title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: The event concluded with the second main event, a contest for the Intercontinental Championship between champion Bret Hart and challenger "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, who was accompanied by the reigning Commonwealth Heavyweight Boxing Champion, London native Lennox Lewis. In the opening minutes, Hart used his technical wrestling abilities and Smith relied on his power advantage. Hart got control of the match with a reverse atomic drop and a Samoan drop. Smith came back with a monkey flip, but Hart regained the advantage with a bulldog and a plancha. Smith eventually recovered and tried to pin Hart with a back slide. Hart escaped the pin attempt and wore Smith down with sleeper holds. Smith gained the advantage, however, and used power moves to control the match, including a running powerslam and a variety of suplexes. Hart managed to place Smith in the Sharpshooter, Hart's signature submission hold. Smith escaped the hold, however, and threw Hart against the ropes. While running back at Smith, Hart attempted a sunset flip. Smith countered the move and pinned Hart to win the Intercontinental Championship. Immediately after the match, Hart refused to shake Smith's hand. He soon changed his mind, however, and hugged Smith as well as Diana Hart, who was celebrating with her husband. Writing in his autobiography "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", Hart recalled that prior to the match, he had been unable to contact Smith to prepare for the match as Smith had spent the few weeks before the match smoking crack cocaine with Jim Neidhart.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: According to the WWF, the 80,355 people in attendance for SummerSlam 1992 is the fourth largest in the company's history, behind only WrestleMania 29, WrestleMania III and WrestleMania 32, which is said to have attracted 101,763 fans.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: The event has received positive reviews from a variety of sources. RD Reynolds has called it "a huge success". In particular, the Intercontinental Championship match has been called "one of the greatest matches of all time". "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" named it the Match of the Year in the magazine's year-end issue, and WWE has called the match the greatest moment in SummerSlam history. Bret Hart has also named it as his favorite match of all time.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: The WWF collected $2,200,000 in revenue from admissions, up from $445,000 the previous year. The company also sold $1,456,203 in merchandise at SummerSlam, which is the largest amount of merchandise revenue at a WWF event. The buyrate for the event was 1.5, down from 2.7 at SummerSlam 1991 but higher than the 1.3 buyrate at SummerSlam 1993.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: SummerSlam 1992 was released on VHS format on September 24, 1992. While the US release only included the eight matches shown on pay-per-view, the UK release included all eleven matches including the three dark matches. On October 3, 2005 in the United Kingdom, the event was released on DVD, packaged together with SummerSlam 1993, as part of the WWE Tagged Classics line. The event was again later released as part of WWE's SummerSlam Anthology boxed DVD set. The anthology was released on August 5, 2008 in North America and was released on October 6, 2008 in the United Kingdom. However, the version that is included with the Anthology is only the 8 match PPV broadcast version.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: Randy Savage, who continued to sell his supposedly injured leg, lost the title to Ric Flair at a television taping on September 1, 1992 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. During the match Flair received help not only from Mr Perfect but also from newcomer Razor Ramon, igniting a feud between Savage and Ramon. Bret Hart claimed in a 2014 interview that WWF owner Vince McMahon had worked out the title-change match with Flair and Savage before hand, and that he was angry when they returned to the dressing room after the match because they had failed to do much of what was agreed upon. McMahon was so angry that he actually sent Bobby Heenan out to signal that the match be aborted and then made them go straight back out and restart the whole match. After producing much the same match that they had immediately prior, McMahon allegedly threw his headset onto the table and stormed off in frustration.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: WWF writers had originally planned that the Ultimate Warrior should be the one to accept Mr Perfect's services, turning heel in the process of winning the title and that, as new champion, he would further feud with Savage. After these plans were scrapped due to the Warrior's refusal to turn heel, the two were scheduled to face Flair and Ramon at Survivor Series 1992. However, as the Warrior quit the promotion on November 21, his spot was surprisingly offered to Mr. Perfect, who accepted it in spite of Flair, thereby turning face and initiating a feud with Flair which culminated in Flair leaving the WWF in January 1993.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: Shawn Michaels, who had originally been booked to win the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart at SummerSlam, won the title from Davey Boy Smith on October 27 (the match would air on the November 14, 1992 episode of "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI"). Michaels and Sherri continued their on-screen relationship after SummerSlam. Sherri claimed to have created the rivalry with Martel to test Michaels' love for her. Their relationship deteriorated, though when Michaels pulled Sherri in front of him to protect himself from an attack by his former tag team partner, Marty Jannetty on the October 31 episode of "WWF Superstars". This led to confrontations between Sherri and Michaels at Royal Rumble 1993 and WrestleMania IX.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: The Undertaker continued to feud with Kamala and Harvey Wippleman. The two wrestlers faced each other again at Survivor Series 1992 in a coffin match, which the Undertaker won. Wippleman gained revenge by introducing Giant Gonzalez (and later Mr. Hughes), with whom the Undertaker feuded through 1993.


title: SummerSlam (1992)

text: Upset about the amount of his pay for appearing at SummerSlam, Kevin Wacholz (Nailz) confronted WWF owner Vince McMahon after Survivor Series 1992. According to reports, he legitimately attacked McMahon. As a result, Nailz was fired from the WWF. He briefly appeared in rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as the Prisoner but was released after the WWF sued WCW because of The Prisoner's similarity to the Nailz character. The anger between Wacholz and McMahon spilled over into McMahon's 1994 trial, in which McMahon was accused of distributing steroids to wrestlers. Although Wacholz testified against McMahon, his statements, which included, "I hate Vince McMahon's guts" ultimately proved harmful to the prosecution's case.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians (or Ealdorman Æthelred of Mercia; died 911) became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death or disappearance of its last king, Ceolwulf II in 879. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw. His ancestry is unknown. He was probably the leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of Wales in 881, and soon afterwards he acknowledged the lordship of King Alfred the Great of Wessex. This alliance was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In 886, Alfred took possession of London, which had suffered greatly from several Viking occupations. Alfred then handed London over to Æthelred, as it had traditionally been a Mercian town. In 892, the Vikings renewed their attacks, and the following year, Æthelred led an army of Mercians, West Saxons and Welsh to victory over a Viking army at the Battle of Buttington. He spent the next three years fighting them alongside Alfred's son, the future King Edward the Elder. At some time after 899 Æthelred's health may have declined, and Æthelflæd may have become the effective ruler of Mercia.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: After Æthelred's death, Æthelflæd ruled as Lady of the Mercians until her own death in 918. The couple's only child, a daughter called Ælfwynn, then ruled briefly until deposed by her uncle, King Edward.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Mercia was the dominant kingdom in southern England in the eighth century, and maintained its position until it suffered a decisive defeat by King Ecgberht of Wessex at the Battle of Ellendun in 825. Ecgberht briefly conquered Mercia, but it recovered its independence in 830, and thereafter the two kingdoms became allies, which was to be an important factor in English resistance to the Vikings. The Mercians traditionally held overlordship over Wales, and in 853, King Burgred of Mercia obtained the assistance of King Æthelwulf of Wessex in an invasion of Wales in order to reassert their hegemony. The same year, Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In 865, the Viking Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia, and used it as a starting point for an invasion. The East Anglians were forced to buy peace, and the following year, the Vikings invaded Northumbria, where they established an obscure Northumbrian man called Ecgberht as puppet king in 867. They then moved on to Nottingham in Mercia, where they spent the winter of 867–868. Burgred was joined by King Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, the future King Alfred, for a combined attack on the Vikings, but they refused an engagement and in the end the Mercians bought peace with them. The following year, the Vikings conquered East Anglia. They returned to Mercia in 872; two years later they expelled Burgred, and Ceolwulf became king with their support. Ceolwulf was described by the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" as "a foolish king's thegn" who was a puppet of the Vikings, but historians regard this view as partial and distorted: he was accepted as a true king by the Mercians and by King Alfred.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In 877, the Vikings divided Mercia, taking the eastern part for themselves and leaving Ceolwulf with the west. The Vikings went on to attack Wessex, leaving Ceolwulf free to renew Mercian claims of hegemony in Wales. At almost the same time as Alfred's victory over the Vikings in 878 at the Battle of Edington, Ceolwulf defeated and killed Rhodri Mawr, king of the north Welsh territory of Gwynedd. After Ceolwulf's disappearance in 879, Mercia began to fall under the hegemony of Wessex.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Æthelred's descent is unknown, and he does not appear to have been closely related to his immediate predecessors, although his name suggests possible descent from earlier Mercian kings. He may have been the man of the same name who attested two Mercian charters in the late 860s, but he is not listed in the two surviving charters of Ceolwulf. Lists of witnesses to charters show that Æthelred's witan (council) shared bishops and at least two ealdormen with Ceolwulf, but Ceolwulf's thegns all disappeared. In the view of Ian Walker: "He was a royal ealdorman whose power base lay in the south-west of Mercia in the former kingdom of the Hwicce around Gloucester." However, Alex Woolf suggests that he was probably the son of King Burgred of Mercia and Æthelswith, sister of Alfred the Great, although that would mean that Æthelred's marriage was uncanonical, as Rome then forbade marriage between first cousins.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: It is not known when Æthelred took over following Ceolwulf's death or disappearance, but in the view of Thomas Charles-Edwards, a historian of medieval Wales, Æthelred was almost certainly "Edryd Long-Hair", the leader of a Mercian army which invaded Gwynedd in 881, and was defeated by Rhodri Mawr's sons at the Battle of the Conwy. This was described by Welsh annals as "revenge by God for Rhodri". The defeat forced Æthelred to abandon his ambitions in north Wales, but he continued to exercise overlordship over the south-eastern Welsh kingdoms of Glywysing and Gwent. According to Alfred's Welsh biographer Asser, Æthelred's "might and tyrannical behaviour" forced these kingdoms to submit to the protection of King Alfred's lordship. By 883, Æthelred had accepted Alfred's lordship. Charles-Edwards suggests that in 881–882 he tried to maintain his dominance in south-east Wales, but Alfred offered his protection to Glywysing and Gwent, and in 882–883, Æthelred accepted that West Saxon power made continued independence impossible. Charles-Edwards comments:


