title: Breechloader

text: Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time, because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun/cannon than to reach all the way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and the tube has spiral ridges from rifling. In field artillery, the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of the gun and force things down a long barrel with a ramrod, and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, increasing accuracy. It also made it easier to load a previously fired weapon with a fouled barrel. Gun turrets and emplacements for breechloaders can be smaller, since crews don't need to retract the gun for frontal loading. Unloading a breechloader is much easier as well, as the load can be extracted from the breech end and is often doable by hand; unloading muzzle loaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through whole length of the barrel, and in some cases they are simply fired to unload.


title: Breechloader

text: After breech-loading became common, it also became common practice to fit recoil systems onto field guns to prevent the recoil from rolling the carriage back with every shot and ruining the aim. That provided faster firing times, but is not directly related to whether the gun is breech-loading or not. Now that guns were able to fire without the entire carriage recoiling, the crew was able to remain grouped closely around the gun, ready to load and put final touches on the aim, prior to firing the next shot. That led to the development of an armored shield fitted to the carriage of the gun, to help shield the crew from long range area or sniper fire from the new, high-velocity, long-range rifles, or even machine guns.


title: Breechloader

text: Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as the early 14th century in Burgundy and various other parts of Europe, breech-loading became more successful with improvements in precision engineering and machining in the 19th century (see Dreyse needle gun).


title: Breechloader

text: The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms was sealing the breech. This was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw.


title: Breechloader

text: Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type of swivel gun, and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with a swivel for easy rotation, loaded by inserting a mug-shaped chamber already filled with powder and projectiles. The breech-loading swivel gun had a high rate of fire, and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles.


title: Breechloader

text: Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century. Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as the Che Dian Chong, was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the Ming dynasty's arsenals. Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism.


title: Breechloader

text: More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge.


title: Breechloader

text: Patrick Ferguson, a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in the Battle of Brandywine, during the American Revolutionary War, but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard Brown Bess musket. In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in the late 18th century, adopted the second standard breech-loading firearm in the world, M1819 Hall rifle, and in larger numbers than the Ferguson rifle.


title: Breechloader

text: About the same time and later on into the mid-19th century, there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition.


title: Breechloader

text: In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat, Jean Samuel Pauly created the first fully self-contained cartridges: the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812.


title: Breechloader

text: The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge containing powder in a card-board shell.


title: Breechloader

text: In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting, the first rimfire metallic cartridge, constituted by a bullet fit in a percussion cap. Usually derived in the 6 mm and 9 mm calibres, it is since then called the Flobert cartridge but it does not contain any powder; the only propellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the .22 BB and .22 CB ammunitions.


title: Breechloader

text: In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell. Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in the LeMat (1856) and Lefaucheux (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in a revolver using rimfire cartridges.


title: Breechloader

text: In 1842, the Norwegian Armed Forces adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader, one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm.


title: Breechloader

text: The "Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr" (Dreyse needle gun) was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and the gun had numerous deficiencies; specifically, serious problems with gas leaking. However, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. This, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general.


title: Breechloader

text: In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defend Auckland. The bid was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for the Calisher and Terry carbine, which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standard Minié lead bullet in .54 calibre backed by a charge and tallowed wad, wrapped in nitrated paper to keep it waterproof. The carbine had been issued in small numbers to English cavalry (Hussars) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand a few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led by Gustavus von Tempsky that specialized in bush warfare and reconnaissance. Von Tempsky liked the short carbine, which could be loaded while lying down. The waterproofed cartridge was easier to keep dry in the New Zealand bush. Museums in New Zealand hold a small number of these carbines in good condition.


title: Breechloader

text: During the American Civil War, at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded. The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. The Spencer, which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachable tube magazine. The Henry and Volcanic used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under the barrel. These held a significant advantage over muzzle-loaders. The improvements in breech-loaders had spelled the end of muzzle-loaders. To make use of the enormous number of war surplus muzzle-loaders, the Allin conversion Springfield was adopted in 1866. General Burnside invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine.


title: Breechloader

text: The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in 1866, which was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with a Snider breech action (solid block, hinged parallel to the barrel) firing the Boxer cartridge. Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody-derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871.


title: Breechloader

text: Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout the latter half of the 19th century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles, first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles.


title: Breechloader

text: The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in 1837.


title: Breechloader

text: A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loading naval gun or small arm. The earliest breech actions were either three-shot break-open actions or a barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The later breech-loaders included the Ferguson rifle, which used a screw-in/screw out action to reload, and the Hall rifle, which tipped up at 30 degrees for loading. The better breech loaders, however, used percussion caps, including the Sharps rifle, using a falling block (or sliding block) action to reload. And then later on came the Dreyse needle gun that used a moving seal (bolt) to seal and expose the breech. Later on, however, the Mauser M71/84 rifle used self-contained metallic cartridges and used a rotating bolt to open and close the breech.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: Fire Emblem Warriors is a hack and slash action role-playing game developed by Omega Force and Team Ninja, and published by Koei Tecmo in Japan and Nintendo internationally for the Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in Japan in September 2017, and worldwide the following month. The game is a collaboration between Koei Tecmo's "Warriors" franchise and Nintendo and Intelligent Systems's "Fire Emblem" series.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the combination of "Fire Emblem" and "Dynasty Warriors" gameplay and drawing favorable comparisons to "Hyrule Warriors", originally released in 2014 for the Wii U.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: "Fire Emblem Warriors" is a hack-and-slash action role-playing game similar to the "Dynasty Warriors" series in which players take the role of Rowan and Lianna, and characters from several "Fire Emblem" games. Games represented in Warriors include "", "Fire Emblem Gaiden", "Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade", "Fire Emblem Awakening," and "Fire Emblem Fates". The player defeats enemies with any character, accomplishing specific goals to beat maps. In addition to hack-and-slash combat, the game includes the ability to give tactical commands to units and the Weapon Triangle, which originated from the "Fire Emblem" series.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: Weapons in the game include axes, lances, swords, bows, tomes, and dragonstones. When characters assist, heal, or fight alongside each other in battle, their bond strengthens. Like in "Fire Emblem" games, if two characters' bond increases enough, a support conversation will be unlocked. The game will also utilize all existing and future "Fire Emblem" Amiibo figurines, which give weapons related to the character represented by the Amiibo that is used.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: While the royal twins of Aytolis, Rowan and Lianna spar with their friend Prince Darios of Gristonne, the kingdom is suddenly attacked by monsters. The three are separated from the twins' mother, Aytolis's Queen Yelena during the attack, who gives them the Shield of Flames before being captured. The group learns that Darios' father Oskar is seeking to revive the evil Chaos Dragon Velezark, and that they must power up the Shield of Flames with Gleamstones created from the power of heroes from other worlds to prevent Velezark's resurrection.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: Rowan and Lianna travel across Aytolis, rallying support from heroes from the otherworldy nations of Ylisse, Hoshido, Nohr, and . During an attack on a Gristonne fortress, Velezark successfully possesses Darios, who steals the Shield of Flames just after it is complete. Rowan and Lianna pursue him to Gristonne, where they discover Yelena has been captured to be used as a sacrifice to revive Velezark. Rowan and Lianna successfully rescue their mother, leading to Darios sacrificing Oskar to complete the ritual to revive Velezark. Now freed from the possession, Darios returns the Shield of Flames to the group before falling to his death. Rowan, Lianna, and the other heroes then battle Velezark and finally slay him. With Velezark slain, the other heroes return to their home worlds and Queen Yelena crowns the twins as rulers of Aytolis.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: "Fire Emblem Warriors" was developed by the same team as "Hyrule Warriors", a collaboration between the "Dynasty Warriors" series and "The Legend of Zelda". The game was co-developed by Koei Tecmo studios Omega Force and Team Ninja and "Fire Emblem" developers Intelligent Systems. Koei Tecmo first proposed the project to Nintendo, who were more than willing to collaborate, making the game a title for their in-development Nintendo Switch home console. The idea of the game came during the development of "Hyrule Warriors Legends", as the touchscreen controls bore similarities to those of the "Fire Emblem" series.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: The game was announced in January 2017 as part of a Nintendo Direct broadcast dedicated to the "Fire Emblem" series, although it had already been in development for around two years before this time. It was released in Japan on September 28, 2017, and released in North America, Europe, and Australia on October 20, 2017.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: Three packs of paid additional content were announced before the game's release. Each pack added three new playable characters, new support conversations, and three new maps for History mode, in addition to new weapons, costumes, and other content. Each of the DLC on a different Fire Emblem game: "Fire Emblem Fates", "Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon", and "Fire Emblem Awakening" respectively. If all three packs were bought together in the season pass, an additional costume was unlocked.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: "Fire Emblem Warriors" received mixed reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, with the Nintendo Switch version holding a score of 74/100 based on 72 critic reviews and the New Nintendo 3DS version receiving a score of 69/100 based on 12 reviews. The game received praise for bringing a more nuanced, textured experience to the musou genre, but drew criticism for its shallow take on traditional "Fire Emblem" mechanics and roster choice.


