title: Epidural administration

text: Epidural administration is a procedure which requires the person performing the insertion to be technically proficient in order to avoid complications. Proficiency may be trained using bananas or other fruits as a model.


title: Epidural administration

text: The person receiving the epidural may be seated, or lying on their side or stomach. The level of the spine at which the catheter is placed depends mainly on the site of intended operation – based on the location of the pain. The iliac crest is a commonly used anatomical landmark for lumbar epidural injections, as this level roughly corresponds with the fourth lumbar vertebra, which is usually well below the termination of the spinal cord. The Tuohy needle, designed with a 90-degree curved tip and side hole to redirect the inserted catheter vertically along the axis of the spine, may be inserted in the midline, between the spinous processes. When using a paramedian approach, the tip of the needle passes along a shelf of vertebral bone called the lamina until just before reaching the ligamentum flavum and the epidural space.


title: Epidural administration

text: Along with a sudden loss of resistance to pressure on the plunger of the syringe, a slight clicking sensation may be felt by the operator as the tip of the needle breaches the ligamentum flavum and enters the epidural space. Saline or air may be used to identify placement in the epidural space. A systematic review from 2014 showed no difference in terms of safety or efficacy between the use of saline and air for this purpose. In addition to the loss of resistance technique, direct imaging of the placement may be used. This may be conducted with a portable ultrasound scanner or fluoroscopy (moving X-ray pictures). After placement of the tip of the needle, a catheter or small tube is threaded through the needle into the epidural space. The needle is then withdrawn over the catheter. The catheter is generally inserted 4–6 cm into the epidural space, and is typically secured to the skin with adhesive tape, similar to an intravenous line.


title: Epidural administration

text: If a short duration of action is desired, a single dose of medication called a bolus may be administered. Thereafter, this bolus may be repeated if necessary provided the catheter remains undisturbed. For a prolonged effect, a continuous infusion of medication may be used. There is some evidence that an automated intermittent bolus technique may provide better pain control than a continuous infusion technique even when the total doses administered are identical. Typically, the effects of the epidural block are noted below a specific level or portion of the body, determined by the site of injection. A higher injection may result in sparing of nerve function in the lower spinal nerves. For example, a thoracic epidural performed for upper abdominal surgery may not have any effect on the area surrounding the genitals or pelvic organs.


title: Epidural administration

text: For some procedures where both the rapid onset of a spinal anesthetic and the post-operative analgesic effects of an epidural are desired, both techniques may be used in combination. This is called combined spinal and epidural anesthesia (CSE). The spinal anesthetic may be administered in one location, and the epidural at an adjacent location. Alternatively, after locating the epidural space with the Tuohy needle, a spinal needle may be inserted through the Tuohy needle into the subarachnoid space. The spinal dose is then given, the spinal needle withdrawn, and the epidural catheter inserted as normal. This method, known as the "needle-through-needle" technique, may be associated with a slightly higher risk of placing the catheter into the subarachnoid space.


title: Epidural administration

text: Epidural analgesia is generally well tolerated, with recovery time quick after administration is complete and the epidural is removed. The epidural catheter is usually removed when it is possible to safely switch to oral administration of medications, though catheters can safely remain in place for several days with little risk of bacterial infection, particularly if the skin is prepared with a chlorhexidine solution. Subcutaneously tunneled epidural catheters may be safely left in place for longer periods, with a low risk of infection or other complications. Regardless of the length of use, the effects of a medicine administered epidurally, including numbness if used for analgesia, usually wear off within a few hours of the epidural being stopped, with full recovery of normal function within 24 hours.


title: Epidural administration

text: The use of epidural analgesia during a birth does not have any effect on whether a caesarean section must be performed during future births. Epidural analgesia during childbirth also generally has no negative effects on the long-term health of the mother or child. Use of epidural analgesia versus oral analgesia or no analgesia has no effect on the normal length of hospital stay after childbirth, the only difference being that care must be performed around the epidural insertion site to prevent infection. Following epidural analgesia used for gastrointestinal surgery, the time to recovery of normal gastrointestinal function is not significantly different from recovery time after intravenous analgesia. The use of epidural analgesia during cardiac surgeries may shorten the amount of time a person requires ventilator support following surgery, but it is unknown whether it shortens the overall post-surgery hospital stay overall.


title: Epidural administration

text: The first record of an epidural injection is from 1885, when American neurologist James Corning of Acorn Hall in Morristown, NJ used the technique to perform a neuraxial blockade. Corning inadvertently injected 111 mg of cocaine into the epidural space of a healthy male volunteer, although at the time he believed he was injecting it into the subarachnoid space. Following this, in 1901 Fernand Cathelin first reported intentionally blocking the lowest sacral and coccygeal nerves through the epidural space by injecting local anesthetic through the sacral hiatus. The loss of resistance technique was first described by Achile Dogliotti in 1933, following which Alberto Gutiérrez described the hanging drop technique. Both techniques are now used to identify when the needle has correctly been placed in the epidural space.


title: Epidural administration

text: In 1921 Fidel Pagés, a military surgeon from Spain, developed the technique of "single-shot" lumbar epidural anesthesia, which was later popularized by Italian surgeon Achille Mario Dogliotti. Later, in 1931 Eugen Aburel described using a continuous epidural catheter for pain relief during childbirth. In 1941, Robert Hingson and Waldo Edwards recorded the use of continuous caudal anesthesia using an indwelling needle, following which they described the use of a flexible catheter for continuous caudal anesthesia in a woman in labor in 1942. In 1947, Manuel Curbelo described placement of a lumbar epidural catheter, and in 1979, Behar reported the first use of an epidural to administer narcotics.


title: Epidural administration

text: Some people continue to be concerned that women who are administered epidural analgesia during labor are more likely to require a cesarean delivery, based on older observational studies. However, evidence has shown that the use of epidural analgesia during labor does not have any statistically significant effect on the necessity to perform a cesarean delivery. A 2018 Cochrane review found no increase in the rate of Caesarean delivery when epidural analgesia was employed. However, epidural analgesia does lengthen the second stage of labor by 15 to 30 minutes, which may increase the risk a delivery must be assisted by instruments.


title: Epidural administration

text: In the United States in 1998, it was reported that over half of childbirths involved the use of epidural analgesia, and by 2008 this had increased to 61% of births. In the United Kingdom, epidurals have been offered through the National Health Service for all women during childbirth since 1980. By 1998, epidural analgesia was used in the UK for almost 25% of childbirths. In Japan, most childbirths take place in primary or secondary hospitals in which epidural analgesia is not offered.


title: Epidural administration

text: In some developed countries, over 70% of childbirths involve epidural analgesia. Other studies have shown that minority women and immigrants are less likely to receive epidural analgesia during childbirth. Even in countries with universal healthcare coverage such as Canada, socioeconomic factors such as race, financial stability, and education influence the rate at which women receive epidural analgesia. One survey in 2014 found that over half of pregnant women in a Nigerian antenatal clinic (79.5%) did not know what epidural analgesia was or what it was used for, while 76.5% of them would utilize epidural analgesia if offered after it was explained to them.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Robert Gerard Tapert (born May 14, 1955) is an American film and television producer, writer and director, best known for co-creating the television series "".


title: Robert Tapert

text: He is also one of the founding partners of the film production companies Renaissance Pictures and Ghost House Pictures.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert has two sisters, Dorothy and Mary Beth Tapert. He also has a younger brother, Jeff Tapert. He has been married to actress Lucy Lawless since 28 March 1998; the couple has two sons. Lawless played the title character in "Xena: Warrior Princess".


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert first became involved with filmmaking while attending Michigan State University where he was studying economics. Through his friend and roommate Ivan Raimi, Tapert would meet future longstanding filmmaking partners Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert and director Sam Raimi experimented on several short films before endeavoring on their first feature-length picture, a graphic horror film titled "The Evil Dead", which Tapert produced, Raimi directed, and Bruce Campbell starred. Thanks to a glowing review from horror author Stephen King, the film was a success with the crowd at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and although not a favorite of critics at the time, it was critically acclaimed as a horror classic in later years eventually gaining a cult following. The film was successful enough to spawn two sequels, "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness", a "remake" in 2013, and a television series titled "Ash vs Evil Dead".


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert continued on to produce numerous other films, typically involving Raimi and/or Campbell in some capacity, such as "Crimewave", "Easy Wheels", "Darkman", "Hard Target", "Timecop", "The Quick and the Dead", "A Simple Plan", and "The Gift".