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: When Æthelred made a grant to Berkeley Abbey in 883, he did it with the approval of King Alfred, thus acknowledging Alfred's lordship. Thereafter he usually acted with Alfred's permission, but issued some charters in his own name without reference to Alfred, such as at a meeting in Risborough in Buckinghamshire in 884, showing that English Mercia extended quite far south-east towards London.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: After the Battle of Edington in 878, Alfred established a network of fortified settlements, called burhs, in Wessex to protect his people and territory against Viking attacks, and when Æthelred accepted Alfred's lordship the burhs were extended into Mercia. One of the burhs was Worcester, where Æthelred worked with its bishop and used the standing Roman walls in the town's defences. Over the next two generations Worcester was transformed from an ecclesiastical settlement to a town with a diverse population of craftsmen.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: London suffered severely from Viking attacks and was several times occupied by Viking armies. In 886, Alfred took possession of London, and according to Asser he "restored" the city and "made it habitable again". He then handed control to Æthelred. Historians, however, disagree about the circumstances. According to Frank Stenton, Alfred recovered London by force from the Vikings and handed it to Æthelred because it had previously been a Mercian town, and he respected the traditions of other kingdoms. Marios Costambeys takes a similar view, arguing that Alfred's decision was probably due to the need to maintain unity among the English who were outside Viking territory. Alfred Smyth suggests that the "Chronicle's" account reflects bias in Alfred's favour, and that Æthelred took charge because he had a greater role in London's recovery than the West Saxon chronicler was willing to admit. Some versions of the "Chronicle" state that Alfred besieged London in 883, and Simon Keynes argues that Alfred probably took London at that time and that the "occupation" in 886 may have been a restoration of London's defences following Viking attacks close to the city in 885.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Anglo-Saxon London, called Lundenwic, was located a mile west of Roman Londinium, but Lundenwic was undefended, and the restoration was carried out inside the walls of the old Roman city, especially an area close to the River Thames now called Queenhithe, but which was then known as "Æthelred's Hythe" after its Mercian ruler. Æthelred moved quickly to restore the area; in 889, he and Alfred granted property there to the Bishop of Worcester, and in 899, they made another grant to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Both bishops were, like Æthelred, Mercians and strong allies of King Alfred, who had the right to all tolls from markets along the river bank.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: After the restoration of London, Alfred received the submission of "all the English people who were not under subjection to the Danes", and the alliance between Wessex and Mercia was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred's oldest daughter, Æthelflæd. She is first recorded as Æthelred's wife in a charter of 887, but the marriage probably took place in the early to mid 880s. Æthelred was probably much older than his wife. They had a daughter, Ælfwynn, and according to the twelfth century chronicler, William of Malmesbury, she was their only child. In King Alfred's will, drawn up in the 880s, Æthelred was left a sword worth 100 mancuses.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In 892, two Viking armies attacked eastern England, and Æthelred took part in the defence. After the defeat of one Viking leader, Hastein, Alfred became godfather to one of Hastein's two sons and Æthelred to the other. Soon afterwards, the English captured Hastein's wife and children, but they were returned to him because the sons were godsons of the English leaders. In 893, Æthelred brought troops from London to join Alfred's son Edward against a Viking army at Thorney in Buckinghamshire, but the Vikings were too strong for a direct attack so they were allowed to leave English territory. Later in the year, a larger Viking force marched from Essex through Mercia to the Welsh border, followed by Æthelred with a joint force of Mercians and West Saxons. Welsh kings joined Æthelred to meet the Vikings at the Battle of Buttington, where according to Smyth "these invaders were utterly routed ... in what was the most decisive battle in the war", although Marios Costambeys states that the Vikings eventually cut their way out and retreated back to Essex. The Viking army finally dispersed in 896. For much of the time, Alfred had been in the west country defending Devonshire, and in the view of Richard Abels: "King Alfred had little to do directly with the great victories enjoyed by the English in 893–896. His son, Edward, and his ealdormen, in particular his son-in-law, Æthelred, had won the glory."


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In the last years of the ninth century, three ealdormen ruled Mercia under Æthelred. Æthelflæd's maternal uncle, Æthelwulf, controlled western and possibly central Mercia, while the south and east were ruled by Æthelfrith, the father of Æthelstan Half-King. Alhhelm was responsible for the lands bordering the northern Danelaw. Æthelwulf and Alhhelm are not recorded after the turn of the century, and Æthelfrith may have been Æthelflæd's chief lieutenant when Æthelred's health collapsed soon afterwards. Æthelfrith may have been of West Saxon origin, appointed by Alfred to look after his interests in south-east Mercia.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Evidence from charters shows that Æthelred and Æthelflæd supported religious communities. In 883, Æthelred freed Berkeley Abbey from obligations to the king's "feorm" (payments in kind), and in 887 he confirmed (with Æthelflæd also attesting) the possession of land and transferred manpower to Pyrton Minster in Oxfordshire. In 901, they jointly gave land to Much Wenlock Abbey, and donated a gold chalice weighing thirty mancuses in honour of its former abbess, Saint Mildburgh. In 903, they negotiated a settlement over a former monastic estate which the bishops of Worcester had been trying to recover since the 840s, and Bishop Wærferth wrote "we never could get anywhere until Æthelred became Lord of the Mercians".


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Some historians believe that at an unknown time in the decade 899 to 909, Æthelred's health collapsed and Æthelflæd became the effective ruler of Mercia. Cyril Hart and Maggie Bailey believe that it occurred by 902. Bailey cites "Mercian Register" entries from 902 showing Æthelflæd acting alone or in conjunction with Edward in military operations. Irish annals called the "Three Fragments" also suggest that Æthelred was unable to take an active part in government from about 902, although he did attend a meeting in 903 with King Edward, Æthelflæd and Ælfwynn. In 1998, Keynes suggested that Æthelred may have been incapacitated by illness at the end of his life, but in a summary of his career in 2014, Keynes does not mention this, stating that Æthelred and Æthelflæd cooperated with King Edward in campaigns against the Vikings. Martin Ryan also makes no mention of a decline in Æthelred's health, describing him as joining Edward in encouraging thegns to purchase land in Viking territories.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: According to William of Malmesbury, King Edward's eldest son, the future King Æthelstan, was sent to be brought up at the court of Æthelred and Æthelflæd after Edward remarried in about 900. This is supported by one independent piece of evidence. According to a transcript dating from 1304 in York's archives, in 925, Æthelstan gave a grant of privileges to St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester "according to a pact of paternal piety which formerly he pledged with Æthelred, ealdorman of the people of the Mercians". When King Edward died in 924, Æthelstan initially faced opposition at the West Saxon court, but was accepted as king in Mercia.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: After Æthelred's death in 911, Æthelflæd ruled as "Lady of the Mercians", but she did not inherit the Mercian territories of London and Oxford, which were taken by Edward. Æthelflæd died in 918, and their daughter Ælfwynn briefly ruled Mercia until deposed by Edward the Elder, who took the territory under his direct control.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Gloucester seems to have been the main seat of Æthelred's and Æthelflæd's power, and before 900 they founded a new minster there, dedicated to St Peter. In 909, a West Saxon and Mercian army raided Viking territory and seized the bones of the Northumbrian king and martyr, St Oswald, from Bardney in Lincolnshire. The bones were translated to the new Gloucester minster, which was renamed St Oswald's Priory in his honour. The acquisition of the relics raised the prestige of the new minster and increased its wealth by making it a focus for pilgrims. The historian Martin Ryan sees the new minster as something like a Mercian royal mausoleum, to replace the one at Repton destroyed by the Vikings, and Æthelred and Æthelflæd were buried there.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Æthelred's status is disputed, and this is reflected in the varying titles given to him by different historians. He is sometimes called "ealdorman", but also "Lord of the Mercians" and "subking". Coinage issued in English Mercia in Ceolred's time named him as king, but in Æthelred's time it named the West Saxon king, yet Æthelred issued some charters in his own name, implying royal authority. West Saxon sources refer to him as an ealdorman, emphasising Mercian subordination to the West Saxon monarchy, whereas Mercian ones describe him as Lord of the Mercians, and Celtic ones sometimes as King of Mercia.The late tenth-century chronicler Æthelweard, in his annal for 893, called Æthelred "King of the Mercians", but recorded his death in 911 as that of the "Lord of the Mercians".


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: King Edward's influence over Mercia is unclear, and he may have had less power than his father. Edward's charters show Æthelred and Æthelflæd as accepting his royal authority, but their own charters make no reference to an overlord, and some use expressions such as "holding, governing and defending the sole rule of the Mercians", which come close to describing them as king and queen.


