, St Helens, Runcorn, Widnes and Chester. A real-time passenger information system is installed at some bus stops. A new bus station known as Warrington Interchange opened in 2006 at the Golden Square Shopping Centre.


title: Warrington

text: The River Mersey runs through the heart of the town dividing it in two. There are only two main thoroughfares crossing the Mersey in Warrington: at Warrington Bridge at Bridge Foot and at the Kingsway Bridge. Before the M6 was built, these routes were very busy with through traffic.


title: Warrington

text: The Manchester Ship Canal runs through the south of the town; three swing bridges and a high-level cantilever bridge provide crossing points. Although shipping movements on the ship canal are far less frequent than in years past, they can cause severe delay to local road traffic. The Bridgewater Canal runs through the borough from the village of Lymm to Walton Hall and Gardens, a local park/leisure area. The course of the Sankey Canal runs through the west of the town, although most of it is not suitable for navigation.


title: Warrington

text: The interchange consists of 19 departure stands, numbered from 1 to 19, all of which employ a drive-in reverse-out layout. Each stand has a computerised information screen which also ties into the real-time information system. All stands are served from the main concourse building, which contains toilets, a newsagent, cafe, and a combined travel and tourist information office. There is access to the Golden Square shopping centre via escalators and lifts. The exits on the eastern side of the building lead onto Winwick Street, on which can be found a taxi rank and Warrington Central railway station within around 100 metres.


title: Warrington

text: The bus station is the terminus for all local bus services within Warrington. Regional services operate to neighbouring cities Liverpool, Manchester and Chester, as well as to Wigan, Leigh, the Trafford Centre, Altrincham, Northwich, Runcorn, Widnes and St Helens. A small number of National Express long-distance coach services operate to destinations including London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Southend-on-Sea and Southport. The majority of bus services are operated by Warrington's Own Buses, who have their own information office within the main concourse selling season tickets. Other services are provided by Arriva North West and Go North West.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington Bus Interchange (also known as Warrington Interchange) opened on 21 August 2006, next to the site of a temporary terminus that had been in use for the past thirteen months. The new interchange was built in conjunction with the extension and upgrade of the adjoining Golden Square shopping centre, and replaced the previous bus station which dated from 1979.


title: Warrington

text: In March 2017 Warrington Borough Council made an unsuccessful bid to become the UK City of Culture in 2021.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington has a concert hall (the Parr Hall), an arts centre (the Pyramid), three museums, and various public libraries throughout the borough. Warrington Central Library was the first rate-supported library in the UK.


title: Warrington

text: There is a cinema at Westbrook, and another opened in 2019 as part of a town centre redevelopment. There are several parks in Warrington and designated nature reserves at Woolston Eyes, Risley Moss, Rixton Claypits and Paddington Meadows.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington Museum & Art Gallery is situated in Warrington's Cultural Quarter on the first floor of a building it currently shares with Warrington Central Library. The town is also home to the Museum of Policing in Cheshire, located in part of the working police station, and the Warrington Museum of Freemasonry.


title: Warrington

text: A number of festivals, carnivals and walking days are held annually in the Warrington area. Warrington Walking Day – originally a Sunday school festival – is held on the closest Friday to the last day of June, and the town centre is closed to traffic as churches walk together through the streets.


title: Warrington

text: A regular series of free classical music concerts take place in Bold Street Methodist Church, organised by WACIDOM. This charity is also responsible for the biennial Warrington Competition for Young Musicians, held at Arley Hall. Regular classical recitals also take place at Walton Hall and St Wilfrid's Church, Grappenhall. Warrington also has many musical groups, including Warrington Male Voice Choir, Gemini Musical Theatre Company (formerly Warrington Light Opera), Warrington Youth Orchestra, North Cheshire Wind Orchestra, Centenary Theatre Company and ladies a cappella choir, the Cheshire Chord Company.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington has a purpose-built concert hall, the Parr Hall, which houses a large and internationally famous concert pipe-organ made by the great nineteenth-century French organ-builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.


title: Warrington

text: A number of rock and pop musicians are associated with Warrington. Madchester pioneers The Stone Roses are closely associated with the town, particularly the native lead singer Ian Brown. Other artists include Spike Dawbarn from 90's music act band 911, Kerry Katona of Atomic Kitten, Ben Byrne and James Stelfox from Starsailor and Tim Bowness of No-Man. The band Viola Beach (whose single "Swings & Waterslides" posthumously entered the UK Singles Chart at number 11) were formed in Warrington.


title: Warrington

text: "The Hit Man and Her" TV show featuring producer Pete Waterman (of Stock Aitken Waterman) and Michaela Strachan debuted and regularly returned to the Mr Smiths nightclub in Warrington.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington is home to the Neighbourhood Weekender music festival which takes place on Victoria Park during the May bank holiday weekend. The event was first launched in 2018, over 50,000 attending the event over the two days. The event was repeated in 2019 and was scheduled to return in 2020. The event was also held in 2021.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington has an array of open spaces, including parks, trails, nature reserves and gardens rich in history and visual beauty. Many of these attractions are dog friendly, and free of charge to enter, usually with man-made paths created to ensure safety. The attractions include:


title: Warrington

text: Warrington is also home to other small parks and open spaces such Woolston park, Birchwood forest park and Bank park. Most open areas are dog friendly and only require unfriendly dogs to be kept under proper control by owners.


title: Warrington

text: The historic core of Warrington contains many significant listed buildings, including Warrington Town Hall, St Elphin's Church and Warrington Museum, situated within Conservation Areas.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington is home to three colleges: Priestley Sixth Form and Community College, Warrington and Vale Royal College and University Technical College Warrington. Most of the high schools have their own post-16 provision (sixth-form).


title: Warrington

text: The Manchester Japanese School (マンチェスター日本人補習授業校 "Manchesutā Nihonjin Hoshū Jugyō Kō"), a weekend Japanese educational programme, is held at the Language Centre at Lymm High School.


title: Warrington

text: Rugby league is the town's premier sport in the form of Warrington Wolves, who were historically nicknamed "The Wire" because of Warrington's history of wire making. In 2003 the club left Wilderspool Stadium, its home for over a century, and moved to the Halliwell Jones Stadium. Warrington RLFC are the only team to have played every season in the top flight of rugby league. They recently put themselves back on the map as one of the leading rugby clubs in the country by taking home the Challenge Cup for two years running in 2009 and 2010 and further win in 2012. This was won by them for the first time since 1974. They also reached the cup finals in 2016 and 2018, where they lost to Hull FC & Catalans Dragons respectively. In 2019, Warrington triumphed over St Helens in the Challenge Cup Final, 18-4, to lift the trophy for the 7th time. In 2011 the Wolves gained the Super League Leaders Shield for the first time (winning again in 2016), and in 2012 they appeared in the Super League Grand Final for the first time versus Leeds Rhinos with the chance to become only the third team to win the Challenge Cup/Grand Final double – however, they lost. They also reached the Grand Final again in 2013, 2016 and 2018, losing to Wigan Warriors on all occasions, Warrington's last domestic title came in 1955, when they beat Oldham at Manchester City's Maine Road. Warrington is represented in the British Amateur Rugby League Association leagues by:


title: Warrington

text: Football is represented by Warrington Town at Cantilever Park, next to the Manchester Ship Canal. The club has several nicknames including Town, Yellows and The Wire. Warrington Town are currently in the Northern Premier League Premier Division following promotion in 2016. Warrington's biggest success was in the 2014 FA Cup where they reached the first round proper for the first time, whilst in the eighth tier. Warrington drew Exeter City of the fourth tier, who were at the time of the game 100 places above the Yellows. The match was shown live on BBC One and sold out Cantilever Park. Warrington famously won the game 1–0, but lost to 5th-tier Gateshead in the second round. The town also has another non-league team, Rylands F.C. who currently play in the .


title: Warrington

text: Rowing in Warrington may well have been taking place for nearly 200 years. It is known that Warrington Regatta is well over 150 years old, often attracting large crowds on the riverbank.


title: Warrington

text: The modern Warrington rowing club started in the mid-1980s and is based near Kingsway Bridge. Warrington is home to both recreational and competitive rowers.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington Athletic Club is based at Victoria Park, where a new eight-lane synthetic track was built in 1998, after the original track was destroyed in a fire the previous year.


title: Warrington

text: Speedway racing, formerly known as dirt track racing, was staged in Warrington in its pioneering era between 1928 and 1930. The track entered a team in the 1929 English Dirt Track League and the 1930 Northern League. Efforts to revive the venue in 1947 failed to materialise.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington Wolves Basketball team was set up in 2009 and competes in the English Basketball League Division Four.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington has four predominant rugby union teams: Warrington RUFC, Lymm RFC, Gentlemen of Moore RUFC and Eagle RUFC, who are based at Thornton Road.