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert co-founded film production company Ghost House Pictures in 2002. Their first release, "The Grudge", grossed nearly $200 million internationally. They followed up that success with "Boogeyman", "", "The Messengers", "30 Days of Night", "Drag Me to Hell" which Raimi directed, "The Possession", and a remake of Tobe Hooper's seminal film "Poltergeist".


title: Robert Tapert

text: In 2013, Tapert and Raimi tapped Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez, after seeing his short, "Panic Attack!", to reimagine "The Evil Dead". Diablo Cody contributed a polish to help Americanize the script.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert would re-collaborate with Álvarez and writer Rodo Sayagues in 2016 on the breakout film "Don't Breathe" that grossed $157 million worldwide.


title: Robert Tapert

text: In the 1990s, Tapert produced and/or wrote several television series, including "", "M.A.N.T.I.S.", "Spy Game", and "American Gothic". Tapert also co-created the prequel series "Young Hercules" that starred Ryan Gosling.


title: Robert Tapert

text: During "Hercules", Tapert created the character of Xena which he later spun off into a separate series, "". The franchise has been referred to as ground-breaking and the character as a feminist and lesbian icon. "Xena: Warrior Princess" has been credited by many, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon, with blazing the trail for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy, Max of "Dark Angel", Sydney Bristow of "Alias", and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill". After serving as Lucy Lawless's stunt double on "Xena", stunt woman Zoë E. Bell was recruited to be Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's "Kill Bill". By helping to pave the way for female action heroes in television and film, "Xena" also strengthened the stunt woman profession.


title: Robert Tapert

text: In 2008, Tapert produced "Legend of the Seeker", the television adaptation of the popular "Sword of Truth" books by Terry Goodkind for ABC Studios.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert's most recent television project is "Ash vs Evil Dead" based on the "Evil Dead" film franchise that premiered on Starz in 2015.


title: Robert Tapert

text: Tapert produced the stage musical "Pleasuredome" as a love story to 1980's New York City incorporating songs from the era. The play, which was based on Tapert's personal experiences, successfully premiered in 2017 to critical acclaim and sold-out crowds in Tapert's home of Auckland, New Zealand and stars Lucy Lawless.


title: The Overstory

text: The Overstory is a novel by Richard Powers published in 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. It is Powers' twelfth novel. The book is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. Powers was inspired to write the work while teaching at Stanford University, after he encountered giant redwood trees for the first time.


title: The Overstory

text: "The Overstory" was a contender for multiple awards. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize on September 20, 2018 and won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on April 15, 2019, as well as the William Dean Howells Medal in 2020. Reviews of the novel have been mostly positive, with praise of the structure, writing, and compelling reading experience.


title: The Overstory

text: Patricia Westerford, one of the novel's central characters, was heavily inspired by the life and work of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard. Westerford pens the fictional novel "The Secret Forest", which mirrors notable ecological texts such as "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World" by German forester Peter Wohlleben, "The Secret Life of Trees" by British science writer Colin Tudge, and "Finding the Mother Tree" by Simard herself.


title: The Overstory

text: "The Overstory" is divided into four sections, titled 'roots', 'trunk', 'crown', and 'seeds', mirroring the life cycle of a tree.


title: The Overstory

text: On the Hoel farm in Iowa, a sentinel chestnut tree survives the blight, becoming a beloved tree for four generations of Hoels. The last Hoel, Nicholas, returns to the farm on Christmas day to find his entire family has perished from propane asphyxiation.


title: The Overstory

text: Winston Ma, a Chinese American, has three daughters. To honor his own father, Winston plants a mulberry tree. When he takes his own life beneath the mulberry, his eldest daughter, Mimi, is left to divide the family heirlooms, which includes three jade rings and an ancient scroll.


title: The Overstory

text: In the Appich family, a tree is planted for each child. Adam's tree is a maple. After Adam's older sister goes missing, he loses interest in his insect avocation, and his grades slip. His passion for knowledge is rekindled after finding a book on social psychology. While there, he learns about the bystander effect.


title: The Overstory

text: Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly begin dating, but Dorothy struggles with commitment because she sees it as a form of ownership. They finally get married and make plans to plant something in their yard every year on their anniversary.


title: The Overstory

text: After enduring the Stanford prison experiment, Douglas Pavlicek enlists in the U.S. Air Force. Doug's plane is shot down, and he falls out into a banyan tree. He is discharged and becomes a caretaker on a horse ranch. While driving through Oregon, he is disturbed by the sight of clear-cut hillsides. He takes a job planting thousands of Douglas fir seedlings.


title: The Overstory

text: As a boy, Neelay Mehta becomes obsessed with computers. While climbing a California live oak, Neelay falls and becomes paralyzed from the waist down. While at Stanford University, he receives inspiration from the campus trees and decides to create an immersive world video game where players conquer, expand, and interact over game content.


title: The Overstory

text: Patricia Westerford learns about trees from her father. She studies botany and forestry in college. While completing research, she discovers trees communicate with each other through chemicals. Her findings are denounced by a few prominent scientists. She loses her job and retreats into solitary life, nearly killing herself. Later, she meets two scientists who tell her that her research has been redeemed in the scientific community. She joins them at their research station and begins investigating trees once more.


title: The Overstory

text: While at college studying Actuarial Science, Olivia Vandergriff is accidentally electrocuted and her heart stops.


title: The Overstory

text: After ninety seconds, Olivia's heart restarts. She senses beings of light who want her to leave school to join activists working to save the California redwoods. On the way, she stops at Nick Hoel's farm, and he agrees to go with her.


title: The Overstory

text: Mimi and Douglas are brought together when a grove of ponderosa pines is cut down in the middle of the night. Together, they decide to join activists to defend trees, both getting arrested. Eventually, they make their way to the same activist group Olivia and Nick join.


title: The Overstory

text: Neelay starts his own company, becoming extremely successful with his "Mastery" games. Patricia writes a bestselling book called "The Secret Forest". Adam decides he is going to write his dissertation on the psychological profiles of environmental activists. Dorothy and Ray struggle to conceive a child, and Dorothy begins having an affair.


title: The Overstory

text: Nick and Olivia take their turn living in the branches of a giant redwood called Mimas to protect it from logging. Their vigil lasts for months instead of days. Dorothy asks Ray for a divorce, but Ray suddenly has a stroke and almost dies.


title: The Overstory

text: Adam interviews Nick and Olivia atop Mimas. While there, they are threatened by a helicopter and forced down; all three are sent to jail and Mimas is cut down. Adam decides to join Nick, Olivia, Mimi, and Doug in Oregon. Each takes on a new name: Mimi is Mulberry, Doug is Doug-fir, Adam is Maple, Nick is Watchman, and Olivia is Maidenhair. Frustrated with their progress to stop old-growth logging, the group decides to take matters into their own hands and begin burning logging equipment. During their final arson attempt, the explosion goes awry and Olivia is killed.


title: The Overstory

text: Olivia dies from the explosion, and the rest of the group flee the scene. Adam returns to graduate school and becomes a respected professor in the field of psychology. Nick lives a transient life, making activist art. Mimi changes her name and becomes a therapist. Doug lives in the secluded remnants of a mining town in Montana.


title: The Overstory

text: Dorothy cares for Ray after his stroke. They bond over their plants, especially the trees they planted in their yard. Patricia starts a seed vault to preserve trees that will soon be extinct. Neelay becomes unhappy with his "Mastery" games and wants to use technology to learn how to preserve the natural world.


title: The Overstory

text: A tourist finds Doug's journal with information about the group's arson activities, and Doug is arrested. To protect Mimi, he decides to identify Adam as an accomplice.


title: The Overstory

text: Neelay leaves his company and creates artificial intelligences to learn about Earth's biomes. Adam pleads guilty to his crimes and is sentenced to 140 years in prison. Mimi realizes what Doug and Adam did for her and achieves a kind of enlightenment. Ray and Dorothy decide to let their yard grow wild without human interference, until Ray has a second stroke and dies. Nick continues to make art, and the novel finishes with the completion of an enormous natural sculpture that spells out the word "STILL" big enough to be seen from space.


title: The Overstory

text: "The Atlantic" called the novel "darkly optimistic" for taking the long view that humanity was doomed while trees are not. "The Guardian" was mixed on the novel, with one review claiming that Powers mostly succeeded in conjuring "narrative momentum out of thin air, again and again"; another reviewer excoriated the novel as being an "increasingly absurd melodrama". "Library Journal" called the book "a deep meditation on the irreparable psychic damage that manifests in our unmitigated separation from nature". Ron Charles of "The Washington Post" offered up effusive praise, writing that this "ambitious novel soars up through the canopy of American literature and remakes the landscape of environmental fiction".


title: The Overstory

text: In February 2021, it was reported that Netflix was developing a television adaptation of the novel with David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Hugh Jackman executive producing.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the capitulation of German forces in Europe on 8/9 May 1945. Throughout this period, a pro-German government named Den nasjonale regjering (English: the National Government) ruled Norway, while the Norwegian king Haakon VII and the prewar government escaped to London, where they formed a government in exile. Civil rule was effectively assumed by the "Reichskommissariat Norwegen" (Reich Commissariat of Norway), which acted in collaboration with the pro-German puppet government. This period of military occupation is, in Norway, referred to as the "war years", "occupation period" or simply "the war".