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: Pauline Stafford comments that "Alfred's dominance in the 890s over Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, was as debatable at the time as it still is." In the view of Ann Williams, "though he accepted West Saxon overlordship, Æthelred behaved rather as a king of Mercia than an ealdorman", and Charles Insley states that Mercia remained an independent kingdom until 920. To the Welsh and Irish looking east, Mercian rulers still kept all their old regality until Æthelflæd's death in 918, and Nick Higham argues that: "Celtic visions of Æthelred and Æthelflæd as king and queen certainly offer a different, and equally valid, contemporary take on the complex politics of this transition to a new English state."


title: Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

text: In the "Handbook of British Chronology" David Dumville lists Æthelred as King Æthelred II, and thus a successor to the seventh century King Æthelred of Mercia. Keynes takes the West Saxon view, arguing that Alfred created the "kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons", inherited by his son Edward the Elder in 899, and Æthelred ruled Mercia under the king. However, Keynes also says:


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: Flower of Evil is a Philippine drama television series loosely based on the 2020 South Korean drama series of the same title, starring Piolo Pascual and Lovi Poe. The series was aired on Kapamilya Channel's "Yes Weekend" Primetime block, Jeepney TV and A2Z from June 25 to October 9, 2022.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: Jacob (Piolo Pascual) is a man who hides his identity and past from his wife Iris (Lovi Poe), a female detective. On the surface, they appear to be the perfect family: a loving couple with a beautiful six-year-old daughter who adores her parents.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: Iris and her colleagues begin investigating a series of unexplained murders and is confronted with the reality that her seemingly perfect husband may be hiding something from her.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: The project was first announced on September 16, 2021, when Lovi Poe officially transferred to ABS-CBN for the first time, with Piolo Pascual returning to the network. Both actors were cast in the lead roles after signing with the network. A story conference was held on November 21, 2021. On 4 February 2022, it was revealed that the series was in the midst of its principal photography. A total of 32 episodes are confirmed for the series, running for sixteen weeks.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: Kit Thompson was originally part of the cast, but was later fired after he was arrested for hitting his former girlfriend. Thompson was replaced by JC de Vera.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: A short teaser for the series was shown as part of the upcoming projects for Dreamscape Entertainment in 2022. The first teaser was released on May 16, 2022. The second teaser was released on May 20, 2022. Official poster was released on May 23, 2022. The trailer of the series was released on May 31, 2022.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: The series released first on Viu on June 23, 2022, 48 hours before its television premiere on Kapamilya Channel, A2Z and Jeepney TV from June 25 to October 9, 2022. It is also released exclusively on iWantTFC and TFC IPTV on July 16, 2022, with the first 6 episodes, 48 hours before its broadcast in the United States and Canada.


title: Flower of Evil (Philippine TV series)

text: "Flower of Evil" will be re-aired on November 7, 2022, on Kapamilya Channel's "Primetime Bida" Weeknight block, Jeepney TV, A2Z and TV5's "Todo Max Primetime Singko" block replacing "A Family Affair".


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: Berlin, then the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945, by the USAAF Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945, and the French Air Force between 1940, 1944 and 1945, as part of the Allied campaign of strategic bombing of Germany. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force, in 1941 and particularly in 1945 as Soviet forces closed on the city. British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, while American aircraft dropped 22,090.3 tons. As the bombings continued, more and more people fled the city. By May 1945, 1.7 million people (40% of the population) had fled.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: When the Second World War began in 1939, the President of the United States (then a neutral power), Franklin D. Roosevelt, issued a request to the major belligerents to confine their air raids to military targets. The French and the British agreed to abide by the request, with the provision that this was "upon the understanding that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents".


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The UK had a policy of using aerial bombing only against military targets and against infrastructure such as ports and railways of direct military importance. While it was acknowledged that the aerial bombing of Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British government renounced the deliberate bombing of civilian property, outside combat zones, as a military tactic. This policy was abandoned on 15 May 1940, two days after the German air attack on Rotterdam, when the RAF was given permission to attack targets in the Ruhr, including oil plants and other civilian industrial targets that aided the German war effort, such as blast furnaces that at night were self illuminating. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 10 – 11 May (on Dortmund). The "Jules Verne", a variant of the Farman F.220 of the French Naval Aviation, was the first Allied bomber to raid Berlin: on the night of 7 June 1940 it dropped eight bombs of 250 kg and 80 of 10 kg weight on the German capital.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: Between 1939 and 1942, the policy of bombing only targets of direct military significance was gradually abandoned in favour of "area bombing" — large-scale bombing of German cities to destroy housing and civilian infrastructure. Although killing German civilians was never an explicit policy, it was obvious that area bombing would cause large-scale civilian casualties. With the technology available at the time, the precision bombing of military targets was possible only by daylight (and it was difficult even then). Daylight bombing raids conducted by Bomber Command involved unacceptably high losses of British aircraft, and bombing by night led to far lower British losses, but was of necessity indiscriminate due to the difficulties of nocturnal navigation and bomb aiming.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: Before 1941, Berlin, at from London, was at the extreme range attainable by the British bombers then available to the Allied forces. It could be bombed only at night in summer when the days were longer and skies clear—which increased the risk to Allied bombers. The first RAF raid on Berlin took place on the night of 25 August 1940; 95 aircraft were dispatched to bomb Tempelhof Airport near the center of Berlin and Siemensstadt, of which 81 dropped their bombs in and around Berlin, and while the damage was slight, the psychological effect on Hitler was greater. The bombing raids on Berlin prompted Hitler to order the shift of the Luftwaffe's target from British airfields and air defenses to British cities, at a time during the Battle of Britain when the British air defenses were becoming exhausted and overstretched.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: In the following two weeks there were a further five raids of a similar size, all nominally precision raids at specific targets, but with the difficulties of navigating at night the bombs that were dropped were widely dispersed. During 1940 there were more raids on Berlin, all of which did little damage. The raids grew more frequent in 1941, but were ineffective in hitting important targets. The head of the Air Staff of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, justified these raids by saying that to "get four million people out of bed and into the shelters" was worth the losses involved.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The Soviet Union started a on Berlin on 8 August 1941 that extended into early September. Medium Navy bombers, accompanied from 12 August by Army bombers, conducted ten raids from Saaremaa island to Berlin with 3–12 aircraft in each raid, fifty in total reaching Berlin. Heavy Army bombers, operating from near Leningrad, executed one raid to Berlin on 11 August, with only few machines reaching the target. In total in 1941, Soviet aircraft dropped of bombs on Berlin. Combat and operational losses for the Soviets tallied 17 aircraft destroyed and 70 crewmen killed.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: On 7 November 1941, Sir Richard Peirse, head of RAF Bomber Command, launched a large raid on Berlin, sending over 160 bombers to the capital. 21 were shot down or crashed, and again little damage was done due to bad weather. This failure led to the dismissal of Peirse and his replacement (in February 1942) by Sir Arthur Travers Harris, who believed in both the efficacy and necessity of area bombing. Harris said: "The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naïve theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.""


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: At the same time, new bombers with longer ranges were coming into service, particularly the Avro Lancaster, which became available in large numbers during 1942. During most of 1942, however, Bomber Command's priority was attacking Germany's U-boat ports as part of Britain's effort to win the Battle of the Atlantic. During the whole of 1942 there were only nine air alerts in Berlin, none of them serious. Only in 1943 did Harris have both the means and the opportunity to put his belief in area bombing into practice.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The Battle of Berlin was launched by Harris in November 1943, a concerted air campaign against the German capital, although other cities continued to be attacked to prevent the Germans concentrating their defences in Berlin. Harris believed this could be the blow that would break German resistance. "It will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft," he said. "It will cost Germany the war." By this time he could deploy over 800 long-range bombers on any given night, equipped with new and more sophisticated navigational devices such as H2S radar. Between November 1943 and March 1944, Bomber Command made 16 massed attacks on Berlin.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: A prelude to the 1943 raids came from the De Havilland Mosquito, which hit the capital on January 30, 1943, the tenth anniversary of the Nazis' "Machtergreifung". That same day, both Göring and Goebbels were known to be giving big speeches that were to be broadcast live by radio. At precisely 11.00 am, Mosquitoes of No. 105 Squadron arrived over Berlin exactly on time to disrupt Göring's speech. Later that day, No. 139 Squadron repeated the trick for Goebbels. These were great propaganda raids which—much as the Doolittle Raid on the Japanese home islands had done for boosting American morale in April 1942—were a severe embarrassment for the German leadership. April 20, 1943 was Hitler's 54th birthday. Bomber Command decided that they had to mark the occasion with a raid on Berlin, and it was decided that the Mosquito was the right aircraft for the job. Accordingly, No. 105 Squadron was dispatched to the German capital, successfully reaching the city with the loss of only one aircraft.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The first raid of the battle occurred on November 18–19, 1943. Berlin was the main target, and was attacked by 440 Avro Lancasters aided by four Mosquitos. The city was under cloud and the damage was not severe. The second major raid was on the night of November 22–23, 1943. This was the most effective raid by the RAF on Berlin. The raid caused extensive damage to the residential areas west of the centre, Tiergarten and Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and Spandau. Because of the dry weather conditions, several firestorms ignited. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was destroyed. Several other buildings of note were either damaged or destroyed, including the British, French, Italian and Japanese embassies, Charlottenburg Palace and Berlin Zoo, as were the Ministry of Munitions, the Waffen SS Administrative College, the barracks of the Imperial Guard at Spandau and several arms factories.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: On December 17, extensive damage was done to the Berlin railway system. By this time cumulative effect of the bombing campaign had made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable. There was another major raid on January 28–29, 1944, when Berlin's western and southern districts were hit in the most concentrated attack of this period. On February 15–16, important war industries were hit, including the large Siemensstadt area, with the centre and south-western districts sustaining most of the damage. This was the largest raid by the RAF on Berlin. Raids continued until March 1944.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: These raids caused immense devastation and loss of life in Berlin. The November 22, 1943 raid killed 2,000 Berliners and rendered 175,000 homeless. The following night, 1,000 were killed and 100,000 made homeless. During December and January regular raids killed hundreds of people each night and rendered between 20,000 and 80,000 homeless each time. Overall nearly 4,000 were killed, 10,000 injured and 450,000 made homeless.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The 16 raids on Berlin cost Bomber Command more than 500 aircraft, with their crews killed or captured. This was a loss rate of 5.8%, which was above the 5% threshold that was considered the maximum sustainable operational loss rate by the RAF. In December 1943, for example, 11 crews from No. 460 Squadron RAAF alone were lost in operations against Berlin; and in January and February, another 14 crews were killed. Having 25 aircraft destroyed meant that the fighting force of the squadron had to be replaced in three months. At these rates Bomber Command would have been wiped out before Berlin." It has been largely acknowledged that the Battle of Berlin was a failure; for the RAF, British official historians have stated that "in an operational sense the Battle of Berlin was more than a failure, it was a defeat".