title: Fire Emblem Warriors

text: The Nintendo Switch version sold 41,491 copies within its first week on sale on Japan, while the New Nintendo 3DS version sold 18,357 copies. In April 2018, Koei Tecmo revealed that the game sold 1 million copies worldwide.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: Bartholomew Owogbalor Ogbeche (born 1 October 1984) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Indian Super League club Hyderabad.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: He played his club football in France, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Greece, England, the Netherlands and India, notably becoming the all-time top scorer in Indian Super League history and of NorthEast United, Kerala Blasters and Hyderabad.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: Ogbeche was born in Ogoja. Still a youngster, he was signed by French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, making his debut with the main squad during the 2001–02 season. However, he failed to settle, also suffering a thigh injury and serving two six-month loans to fellow league sides Bastia and Metz; for the former, he scored in a 4–1 home win against Olympique de Marseille on 7 March 2004– the Corsicans secured their top-flight status, and he left PSG for good in June 2005.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: After a brief time in the United Arab Emirates, Ogbeche moved to Spain, first with Alavés in Segunda División. Although he posted good individual numbers, the Basque team failed to return to La Liga but he joined another club in the former tier, Real Valladolid, making his debut on 26 August 2007 in a 1–0 away victory over Espanyol (12 minutes played).


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: In late August 2009, after two seasons of intermittent use, Ogbeche arranged a one-year deal with Andalusia's Cádiz of the second division. He finished the campaign as team top scorer, but they finished in 19th position and were relegated.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: After one year in Greece with Kavala, Ogbeche joined Football League Championship side Middlesbrough on 18 October 2011, signing until the end of the season. He scored his first goal for his new club on 17 December, against Cardiff City in a 3–2 away win. On 5 March 2012, he came on as a substitute towards the end of the home game against Barnsley, lobbing the ball over Luke Steele for the final 2–0.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: Ogbeche moved clubs and countries again in January 2014, signing for Cambuur in the Netherlands after a very brief spell back in Spain with Xerez. He scored once and provided an assist in his Eredivisie debut, helping to a 3–1 home defeat of Heerenveen.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: On 25 August 2018, Ogbeche joined NorthEast United. He made his Indian Super League debut on 1 October, scoring once in the 2–2 draw against Goa. Later that month, he became the first player to manage a hat-trick during the campaign after achieving the feat in ten minutes away to Chennaiyin.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: Ogbeche continued competing in the Indian top division the following years, with Kerala Blasters (becoming their all-time top scorer), Mumbai City and Hyderabad.


title: Bartholomew Ogbeche

text: A Nigerian international since the age of 17, Ogbeche was selected for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and appeared in two matches in a group-stage exit. He scored two of his three goals for the national side on 29 May 2004, in a 3–0 friendly win against the Republic of Ireland held in Charlton, London.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Amazing Grace is a 2006 British-American biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted, about the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire, led by William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the 1772 hymn "Amazing Grace". The film also recounts the experiences of John Newton as a crewman on a slave ship and subsequent religious conversion, which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: The film premièred on 16 September 2006 at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by showings at the Heartland Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the European Film Market, before opening in wide US release on 23 February 2007, which coincided with the 200th anniversary of the date the British parliament voted to ban the slave trade.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: In 1797, William Wilberforce is severely ill and taking a recuperative holiday in Bath, Somerset, with his cousin, Henry Thornton. It is here that Wilberforce is introduced to his future wife, Barbara Spooner. Although he initially resists any romantic overtures, she convinces him to relate the story of his career.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: The story flashes back 15 years to 1782, and Wilberforce recounts the events that led him to where he is now. Beginning as a young, ambitious, and popular Member of Parliament (MP), he experiences a religious enlightenment and aligns himself with the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Wilberforce contemplates leaving politics to study theology, but is persuaded by his friends William Pitt, Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, and Olaudah Equiano that he will be more effective doing the work of God by taking on the unpopular and dangerous issue of the abolition of the British slave trade. His conviction in the cause deepens following a meeting with his former mentor John Newton (introduced mopping a church floor dressed in sackcloth) who is said to live "in the company of 20,000 ghosts… slaves". As a former slave ship captain turned Christian, he deeply regrets his past life and the effects on his fellow man. Newton urges Wilberforce to take up the cause.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Pitt becomes Prime Minister and Wilberforce becomes a key supporter and confidant. Pitt gives Wilberforce the opportunity to present a bill before the house outlawing the slave trade. Wilberforce's passionate campaigning leads him to become highly unpopular in the House of Commons. He is opposed by a coalition of MPs representing vested interests of the slave trade in London, Bristol, Glasgow, and Liverpool led by Banastre Tarleton and the Duke of Clarence. Despite popular support and the assistance of an unlikely ally in the form of Charles James Fox, Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade goes down to defeat. Afterward, the film portrays Pitt as one of his few friends and allies remaining in Parliament, however even their relationship becomes strained. Pitt, now facing the stresses of leading a shaky coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars, tells Wilberforce that his cause must now wait for a more stable political climate.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Wilberforce keeps up the fight but after years of failure he is left exhausted and frustrated that he was unable to change anything in the government. Believing his life's work has been in vain, he becomes physically ill, suffering from chronic colitis which causes him to become addicted to laudanum prescribed for the crippling pain, which brings the story back up to 1797. Having virtually given up hope, Wilberforce considers leaving politics forever. Barbara convinces him to keep fighting because there is no other person who is willing or able to do so. A few days afterward, William Wilberforce and Barbara marry. Several years pass with no further success. Wilberforce's wife and new children provide him with the support and strength needed to carry on the fight.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Finally, with a renewed hope for success Wilberforce devises a backdoor method of slowly weakening the slave trade through seemingly innocuous legislation. Aided by Thornton, Clarkson, and new ally James Stephen and cheered on by the now terminally ill Pitt, he reintroduces his bill to abolish the slave trade. In time, after the 20-year campaign and many attempts to bring legislation forward, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament in 1807, which abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire forever.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: The film was shot primarily in Hull, Yorkshire. Baker's Quay, which forms part of the Parliament Docks on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, was used as a backdrop against which to recreate the atmosphere of the East India Docks in London circa 1780. Shooting took place during October 2005 and involved the tall ships, "Kaskelot", "Earl of Pembroke", "Johanna Lucretia" and "Phoenix". During January 2006, the scenes from The Houses of Parliament were shot at the 1743 Church within Chatham Historic Dockyard. The wedding scene was filmed at Garsington Church.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: A number of outside scenes were shot at the former Greenwich Hospital, now part of the University of Greenwich and around Salisbury, Wiltshire.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Executive Producer is Jeanney Kim, with Mark Cooper as co-producer. Producers on the film are Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line") and Ed Pressman under their Sunflower Productions banner, Patricia Heaton and David Hunt for FourBoys Films, and Ken Wales.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: The soundtrack of Christian music included the title song "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" by Chris Tomlin. The score was named Instrumental Album of the Year at the Dove Awards of 2008.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: "Amazing Grace" brought in a little over $4 million at the US box office over its opening weekend of 23–25 February 2007, making it the 10th-highest-grossing film for the weekend, behind such new releases as "The Astronaut Farmer" and "The Number 23". As of 26 August 2007 the film had $32,050,774.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: "Amazing Grace" received positive reviews. Philip French described the film as "not exactly innovative" and compared it to "earnestly worthy prewar Warner Brothers cinebiographies". Overall he called it "a very decent contribution to the present bicentennial celebrations of the parliamentary bill that outlawed the slave trade in the British empire". Wally Hammond writing for "Time Out" singled out Benedict Cumberbatch's performance for praise saying his performance "quietly upstaged" the fine performance of Gruffudd. The Guardian gave it a C− for the entertainment value and an A− for its historical accuracy.