title: Warrington

text: Warrington's longest established newspaper is the "Warrington Guardian". Published weekly and costing £1, it is currently owned by Newsquest and has sales of just over 17,000. Bridge Foot based Orbit News Ltd produce a monthly free news magazine, "Warrington Worldwide", as well as three community magazines, Warrington Worldwide, Lymm Life (first published April 1999) and Culcheth Life (First published April 2003) and the daily news website. The free monthly newspaper "Cheshire Times" is also distributed in the southern half of the borough.


title: Warrington

text: Community radio station Radio Warrington broadcasts from a studio in Warrington Retail Market. They hold an AM licence and have received planning permission for a transmitter, though their broadcasts are currently only available online. Independent Local Radio station Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West (formerly Wire FM), now based in Orrell, also serves the Warrington area.


title: Warrington

text: The villages of Lymm and Culcheth, within the borough, are twinned respectively with these French communes:


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor (Sergio Marquina) is a fictional character in the Netflix series "Money Heist", portrayed by Álvaro Morte. He is the mastermind of the heist who assembled the group, as well as Berlin's brother.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor, real name Sergio, mostly grew up in hospitals due to being a sick child. He leads the gang, and is the one who carefully plans and organises the heist in the Royal Mint and the Bank of Spain. He is sophisticated but nerdy. The idea of the first heist is to avenge his father, whose idea it originally was. His grandfather had fought against the fascists in Italy. He was the mastermind behind the plans of the two heists. He controlled the heist through a hiding outside the Royal Mint.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor falls in love with Raquel Murillo, a police investigator leading the case against the heist. He sleeps with her and when her mother finds out about his involvement with the heist, he attempts to poison her but pulls out at the last second, opting to take advantage of her poor memory and deleting the voicemail.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor spent years of his life meticulously planning the heist, and covered aspects that most people wouldn’t think of. His tactic was to lead the police to several dead ends to buy more time for the money to be printed and the team to escape.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: Elena Pita of "El Mundo" described the character as "enigmatic". Alvaro Morte said the character was a "workaholic". He linked the Professor to his role of Óscar in "El embarcadero", both of whom "had to be demonized". He said that viewers felt close to the character because he generates empathy, and that "if the viewer does not empathize with the Professor or Oscar, the series does not work".


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: Early in development, the Professor was intended to be the narrator of the series. Writer Javier Gómez Santander compared the writing process to the Professor's way of thinking, "going around, writing down options, consulting engineers whom you cannot tell why you ask them that", but noted that fiction allowed the police to be written as dumber or more inept when necessary.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor was designed as a charismatic yet shy villain who could convince the robbers to follow him and make the audience sympathetic to the robbers' resistance against the powerful banks. However, developing the Professor's role proved difficult, as the character did not follow typal conventions and the producers were uncertain about his degree of brilliance. While the producers found his "Salva" alter ego early on, they were originally looking for a 50-year-old Harvard professor type with the looks of Spanish actor José Coronado. The role was proposed to Javier Gutiérrez, who declined because he was already committed to starring in the film "Campones".


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: Meanwhile, the casting directors advocated for Álvaro Morte, whom they knew from their collaboration on the long-running Spanish soap opera "El secreto de Puente Viejo", even though his prime time television experience was limited at that point. Going through the full casting process and approaching the role through external analysis rather than personal experience, Morte described the Professor as "a tremendous box of surprises" that "end up shaping this character because he never ceases to generate uncertainty", making it unclear for the audience if the character is good or bad. The producers also likened his appearance to that of a primary school teacher and believed this gave the character more credibility. The Professor's glasses were initially red and more prominent, but in the end the producers preferred a more discreet option and in a darker tone. Morte, who does not wear glasses in real life, developed a tic of pushing back his glasses during casting; this was written into the character. The Professor's fascination with origami was proposed by Morte.


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: Creator Álex Pina saw Raquel's story as a formerly abused wife falling in love with the Professor "as very powerful, very romantic". That they come from two opposite sides was "intended to enhance the genre" and something that the producers "wanted to exploit". "Le Monde" said, "The game between Professor and Raquel, the inspector in charge of the negotiations, is brilliant. A step of two with fluidity and anticipation. To ignore one's enemy is to condemn oneself to defeat. It therefore requires to enter into his intimacy. Morte said the Professor would not necessarily prioritize love over other risks in part 3, saying that if 'he didn't have that other dark part, it wouldn't work either'. The Professor's trick that hooks us so much is that we never know what goes through his mind, what he is thinking. I try to give that ambiguity." The character's anger about Berlin's death spawned the character's motivation for part 3, and was an idea Morte gave the producers. In September 2019, Morte considered the Professor a "very interesting character" who had more of a story left to tell. Morte said about part 4, "the teacher makes a descent into hell."


title: Professor (Money Heist)

text: The Professor is one of the fan favorites of the series. For his role, Alvaro Morte was nominated for the Actors and Actresses Union Awards in 2018 in the category "Best television actor" and won it in 2019, won the 21st Iris Awards in 2019 for Best Actor, and was nominated for the Premios Feroz in 2020 for Best Leading Actor of a Series.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand (; 26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948), born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Фердинанд Максимилиан Карл Леополд Мария Сакс-Кобург и Гота), was the second monarch of the Third Bulgarian State, firstly as ruling prince ("knyaz") from 1887 to 1908, and later as king ("tsar") from 1908 until his abdication in 1918. Under his rule Bulgaria entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers in 1915.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand was born on 26 February 1861 in Vienna, a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry. He was the son of Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and his wife Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis Philippe I of the French. Princess Maria Antonia Koháry was a Hungarian Noble and heiress who married Ferdinand’s grandfather, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ferdinand was raised in his parents’ Catholic faith and baptised in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna on 27 February, having as godparents Archduke Maximilian of Austria and his wife Princess Charlotte of Belgium. He grew up in the cosmopolitan environment of Austro-Hungarian high nobility and also in their ancestral lands in Hungary and in Germany. The House of Koháry descended from an immensely wealthy Upper Hungarian noble family, who held the princely lands of Čabraď and Sitno in present-day Slovakia, among others. The family's property was augmented by Clémentine of Orléans' remarkable dowry.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand was a grandnephew of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians. His father August was a brother of King Ferdinand II of Portugal, and also a first cousin to Queen Victoria, her husband Albert, Empress Carlota of Mexico and her brother Leopold II of Belgium. These last two, Leopold and Carlota, were also first cousins of Ferdinand I's through his mother, a princess of Orléans. This made the Belgian siblings his first cousins, as well as his first cousins once removed. Indeed, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had contrived to occupy, either by marriage or by direct election, several European thrones in the course of the 19th century. Following the family trend, Ferdinand was himself to found the royal dynasty of Bulgaria.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: The previous ruling prince of Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg, had abdicated in 1886 after a pro-Russian coup, only seven years after he had been elected. Ferdinand, who was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, was elected Prince of autonomous Bulgaria by its Grand National Assembly on 7 July 1887 in the Gregorian calendar (the "New Style" used hereinafter). The throne had been previously offered, before Ferdinand's acceptance, to princes from Denmark to the Caucasus and even to the King of Romania. The Russian tsar himself had nominated his aide, Nichols Dadian of Mingrelia, but his candidacy was rejected by the Bulgarians. Ferdinand's accession was greeted with disbelief in many of the royal houses of Europe; Queen Victoria, his father's first cousin, stated to her Prime Minister, "He is totally unfit ... delicate, eccentric and effeminate ... Should be stopped at once." To the amazement of his initial detractors, Ferdinand generally made a good account of himself during the first two decades of his reign.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Bulgaria's domestic political life was dominated during the early years of Ferdinand's reign by liberal party leader Stefan Stambolov, whose foreign policy saw a marked cooling in relations with Russia, formerly seen as Bulgaria's protector.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Stambolov's fall (May 1894) and subsequent assassination (July 1895) - likely planned by Ferdinand - paved the way for a reconciliation of Bulgaria with Russia, effected in February 1896 with Ferdinand's decision to convert his infant son, Prince Boris, from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. However, this move earned him the animosity of his Catholic Austrian relatives, particularly that of his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, as well as being excommunicated by Pope Leo XIII.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: On 5 October 1908 (celebrated on 22 September), Ferdinand proclaimed Bulgaria's "de jure" independence from the Ottoman Empire (though the country had been "de facto" independent since 1878). He also proclaimed Bulgaria a kingdom, and assumed the title of "tsar"—a deliberate nod to the rulers of the earlier Bulgarian states. However, while the title "tsar" was translated as "emperor" in the First and Second Bulgarian empires, it was translated as "king" under Ferdinand and his successors. The Bulgarian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by him at the Holy Forty Martyrs Church in Tarnovo, and was recognized by the Ottoman Empire and the other European powers. The Tarnovo Constitution was retained, with the word "prince" replaced by the word "tsar."