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: In 1943, the U.S. Army and the Standard Oil company built a set of replicas in western Utah, of typical German working class housing estates, "German Village", which would be of key importance in acquiring the know-how and experience necessary to carry out the firebombings on Berlin. It was done with the assistance of Erich Mendelsohn, a Jewish architect of structures in Berlin who fled the Nazis in 1933.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The Big Week (Sunday, 20–Friday, 25 February 1944) heavy bomber offensive began shortly after the Eighth Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, had implemented a major change in fighter defense of USAAF strategic bomber formations that had bolstered the confidence of U.S. strategic bombing crews. Until that time, Allied bombers avoided contact with the Luftwaffe; now, the Americans used any method that would force the Luftwaffe into combat. Implementing this policy, the United States looked toward Berlin. Raiding the German capital, the USAAF reasoned, would force the Luftwaffe into battle. Consequently, on 4 March, the USSTAF launched the first of several attacks against Berlin. Fierce battles raged and resulted in heavy losses for both sides; 69 B-17s were lost on 6 March but the Luftwaffe lost 160 aircraft. The Allies replaced their losses; the Luftwaffe could not.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: At the tail end of the Battle of Berlin the RAF made one last large raid on the city on the night of 24–25 March, losing 8.9% of the attacking force, but due to the failure of the Battle of Berlin, and the switch to the tactical bombing of France during the summer months in support of the Allied invasion of France, RAF Bomber Command left Berlin alone for most of 1944. Nevertheless, regular nuisance raids by both the RAF and USAAF continued, including the Operation Whitebait diversion for the bombing of the Peenemünde Army Research Center. In 1945, the Eighth Air Force launched a number of very large daytime raids on Berlin, the last of them being on 18 March (there were bombing raids to Falkensee and Spandau, near Berlin, on 28 March), the 15th Air Force launched its only bombing mission to Berlin on 24 March, and for 36 nights in succession scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: 1,500 bombers of the Eighth Air Force, protected by some 1,000 fighters attacked the Berlin railway system on the forenoon of 3 February 1945 in the belief that the German Sixth Panzer Army was moving through Berlin by train on its way to the Eastern Front, thinking the Sixth Panzer Army would use the Tempelhof railyards for the move. This was one of the few occasions on which the USAAF undertook a mass attack on a city centre. Lt-General James Doolittle, commander of the USAAF Eighth Air Force, objected to this tactic, but he was overruled by the USAAF commander, General Carl Spaatz, who was supported by the Allied commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower and Spaatz made it clear that the attack on Berlin was of great political importance in that it was designed to assist the Soviet offensive on the Oder east of Berlin, and was essential for Allied unity.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: In the raid, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Rosenthal of the 100th Bombardment Group flying in a pathfinder B-17G, s/n 44-8379 — commanding the entire First Air Division's bomber force on this raid — Friedrichstadt (the newspaper district), and Luisenstadt (both divided between the boroughs of Kreuzberg and Mitte, the central area) and some other areas, such as Friedrichshain, were severely damaged. The bombs used in this raid consisted mostly of high explosive ordnance and not incendiary munitions. The area that suffered the greatest damage did not include railway main lines, which were more northern (Stadtbahn) and southern (Ringbahn).


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The bombing was so dense that it caused a city fire spreading eastwards, driven by the wind, over the south of Friedrichstadt and the northwest of neighboured Luisenstadt. The fire lasted for four days until it had burnt everything combustible in its range to ashes and after it had reached waterways, large thoroughfares, and parks that the fire could not jump over. Due to the exhaustion of German supplies the German anti-aircraft defense was under-equipped and weak so that out of the 1,600 US aircraft committed, only 36 were shot down and their crews taken as prisoners-of-war. First Air Division commander Lt. Col. Rosenthal was among those shot down and survived, but was rescued by the Soviet armed forces and eventually returned to England.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: A number of monuments, such as French Luisenstadt Church, St. James Church, Jerusalem's Church, Luisenstadt Church, St. Michael's Church, St. Simeon Church, and the Marcher Protestant Consistory (today's entrance of Jewish Museum Berlin) as well as government and Nazi Party buildings were also hit, including the Reich Chancellery, the Party Chancellery, the Gestapo headquarters, and the People's Court. The Unter den Linden, Wilhelmstrasse and Friedrichstrasse areas were turned into seas of ruins. Among the dead was Roland Freisler, the infamous head justice of the People's Court. The death toll amounted to 2,894, fewer than might have been expected because the raid took place in daytime with relatively few incendiary bombs. The number of wounded amounted to 20,000, and 120,000 were left homeless or "dehoused".


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: Another raid on 26 February 1945 left another 80,000 people homeless. Raids continued until April, when the Red Army was outside the city. In the last days of the war the Red Air Force also bombed Berlin, as well as using Ilyushin Il-2 and similar aircraft for low-level attacks from 28 March onwards. By this time Berlin's civil defences and infrastructure were close to collapsing but civilian morale held. After the capture of Berlin, Soviet General Nikolai Bersarin said, referring to the Red Army's artillery and rocket bombardment, that:


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: Up to the end of March 1945 there had been a total of 314 air raids on Berlin, with 85 of those coming in the last twelve months. Half of all houses were damaged and around a third uninhabitable, as much as 16 km² of the city was simply rubble. Estimates of the total number of dead in Berlin from air raids range from 20,000 to 50,000; current German studies suggest that a figure in the lower part of this range is more likely. This compares to death tolls of between 25,000 and 35,000 in the single attack on Dresden on 14 February 1945, and the 42,000 killed at Hamburg in a single raid in 1943, with both the Hamburg and Dresden raids combined having a lower casualty total than the 9/10 March 1945 "Operation Meetinghouse" single firebombing raid on Tokyo, devastating some causing the loss of at least 100,000 lives in the Japanese capital.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: The Nazi regime was very aware of the political necessity of protecting the Reich capital against devastation from the air. Even before the war, work had begun on an extensive system of public air raid shelters, but by 1939 only 15% of the planned 2,000 shelters had been built. By 1941, however, the five huge public shelters (Zoo, Anhalt Station, Humboldthain, Friedrichshain and Kleistpark) were complete, offering shelter to 65,000 people. Other shelters were built under government buildings, the best-known being the so-called Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery building. In addition, many U-Bahn stations were converted into shelters. The rest of the population had to make do with their own cellars.


title: Bombing of Berlin in World War II

text: In 1943, the Germans decided to evacuate non-essential people from Berlin. By 1944 1.2 million people, 790,000 of them women and children, about a quarter of the city's population, had been evacuated to rural areas. An effort was made to evacuate all children from Berlin, but this was resisted by parents, and many evacuees soon made their way back to the city (as was also the case in London in 1940–41). The increasing shortage of manpower as the war dragged on meant that female labour was essential to keep Berlin's war industries going, so the evacuation of all women with children was not possible. At the end of 1944 the city's population began to grow again as refugees fleeing the Red Army's advance in the east began to pour into Berlin. The "Ostvertriebenen" ("refugees from the East") were officially denied permission to remain in Berlin for longer than two days and were housed in camps near the city before being moved on westwards; it is estimated less than 50,000 managed to remain in Berlin. By January 1945 the population was around 2.9 million, although the demands of the German military were such that only 100,000 of these were males aged 18–30. Another 100,000 or so were forced labor, mainly French "Fremdarbeiter", "foreign workers", and Russian "Ostarbeiter" ("eastern workers"). The key to the Flak area were three huge Flak towers ("Flaktürme"), which provided enormously tough platforms for both searchlights and 128 mm anti-aircraft guns as well as shelters ("Hochbunker") for civilians. These towers were at the Berlin Zoo in the Tiergarten, Humboldthain and Friedrichshain. The Flak guns were increasingly manned by the teenagers of the Hitler Youth as older men were drafted to the front. By 1945 the girls of the League of German Girls (BDM) were also operating Flak guns. After 1944 there was little fighter protection from the Luftwaffe, and the Flak defences were increasingly overwhelmed by the scale of the attacks.


title: Stellenbosch

text: Stellenbosch (; ) is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, situated about east of Cape Town, along the banks of the Eerste River at the foot of the Stellenbosch Mountain. The town became known as the City of Oaks or "Eikestad" in Afrikaans and Dutch due to the large number of oak trees that were planted by its founder, Simon van der Stel, to grace the streets and homesteads.


title: Stellenbosch

text: Stellenbosch has its own municipality (incorporating the neighbouring towns of Pniel and Franschhoek), adjoining the metropolitan area of the City of Cape Town. The town is home to Stellenbosch University. Technopark is a modern science park situated on the southern side of the town near the Stellenbosch Golf Course.