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Having maintained its neutrality during the First World War (1914–1918), Norwegian foreign and military policy since 1933 was largely influenced by three factors:


title: German occupation of Norway

text: These three factors met resistance as tensions grew in Europe in the 1930s, initially from Norwegian military staff and right-wing political groups, but increasingly also from individuals within the mainstream political establishment and, it has since come to light, by the monarch, King Haakon VII, behind the scenes. By the late 1930s, the Norwegian parliament (Storting) had accepted the need for a strengthened military and expanded the budget accordingly, even by assuming national debt. As it turned out, most of the plans enabled by the budgetary expansion were not completed in time.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Although neutrality remained the highest priority, it was known throughout the government that Norway, above all, did not want to be at war with Britain. On 28 April 1939, Nazi Germany offered Norway and several other Scandinavian countries non-aggression pacts. However to maintain neutrality, Norway turned down the German offer, as did Sweden and Finland. By the autumn of 1939 there was an increasing sense of urgency because of its long western coastline facing access routes into the North Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean that Norway had to prepare, not only to protect its neutrality, but indeed to fight for its freedom and independence. Efforts to improve military readiness and capability and to sustain an extended blockade were intensified between September 1939 and April 1940. Several incidents in Norwegian maritime waters, notably the Altmark incident in Jøssingfjord, put great strains on Norway's ability to assert its neutrality. Norway managed to negotiate favorable trade treaties both with the United Kingdom and Germany under these conditions, but it became increasingly clear that both countries had a strategic interest in denying the other warring power access to Norway and its coastline.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The government was also increasingly pressured by Britain to direct ever larger parts of its massive merchant fleet to transport British goods at low rates as well as to join the trade blockade against Germany. In March and April 1940, on the pretext of German aggression, British plans for an invasion of Norway were prepared, mainly in order to reach and destroy the Swedish iron ore mines in Gällivare. It was hoped that this would divert German forces away from France and open a war front in south Sweden.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: It was agreed that mines would be laid in Norwegian waters (Operation Wilfred) and that the mining should be followed by the landing of troops at four Norwegian ports: Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger. It was hoped that the mining would trigger German agitation, thereby necessitating an immediate response from the Allies. However, because of Anglo-French arguments, the date of the mining was postponed from 5 April to 8 April. The postponement was catastrophic. On 1 April, German Führer Adolf Hitler had ordered the German invasion of Norway to begin on 9 April; so, when on the day before, 8 April, the Norwegian government was preoccupied with earnest protest about the British mine-laying, the German expeditions were already mobilizing.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: On the pretext that Norway needed protection from British and French interference, Germany invaded Norway for several reasons:


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Through neglect both on the part of the Norwegian foreign minister Halvdan Koht and minister of defense Birger Ljungberg, Norway was largely unprepared for the German military invasion when it came on the night of 8–9 April 1940. A major storm on 7 April resulted in the British Navy failing to make material contact with the German shipping. Consistent with Blitzkrieg warfare, German forces attacked Norway by sea and air as Operation Weserübung was put into action. The first wave of German attackers counted only about 10,000 men. German ships came into the Oslofjord, but were stopped when the Krupp-built artillery and torpedoes of Oscarsborg Fortress sank the German flagship "Blücher" and sank or damaged the other ships in the German task force. "Blücher" transported the forces that would ensure control of the political apparatus in Norway, and the sinking and death of over 1,000 soldiers and crew delayed the Germans, so that the King and government had the chance to escape from Oslo. In the other cities that were attacked, the Germans faced only weak or no resistance. The surprise and the lack of preparedness of Norway for a large-scale invasion of this kind gave the German forces their initial success.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The major Norwegian ports from Oslo northward to Narvik (more than away from Germany's naval bases) were occupied by advance detachments of German troops, transported on destroyers. At the same time, a single parachute battalion took the Oslo and Stavanger airfields, and 800 operational aircraft overwhelmed the Norwegian population. Norwegian resistance at Narvik, Trondheim (Norway's second city and the strategic key to Norway), Bergen, Stavanger, and Kristiansand was overcome very quickly, and Oslo's effective resistance to the seaborne forces was nullified when German troops from the airfield entered the city. The first troops to occupy Oslo entered the city brazenly, marching behind a German military brass band.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: On establishing footholds in Oslo and Trondheim, the Germans launched a ground offensive against scattered resistance inland in Norway. Allied forces attempted several counterattacks, but all failed. While resistance in Norway had little military success, it had the significant political effect of allowing the Norwegian government, including the royal family, to escape. The "Blücher", which carried the main forces to occupy the capital, was sunk in the Oslofjord on the first day of the invasion. An improvised defence at Midtskogen also prevented a German raid from capturing the king and government.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Norwegian mobilisation was hampered by the loss of much of the best equipment to the Germans in the first 24 hours of the invasion, the unclear mobilisation order by the government, and the general confusion caused by the tremendous psychological shock of the German surprise attack. The Norwegian Army rallied after the initial confusion and on several occasions managed to put up a stiff fight, delaying the German advance. However, the Germans, quickly reinforced by Panzer and motorised machine gun battalions, proved unstoppable due to their superior numbers, training, and equipment. The Norwegian Army therefore planned its campaign as a tactical retreat while awaiting reinforcements from Britain.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The British Navy cleared the way to Narvik on 13 April, sinking one submarine and eight destroyers in the fjord. British and French troops began to land at Narvik on 14 April. Shortly afterward, British troops landed at Namsos and Åndalsnes, to attack Trondheim from the north and from the south, respectively. The Germans, however, landed fresh troops in the rear of the British at Namsos and advanced up the Gudbrandsdal from Oslo against the force at Åndalsnes. By this time, the Germans had about 25,000 men in Norway.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: By 23 April, there was open discussion about evacuating Allied troops, and on 24 April Norwegian troops, supported by French soldiers, failed to stop a Panzer advance. On 26 April the British decided to evacuate Norway.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: By 2 May, both Namsos and Åndalsnes were evacuated by the British. On 5 May, the last Norwegian resistance pockets remaining in South and Central Norway were defeated at Vinjesvingen and Hegra Fortress.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In the north, German troops engaged in a bitter fight at the Battle of Narvik. Holding out against five times as many British and French troops, they were close to rebellion before finally slipping out from Narvik on 28 May. Moving east, the Germans were surprised when the British started to abandon Narvik on 3 June. By that time the German offensive in France had progressed to such an extent that the British could no longer afford any commitment in Norway, and the 25,000 Britons and Frenchmen were evacuated from Narvik only 10 days after their victory. King Haakon VII and part of his government left for England on the British cruiser to establish the Norwegian government-in-exile.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Fighting continued in Northern Norway until 10 June, when the Norwegian 6th Division surrendered shortly after Allied forces had been evacuated against the background of looming defeat in France. Among German-occupied territories in Western Europe, this made Norway the country to withstand the German invasion for the longest period of time – approximately two months.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: About 300,000 Germans were garrisoned in Norway for the rest of the war. By occupying Norway, Hitler had ensured the protection of Germany's supply of iron ore from Sweden and had obtained naval and air bases with which to strike at Britain.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Prior to the invasion, on 14 and 18 December 1939, Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway's fascist party, the "Nasjonal Samling" ("National Gathering"), had tried to persuade Adolf Hitler that he would form a government in support of occupying Germans. Although Hitler remained unreceptive to the idea, he gave orders to draft up plans for the possible military invasion of Norway. Hence, on the first day of invasion, Quisling, using his own initiative, burst into the NRK studios in Oslo on 9 April and made a nationwide broadcast at 7:30 pm declaring himself prime minister and ordering all resistance halted at once. This did not please the German authorities, who initially wanted the legitimate government to remain in place. Nevertheless, when it became obvious that the Norwegian parliament would not surrender, the Germans quickly came to recognise Quisling. Hitler not being aware of anyone better, supported him from the evening of 9 April. They demanded that King Haakon formally appoint him as prime minister and return his government to Oslo; in effect, giving legal sanction to the invasion.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: When the German ambassador to Norway, Curt Bräuer, presented his government's demands to Haakon, the king let it be known he would abdicate before appointing Quisling prime minister. The Germans reacted by bombing the village they believed the King was occupying. He had been, but had left the village when the sound of bombers was heard. Standing in the snow in a nearby wood, he watched the village of Nybergsund be destroyed. This prompted the Norwegian government to unanimously advise him not to appoint any government headed by Quisling. The invaders realised Quisling's party could not muster any significant support, and quickly pushed him aside. An administrative council led by Ingolf Elster Christensen was therefore established on 15 April to administer those areas which had so far come under German control. The council was abolished on 20 September 1940, when "Reichskommissar" Josef Terboven took over power by forming his own cabinet. Terboven attempted to negotiate an arrangement with the remaining members of the Norwegian parliament that would give a Nazi cabinet the semblance of legitimacy, but these talks failed.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Quisling was consequently re-instituted as head of state on 20 February 1942, although Terboven retained the sole means to use violence as a political tool, which he did on several occasions (e.g. by imposing martial law in Trondheim and ordering the destruction of the village of Telavåg). Quisling believed that by ensuring economic stability and mediating between the Norwegian civilian society and the German occupiers, his party would gradually win the trust and confidence of the Norwegian population. Membership in the "Nasjonal Samling" did increase slightly in the first few years of the occupation, but never reached significant levels, and eroded towards the end of the war.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Military forces such as the "Heer" and "Luftwaffe" remained under direct command of the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" in Germany throughout the war, but all other authority was vested in the Reich commissioner. The Nazi authorities made attempts to enact legislation that supported its actions and policies; it therefore banned all political parties except NS, appointed local leaders top down and forced labour unions and other organizations to accept NS leaders. Although there was much resistance against most of the Nazi government's policies, there was considerable cooperation in ensuring economic activity and social welfare programs.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Norway was the most heavily fortified country during the war: several hundred thousand German soldiers were stationed in Norway, in a ratio of one German soldier for every eight Norwegians. Most German soldiers considered themselves fortunate to be in Norway, particularly in comparison with those experiencing savage combat duty on the Eastern Front.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The Schutzstaffel maintained a strength of six thousand in Norway during the Second World War, under the command of "Obergruppenführer" Wilhelm Rediess, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) from June 1940 to the end of the war. Most of these troops were under the authority of the Waffen-SS and the SS and Police Leader hierarchy. In November 1944, three SS and Police Leaders (SSPF) subordinate to Rediess were appointed: SS-"Oberführer" Heinz Roch for Northern Norway, "Oberführer" Richard Kaaserer for Central Norway and "Gruppenführer" Jakob Sporrenberg for Southern Norway. Also in 1944, the Allgemeine-SS established the 127th SS-Standarte, which was the last command of the General-SS ever created.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The powerful battleship was stationed in Norway for most of the war, acting as a "fleet in being" in her own right and tying up huge Allied resources until she was eventually sunk in the last of many attacks.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The economic consequences of the German occupation were severe. Norway lost all its major trading partners the moment it was occupied. Germany became the main trading partner, but could not make up for the lost import and export business. While production capacity largely remained intact, the German authorities confiscated a very large part of the output. This left Norway with only 43% of its production being freely available.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Combined with a general drop in productivity, Norwegians were quickly confronted with scarcity of basic commodities, including food. There was a real risk of famine. Many, if not most, Norwegians started growing their own crops and keeping their own livestock. City parks were divided among inhabitants, who grew potatoes, cabbage, and other hardy vegetables. People kept pigs, rabbits, chicken and other poultry in their houses and out-buildings. Fishing and hunting became more widespread. Gray and black market provided for flow of goods. Norwegians also learned to use "ersatz" products for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from fuel to coffee, tea, and tobacco.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: At the beginning of the occupation, there were at least 2,173 Jews in Norway. At least 775 of these were arrested, detained, and/or deported. 742 were sent to concentration camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 765, comprising 230 complete households. In addition to the few who survived concentration camps, some also survived by fleeing the country, mostly to Sweden, but some also to the United Kingdom.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Of the Norwegians who supported the "Nasjonal Samling" party, relatively few were active collaborators. Most notorious among these was Henry Oliver Rinnan, the leader of the "Sonderabteilung Lola" (locally known as "Rinnanbanden" or "the Rinnan gang"), a group of informants who infiltrated the Norwegian resistance, hence managing to capture and murder many of its members.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Other collaborators were Statspolitiet (STAPO), a police force that operated independently of the regular police. Statspolitiet was closely related to the Quisling regime and took also orders directly from the German Sicherheitspolizei.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Hirden was a fascist paramilitary force with party members subordinate to the ruling party. Hirden had a broad mandate that included the use of violence.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Furthermore, about 15,000 Norwegians volunteered for combat duty on the Nazi side; of the 6,000 sent into action as part of the Germanic SS, most were sent to the Eastern front.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Over time, an organized armed resistance movement, known as Milorg and numbering some 40,000 armed men at the end of the war, was formed under a largely unified command, something which greatly facilitated the transfer of power in May 1945.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: A distinction was made between the home front ("Hjemmefronten") and the external front ("Utefronten"). The home front consisted of sabotage, raids and clandestine operations (as was often performed by members of Milorg), as well as intelligence gathering (for which XU was founded). Meanwhile, the external front included Norway's merchant fleet, the Royal Norwegian Navy (which had evacuated many of its ships to Britain), Norwegian squadrons under the British Royal Air Force command and several commando groups operating out of Great Britain and Shetland.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: One of the most successful actions undertaken by the Norwegian resistance was the Norwegian heavy water sabotage, which crippled the German nuclear energy project. Prominent resistance members, among them Max Manus and Gunnar Sønsteby, destroyed several ships and supplies of the "Kriegsmarine". Radical organizations such as the Osvald Group sabotaged a number of trains and railways. However most organizations opted for passive resistance.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Illegal newspapers were distributed, including Friheten, Vårt Land, Fritt Land. Illegal trade union periodicals included "Fri Fagbevegelse".