title: Amazing Grace (2006 film)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 67% based on review from 126 critics, with an average rating of 6.50/10. According to the website, the film is "your quintessential historical biopic: stately, noble, and with plenty of electrifying performances". Metacritic gives the film a 65 out of 100, based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Fred: The Movie

text: Fred: The Movie (stylized as FЯED: THE MOVIE) is a 2010 American comedy film written by David A. Goodman, directed by Clay Weiner and produced by Brian Robbins. The film is based on the adventures of Fred Figglehorn, a character created and played by Lucas Cruikshank for Cruikshank's YouTube channel, and it is the first film in the Fred trilogy. The film casts Siobhan Fallon Hogan and John Cena as Fred's parents and pop singer and actress Pixie Lott as Fred's crush Judy. First optioned as a theatrical release, the film instead premiered on children's TV channel Nickelodeon in the United States on September 18, 2010. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film was released theatrically on December 17, 2010. This film was the debut of Pixie Lott as an actress.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: Fred Figglehorn is an unpopular and hyperactive 15-year-old who believes himself to be cool and a good singer. He has a crush on a girl named Judy, and is devastated to see her performing a romantic duet with his rival and bully Kevin during a music class at school. Fred aspires to one day sing his own duet with Judy, but he's soon told by his mother that she has moved, thus, he embarks on a journey to find Judy's new house and sing with her there.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: During his quest, Fred encounters a Hispanic man who doesn't speak English, a talking deer in the forest, and a bedraggled childhood friend named Evan who had gotten lost in the forest years earlier. Fred eventually arrives at Judy's home, and he discovers that she is hosting a party to which he was not invited. Fred is bullied by Judy's guests, and Kevin then shoves a pizza onto Fred's shirt, causing him to unintentionally vomit on Judy's party dress. An embarrassed Fred runs home and later finds out that Kevin posted the video of him vomiting on Judy on YouTube. In an attempt to get revenge, Fred decides to throw his own party in which no one will be invited. Fred invites a sympathetic Bertha over, and the two puts a bunch of mannequins in different costumes and film themselves partying. The next day, Fred posts the video online and his peers, believing it to be real, are jealous that they weren't invited, making Fred popular amongst them. Judy goes to Fred's house to apologize, and offers to sing with him, which he gleefully accepts.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: "Huffington Post" author Greg Mitchell made note of the film's production when noting the proliferation of web comedy and dramatic series as a perceived threat to network television. The project performed casting and entered principal photography in November 2009, and completed filming on December 20. After filming wrapped, a yard sale was held in Silver Lake, California to sell props, set dressing and costumes from the shoot.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: Brian Robbins originally optioned "Fred" as a feature film, but decided to bypass the studio system and provided major funding for the project himself. After filming was completed, excerpts were shown to Nickelodeon head Cyma Zarghami who began negotiations to acquire the film. Zarghami stated that airing on Nickelodeon would give the film a large audience base and allow him to target a sequel for a theatrical release. The film debuted on Nickelodeon on September 18; however, it was released in British and Irish cinemas on December 17.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: According to the director's commentary on the film, found on the DVD, there was much conflict between screenwriter David Goodman and director Clay Weiner creatively. This includes the cutting of certain references and callbacks to Fred and other related works that Goodman had written in.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 0% based on 13 reviews and an average rating of 2.46/10.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: In a review of the film on BBC Radio 5 "Live", Mark Kermode gave the film a negative review, a large part of which he spent imitating the character Fred's distinctive scream, leading to his microphone being taken away by co-caster Simon Mayo. He paired it with notoriously controversial European horror film "A Serbian Film" as his least favorite viewing experiences of the year.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: Despite the negative response, it was the second highest viewed TV cable movie of 2010 across all networks. In the UK, it opened in the No. 8 spot, taking in £257,133 in the first week. Additionally, the premiere of "Fred: The Movie" drew an audience of 7.6 million total viewers.


title: Fred: The Movie

text: A sequel titled "" premiered on October 22, 2011. A teaser trailer was broadcast during a commercial break of "iCarly". Daniella Monet replaced Jennette McCurdy in the role of Bertha and "Modern Family" star Ariel Winter also joined the cast. In addition, the character of Judy was written out. Another sequel was released called "".


title: Fred: The Movie

text: "Fred: The Movie" was released on DVD on October 5, 2010. It was also released in a triple pack box set along with "Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred" and "Fred 3: Camp Fred" on December 4, 2012. On the DVD for 'Fred: The Movie', a full length director's commentary is found, recorded by director Clay Weiner, David Goodman, and star Lucas Cruikshank.


title: Studio Chizu

text: Studio Chizu was founded by Yūichirō Saitō and Mamoru Hosoda, both of which had ties to animation studio Madhouse. Saitō had been with Madhouse since 1999, and had co-produced "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", which Mamoru Hosoda directed. The aim of the studio was described by Saito as an "auteur's studio" for Hosoda, who himself mentioned that creating Studio Chizu was necessary in order for him to make the films that he wanted to make.


title: Studio Chizu

text: Studio Chizu co-produced its first feature film "Wolf Children" with Madhouse, which was released in 2012. It earned roughly $55 million and won its first Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. In 2013, the studio was approached by a representative of French film company Gaumont, who wanted to work with Studio Chizu to distribute its films internationally. This distribution partnership was announced in 2014.


title: Studio Chizu

text: The studio went on to produce "The Boy and the Beast", which was released in 2015 earning roughly $49 million and winning for a second time the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.


title: Studio Chizu

text: Studio Chizu produced Hosoda's next film, "Mirai", in 2018 and received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. This film also won the studio its third Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in March 2019. The next film "Belle," written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, premiered on July 15, 2021 at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it was well-received by critics with a standing ovation that lasted 14 minutes. It was theatrically released in Japan on July 16, 2021. It was theatrically released in the United States on January 14, 2022.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Pas-de-Calais (, "strait of Calais"; ; also ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, 890, and is the 8th most populous. It had a population of 1,465,278 in 2019. The Calais Passage connects to the Port of Calais on the English Channel. Pas-de-Calais borders the departments of Nord and Somme and is connected to the English county of Kent via the Channel Tunnel.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Pas-de-Calais region was populated in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks and the Alemanni. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the Roman practice of co-opting Germanic tribes to provide military and defence services along the route from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Cologne created a Germanic-Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the eighth century.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Saxon colonization into the region from the fifth to the eighth centuries likely extended the linguistic border somewhat south and west so that by the ninth century most inhabitants north of the line between Béthune and Berck spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke Picard, a variety of Romance dialects.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: This linguistic border is still evident today in the toponyms and patronyms of the region. Beginning in the ninth century, the linguistic border began a steady move to north and the east, and by the end of the 15th century Romance dialects had completely displaced those of Dutch.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Pas-de-Calais is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Calaisis, formerly English, Boulonnais, Ponthieu and Artois, this last formerly part of the Spanish Netherlands.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Some of the costliest battles of World War I were fought in the region. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, eight kilometres from Arras, commemorates the Battle of Vimy Ridge assault during the Battle of Arras (1917) and is Canada's most important memorial in Europe to its fallen soldiers.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Pas-de-Calais was also the target of Operation Fortitude during World War II, which was an Allied plan to deceive the Germans that the invasion of Europe at D-Day was to occur here, rather than in Normandy.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Pas-de-Calais is in the current region of Hauts-de-France and is surrounded by the departments of Nord and Somme, the English Channel, and the North Sea. It shares a nominal border with the English county of Kent halfway through the Channel Tunnel.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Its principal towns are, on the coast, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and in Artois, Arras, Lens, Liévin, and Béthune. The most populous commune is Calais; the prefecture Arras is the second-most populous. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants:


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: The economy of the department was long dependent on mining, primarily the coal mines near the town of Lens, Pas-de-Calais where coal was discovered in 1849. However, since World War II, the economy has become more diversified.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Pas-de-Calais is one of the most densely populated departments of France, but has no cities with over 100,000 residents: Calais has about 73,000 inhabitants. The remaining population is primarily concentrated along the border with the department of Nord in the mining district, where a string of small towns constitutes an urban area with a population of about 1.2 million. The centre and south of the department are more rural, but still quite heavily populated, with many villages and small towns.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: Although the department saw some of the heaviest fighting of World War I, its population rebounded quickly after both world wars. However, many of the mining towns have seen dramatic decreases in population, some up to half of their population.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: In the second round of the French presidential elections of 2017 Pas-de-Calais was one of only two departments in which the candidate of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, received a majority of the votes cast: 52.06%.


