title: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

text: The freight corridor will cover first 447 km of Ludhiana - Dhari - Khurja section with single electrified track. After this the remaining line will be double track electrified up to Dankuni in West Bengal. This will pass through the important districts of Sahnewal, Doraha, Ludhiana, Sirhind, Rajpura, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Barhan, Tundla, Firozabad, Etawah, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Chandauli. To reduce load over the main line, this line will have many junctions. The proposed junctions on this line are Dhandharikalan, Sirhind, Rajpura, Khalanaur, Khurja, Daudkhan, Tundla, Bhaupur, Prempur, Karchhana, Jeonathpur, Mughalsarai Junction railway station, Ganjkhwaja, Sasaram, Dehri On Sone, Son Nagar, Gomoh, Andal, Bardhaman and Dankuni (The eastern terminal point).


title: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

text: Built by Alstom at Prayagraj, OCC will house command and control center to monitor all trains and power supply systems on Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. It will be staffed by 150 people and the facility is spread across 4.2 acres.


title: Guttural R

text: Guttural R is the phenomenon whereby a rhotic consonant (an "R-like" sound) is produced in the back of the vocal tract (usually with the uvula) rather than in the front portion thereof and thus as a guttural consonant. Speakers of languages with guttural R typically regard guttural and coronal rhotics (throat-back-R and tongue-tip-R) to be alternative pronunciations of the same phoneme (conceptual sound), despite articulatory differences. Similar consonants are found in other parts of the world, but they often have little to no cultural association or interchangeability with coronal rhotics (such as , , and ) and are (perhaps) not rhotics at all.


title: Guttural R

text: The guttural realization of a lone rhotic consonant is typical in most of what is now France, French-speaking Belgium, most of Germany, large parts of the Netherlands, Denmark, the southern parts of Sweden and southwestern parts of Norway; it is also frequent in Flanders, and among all French- and some German speakers in Switzerland and also in eastern Austria, including Vienna; as well as in Yiddish and hence Ashkenazi Hebrew. German speakers who use the frontal-R now mainly live in the Alps or close by.


title: Guttural R

text: Outside of central Europe, it also occurs as the normal pronunciation of one of two rhotic phonemes (usually replacing an older alveolar trill) in standard European Portuguese and in other parts of Portugal, particularly the Azores, various parts of Brazil, among minorities of other Portuguese-speaking regions, and in parts of Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.


title: Guttural R

text: The r letter in French was historically pronounced as a trill, as was the case in Latin and as is still the case in Italian and Spanish. In Northern France, including Paris, the alveolar trill was gradually replaced with the uvular trill during the end of the 18th century. Molière's "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme", published in 1670, has a professor describe the sound of as an alveolar trill (Act II, Scene IV). It has since evolved, in Paris, to a voiced uvular fricative or approximant .


title: Guttural R

text: The alveolar trill was still the common sound of r in Southern France and in Quebec at the beginning of the 20th century, having been gradually replaced since then, due to Parisian influence, by the uvular pronunciation. The alveolar trill is now mostly associated, even in Southern France and in Quebec, with older speakers and rural settings.


title: Guttural R

text: The alveolar trill is still used in French singing in classical choral and opera. It is also used in other French speaking countries as well as on French oversea territories such as French Polynesia due to the influence of other native languages which use the trill.


title: Guttural R

text: Standard versions of Portuguese have two rhotic phonemes, which contrast only between vowels. In older Portuguese, these were the alveolar flap (written ) and the alveolar trill (written ). In other positions, only is written in Modern Portuguese, but it can stand for either sound, depending on the exact position. The distribution of these sounds is mostly the same as in other Iberian languages, i.e.:


title: Guttural R

text: In the 19th century, the uvular trill penetrated the upper classes in the region of Lisbon in Portugal as the realization of the alveolar trill. By the 20th century, it had replaced the alveolar trill in most of the country's urban areas and started to give way to the voiced uvular fricative . Many northern dialects, like Transmontano, Portuese (which is heard in parts of Aveiro), Minhoto, and much of Beirão retain the alveolar trill. In the rural regions, the alveolar trill is still present, but because most of the country's population currently lives in or near the cities and owing to the mass media, the guttural is now dominant in Portugal.


title: Guttural R

text: The dialect of the fishermen of Setúbal used the voiced uvular fricative for all instances of "r" – word start, intervocalic, postconsonantal and syllable ending. This same pronunciation is attested in people with rhotacism, in a new developing variety of young people in São Tomean Portuguese (Bouchard, 2017), and in non-native speakers of French or German origin.


title: Guttural R

text: In Africa, the classical alveolar trill is mostly still dominant, due to separate development from European Portuguese.