title: German occupation of Norway

text: About 80,000 Norwegian citizens fled the country during the course of the war; apart from political and military forces they included intellectuals such as Sigrid Undset. Since the Norwegian parliament continued to operate in exile in Britain, many of these exiles voluntarily came to serve in the Allied military forces, often forming their own distinct Norwegian units in accordance with the Allied Forces Act. By the end of the war, these forces consisted of some 28,000 enlisted men and women.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In June 1940, some 13 warships and 5 aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy, including their 500 operating personnel, followed the King and parliament to Britain. Throughout the war, some 118 ships served the Royal Norwegian Navy, of which 58 were in active service at the end of the war. By then the Royal Norwegian Navy had continuously and actively served Allied forces since the summer of 1940, and had suffered the loss of 27 ships and 650 men.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In order to develop and train an Air Force, a training camp known as "Little Norway" was set up near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 10 November 1940. However, a unified Royal Norwegian Air Force was only founded as a separate branch of the military of Norway on 10 November 1944; until then it operated in two distinct branches—then known as the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service and the Norwegian Army Air Service.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: A number of Norwegian volunteers also served in British RAF units. Combined, the Norwegian fighter squadrons (No. 331 and 332) and Norwegian fighters operating in RAF service accounted for a total of 247 enemy aircraft destroyed, 42 assumed destroyed and 142 damaged. By the war's end, the Norwegian Air Force had a total of 2,700 personnel and had suffered a total of 228 losses.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The Norwegian Army was given the lowest priority of all the exiled Norwegian forces; it never exceeded 4,000 men. Following its last reorganisation in 1942, the Army consisted of the following units:


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Throughout the war, Allied planners remained wary of the strategic significance of Norway. Commando raids were carried out in several locations; some with the intention of deceiving German commanders as part of Operation Fortitude North, others with the explicit aim of disrupting German military and scientific capabilities, such as sabotaging the German nuclear energy project. Many of these allied raids were achieved with the help of exiled Norwegian forces. However Churchill was obsessed with an invasion of Norway, and kept badgering Alanbrooke; see Operation Jupiter (Norway).


title: German occupation of Norway

text: With the beginning of the German withdrawal from Lapland, the initial German plan was to retain the essential nickel mines around Petsamo in the far North held by the 19th Mountain Corps under General Ferdinand Jodl, but events led to the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" ordering the entire 20th Mountain Army out of Finland to take up new defensive positions around Lyngen and Skibotn just to the north of Tromsø—a new operation which came to be called "Operation Nordlicht" (Operation Northern Light). This proved to be a huge logistical undertaking. General Lothar Rendulic, replacing General Eduard Dietl, who had been killed in an air crash, set about evacuating supplies by sea through Petsamo and the Norwegian town of Kirkenes.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In early October 1944, some 53,000 men of the German 19th Mountain Corps were still inside Russia along the Litsa River and the neck of the Rybachy Peninsula. The plan was for them to reach Lakselv in Norway, west, by 15 November. By 7 October however, the combined Soviet 14th Army and Northern fleet, consisting of 133,500 men under Field Marshal Kirill Meretskov, attacked the weakest point of the German line, the junction between the 2nd and 6th Mountain Divisions.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: A Soviet Naval Brigade also made an amphibious landing to the west of Rybachy, thereby outflanking the Germans. Rendulic, fearing an encirclement of his forces, ordered the 19th Mountain Corps to fall back into Norway. With the Soviets hard on their heels, the Corps reached Kirkenes by 20 October. The German High Command ordered Rendulic to hold the Soviets at bay whilst vital supplies amounting to some could be shipped to safety. Five days later, when the German army prepared to withdraw, only around had been saved.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: As a result of the German scorched earth policy, Kirkenes was virtually destroyed by the Germans before pulling out: the town was set on fire, port installations and offices were blown up and only a few small houses were left standing. This scene was to be repeated throughout Finnmark, an area larger than Denmark. The Germans were determined to leave nothing of value to the Soviets, as Hitler had ordered Rendulic to leave the area devoid of people, shelter and supplies. Some 43,000 people complied with the order to evacuate the region immediately; those who refused were forced to leave their homes. Some nonetheless stayed behind to await the departure of the Germans: it was estimated that 23,000–25,000 people remained in East-Finnmark by the end of November, they hid in the wilderness until the Germans had left.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The Soviets pursued the Germans over the following days, and fighting occurred around the small settlements of Munkelv and Neiden to the west of Kirkenes around 27 October. The German 6th Mountain Division, acting as rear-guard, slowly withdrew up the main road along the coast (known as "Riksvei 50", now called the E6) until reaching Tanafjord, some north-west of Kirkenes, which they reached on 6 November. It was to be their last contact with Soviet troops.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: However, the advance of the Soviet troops stopped and West-Finnmark and North-Troms became a no-man's land between the Soviet army and the German army. Here, several thousand people lived in hiding the whole winter 1944/45. These people were called cave people, living in caves, in huts made of driftwood and/or turf, under boats turned upside down, etc. The risk of being discovered by patrolling German boats was a constant threat during the months waiting for liberation.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: On 25 October 1944, the order was given for a Norwegian force in Britain to set sail for Murmansk to join the Soviet forces now entering Northern Norway. The envoy was named "Force 138" and the operation was called "Operation Crofter".