title: Pas-de-Calais

text: There are currently two public universities in the department. Although it is one of the most populous departments of France, Pas-de-Calais did not contain a university until 1991 when the French government created two universities: ULCO (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale) on the western part of the department, and Université d'Artois on the eastern part.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Robert Bradley "Brad" James (June 15, 1962 – November 1, 2012) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Brad Armstrong. He is best known for his appearances with the promotion World Championship Wrestling in the 1990s. He was the son of wrestler "Bullet Bob" Armstrong and brother to professional wrestlers Steve, Scott and Brian.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Brad Armstrong started out in the National Wrestling Alliance's Gulf Coast territory, Southeastern Championship Wrestling in July 1980 at the age of 18. He was a face, or good guy, due to his good looks and superb wrestling ability. He feuded with Jerry Stubbs and Tom Prichard during his stay there and won the NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Championship there.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong moved to the NWA's Georgia territory, Georgia Championship Wrestling, in 1984, where he feuded with Tom McCartney, Ted DiBiase alongside his father Bob and then "White Lightning" Tim Horner, with whom he formed The Lightning Express. Armstrong's in ring ability allowed him to take great advantage of a mix of technical wrestling and explosive speed in his style. It was during this time that Armstrong was involved in an angle with Tommy Rich. Rich was in a feud with Ted DiBiase. They had a "loser leaves wrestling" match that Rich lost. So, Rich put on a mask & came back as Mr. R. DiBiase insisted that Mr R. was really Rich. Then, on a TV match for Dibiase's NWA National Title, Rich visited announcer Gordon Solie during the match. Dibiase unmasked Mr R. to find that it was actually Armstrong. In all of the confusion, Armstrong pinned Dibiase to become NWA National Champion for his first of two times holding that belt.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong held the NWA National Tag Team Championship twice that year, once with his father, and once with Horner. All three returned to Southeastern Championship Wrestling in 1985, before eventually joining the NWA's Mid-Atlantic territory, Jim Crockett Promotions, in late 1986. Armstrong feuded with Jimmy Garvin, locked horns with the Four Horsemen, and teamed with both his father and Horner at various times.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: In 1986, Brad went on his first tour of Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling, to take part in a tournament to determine the first World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Brad made it to finals, but lost the match and the title to Hiro Saito on July 31.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong then moved to Cowboy Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling / Universal Wrestling Federation, in 1986 where he won The North American Heavyweight Championship from Ernie Ladd in 1986 and losing it to Ted DiBiase a month later. In early 1987, Brad reunited with Tim Horner forming a tag team known as "The Lightning Express, winning the UWF Tag Team Championship from future superstars Sting and Rick Steiner. They then feuded with the "Sheepherders," later known as The Bushwhackers, Butch Miller and Luke Williams, to whom they eventually lost their belts.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: The Lightning Express then went back to Jim Crockett Promotions (which became World Championship Wrestling in November 1988) after the UWF was bought out by Crockett, but were not pushed, and Horner left for the WWF in late 1988. Armstrong bounced between singles wrestling, temporary tag teams, and sorting out personal issues for much of the next few years.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: After teaming with a returning Tim Horner during the summer of 1990, Armstrong announced on the August 4, 1990 edition of "WCW Saturday Night" that he would be forming a new tandem with Doug Furnas, and that they planned on challenging for the United States Tag-Team Championship. However Furnas would leave the company shortly thereafter, leaving Armstrong to continue his Lightning Express partnership with Tim Horner and to also occasionally team with David Sierra and Brad Anderson. In September 1990 he was split off as a singles wrestler again and rebranded The Candyman. Dressed in red and white tights and handing out candy to fans on his way to the ring, Armstrong began to receive his first significant singles push in the new WCW. He went undefeated, pinning Dutch Mantell, Buddy Landell, and James Earl Wright over the next two weeks. At the 1990 Halloween Havoc, Armstrong faced JW Storm (Jeff Warner), who was a recent addition to WCW and was also on an undefeated streak. The Candyman pinned Storm in what Jim Ross stated was an upset. The run finally ended on November 15, when The Iron Sheik upset The Candyman on a house show in Kansas City, Kansas.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: On Clash of Champions XXIII on November 20, The Candyman was defeated by the debuting Big Cat after the referee stopped the match. By the beginning of 1991, Armstrong had dropped the Candyman gimmick and had reunited with Tim Horner. In January 1991, the Lightning Express faced The Fabulous Freebirds at a World Championship Wrestling TV taping, going to a double disqualification. They would also face Arn Anderson and Barry Windham and The Royal Family during this period. On February 24 at WrestleWar 91, Armstrong was defeated by Bobby Eaton.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: In April 1991, The Fabulous Freebirds began speaking of a third member named Fantasia, who debuted at SuperBrawl I on May 19 to help the Freebirds capture the vacant WCW United States Tag Team Titles from the Young Pistols. Armstrong, under a mask and covered in black feathers, would quickly have his name changed to Badstreet (the name was changed to prevent legal action from Disney). The three Freebirds then won the WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, while Hayes and Garvin held the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. Armstrong never revealed his Badstreet identity on television. As a result, he was able to interfere on behalf of both sides during the Freebirds' win over the Young Pistols for the vacant U.S. Tag Team Championship at SuperBrawl I, firstly as himself on behalf of the Pistols (who included his brother Steve) then later as Fantasia on behalf of the Freebirds, all within the space of the same title match. In September 1991, Armstrong began to tour Japan with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he would tour Japan with ten times between 1991 and 1996.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Later that year, Armstrong was given another masked gimmick, Arachnaman, who bore such a strong resemblance to Spider-Man that Marvel Comics threatened legal action, causing WCW to quickly drop the character.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: On July 5, 1992, Armstrong won the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship (also known as the second incarnation of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship and the first incarnation of the WCW Cruiserweight Championship), by defeating Scotty Flamingo. He soon injured his knee during a tour of Japan in a match against The Great Muta in Sapporo, and was stripped of the title at the Clash of the Champions XX two months later. He returned weeks later, and remained with the company until early 1995.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong returned in early 1995 teaming with Tim Horner wrestling on WCW "Saturday Night" and "Worldwide".


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: In June 1995, Armstrong joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling. By August, he'd split his time between SMW in Knoxville and United States Wrestling Association in Memphis. Armstrong won both The USWA Heavyweight Championship (defeating Billy Jack Haynes on August 4, but lost it back to Haynes on August 7) and the SMW Heavyweight Championship three times (defeating Buddy Landel on August 12, losing it to Terry Gordy on October 20, regained it from Gordy on November 23, losing it to Tommy Rich on November 25, regained it on November 27, and lost it to Jerry Lawler on December 26) during his stay. After SMW folded in December 1995, Armstrong wrestled regularly for the USWA until February 1996 when he returned to WCW. In December 1995, he toured Europe for Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association, losing a CWA World Middleweight Championship match to champion Fit Finlay in the tenth round.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong eventually returned to WCW in February 1996. At Slamboree, Armstrong unsuccessfully challenged Dean Malenko for the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship, despite a highly technical match, before leaving in November 1996 to tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Upon his return to WCW in the summer of 1997, Brad had developed a heel turn, changing his look, sporting short hair and a goatee, and had developed a bad attitude and mean streak. By the end of the year, he developed a string of losses, which he blamed on the "Armstrong Curse".


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: In 1999, he was repackaged as "B.A.", a member of The No Limit Soldiers stable. After the group disbanded, he began a feud with Berlyn, who attacked Armstrong's brother Scott and badmouthed the United States of America. The feud ran through Halloween Havoc, where Armstrong defeated Berlyn.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: After Halloween Havoc, Vince Russo forced Armstrong to find a gimmick. He was later given the gimmick of "Buzzkill", as a hippie with a Tie-dye shirt and a takeoff of his brother Brian's gimmick, Road Dogg. As "Buzzkill," Armstrong used an entrance theme similar to the one used by the New Age Outlaws in the WWF. The gimmick was less successful due to fans feeling it an imitation of the Road Dogg persona, as well as a lack of awareness that the two were brothers.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: He injured his knee in March 2000 in an accident backstage at a "WCW Saturday Night" taping, where Armstrong got run over by Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis, severely injuring his knee. After going through knee surgery, his WCW contract expired as the company was bought by WWF in 2001, and he retired from wrestling.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong came out of retirement in 2004. His first match back was teaming with Greg Brown losing to Sonny Siaki and Masked Superstar on May 18 of that year in Columbus, Georgia. Wrestled in the independent circuit only in the Southeast in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Armstrong started teaming with his dad and his brother Scott winning a couple of tag titles.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: On February 19, 2005 he defeated George South for the EWA Heavyweight Title. In 2005 and 2006 the Armstrongs feuded with the Midnight Express. Between 2007 and 2010 he feuded with Midnight Express member Dennis Condrey.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: In 2010, he began teaming with Ricky Morton winning the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles defeating Chris Hamrick and Jeff Lewis.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: His last wrestling match was on February 12, 2011 where he lost to Kyle Matthews in Villa Rica, Georgia.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: On September 12, 2006, Armstrong signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and began wrestling at ECW brand house shows against Eric Pérez and acting as a trainer to the younger members of the roster. In December, around the time rumors of ECW color commentator Tazz leaving the company began to circulate, Armstrong began to make sporadic appearances as a "guest commentator" on the brand. The three-man booth, originally for a single match on the December 19 episode before expanding to a full show on January 9, did not last and Armstrong resumed his role as a producer. While working as a producer for WWE, Armstrong continued to wrestle for various independent promotions in the Southeast. At the same time, Armstrong worked at a health store in Marietta and volunteered at Shiloh Hills Christian School in Kennesaw, performing various functions including serving as field trip monitor and assisting with car duty on campus.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: On November 1, 2012, Armstrong was found dead in his Kennesaw, Georgia home, after seeing his physician the previous week for an undisclosed medical issue. His former Lightning Express tag team partner and best friend Tim Horner speculated that Armstrong died from a heart attack.