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand was known for being quite a character. On a visit to German Emperor Wilhelm II, his second cousin once removed, in 1909, Ferdinand was leaning out of a window of the New Palace in Potsdam when the Emperor came up behind him and slapped him on the bottom. Ferdinand was affronted by the gesture but the Kaiser refused to apologize. Ferdinand however exacted his revenge by awarding a valuable arms contract he had intended to give to the Krupp's factory in Essen to French arms manufacturer Schneider-Creusot. Another incident occurred on his journey to the funeral of his second cousin King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1910. A tussle broke out over where his private railway carriage would be positioned in relation to the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke won out, having his carriage positioned directly behind the engine. Ferdinand's was placed directly behind. Realising the dining car of the train was behind his own carriage, Ferdinand obtained his revenge on the Archduke by refusing him entry through his own carriage to the dining car. On 15 July the same year during a visit to Belgium, Ferdinand also became the first head of state to fly in an airplane. He awarded the pilot of the plane with a medal when they landed.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Like many other rulers before him, Ferdinand desired the creation of a "new Byzantium", a desire that has to be interpreted as wanting to create a significant, essentially Christian, Balkan power, given that Bulgaria and Bulgarians had neither cultural, ethnic, historical nor linguistic affinity with the old Byzantine Empire, which was quintessentially Roman and, evolving through the centuries, Greek. In 1912, Ferdinand joined the other Balkan states in an assault on the Ottoman Empire to free occupied territories. He saw this war as a new crusade declaring it, "a just, great and sacred struggle of the Cross against the Crescent." Bulgaria contributed the most and also lost the greatest number of soldiers. The Great Powers insisted on the creation of an independent Albania. Though the Balkan League allies had fought together against the common enemy in the First Balkan War, that was not enough to overcome their mutual rivalries. In the original documents for the Balkan League, Serbia had been pressured by Bulgaria to hand over most of Vardar Macedonia after it had conquered it from the Ottoman Empire. However Serbia, in response to the new Albanian state receiving territory in the north that it had expected to gain for itself, said that it would keep possession of the areas that its forces had occupied. Soon after, Bulgaria began the Second Balkan War when it invaded its recent allies Serbia and Greece to seize disputed areas, before being attacked itself by Romania and the Ottoman Empire. Although Bulgaria was defeated, the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest granted the Kingdom some territorial gains. The region of Western Thrace, giving access to the Aegean Sea was secured.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: On 11 October 1915, the Bulgarian army attacked Serbia after signing a treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany stating that Bulgaria would gain the territory it sought at the expense of Serbia. While he was not an admirer of German Emperor Wilhelm II or Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I—whom he described as "that idiot, that old dotard of a Francis Joseph".—Ferdinand wanted additional territorial gains after the humiliation of the Balkan Wars. This also entailed forming an alliance with his former enemy, the Ottoman Empire. This ranging of his country with the Central Powers made him a de facto supporter of Germany’s war aims and was not well received by the Allies. Edmund Gosse wrote:


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: “In this war, where the ranks of the enemy present to us so many formidable, sinister, and shocking figures, there is one, and perhaps but one, which is purely ridiculous. If we had the heart to relieve our strained feelings by laughter, it would be at the gross Coburg traitor, with his bodyguard of assassins and his hidden coat-of-mail, his shaking hands and his painted face. The world has never seen a meaner scoundrel, and we may almost bring ourselves to pity the Kaiser, whom circumstances have forced to accept on equal terms a potentate so verminous.”


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: During the initial phase of World War I, the Tsardom of Bulgaria achieved several decisive victories over its enemies and laid claim to the disputed territories of Macedonia after Serbia's defeat. For the next two years, the Bulgarian army shifted its focus towards repelling Allied advances from nearby Greece. They were also partially involved in the 1916 conquest of neighboring Romania, now ruled by another Ferdinand I, who was also Ferdinand's second cousin once removed.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: To save the Bulgarian monarchy after multiple military setbacks in 1918, Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his eldest son, who became Tsar Boris III on 3 October 1918. Under new leadership, Bulgaria surrendered to the Entente and, as a consequence, lost not only the additional territory it had fought for in the major conflict, but also the territory it had won after the Balkan Wars giving access to the Aegean Sea.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand married Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of Robert I, Duke of Parma and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, on 20 April 1893 at the Villa Pianore in Lucca. Steven Constant describes this as a "marriage of convenience". The marriage produced four children:


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Marie Louise died on 31 January 1899 after giving birth to her youngest daughter. Ferdinand did not think about remarriage until his mother, Princess Clémentine died in 1907. To satisfy dynastic obligations and to provide his children with a mother figure, Ferdinand married Princess Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz, on 28 February 1908. Neither romantic love or physical attraction played any role, and Ferdinand treated her as no more than a member of the household, and showed scant regard.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: In his private relations, Ferdinand was a somewhat hedonistic individual. Bisexual throughout his life, up until early middle age his inclination was more towards women. He enjoyed affairs with a number of women of humble position, siring a number of illegitimate children whom he then supported financially. In his later life, rumours abounded of Ferdinand's trysts with lieutenants and valets. His regular holidays on Capri, then a popular holiday destination with wealthy epicenes, were common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe. In 1895 an interview given by the embittered former Prime Minister, Stefan Stambolov to the "Frankfurter Zeitung" created a nine-day scandal across Europe, when he focused strongly on his personal witness of Ferdinand's homosexual interests.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: After his abdication, Ferdinand returned to live in Coburg, Germany. He had managed to salvage much of his fortune and was able to live in some style. He saw his being in exile simply as one of the hazards of kingship. He commented, "Kings in exile are more philosophic under reverses than ordinary individuals; but our philosophy is primarily the result of tradition and breeding, and do not forget that pride is an important item in the making of a monarch. We are disciplined from the day of our birth and taught the avoidance of all outward signs of emotion. The skeleton sits forever with us at the feast. It may mean murder, it may mean abdication, but it serves always to remind us of the unexpected. Therefore we are prepared and nothing comes in the nature of a catastrophe. The main thing in life is to support any condition of bodily or spiritual exile with dignity. If one sups with sorrow, one need not invite the world to see you eat." He was pleased that the throne could pass to his son. Ferdinand was not displeased with exile and spent much of his time devoted to artistic endeavors, gardening, travel and natural history.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: However, he would live to see the collapse of everything he had held to be precious in life. His eldest son and successor, Boris III, died under mysterious circumstances after returning from a visit to Hitler in Germany in 1943. Boris' son, Simeon II, succeeded him only to be deposed in 1946, ending the Bulgarian monarchy. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was succeeded by the People's Republic of Bulgaria, under which Ferdinand's other son, Kyril, was executed. On hearing of Kyril's death he said, "Everything is collapsing around me."


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: In 1947 Ferdinand (then 86 years old) secretly married his 26-year-old assistant Alžbeta Brezáková in Bamberg, Germany, much to the displeasure of the members of his family. After his death, she returned to her homeland Czechoslovakia, where she remarried and had a daughter. Being afraid of what the communist regime might do to her, she only told her daughter about her marriage to Ferdinand two years before her death. She survived her husband by 67 years and died in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2015.


title: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand died in Bürglass-Schlösschen on 10 September 1948 in Coburg, Germany, cradle of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty. He was the last surviving grandchild of Louis-Philippe of France. His final wish was to be buried in Bulgaria. However, the Communist authorities in Bulgaria would not allow it, so he was buried in the family crypt in St. Augustin, Coburg.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet, it is the easternmost town in West Virginia and during the American Civil War was the northernmost point of Confederate-controlled territory. It has been called "the best strategic point in the whole South."


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The town was formerly spelled Harper's Ferry with an apostrophe, so named because in the 18th century it was the site of a ferry service owned and operated by Robert Harper. The United States Board on Geographic Names, whose Domestic Name Committee is reluctant to include apostrophes in official place names, established the standard spelling of "Harpers Ferry" by 1891.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: By far, the most important event in the town's history was John Brown's raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1859.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Prior to the American Civil War, Harpers Ferry was a manufacturing town as well as a major transportation hub. (See Virginius Island and Harpers Ferry Armory.)


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The main economic activity in the town in the 20th and 21st centuries is tourism. John Brown's Fort is the most visited tourist site in the state of West Virginia. The headquarters of the Appalachian Trail are there—not the midpoint, but close to it, and easily accessible—and the buildings of the former Storer College are used by the National Park Service for one of its four national training centers. The National Park Service is Harpers Ferry's largest employer in the 21st century.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The lower town has been reconstructed by the National Park Service. It was in ruins by the end of the American Civil War, not helped by later river flooding. "The fact that Harpers Ferry was first and foremost an industrial village during the 19th century is not apparent in the sights, sounds, or smells of the town today."