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The force arrived in Murmansk on 6 November and went with a Soviet ship to Liinakhamari in North-western Soviet Union (former North-eastern Finland), from where trucks took them to Norway, arriving on 10 November. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Sherbakov, made it clear that he wanted the Norwegian "Bergkompani" to take over the forward positions as soon as possible. Volunteers from the local population were hastily formed into "guard companies" armed with Soviet weapons pending the arrival of more troops from either Sweden or Britain. The first convoy arrived from Britain on 7 December and included two Norwegian corvettes (one of which was later damaged by a mine) and three minesweepers.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: It soon became obvious that reconnaissance patrols needed to be sent out to observe German activities and discover whether or not the population of Finnmark had been evacuated. The reports came back stating that the Germans were in the process of pulling back from Porsanger, but were laying mines and booby-traps along the way, a few people were left here and there and many of the buildings were burnt down.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: This remained the situation as 1944 slipped into 1945. The new year would see the Norwegian forces slowly taking back a battered Finnmark, helping the local population in the bitter arctic winter and dealing with occasional German raids from the air, sea and land as well as the ever-present danger from mines. Reinforcements arrived from the Norwegian Rikspoliti based in Sweden as well as convoys from Britain. A total of 1,442 people and of material were flown in by Dakota transport aircraft from Kallax in Sweden to Finnmark, and by April the Norwegian forces numbered over 3,000 men. On 26 April the Norwegian command sent out a message that Finnmark was free. When the Germans finally capitulated on 8 May 1945, the 1st company of the Varanger battalion was positioned along the Finnmark-Troms border to the west of Alta.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Towards the end of the war, in March 1945, Norwegian "Reichskommissar" Josef Terboven had considered plans to make Norway the last bastion of the Third Reich and a last sanctum for German leaders. However, following Adolf Hitler's suicide on 30 April, Hitler's successor Admiral Karl Dönitz summoned Terboven and General Franz Böhme, Commander-in-Chief of German forces in Norway, to a meeting in Flensburg, where they were ordered to follow the General headquarters' instructions.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: German forces in Denmark surrendered on 5 May, and on the same day, General Eisenhower dispatched a telegram to resistance headquarters in Norway, which was passed on to General Böhme; it contained information on how to make contact with Allied General Headquarters. With only around 30,000 troops on hand, General Montgomery opted to exclude the surrender of Norway from the May 5 surrenders that included Denmark, Holland and northeast Germany and tasked Sir Andrew Thorne, GOC-in-C Scottish Command, to negotiate the surrender of some 350,000 German troops in Norway.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Dönitz dismissed Terboven from his post as "Reichskommissar" on 7 May, transferring his powers to General Böhme. At 21:10 on the same day, the German High Command ordered Böhme to follow the capitulation plans, and he made a radio broadcast at 22:00 in which he declared that German forces in Norway would obey orders. This led to an immediate and full mobilisation of the Milorg underground resistance movement—more than 40,000 armed Norwegians were summoned to occupy the Royal Palace, Oslo's main police station, as well as other public buildings. A planned Norwegian administration was set up overnight.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The following afternoon, on 8 May, an Allied military mission arrived in Oslo to deliver the conditions for capitulation to the Germans, and arranged the surrender, which took effect at midnight. The conditions included the German High Command agreeing to arrest and intern all German and Norwegian Nazi party members listed by the Allies, disarm and intern all SS troops, and send all German forces to designated areas. Several of the high ranking Nazi and SS officials chose to kill themselves rather than surrender. Among those who committed suicide between 8–10 May were Terboven, Rediess and Roch. At this time there were no fewer than 400,000 German soldiers in Norway, which had a population of barely three million.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Following the surrender, detachments of regular Norwegian and Allied troops were sent to Norway, which included 13,000 Norwegians trained in Sweden and 30,000 Britons and Americans. Official representatives of the Norwegian civil authorities followed soon after these military forces, with Crown Prince Olav arriving in Oslo on a British cruiser on 14 May, with a 21-man delegation of Norwegian government officials headed up by Sverre Støstad and Paul Hartmann, with the remainder of the Norwegian government and the London-based administration following on the UK troopship . Finally, on 7 June, which also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the dissolution of Norway's union with Sweden, King Haakon VII and the remaining members of the royal family arrived in Oslo onboard the British cruiser HMS "Norfolk". General Sir Andrew Thorne, Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces in Norway, transferred power to King Haakon that same day.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Following the liberation, the Norwegian government-in-exile was replaced by a coalition led by Einar Gerhardsen which governed until the autumn of 1945 when the first postwar general election was held, returning Gerhardsen as prime minister, at the head of a Labour Party government.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Norwegian survivors began to emerge from the German concentration camps. By war's end, 92,000 Norwegians were located abroad, including 46,000 in Sweden. Besides German occupiers, 141,000 foreign nationals were located in Norway, mostly now-liberated prisoners of war held by the Germans. These included 84,000 Russians.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: A total of 10,262 Norwegians lost their lives in the conflict or while imprisoned. Approximately 50,000 Norwegians were arrested by the Germans during the occupation. Of these, 9,000 were consigned to prison camps outside Norway, including Stutthof concentration camp.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: During the five-year occupation, several thousand Norwegian women had children fathered by German soldiers in the "Lebensborn" program. The mothers were ostracised and humiliated after the war both by Norwegian officialdom and the civilian population, and were called names such as "tyskertøser" (literally "whores/sluts of [the] Germans"). Many of these women were detained at internment camps such as the one on Hovedøya, and some were even deported to Germany. The children of these unions received names like "tyskerunger" (children of Germans) or worse yet "naziyngel" (Nazi spawn). The debate on the past treatment of these "krigsbarn" (war children) started with a television series in 1981, but only recently have the offspring of these unions begun to identify themselves. Fritz Moen, the only known victim of dual miscarriage of justice in Europe, was the child of a Norwegian woman and a German soldier, as was ABBA member Anni-Frid Lyngstad.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Throughout the war years, a number of Norwegians fled the Nazi regime, mostly across the border to Sweden. These included Norwegian Jews, political activists, and others who had reason to fear for their lives. The Nazis set up border patrols to stop these flights across the very long border, but locals who knew the woods found ways to bypass them. These "border pilots", and people who hid refugees in their homes, were among those in the resistance movement who took the greatest risks.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Swedish authorities accepted the refugees and ensured their safety once they had crossed the border, but did little to facilitate their escape. Refugees were often confined to camps where only their basic needs were met. About 50,000 Norwegians fled to Sweden during the war.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In addition to the Jews, members of the resistance movement and other people who had more acute reason to fear for their lives, a great many refugees were men of military age wishing to join the Norwegian armed forces abroad. Before the German invasion of Russia, a number of them managed to make their way out of Sweden and travel over Russian territory to Britain, often via India, South Africa or Canada. After Operation Barbarossa, the overland route over Russian soil was closed.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The rest of the refugees were effectively locked up in Sweden for the duration, except for a small number of officers, pilots or other specialists managing to obtain priority on the occasional plane leaving Sweden for Britain.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: In the last two years of the war, the Norwegian government in exile in London obtained permission and cooperation from the Swedish authorities to secretly raise military formations on Swedish territory in the form of the so-called "Police troops" ("Polititroppene") recruited from Norwegian refugees. Some were indeed police, and Sweden did not allow weapons training in a few camps, but for most the term "Police" was a cover-up for what in reality was pure military training. These formations, numbering 12,000 men organised into battalions and with their own pioneers, signals and artillery by VE-day, were equipped with Swedish weapons and equipment and trained by Norwegian and Swedish officers.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: A number of the "Police troops" were employed in the liberation of Finnmark in the winter of 1944/45 after the area had been evacuated by the Germans. The rest participated in liberation of the rest of Norway after the German surrender in May 1945.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: Even before the war ended, there was debate among Norwegians about the fate of traitors and collaborators. A few favored a "night of long knives" with extrajudicial killings of known offenders. However, cooler minds prevailed, and much effort was put into assuring due process trials of accused traitors. In the end, 37 people were executed by Norwegian authorities: 25 Norwegians on the grounds of treason, and 12 Germans on the grounds of crimes against humanity. 28,750 were arrested, though most were released for lack of evidence. In the end, 20,000 Norwegians and a smaller number of Germans were given prison sentences. 77 Norwegians and 18 Germans received life sentences. A number of people were sentenced to pay heavy fines.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The trials have been subject to some criticism in later years. It has been pointed out that sentences became more lenient with the passage of time, and that many of the charges were based on the unconstitutional and illegal retroactive application of laws.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: After the war the Norwegian government forced German prisoners of war to clear minefields. When the clearing ended in September 1946, 392 of them had been injured and 275 had been killed, meanwhile only two Norwegians and four British mine-clearers had sustained any injuries. Many of the Germans were killed through their guards' habit of chasing them criss-cross over a cleared field to ensure that no mines remained.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: By the end of the war, German occupation had reduced Norway's GDP by 45% – more than any other occupied country. In addition to this came the physical and patrimonial ravages of the war itself. In Finnmark, these were considerably important, as large areas were destroyed as a result of the scorched earth policy that the Germans had pursued during their retreat. Moreover, many towns and settlements were damaged or destroyed by bombing and fighting.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The adversity created as a result of the occupation strengthened and further defined the Norwegian national identity. The history of the resistance movement may have been glorified excessively, but it has also provided Norwegian military and political leaders with durable role models. The shared hardship of the war years also set the stage for social welfare policies of the post-war Norwegian Labour Party governments. It also led to the abandonment of Norway's traditional policy of neutrality, formalized when Norway became a founding member of NATO in 1949. Finally, it led to a broad political and popular commitment to maintain armed forces large enough to realistically defend the country against any likely threat, as well as to keep those armed forces under firm civilian control.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The primary Luftwaffe day fighter unit dedicated to serve in the area of Norway, "Jagdgeschwader 5" (5th Fighter Wing), was the unit that used more of the surviving Second World War German fighter aircraft than any other in the forces of the Axis powers during the Second World War. The complement of surviving German fighter aircraft that once served with JG 5 comprises some twenty examples of the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and several examples of the radial-engined versions of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. A small number of JG 5's surviving aircraft have been recently restored to flying condition as warbird aircraft with various organizations that fly them in airshow events, and a few others that served with JG 5 are also in the process of being restored to flying condition, early in the 21st century.