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Armstrong was survived by his parents, brothers, his wife Lori Spranz (whom he married on October 17, 1998) and his daughter Jillian (born 2001).


title: Brad Armstrong (wrestler)

text: Eulogizing Armstrong, Jim Ross described him as "one of the more talented in ring performers I've ever worked with...one of the most underrated all-time greats ever in the business."


title: Jason Cundy

text: Jason Victor Cundy (born 12 November 1969) is an English former professional footballer and radio broadcaster for talkSPORT.


title: Jason Cundy

text: As a player, he was a defender, who notably played in the Premier League for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. He also played in the Football League for Crystal Palace, Bristol City, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth. He was capped three times by England U21, scoring once.


title: Jason Cundy

text: Since retirement he has worked as a broadcaster. He presents "The Sports Bar" on talkSPORT, "Jason Cundy Kicks Off" on London Live as well as commentating and presenting for Chelsea TV. Cundy was also the co-founder of the classic section of the Sports Bar "Turnip of the Week".


title: Jason Cundy

text: During his career, Cundy played for Chelsea (1988–92, 41 league appearances), Tottenham Hotspur (loan in 1992, 1992 – November 96, with 28 games), Crystal Palace (one month-loan, 1995), Bristol City (another 30-day loan, 1996), Ipswich Town (after a loan, November 1996–99) and Portsmouth.


title: Jason Cundy

text: Cundy is remembered for the "freak" goal that he scored against Ipswich Town in a Premiership match for Tottenham, in 1992–93. In an attempt to kick the ball 40 yards from goal, he slipped and managed a wind-assisted effort that ended up flying over 'keeper Craig Forrest and into the back of the net. The goal was captured live on Sky Sports and put Spurs 1–0 up, in a match that finished 1–1.


title: Jason Cundy

text: Cundy was forced to retire in 2000 due to a knee injury, and subsequently became a presenter on talkSPORT, regularly appearing with Ian Danter and Alvin Martin on "Football First". He also occasionally co-hosted "Evening Kick-Off", subbing in for any regular member, while appearing regularly as a presenter/pundit on Chelsea TV. He currently co-hosts Andy Goldstein's Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein and Jamie O'Hara on weeknights. Cundy is popular for nightly feature 'Wheel Of Cundy' in which he tells a story about a sometimes named and sometimes anonymous footballer he has played with throughout his career.


title: Jason Cundy

text: Cundy presents "The Sports Bar" on talkSPORT, "Jason Cundy Kicks Off" on London Live as well as commentating and presenting for Chelsea TV. Cundy was also the co-founder of the classic section of the Sports Bar "Turnip of the Week".


title: Jason Cundy

text: On Saturday, 18 October 2008, Cundy went on holiday and was unavailable to do TalkSport show, and TalkSport radio DJ Andy Goldstein erroneously reported that he had died after falling off a boat and drowning. The report, which Goldstein later admitted was meant as a joke, resulted in several fans of Chelsea Football Club putting down flowers outside Stamford Bridge the following day.


title: Jason Cundy

text: In 2011, Cundy made a brief appearance on "Michael Bublé: Home for Christmas", a Christmas programme presented by Canadian singer Michael Bublé.


title: Jason Cundy

text: In February 1997, just after his transfer to Ipswich Town, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had surgery the following day to remove a testicle. It had been announced that he was absent from the team due to a shin injury. Despite the cancer, in May 2000 he and Lizzie had a second son. He separated from Lizzie in 2010, and they divorced in December 2012.


title: Jason Cundy

text: Cundy helped start the Cancer Campaign in Suffolk and raised thousand of pounds for cancer charities and awareness of the disease. Cundy has also spoken out in support of the charity Act Against Bullying.


title: Ida Straus

text: Rosalie Ida Straus (née Blun; February 6, 1849 – April 15, 1912) was an American homemaker and wife of the co-owner of the Macy's department store. She and her husband, Isidor, died on board the .


title: Ida Straus

text: Rosalie Ida Blun was born in 1849 in Worms, Germany, to Nathan Blun (1815–1879) and his wife Wilhelmine "Mindel" (née Freudenberg; 1814–1868). She was the fifth of seven children, including Amanda (1839–1907), Elias Nathan (1842–1878), Louis (1843–1927), Augusta Carolina (1845–1905), Moritz (1850–1858) and Abraham Blun (1853–1881). She emigrated to the United States with her family.


title: Ida Straus

text: In 1871, Ida Blun married Isidor Straus (1845–1912), a German-Jewish American businessman. She and Isidor had seven children:


title: Ida Straus

text: The couple was considered especially close by their friends and family; when Isidor traveled as part of his duties as a U.S. Representative for New York, or as co-owner of Macy's, they exchanged letters daily.


title: Ida Straus

text: Ida spent the winter of 1911/1912 in Europe with her beloved husband Isidor. They originally planned to return home on a different ship, but switched to "Titanic" due to a coal strike in England that caused the coal from other ships to be diverted to "Titanic".


title: Ida Straus

text: On the night of the sinking, Isidor and Ida were seen standing near Lifeboat No. 8 in the company of Mrs. Straus's maid, Ellen Bird. Although the officer in charge of the lifeboat was willing to allow the elderly couple to board the lifeboat with Miss Bird, Isidor Straus refused to go while there were women and children still remaining on the ship. He urged his wife to board, but she refused, saying, "We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go." Her words were witnessed by those already in Lifeboat No. 8 as well as many others who were on the boat deck at the time. Isidor and Ida were last seen standing arm in arm on the deck.


title: Ida Straus

text: When the survivors of the disaster arrived in New York City aboard the , many – including Ellen Bird – told reporters of Mrs. Straus's loyalty and fidelity to her husband. Her story struck a chord with people around the world. Rabbis spoke to their congregations about her sacrifice; articles in Yiddish- and German-language newspapers extolled her courage; a popular song featuring the story of Ida Straus, "The "Titanic"'s Disaster", became popular among Jewish Americans.


title: Ida Straus

text: Although Isidor's body was recovered, Ida's body was not. A cenotaph at the Straus Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx is dedicated to Isidor and Ida together. Its inscription reads: "Many waters cannot quench love – neither can the floods drown it." () The work was designed by James Gamble Rogers, with sculpture by Lee Lawrie.


title: Ida Straus

text: Ida Straus was portrayed by Helen Van Tuyl in the 1953 film "Titanic". Helen Misener played her in the 1958 film "A Night to Remember". She was portrayed by Nancy Nevinson in the 1979 TV movie "S.O.S. Titanic". Janie Woods-Morris played her in the 1996 miniseries "Titanic". She was portrayed by Elsa Raven in the 1997 film "Titanic". Alma Cuervo played her in the 1997 Broadway musical "Titanic". When Ida decided to stay with her husband Isidor, they sang the song "Still".


title: Ida Straus

text: In addition to the cenotaph at Woodlawn Cemetery, there are three other memorials to Isidor and Ida Straus in their adopted home of New York City:


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. His house there, now the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, as are the homes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Isaac Roosevelt, and Frederick William Vanderbilt, along with Haviland Middle School (formerly Franklin D. Roosevelt High School).


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Hyde Park is home to the main campus of the Culinary Institute of America, a four-year college for culinary and baking and pastry arts, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the first presidential library in the United States.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Hyde Park's population was 21,021 at the 2020 United States Census. U.S. Route 9 passes through the town near the Hudson River.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Settlement of the region by Europeans officially began around 1742 but may have begun as early as 1710.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: The name of the area was changed to "Hyde Park" around 1810. Previously, it was part of the Fauconnier Patent and was named "Stoutenburgh", after the town's first settler, Jacobus Stoughtenburg. Part of the town was from the Great Nine Partners Patent of 1697.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Doctor John Bard had called his estate "Hyde Park" in honor of Edward Hyde, who was Lord Cornbury and governor of New York from 1702 to 1708. In 1697, Hyde granted nine close friends of his a large swatch of land "south of Albany" in the Great Nine Partners Patent, which would eventually make up much of Hyde Park. In 1804 a tavern-keeper named Miller, seeking new guests, renamed the tavern "the Hyde Park Inn", much to the annoyance of Doctor Bard. He then applied for a post office to be located at his inn, common among tavern keepers. The request was granted as the "Hyde Park Post Office". The settlement gradually came to be known not as Stoutenburgh but as Hyde Park, which it officially became in 1812.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Hyde Park was a part of Clinton, New York until 1821 when it was incorporated as a separate town. The Hyde Park Railroad Station, located at the mouth of Crum Elbow Creek along the Hudson River, was used by the town's residents, including the Roosevelts.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: The town includes Frederick William Vanderbilt's spring and autumn mansion, now maintained as the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Hyde Park is the hometown of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), who served as president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. His estate, Springwood, is the site of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site maintained by the National Park Service. Also on the site are his presidential library and museum. Roosevelt used this residence throughout his life. FDR's historical house is now a museum that can be visited.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: Val-Kill was the home of Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is located about east of the home of FDR.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: President Roosevelt's father, James Roosevelt, Sr., served a term as supervisor of the town of Hyde Park.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town of Hyde Park has a total area of , of which is land and , or 8.02%, is water.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: The Hudson River defines the western town line, which is the border with Ulster County. Hyde Park is bordered by the town of Poughkeepsie to the south, Rhinebeck to the north, and Clinton and Pleasant Valley to the east.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: As of the 2010 census, the town's population was 21,571. The racial makeup was 87.1% white, 6.0% African American, 0.2% Native American, 2.5% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 1.8% other races, 2.4% two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 5.6% of the population.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: As of the U.S. Census of 2000, there were 20,851 people, 7,395 households, and 5,220 families residing in the town. The population density was 564.2 people per square mile (217.8/km). There were 7,704 housing units at an average density of 208.5 per square mile (80.5/km). The racial makeup of the town was 91.02% White, 4.25% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.39% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 1.19% from other races, and 1.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.23% of the population.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: There were 7,395 households, out of which 34.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.7% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.4% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.10.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: In the town, the age distribution of the population shows 24.7% under the age of 18, 11.2% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.0 males.


