title: North Nicosia

text: The city saw around 117 million Turkish liras of new construction in the year 2011 alone. In this year, a large amount of construction of dwellings was observed especially in the Hamitköy area and Gönyeli, which is part of the Nicosia urban area, but also in the regions of Küçük Kaymaklı and Aydemet region, indicating a residential growth in these areas.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia is home to cultural diversity. Students from different backgrounds in the universities celebrate their national festivals with activities, at which their national dances and traditions are performed. Different religious groups conduct cultural activities; the Alevi Cultural Association is headquartered in Nicosia.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Near East University annually holds a spring fest, during which famous Turkish Cypriot, Turkish and international singers and bands perform, dance festivals, sports and board game competitions are held. In 2014, the university built the Park Near East on an area of 220,000 thousand square metres, and the concerts of Deep Purple and Turkish bands such as Yüksek Sadakat drew tens of thousands of spectators from Cyprus and Turkey. During the festival, the Moscow State Ballet also performed in the university. It also hosts the annual Rock 'n Cyprus festival, at which bands from Turkey perform, and organizes the NEU Nicosia Carnival at the Dereboyu region of the city, at which the students display their culture and the locals crowd into the streets.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city has hosted other musical organizations, such as the Shark Virgin Island Festival, which is the greatest electronic music organisation in the island. The Dereboyu region has become a centre of entertainment, where street parties, festivals and concerts of local bands and singers take place. The walled city has also seen investment in the recent years, with cultural centres and bars being opened. To reinvigorate the region, monthly street parties are organized.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city has fine arts institutions at university levels, with the fine arts faculties of the Near East University and Cyprus International University. The universities contribute to the artistic culture of the city by participating in exhibitions and competitions, and students are involved in creating artistic depictions of Nicosia. In 2014, an arts and culture centre in the Arabahmet region was reopened with the contribution of the Girne American University. In 2013, a new exhibition hall was unveiled in the Near East University, whose students participate in organizations abroad.


title: North Nicosia

text: Photography exhibitions and competitions take place in the city, organized by the state and private institutions alike. Traditional handicrafts are also actively practiced, with exhibitions taking place.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city is home to a number of museums. The Dervish Pasha Mansion is similar in architecture to the Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios Mansion, reflecting typical late Ottoman urban architecture, and functions as an ethnographic museum today. It hosts artifacts relating to the Ottoman era and the archaeological history of Cyprus. Another example of a house preserved as such is the Lusignan House, reflecting the architecture of the Lusignan era and the Gothic style, and is furnished with Lusignan and Ottoman items.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Mevlevi Tekke Museum used to be the headquarters of the Mevlevi sect, associated with the Whirling Dervishes. It was designed for purposes that are similar to monasteries, and now functions as an ethnographic museum as well, reflecting the rites of the sect.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Lapidary Museum was originally built as a guesthouse for the pilgrims visiting the St. Sophia Cathedral (now the Selimiye Mosque). It hosts a collection of architectural artifacts and antiquities that have been excavated.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Near East University campus is also home to three museums: the Communications Museum, the Art Museum and the Classical Cars Museum.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Turkish Cypriot State Theatre and Nicosia Municipal Theater are headquartered in Nicosia and put on a number of plays each year. The Nicosia Turkish Municipality organizes the Cyprus Theatre Festival annually, and prominent theatrical groups from Turkey as well as the Nicosia Municipal Theatre participate in the festival that takes place in the Atatürk Culture and Congress Centre of the Near East University. Theatre is very popular in Northern Cyprus, and as such, long queues form for the ticket sales of the festival, with the number of theatre-goers increasing every year. The Nicosia Municipal Theatre children as well and the Gönyeli municipality holds its own theatre workshop that puts on plays. Nicosia Artistic Theatre is another theatrical group that is active in the city.


title: North Nicosia

text: Nicosia Turkish Municipality founded its Lefkoşa Municipal Orchestra in 1987. Since then, the orchestra has grown and developed several branches, including the Children's Choir, Folk Music Choir, Pop Orchestra, Latin Orchestra and the Chamber Music Orchestra, with about 90 participants, most of whom are volunteers. The orchestra frequently delivers concerts and participates in big musical festivals held in the country. At times, the orchestra delivers concerts at open spaces, such as parks and squares. It also holds composing contests. The Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Northern Cyprus, founded in 2015, is based in North Nicosia and as of 2018, the works for building a concert hall and headquarters for the orchestra are underway. The city is home to the annual Nicosia Walled City Jazz Festival, at which both local and Turkish jazz musicians take the stage.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city hosts several folk dance groups, which organize annual festivals to perform Cypriot folk dances. The foreign students or delegations visiting universities perform their own traditional dances. The city hosts folk dance shows of children from other countries in the annual children's day on 23 April. North Nicosia annually hosts the Nicosia International Folk Dance Festival, where groups from various countries perform all around the city in parks and squares.


title: North Nicosia

text: Several modern dance activities also take place in the city, where several dance schools are established. Internationally renowned musicals and dance shows are performed in front of crowded audiences in the Atatürk Culture and Congress Centre. In 2010, the city was part of the international Earthdance activity, which was witnessed by thousands of locals.


title: North Nicosia

text: Nicosia is the seat of four Turkish Cypriot universities, namely the Near East University (NEU), Cyprus International University (CIU), University of Mediterranean Karpasia and the American University of Cyprus. It also hosts a campus of the Turkish Anadolu University, along with two vocational schools (Atatürk Academy of Teachers and the Police Academy) that are equivalent to universities. As of the 2014–2015 educational year, North Nicosia was home to a student population of over 34,000; Near East University is the largest university in Northern Cyprus with 25,068 students; Cyprus International University has 8324 students and the University of Mediterranean Karpasia has 632. The universities are home to great diversity, with the Near East University and Cyprus International University having students from 96 and 64 countries respectively.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Near East University was founded in 1988 and its campus is a few kilometers away from Nicosia proper. The Cyprus International University followed in 1997 with a campus that is located at the Haspolat region, outside the proper city of Nicosia. The University of Mediterranean Karpasia was founded in 2011, and is located at a building in the Küçük Kaymaklı region, within the city of Nicosia.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Near East University owns a supercomputer that ranks the 13th in the world and the first in the region in terms of computation speed and capacity, used to help universities from Turkey in their research along with the university itself, and has participated in the Large Hadron Collider experiment at CERN, as well as Ebola virus disease treatment research. The NEU has also locally developed and manufactured a completely solar energy-powered car and has research centers in topics ranging from tissue engineering to history. The Cyprus International University is home to eight research centers. Examples of research conducted include excavations that have uncovered the earliest human bones that have ever been found in Cyprus and possible devices that could be implanted on the human body to facilitate communication.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Grand Library of the Near East University is home to over 1 million printed and 150 million electronic resources and is visited by more than 7000 people daily, and agreements have been signed to share these resources with Turkish institutions.


title: North Nicosia

text: In the North Nicosia urban area there are 21 state-owned institutions that offer primary education, along with three special institutions for children with disabilities. The city hosts three kinds of high schools: state-owned highschools (lise) that teach in Turkish, state-owned "colleges" (kolej) that teach in English and private high schools. The Türk Maarif Koleji is a state-owned high school with over 1000 students that teaches in English, was established in 1964 and prepares students for the British educational system. The private high schools in Nicosia are the Near East College, the Levent College and the TED College. There are also the state-owned Anadolu High School of Fine Arts and four vocational high schools.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia is a major transport hub in Northern Cyprus, where the highways from the other major cities of Northern Cyprus, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Morphou intersect. It is connected to the other cities with modern, four-lane highways: the D-30 highway from Morphou to Famagusta passes through Nicosia, D-25 to Kyrenia. Ercan International Airport has been used for international flights. There is no train or metro system nor plans to develop one. In 2011, plans to build a tram system were put forward but rejected, yet the popular opinion is strongly in favor of establishing one.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia has seen the construction of new highways and roads recently to solve its traffic problem, including the construction of two ringroads in the 2010s. One of these links the Metehan area and indirectly the Dereboyu region to Alayköy and indirectly the highway to Morphou, and was completed and opened to public traffic in 2014. The other one, the Nicosia Northern Ringroad, is currently under construction and will connect D-30 from Famagusta to Morphou directly to D-25 from Kyrenia, preventing the entry of vehicles from Kyrenia going to the airport and from Famagusta to Kyrenia, Gönyeli or Morphou into the city. Whilst the construction stalled for a time due to land disputes, the work on the project recommenced in 2018.


title: North Nicosia

text: The company of LETTAŞ provides bus services in North Nicosia. Buses are the only form of public transport available, and the system is considered unreliable due to the unplanned city growth, resulting in private cars being the primary means of transport. There is a bus terminal in the region of Yenişehir. The walled city has been facilitated to be easily navigable on foot, but the municipality has been criticized over the lack of a reliable system of public transport.