title: German occupation of Norway

text: The lone surviving original example of the Arado Ar 234 "Blitz" turbojet-powered Nazi German reconnaissance bomber, restored and on display in the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center, in 1945 was based in Norway with "Kampfgeschwader 76" (76th Bomber Wing) and brought to the United States through the efforts of Operation Lusty, on the deck of the Royal Navy's HMS "Reaper" escort carrier.


title: Ego Nwodim

text: Egobunma Kelechi Nwodim (; born March 10, 1988) is an American actress and comedian who is a cast member on "Saturday Night Live", joining in the 44th season in 2018.


title: Ego Nwodim

text: In 2006, Nwodim, who is of Nigerian heritage, graduated from Eastern Technical High School in Essex, Maryland, in Baltimore County. She received a biology degree from University of Southern California. Deciding to pursue a career in comedy, she began taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in Los Angeles. Until joining "SNL", Nwodim was a regular cast member at UCB, where she also performed her one-woman show "Great Black Women...and Then There's Me".


title: Ego Nwodim

text: Nwodim was named one of the New Faces at the 2016 Just for Laughs festival. Also that year, she performed at the CBS Diversity Showcase. Supporting roles on television for Nwodim include "Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders" (a three-episode arc in 2017), "2 Broke Girls", and "Living Biblically". Impersonating Maya Angelou, Nwodim roasted various celebrities and companies in a 2017 Funny or Die sketch. Nwodim has made several guest appearances on podcasts such as "Comedy Bang! Bang!" and "Spontaneanation".


title: Ego Nwodim

text: Nwodim's addition to the cast of "Saturday Night Live", a long-running NBC sketch-comedy show, as a featured player was announced on September 21, 2018. On September 8, 2020, Nwodim was promoted to a repertory player ahead of the forty-sixth season of "Saturday Night Live".


title: Just Friends

text: Just Friends is a 2005 American Christmas comedy film directed by Roger Kumble, written by Adam 'Tex' Davis and starring Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Chris Klein and Christopher Marquette. The plot focuses on a formerly obese high school student (Reynolds) who attempts to free himself from the friend zone after reconnecting with his best friend (Smart) whom he is in love with while visiting his hometown for Christmas.


title: Just Friends

text: The film revolves around humorous observation of strictly platonic relationships as "just friends" or "just as best friends". It was shot in Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. "Just Friends" was released on November 23, 2005 and grossed over $50 million.


title: Just Friends

text: In 1995, Chris Brander, an obese high school senior, is secretly in love with his classmate and best friend Jamie Palamino. Confessing his feelings by writing in her yearbook, he attends their graduation party. As he returns Jamie's yearbook, it is swapped by her ex-boyfriend, Tim, who reads the declaration aloud to everyone, humiliating Chris. After kissing him on the cheek, Jamie admits she does not reciprocate his affections. He leaves the party in tears, announcing he will never return and vowing to be more successful than everyone else.


title: Just Friends

text: Ten years later, a womanizing Chris has lost weight and lives in Los Angeles as a highly successful record producer and vice president of the company. Before Christmas, company CEO KC, asks him to accompany emerging, self-obsessed pop singer Samantha James to Paris so she signs with their label, and Chris reluctantly complies. She wants a relationship with him but he has no interest after their only date previously led to his hospitalization. On the way to Paris, Samantha accidentally sets her private jet on fire, causing an emergency landing in New Jersey, near Chris's hometown.


title: Just Friends

text: Chris takes Samantha to his mother's for the night and re-engages with his teenage past, including his unresolved feelings for Jamie. She meets his mother and 18-year-old brother Mike, a huge fan of Samantha who is infatuated with her. At the local bar, Chris encounters some old classmates, including his other best friend Clark and his wife Darla.


title: Just Friends

text: He also sees Jamie, working as a bartender to pay for graduate school for teaching. Chris asks Mike to keep Samantha busy during his date with Jamie, but realizing their platonic friendship is important to him hampers his plan for them to have sex. During a friendly ice skating "day date", Chris is taken away in an ambulance after injuring himself during a hockey game with Jamie and a trio of kids (who dislike him). At the scene, Jamie is reunited with Dusty Dinkleman, a paramedic and former high school classmate also in love with her.


title: Just Friends

text: The next night, Chris goes to Jamie's Christmas party to express his feelings for her, but Dusty is already there, charming everyone on guitar. Back at Chris's, Samantha ambushes Mike, demanding he reveal Chris's location. He refuses until she gives him a kiss. In a rage, she drives to Jamie's, crashing through her fence and destroying the Christmas decorations. Chris returns home in embarrassment, and Jamie follows. She tells him she is not mad and they end up spending the night catching up and reminiscing. However, due to Chris's continuing lack of assertion, they end up just sleeping and nothing happens.


title: Just Friends

text: The next day, Jamie speaks with Darla about the night before, while Chris goes to Clark for advice. Jamie admits that while they are "just friends", she tried to show Chris she is interested in more. Clark tells Chris that "the timing wasn't right" and their history hinders him. Outside the office, Chris and Clark catch Dusty singing to a nurse and then kissing her. Dusty reveals his plans to have sex with Jamie and humiliate her in a way he felt she humiliated him in high school when he was attracted to her.


title: Just Friends

text: Chris tries to warn Jamie, but instead attacks Dusty in front of her. She refuses to listen when he tries to explain. Consequently, he gets drunk and goes to Jamie's bar, finding her there with Dusty. When she gently declines Dusty's sexual advances, he storms out. Chris and Jamie get into another fight, where he blames her for keeping him in the "friend zone" and says she will never amount to anything. Jamie punches Chris and he is tossed out.


title: Just Friends

text: Upon returning to Los Angeles and rejecting Samantha's continued advances when she sees him again, Chris realizes that Jamie is his one and only true love. He returns to New Jersey, declares his love to her and they kiss, while the three kids (from the hockey game earlier) watch in disgust. One of the boys hands the girl a cookie, which she gives to the other. She calls the boy who gave her a cookie her friend, which he replies with "the bestest" before realizing he has been put in the friend zone.


title: Just Friends

text: Alanis Morissette, then Reynolds' fiancée, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of his character. This came about when the casting director said "we need an Alanis Morissette type" and Reynolds said he knew someone who would fit. This scene was deleted, however, and is only available on the DVD.


title: Just Friends

text: Most songs in the film were written by Adam Schiff, except "When Jamie Smiles", which was written by H. Scott Salinas.


title: Just Friends

text: The orchestral score was written by Jeff Cardoni, and orchestrated by Stephen Coleman and Tony Blondal.


title: Just Friends

text: "Just Friends" grossed $32.6 million domestically, and $18.3 million in other territories, for a box office total of $50.9 million.


title: Just Friends

text: In the United States the film grossed $9.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing 6th at the box office.


title: Just Friends

text: "Just Friends" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "There are moments of mirth in this overly broad comedy, but mostly, "Just Friends" is just not that funny." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Glen Hansard

text: Glen Hansard (born 21 April 1970) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten of the Irish Album Charts. In the 2000s, he was one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season before releasing his debut solo album, "Rhythm and Repose", in 2012. His 2015 second album "Didn't He Ramble" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.


title: Glen Hansard

text: Primarily a musician, he has also acted and written music for film; he appeared in the BAFTA-winning film "The Commitments" (1991) and, notably, starred in the Irish music drama "Once" (2007) which earned him a number of major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" with co-writer and co-star Markéta Irglová. The film was later adapted into an award-winning-musical theatre production.


title: Glen Hansard

text: Hansard quit school at age 13 to begin busking on local Dublin streets. He formed his own band The Frames in 1990, and the group have been gigging regularly in Ireland since. Hansard came to international attention as guitar player Outspan Foster in the 1991 Alan Parker film "The Commitments". He has often stated that he regretted taking the role because he felt it distracted him from his music career. In 2003, he presented the television programme "", which showcased Irish music talent on RTÉ.


title: Glen Hansard

text: On 22 April 2006, he released his first album without The Frames, "The Swell Season", on Overcoat Recordings in collaboration with Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Markéta Irglová, Marja Tuhkanen from Finland on violin and viola, and Bertrand Galen from France on cello. Hansard also spent part of 2006 in front of the cameras for the music-infused Irish film "Once", in which Hansard plays a Dublin busker, and Irglová an immigrant street vendor. The film had its United States premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and received the Festival's World Cinema Audience Award. During the promotional tour, he and Irglová began dating. Said Hansard about his relationship with Irglova: "I had been falling in love with her for a long time, but I kept telling myself she's just a kid".


title: Glen Hansard

text: Hansard had recorded a version of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for the film "I'm Not There" in 2007. In 2009, Hansard said that he and Irglova were no longer romantically linked, and that they are now "good friends".


title: Glen Hansard

text: Aside from his projects with The Frames and Irglová, Hansard also took part as a member of the band on the 2006 Oxfam charity album, "The Cake Sale". Hansard has recorded several cover songs, both alone and with band member Colm Mac Con Iomaire, for the Today FM discs "Even Better than the Real Thing". Songs that he has recorded include Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" on "Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 1" and Britney Spears' "Everytime" on "Vol. 2".


title: Glen Hansard

text: He voiced a role on an episode ("In the Name of the Grandfather") on "The Simpsons" as an Irish busker. A new album of original songs recorded as The Swell Season with Markéta Irglová and entitled "Strict Joy" was released on 27 October 2009 on the ANTI- record label.


title: Glen Hansard

text: In the summer of 2011, he joined Eddie Vedder on his American solo tour in support of Vedder's solo album, "Ukulele Songs". He played a solo concert at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Guitar Heroes exhibit in New York City in May 2011. and on Cape Cod at the Cape Cinema on 17 June.