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The geographical and physical features of Harpers Ferry were the principal reasons for its settlement and eventual industrial development. It is a natural transportation hub and a major river, the Shenandoah, joins the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry. It guarded the entrance to Virginia's large Shenandoah Valley, and the Potomac provided easy access to Washington. The valleys of the rivers made it possible to build the never-completed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, then the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and shortly after that the Winchester and Potomac Railroad. The first railroad junction in the United States was at Harpers Ferry. Essential telegraph lines passed through the town.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The armory, and later other industries, were located in Harpers Ferry because of the abundant water power available from the rivers.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The ferry ended in 1824, when a covered wooden road bridge by the name of Wager's Bridge was built. Harpers Ferry was the site of the first and for many years the only railroad bridge across the Potomac River, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's bridge, built in 1836–37. None of Washington, D.C.'s bridges connecting it with Virginia carried more than horse traffic until after the American Civil War. In 1851, a second bridge was built, across the Shenandoah, one of the earliest Bollman trusses. A newer Bollman truss bridge, which carried both rail and highway traffic, opened in 1870 but was washed away in a flood in 1936.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The town's original lower section is on a flood plain created by the two rivers. It is surrounded by higher ground, and since the 20th century has been part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Most of the remainder, which includes the more elevated populated area, is included in the separate Harpers Ferry Historic District. Two other National Register of Historic Places properties adjoin the town: the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing and St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) headquarters is in Harpers Ferry. The Appalachian Trail passes directly through town, which some consider the psychological midpoint of the trail although the exact physical midpoint is farther north, in Pennsylvania. Uniquely, the towns of Harpers Ferry and adjoining Bolivar Heights partnered with the ATC to be declared a united Appalachian Trail Community. Other popular outdoor activities in the area include white water rafting, fishing, mountain biking, tubing, canoeing, hiking, zip lining, and rock climbing.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In 1733, Peter Stephens, a squatter, settled on land near "The Point" (the area where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet) and established a ferry from Virginia (now West Virginia) to Maryland, across the Potomac.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Robert Harper, from whom the town takes its name, was born in 1718 in Oxford Township, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since he was a builder, Harper was asked by a group of Quakers in 1747 to build a meeting house in the Shenandoah Valley near the present site of Winchester, Virginia. Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper—who was also a millwright—realized the potential of the latent waterpower from the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at an easily accessible location. He paid Stephens 30 guineas for his squatting rights to the ferry, since the land actually belonged to Lord Fairfax.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Harper then purchased of land from Lord Fairfax in 1751. In 1761, the Virginia General Assembly granted him the right to establish and maintain a ferry across the Potomac, even though a ferry had already been functioning since before Harper arrived. In 1763, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harpers Ferry." Harper died in October 1782 and is buried in the Harper Cemetery.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: On October 25, 1783, Thomas Jefferson visited Harpers Ferry as he was traveling to Philadelphia and passed through Harpers Ferry with his daughter Patsy. Viewing "the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge" from a rock that is now named for him as Jefferson's Rock, he called the site "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature" and stated, "This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." The town was one of his favorite retreats, and tradition says that much of his "Notes on the State of Virginia" was written there. Jefferson County, in which Harpers Ferry is located was named for him on its creation in 1801.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: George Washington, as president of the Patowmack Company (which was formed to complete river improvements on the Potomac and its tributaries), traveled to Harpers Ferry during the summer of 1785 to determine the need for bypass canals. Following Washington's familiarity with the area led him to propose the site in 1794 for a new United States armory and arsenal, some of his family moved to the area: his brother Charles Washington, who founded the nearby Jefferson County town of Charles Town, and his great-great-nephew, Colonel Lewis Washington, who was held hostage during John Brown's raid in 1859.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In 1796, the federal government purchased a parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper. Construction began on what would become the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1799. It is referred to locally as both "the armory" and "the arsenal," but it is the same facility. This was the second of only two such facilities in the United States, the first being in Springfield, Massachusetts. Together they produced most of the small arms for the U.S. Army. The town was transformed into a water-powered industrial center. Between 1801 and 1861, when the armory was destroyed to prevent capture during the American Civil War, it produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols. Inventor Captain John H. Hall pioneered the use of interchangeable parts in firearms manufactured at his rifle works at the armory between 1820 and 1840. His M1819 Hall rifle was the first breech-loading weapon adopted by the U.S. Army.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Harpers Ferry's first man-made transportation facility was the Potomac Canal. The canal ceased transportation in 1828, but a portion of it in front of the town channeled river water to run machinery for the armory.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Potomac Canal ran on the Virginia side of the river. On the Maryland side, the later Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad competed for right-of-way on a very narrow patch of land downstream from Harpers Ferry.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Industrialization continued in 1833 when the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal reached Harpers Ferry, linking it with Washington, D.C., on the canal's western expansion to Ohio that was, however, never completed. A year later, after a protracted dispute with the Canal company the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began service from Harpers Ferry via the Wager Bridge, named for the same family that later built the Wager Hotel across from Harpers Ferry's B&O train station. The bridge connected the town across the Potomac with Sandy Hook, Maryland, which for a few years in the 1830s was the western terminus of the railroad. The railroad crossed the Potomac into Harpers Ferry with the opening of the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing in 1837.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The first railroad junction in the country began service in 1836 when the Winchester and Potomac Railroad opened its line from Harpers Ferry southwest to Charles Town and then to Winchester, Virginia.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: This island, connected by a small bridge across the Shenandoah River to the lower part of Harpers Ferry, was created "by happenstance" in the early 1800s after the digging of the Shenandoah Canal, when debris floated down from upstream mills. Cotton and flour mills and other water-powered industry were built on Virginius Island, taking advantage of the Shenandoah River’s water power and good routes to markets. The island came to house all of Harpers Ferry's manufacturing except for the armory—which, although it used the Potomac River for power—also built a rifle plant some distance upstream using the Shenandoah's power.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Virginius Island also provided working-class housing at a boarding house and in row houses. At the island’s population height just prior to the American Civil War, there were some 180 residents. Although no intact structure survives because 20th-century floods destroyed everything, many visitors are attracted to view Virginius Island's historic ruins as well as walk National Park Service trails.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: On October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men (counting himself) in a raid on the armory. Five of the men were black: three free black men, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave. Brown attacked and captured several buildings, hoping to secure the weapons depot and arm the slaves, starting a revolt across the South. Brown also brought 1,000 steel pikes, which were forged in Connecticut by a blacksmith and abolitionist sympathizer, Charles Blair; however, the pikes, a weapon that does not require training, were never used as Brown failed to rally the slaves to revolt. The first shot of the raid mortally wounded Heyward Shepherd, a free black man who was a baggage porter for the B&O Railroad.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The noise from that shot alerted Dr. John Starry shortly after 1 am. He walked from his nearby home to investigate the shooting and was confronted by Brown's men. Starry stated that he was a doctor but could do nothing more for Shepherd, and the men allowed him to leave. Starry then went to the livery and rode to neighboring towns and villages, alerting residents to the raid. John Brown's men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia, and forced to take refuge in the fire engine house (later called John Brown's Fort), at the entrance to the armory.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Secretary of War asked the Navy Department for a unit of United States Marines from the Washington Navy Yard, the nearest troops. Lieutenant Israel Greene was ordered to take a force of 86 Marines to the town. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee was found on leave at his home not far away in Arlington, Virginia, and was assigned as commander, along with Lt. J. E. B. Stuart as his aide-de-camp. Lee led the unit in civilian clothes, as none of his uniforms were available. The contingent arrived by train on October 18, and after negotiations failed, they stormed the fire house and captured most of the raiders, killing a few and suffering a single casualty. Lee submitted a report on October 19.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Brown was quickly tried in Charles Town, county seat of Jefferson County, for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection. Convicted of all charges, with Starry's testimony integral to the conviction, he was hanged December 2, 1859. (See "Virginia v. John Brown".) John Brown's words, both from his interview by Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise and his famous last speech, "captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since."