title: North Nicosia

text: A bicycle-sharing system called Velespeed was introduced by the municipality in 2018. The system consists of 410 bicycles and stations for rental or drop-off placed across the city, within 15 minutes of cycling distance of one another.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia hosts five out of the fourteen teams of the Turkish Cypriot Süper Lig, the top football division in Northern Cyprus: Çetinkaya, Yenicami, Küçük Kaymaklı, Gönyeli and Gençlik Gücü. Çetinkaya is the most successful Turkish Cypriot team with 14 titles, and teams from Nicosia have won the majority of the trophies in the league. Çetinkaya is also the oldest member of the league, founded in 1930, and holds the distinction of having won the united Cypriot league prior to the division. There is also a large following of Turkish football teams in the city, with celebrations in the Dereboyu area for their victories.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city annually hosts the Nicosia Marathon, to which over a thousand people participated in 2014, including leading political figures. The marathon passes through the city's popular avenues and landmarks with the categories of 4, 8 and 21 kilometres, the 4 km being regarded as a public walk. Among the other sports events in the city is the Lefkoşa Open tennis tournament. Lefkoşa Beach Volley Arena located in the city hosts the annual Zafer Beach Volleyball Cup that are part of the Turkish national cup. In 2015, the city hosted the first Nicosia Youth and Sports Festival, encompassing a number of sports activities from 22 sports, including a street basketball event, tennis, handball, shooting, boxing and table tennis tournaments.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia is home to several sports venues. The center of sports in the city is considered to be the Atatürk Sports Complex, home of the Nicosia Atatürk Stadium, which is the biggest stadium in the island with a capacity of 28,000 people. The stadium is the home of Çetinkaya and Yenicami. The sports complex also hosts the Atatürk Sports Hall, which functions as an arena for basketball, volleyball and handball, the Atatürk Indoor Swimming Pool, where popular swimming competitions are held with Turkish teams also participating, tennis courts and headquarters of the Turkish Cypriots sports federations of several branches. The complex also hosts an athlete training facility, and is accessible to disabled athletes. The Nicosia Turkish Municipality is active in terms of building new sports facilities and has done so in the Metehan area, with projects underway in the Hamitköy and Haspolat regions.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia has hosted international sports organizations. It hosted the 9th Global Taekwondo Federation World Taekwondo Championship in 2013 and the Economic Cooperation Organization University Games in 2013. Its prospects of hosting and participating in many international tournaments are hindered by an international sports embargo. It was also part of the annual Cyprus Rally in 2014, which garnered huge popular attention and attracted crowds.


title: North Nicosia

text: The universities contribute significantly to the sports life of North Nicosia. The Near East University has the only Olympic pool in the island with an area of 2700 square meters, and over 12000 people have attended swimming courses in the pool. It also has a modern sports hall and a health and wellness campus covering more than 2000 square meters. Its synchronised swimming team carries out regular performances and is active in several branches. The CIU Arena of the Cyprus International University has a total area of 22,500 square metres and is the biggest integrated sports complex in Northern Cyprus. It hosts an indoor sports hall, an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts and other facilities from a beach handball arena to a climbing wall. It also has the CIU Foxes teams, whose men's handball branch won the national league two times in a row.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: Grey Gardens is a 2009 American biographical drama television film about the lives of Edith Bouvier Beale/"Little Edie", played by Drew Barrymore, and her mother Edith Ewing Bouvier/"Big Edie", played by Jessica Lange. Co-stars include Jeanne Tripplehorn as Jacqueline Kennedy (Little Edie's cousin) and Ken Howard as Phelan Beale (Little Edie's father). The film, directed by Michael Sucsy and co-written by Sucsy and Patricia Rozema, flashes back and forth between various events and dates ranging from Little Edie as a young débutante in 1936 moving with her mother to their Grey Gardens estate through the filming and premiere of the actual 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens".


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The film was nominated for 17 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (for Lange) and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (for Howard). It was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, winning two for Best Miniseries or Made for Television Movie and Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film (for Barrymore). It was also nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, winning one (for Barrymore). The film also won the 2009 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The film is based on the life stories of the eccentric paternal aunt and first cousin of Jackie Kennedy, both named Edith Bouvier Beale. The elder Edith Bouvier Beale was the sister of Jackie Kennedy's father John Vernou Bouvier III and was referred to as "Big Edie", her daughter was referred to as "Little Edie". The Beale women were members of NYC high society, but in their later years, withdrew from the New York City life, taking shelter at their Long Island summer home/estate Grey Gardens. The house eventually fell into a state of disrepair that gave the Beale women notoriety.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: Phelan Beale (husband of "Big Edie" and father of "Little Edie"), eventually divorced "Big Edie." In the movie, "Little Edie" decides to move to New York to pursue a career in acting (as well as an ill-fated romance with high-profile married man, Julius 'Cap' Krug). Her father frankly tells her that she has to find a husband to support her lifestyle. "Little Edie" sadly and slowly realizes her fate is to remain her mother's companion at Grey Gardens. The two women become reclusive and known around town as the highly eccentric proprietors of Grey Gardens, which has become decrepit and full of stray animals taken in by the Beale women. The plot includes the filming of the documentary "Grey Gardens" by Albert and David Maysles as well as flashback events in the Beales' past, including their arrival at the estate, the disintegration of Big Edie's marriage, and Little Edie's failed attempts to have her own life and find independence.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: After Phelan Beale dies, the two sons tell their mother, Big Edie, that there is little money and she should sell the estate and move to Florida. The house was in her name and this was her home. She was going nowhere. Grey Gardens became a health hazard, overrun with cats and also infested with raccoons. Health officials condemned the home and newspaper articles ran blaming Jackie Kennedy. Jackie goes to the home in a chauffeur-driven limousine for a visit. Jackie and her sister, Lee, pay for the cleanup and restoration of the Hamptons home. Mom and daughter grow old together. The documentary is finished and Little Edie attends the premiere, wearing a surprise gift from her mother.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The movie ends with Little Edie singing "Tea for Two" at the Reno Sweeney cabaret in Greenwich Village, and the quote, "My mother gave me a truly priceless life."


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: Michael Sucsy said that he used primary sources to flesh out the story including letters and journals kept by Little Edie. He also interviewed family members and friends including Lois Wright who lived in the house and wrote her own book about the events. Albert Maysles is credited as a source in the movie. Sucsy said that the house facade as well as the interior were created from blueprints. Sucsy said that an aerial shot of the house circa 1936 was historically accurate on the placement of the house in relation to other mansions in East Hampton at the time (although requiring CGI enhancements to create the illusion). As with many movies based on historical events, some events in the Beales' lives, such as the timing of Big Edie and Phelan's divorce, were shifted to make a more coherent story.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The entire film was shot in Ontario, with most of the shots in metropolitan Toronto. The Valley Halla Estate in Rouge Park was the setting of exterior shots of Grey Gardens. Waterfront shots were on Centre Island in the Toronto Islands. Hotel shots were at the Fairmont Royal York. Studio work was done at Toronto Film Studios.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: Post-production was done in New York and Los Angeles. The DVD commentary was done in the same studio where the Maysles mixed the original documentary.


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The movie has been lauded by many critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% out of 10 professional critics gave the film a positive review. Ben Lyons from "At the Movies" raved: "Drew Barrymore is fantastic in this film." "Rolling Stone" critic Peter Travers also raved: "The script hits a few bumps, but Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore are magnificent as the bizarro Beales. Barrymore is a revelation. Aging into her 60s and transformed in voice and bearing, she finds Edie's unquenchable spirit. Brava."


title: Grey Gardens (2009 film)

text: The Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman provided the film score. In addition to Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the album includes vocal performances by the movie's lead actresses, Jessica Lange (on "We Belong Together" and "I Won't Dance" sung with Malcolm Gets) and Drew Barrymore (on "Tea for Two").


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Franklin Clarence Mars (; September 24, 1883 – April 8, 1934) was an American business magnate who founded the food company Mars, Incorporated, which mostly makes chocolate candy. Mars' son Forrest Edward Mars developed M&M's and the Mars bar.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Franklin Mars was born in September 1883 in Minnesota. He learned how to hand-dip chocolate candy as a child from his mother Alva, who entertained him while he had a mild case of polio. He began to sell molasses chips at age 19.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Mars and Ethel G. Kissack (1882–1980), a schoolteacher, were married in 1902 in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Their son, Forrest Mars, Sr., was born in 1904 in Wadena, Minnesota. They divorced.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Mars and Ethel Veronica Healy (1884–1945) were married in 1910 and had one daughter, Patricia Mars (1914–1965).


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: He started the Mars Candy Factory in 1911 with Ethel V. Mars, his second wife, in Tacoma, Washington. This factory produced and sold fresh candy wholesale, but ultimately the venture failed because there was a better established business, Brown & Haley, also operating in Tacoma.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: In 1920, they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Mars founded Mar-O-Bar Co. and began to manufacture chocolate candy bars. The company later incorporated as Mars, Incorporated. In 1923 he introduced his son Forrest's idea, the Milky Way, which became the best-selling candy bar. Mars moved to Chicago in 1929 and settled in River Forest. He became an honorary captain of the Oak Park, Illinois police department.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Mars died from heart and kidney issues on April 8, 1935 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Ownership of the family business passed to his son Forrest.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: In the late 1920s, in Pulaski, Tennessee, Mars bought a number of local farms and constructed a large estate called Milky Way Farm. During its construction, Mars employed more than 935 men from Giles County to build a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) clubhouse, more than 30 barns, and a horse racing track. Gallahadion won the Kentucky Derby in 1940 after Mars died.


title: Franklin Clarence Mars

text: Mars lived the remainder of his life on the 2,800 acre (11 km²) farm and was buried there upon his death in 1934. After Milky Way Farm was sold, the remains of Mars and his wife Ethel V. Mars were moved to a private mausoleum at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, where they are currently interred.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: The historicity of King Arthur has been debated both by academics and popular writers. While there have been many suggestions that Arthur was a real historical person, current consensus among academic historians holds him to be a mythological or folkloric figure. However, non-specialists and a few academic historians continue to defend Arthur's historicity.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: The first definite mention of Arthur appears circa 828 in the "Historia Brittonum", where he is presented as a military leader fighting against the invading Saxons in 5th- to 6th-century Sub-Roman Britain at the Battle of Badon, written more than three centuries after the events depicted. He develops into a legendary figure in the Matter of Britain from the 12th century, following Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential but largely fictional "Historia Regum Britanniae".