title: Stellenbosch

text: In 1899 Louis Péringuey discovered Paleolithic stone tools of the Acheulean type at a site named Bosman's Crossing near the Adam Tas Bridge at the western entrance to Stellenbosch.


title: Stellenbosch

text: The town was founded in 1679 by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel, who named it after himself – Stellenbosch means "(van der) Stel's Bush". It is situated on the banks of the Eerste River ("First River"), so named as it was the first new river he reached and followed when he went on an expedition over the Cape Flats to explore the territory towards what is now known as Stellenbosch. The town grew so quickly that it became an independent local authority in 1682 and the seat of a magistrate with jurisdiction over in 1685.


title: Stellenbosch

text: The Dutch were skilled in hydraulic engineering and they devised a system of furrows to direct water from the Eerste River in the vicinity of Thibault Street through the town along van Riebeeck Street to Mill Street where a mill was erected. Early visitors commented on the oak trees and gardens.


title: Stellenbosch

text: During 1690 some Huguenot refugees settled in Stellenbosch, grapes were planted in the fertile valleys around Stellenbosch and soon it became the centre of the South African wine industry.


title: Stellenbosch

text: In 1710 a fire destroyed most of the town, including the first church, all the Company property and twelve houses. Only two or three houses were left standing. When the church was rebuilt in 1723 it was located on what was then the outskirts of the town, to prevent any similar incident from destroying it again. This church was enlarged a number of times since 1723 and is currently known as the "Moederkerk" (Mother Church).


title: Stellenbosch

text: The first school had been opened in 1683, but education in the town began in earnest in 1859 with the opening of a seminary for the Dutch Reformed Church. Rhenish Girls' High School, established in 1860, is the oldest school for girls in South Africa. A gymnasium, known as "het Stellenbossche Gymnasium", was established in 1866. In 1874 some higher classes became Victoria College and then in 1918 University of Stellenbosch. The first men's hostel to be established in Stellenbosch was Wilgenhof, in 1903. In 1905 the first women's hostel to be established in Stellenbosch was Harmonie . Harmonie and Wilgenhof were part of the Victoria College. In 1909 an old boy of the school, Paul Roos, captain of the first national rugby team to be called the Springboks, was invited to become the sixth rector of the school. He remained rector until 1940. On his retirement, the school's name was changed to Paul Roos Gymnasium.


title: Stellenbosch

text: In the early days of the Second Boer War (1899–1902) Stellenbosch was one of the British military bases, and was used as a "remount" camp; and in consequence of officers who had not distinguished themselves at the front being sent back to it, the expression "to be Stellenbosched" came into use; so much so, that in similar cases officers were spoken of as "Stellenbosched" even if they were sent to some other place.


title: Stellenbosch

text: At the time of the 2011 census, the population of the urban area of Stellenbosch was 77,476 people in 23,730 households, in an area of . A total of 50% of the residents spoke Afrikaans as their home language, 28% spoke isiXhosa, and 8% spoke English. (10% of the residents, principally those in student residences, were not asked their language.) 37% of the population identified themselves as "Black African", 35% as "Coloured", and 26% as "White".


title: Stellenbosch

text: The Stellenbosch Municipality extends beyond the town of Stellenbosch itself to include rural areas, villages, and the town of Franschhoek. At the time of the 2011 census, the municipal population was 155,728, while by 2016 it was estimated to be 173,197. In 2017, the municipality estimated that the population in 2018 would increase to 176,523


title: Stellenbosch

text: The 1936 census recorded a total population of 8,782 residents with 3,558 of them recorded as Coloured and 4,995 recorded as White.


title: Stellenbosch

text: Stellenbosch is east of Cape Town via National Route N1. Stellenbosch is in a hilly region of the Cape Winelands, and is sheltered in a valley at an average elevation of , flanked on the west by Papegaaiberg (), which is actually a hill. To the south is Stellenbosch Mountain; to the east and southeast are the Jonkershoek, Drakenstein, and Simonsberg mountains. Die Tweeling Pieke () has an elevation of ; the highest point is Victoria Peak . Jonkershoek Nature Reserve lies about east of Stellenbosch, and the Helderberg Nature Reserve is about south via provincial route R44. Just south of the Helderberg Nature Reserve is Strand, a seaside resort town. The soils of Stellenbosch range from dark alluvium to clay. This, combined with the well-drained, hilly terrain and Mediterranean climate, prove excellent for viticulture. Summers are dry and warm to hot, with some February and March days rising to over . Winters are cool, rainy and sometimes quite windy, with daytime temperatures averaging . Snow is usually seen a couple of times in winter on the surrounding mountains. Spring and autumn are colder seasons, when daytime temperatures hover in the 20s.


title: Stellenbosch

text: Stellenbosch is a warm weather training venue for cyclists, track and field squads, and triathletes. The Stellenbosch Sports Academy opened its doors in 2012 and hosts several rugby teams on a permanent basis, such as the


title: Stellenbosch

text: The Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek valleys form the Cape Winelands, the larger of the two main wine growing regions in South Africa. The South African wine industry produces about 1,000,000,000 litres of wine annually. Stellenbosch is the primary location for viticulture and viticulture research. Professor Perold was the first Professor of Viticulture at Stellenbosch University. The Stellenbosch Wine Route established in 1971 by Frans Malan from Simonsig, Spatz Sperling from Delheim, Neil Joubert from Spier and David van Velden from Overgaauw, known as Stellenbosch American Express® Wine Routes since 2002, is a world-renowned and popular tourist destination. This route provides visitors the opportunity to experience a wide range of cultivars and includes farms such as Warwick and JC Le Roux.


title: Stellenbosch

text: The region has a Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and cool wet winters. Stellenbosch lies at the foot of the Cape Fold mountain range, which provides soil favourable to viticulture. Grapes grown in this area are mainly used for wine production, as opposed to table grapes. The region possesses a wide range of soils in the area, from light, sandy soils to decomposed granite. Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon is beginning to get a good reputation as a fine wine.


title: Stellenbosch

text: Stellenbosch University is one of South Africa's leading universities. This institution has a rich history dating back to 1863 and has 10 faculties, including Engineering, Commerce, Science and Arts. The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is the only university department in the southern hemisphere which has successfully built a communications satellite Sunsat which was launched in 2000 and orbited the earth for three years.


title: Stellenbosch

text: The University currently has about 29,000 students. White students in 2014, namely 18 636, constitute 63.4% of all students enrolled. Although the official language of the university is Afrikaans, most post-graduate courses are presented in English. The university is in the process of introducing more English centered undergraduate courses following mass protest by the student body. The university council with the concurrence of the senate approved a new language policy on 22 June 2016 for implementation from 1 January 2017. Since the campuses are situated in the Western Cape, the university has committed to introducing multilingualism by using the province’s three official languages, namely Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa.


title: Stellenbosch

text: The municipality currently uses a badge consisting of a fleur de lis and a cross issuing from a stylised bunch of grapes. In the past, the various local authorities used coats of arms.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: Geethanjali is a 1989 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It stars Nagarjuna and Girija who appears as the titular character in her film debut. The music is composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Upon release, the film was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. The film won National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and also won six Nandi Awards. The film was later remade in Hindi as "Yaad Rakhegi Duniya" (1992).


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: Prakash, a carefree, mischievous student graduates from College. During his celebration with his friends, he gets into a road accident. Although the accident is only minor, during medical tests, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has a few months to live. Unable to hear his mother's constant wailing, he packs his bags and leaves for his family's vacation home in Ooty.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: There, he meets Geetanjali, who enjoys playing pranks on people around her. In one incident, Geetanjali asks a guy to meet her near a church after sundown to elope with her. When he comes to meet her, she along with her sisters and friends plays an elaborate prank by dressing up as ghosts to scare him away. When she tries to pull the same prank on Prakash, who is already aware of this, it backfires as he pulls a bigger prank on her by dressing himself as a vampire and along with aerial wire stunts, scares her.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: After being unsuccessful in scaring Prakash away, Geethanjali forms another plan in which she complains to her grandmother that Prakash had asked her (Geethanjali) to elope with him. Furious at this knowledge, Geethanjali's grandmother confronts Prakash about it. Though Prakash tries his best to explain the truth, Geethanjali's grandmother chides him and humiliates him in public. Prakash becomes angry and retaliates by driving Geethanjali to a hillside area and leaving her there. Later that night, Geethanjali's youngest sister comes to Prakash and tells him that Geethanjali has still not returned home and they are getting worried about her. Prakash goes out to look for her and upon finding her shivering in the cold, brings her back to her family. Geethanjali's grandmother scolds Prakash for pulling such a stunt on Geethanjali as such things could have worsened her health condition. Curious at this, Prakash inquires about her health. To his dismay, he finds out that she has a terminal illness. This intrigues him as she is always happy and energetic. Geethanjali tells him that she's not worried about her impending death as everyone who lives in this world will be gone someday. She also tells him that she's not bothered about what happens in the future and she only lives for today. This teaches Prakash to take his impending death in stride and live life to the fullest.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: Prakash begins to fall in love with Geethanjali and pursues her. Thinking that this is also a part of his mischief, Geethanjali keeps putting him off. But one thing leads to another and soon, she too reciprocates his love. One day, Prakash's mother comes to visit him and finds out about her son's love. Not knowing that Prakash has been keeping his illness a secret from Geethanjali, his mother blurts out the truth to Geethanjali. She becomes heartbroken knowing that Prakash's condition is worse than her own. She confronts Prakash and tells him to leave her. Prakash reminds Geethanjali that everyone dies one day and so will he. He tells her that his death is no exception. But a devastated Geethanjali admits that his own life is more important to her than her own and she would not be able to see his death. She begs him to leave her and tells him that she doesn't want to see him again. That night, Geethanjali's health worsens and she is admitted to the hospital. After getting the news, Prakash rushes to the hospital to meet her, but Geethanjali's father, who happens to be a doctor, requests him to leave since Geethanjali wishes the same. Prakash becomes sad and decides to leave the town. At the same time, Geethanjali undergoes an operation on her heart. Hours after her operation, Geethanjali slowly opens her eyes. Her whole family rejoices at her recovery. Geethanjali looks at her father and tells him that she wants to meet Prakash. The family finds out that he is planning to leave the town and rush to the railway station. Prakash sees Geethanjali and turns back to run to her and hold her hand which she outstretches. The movie ends as Geethanjali and Prakash reunite and kiss.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: Fascinated by the script and box office performance of Mani Ratnam's "Mouna Ragam" (1986), Nagarjuna was keen on featuring in a film directed by him. Nagarjuna revealed that he used to wait outside Ratnam's house every morning when the director would go on his daily walk to exchange conversation. After a month of regularly attempting to run into the director, Nagarjuna requested him to direct a Telugu film with him in the lead, which the director agreed to after initial reluctance. The film was "Geethanjali", which remains the only Telugu film directed by Ratnam. Girija was cast as the lead actress after the director Maniratnam saw her at the wedding of the siter of Krishnamachary Srikanth, former Indian Cricket Team and Suhasini. Girija's voice was dubbed by Rohini during post-production. Principal photography began on 12 October 1988 and was completed in sixty days. Most of the scenes were shot in Ooty and a few shots were filmed in Madras.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Veturi. The first song finalised was "Oh Paapaa Laali!".