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The American Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. One of the first military actions take by secessionists in Virginia was taken on April 18, 1861, when they wrested control of the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from the Union Army, even before the convention which would consider whether or not the state should secede had even been called together.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. It was said that "Jefferson County is where the North and South met." It was a natural conduit for Confederate invasions of the North, as in General Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign of 1862, and his Gettysburg campaign of 1863, and Federal troops heading south in their attempts to thwart Rebel forces in the Valley which threatened Washington, D.C.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The town was "easy to seize, and hard to hold", because of its topography: surrounded on three sides by high ground – Bolivar Heights to the west, Loudoun Heights to the south, and Maryland Heights to the east – and surrounded by the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, anyone who controlled the heights controlled the city.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: John G. Rosengarten described it in similar terms, saying that Harpers Ferry and the companion town of Bolivar, in 1859 "a blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort," had been reduced to "waste and desolation" in 1862.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The town's garrison of federal troops attracted 1,500 contrabands (escaped slaves) by the summer of 1862. They were returned to slavery, however, when Confederate General Stonewall Jackson took Harpers Ferry in September 1862, as the town played a key role in the Confederate invasion of Maryland.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Lee needed to control Harpers Ferry because it was on his supply line and could cut off his possible routes of retreat if the invasion did not go well.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 as the Confederates tried to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast, while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture Loudoun Heights south of town. After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the federal garrison surrendered. With Jackson's capture of 12,419 federal troops, the surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the Battle of Bataan in World War II.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Because of the delay in capturing the town and the movement of federal forces to the west, Lee was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg. Two days later he commanded troops in the Battle of Antietam, which had the highest number of deaths among troops of any single day in United States military history.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: By July 1864, the Union again had control of Harpers Ferry. On July 4, 1864, the Union commanding general, Franz Sigel, withdrew his troops to Maryland Heights, from which he resisted Jubal Anderson Early's attempt to enter the town and drive out the federal garrison.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Inspired by John Brown, both runaway and freed slaves came to Harpers Ferry during and after the American Civil War. This created social tensions between white and black residents of the community and generated a growing need for services for the increasing African-American population. Accordingly, a freedman’s school was opened on Camp Hill by Freewill Baptist missionaries following the American Civil War.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The town and the armory, except John Brown's Fort, were destroyed during the American Civil War. "The larger portion of the houses all lie in ruins and the whole place is not actually worth $10," wrote a Massachusetts soldier to his mother in 1863. A visitor in 1878 found the town "antiquated, dingy, and rather squalid"; another, in 1879, described it as "shabby and ruined." Since the Arsenal had been Harpers Ferry's largest employer but was never rebuilt, the population never recovered to pre-Civil War levels.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Storer College, devoted to training teachers for freedmen, opened in 1868, much to the displeasure of many residents of Harpers Ferry who petitioned the Legislature to revoke its charter. The War Department gave the Freedmen's Bureau its remaining assets in Harpers Ferry, principally four sturdy residences for the managers of the Armory, structurally sound but in need of repairs from damage during the war, and the Bureau gave them to Storer College. A one-man school for Blacks was already operating in one of them.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In 1859 Harpers Ferry became a town of great historical importance to African-Americans, where the end of slavery began, as Frederick Douglass put it. With good rail connections to major eastern cities, it became a destination as soon as railroad operations returned to normal after the war. As described in a newspaper in 1873: "One need only to alight from the train and look a little envious toward the old Engine House or the ruined walls of the old Arsenal in order to have a score of persons offering to become a kind of guide or to point out to your whatever you may desire to know about the great struggle which ended in the 'opening of the prison doors, the breaking of every yoke, the undoing of heavy burdens, and letting the oppressed go free.[']"


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Storer, the only Black college at a location historically important to African-Americans, became a civil rights center and made the town even more of a destination for Black tourists and excursionists. Frederick Douglass spoke in 1881, as part of an unsuccessful campaign to fund a "John Brown professorship" to be held by an African American. It was at Storer that the Niagara Movement, the predecessor of the NAACP, met for the first time in the United States in 1906 after its earlier organizational meeting in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, .


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad wanted the land where the fort was located so as to make the line less vulnerable to flooding, and some white townspeople were eager to get rid of it; it was dismantled and moved to Chicago for display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Abandoned there, it was rescued and moved back to Harpers Ferry by the Baltimore and Ohio without charge, motivated by their expectation that having the fort back in Harpers Ferry would be a tourist attraction and a way to build ridership on the railroad. Most whites were opposed to any commemoration of John Brown, however, and so for lack of a better location it was placed on a nearby farm.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Now Harpers Ferry, easily accessible by rail, began its conversion to its new industry: tourism. Many African-Americans visited Harpers Ferry. There was a Black-owned hotel to accommodate them, the Hilltop House, built and run by a Storer graduate, Thomas Leavitt. In the summer Storer rented rooms to Black vacationers until 1896. The fort was the great monument where the end of slavery began. There were so many tourists that they were a nuisance to the farmer on whose lands the fort sat, and so it was moved to Storer in 1909. There it would remain until several years after the college closed in 1955, functioning as the College Museum. Male students practiced their public speaking skills by giving tours of it.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Visits by tourists, many of them Black, now began to slowly turn the town into a real tourist center. As early as 1878 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was running excursion trains to Harpers Ferry from Baltimore and Washington. Tourism was cited as a reason for the town's recovering population growth. "Harpers Ferry proved to be one of the most visited places of leisure for nineteenth-century African Americans."


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: To increase ridership, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built a park in 1879 called Island Park Resort and Amusement Park on Byrne Island in the Potomac, which the railroad bought and built a footbridge to reach it. One had to pay 5¢ ($5 in 2021 value) to cross and enter, after which rides and other activities were free.. It was a site for outings and church picnics, and suitable also for holding political rallies by the railroad as a perk for its employees. (See also Relay, Maryland.) A list of events held there would be long, but as examples there was a reunion of 4,000 Odd Fellows in 1880 and a "Grand Tri-State Democratic Mass Meeting" 1892.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The park was large enough that parades could be held. There were a steam-powered ferris wheel and carousel, a midway, a pavilion for dancing or roller skating, swings, a merry-go-round, and a bandstand. Visitors could also play croquet, tennis, rent boats, fish, or wade in the river. Later there were baseball games. Blacks and whites attended on different days.In 1883, there were an estimated 100,000 visitors. There were six special trains to Harpers Ferry from various points.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: For three decades the park operated but was closed in 1909 after many flood repairs. However, the B & O kept the park open even after that for picnicking.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The bandstand, the only surviving structure, has been moved twice. At the park's closing, it was moved to Arsenal Square (the current location of John Brown's Fort), then later to the park at Washington and Gilmore Streets. It is referred to as The Bandstand or the Town Gazebo, and many civic, cultural, and recreational activities take place there.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The bridge was destroyed by flooding in 1896, and a rebuilt bridge in 1924. Remaining structures on the island were destroyed by flooding in 1942.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: On August 15, 1906, Black author and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois led the first meeting on American soil of the newly-founded Niagara Movement – so-named because it had initially met in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada on the Niagara River – on the campus of Storer College, a primarily Black college that operated until 1955. (After it closed, the campus became part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.) The three-day gathering, which was held to work for civil rights for African Americans, was later described by DuBois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held" Attendees of the 1906 meeting walked from Storer College to the farm of the Murphy family, the location at the time of John Brown's historic "fort," the armory's firehouse. As a direct result, the fort was soon moved to the Storer campus, where it became the college's central icon. After the college closed in 1955, the National Park Service moved it back to as close as possible to its original location.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The combined effects of American Civil War damage and flooding left lower Harpers Ferry in poor condition. The later devastating effects of the 1936 flood left the lower town "shabby and almost uninhabited", with no bridge across the Shenandoah to Virginia and no highway bridge to Maryland. All remaining structures on Virginius Island were destroyed.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The backbone of the effort to preserve and commemorate Harpers Ferry was Henry T. MacDonald, President of Storer, an amateur historian appointed by West Virginia Governor Okey Patteson as head of the Harpers Ferry National Monument Commission. He was assisted by the Representative from West Virginia's Second District, Jennings Randolph, who in 1935 introduced a bill to establish Harpers Ferry National Military Park in "the area where the most important events of [John Brown's raid] took place. Although this bill did not pass, the flood of 1936 made the project more feasible by destroying buildings not historically important ad thus freeing land. After several other attempts, a bill creating Harpers Ferry National Monument was passed and signed by President Roosevelt in 1944, subject to the proviso that nothing would be done with it until the war ended.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: An urgent priority was the new highway, which is today U.S. Route 340. A new bridge connecting Sandy Hook, Maryland with Loudoun County, Virginia opened in October 1947, on which work had begun in 1941 but was interrupted by the war. Another new bridge over the Shenandoah connecting Virginia to Bolivar Heights, West Virginia, opened two years later. Federal highway traffic now bypassed Harpers Ferry entirely.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Land acquisition started in lower Harpers Ferry; the project was supported both by Harpers Ferry mayor Gilbert Perry and Governor Patteson. Twenty-two eviction notices were served in the lower town, and two taverns closed.Property acquisition, not all of which was unproblematic, was completed in 1952 and presented to the United States in January 1953. The National Monument's first on-site employee, John T. Willett, began work in 1954.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In 1957 the "Baltimore Sun" said that the lower town was "a sagging and rotted ghost town." The idea of making Harpers Ferry into a National Monument was to prevent the further deterioration and to rebuild the tourist industry. The first task of the Park Service was to stabilize the buildings on Shenandoah Street, the main commercial street of lower Harpers Ferry. Roofs were covered, missing windows replaced, walls on the verge of collapse reinforced, and debris removed. Post-1859 buildings were not restored, and most were removed. The NPS built a Visitor's Center and a John Brown Museum. Harpers Ferry National Monument became Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on May 29, 1963.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: "Recreationists" who wanted a park and did not care about the history were a problem. Local residents did not want to lose recreational opportunities, but swimming and fishing on the Shenandoah shore, formerly common, were prohibited. In order to keep recreationists out of the historic area, and especially Virginius Island, John Brown's Fort was moved to Arsenal Square from a now-inconvenient location on the former Storer College campus, parking in the lower town was prohibited, and a shuttle bus service begun. Tensions between the NPS and town residents were ongoing. However, the NPS helped the town achieve Main Street Status from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2001.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The population of Harpers Ferry continued to decline in the 20th century. The majority of the surviving homes in Harpers Ferry are historic. Some are registered in the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: On July 23, 2015, a fire broke out in downtown Harpers Ferry, destroying eight or nine businesses and two apartments in two historic buildings. The buildings are being rebuilt.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In the early morning of December 21, 2019, multiple cars of a train owned by CSX derailed from the railroad bridge crossing the Potomac River. The derailment damaged a portion of the Goodloe E. Byron Memorial Pedestrian Walkway, which is attached to the railroad bridge and connects the Appalachian Trail between West Virginia and Maryland. Although the accident did not result in any injuries or fatalities, it effectively inhibited all pedestrian access across the Potomac. The bridge reopened in early July 2020.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The Hilltop House Hotel, which had opened in 1888 to accommodate African Americans as the sole hotel in Harpers Ferry that would accept them as guests, burned in 1911. It was rebuilt on a grander scale, but that building also burned in 1919. It was rebuilt a second time on a slightly smaller scale but closed in 2008. As of 2021, developers plan to demolish it and build a new 120-room hotel on the site.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: John Flower, director of the Sidwell Friends School Chinese Studies Program, dismantled a Chinese folk house from Yunnan and rebuilt it in Harpers Ferry with his students. For this project, Flower and his wife Pamela Leonard formed a non-profit organization, the China Folk House Retreat.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Under the auspices of the National Park Service, the archaeology of the town of Harpers Ferry as well as that of Virginius Island have been studied in depth. The journal "Historical Archaeology" published its entire volume 28, no. 4, issue of 1994 on Harpers Ferry.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The only significant highway providing access to Harpers Ferry is U.S. Route 340. Although signed north-south, the road runs generally eastward from Harpers Ferry across the northern tip of Loudoun County, Virginia after crossing the Shenandoah River, then quickly crosses the Potomac River into Maryland, eventually reaching its terminus at Frederick. To the west, U.S. Route 340 passes through Charles Town before turning southwest and traversing the eastern edge of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Harpers Ferry and Bolivar Heights host an unsigned alternate route of U.S. Route 340, which follows Washington Street, High Street, and Shenandoah Street.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Amtrak provides service to Harpers Ferry two times a day—once in each direction–on the "Capitol Limited". It is also served by MARC on the Brunswick Line. The city's passenger rail station is at the West Virginia end of the historic railroad bridge across the Potomac River. In addition about 10–20 CSX freight trains daily pass through Harpers Ferry and over the bridge spanning the Potomac.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Some properties are currently threatened by development.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: From most of Harpers Ferry, a fading advertisement for Mennen's Borated Talcum Toilet Powder painted on the cliff face of Maryland Heights decades ago is still visible.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters, with yearly snowfall averaging 20.7 inches. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Harpers Ferry has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 286 people, 131 households, and 78 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 175 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 94% White, 4% African American, 1% Native American, 0% from other races, and 1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1% of the population.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Of the 131 households, 21% had children under the age of 18 living with them; 44% were married couples living together; 13% had a female householder with no husband present; 3% had a male householder with no wife present; and 41% were non-families. Individuals were 29%, with 15% living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size, 2.69.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: The median age in the town was 52. Of all residents, 17% were under the age of 18; 3% between the ages of 18 and 24; 19% from 25 to 44; 38% from 45 to 64; and 23% 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 49.3% male and 50.7% female.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: In the census of 2000, there were 307 people, 153 households and 89 families residing in the town. The median income for a household in the town was $52,344, and for a family, $70,313.