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Historians propose a variety of possible sources for the myth of Arthur, perhaps as a composite character. Historical figures involved in such theories include Artuir mac Áedán, a son of the 6th-century king of Dál Riata in modern Scotland; Ambrosius Aurelianus, who led a Romano-British resistance against the Saxons; Lucius Artorius Castus, a 2nd-century Roman commander of Sarmatian cavalry; and the British king Riothamus, who fought alongside the last Gallo-Roman commanders against the Visigoths in an expedition to Gaul in the 5th century. Others include the Welsh kings Owain Danwyn, Enniaun Girt, and Athrwys ap Meurig.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Until the late 20th century, there was academic debate about the historicity of Arthur among historians and archaeologists. In the 21st century, the academic consensus rejects it.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: In 1936, R. G. Collingwood and J. N. L. Myres treated Arthur as a Roman "comes Britanniarum". They asserted that "the historicity of [Arthur] can hardly be called into question", though they were careful to separate the historical Arthur from the legendary Arthur.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: In 1971, Leslie Alcock claimed to "demonstrate that there is acceptable historical evidence that Arthur was a genuine historical figure, not a mere figment of myth or romance". Also in 1971, while conceding that Gildas does not mention Arthur, Frank Stenton wrote that this "may suggest that the Arthur of history was a less imposing figure than the Arthur of legend" but then argued that "it should not be allowed to remove him from the sphere of history." In 1977, John Morris argued in favour, but his work was widely criticised at the time as having "grave methodological flaws". David Dumville took the opposite position in the same year: "The fact of the matter is that there is no historical evidence about Arthur; we must reject him from our histories and, above all, from the titles of our books."


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: By 1986, J. N. L. Myres, who had written in 1936 (with Collingwood) that Arthur was historical, said "It is inconceivable that Gildas... should not have mentioned Arthur's part..." (that is, if he had existed) and complains that "No figure on the borderline of history and mythology has wasted more of the historian’s time." By 1991, the "Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain" stated that "historians are tending to take a minimal view of the historical value of even the earliest evidence for Arthur, but most probably still see him as an historical figure..." while "the chivalric Arthur... was essentially the creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century."


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: In 2003, Thomas Charles-Edwards' book on the period only mentioned Arthur in the context of a later Welsh story. In 2004, Francis Pryor dismissed the evidence that Arthur existed but says that proving he did not exist is as impossible as proving that he did. In 2007, O. J. Padel in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" described Arthur as a "legendary warrior and supposed king of Britain". He was less dismissive in 2014, describing Arthur as "originally legendary or historical", but also cited the failure of the tenth century Welsh poem "Armes Prydein", which prophesied the expulsion of the English from Britain, to mention Arthur among the ancient heroes who would return to lead the resistance.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: In a 2007 review, Howard Wiseman followed Sheppard Frere (1967), saying that "the evidence "allows", not "requires" belief", and follows Christopher Snyder (2000) in emphasising the need for a better understanding of the period, regardless of whether Arthur existed. In 2011, Robin Fleming's history of the period did not mention Arthur at all. In 2013, Guy Halsall reported that "among the academic community, the sceptics have decisively carried the day". In 2018, Nicholas Higham refuted all the outstanding claims for a historical Arthur, summarising his position as: "That Arthur has produced extraordinary quantities of 'smoke' is in large part because he is so well suited to be a fulcrum of make-believe. But there is no historical 'fire' underlying the stories that congregated around him, just 'highland mist'." His book has been generally praised.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: In a 2018 review, Tom Shippey summarised the situation as "modern academic historians want nothing to do with King Arthur." In a 2019 review, Brian David reported that "Few topics in late antique and medieval history elicit scholarly groans quite like the idea of a supposedly 'factual' King Arthur. Yet historians and other scholars made cases for Arthur’s existence in historical and literary studies until the 1980s. For academics today, the question of the realism of King Arthur has been largely banished to popular books, video games, and movies."


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Andrew Breeze argued in 2015 and 2020 that Arthur was historical, and claims to have identified the locations of his battles as well as the place and date of his death. However, his conclusions were disputed.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: The origin of the name Arthur is unclear. One proposed etymology is from the Roman family name Artorius, itself of obscure and contested etymology, possibly of Messapic or Etruscan origin. According to linguist and Celticist Stephan Zimmer, it is possible that Artorius has a Celtic origin, being a Latinization of the hypothetical name "*Artorījos" derived from the patronym "*Arto-rīg-ios", meaning "Son of the Bear" or "Warrior-King". "*Arto-rīg-ios" is unattested, but the root "*arto-rīg" is the source of the Old Irish personal name "Artrí". Some scholars have noted that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as "Arthur", "Arthurus", or "Arturus" in early Latin Arthurian texts, and never as "Artōrius" (although the Classical Latin "Artōrius" became "Arturius" in some Vulgar Latin dialects). However, it may not refer to the origin of the name "Arthur", as "Artōrius" would regularly become "Art(h)ur" when borrowed into Welsh.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: John Morris argued that the appearance of the name "Arthur" among Scottish and Welsh figures suggests the name became popular in early 6th-century Britain for a short time. He proposed all such occurrences were due to the importance of another Arthur who may have ruled temporarily as Emperor of Britain, and suggested a period of Saxon advance was halted and turned back before resuming in the 570s.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Arthur is not mentioned in Gildas' 6th-century book "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae". Gildas does mention a British victory against the Saxons at the "Badonic mount" ("mons Badonicus"), which occurred in the year of Gildas' birth and ushered in a generation of peace between the two warring peoples. This engagement is now referred to as the Battle of Badon. Gildas describes the battle as taking place "in our times" and being one of the "latest, if not the greatest" slaughter of the Saxons, and that a new generation born after Badon had come of age in Britain. Later Cambro-Latin sources give the Old Welsh form of the battle's location as Badon, such as in the "Annales Cambriae", and this has been adopted by most modern scholars.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Gildas' Latin is somewhat opaque; he does not name Arthur or any other leader of the battle. He does discuss Ambrosius Aurelianus as a great scourge of the Saxons immediately prior, but he seems to indicate that some time had passed between Ambrosius' victory and the Battle of Badon. The details of the battle, including its date and location, remain uncertain, with most scholars accepting a date around 500; numerous locations throughout Britain have been proposed over the years.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Arthur is also not mentioned in Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), which dates to c. 731, or any other surviving work until around 829, the date ascribed to the "Historia Brittonum", attributed to a Welsh ecclesiastic called Nennius. The "Historia" says: "Then in those days Arthur fought with the kings of the Britons against them [the Saxons] but he himself was the commander of battles ("dux bellorum")". Twelve battles fought by Arthur are listed. Commenting on Arthur's post-Conquest portrayal as a king, the historian Nicholas Higham observes "Earlier texts are uniform in depicting Arthur solely as a warrior or a leader of warriors, whether ‘real’ or supernatural...In the context of the central Middle Ages, it was a king’s role to head the army, leading the forces of subaltern rulers. ‘Overkingship’ was well known, in Wales as elsewhere. It was a small step therefore from ‘commander of battles’ to a quasi-imperial figure commanding the Welsh kings as well as their forces. This was to prove a landmark shift within the Arthurian tradition, leading directly to ‘King’ Arthur."


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: The earliest version of the "Annales Cambriae" ("Welsh Annals") was composed in the mid-10th century. It gives the date of Badon as 516 and lists Arthur's death as occurring in 537 at the Battle of Camlann. Like the "Annals", all other sources that name Arthur were written at least 400 years after the events which they describe.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Arthur appears briefly in the "Gesta Regum Anglorum" ("Deeds of the Kings of the English") by William of Malmesbury in 1124. Despite its name, the work attempted to reconstruct British history in general by drawing together the varying accounts of Gildas, Bede, Nennius, and various chroniclers. The work considered Arthur as historical and featured Ambrosius Aurelianus as his apparent employer. Malmesbury also mentioned the finding of a tomb of a certain "Walwin" (a supposed nephew of Arthur) in the time of William the Conqueror.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Arthur was first styled as a king of the Britons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical chronicle "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("History of the Kings of Britain"), which dates to c. 1136. Geoffrey also refers to Ambrosius Aurelianus (whom he calls Aurelius Ambrosius) as a king of Britain and an older brother of Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, thus establishing a familial relationship between Aurelianus and Arthur. He identifies Aurelius Ambrosius as the son of Constantinus, a Breton ruler and brother of .