title: Hyde Park, New York

text: The median income for a household in the town was $50,870, and the median income for a family was $58,047. Males had a median income of $42,251 versus $28,176 for females. The per capita income for the town was $21,260. About 4.4% of families and 5.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.3% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: Sian Emma O'Callaghan (3 June 1988 – March 2011) was a 22-year-old British woman who disappeared from Swindon, Wiltshire, having last been seen at a nightclub in the town in the early hours of 19 March 2011. Her body was found on 24 March 2011 near Uffington in Oxfordshire. On 19 October 2012, at Bristol Crown Court, Christopher Halliwell, 48, of Nythe, Swindon pleaded guilty to O'Callaghan's murder.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: At 02:52 on 19 March 2011, O'Callaghan was captured on CCTV leaving Swindon's Suju nightclub to walk to the flat in Swindon's old town that she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Reape sent O'Callaghan an SMS at 03:24; analysis later showed that her mobile phone was in the Savernake Forest area, away, at the time the message was received. At 09:45, Reape contacted the police and reported O'Callaghan as missing.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 20 March, the police issued their first public appeal for information, and announced that they had begun searching Savernake Forest. They stated that the time that elapsed between O'Callaghan's appearance on the club's CCTV and her mobile phone signal (02:52 and 03:24 respectively) meant that the journey from Swindon to the forest could only have been made in a vehicle. On 22 March, approximately 400 members of the public joined the police in their search of the forest. The same day, an anonymous donor offered a £20,000 reward for information that would lead to finding O'Callaghan.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 23 March, police announced that analysis of O'Callaghan's mobile phone signals led to the identification of a number of "hot spots" to be investigated. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher of Wiltshire Police said that the investigation was moving at a "rapid pace", and that "significant lines of inquiry" were being developed. Members of the public were asked to stand down from searches.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 24 March, police made an urgent appeal for witnesses of a green Toyota Avensis with taxi markings, which had been seen between Swindon and Savernake Forest shortly after O'Callaghan's disappearance.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On the afternoon of 24 March, police arrested a 47-year-old taxicab driver from Swindon on suspicion of kidnapping. The arrest was made at an Asda supermarket in north Swindon, where a green Toyota Avensis taxi was also seized. Later the same day, O'Callaghan's body was found in a shallow grave near Uffington, Oxfordshire.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: During a news conference on 26 March, Fulcher stated that tests revealed that O'Callaghan had not been sexually assaulted.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 1 April, the inquest at Oxford coroner's court was told that it was likely O'Callaghan died from head injuries, though a forensic pathologist from the Home Office had yet to confirm a precise cause of death.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 31 May 2012, taxi driver Christopher Halliwell appeared in court at a plea and case management hearing, and pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering Sian O'Callaghan. On 19 October 2012, he appeared at Bristol Crown Court and pleaded guilty to her murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 25 years. The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence on 14 December 2012.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: Following the guilty plea, it emerged that a second murder charge against Halliwell had been dropped as a result of an error in the police handling of the case. The body of Becky Godden-Edwards, a woman who had been reported missing in 2007, was found after Halliwell's arrest. Halliwell had led police to the body. Justice Laura Cox ruled that Halliwell's confessions to killing each of the women were inadmissible as evidence, as Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher had breached the guidelines of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 by failing to caution Halliwell and denying him access to a solicitor during the period that the confessions were obtained.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 23 April 2013, an inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court into the death of Becky Godden-Edwards recorded a narrative verdict stating that the cause of her death, believed to have been in 2003, was "unascertained but probably caused unlawfully by a third party."


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: In September 2013, the Independent Police Complaints Commission published the result of an investigation, which found that Fulcher had a case to answer for gross misconduct for breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and for ignoring force orders. In January 2014, he was found guilty of gross misconduct and given a final written warning by a disciplinary tribunal. In May 2014, Fulcher resigned from Wiltshire Police. Karen Edwards, the mother of Becky Godden-Edwards, commented: "Had he have followed the guidelines, then Becky would never have been found, she would have never have come into the equation."


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 31 March 2016, Christopher Halliwell was charged with the murder of Becky Godden-Edwards before magistrates in Chippenham, Wiltshire. On 19 September 2016, a jury at Bristol Crown Court found him guilty of the murder after two hours of deliberation. On 23 September, Justice John Griffith Williams sentenced Halliwell to life imprisonment with a whole life order for the murder, meaning he will serve his sentence without the possibility of parole.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: On 2 September 2019, ITV broadcast the first episode of "A Confession," a six-part drama series based on the case, with Martin Freeman playing Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher and Joe Absolom playing Christopher Halliwell.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: In lead detective Steve Fulcher's 2017 book on the O'Callaghan and Godden-Edwards cases, he wrote that after apprehending Halliwell he had ordered the re-opening of the investigation into the unsolved 1995 disappearance of prostitute Sally Ann John, believing he may have murdered her. She was last seen alive on Aylesbury Street in Swindon at 10:45pm on Friday 8 September 1995, at an area near the city's red-light district. She was planning to look for clients that night until about midnight. Links were made to Halliwell as both he and the 23-year-old sex worker had lived on Broad Street, Swindon, and Halliwell was known to have been a client of hers. However, soon after Fulcher left the force Wiltshire Police closed the investigation again.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: The case was subsequently opened again in November 2014, this time as a murder inquiry, after the discovery of "significant new information" – although it was stated at this stage that the inquiry was not being linked to a new investigation at Halliwell's former home. In 2015, police searched Sally Ann John's last-known address in Kimmeridge Close in Swindon, and days later arrested three men, aged 52, 50 and 52 respectively, on suspicion of her kidnap and murder. They were subsequently released on bail pending further enquiries. In February 2017, two new searches were made at properties on Broad Street where Halliwell and John both lived.


title: Murder of Sian O'Callaghan

text: In March 2017, the Sally Ann John case featured on the BBC TV programme "Crimewatch". Detectives stated that they had liaised with the investigators on the Halliwell case but they were keeping an "open mind" on press reports claiming he may have been involved. John's mother revealed that her daughter had started to get involved with the "wrong people" in her late teens, and continued to associate with them despite warnings that they were bad characters, although shortly before she disappeared she had planned to try and get away from the life of sex work. After she vanished, her house had been searched but nothing was missing or abnormal. Most importantly, on the programme it was revealed that several postcards sent weeks after John's disappearance to a friend had been found to have been forged. One was sent from London three weeks after she vanished, claiming she was safe and well. The handwriting was conclusively found to have not been John's handwriting, showing that an unidentified person had purposely forged a message from her. There is no suggestion that the handwriting is Halliwell's.


title: Topps

text: The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards. Topps also produces cards under the brand names Allen & Ginter and Bowman.


title: Topps

text: In the 2010s, Topps was the only baseball card manufacturer with a license with Major League Baseball. Following the loss of that license to Fanatics, Inc. in 2022; Fanatics acquired Topps in the same year.


title: Topps

text: Topps itself was founded in 1938, but the company can trace its roots back to an earlier firm, American Leaf Tobacco. Founded in 1890 by members of the Saloman family, the American Leaf Tobacco Co. imported tobacco to the United States and sold it to other tobacco companies. Eventually, in 1908, Morris Chigorinsky Shorin came in control of the company.


title: Topps

text: American Leaf Tobacco encountered difficulties during World War I, as it was cut off from Turkish supplies of tobacco, and later as a result of the Great Depression. Shorin's sons, Abram, Ira, Philip, and Joseph, decided to focus on a new product but take advantage of the company's existing distribution channels. To do this, they relaunched the company as Topps, with the name meant to indicate that it would be "tops" in its field. The chosen field was the manufacture of chewing gum, selected after going into the produce business was considered and rejected.


title: Topps

text: At the time, chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces. Topps's most successful early product was Bazooka bubble gum, which was packaged with a small comic on the wrapper. Starting in 1950, the company decided to try increasing gum sales by packaging them together with trading cards featuring Western character Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd); at the time Boyd, as one of the biggest stars of early television, was featured in newspaper articles and on magazine covers, along with a significant amount of "Hoppy" merchandising. When Topps next introduced baseball cards as a product, the cards immediately became its primary emphasis.