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: "Geethanjali" was released on 19 May 1989. Praveen Kumar Reddy had to distribute the film himself in select places like Visakhapatnam as distributors were sceptical; despite this, it was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. The Tamil-dubbed version "Idhayathai Thirudathe" () was released on 5 July 1989 and was also successful.


title: Geethanjali (1989 film)

text: Nagarjuna became the heart-throb of Telugu filmgoers with "Geethanjali". An immense following of girls and ladies began for Nagarjuna. "Geethanjali" was released five months prior to another trend-setter, "Siva" starring Nagarjuna. These two films helped Nagarjuna gain both class and mass audience and were the stepping stones for many more blockbusters later in his career. Ratnam also gained a huge following in Andhra Pradesh with this film. The film was unofficially remade in Hindi as "Yaad Rakhegi Duniya" (1992).


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The Japanese Grand Prix () is a motor racing event in the calendar of the Formula One World Championship. Historically, Japan has been one of the last races of the season, and as such the Japanese Grand Prix has been the venue for many title-deciding races, with 13 World Drivers' Champions being crowned over the 36 World Championship Japanese Grands Prix that have been hosted. Japan was the only Asian nation to host a Formula One race (including the Pacific Grand Prix) until Malaysia joined the calendar in 1999.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The first two Formula One Japanese Grands Prix in 1976 and 1977 were held at the Fuji Speedway, before Japan was taken off the calendar. It returned in 1987 at Suzuka, which hosted the Grand Prix exclusively for 20 years and gained a reputation as one of the most challenging Formula One circuits. In 1994 and 1995, Japan also hosted the Pacific Grand Prix at the TI Circuit, making Japan one of only nine countries to host more than one Grand Prix in the same season (the others being Austria, Bahrain, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the USA). In 2007 the Grand Prix moved back to the newly redesigned Fuji Speedway. After a second race at Fuji in 2008, the race returned to Suzuka in 2009, as part of an alternating agreement between the owners of Fuji Speedway and Suzuka Circuit, perennial rivals Toyota and Honda. However, in July 2009, Toyota announced it would not host the race at Fuji Speedway in 2010 and beyond due to a downturn in the global economy, and so the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Suzuka instead. Suzuka has hosted the Japanese Grand Prix every year since 2009, apart from in 2020 and 2021 when the Grands Prix were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The first Japanese Grand Prix was run as a sports car race at the Suzuka Circuit south west of Nagoya in May 1963. In 1964, the race was held at Suzuka again. This marked the beginning of motor racing in earnest in Japan. For the next eight installments, however, the non-championship Grand Prix was run at the Fuji Speedway, west of Yokohama and west of the Japanese capital of Tokyo. The circuit had a banked corner called Daiichi and was the scene of many fatal accidents. It was then run as a number of disciplines of motorsports, particularly Formula 2, sports cars and Can-Am-type sprint racing.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The first Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, in 1976, was held at the very fast 2.7-mile Fuji Speedway, minus the banking. The race was to become famous for the title decider between James Hunt and Niki Lauda as it was held during monsoon conditions. Lauda, who had survived a near-fatal crash at the German Grand Prix earlier in the season, withdrew from the race stating that his life was more important than the championship, as did Brazilians Emerson Fittipaldi and Carlos Pace. The torrential rain eventually stopped, and after a slow pit stop that put him down to 5th, Hunt drove hard and climbed up to 3rd, taking the 4 points he needed to win the title by the slender margin of one point over Lauda. American Mario Andretti won the race for his 2nd career win and first for Lotus, ahead of Frenchman Patrick Depailler in the Tyrrell P34. Hunt returned the next year to win the second Japanese Grand Prix, but a collision between Gilles Villeneuve and Ronnie Peterson during the race saw Villeneuve's Ferrari somersault into a restricted area, killing two spectators. Although originally scheduled for an April slot in the 1978 season (which was cancelled), the race did not reappear on the Formula One calendar for another decade, and the race did not return to Fuji for an even greater time.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The Japanese Grand Prix, originally scheduled for 7 April 1985 was cancelled as rebuilding parts of the Suzuka Circuit were too time consuming. On Formula 1's return to Japan in 1987, the Grand Prix found a new venue at the redesigned and revamped Suzuka Circuit. The circuit, set inside a funfair, was designed by Dutchman John Hugenholtz and owned by Honda, who used it as a test track. Most notable initially for its layout—Suzuka is the only figure-eight race track to appear on the F1 calendar—the demanding and fast Japanese circuit became very popular among drivers and fans, and it was to see some of the most dramatic and memorable moments in Formula One history.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The first event in 1987 was already a classic. It immediately saw another World Title decided, as Nigel Mansell crashed his Williams-Honda heavily in practice at the Snake Esses and consequently could not start the race due to aggravating an old back injury he had received in his Formula Ford days, effectively handing the title to his teammate Nelson Piquet; the 3rd and final title of his career. Austrian Gerhard Berger won the race for Ferrari, their first victory since 1985.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Suzuka played a part in the feud between Frenchman Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna. This long battle reached immense levels of controversy and media coverage; this struggle was between two men who were both considered to be by far the best drivers in Formula One at that time.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The 1988 race was a World Championship decider between Senna and Prost – who were McLaren teammates that year. Senna came in with a greater chance of winning the championship, as the points system in those days counted the best 11 results; Senna had retired from one more Grand Prix than Prost had and had been slightly less consistent than the Frenchman, yet this was actually to the Brazilian's advantage; the way the points system worked in those days meant that there was more room for him to score points. McLaren also had obtained superior and fuel-efficient Honda engines from Williams, had a car far better than any of the others, and had won every race of the season except the Italian Grand Prix – McLaren's only double retirement of the season. At the start, Senna made a very bad start, stalling on the grid but then managing to bump-start his car on the down-sloping pit straight. As a result, he dropped to 14th, while Prost took the lead. It then began to rain, and wet-weather specialist Senna stormed around the track, setting a number of fastest laps and passing car after car until he caught Berger in 2nd and then started to catch Prost rapidly. The Frenchman's gearbox was malfunctioning, and the Brazilian caught and passed Prost while the Frenchman was delayed by consistent backmarker Andrea de Cesaris. Senna won the race and his first Drivers' Championship with Prost finishing 2nd, despite the latter scoring more points overall.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The 1989 race was a highly anticipated race, and even with new regulations banning turbo-charged engines, the McLaren-Honda combination was still dominant, they had won 10 of 14 races so far in the season. This race turned out to be one of the most memorable in the sport's history. Prost and Senna, once again McLaren teammates for 1989, were both embroiled in an acrimonious personal feud that had started at the second race of the season and their relationship was, come the race weekend, at such a low point it was virtually non-existent. Very unusual for teammates of a racing team, there was almost zero communication going on between Prost and Senna, and was to the degree where the McLaren team were effectively running as 2 separate teams – with 4 to 5 times more people around Senna than Prost. This was because Senna had a closer relationship with the Honda engineers than Prost; Senna's popularity with the Japanese public thanks to his flat-out driving style benefited Honda in many different ways; and McLaren wanted a long-term partnership with Honda, as their engines were better than all the others. Both Senna and Prost went into the race weekend each knowing what the stakes were. Prost was 16 points ahead of Senna, and the Brazilian was facing nearly insurmountable odds: he had to win at Suzuka to stand any chance of staying in contention of winning the championship going into the next race, which he was obliged to win as well. Senna qualified on pole position 1.5 seconds ahead of Prost who was already working on his race setup in qualifying. Senna's set up meant he was faster around corners, while Prost opted for a set up that made him faster on the straights.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Come race day, the two McLarens were on the front row of the grid, and both McLaren drivers' emotions were running very high. As the starting lights flashed to green, Prost made an excellent start and jumped into the fast first corner ahead of Senna. The two McLaren drivers immediately started to pull away from the rest of the field, with Prost and Senna setting the pace at the highest possible level they could muster. On lap 47, going through the ultra-fast 130R corner, the Brazilian attempted an ambitious pass going into the Casio chicane. Senna was in an awkward position to pass, being on the inside of his teammate, and tried to shove his way past Prost, but the Frenchman decided to be true to words he had said to Senna and McLaren boss Ron Dennis: he would not leave the door open as he had before and give up the position simply for McLaren to be embarrassed by a double retirement. And Prost did exactly that: as he turned into the right handed turn that made up the first part of the chicane, he turned into Senna, and the Frenchman's car hit the Brazilian's car and the two cars were interlocked and both slid off the track and up the chicane's escape road, the Honda V10 engines in both cars stalling.