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Arthur is mentioned in several 12th- to 13th-century hagiographies of Welsh and Breton saints, including those of Cadoc, Carantoc, Gildas, Goeznovius, Illtud, and Paternus. The "Legenda Sancti Goeznovii" is a hagiography of the Breton saint Goeznovius which was formerly dated to c. 1019 but is now dated to the late 12th to early 13th century. It includes a brief segment dealing with Arthur and a leader known as Vortigern.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: There are a number of mentions of a legendary hero called Arthur in early Welsh and Breton poetry. These sources are preserved in High Medieval manuscripts and cannot be dated with accuracy. They are mostly placed in the 9th to 10th century, although some authors have dated them to as early as the 7th century. The earliest of these would appear to be the Old Welsh poem "Y Gododdin", preserved in a 13th-century manuscript. It refers to a warrior who "glutted black ravens [i.e., killed many men] on the rampart of the stronghold, although he was no Arthur."


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: The Welsh poem "Geraint, son of Erbin" describes a battle at a port-settlement and mentions Arthur in passing. The work is a praise-poem and elegy for King Geraint, usually presumed to be a historical king of Dumnonia, and is significant in showing that he was associated with Arthur at a relatively early date. It also provides the earliest known reference to Arthur as "emperor". "Geraint, son of Erbin" is found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, compiled around 1250, though the poem itself may date to the 10th or 11th century. "Y Gododdin" was similarly copied around the same time. The two poems differ in the relative archaic quality of their language, that of "Y Gododdin" being the older in form. However, this could merely reflect differences in the date of the last revision of the language within the two poems, as the language would have had to have been revised for the poems to remain comprehensible.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: One theory suggests that Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman military commander who served in Britain in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century, was a prototype of Arthur. Artorius is known from two inscriptions that give details about his service. After a long career as a centurion in the Roman army, he was promoted to prefect of Legio VI Victrix, a legion headquartered in Eboracum (present-day York, England). He later commanded two British legions on an expedition against either the Armoricans (in present-day Brittany) or the Armenians. He subsequently became civilian governor of Liburnia in modern Croatia, where he died.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Kemp Malone first made the connection between Artorius and King Arthur in 1924. Noting that the Welsh name "Arthur" plausibly derives from the Latin "Artorius", Malone suggested that certain details of Castus' biography, in particular his possible campaign in Brittany and the fact that he was obliged to retire from the military (perhaps because of an injury), may have inspired elements of Geoffrey of Monmouth's depiction of King Arthur. Later scholars have challenged the idea, based on the fact that Artorius lived two to three centuries before the period typically associated with Arthur, and the fact that the parts of the inscriptions ostensibly similar to Arthur's story are open to interpretation.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Malone's idea attracted little attention for decades, but it was revived in the 1970s as part of a theory known as the "Sarmatian connection". In a 1975 essay, Helmut Nickel suggested that Artorius was the original Arthur, and that a group of Sarmatian cavalry serving under him in Britain inspired the Knights of the Round Table. Nickel wrote that Castus' Sarmatian unit fought under a red dragon banner and that their descendants were still in Britain in the 5th century; he also identified similarities between the Arthurian legend and traditions associated with the Sarmatians and other peoples of the Caucasus region. He suggested that the Sarmatians' descendants kept Castus' legacy alive over the centuries and mixed it with their ancestral myths involving magical cauldrons and swords.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Independently of Nickel, C. Scott Littleton developed a more elaborate version of the Sarmatian connection. Littleton first wrote about the theory with Anne C. Thomas in 1978, and expanded on it in a 1994 book co-authored by Linda Malcor, "From Scythia to Camelot". Littleton and Malcor argued that Artorius and the Sarmatian cavalry were the inspiration for King Arthur and his knights, but that many elements of Arthur's story derive from Caucasian mythology, ostensibly brought to Britain in the 2nd century by Sarmatians and Alans. They find parallels for key features of the Arthurian legend, including the Sword in the Stone, the Holy Grail, and the return of Arthur's sword to a lake, in the traditions of the Caucasus, and connect Arthur and his knights to Batraz and his Narts, the heroes of the legends of the North Caucasus.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Some Arthurian scholars have given credence to the Sarmatian connection, but others have found it based on conjecture and weak evidence. Few of the Caucasian traditions cited to support the theory can be traced specifically with the Sarmatians; many are known only from orally transmitted tales that are not datable before they were first recorded in the 19th century. Additionally, many of the strongest parallels to the Arthurian legend are not found in the earliest Brittonic materials, but only appear in the later Continental romances of the 12th century or later. As such, the traditions would have had to survive in Britain for at least a thousand years between the arrival of the Sarmatians in the 2nd century and the Arthurian romances of the 12th century. Nonetheless, the Sarmatian connection continues to have popular appeal; it is the basis of the 2004 film "King Arthur".


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Riothamus (also spelled Riotimus) was a historical figure whom ancient sources list as "a king of the Britons". He lived in the late 5th century, and most of the stories about him were recorded in the Byzantine historian Jordanes' "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths", written in the mid-6th century, only about 80 years after his presumed death.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: About 460, the Roman diplomat and bishop Sidonius Apollinaris sent a letter to Riothamus asking his help to quell unrest among the Brettones, a colony of Brittonic-speaking people living in Armorica; this letter still survives. In the year 470, the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius began a campaign against Euric, king of the Visigoths who were campaigning outside their territory in Gaul. Anthemius requested help from Riothamus, and Jordanes writes that he crossed the ocean into Gaul with 12,000 soldiers into the land of the Bituriges, likely to Avaricum (Bourges). The location of Riothamus' army was betrayed to the Visigoths by Arvandus, the jealous praetorian prefect of Gaul, and Euric defeated him in the Battle of Déols. Riothamus was last seen retreating northwest to Burgundy.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Geoffrey Ashe points out that Arthur is said by Geoffrey of Monmouth to have crossed into Gaul twice, once to help a Roman emperor and once to subdue a civil war. Riothamus did both, assuming that he was a king in Britain as well as Armorica. Arthur is also said to have been betrayed by one of his advisers, and Riothamus was betrayed by one of his supposed allies. Finally, the Arthurian romances traditionally recount that King Arthur was carried off to Avalon (called "insula Auallonis" by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the first author to mention the legendary isle) before he died; Riothamus, after his defeat at Déols, was last known to have fled to the kingdom of the Germanic Burgundians, perhaps passing through a town called Avallon (which was within Burgundian territory and not far from Bourges).


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: It is unknown whether Riothamus was a king in Britain or Armorica. Armorica was a Brittonic colony and Jordanes writes that Riothamus "crossed the ocean", so it is possible that both are correct. The name "Riothamus" is interpreted by Ashe and some other scholars as a title meaning "High King", though there is no evidence for such a title being used by ancient Britons or Gauls, and the formation of the name (noun/adjective + superlative -tamo- suffix) follows a pattern found in numerous other Brittonic and Gaulish personal names. Cognates of the name Riothamus survive in Old Welsh ("Riatav"/"Riadaf") and Old Breton ("Riatam"); all are derived from Common Brittonic "*Rigotamos", meaning "Most Kingly" or "Kingliest".


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: According to Gildas, Ambrosius Aurelianus (also sometimes referred to as Aurelius Ambrosius) was a powerful Romano-British leader in Britain. He was renowned for his campaigns against the Saxons, and there is some speculation that he may have commanded the British forces at the Battle of Badon Hill or that the battle was a continuation of his efforts.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Scholars such as Léon Fleuriot identified Ambrosius Aurelianus with the aforementioned Riothamus figure from Jordanes, an idea which forms part of Fleuriot's hypothesis about the origins of the Arthurian legend. Others, such as Geoffrey Ashe, disagree, since Ambrosius is not called "king" until the somewhat-legendary "Historia Brittonum".


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Artuir mac Áedán was the eldest son of Áedán mac Gabráin, an Irish king of Dál Riata in the late 6th century. Artuir never himself became king of Dál Riata; his brother Eochaid Buide ruled after their father's death. However, Artuir became a war leader when Áedán gave up his role and retired to monastic life, though Áedán was officially still king. Thus it was Artuir who led the Scoti of Dál Riata in a war against the Picts, separate from the later war with Northumbria.


title: Historicity of King Arthur

text: Under this hypothesis, Artuir was predominantly active in the region between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, the Kingdom of the Gododdin. He was ultimately killed in battle in 582 – thus, he lived far too late to have been the victor at the Battle of Badon, as mentioned by Gildas in the early 6th century. This is the solution proposed by David F. Carroll and Michael Wood.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: The following tables show the frequencies assigned to broadcast television channels in various regions of the world, along with the ITU letter designator for the system used. The frequencies shown are for the analogue video and audio carriers. The channel itself occupies several megahertz of bandwidth. For example, North American channel 1 occupies the spectrum from 44 to 50 MHz. See Broadcast television systems for a table of signal characteristics, including bandwidth, by ITU letter designator.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: During World War II, the frequencies originally assigned as channels 13 to 18 were appropriated by the U.S. military, which still uses them to this day. It was also decided to move the allocation for FM radio from the 42-50 MHz band to a larger 88-106 MHz band (later extended to the current 88-108 MHz FM band). This required a reassignment of the VHF channels to the plan currently in use.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: In its very early days DFF made some test transmissions using the D/K standard (6.5 MHz audio) before reverting (around 1957) to System B/G (5.5 MHz audio) but using some unique frequencies.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: For frequencies used in the Americas (most countries), South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, refer to Pan-American television frequencies.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: Frequency spacing for each channel in Japan is the same as in the countries listed above, but the channel numbers are 1 lower than in those countries; for example, channel 13 in Japan is on the same frequency as channel 14 in North and South America (most countries), South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.


title: Television channel frequencies

text: Channels 52-69 had been progressively phased out since the introduction of digital television and rationalisation of the spectrum


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Shenandoah National Park (often ) is an American national park that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The park is long and narrow, with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont to the east. Skyline Drive is the main park road, generally traversing along the ridgeline of the mountains. Almost 40% of the park's land——has been designated as wilderness areas and is protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain at .