title: Topps

text: The "father of the modern baseball card" was Sy Berger. In the autumn of 1951, Berger, then a 28-year-old veteran of World War II, designed the 1952 Topps baseball card set with Woody Gelman on the kitchen table of his apartment on Alabama Avenue in Brooklyn. The card design included a player's name, photo, facsimile autograph, team name and logo on the front; and the player's height, weight, bats, throws, birthplace, birthday, stats and a short biography on the back. The basic design is still in use today. Berger would work for Topps for 50 years (1947–97) and serve as a consultant for another five, becoming a well-known figure on the baseball scene, and the face of Topps to major league baseball players, whom he signed up annually and paid in merchandise, like refrigerators and carpeting.


title: Topps

text: The Shorins, in recognition of his negotiation abilities, sent Sy to London in 1964 to negotiate the rights for Topps to produce Beatles trading cards. They also tried hockey. Arriving without an appointment, Sy succeeded by speaking in Yiddish to Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager.


title: Topps

text: Berger hired a garbage boat to remove leftover boxes of 1952 baseball cards stored in their warehouse, and rode with them as a tugboat pulled them off the New Jersey shore. The cards were then dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. The cards included Mickey Mantle's first Topps card, the most valuable card of the modern era. No one at the time, of course, knew the collector's value the cards would one day attain. On August 28, 2022, the Mickey Mantle baseball card (Topps; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was sold for $12.600 million.


title: Topps

text: The company began its existence as Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., a partnership between the four Shorin brothers. It later incorporated under New York law in 1947. The entire company originally operated at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, but production facilities were moved to a plant in Duryea, Pennsylvania, in 1965 (the Duryea plant closed in 1997). Corporate offices remained at 254 36th Street in Brooklyn, a location in the waterfront district by the Gowanus Expressway. In 1994, the headquarters relocated to One Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.


title: Topps

text: After being privately held for several decades, Topps offered stock to the public for the first time in 1972 with the assistance of investment banking firm White, Weld & Co. The company returned to private ownership when it was acquired in a leveraged buyout led by Forstmann Little & Company in 1984. The new ownership group again made Topps into a publicly traded company in 1987, now renamed to The Topps Company, Inc. In this incarnation, the company was reincorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law for legal reasons, but company headquarters remained in New York. Management was left in the hands of the Shorin family throughout all of these maneuverings.


title: Topps

text: On October 12, 2007, Topps was acquired by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners. Under Eisner's direction, Topps began to expand into the entertainment and media business with plans for a "Bazooka Joe" movie. Former television executive Staci Weiss was hired as Topps's head of entertainment to develop projects based on Topps properties, including "Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, Dinosaurs Attack!, Mech Warrior" and "Attax".


title: Topps

text: In 2012, Topps began creating digital sports cards, starting with the Topps Bunt baseball card mobile app. After releasing Bunt in 2013 and finding success with it, they expanded their sports card market into other apps including the Kick soccer app in August 2014, Huddle Football app in April 2016, and Skate hockey app in 2017.


title: Topps

text: Along with sports cards, Topps also expanded its marketplace for collectors of digital goods to include non-sports cards on mobile devices. In March 2015 they released their Star Wars: Card Trader app, and in May 2016 they released a Walking Dead trading card app. Following the success of their assortment of digital trading card apps, they once again expanded their marketplace for digital collectors a few years later, releasing a Marvel trading card app in the spring of 2019 and their Disney trading card app in November of that same year.


title: Topps

text: In March 2020, Topps announced a collaboration with WAX.io to make their cards tradable on the blockchain. As of December 2020, Topps has only made Garbage Pail Kids cards available to traders via blockchain but they have announced Alien Quadrilogy collectibles will be coming soon.


title: Topps

text: In April 2021, Topps announced plans to go public via a merger with Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Michael Eisner's firm The Tornante Company planned to roll its stake into the new company while Mudrick Capital would lead an additional investment of $250 million. The deal valued Topps at $1.3 billion. However, reports surfaced within six months of their initial plans that Mudrick Capital Management had backed out of the investment deal.


title: Topps

text: In August 2021, it was reported that Fanatics acquired future exclusive licenses with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association to produce baseball cards. In January 2022, Fanatics announced they had acquired Topps for US$500 million.


title: Topps

text: Topps has a European division, which is based in Milton Keynes, UK. From this office products are launched across Europe, including Spain, France, Germany, Norway, and Italy. This division also co-ordinates products launches across the many other international markets including the Far East, Australia, and South Africa.


title: Topps

text: In 1994 Merlin acquired the Premier League license allowing the company to exclusively publish the only official Premier League sticker and album collection in the UK. The initial success of the Premier League stickers and album collection was so great that it took even Merlin by surprise, with reprint after reprint being produced.


title: Topps

text: In 1995, the Topps Company Inc. completed its takeover of Merlin Publishing. Merlin's official company name changed to Topps Europe Limited, but its products still carried the Merlin brand until 2008 as it was easily recognized by consumers.


title: Topps

text: Topps Europe Limited continues to produce a wide and varied range of sports and entertainment collectibles across Europe. Its range of products now includes stickers, albums, cards and binders, magazines, stationery, and temporary tattoos.


title: Topps

text: Topps Europe Ltd. has continued to launch hugely successful products across Europe. Some of the most successful licenses have included "WWE", "Pokémon", "Doctor Who", "High School Musical" and "SpongeBob."


title: Topps

text: Topps "Merlin" branded Premier League sticker albums have been popular since their launch in 1994, and in 2007 Topps acquired the Premier League rights for trading cards. Previously, the trading card rights were held by Magic Box International who produced the "Shoot Out" cards from the 2003/04 to 2006/07 seasons. Match Attax, the official Premier League trading card game, was the biggest selling boys’ collectible in the UK three years running. Being sold across the globe in a number of countries, the collection also holds the title of the biggest selling sports collectible in the world. It is estimated that around 1.5 million children collect it in the UK alone.


title: Topps

text: Following on from the acquisition of Premier League trading cards rights, in the spring of 2008 Topps acquired the exclusive rights to the DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH for trading cards and stickers until the Bundesliga Season 2010/11. Bundesliga Match Attax was launched in January 2009 and is now available in over 40,000 stockists. The collection is the first of its kind in Germany and has become one of the biggest selling collections in the country.


title: Topps

text: As of February 2016 Topps Match Attax dominated the secondary UK card trading market occupying two out of the top three spots on the www.stickerpoints.com 'most popular soccer collection' list.


title: Topps

text: In 1951, Topps produced its first baseball cards in two different sets known today as "Red Backs" and "Blue Backs". Each set contained 52 cards, like a deck of playing cards, and in fact the cards could be used to play a game that would simulate the events of a baseball game. Also like playing cards, the cards had rounded corners and were blank on one side, which was colored either red or blue (hence the names given to these sets). The other side featured the portrait of a player within a baseball diamond in the center, and in opposite corners a picture of a baseball together with the event for that card, such as "fly out" or "single."


title: Topps

text: Topps changed its approach in 1952, this time creating a much larger (407 total) set of baseball cards and packaging them with its signature product, bubble gum. The company also decided that its playing card model was too small (2 inches by 2-5/8 inches) and changed the dimensions to 2-5/8 inches by 3-3/4 inches with square corners. The cards now had a color portrait on one side, with statistical and biographical information on the other. This set became a landmark in the baseball card industry, and today the company considers this its first true baseball card set. Many of the oil paintings for the sets were rendered by artist Gerry Dvorak, who also worked as an animator for Famous Studios. In 1957, Topps shrank the dimensions of its cards slightly, to 2-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches, setting a standard that remains the basic format for most sports cards produced in the United States. It was at this time Topps began to use color photographs in their set.


title: Topps

text: The cards were released in several series over the course of the baseball season, a practice Topps would continue with its baseball cards until 1974. However, the last series of each year did not sell as well, as the baseball season wore on and popular attention began to turn towards American football. Thus cards from the last series are much scarcer and are typically more valuable (even commons) than earlier series of the same year. Topps was left with a substantial amount of surplus stock in 1952, which it largely disposed of by dumping many cards into the Atlantic. In later years, Topps either printed series in smaller quantities late in the season or destroyed excess cards. As a result, cards with higher numbers from this period are rarer than low numbers in the same set, and collectors will pay significantly higher prices for them. The last series in 1952 started with card No. 311, which is Topps's first card of Mickey Mantle, and remains the most valuable Topps card ever (and, as of August 28, 2022, the most valuable trading card of all). On August 28, 2022, the Mickey Mantle baseball card (Topps; #311; SGC MT 9.5) was sold for $12.600 million. This 1952 Topps Mantle is often mistakenly referred to as Mantle's rookie card, but that honor belongs to his (which is worth less than the 1952 Topps card).