title: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

text: Federally, Harpers Ferry is part of West Virginia's 2nd congressional district and is represented by Alex Mooney (R) in the United States House of Representatives. Mooney was first elected in 2014.


title: Soul Train

text: Soul Train is an American musical variety television show. It aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. Across its 35-year history the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. The series was created by Don Cornelius, who also served as its first host and executive producer.


title: Soul Train

text: Production was suspended following the 2005–2006 season, with a rerun package under the moniker "The Best of Soul Train" airing for two years subsequently. As a nod to "Soul Train"s longevity, the show's opening sequence during later seasons contained a claim that it was the "longest-running first-run, nationally syndicated program in American television history", with over 1,100 episodes produced from the show's debut through the 2005–2006 season. Despite the production hiatus, "Soul Train" held that superlative record until 2016, when "Entertainment Tonight" surpassed it in completing its 35th season. Among non-news programs, "Wheel of Fortune" surpassed that mark in 2018.


title: Soul Train

text: As of 2016, the rights to the Soul Train brand, library, and associated events, such as its cruises and annual awards show, the "Soul Train Music Awards", are now under the ownership of Paramount Global, through BET Networks.


title: Soul Train

text: The origins of "Soul Train" can be traced to 1965 when WCIU-TV, an upstart UHF station in Chicago, began airing two youth-oriented dance programs: "Kiddie-a-Go-Go" and "Red Hot and Blues". These programs—specifically the latter, which featured a predominantly African Americans group of in-studio dancers—would set the stage for what was to come to the station several years later. Don Cornelius, a newsreader and backup disc jockey at Chicago radio station WVON, was hired by WCIU in 1967 as a news and sports reporter. Cornelius also was promoting and emceeing a touring series of concerts featuring local talent (sometimes called "record hops") at Chicago-area high schools, calling his traveling caravan of shows "The Soul Train". WCIU-TV took notice of Cornelius's outside work and in 1970, allowed him the opportunity to bring his road show to television.


title: Soul Train

text: After securing a sponsorship deal with the Chicago-based retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company, "Soul Train" premiered on WCIU-TV on August 17, 1970, as a live show airing weekday afternoons. Beginning as a low-budget affair, in black and white, the first episode of the program featured Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, and the Emotions as guests. Cornelius was assisted by Clinton Ghent, a local professional dancer who appeared on early episodes before moving behind the scenes as a producer and secondary host.


title: Soul Train

text: The program's immediate success attracted the attention of another locally based firm—the Johnson Products Company (manufacturers of the Afro Sheen line of hair-care products)—and they later agreed to co-sponsor the program's expansion into broadcast syndication. Cornelius and "Soul Train"s syndicator targeted 25 markets outside of Chicago to carry the show, but stations in only seven other cities—Atlanta; Birmingham; Cleveland; Detroit; Houston; Los Angeles; and Philadelphia—purchased the program, which began airing on a weekly basis on October 2, 1971. By the end of the first season, "Soul Train" was on in the other eighteen markets. At the time, there were no other commercial television programs being produced by black people for a black audience; the only nationally available show by blacks for blacks at the time was the public television series "Soul!" When the program moved into syndication, its home base was also shifted to Los Angeles, where it remained for the duration of its run. "Soul Train" was part of a national trend toward syndicated music-oriented programs targeted at niche audiences; two other network series ("Hee Haw" for country music, and "The Lawrence Welk Show" for traditional music) also entered syndication in 1971 and would go on to have long runs.


title: Soul Train

text: Though Don Cornelius moved his operations west, a local version of "Soul Train" continued in Chicago. Cornelius hosted both the local Chicago-based and national Los Angeles–based programs simultaneously, but soon focused his attention solely on the national edition. He continued to oversee production in Chicago, where Clinton Ghent hosted episodes on WCIU-TV until 1976, followed by three years of once-weekly reruns. The syndicated version was picked up in the Chicago market by CBS-owned WBBM-TV at its launch; the program moved to WGN-TV in 1977 and remained there for the rest of its Chicago run.


title: Soul Train

text: Don Cornelius hosted every episode of "Soul Train" from 1971 to 1993, except for Richard Pryor, who hosted the final episode of Season 4 (1974-1975). Beginning in Season 15 (1985-1986), Tribune Entertainment acquired the syndication contract; Tribune Entertainment continued producing "Soul Train" until the end of the show's run on March 25, 2006.


title: Soul Train

text: Don Cornelius stopped hosting after 22 seasons (1971–1993), though he remained the show's main creative force from behind the scenes. The following fall, "Soul Train" began using celebrity hosts until comedian Mystro Clark took over as the host in 1997. Shemar Moore took over as the host in 2000. In 2003, Dorian Gregory took over as the host, and stayed until the end of the show's run in 2006.


title: Soul Train

text: Production of first-run "Soul Train" episodes was suspended at the conclusion of the 2005–06 season, the show's 35th. In place of new content, for two seasons starting in the 2006–2007 season, the program aired archived episodes (selected from between 1973 and 1988) under the title "The Best of Soul Train".


title: Soul Train

text: This was because in later years, Nielsen ratings dropped to below 1.0; most of the stations that aired "Soul Train" by that point were either Fox television affiliates or independent stations that would later become affiliates of The WB or UPN, and, in the process, some of the stations which had been airing "Soul Train" on Saturday afternoons started rescheduling the program to overnight time slots. The future of "Soul Train" was uncertain with the announced closing of Tribune Entertainment in December 2007, which left Don Cornelius Productions to seek a new distributor for the program. Cornelius soon secured a deal with Trifecta Entertainment & Media.


title: Soul Train

text: When Don Cornelius Productions still owned the program, clips of the show's performances and interviews were kept away from online video sites such as YouTube owing to copyright infringement claims. Cornelius also frowned upon the unauthorized distribution of "Soul Train" episodes through the sale of third-party VHS or DVD compilations.