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The park encompasses parts of eight counties. On the west side of Skyline Drive they are, from northeast to southwest, Warren, Page, Rockingham, and Augusta counties. On the east side of Skyline Drive they are Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, and Albemarle counties. The park stretches for along Skyline Drive from near the town of Front Royal in the northeast to near the city of Waynesboro in the southwest. The park headquarters are located in Luray.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Shenandoah National Park lies along the Blue Ridge Mountains in north-central Virginia. These mountains form a distinct highland rising to elevations above . Local topographic relief between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley exceeds at some locations. The crest of the range divides the Shenandoah River drainage basin, part of the Potomac River drainage, on the west side, from the James and Rappahannock River drainage basins on the east side.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Some of the rocks exposed in the park date to over one billion years in age, making them among the oldest in Virginia. Bedrock in the park includes Grenville-age granitic basement rocks (1.2–1.0 billion years old) and a cover sequence of metamorphosed Neoproterozoic (570–550 million years old) sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Swift Run and Catoctin formations. Columns of Catoctin Formation metamorphosed basalt can be seen at Compton Peak. Clastic rocks of the Chilhowee Group are of early Cambrian age (542–520 million years old). Quaternary surficial deposits are common and cover much of the bedrock throughout the park.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The park is located along the western part of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium, a regional-scale Paleozoic structure at the eastern margin of the Appalachian fold and thrust belt. Rocks within the park were folded, faulted, distorted, and metamorphosed during the late Paleozoic Alleghanian orogeny (325 to 260 million years ago). The rugged topography of Blue Ridge Mountains is a result of differential erosion during the Cenozoic, although some post-Paleozoic tectonic activity occurred in the region.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Legislation to create a national park in the Appalachian mountains was first introduced by freshman Virginia congressman Henry D. Flood in 1901, but despite the support of President Theodore Roosevelt, failed to pass. The first national park was Yellowstone, in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was signed into law in 1872. Yosemite National Park was created in 1890. When Congress created the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916, additional parks had maintained the western pattern (Crater Lake in 1902, Wind Cave in 1903, Mesa Verde in 1906, then Denali in 1917). Grand Canyon, Zion and Acadia were all created in 1919 during the administration of Virginia-born president Woodrow Wilson. Acadia finally broke the western mold, becoming the first eastern national park. It was also based on donations from wealthy private landowners. Stephen Mather, the first NPS director, saw a need for a national park in the southern states, and solicited proposals in his 1923 year-end report. In May 1925, Congress and President Calvin Coolidge authorized the NPS to acquire a minimum of and a maximum of to form Shenandoah National Park, and also authorized creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, the legislation also required that no federal funds would be used to acquire the land. Thus, Virginia needed to raise private funds, and could also authorize state funds and use its eminent domain (condemnation) power to acquire the land to create Shenandoah National Park.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate (and the late Congressman Flood's nephew), Harry F. Byrd supported the creation of Shenandoah National Park, as did his friend William E. Carson, a businessman who had become Virginia's first chairman of the Commission on Conservation and Development. Development of the western national parks had assisted tourism, which produced jobs, which Byrd and local politicians supported. The land that became Shenandoah park was scenic, mountainous, and had also lost about half of its trees to the Chestnut blight (which was incurable and affected trees as they reached maturity). However, it had been held as private property for over a century, so many farms and orchards existed. After Byrd became governor and convinced the legislature to appropriate $1 million for land acquisition and other work, Carson and his teams (including surveyors and his brother Kit who was Byrd's law partner) tried to figure out who owned the land. They found that it consisted of more than 5,000 parcels, some of them inhabited by tenant farmers or squatters (who were ineligible to receive compensation). Some landowners, including wealthy resort owner George Freeman Pollock and Luray Realtor and developer L. Ferdinand Zerkel, had long wanted the park created and had formed the Northern Virginia Park Association to win over the national park selection committee. However, many local families who had lived in the area for generations (especially people over 60 years old) did not want to sell their land, and some refused to sell at any price. Carson promised that if they sold to the commonwealth, they could still live on their homesteads for the rest of their lives. Carson also lobbied the new president, Herbert Hoover, who bought land to establish a vacation fishing camp near the headwaters of the Rapidan River (and would ultimately donate it to the park as he left office; it remains as Rapidan Camp).


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The commonwealth of Virginia slowly acquired the land through eminent domain, and then gave it to the U.S. federal government to establish the national park. Carson's brother suggested that Virginia's legislature authorize condemnation by counties (followed by arbitration for individual parcels) rather than condemn each parcel. Some families accepted the payments because they needed the money and wanted to escape the subsistence lifestyle. Nearly 90 percent of the inhabitants worked the land for a living: selling timber, charcoal, or crops. They had previously been able to earn money to buy supplies by harvesting the now-rare chestnuts, by working during the apple and peach harvest season (but the drought of 1930 devastated those crops and killed many fruit trees), by selling handmade textiles and crafts (displaced by factories) and moonshine (illegal after Prohibition started).


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: However, Carson and the politicians did not seek citizen input early in the process, nor convince residents that they could live better in a tourist economy. Instead, they started with an advertising campaign to raise the funds, and courthouse property evaluations and surveys. Upon Mather's death in 1929, the new NPS director, Horace M. Albright also decided that the federal agency would only accept vacant land, so even elderly residents would be forced to leave. Thus, many families and entire communities were forced to vacate portions of the Blue Ridge Mountains in eight Virginia counties. Although the Skyline Drive right-of-way was purchased from owners without condemnation, the costs of the acreage purchased trebled over initial estimates and the acreage decreased to what Carson called a "fish-bone" shape and others a "shoestring". Although Byrd and Carson convinced Congress to reduce the minimum size of Shenandoah Park to just over to eliminate some high-priced lands, in 1933 newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to also create the Blue Ridge Parkway to connect to then-under-construction Skyline Drive on the Shenandoah National Park ridgeline, which required additional condemnations.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: When many families continued to refuse to sell their land in 1932 and 1933, proponents changed tactics. Freeman hired social worker Miriam Sizer to teach at a summer school he had set up near one of his workers' communities and asked her to write a report about the conditions in which they lived. Although later discredited, the report depicted the local population as very poor and inbred and was soon used to support forcible evictions and burning of former cabins so residents would not sneak back. University of Chicago sociologists Fay-Cooper Cole and Mandel Sherman described how the small valley communities or hollows had existed "without contact with law or government" for centuries, which some analogized to a popular comic strip Li'l Abner and his fictional community, Dogpatch. In 1933, Sherman and journalist Thomas Henry published "Hollow Folk" drawing pitying eyes to local conditions and "hillbillies." As in many rural areas of the time, most remote homesteads in the Shenandoah lacked electricity and often running water, as well as access to schools and health facilities during many months. However, Hoover had hired experienced rural teacher Christine Vest to teach near his summer home (and who believed the other reports exaggerated, as did Episcopal missionary teachers in other Blue Ridge areas).


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Carson had had ambitions to become governor in 1929 and 1933, but Byrd instead selected George C. Peery of Virginia's southwestern region to succeed easterner Pollard. After winning the election, Peery and Carson's successor would establish Virginia's state park system, although plans to relocate reluctant residents kept changing and basically failed. Carson had hoped to head that new state agency, but was not selected because of his growing differences with Byrd, over fees owed his brother and especially over the evictions that began in late 1933 against his advice but pursuant to new federal policies and that garnered much negative publicity.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Most of the reluctant families came from the park's central counties (Madison, Page, and Rappahannock), not the northern counties nearest Byrd's and Carson's bases, or from the southern end where residents could see tourism's benefits at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello since the 1920s, as well as the jobs available in the Shenandoah and new Blue Ridge projects. In 1931 and 1932, residents were allowed to petition the state agency to stay another year to gather crops, etc. However, some refused to cooperate to any extent, others wanted to continue to use resources now protected (including timber or homes and gardens vacated by others), and many found the permit process arbitrary. Businessman Robert H. Via filed suit against the condemnations in 1934 but did not prevail (and ended up moving to Pennsylvania and never cashed his condemnation check).