title: Topps

text: The combination of baseball cards and bubble gum was popular among young boys, and given the mediocre quality of the gum, the cards quickly became the primary attraction. In fact, the gum eventually became a hindrance because it tended to stain the cards, thus impairing their value to collectors who wanted to keep them in pristine condition. It (along with the traditional gray cardboard) was finally dropped from baseball card packs in 1992, although Topps began its Heritage line, which included gum, in the year 2001.


title: Topps

text: During this period, baseball card manufacturers generally obtained the rights to depict players on merchandise by signing individual players to contracts for the purpose. Topps first became active in this process through an agent called Players Enterprises in July 1950, in preparation for its first 1951 set. The later acquisition of rights to additional players allowed Topps to release its second series.


title: Topps

text: This promptly brought Topps into furious competition with Bowman Gum, another company producing baseball cards. Bowman had become the primary maker of baseball cards and driven out several competitors by signing its players to exclusive contracts. The language of these contracts focused particularly on the rights to sell cards with chewing gum, which had already been established in the 1930s as a popular product to pair with baseball cards.


title: Topps

text: To avoid the language of Bowman's existing contracts, Topps sold its 1951 cards with caramel candy instead of gum. However, because Bowman had signed many players in 1950 to contracts for that year, plus a renewal option for one year, Topps included in its own contracts the rights to sell cards with gum starting in 1952 (as it ultimately did). Topps also tried to establish exclusive rights through its contracts by having players agree not to grant similar rights to others, or renew existing contracts except where specifically noted in the contract.


title: Topps

text: Bowman responded by adding chewing gum "or confections" to the exclusivity language of its 1951 contracts, and also sued Topps in U.S. federal court. The lawsuit alleged infringement on Bowman's trademarks, unfair competition, and contractual interference. The court rejected Bowman's attempt to claim a trademark on the word "baseball" in connection with the sale of gum, and disposed of the unfair competition claim because Topps had made no attempt to pass its cards off as being made by Bowman. The contract issue proved more difficult because it turned on the dates when a given player signed contracts with each company, and whether the player's contract with one company had an exception for his contract with the other.


title: Topps

text: As the contract situation was sorted out, several Topps sets during these years had a few "missing" cards, where the numbering of the set skips several numbers because they had been assigned to players whose cards could not legally be distributed. The competition, both for consumer attention and player contracts, continued until 1956, when Topps bought out Bowman. This left Topps as the predominant producer of baseball cards for the next quarter-century.


title: Topps

text: The next company to challenge Topps was Fleer, another gum manufacturer. Fleer signed star Ted Williams to an exclusive contract in 1959 and sold a set of cards oriented around him. Williams retired the next year, so Fleer began adding around him other mostly retired players in a "Baseball Greats" series, which was sold with gum. Two of these sets were produced before Fleer finally tried a 67-card set of currently active players in 1963. However, Topps held onto the rights of most players and the set was not particularly successful.


title: Topps

text: Stymied, Fleer turned its efforts to supporting an administrative complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that Topps was engaging in unfair competition through its aggregation of exclusive contracts. A hearing examiner ruled against Topps in 1965, but the Commission reversed this decision on appeal. The Commission concluded that because the contracts only covered the sale of cards with gum, competition was still possible by selling cards with other small, low-cost products. However, Fleer chose not to pursue such options and instead sold its remaining player contracts to Topps for $395,000 in 1966. The decision gave Topps an effective monopoly of the baseball card market.


title: Topps

text: That same year, however, Topps faced an attempt to undermine its position from the nascent players' union, the Major League Baseball Players Association. Struggling to raise funds, the MLBPA discovered that it could generate significant income by pooling the publicity rights of its members and offering companies a group license to use their images on various products. After putting players on Coca-Cola bottlecaps for $120,000, the union concluded that the Topps contracts did not pay players adequately for their rights.


title: Topps

text: MLBPA executive director Marvin Miller then approached Joel Shorin, the president of Topps, about renegotiating these contracts. At this time, Topps had every major league player under contract, generally for five years plus renewal options, so Shorin declined. After continued discussions went nowhere, the union before the 1968 season asked its members to stop signing renewals on these contracts, and offered Fleer the exclusive rights to market cards of most players (with gum) starting in 1973. Although Fleer declined the proposal, by the end of the year Topps had agreed to double its payments to each player from $125 to $250, and also to begin paying players a percentage of Topps's overall sales. The figure for individual player contracts has since increased to $500.


title: Topps

text: As a byproduct of this history, Topps continues to use individual player contracts as the basis for its baseball card sets today. This contrasts with other manufacturers, who all obtain group licenses from the MLBPA. The difference has occasionally affected whether specific players are included in particular sets. Players who decline to sign individual contracts will not have Topps cards even when the group licensing system allows other manufacturers to produce cards of the player, as happened with Alex Rodriguez early in his career. On the other hand, if a player opts out of group licensing, as Barry Bonds did in 2004, then manufacturers who depend on the MLBPA system will have no way of including him. Topps, however, can negotiate individually and was belatedly able to create a 2004 card of Bonds. In addition, Topps is the only manufacturer able to produce cards of players who worked as replacement players during the 1994 baseball strike, since they are barred from union membership and participation in the group licensing program.


title: Topps

text: A semblance of competition returned to the baseball card market in the 1970s when Kellogg's began producing "3-D" cards and inserting them in boxes of breakfast cereal (originally Corn Flakes, later Raisin Bran and other Kellogg's brands). The Kellogg's sets contained fewer cards than Topps sets, and the cards served as an incentive to buy the cereal, rather than being the intended focus of the purchase, as tended to be the case for cards distributed with smaller items like candy or gum. Topps took no action to stop them.


title: Topps

text: The Topps monopoly on baseball cards was finally broken by a lawsuit decided by federal judge Clarence Charles Newcomer in 1980, in which the judge ended Topps Chewing Gum's exclusive right to sell baseball cards, allowing the Fleer Corporation to compete in the market. That let Fleer and another company, Donruss, enter the market in 1981. Fleer and Donruss began making large, widely distributed sets to compete directly with Topps, packaged with gum. When the ruling was overturned on appeal in August 1981, Topps appeared to have regained its monopoly, but both of its competitors instead began packaging their cards with other baseball items—logo stickers from Fleer, and cardboard puzzle pieces from Donruss. The puzzles, created by baseball artists Dick Perez for Perez Steele, included Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and a dozen others. Other manufacturers later followed, but Topps remains one of the leading brands in the baseball card hobby. In response to the competition, Topps began regularly issuing additional "Traded" sets featuring players who had changed teams since the main set was issued, following up on an idea it had experimented with a few years earlier.


title: Topps

text: While "Traded" or "Update" sets were originally conceived to deal with players who changed teams, they became increasingly important for another reason. In order to fill out a 132-card set (the number of cards that fit on a single sheet of the uncut cardboard used in the production process), it would contain a number of rookie players who had just reached the major leagues and not previously appeared on a card. They also included a few single cards of players who previously appeared in the regular set on a multi-player "prospects" card; one notable example is the 1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. Since a "rookie card" is typically the most valuable for any given player, the companies now competed to be the first to produce a card of players who might be future stars. Increasingly, they also included highly touted minor league players who had yet to play in the major leagues. For example, Topps obtained a license to produce cards featuring the U.S. Olympic baseball team and thus produced the first card of Mark McGwire prior to his promotion to the major league level, and one that would become quite valuable to collectors for a time. This card from the 1984 squad appeared in Topps's regular 1985 set, but by the next Olympic cycle the team's cards had been migrated to the "Traded" set. As a further step in this race, Topps resurrected its former competitor Bowman as a subsidiary brand in 1989, with Bowman sets similarly chosen to include a lot of young players with bright prospects.


title: Topps

text: Also beginning in 1989 with the entry of Upper Deck into the market, card companies began to develop higher-end cards using improved technology. Following Topps's example, other manufacturers now began to diversify their product lines into different sets, each catering to a different niche of the market. The initial Topps effort at producing a premium line of cards, in 1991, was called Stadium Club. Topps continued adding more sets and trying to distinguish them from each other, as did its competitors. The resulting glut of different baseball sets caused the MLBPA to take drastic measures as the market for them deteriorated. The union announced that for 2006, licenses would only be granted to Topps and Upper Deck, the number of different products would be limited, and players would not appear on cards before reaching the major leagues.


title: Topps

text: Although most of its products were distributed through retail stores and hobby shops, Topps also attempted to establish itself online, where a significant secondary market for sports cards was developing. Working in partnership with eBay, Topps launched a new brand of sports cards called etopps in December 2000. These cards are sold exclusively online through individual "IPOs" (or, "Initial Player Offering") in which the card is offered for usually a week at the IPO price. The quantity sold depends on how many people offer to buy, but is limited to a certain maximum. After a sale, the cards are held in a climate-controlled warehouse unless the buyer requests delivery, and the cards can be traded online without changing hands except in the virtual sense.