title: Glen Hansard

text: In September 2011, he played at Pearl Jam's 20th Anniversary Festival PJ20 at the Alpine Valley Theatre outside of East Troy, Wisconsin. Hansard plays several guitars, including a very recognisable battered Takamine NP15 acoustic guitar (even sporting a large hole), which he calls "The Horse".


title: Glen Hansard

text: In a November 2011 interview in The Huffington Post with Irglova, it was revealed that Hansard was preparing a solo album and that there was a very possible third release from The Swell Season. This solo album was later revealed to be titled "Rhythm and Repose".


title: Glen Hansard

text: "American Songwriter" included Hansard's "Love Don't Leave Me Waiting" on its The Muse July Sampler. Another song of his featured in a film soundtrack is "This Gift", which appears in "The Odd Life of Timothy Green".


title: Glen Hansard

text: Hansard sang the song "Take the Heartland" on the for the 2012 film "The Hunger Games". Another song he wrote, "Come Away to the Water", is featured on the soundtrack, but is covered by Maroon 5 and Rozzi Crane. Hansard can be found singing "Come Away to the Water" on the deluxe edition of his first solo album "Rhythm and Repose". He guest-starred in an episode of the TV series, "Parenthood", playing himself. In the episode, "Trouble in Candyland", he performed "High Hope", a single from his solo debut album "Rhythm and Repose". In 2015, Hansard and Lisa Hannigan recorded a song, "On Love", for the soundtrack for the 2014 film "Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet". Hansard sang Coyote at the Joni Mitchell 75th birthday concert in Los Angeles in December 2018.


title: Glen Hansard

text: Hansard has remarked about his musical influences: "In my house, when I was a kid, there was the holy trinity, which was Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, and Bob Dylan with Bob sitting centre." Hansard and The Frames toured as the support act for Bob Dylan in Australia and New Zealand in August 2007 and Hansard often performs Van Morrison's songs in concert. Two such songs include "Into the Mystic", and "And the Healing Has Begun" which were included on the collector's edition of the soundtrack for the film "Once".


title: Glen Hansard

text: Hansard is a devotee of Krishna and performed for the 80th birthday of Swami Prabhupada in London, staying at a manor donated to the Hare Krishna movement by The Beatles' George Harrison, who was a Hare Krishna devotee. In July 2013, he sang with Bruce Springsteen at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, Ireland. In July 2015, he performed "Raglan Road" with Ed Sheeran in Croke Park, Dublin.


title: Glen Hansard

text: In 2016, Hansard was a prominent member of the Home Sweet Home Group, a coalition of activists and homeless. The group broke into Apollo House in Dublin and illegally occupied it. They eventually had to vacate the premises due to trespassing.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Trigon () is a supervillain published by DC Comics. He is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, having enslaved many worlds. He is an adversary of the Teen Titans and the Justice League, the father and the arch-enemy of the superhero Raven, and the husband of the human Arella.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Seamus Dever portrayed the disguised human version of Trigon in the "Titans" television series, while also voicing his true demonic form.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Trigon first appeared in a cameo in "New Teen Titans" #2 (December 1980) and his first full appearance is "New Teen Titans" #4. He was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: A sadistic, cruel, dangerous, and powerful demon of inter and extra-dimensional origin, Trigon is a result of the mating between a female member of a mystic sect and the god they worshipped. A side effect of this pairing is that their child was filled with the cast-off evil energies of the inhabitants of Azarath, forming him into their personification. At birth, Trigon killed everyone around him (including his own mother); at the age of one, he ruled an entire planet, and at the age of six, he destroyed an entire planet. By the age of 30, he held dominion over millions of worlds in his dimension. There is some confusion regarding the origins of Trigon, as he claims to have existed as formless energy since the beginning of his own universe, while the energies cast off by Azar and Azarath simply allowed him to take physical form roughly a thousand years before DC's present day.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Arella was a depressed woman who decided to join a cult known as the Church of Blood that was trying to kill Trigon. When the ritual was performed, Trigon, disguised as a handsome male, emerged and married Arella. After making love, Arella discovered Trigon's true nature after seeing his true form. Trigon sends Arella back to Earth, and Arella is pregnant and on the brink of suicide when she is found by an extra-dimensional cult and is brought to Azarath, where she gives birth to their daughter Raven. Raven is brought up to "control her emotions" to suppress and control the demonic powers she inherited from Trigon. During this time, Trigon was aware of his daughter's whereabouts, but rarely intervened, except when a renegade monk named Juris attempted to cast Raven as an infant into another dimension to avert her potential threat; Trigon struck him down at the moment of the deed, and allowed the cult to keep her safe for the time being.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Raven learned of Trigon's intentions to conquer the Earth and vowed to stop him; she initially approached the Justice League, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna, who sensed her demonic parentage. In desperation, she reformed the Teen Titans with several new members to fight her father. The team was eventually able to defeat Trigon and seal him in an interdimensional prison. However, Raven still had to fight her father's influence as he was not completely destroyed.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Trigon eventually escaped and came to Earth, taking control of Raven and destroying Azarath in the process. The Titans came together and tried to fight Trigon, but were contaminated by his demonic influence and killed Raven; this allowed the souls of Azarath to possess her and use her as a channel to kill Trigon - the demonic possession had been part of a plan to defeat Trigon, as the Titans would never have killed Raven on their own — blasting him out of existence with a beam of purifying light. Although Trigon is gone, his followers (led by Brother Blood) have tried to revive him several times.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Raven notices that Trigon has returned and is responsible for the recent attacks on past and present members of the Teen Titans. The cause of his resurrection from the dead has not been revealed, but the motive for these renewed attack is that a war with rival demons has spread Trigon's forces too thinly and left him desperately weak, which forces him to turn his focus on Earth in hopes of creating a new power base.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Three of Trigon's sons, Jacob, Jared and Jesse, play a significant role in his return to life. The brothers have the ability to induce the seven deadly sins in any living being: they can induce wrath (Jared), lust (Jacob) and envy (Jesse). They attempt to open the portal to Trigon's realm, but then betray their father and steal what little power he has left; this actually makes Trigon proud of them for proving to be just as evil as he is. The trio leave, thinking they have gained great power, and Trigon is left trapped in his realm. However, the three brothers then return and corrupt their half-sister, making her their ally. Eventually, they are defeated by Raven and the Titans.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: In September 2011, "The New 52" rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Trigon makes his post-"Flashpoint" debut in issue #1 of the "Phantom Stranger". In this incarnation, Trigon has an extra set of eyes, giving him six in total. He has struck a bargain with the Stranger to return his offspring Raven (living under the assumed name of Rachel Roth) to him; in return, he pledges to spare Earth from his armies that were ready to search the Earth for her, having already destroyed Azarath years ago. In "The New 52", it is revealed that Trigon has at least four children, where Raven is the youngest. Her older brothers are named Belial, Ruskoff, and Suge; Belial is the oldest and most civilized, according to himself, of the three brothers.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Later, Trigon returns to Earth, feeling confident in having swayed Raven to his side during their time together in his demonic realm, where time flows differently. Trigon is shown to be the ruler of six kingdoms known as the Under-Realms, a collective title for the planets and dimensions he conquered, although he has since grown bored with the dull responsibilities of ruling them. At first, he ruled through his own power, then through conquest on the battlefield and finally through subterfuge. His ultimate goal is to unite all seven realms and pass the mantle of leadership to Raven, whom he believes will mold them all in her own image, something only she can do as she has the capacity to love, an emotion Trigon cannot feel or comprehend.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: As part of DC Villains Month, Trigon replaced the Teen Titans as the main characters in their book for one issue named #23.1, with Deathstroke taking over #23.2. The Teen Titans book resumed publishing after Villains Month concluded. Though unconfirmed, the Villains Month event leaves Trigon's origins in question. Long ago, in another universe, a trinity of beings called the Divine attempted to eradicate the concept of evil through an item known as the Heart of Darkness. When the Divine return to a world they believed liberated, they find it in utter chaos along with the being they believe to be responsible, only because he appears not to be one of the planet's inhabitants. As they had done billions of times before, they sentence him and his two guards to the Heart of Darkness, hoping that it would consume the evil within them. However, they were horrified when the stranger not only resisted but consumed the Heart of Darkness, absorbing the evils of a billion worlds, and mutating into the being that would become known as Trigon. Now driven by an insatiable hunger for evil, Trigon moves slowly from universe to universe, spreading corruption and sin among the worlds he finds to sate a hunger that knows no end.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Much later, Trigon encounters a woman wearing a suit of armor specifically crafted to counter his immense powers. Though neither is able to slay the other, Trigon is forced to retreat, swearing that members of his blood would return in their thousands to destroy the wearer of the Silent Armor. Trigon has since set his plans into action, only to run into the problem of most of the mothers of his children being unable to survive mating with him, leaving Trigon with only three sons, all of whom he considers failures. Then, one day, he is brought a human woman from Earth, Arella, who gives him his first daughter Raven, the most powerful of Trigon's children, and the reason why Trigon now targets Earth for conquest.