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Carson announced his resignation from his unpaid job effective in December 1934. As one of his final acts, Carson wrote the new NPS director, Arno B. Cammerer, urging that 60 people over 60 years of age whose plots were not visible from the new Skyline Drive not be evicted. When evictions kept creating negative publicity in 1935, photographer Arthur Rothstein coordinated with the "Hollow Folk" authors and then went to document the conditions they claimed.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The creation of the park had immediate benefits to some Virginians. During the Great Depression, many young men received training and jobs through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The first CCC camp in Virginia was established in the George Washington National Forest near Luray, and Governor Pollard quickly filled his initial quota of 5,000 workers. About 1,000 men and boys worked on Skyline Drive, and about 100,000 worked in Virginia during the agency's existence. In Shenandoah Park, CCC crews removed many of the dead chestnut trees whose skeletons marred views in the new park, as well as constructed trails and facilities. Tourism revenues also skyrocketed. On the other hand, CCC crews were assigned to burn and destroy some cabins in the park, to prevent residents from coming back. Also, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes who had jurisdiction over the NPS and partial jurisdiction over the CCC, tried to use his authority to force Byrd to cooperate on other New Deal projects.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Shenandoah National Park was finally established on December 26, 1935, and soon construction began on the Blue Ridge Parkway that Byrd wanted. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formally opened Shenandoah National Park on July 3, 1936. Eventually, about 40 people (on the "Ickes list") were allowed to live out their lives on land that became the park. One of them was George Freeman Pollock, whose residence Killahevlin was later listed on the National Register, and whose Skyland Resort reopened under a concessionaire in 1937. Carson also donated significant land; a mountain in the park is now named in his honor and signs acknowledge his contributions. The last grandmother resident was Annie Lee Bradley Shenk. NPS employees had watched and cared for her since 1950; she died in 1979 at age 92. Most others left quietly. 85-year-old Hezekiah Lam explained, "I ain't so crazy about leavin' these hills but I never believed in bein' ag'in (against) the Government. I signed everythin' they asked me."


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: In the early 1930s, the National Park Service began planning the park facilities and envisioned separate provisions for blacks and whites. At that time, in Jim Crow Virginia, racial segregation was the order of the day. In its transfer of the parkland to the federal government, Virginia initially attempted to ban African Americans entirely from the park, but settled for enforcing its segregation laws in the park's facilities.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: By the 1930s, there were several concessions operated by private firms within the area that would become the park, some going back to the late 19th century. These early private facilities at Skyland Resort, Panorama Resort, and Swift Run Gap were operated only for whites. By 1937, the Park Service accepted a bid from Virginia Sky-Line Company to take over the existing facilities and add new lodges, cabins, and other amenities, including Big Meadows Lodge. Under their plan, all the sites in the parks, save one, were for "whites only". Their plan included a separate facility for African Americans at Lewis Mountain—a picnic ground, a smaller lodge, cabins and a campground. The site opened in 1939, and it was substantially inferior to the other park facilities. By then, however, the Interior Department was increasingly anxious to eliminate segregation from all parks. Pinnacles picnic ground was selected to be the initial integrated site in the Shenandoah, but Virginia Sky-Line Company continued to balk, and distributed maps showing Lewis Mountain as the only site for African Americans. During World War II, concessions closed and park usage plunged. But once the War ended, in December 1945, the NPS mandated that all concessions in all national parks were to be desegregated. In October 1947 the dining rooms of Lewis Mountain and Panorama were integrated and by early 1950, the mandate was fully accomplished.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Particularly after the 1960s, park operations broadened from nature-focused to include social history. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club had restored some cabins beginning in the 1940s, and made them available to overnight hikers. Some displaced residents (and their descendants) created the Children of the Shenandoah to lobby for more balanced presentations.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: In the 1990s, the park hired cultural resource specialists and conducted an archeological inventory of existing structures, the Survey of Rural Mountain Settlement. Eventually, the park's new focus on cultural resources coincided with agitation from a descendant's organization known as the Children of Shenandoah, which resulted in the removal of questionable interpretive displays. Hikes and tours that explained the social history of the displaced mountain people began.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The park is best known for Skyline Drive, a road that runs the length of the park along the ridge of the mountains. of the Appalachian Trail are also in the park. In total, there are over of trails within the park. There is also horseback riding, camping, bicycling, and a number of waterfalls. The Skyline Drive is the first National Park Service road east of the Mississippi River listed as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also designated as a National Scenic Byway.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Shenandoah National Park offers of backcountry and wilderness camping. While in the backcountry, campers must use a "Leave No Trace" policy that includes burying excrement and not building campfires.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Backcountry campers must also be careful of wildlife such as bears and venomous snakes. Campers must suspend their food from trees while not in use in "bear bags" or park-approved bear canisters to prevent unintentionally feeding the bears, who then become habituated to humans and their food and therefore dangerous. All animals are protected by federal law.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Lodges are located at Skyland and Big Meadows. The park's Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center is also located at Big Meadows. Another visitor center is located at Dickey Ridge. Campgrounds are located at Mathews Arm, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, and Loft Mountain.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Rapidan Camp, the restored presidential fishing retreat Herbert Hoover built on the Rapidan River in 1929, is accessed by a round-trip hike on Mill Prong Trail, which begins on the Skyline Drive at Milam Gap (Mile 52.8). The NPS also offers guided van trips that leave from the Byrd Center at Big Meadows.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Shenandoah National Park is one of the most dog-friendly in the national park system. The campgrounds all allow dogs, and dogs are allowed on almost all of the trails including the Appalachian Trail, if kept on leash (6 feet or shorter). Dogs are not allowed on ten trails: Fox Hollow Trail, Stony Man Trail, Limberlost Trail, Post Office Junction to Old Rag Shelter, Old Rag Ridge Trail, Old Rag Saddle Trail, Dark Hollow Falls Trail, Story of the Forest Trail, Bearfence Mountain Trail, Frazier Discovery Trail. These ten trails fall short of a total of 20 miles of the 500 miles of trails of the Shenandoah National Park.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Beginning at mile 50.7 of the Skyline Drive near the Byrd Visitor Center, Dark Hollow Falls Trail leads downhill beside Hogcamp Branch to Dark Hollow Falls, a 70-foot cascade. The distance from the trailhead to the base of the falls is 0.7 mile, although the trail continues beyond that point, crossing the creek and connecting with the Rose River fire road. Various fauna can be viewed along the trail, including occasional sightings of black bears and timber rattlesnakes. While the trail is relatively short, parts of it are steep and may prove challenging to some visitors. There is no view from the brink of the falls, and slippery rocks make it inadvisable to leave the trail.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: According to the Köppen climate classification system, Shenandoah National Park has a humid continental climate with warm summers and no dry season ("Dfb"). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the plant hardiness zone at Big Meadows Visitor Center (3514 ft / 1071 m) is 6a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -7.1 °F (-21.7 °C).


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: The climate of the park and its flora and fauna are typical for mountainous regions of the eastern Mid-Atlantic woodland, while a large portion of common species are also typical of ecosystems at lower altitudes. A. W. Kuchler's potential natural vegetation type for the park is Appalachian oak ("104") within an eastern hardwood forest vegetation form ("25"), also known as a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Pines predominate on the southwestern faces of some of the southernmost hillsides, where an occasional prickly pear cactus may also grow naturally. In contrast, some of the northeastern aspects are most likely to have small but dense stands of moisture loving hemlocks and mosses in abundance. Other commonly found plants include oak, hickory, chestnut, maple, tulip poplar, mountain laurel, milkweed, daisies, and many species of ferns. The once predominant American chestnut tree was effectively brought to extinction by a fungus known as the chestnut blight during the 1930s; though the tree continues to grow in the park, it does not reach maturity and dies back before it can reproduce. Various species of oaks superseded the chestnuts and became the dominant tree species. Gypsy moth infestations beginning in the early 1990s began to erode the dominance of the oak forests as the moths would primarily consume the leaves of oak trees. Though the gypsy moths seem to have abated, they continue to affect the forest and have destroyed almost ten percent of the oak groves.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Mammals include black bear, coyote, striped skunk, spotted skunk, raccoon, beaver, river otter, opossum, woodchuck, bobcat, two species of foxes, white-tailed deer, and eastern cottontail rabbit. Though unsubstantiated, there have been some reported sightings of cougar in remote areas of the park. Over 200 species of birds make their home in the park for at least part of the year. About thirty live in the park year round, including the barred owl, Carolina chickadee, red-tailed hawk, and wild turkey. The peregrine falcon was reintroduced into the park in the mid-1990s and by the end of the 20th century there were numerous nesting pairs in the park. Thirty-two species of fish have been documented in the park, including brook trout, longnose and eastern blacknose dace, and the bluehead chub.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: Park rangers organize several programs from spring to fall. These include ranger-led hikes, as well as discussions of the history, flora, and fauna. Shenandoah Live is an online series where listeners may chat live with rangers and learn about some of the park's features. Rangers discuss a wide range of topics while answering questions and talking with experts from the field.


title: Shenandoah National Park

text: In 2014, under the leadership of Superintendent Jim Northup, Shenandoah National Park established an Artist-in-Residence Program that is administered by the Shenandoah National Park Trust, the park's philanthropic partner. Photographer Sandy Long was selected as the park's first artist-in-residence. The results of Long's residency were featured in the photography exhibit "Wild Beauty: The Artful Nature of Shenandoah National Park" held at the Looking Glass Art Gallery in the historic Hawley Silk Mill, in Hawley, Pennsylvania.


title: SC Cambuur

text: SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 Eerste Divisie title. The home ground of the club is the 10,000-capacity Cambuur Stadion. The club usually plays in yellow shirts and blue shorts. The origin of the club's emblem is the coat of arms of the House of Cammingha, a Frisian noble family.