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Prost and Senna were both beached and Prost got out of his car promptly, knowing he had won the championship with Senna's apparent retirement whilst Senna waved towards a group of Suzuka's track marshals, who ran up to the two interlocked cars. So they could separate the two cars, the marshals pushed Senna's car backwards onto the track, which put it in a dangerous position. The marshals then pushed his car forwards while Senna bump-started the engine, and he drove off. Even after being stalled for more than 30 seconds, the furious pace he and Prost had been running at put them both so far ahead of the rest of the field that Senna was still leading the race comfortably in front of Benetton driver Alessandro Nannini. Senna's front nose cone was damaged and going through the Degner bend, it came off; and he pitted to have it changed. Nannini had passed Senna while the Brazilian was in the pits, and after he stormed out of the pits, Senna drove as furiously as he had before, and within 2 laps while making up 2.5 seconds a lap on Nannini he caught and passed the Italian cleanly at the Casio chicane. Senna took the chequered flag, but the podium ceremony proceeded to be delayed. A meeting between Senna, Prost, the McLaren management and FIA officials including the very unpopular FIA and FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre took place immediately post-race. It was thought that Senna was going to be disqualified for receiving external non-team assistance, which was against the rules, but that rule had a loophole: the rule read that if a driver was deemed to be in a dangerous position, they could be push started. But much to almost the entire Formula One paddock's astonishment, it was deemed that Senna was to be disqualified for bypassing the chicane and the marked track after making his way down an escape road bordering the circuit. Cutting the chicane was in effect bypassing the track to gain an advantage – and this was illegal. But this rule was not enforced and generally ignored in those days if a driver was negatively affected in terms of where they stood in the race – which Senna was not. Nevertheless, the Brazilian Senna was infuriated by the decision – and he later said that he struggled to cope for a long time with what happened. Nannini was handed the race victory as a result of Senna's disqualification, and McLaren appealed Senna's disqualification – which was not only denied by Balestre and the FIA but he was handed a $100,000 fine and a six-month suspension, both of which were eventually rescinded. Prost had won the Drivers' Championship for the third time – but this was not official until Senna's retirement from the Australian Grand Prix 2 weeks later, before which McLaren's appeal had been denied.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The 1990 event proved to be just as controversial as the 1989 event. Senna and Prost were once again first and second in the championship – the two men had won 37 of the past 46 Formula One championship races. But the roles had been reversed: the championship situation for Prost was the same as Senna's in the previous year. The Frenchman needed to win both of the final two races to defend the title. The race also was without defending champion Nannini, as his career ended just days after a helicopter crash. As shown in a video of the pre-race drivers' briefing, the drivers were discussing what was to be done if a car was in a dangerous position at the Casio Chicane. Senna was appalled at what he saw as a ridiculous interpretation of badly thought-out rules – and he walked out of the meeting as it was taking place. Senna qualified on pole position, three-tenths ahead of Prost, now driving for Ferrari, who had the next most competitive package that year behind McLaren. Senna requested to change the grid positions in order to move pole position to the cleaner left side of the road, where the racing line was. This was granted, but Balestre intervened and reverted the grid positions back to their original locations, meaning pole position would be on the dirty right side of the track, where all the bits of tire rubber had been thrown from the tires by the Formula One cars. This meant Senna was off the racing line and it would be more difficult for him to make a better start. Frustrated and angry, Senna mimicked Prost's statement of the previous year saying he would not move over if Prost attempted to overtake in the first corner. Senna started from pole, with Prost second (albeit on the racing line). Prost got ahead of Senna – but the more powerful Honda engine in Senna's McLaren meant that he was able to make up a bit of ground. Prost moved over to take the racing line, but Senna dived into the corner to Prost's right to pass him – and as a result he hit the side of Prost's Ferrari. Both cars went straight on and both drivers sped through the gravel trap at 160 mph (260 km/h) and crashed into the tyre wall at the end of the run-off area. Senna and Prost were both unhurt, and neither driver bothered to check to see if the other was okay. This accident meant that Senna won his second world Drivers' Championship. The crash looked somewhat dubious, and nothing was done to Senna by the FIA; because they had done nothing to Prost in 1989 for crashing to Senna, they could not do anything to Senna either, with the collision being declared a "racing incident" in the end. Furious and disgusted, Prost later described Senna as "a man without value". Both drivers have been accused of crashing into the other deliberately and thus the two situations as well as their comments after both incidents have tainted both drivers' reputations in the eyes of most but die-hard fans. Benetton driver Nelson Piquet won his first race in 3 years after Gerhard Berger went off and Nigel Mansell's Ferrari failed in the pits after a pit stop, and Piquet's new teammate Roberto Moreno finished 2nd.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: 1991 was yet again the showdown for the Drivers' Championship, and it saw Senna and this time Mansell in a competitive but rather unreliable Williams battle for the Drivers' Championship. Prost did not win a race in his uncompetitive Ferrari that year and it turned out to be his last race for the Scuderia that year; he was fired from the team after the race for describing the 643 as having handling like "a truck". This was the last straw for Ferrari; as Prost had been making unsavory comments about the Italian team for some time. The race started, and Mansell went off at the first corner on lap 10, and Senna won his 3rd Drivers' Championship in 4 seasons. Senna let his teammate Gerhard Berger through to win as a "thank you" gesture for his support all season. But during the post-race press conference, Senna then admitted that his actions in 1990 were indeed intentional, and he then called Balestre and the rest of the governing body "stupid people". He admitted that he did what he did the year before because of his refusal to put up with Balestre's continuously illegal manipulation of the Drivers' Championship.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: 1992 was the first year in which the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka did not in any way determine the championship – Mansell had already won it 4 races before in Hungary with his all-dominant Williams. He retired from the race, as did Senna, and Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese took his only victory that year. 1993 was an interesting event; Senna took the lead from Alain Prost (who had won his 4th drivers' title at the previous race) and kept it; additionally, the changeable weather conditions played to Senna's advantage, who was known to be exceptional in wet-weather conditions. He was harassed, however, by Briton newcomer Eddie Irvine, who attempted to pass Senna and unlap himself while battling with Prost's British teammate Damon Hill. Senna won his 40th race in his career from Prost, but he wasn't all smiles. He sought out Irvine, had a heated discussion with the Northern Irishman and punched him in the side of the head; then Senna went on live television for post-race interviews, and used profanity on the live recording in frustration at Irvine, other drivers' alleged bad behavior on the track and at the media, who he claimed were "irresponsible" for sensationalizing some of Senna's dangerous on-track behavior.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: By 1994, Prost had retired and Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix, and the Japanese GP that year saw Hill and German Michael Schumacher battle for the Drivers' Championship. Hill crucially won the race ahead of Schumacher; Suzuka was hammered by a torrential downpour which made conditions very difficult for Hill as Schumacher was an acknowledged specialist in wet-weather conditions. 1995 saw an incredible drive from French-Italian Jean Alesi on dry slick tyres in damp conditions. It had rained at the start; but the track was drying. Alesi went into the pits on lap seven, around the time everyone else came in. The French driver began to lap Suzuka in his Ferrari 5 seconds faster than anyone else, and when he came out of the pits, he was 17th – but then over the course of 18 laps climbed to 2nd place, passing car after car while a number of the other cars changed to slick tyres as well. But then Alesi had to serve a drive-through penalty for jumping the start. This did not stop the emotionally highly-strung Alesi: he dropped down to 10th, but pushed hard; and began passing car after car. He then went into the pits and dropped to 13th from 8th as a result. Then he had gone off in the last corner on lap 20 but recovered, and as a result dropped further down the order to 15th. He then went from 15th to 9th in one lap and got into 2nd again behind Schumacher, whom he caught up to and battled with for the lead. This remarkable performance was only to last 5 laps, however: Alesi's Ferrari's driveshaft failed as a result of his excursion earlier and he retired from the race. Schumacher won the race, having already won the Drivers' Championship at the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: 1996 was the last race of the year, and it saw Williams teammates Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill's title struggle come to a showdown at Suzuka. Villeneuve lost a wheel on lap 37 and went off at the first sequence of corners, handing the drivers' title to Damon Hill; however, Hill was never as competitive as he was ever again in Formula One: team owners Frank Williams and Patrick Head decided earlier in the season not to renew Hill's contract.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: 1997 saw Michael Schumacher win and his title rival Jacques Villeneuve disqualified for ignoring yellow flags during one of the practice sessions.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: 1998 saw another dramatic title decider between Schumacher and Finn Mika Häkkinen. The two drivers had dueled all season long and Hakkinen led Schumacher by four points heading in the final race at Suzuka. Schumacher started on pole for the race but stalled on the grid, giving Hakkinen in second a clear track in front of him for the start. Now starting from the back of the grid, Schumacher fought hard to catch up, setting numerous fastest laps in his effort to catch his rival. However, on lap 28 a collision between backmarkers resulted in debris being scattered on the circuit. Schumacher ran over the debris, puncturing his right rear tire. The tire caused Schumacher's retirement three laps later, leaving Häkkinen to take victory and his first drivers' championship.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Hakkinen then won his second consecutive drivers' title in 1999, after a fight with Eddie Irvine, Schumacher's Ferrari teammate.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The next 5 events were all won by Ferrari; Schumacher won in 2000–2002 and 2004, and his teammate Rubens Barrichello won in 2003. Schumacher won his 3rd title at the 2000 event: he took advantage of his superior speed in damp conditions during a mid-race rain shower to secure the race win and his first World Championship title for Ferrari. This was Ferrari's first drivers' championship in 21 years. Ferrari completed their domination of the 2002 season by reaching a total points tally of 221 points on the then-used 10-point scoring system. At the 2003 event, Schumacher endured one of the most trying races in his career, needing to come at least eighth, he started at fourteenth on the grid – but managed to secure the point he needed to take his sixth World Drivers' Championship, beating the record held by Juan Manuel Fangio. Schumacher had an incident-filled race, having a collision with Takuma Sato and another near collision with his brother. The qualifying session for the 2004 event, which was due to be held on 9 October, was postponed until race day after a typhoon hit Suzuka. This led to the idea of holding qualifying sessions on a Sunday morning (an idea that was abandoned half-way through the following year).