title: Soul Train

text: In May 2008, Cornelius sold the rights to the "Soul Train" library to MadVision Entertainment, whose principal partners came from the entertainment and publishing fields. The price and terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, by the start of the 2008–09 television season, the Tribune Broadcasting-owned stations (including national carrier WGN America) that had been the linchpin of the show's syndication efforts dropped the program, and many others followed suit. "Soul Train"s website acknowledged that the program had ceased distribution on September 22, 2008.


title: Soul Train

text: Following the purchase by MadVision, the "Soul Train" archives were exposed to new forms of distribution. In April 2009, MadVision launched a "Soul Train" channel on YouTube. Three months later the company entered into a licensing agreement with Time Life to distribute "Soul Train" DVD sets. MadVision then came to terms with Paramount Global-owned BET to relaunch the "Soul Train Music Awards" for BET's spin-off channel, Centric, in November 2009. Centric would broadcast archived episodes of the program. Archived episodes can also be seen on Bounce TV.


title: Soul Train

text: MadVision sold the rights to "Soul Train" in 2011 to a consortium led by basketball player Magic Johnson and backed by private equity firm InterMedia Partners. The Johnson-InterMedia consortium planned on a potential film project that Cornelius had briefly mentioned prior to selling the franchise, as well as producing potential stage adaptations and a cruise. As part of the sale, Johnson's Aspire TV channel also began airing reruns of the series.


title: Soul Train

text: Cornelius continued to appear for "Soul Train" documentaries and ceremonies until his death by suicide in February 2012. In 2013, Centric began presenting a cruise-based revival, marketed as "Soul Train Cruise".


title: Soul Train

text: All rights and trademarks to the "Soul Train" brand including the show's extensive library, the annual cruise event, and the award shows are under the ownership of Paramount Global after its Paramount Media Networks division acquired the franchise in 2016.


title: Soul Train

text: Some commentators have called "Soul Train" a "black "American Bandstand"", another long-running program with which "Soul Train" shares some similarities. Cornelius acknowledged "Bandstand" as a model for his program; as the years advanced and "Soul Train" evolved into a tradition in its own right, he tended to bristle at the "Bandstand" comparisons.


title: Soul Train

text: In 1973, Dick Clark, host and producer of "Bandstand", launched "Soul Unlimited" — controversial for its pronounced racial overtures — to compete directly with "Soul Train". Cornelius, with help from Jesse Jackson, openly accused Clark of trying to undermine TV's only black-owned show. Agreeing, ABC canceled it after a few episodes. Clark later agreed to work with Cornelius on a series of network specials featuring R&B and soul artists.


title: Soul Train

text: Cornelius was relatively conservative in his musical tastes and admitted he was not a fan of the emerging hip hop genre, believing that the genre did not reflect positively on African-American culture (one of his stated goals for the series). Even though Cornelius featured rap artists on "Soul Train" frequently during the 1980s, he publicly would admit (to the artists' faces such as Kurtis Blow) that the genre was one that he did not understand; as rap continued to move further toward hardcore hip hop, Cornelius admitted to being frightened by the antics of groups such as Public Enemy. Rosie Perez testified in the 2010 VH1 documentary "Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America" that Cornelius also disliked seeing the show's dancers perform sexually suggestive "East Coast" dance moves. Cornelius admittedly had rap artists on the show only because the genre was becoming popular among his African-American audience, though the decision alienated middle-aged, more affluent African Americans like himself. This disconnect (which was openly mocked in an "In Living Color" sketch where Cornelius and the show were lampooned as extremely old and out of touch) eventually led to Cornelius stepping down as host in the early 1990s, and the show losing its influence.


title: Soul Train

text: Questlove, drummer for hip-hop band The Roots and a fan of the program, authored a book chronicling "Soul Train". Titled "Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation" was published in 2013.


title: Soul Train

text: The opening sequence showed a black animated locomotive with multicolored smoke coming out of its smokestack, and steam coming out of its sides, passing through a city, tunnel, or through outer space around the Earth. The scenery around the train changed as years went on. The Soul Train logo was featured, with a song or instrumental playing throughout. One of the most distinctive parts of the opening was when “Soul Train” was announced, stretching out the first word into a high-pitched imitation of a train whistle.


title: Soul Train

text: Within the structure of the program, there were two enduring elements. The first was the "Soul Train Scramble Board", where two dancers are given 60 seconds to unscramble a set of letters that form the name of that show's performer or a notable person in African American history. In describing the person's renown, the host concluded their description with the phrase "...whose name you should know". Cornelius openly admitted after the series ended its run that the game was usually set up so everybody won in an effort not to cause embarrassment for the show or African Americans in general.


title: Soul Train

text: There was also the popular "Soul Train Line" (a variant of the 1950s fad then known as The Stroll), in which all the dancers form two lines with a space in the middle for dancers to strut down and dance in consecutive order. Originally, this consisted of a couple—with men on one side and women on the other. In later years, men and women had their own individual lineups. Sometimes, new dance styles or moves were featured or introduced by particular dancers. In addition, there was an in-studio group of dancers who danced along to the music as it was being performed. Rosie Perez, Damita Jo Freeman, Darnell Williams, Cheryl Song, Louie "Ski" Carr, Alfie Lewis, Pat Davis ("Madam Butterfly"), Alise Mekhail, Andrea N. Miles, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, Vivica A. Fox, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Heather Hunter, Fred Berry, Laurieann Gibson, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton were among those who got noticed dancing on the program over the years. Two former dancers, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, enjoyed years of success as members of the R&B group Shalamar after they were chosen by "Soul Train" talent booker/record promoter Dick Griffey and Cornelius to replace the group's original session singers in 1978.


title: Soul Train

text: Each musical guest usually performed twice on each program; after their first number, they were joined by the program host onstage for a brief interview. From time to time, stand-up comedians, such as Tom Dreesen (whom Don Cornelius knew from his time in Chicago) and Franklyn Ajaye (known in the 1970s for being a star of the hit movie "Car Wash"), would be featured on the program to perform a brief comedy routine.


title: Soul Train

text: "Soul Train" was also known for two popular catchphrases, referring to itself as the "Hippest trip in America" at the beginning of the show and closing the program with "...and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey. I'm Don Cornelius, and, as always in parting, we wish you love, peace...and SOUL!"


title: Soul Train

text: In 1985, Cornelius gave permission for a version of the show in the United Kingdom. The UK version, hosted by former "Soul Train" dancer and member of Shalamar Jeffrey Daniel, was titled "620 Soul Train" and ran for one series on Channel 4.


title: Soul Train

text: In 1987, "Soul Train" launched the "Soul Train Music Awards", which honors the top performances in R&B, hip hop, and gospel music (and, in its earlier years, jazz music) from the previous year.


title: Soul Train

text: "Soul Train" then produced the short-lived "Soul Train Comedy Awards" in 1993, which discontinued that same year.


title: Soul Train

text: "Soul Train" later created two additional annual specials: "The Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards", first airing in 1995, celebrated top achievements by female performers; and the "Soul Train Christmas Starfest", which premiered in 1998, featured holiday music performed by a variety of R&B and gospel artists. Award categories for the "Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards" presented to female recipients included:


title: Soul Train

text: The "Lady of Soul Awards" and "Christmas Starfest" programs last aired in 2005. In April 2008, Don Cornelius announced that year's "Soul Train Music Awards" ceremony had been canceled. Cornelius cited 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike by the Writers Guild of America as one of the reasons, though a main factor may have been the uncertainty surrounding "Soul Train"'s future. Cornelius also announced that a motion picture based on the program was in development. Subsequent owners of the franchise have followed their own agenda for the program, which included a revival of the "Soul Train Music Awards" in 2009.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: The North Macedonia national football team () represents North Macedonia in men's international football, and is administered by the Football Federation of Macedonia. The team play their home matches at the Toše Proeski National Arena in Skopje.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: North Macedonia have been rising in football in recent years, reaching Euro 2020 (their first major tournament) and the European qualifying play-off final of the 2022 World Cup (after defeating Italy in Palermo).