title: SC Cambuur

text: Founded in 1964, Cambuur has played a total of seven seasons in the top-flight Eredivisie. In the 1980s and 1990s, the club was a regular contender in the Eerste Divisie playoffs. Cambuur won the Eerste Divisie title in 1992 and gained promotion to the Eredivisie, but was relegated two seasons later in 1994. In 1998, the club was promoted again to the Eredivisie, but again was relegated after just two years in the top-flight in 2000. Troubled times followed which brought the "folk club" close to bankruptcy in 2005. The rebuilding started in 2006 and since 2010, the club has been in a relatively stable financial condition.


title: SC Cambuur

text: In 2009, the club almost won the playoff against Eredivisie side Roda JC, only losing on penalties. In 2010, the club came in second, again just narrowly missing promotion. Cambuur welcomed during these play-offs more than 40,000 spectators in just two weeks. Another estimated 7,000 fans watched the final play-off match against Roda on a large screen in the city centre of the city of Leeuwarden. More than 1.4 million people watched the final play-off match on television, which appeared to be another record for a play-off promotion match in the Netherlands. In total, more than 4.5 million people watched the play-off matches between Cambuur, PEC Zwolle and Roda JC on television that year.


title: SC Cambuur

text: Cambuur won the Eerste Divisie championship in the 2012–13 season, awarding the club promotion to the Eredivisie for the 2013–14 season. On 1 May 2016, Cambuur were relegated to the Eerste Divisie after losing 6–2 away to PSV.


title: SC Cambuur

text: Cambuur were denied promotion to the 2020–21 Eredivisie as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being in first place of the 2019–20 Eerste Divisie.


title: SC Cambuur

text: Cambuur has a group of ultras, known as the M.I.-Side, who stand on the north and south stands at the Cambuur Stadion. The name derives from the street names in which the stands are built: "M" stands for Marathonstraat and "I" for Insulindestraat. Most of the hardcore fans of Cambuur are sitting close to the stand of the away fans on the northern side of the stadium. They are among the most notorious in the Netherlands. In the 2009–10 season, the average attendance was 8,600 fans per game, and more than 6,500 season tickets were sold. That was a new record for Cambuur, as these numbers were achieved while the club was in the second division but even higher than when it played in the Eredivisie. In the 2009–10 season, the club sold out six regular season matches with 10,000 fans per game, another milestone for the Leeuwarden-based club. Never before in the second division it had sold out that many regular season matches.


title: SC Cambuur

text: Below is a table with Cambuur's domestic results since the introduction of professional football in 1956.


title: SC Cambuur

text: The players below had senior international cap(s) for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed represented their countries while playing for SC Cambuur.


title: Surety

text: In finance, a surety , surety bond or guaranty involves a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. Usually, a surety bond or surety is a promise by a surety or guarantor to pay one party (the "obligee") a certain amount if a second party (the "principal") fails to meet some obligation, such as fulfilling the terms of a contract. The surety bond protects the obligee against losses resulting from the principal's failure to meet the obligation. The person or company providing the promise is also known as a "surety" or as a "guarantor".


title: Surety

text: European surety bonds can be issued by banks and surety companies. If issued by banks they are called "Bank Guaranties" in English and "Cautions" in French, if issued by a surety company they are called surety / bonds. They pay out cash to the limit of guaranty in the event of the default of the Principal to uphold his obligations to the Obligee, without reference by the Obligee to the Principal and against the Obligee's sole verified statement of claim to the bank.


title: Surety

text: Through a surety bond, the surety agrees to uphold—for the benefit of the obligee—the contractual promises (obligations) made by the principal if the principal fails to uphold its promises to the obligee. The contract is formed so as to induce the obligee to contract with the principal, i.e., to demonstrate the credibility of the principal and guarantee performance and completion per the terms of the agreement.


title: Surety

text: The principal will pay a premium (usually annually) in exchange for the bonding company's financial strength to extend surety credit. In the event of a claim, the surety will investigate it. If it turns out to be a valid claim, the surety will pay and then turn to the principal for reimbursement of the amount paid on the claim and any legal fees incurred. In some cases, the principal has a cause of action against another party for the principal's loss, and the surety will have a right of subrogation "step into the shoes of" the principal and recover damages to make up for the payment to the principal.


title: Surety

text: If the principal defaults and the surety turns out to be insolvent, the purpose of the bond is rendered nugatory. Thus, the surety on a bond is usually an insurance company whose solvency is verified by private audit, governmental regulation, or both.


title: Surety

text: A key term in nearly every surety bond is the "penal sum". This is a specified amount of money which is the maximum amount that the surety will be required to pay in the event of the principal's default. This allows the surety to assess the risk involved in giving the bond; the premium charged is determined accordingly.


title: Surety

text: Surety bonds also occur in other situations, for example, to secure the proper performance of fiduciary duties by persons in positions of private or public trust.


title: Surety

text: A surety most typically requires a guarantor when the ability of the primary obligor, or "principal", to perform its obligations to the obligee (counterparty) under a contract is in question or when there is some public or private interest that requires protection from the consequences of the principal's default or delinquency. In most common law jurisdictions, a contract of suretyship is subject to the Statute of Frauds (or its equivalent local laws) and is unenforceable unless it is recorded in writing and signed by the surety and by the principal.


title: Surety

text: The SFAA published US and Canadian H1 surety results on September 5, 2019. Direct written premium totaled $3.5 billion and a direct loss ratio of 18.2%, highlighting strong profitability in the surety industry. The industry remains highly fragmented with over 100 companies directly writing surety bonds with new market entrants entering or reentering on a fairly common basis.


title: Surety

text: In 2008, the New York Times wrote "posting bail for people accused of crimes in exchange for a fee, is all but unknown in the rest of the world".


title: Surety

text: The Miller Act may require a surety bond for contractors on certain federal construction projects; in addition, many states have adopted their own "Little Miller Acts".


title: Surety

text: The surety transaction will typically involve a producer; the National Association of Surety Bond Producers (NASBP) is a trade association that represents such producers.


title: Surety

text: If the surety is required to pay or perform due to the principal's failure to do so, the law will usually give the surety a right of subrogation, allowing the surety to "step into the shoes of" the principal and use the surety's contractual rights to recover the cost of making payment or performing on the principal's behalf, even in the absence of an express agreement to that effect between the surety and the principal.


title: Surety

text: Traditionally, a distinction was made between a suretyship arrangement and that of a guaranty. In both cases, the lender gained the ability to collect from another person in the event of a default by the principal. However, the surety's liability was joint and primary with the principal: the creditor could attempt to collect the debt from either party independently of the other. The guarantor's liability was ancillary and derivative: the creditor first had to attempt to collect the debt from the debtor before looking to the guarantor for payment. Many jurisdictions have abolished that distinction, in effect putting all guarantors in the position of the surety.


title: Surety

text: Contract bonds, used heavily in the construction industry by general contractors as a part of construction law, are a guaranty from a surety to a project's owner (obligee) that a general contractor (principal) will adhere to the provisions of a contract. The Associated General Contractors of America, a United States trade association, provides some information for their members on these bonds. Contract bonds are not the same thing as contractor's license bonds, which may be required as part of a license.


title: Surety

text: Included in this category are bid bonds (guaranty that a contractor will enter into a contract if awarded the bid); performance bonds (guaranty that a contractor will perform the work as specified by the contract); payment bonds (guaranty that a contractor will pay for services, particularly subcontractors and materials and particularly for federal projects where a mechanic's lien is not available); and maintenance bonds (guaranty that a contractor will provide facility repair and upkeep for a specified period of time). There are also miscellaneous contract bonds that do not fall within the categories above, the most common of which are subdivision and supply bonds. Bonds are typically required for federal government projects by the Miller Act and state projects under "little Miller Acts". In federal government, the contract language is determined by the government. In private contracts the parties may freely contract the language and requirements. Standard form contracts provided by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) make bonding optional. If the parties agree to require bonding, additional forms such as the performance bond contract AIA Document 311 provide common terms.


title: Surety

text: Losses arise when contractors do not complete their contracts, which often arises when the contractor goes out of business. Contractors often go out of business; for example, a study by BizMiner found that of 853,372 contracts in the United States in 2002, 28.5% had exited business by 2004. The average failure rate of contractors in the United States from 1989 to 2002 was 14% versus 12% for other industries.


title: Surety

text: Prices are as a percentage of the penal sum (the maximum that the surety is liable for) ranging from around 1% to 5%, with the most credit-worthy contracts paying the least. The bond typically includes an indemnity agreement whereby the principal contractor or others agree to indemnify the surety if there is a loss. In the United States, the Small Business Administration may guaranty surety bonds; in 2013 the eligible contract tripled to $6.5 million.


title: Surety

text: Commercial bonds represent the broad range of bond types that do not fit the classification of contract. They are generally divided into four sub-types: license and permit, court, public official, and miscellaneous.


title: Surety

text: License and permit bonds are required by certain federal, state, or municipal governments as prerequisites to receiving a license or permit to engage in certain business activities. These bonds function as a guaranty from a Surety to a government and its constituents (obligee) that a company (principal) will comply with an underlying statute, state law, municipal ordinance, or regulation.