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The 2005 race was one of the most exciting races of the season after many top drivers started near the back of the grid after the qualifying in variable weather. McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen won the race after starting from 17th place, overtaking Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella at the beginning of the last lap – after Fisichella was blocked by a backmarker. At the 2006 event, Michael Schumacher led until an engine failure virtually ended his chances of an eighth championship, which went to Spaniard Fernando Alonso.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: It was announced on 24 March 2006 by the FIA that future races will again be held at the redesigned Fuji Speedway (now owned by Toyota) in Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka Prefecture. The news of the Japanese Grand Prix moving to the circuit redesigned by Hermann Tilke was met with some trepidation, as the Honda-owned Suzuka was a favorite of many of the drivers and Hermann Tilke's tracks had received mixed reviews from the drivers and the fans.On 8 September 2007, it was announced that Fuji will alternate the Japanese Grand Prix with Suzuka, starting from 2009 onwards. The 2007 race was held in torrential rain and started behind the safety car. Lewis Hamilton took the victory while his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso crashed heavily. Heikki Kovalainen finished 2nd, his best result until that date and Kimi Räikkönen 3rd, marking the first time that two Finnish drivers were together on the podium. In 2008, the first corner brought trouble for both the title contending McLarens and Ferraris, and Fernando Alonso was able to take the victory in a Renault. Felipe Massa was 7th after a penalty for a collision with title rival Lewis Hamilton, while Hamilton finished outside the points, having also served a penalty for an incident in the first corner.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: In July 2009, Toyota cited a global economic slump as the reason that the Japanese Grand Prix would not return to Fuji Speedway in 2010 and beyond. The speedway argued, according to the Associated Press, that "continuing to host F1 races could threaten the survival of the company". As a result, the 2010 Grand Prix was held at Suzuka, at which point it was announced that Suzuka would have exclusive hosting duties.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Both the 2009 and 2010 races were dominated by Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, with Red Bull finishing 1–2 both years. Sebastian Vettel secured his second World Championship in the 2011 Grand Prix with a third-place finish, while McLaren's Jenson Button (the only driver in the field who had a theoretical chance of beating Vettel to the title) won the race wearing a special tribute helmet to the people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The helmet featured a design in the style of the Japanese flag, and he auctioned the helmet off afterwards to raise money for those caught in unfortunate circumstances during the times of the tsunami earlier that year.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: Kamui Kobayashi took third place at the , after enduring race-long pressure from Jenson Button. Kobayashi became the first Japanese driver to finish on a Formula One podium in Japan in 22 years, after Aguri Suzuki in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, and was the third Japanese driver to finish on a Formula One podium after Suzuki and Takuma Sato in the 2004 United States Grand Prix.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: The 2013 race was won by Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull, marking his fourth consecutive victory of the season as well as his fourth victory overall at Suzuka. Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, who started the race on pole position, finished second behind his teammate, with Romain Grosjean taking the final podium position for Lotus.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: In 2014 a typhoon struck the circuit during the race, causing controversy over the late-afternoon start time not being moved. The race saw both the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton duel with each other for the lead, with Hamilton ultimately taking victory ahead of his teammate and Sebastian Vettel. However, the race was marred by tragedy. On lap 45, Adrian Sutil in the Force India spun off the track at the Dunlop Curve, and as his car was being recovered by a crane, Jules Bianchi in the Marussia spun off track at the same area and smashed horrifically into the crane. The race was red flagged immediately following the accident as conditions were deemed too dangerous to race. Bianchi was unresponsive to marshals and team radio. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was placed into a coma. It was hoped that he would recover, but Bianchi died nine months later due to his injuries. This led to changes to the circuit for the next year, with drainage gutters being created at the Dunlop Curve to allow water to runoff faster during a rainstorm, as well as the moving of a similar crane to prevent accidents such as Bianchi's from occurring in the future.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: On 23 August 2013 it was announced that the contract for the Japanese Grand Prix had been extended until 2018. A further extension was announced in August 2018 to keep the race at Suzuka until 2021. But the 2020 edition due to be held on 11 October, was cancelled on 12 June due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Japanese Grand Prix

text: From its return to the Formula One calendar in 1987, the Japanese Grand Prix has become one of the most popular with spectators. For the 1990 race, three million fans entered a draw for the 120,000 available tickets, due to the popularity of Honda's world championship successes as an engine supplier to the Williams and McLaren teams, the fact that the country had produced its first full-time F1 driver in Satoru Nakajima, and Ayrton Senna's immense popularity in Japan. After Nakajima's retirement in and Honda's withdrawal from competition the following year, interest went into decline despite the addition of the Pacific Grand Prix to the F1 calendar, an event also held in Japan during the and seasons. The 1995 Japanese Grand Prix was the first for which the allocated tickets did not sell out. Subsequently, the appearance of new Japanese drivers such as Takuma Sato and the entry of Honda and Toyota as full manufacturer teams has restored the event to its former popularity. However, Honda and Toyota left Formula One in 2008 and 2009 respectively, with both teams citing economic reasons. Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier for McLaren in 2015, a partnership that lasted until 2018. Honda began supplying engines for Toro Rosso (now known as AlphaTauri) in 2018, and Red Bull Racing in 2019, before leaving Formula One again after the 2021 season.


title: Four Christmases

text: Four Christmases (as known as Four Holidays or Anywhere But Home in some territories) is a 2008 American Christmas comedy film about a couple visiting all four of their divorced parents' homes on Christmas Day. It stars Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon with Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Voight and Sissy Spacek in supporting roles. The film is director Seth Gordon's first studio feature film. It tells the story of a couple who must travel to four Christmas parties after their vacation plans get cancelled due to a dense fog. The film is produced by New Line Cinema and Spyglass Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 26, 2008 the day before Thanksgiving. It received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $163 million worldwide.


title: Four Christmases

text: Brad and Kate are an upscale San Francisco couple. Both come from dysfunctional families: divorced parents and obnoxious siblings with out-of-control kids so they disdain the idea of getting married or having kids. They try to avoid their families at Christmas by traveling abroad, pretending to be doing charity work.


title: Four Christmases

text: On the third Christmas of their relationship, they plan to go to Fiji but get trapped at San Francisco International Airport by a fog bank that cancels every outbound flight. The couple are also interviewed by a news crew, alerting their families they're stuck at home for the holidays.


title: Four Christmases

text: Kate and Brad realize they can't get out of visiting Brad's father first, then Kate's mother, then Brad's mother, and finally Kate's father—four Christmases in one day. Bracing themselves for a marathon of homecomings, Brad and Kate expect the worst but are still not quite prepared enough.


title: Four Christmases

text: They keep discovering new secrets about each other they had previously been too embarrassed to share, such as Brad's real name being "Orlando" and Kate's fear of inflatable castles (from a childhood trauma) and these strain their relationship. As Brad counts down the minutes to freedom, Kate studies their families' lives and realizes she does want marriage and children with Brad, the prospect of which frightens him when she mentions it.


title: Four Christmases

text: When they finally reach Kate's father's house, she asks Brad to let her go in alone then gets out of the car and tells her family they have split up. Meanwhile, Brad returns to his father's and they have a quiet talk alone. Brad realizes he wants marriage and children and with Kate—he loves her too much to leave her. Returning to her, they discuss marriage and children then finally head to Fiji.


title: Four Christmases

text: On New Year's Day a year later, Brad and Kate welcome their first child, a daughter, after spending nine months hiding the news from their families. As theirs is the New Year's baby, a news crew comes to congratulate them—once again revealing them, and their new baby, to the whole city and their families.


title: Four Christmases

text: One of the film's executive producers, Peter Billingsley, who had a starring role as Ralphie in the 1983 film "A Christmas Story", has a credited role as an airline ticket agent.


title: Four Christmases

text: Prior to Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon’s casting, it was announced that Spyglass Entertainment had set Adam Shankman to direct for Columbia Pictures.


title: Four Christmases

text: Gordon was brought in as director at the insistence of Vaughn, who had seen Gordon's documentary "", a film, Gordon points out, which, like "Four Christmases", has a "traditional three-act structure".


title: Four Christmases

text: The film began production in December 2007, during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which meant that no changes could be made to the script. During production, New Line Cinema became a "unit of Warner Bros.", which put the film's completion at risk.


title: Four Christmases

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Four Christmases" has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite a strong cast, this sour holiday comedy suffers from a hackneyed script." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a score of 41 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.