title: Trigon (comics)

text: Trigon is strong enough to gut Ares, the God of War and knock around the members of Superman's Regime, fast enough to keep up with the likes of Superman and Flash and is virtually impervious to most methods of attack having shrugged off attacks from the Teen Titans and reality-warping imp Mister Mxyzptlk. He can fly, teleport himself and others to various locations and can even break through the barriers of other universes with enough power. His common methods of attack are his energy and hellfire blasts. His energy blasts are powerful enough to one-shot both the Teen Titans and the Justice League and his hellfire blasts were strong enough to burn Mister Mxyzptlk. He also likes to attack his enemies with energy blasts fired from his eyes. He's also extremely skilled at using telekinesis, being able to use it on such a scale that he can manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe and distort the space-time continuum. He can additionally manipulate matter, transmute elements and warp reality to the point where he's been able to effortlessly turn the Earth and all its inhabitants into stone, bring people back to life as skeletons and dissipate the atoms of his minion Psimon through light whilst still allowing him to remain conscious. Trigon can also create, summon and materialize dark energy, shape-shift and manipulate his size to either become as tall as a skyscraper or as small as the average man. Being a Demon, Trigon also has a habit for devouring souls but on a massive scale having once devoured the souls of an entire universe. Also in the New 52, Trigon devoured the evil Heart of Darkness artifact which causes him to be hungry for evil and allows him to grow stronger in the presence of evil energies or beings by feeding on their evil. He's also a master of sorcery, being able to fire blasts of mystical eldritch energy at opponents, mind control thousands of beings, cast powerful illusions and even temporarily or permanently grant other beings with superpowers like the time he transformed an ordinary guy into someone with vast psychic powers. When Trigon does get hurt he has a powerful healing factor to fall back on which allows him to regenerate from virtually nothing, though the speed at which he can heal at is unknown. Alongside this, his mind is unblocked to the entire universe meaning he has extensive knowledge of events before they happen and often knows his opponent's next move before said enemy even decides it and is aware of practically everything that is going on in the plane of existence he's in thanks to his upper eyes. So, he essentially is Omniscient.


title: Seagram

text: The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the largest owner of alcoholic beverage lines in the world.


title: Seagram

text: Toward the end of its independent existence, it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures. Its purchase of MCA Inc., whose assets included Universal Studios and its theme parks, was financed through the sale of Seagram's 25% holding of chemical company DuPont, a position it acquired in 1981.


title: Seagram

text: Seagram later imploded, with its beverage assets wholesaled off to various industry titans, notably Diageo, Infinium Spirits, and Pernod Ricard. Universal's television holdings were sold to media entrepreneur Barry Diller, and the balance of the Universal entertainment empire and what was Seagram was sold to French conglomerate Vivendi in 2000.


title: Seagram

text: In 1857, Waterloo Distillery was founded in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Joseph E. Seagram became a partner with George Randall, William Roos and William Hespeler in 1869 and sole owner in 1883, and the company became known as Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. Many decades later, in 1924, Samuel Bronfman and his brothers founded Distillers Corporation Limited, in Montreal, which enjoyed substantial growth in the 1920s, in part due to Prohibition in the United States (the Distillers Corporation Limited name was derived from a United Kingdom company called Distillers Company Limited, which controlled the leading brands of whisky in the UK, and which was doing business with the Bronfmans).


title: Seagram

text: In 1923, the Bronfmans purchased the Greenbrier Distillery in the United States, dismantled it, shipped it to Canada, and reassembled it in LaSalle, Quebec. The Bronfmans shipped liquor from Canada to the French-controlled overseas collectivity Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the then-Dominion of Newfoundland, which was then shipped by bootleggers to rum rows in New York, New Jersey and other states.


title: Seagram

text: In 1928, a few years after the death of Joseph E. Seagram (1919), the Distillers Corporation acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons from heir and President Edward F. Seagram; the merged company retained the Seagram name. The company was well prepared for the end of Prohibition in 1933 with an ample stock of aged whiskeys ready to sell to the newly opened American market, and it prospered accordingly.


title: Seagram

text: Although he was never convicted of criminal activity, Samuel Bronfman's dealings with bootleggers during the Prohibition-era in the United States have been researched by various historians and are documented in various peer-vetted chronicles.


title: Seagram

text: In the 1930s, when Seagram set up business in the United States, it paid a fine of $1.5 million to the US government to settle delinquent excise taxes on liquor illegally exported to the US during Prohibition. The US government had originally asked for $60 million.


title: Seagram

text: After the death of Samuel Bronfman in 1971, Edgar M. Bronfman was named chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) until June 1994 when his son, Edgar Bronfman Jr., was appointed CEO.


title: Seagram

text: From the 1950s, most of Distillers-Seagram was owned by the four children of Samuel Bronfman, through their holding company Cemp Investments. The three most-popular Seagram distilled products in the 1960s through 1990s were Seven Crown, VO, and Crown Royal.


title: Seagram

text: In 1978 Seagram's took over the Stonyfell winery in the eastern foothills of Adelaide from Dalgety Australia, around which time the winemaking part of the business at Stonyfell was wound up.


title: Seagram

text: In 1981, cash-rich and wanting to diversify, the U.S.-based subsidiary Seagram Company Ltd. engineered a takeover of Conoco Inc., a major American oil and gas producing company. Although Seagram acquired a 32.2% stake in Conoco, DuPont was brought in as a white knight by the oil company and entered the bidding war. In the end, Seagram lost out in the Conoco bidding war, though in exchange for its stake in Conoco it became a 24.3% owner of DuPont. By 1995, Seagram was DuPont's largest single shareholder with four seats on its board.


title: Seagram

text: In 1986, the company started a memorable TV commercial campaign advertising its Golden wine cooler products. With rising star Bruce Willis as pitchman, Seagram rose from fifth place among distillers to first in just two years.


title: Seagram

text: In 1995, Edgar Bronfman Jr. was eager to get into the film and electronic media business. On April 6, 1995, after being approached by Bronfman, DuPont announced a deal whereby the company would buy back its shares from the Seagram Company for $9 billion. Seagram was heavily criticized by the investment community—the 24.3% stake in DuPont accounted for 70% of Seagram's earnings. Standard & Poor's took the unusual step of stating that the sale of the DuPont interest could result in a downgrade of Seagram's more than $4.2 billion of long-term debt. Bronfman used the proceeds of the sale to acquire a controlling interest in MCA from Matsushita, whose assets included Universal Pictures and its theme parks. Later, Seagram purchased PolyGram and Deutsche Grammophon.


title: Seagram

text: In 2000, Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold controlling interest in Seagram's entertainment division to Vivendi, and the beverage division to Pernod Ricard and Diageo. By the time Vivendi began auctioning off Seagram's beverages business, the once-renowned operation consisted of around 250 drink brands and brand extensions in addition to its original high-profile brand names.


title: Seagram

text: Also, a license from Pernod Ricard to produce Seagram's Cooler Escapes and Seagram's malt-beverage brands has been held by North American Breweries (formerly KPS) since 2009.


title: Seagram

text: On April 19, 2006, Pernod Ricard announced that they would be closing the former Seagram distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. However, the distillery was instead sold in 2007 to CL Financial, a holding company based in Trinidad and Tobago which then collapsed and required government intervention. They operated the distillery as Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana. In December 2011, the distillery was purchased by MGP Ingredients, headquartered in Atchison, Kansas. It is now known as MGP of Indiana, and continues to be the source of the components of Seagram's Seven Crown, now owned by Diageo.


title: Seagram

text: In a 2013 interview with "The Globe and Mail", Charles Bronfman (uncle of Edgar Jr.) stated about the decisions leading to the demise of Seagram: "It was a disaster, it is a disaster, it will be a disaster. It was a family tragedy."


title: Seagram

text: In 2018, Diageo sold several Seagram's brands to Sazerac including Seagram's VO, but retained the Seven Crown brand.


title: Seagram

text: The Seagram name survives today in various well-known drinks. Seagram's Seven Crown, used to make the American cocktail, 7 and 7, is produced by Diageo, while Seagram's V.O. is produced by Sazerac. Several brands of coolers are produced under the Seagram name as of 2022: Seagram's Escapes are produced by Genesee Brewing for the American market, while Seagram Island Time is produced by Waterloo Brewing for the Canadian market.


title: Seagram

text: Seagram's House, the former company headquarters in Montreal, was donated to McGill University by Vivendi Universal in 2002, then renamed Martlet House. The landmarked Seagram Building, once the company's American headquarters in New York City, was commissioned by Phyllis Lambert, daughter of Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman, and designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson. Regarded as one of the most notable examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a prominent instance of corporate modern architecture, it set the trend for the city's skyline for decades to follow, and has been featured in several Hollywood films. On completion in 1958, its costs made it the world's most expensive skyscraper. The Bronfman family sold the Seagram building to TIAA for $70.5 million in 1979.


title: Seagram

text: The Seagram Museum, formerly the original Seagram distillery in Waterloo, Ontario, was forced to close due to lack of funds in 1997. The building is now the home of the Centre for International Governance Innovation as well as Shopify. The two original barrel houses are now the Seagram Lofts condominiums. There were almost of open land, upon which the Balsillie School of International Affairs was subsequently built; construction began in 2009, and was completed in 2010.


title: University of North Texas

text: The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later. UNT is a member of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. UNT also has a location in Frisco.


title: University of North Texas

text: The university consists of 14 colleges and schools, an early admissions math and science academy for exceptional high-school-age students from across the state, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, and a library system that comprises the university core. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, UNT spent $78.4 million on research and development in 2019.


title: University of North Texas

text: The main campus is located in Denton, TX part of the largest metropolitan area in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth. The campus is 1,200 acres including the main campus north of I-35E, the Eagle point athletic complex south of I-35E, and Discovery Park; a research campus located between state highways 77 and 380.


title: University of North Texas

text: On behalf of the state, the university, in its civic advocacy for the state, prevailed with three new-location, capital-intensive expansions over the last years.