title: Surety

text: Court bonds are those bonds prescribed by statute and relate to the courts. They are further broken down into judicial bonds and fiduciary bonds. Judicial bonds arise out of litigation and are posted by parties seeking court remedies or defending against legal actions seeking court remedies. Fiduciary, or probate, bonds are filed in probate courts and courts that exercise equitable jurisdiction; they guaranty that persons whom such courts have entrusted with the care of others' property will perform their specified duties faithfully.


title: Surety

text: Examples of judicial bonds include appeal bonds, supersedeas bonds, attachment bonds, replevin bonds, injunction bonds, mechanic's lien bonds, and bail bonds. Examples of fiduciary bonds include administrator, guardian, and trustee bonds.


title: Surety

text: Public official bonds guarantee the honesty and faithful performance of those people who are elected or appointed to positions of public trust. Examples of officials sometimes requiring bonds include: notaries public, treasurers, commissioners, judges, town clerks, law enforcement officers, and credit union volunteers.


title: Surety

text: Miscellaneous bonds are those that do not fit well under the other commercial surety bond classifications. They often support private relationships and unique business needs. Examples of significant miscellaneous bonds include: lost securities bonds, hazardous waste removal bonds, credit enhancement financial guaranty bonds, self–insured workers compensation guaranty bonds, and wage and welfare/fringe benefit (trade union) bonds.


title: Surety

text: Business service bonds are surety bonds which seek to safeguard a bonded entity's clients from theft. These bonds are common for home health care, janitorial service, and other companies who routinely enter their homes or businesses. While these bonds are often confused with fidelity bonds, they are much different. A business service bond allows the bonded entity's client to claim on the surety bond when the client's property has been stolen by the bonded entity. However, the claim is only valid if the bonded entity's employee is convicted of the crime in a court of law. Additionally, if the surety company pays a claim on the bond, they would seek to be reimbursed by the bonded entity for all costs and expenses incurred as a result of the claim. This differs from a traditional fidelity bond where the insured (bonded entity) would be responsible for paying the deductible only in the case of covered claim up to the policy limit.


title: Surety

text: The penal bond is another type of the bond that was historically used to assure the performance of a contract. They are to be distinguished from surety bonds in that they did not require any party to act as surety—having an obligee and obligor sufficed. One historically significant type of penal bond, the penal bond with conditional defeasance, printed the bond (the obligation to pay) on the front of the document and the condition which would nullify that promise to pay (referred to as the indenture of defeasance—essentially, the contractual obligation) on the back of the document. The penal bond, although an artifact of historical interest, fell out of use by the early part of the nineteenth century in the United States.


title: Surety

text: In certain situations, an electronic surety bond (ESB) can be used in lieu of a traditional paper surety bond. In 2016, the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry (NMLS) initiated a system for the issuance, tracking, and maintenance of ESBs in support of some licenses being managed through the NMLS. This new online system speeds bond issuance and decreases paperwork, among other potential benefits.


title: Surety

text: The NMLS ESB initiative began on January 25, 2016, when surety bond companies and providers were able to begin the account creation process. The second phase began on September 12, 2016, when an initial group of nine state regulatory agencies began accepting ESBs for certain license types. This initial rollout included agencies in Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.


title: Surety

text: On January 23, 2017, another group of twelve state agencies were added to allow ESB capability for certain license types. This group included agencies in Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and South Dakota. Minor upgrades were also completed early in 2017. The types of licenses transitioning to ESBs and the implementation timelines vary by licensing agency. The NMLS plans to roll out additional state agencies and update the system with added functionality over time.


title: Surety

text: Individual surety bonds represent the original form of suretyship. The earliest known record of a contract of suretyship is a Mesopotamian tablet written around 2750 BC. Evidence of individual surety bonds exists in the Code of Hammurabi and in Babylon, Persia, Assyria, Rome, Carthage, among the ancient Hebrews, and (later) in England.


title: Surety

text: The Code of Hammurabi, written around 1790 BC, provides the earliest surviving known mention of suretyship in a written legal code.


title: Surety

text: Suretyship was not always accomplished through the execution of a bond. Frankpledge, for example, was a system of joint suretyship prevalent in Medieval England which did not rely upon the execution of bonds.


title: Surety

text: The first corporate surety, the Guarantee Society of London (whose insurance business ultimately merged into Aviva), dates from 1840.


title: Surety

text: In 1865, the Fidelity Insurance Company became the first US corporate surety company, but the venture soon failed.


title: Surety

text: In 1894 congress passed the Heard Act which required surety bonds on all federally funded projects. In 1908 the Surety Association of America, now the Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA), was formed to regulate the industry, promote public understanding of and confidence in the surety industry, and to provide a forum for the discussion of problems of common interest to its members. SFAA is a licensed rating or advisory organization in all states and is designated by state insurance departments as a statistical agent for the reporting of fidelity and surety experience. The SFAA is a trade association consisting of companies that collectively write the majority of surety and fidelity bonds in the United States. Then in 1935 the Miller Act was passed, replacing the Heard Act. The Miller Act is the current federal law mandating the use of surety bonds on federally funded projects.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was an American businessman and executive. Rozelle served as the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly thirty years, from January 1960 until his retirement in November 1989. He is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: During his tenure, Rozelle saw the NFL grow from 12 teams to 28, oversaw the creation of large television-rights deals and the creation of "Monday Night Football" in 1970, oversaw the 1970 AFL–NFL merger and the creation of the Super Bowl, and helped the NFL move from a twelve-game schedule to a sixteen-game schedule. By the time of his retirement, many people considered him the most powerful commissioner in sports. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: Born in South Gate, California, Rozelle grew up in neighboring Lynwood during the Great Depression. He graduated from Compton High School in 1944, with Duke Snider, lettering in tennis and basketball. He was drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1944 and served 18 months in the Pacific on an oil tanker.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: Rozelle entered Compton Community College in 1946. While there he worked as the student athletic news director and also worked part-time for the Los Angeles Rams as a public relations assistant. Pete Newell, head coach for the University of San Francisco Dons basketball team, came to Compton in 1948 for a recruiting visit. Impressed by Rozelle, Newell helped arrange for him to get a full scholarship to work in a similar capacity at USF.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: Rozelle enrolled at USF that year and worked as a student publicist for the USF Dons athletic department. In addition to promoting the school's football team he was able to draw national attention to the Dons' 1949 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship basketball team. After graduating from USF in 1950 he was hired by the school as the full-time athletic news director.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: In 1952, he re-joined the Rams as a PR specialist. Leaving after three years, he held a series of public relations jobs in southern California, including marketing the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for a Los Angeles-based company. In 1957, he returned to the Rams, a disorganized, unprofitable team, lost in the growing L.A. market, as their general manager. In spite of continued struggles on the field, including a league-worst 2–10 record in 1959, he turned them into a business success in just three years.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: After Bert Bell's death in October , the 33-year-old Rozelle was the surprise choice for his replacement as NFL commissioner. According to Howard Cosell in his 1985 book "I Never Played the Game", the owners took 23 ballots before settling on Rozelle as NFL Commissioner at a January 26, 1960, meeting.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: When he took office following the season, there were twelve teams in the NFL playing a twelve-game schedule to frequently half-empty stadiums, and only a few teams had television contracts. The NFL in was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930s. One of Rozelle's early accomplishments was helping the league adopt profit-sharing of gate and television revenues. The revenue-sharing was a major factor in stabilizing the NFL and guaranteeing the success of its small-market teams. Another important contribution was Rozelle's success in negotiating large television contracts to broadcast every NFL game played each season. In doing so, he deftly played one television network against the other. In early 1962, Rozelle was re-elected to a five-year contract to remain as commissioner, with a salary continuing at $50,000 per year. Less than five months later, he was granted a $10,000 bonus (for ) and his annual salary was increased by $10,000 to $60,000.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Rozelle wrestled with the decision of whether to cancel that Sunday's games. Rozelle and White House press secretary Pierre Salinger had been classmates at the University of San Francisco, so Rozelle consulted with him. Salinger urged Rozelle to play the games, so he agreed for the schedule to proceed. Rozelle felt that way, saying: "It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy's game. He thrived on competition." After their win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, players on the Washington Redskins asked Coach Bill McPeak to send the game ball to the White House, thanking Rozelle for allowing the games to be played that weekend, saying that they were "playing...for President Kennedy and in his memory." There were players and news outlets that disagreed with the decision, and Rozelle subsequently thought it might have been wiser to cancel those games. The American Football League (AFL) and most major colleges did not play games that weekend.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: Citing his "aptitude for conciliation" with the league's owners, his work in expanding the NFL, and his crackdown on player gambling, "Sports Illustrated" named Rozelle their "Sportsman of the Year" for 1963.


title: Pete Rozelle

text: By , the rival American Football League obtained a new NBC-TV contract and had signed a new superstar in Joe Namath. As the leagues battled to sign top talent, bonuses and salaries grew dramatically, especially after a series of "raids" on each other's talent, both signed and unsigned. The leagues agreed to a merger in 1966. Among the conditions were a common draft and a championship game played between the two league champions first played in early 1967, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which would eventually become known as the Super Bowl. Rozelle led negotiations with AFL and NFL executives to merge the two leagues. In October 1966, he testified in front of Congress and convinced them to allow the merger. Rozelle played an important role in making the Super Bowl the most watched sporting event in the United States.