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Between 1945 and 1992, SR Macedonia was ineligible to play as a team for official matches. The team had mostly played exhibition matches against teams from other republics of SFR Yugoslavia and was represented by Macedonian players under the traditional red, yellow and white colors.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: As an independent team, it started to compete on international level after the split of the federation in 1991.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: In 1994, the Republic of Macedonia became a single member of FIFA and UEFA after the independence and split of the Yugoslavia. They recorded their first match as a 4–1 victory against Slovenia in a friendly on 13 October 1993 under coach Andon Dončevski.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: The Euro '96 qualifiers was the first major qualifying tournament that Macedonia participated in as an independent nation, grouped with Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus and Armenia. In their opening game, which was also their first ever official match, Macedonia played the reigning European champions Denmark, finishing 1–1 after Macedonia led for most of the game. In Euro '96 qualifying, Macedonia suffered one of its worst-ever defeats, 5–0 to Belgium on 7 June 1995. They failed to qualify for Euro '96, finishing fourth in the group with seven points.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia's first qualifying attempt for the World Cup saw them grouped with Romania, Republic of Ireland, Lithuania, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: The tournament began on 24 April 1996 with a 3–0 win at home against Liechtenstein. On 9 November 1996, Macedonia recorded their biggest ever, an 11–1 thrashing of Liechtenstein. Macedonia defeated the Republic of Ireland 3–2 at home, their first win over a major European team, but failed again to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France, finishing fourth in the group on 13 points.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia's journey to qualify for the Euro 2000 tournament in the Netherlands and Belgium saw them grouped with FR Yugoslavia, Republic of Ireland, Croatia, and Malta. They once again opened their qualifying campaign with a win after beating Malta 4–0 at home on 6 September 1998. Their most notable result in the campaign was a 1–1 draw against Croatia in June 1999, with an equalizer of Gjorgji Hristov 10 minutes before the end of the game. They helped Yugoslavia to qualify directly and eliminate Croatia because they drew 1–1 against the Republic of Ireland with a last-minute equalizer of Goran Stavrevski. However, they failed to qualify again, finishing fourth in the group with eight points.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia's 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign saw them grouped with Sweden, Turkey, Slovakia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan. They were unsuccessful in their opening match, going down to Slovakia 2–0 in Bratislava on 3 September 2000. The Macedonians once again failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup as they finished fourth in the group with seven points.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: The Euro 2004 Qualifiers saw Macedonia grouped alongside England, Turkey, Slovakia, and Liechtenstein.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia played England in Southampton, England's first home game in Southampton in almost 100 years. Macedonia grabbed the lead early in the first half after Artim Šakiri scored directly from a corner kick. England soon leveled the game, before Macedonia led again. The game eventually ended 2–2. Macedonia lost to England 2–1 at home in the return leg, which took place in September 2003. Macedonia's only win of the campaign came on 7 June 2003, when they beat Liechtenstein 3–1 at home.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia was drawn in Group 1 and was grouped with the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, Finland, Armenia, and Andorra. They managed to open their campaign with a comfortable 3–0 win at home against Armenia on 18 August 2004. Macedonia did not win another home game for more than three years.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 9 October 2004, Macedonia managed to hold the Netherlands to a surprise 2–2 draw in Skopje in front of a crowd of 17,000 at the Skopje City Stadium, but just four days later, they suffered a 1–0 loss away to Andorra. Macedonia then set a new team record for most goals conceded in a game when they lost 6–1 away to the Czech Republic in June 2005.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia went on to concede a further eight goals in the next two qualifying games, both against Finland. On 23 August 2005, coach Slobodan Santrač resigned as coach of Macedonia after just five months due to personal problems, with former player Boban Babunski temporarily taking over as coach. The resignation came just days after they were beaten 3–0 by Finland in Skopje. Despite failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, Macedonia was the only team in the group to not lose against the Netherlands.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Following the completion of the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament, in November 2005, Macedonia took part in a friendly tournament in Iran consisting of four teams: Macedonia, Iran, Paraguay, and Togo. In their opening match, they won 2–1 against host nation Iran, booking a spot in the final against Paraguay, where they lost 1–0.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 17 February 2006, former Slovenian national team coach Srečko Katanec was appointed as the head coach and was given a two-year contract.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: In the lead-up to the beginning of the qualifiers for Euro 2008, Macedonia managed two wins in friendlies, against Ecuador 2–1 in Madrid, and 1–0 Turkey. Macedonia was placed in Group E for the Euro 2008 qualifiers alongside England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, and Andorra.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia opened its UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign with a 1–0 win away to Estonia on 16 August 2006. Macedonia hosted England on 6 September in their second game of the qualifiers. England went on to win 1–0; this was the first time that Macedonia failed to score against England.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: A month later, on 7 October 2006, the two teams met once again in Manchester, where England was held to a 0–0 draw in front of 72,062 people. On 17 October 2007, Macedonia recorded their first win on home soil since August 2004 when they defeated Andorra 3–0 in Skopje.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia then recorded one of their most impressive wins to date when they picked up a 2–0 victory over eventual group winners Croatia on 17 November 2007; it was also a first win for Macedonia over a side that was ranked in the top ten of the FIFA World Rankings. Despite this, Macedonia failed to qualify for Euro 2008 after finishing fifth in the group with 14 points.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 25 November 2007, just days after Macedonia completed its qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, the groups for European qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup were held in Durban, South Africa, where Macedonia was seeded in Pot 4 and grouped along with the Netherlands, Scotland, Norway and Iceland. Manager Srečko Katanec received a two-year extension on 21 December 2007, which meant he would be under contract through the end of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. In the lead up to the campaign, Macedonia played three friendlies against Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland, which all ended in draws.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia opened their campaign with a 1–0 home win against Scotland on 6 September 2008 when Ilčo Naumoski scored on a rebound after a missed free-kick by Goce Sedloski. Following these impressive results, Macedonia moved up 10 places to 46 in the FIFA World Rankings list for October 2008 which was their highest ever ranking. Srečko Katanec left the team following a 4–0 loss to the Netherlands in Amsterdam in April 2009 for allegedly getting into an argument with Goran Pandev.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Soon afterward, the manager of the under-21 squad, Mirsad Jonuz, became the new coach of the Macedonian senior team and was signed until the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign. On 12 August 2009, a friendly match against Spain was held at the newly built City Park Stadium in Skopje. The defending European champions won 3–2 after being 2–0 down at halftime. In September, Macedonia lost 2–0 to Scotland and then to Norway; Macedonia missed the World Cup again.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 7 February 2010, Macedonia was placed in Group B for the Euro 2012 qualifiers alongside Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Armenia and Andorra. In the lead up to the qualifiers, an under-strength Macedonia side played friendlies against Azerbaijan, Romania, and Malta, winning the first two 3–1 and 1–0 respectively, and tied 1–1 against Malta later the summer.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia finished in fifth in the group with only two wins against minnows Andorra and two draws, against Armenia and Slovakia, both at home. Manager Mirsad Jonuz was dismissed on 18 June 2011 and replaced by John Toshack.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia's 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign saw them grouped with Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland and Wales. In August 2012, prior to the qualifications, John Toshack would leave as manager and would be replaced by Čedomir Janevski. The national team would begin the qualification round with a loss to Croatia in Zagreb and would go on to draw against Scotland in Glasgow. They lost again to Croatia and won against Serbia in Skopje after a penalty kick taken by Agim Ibraimi. Later in qualification, the national team would go on to lose twice to the eventual group winners Belgium.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia would win against Wales and lose against Scotland at home. Around the end of September 2013, Janevski would leave the team for Belgian club R.A.E.C. Mons and would be replaced by Zoran Stratev for the last two matches. Away losses to Wales and Serbia meant they would finish last in their group.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: After the qualification run, Goran Pandev, Nikolče Noveski, Veliče Šumulikoski and others would retire from the national team due to turbulent relations with the Football Federation of Macedonia. In November 2013, Boško Gjurovski would be appointed the new national team manager.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 23 February 2014, Macedonia was placed in Group C for the Euro 2016 qualifiers alongside Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus and Luxembourg. With 5–1 loss to Spain in Valencia, the only win they collected was against Luxembourg in Skopje.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: After that match, Macedonia was brought into a run of a four losses; manager Boško Gjurovski was dismissed on 7 April 2015 and replaced by Ljubinko Drulović. Further losses ensued against Slovakia and surprisingly Luxembourg by late goal of Sébastien Thill.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: In the last match against Belarus in Barysaw, Macedonia played a draw that broke the streak of seven losses. The team still ended qualification last of the group.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: On 25 July 2015, in the middle of the Euro 2016 qualifying, the group draws for European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup were held in Saint Petersburg. Macedonia was seeded in Pot 5 and grouped along with Spain again, for the first time with Italy, along with Albania, Israel and Liechtenstein.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: In October 2015, Drulović left the national team to join Serbian club Partizan and the manager place was taken over by the former manager of Rabotnički, Igor Angelovski. That same month, 2010 UEFA Champions League champion Goran Pandev came back to the national team after two years of absence.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Macedonia started with another disappointing performance with a loss to Albania in Shkodër, with a goal scored by Bekim Balaj in the last moments of the game, in a match that was played over two days because of interruption in the 76th minute due to weather. Later on they also lost to Israel at home after missing a penalty kick by Adis Jahović. After that, the national team also lost to Italy beside their 2–1 lead with the goals scored by Ilija Nestorovski and Ferhan Hasani. At the end of 2016, Macedonia was outclassed by Spain in Granada 4–0; Macedonia had not scored a single point, the worst qualifying start in the history of the national team.


title: North Macedonia national football team

text: Finally, in March 2017, Macedonia recorded their first win in qualifying against Liechtenstein, 3–0. Then they lost to Spain in Skopje 2–1. They also defeated Israel away through the lone goal by Goran Pandev, which was also a first ever win against Israel. Macedonia later tied Albania in Strumica 1–1.