title: Guttural R

text: In Brazil, the normal pronunciation of is voiceless, either as a voiceless velar fricative , voiceless uvular fricative or a voiceless glottal fricative . In many dialects, this voiceless sound not only replaces all occurrences of the traditional trill, but is also used for all that is "not" followed by a vowel (i.e. when at the end of a syllable, which uses a flap in other dialects). The resulting distribution can be described as:


title: Guttural R

text: In the three southernmost states, however, the alveolar trill remains frequent, and the distribution of trill and flap is as in Portugal. Some speakers use a guttural fricative instead of a trill, like the majority of Brazilians, but continue to use the flap before consonants (e.g. in "quarto") and between vowels (e.g. in caro). Among others, this includes many speakers in the city of São Paulo and some neighboring cities, though an alveolar approximant is also common, not only in the city, but the approximant is the dominant articulation in the São Paulo state, outside the capital, the most populous state in Brazil. The "caipira" dialect has the alveolar approximant in the same position.


title: Guttural R

text: In areas where at the end of a word would be a voiceless fricative, the tendency in colloquial speech is to pronounce this sound very lightly, or omit it entirely. Some speakers may omit it entirely in verb infinitives ("amar" "to love", "comer" "to eat", "dormir" "to sleep") but pronounce it lightly in some other words ending in ("mar" "sea", "mulher" "woman", "amor" "love"). Speakers in Rio often resist this tendency, pronouncing a strong fricative or at the end of such words.


title: Guttural R

text: The voiceless fricative may be partly or fully voiced if it occurs directly before a voiced sound, especially in its weakest form of , which is normally voiced to . For example, a speaker whose sounds like will often pronounce "surdo" "deaf" as or even , with a very slight epenthetic vowel that mimics the preceding vowel.


title: Guttural R

text: In most Spanish-speaking territories and regions, guttural or uvular realizations of are considered a speech defect. Generally the single flap , spelled "r" as in "cara", undergoes no defective pronunciations, but the alveolar trill in "rata" or "perro" is one of the last sounds learned by children and uvularization is likely among individuals who fail to achieve the alveolar articulation. This said, back variants for (, or ) are widespread in rural Puerto Rican Spanish and in the dialect of Ponce, whereas they are heavily stigmatized in the dialect of the capital. To a lesser extent, velar variants of are found in some rural Cuban (Yatera, Guantánamo Province) and Dominican vernaculars (El Cibao, eastern rural regions of the country) In the 1937 parsley massacre, Dominican troops attacked Haitians in Cibao and the northwestern border. The popular name of the massacre comes from the shibboleth applied to distinguish Dominicans from Haitians: the suspects were ordered to name some parsley (). If they used a French or Haitian Creole pronunciation for or , they would be executed.


title: Guttural R

text: In the Basque-speaking areas of Spain, the uvular articulation has a higher prevalence among bilinguals than among Spanish monolinguals.


title: Guttural R

text: Guttural realization of is mostly considered a speech defect in Italian (cf. ), but the so-called "r moscia" ('limp' or 'lifeless "r"', an umbrella term for realizations of considered defective), which is sometimes uvular, is quite common in some northern areas, such as Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.


title: Guttural R

text: As with all other Romance languages, the alveolar trill is the original way to pronounce the letter r in Occitan, as it was in Latin. Nowadays, the uvular trill and the Voiced uvular fricative or approximant are common in some Occitan dialects (Provence, Auvergne, Alps, Limousin). The dialects of Languedoc and Gascony also have these realizations, but it is generally considered to be influence from French and therefore rejected from the standard versions of these dialects.


title: Guttural R

text: Breton, spoken in Brittany (France), is a Celtic rather than Romance language, but is heavily influenced by French. It retains an alveolar trill in some dialects, like in Léon and Morbihan, but most dialects now have the same rhotic as French, .


title: Guttural R

text: The uvular rhotic is most common in Central German dialects and in Standard German. Many Low Franconian, Low Saxon, and Upper German varieties have also adopted it with others maintaining the alveolar trill (). The development of uvular rhotics in these regions is not entirely understood, but a common theory is that these languages have done so because of French influence, though the reason for uvular rhotics in modern European French itself is not well understood (see above).


title: Guttural R

text: In modern Dutch, quite a few different rhotic sounds are used. In Flanders, the usual rhotic is an alveolar trill, but the uvular rhotic does occur, mostly in the province of Limburg, in Ghent and in Brussels. In the Netherlands, the uvular rhotic is the dominant rhotic in the southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg, having become so in the early twentieth century. In the rest of the country, the situation is more complicated. The uvular rhotic is dominant in the western agglomeration Randstad, including cities like Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht (the dialect of Amsterdam conversely tends to use an alveolar rhotic, but the uvular is becoming increasingly common). The uvular rhotic is also used in some major cities such as Leeuwarden (Stadsfries). Outside of these uvular rhotic core areas, the alveolar trill is common. People learning Dutch as a foreign language also tend to use the alveolar trill because it contrasts better with the voiceless velar fricative in Dutch. The Afrikaans language of South Africa also uses an alveolar trill for its rhotic, except in the non-urban rural regions around Cape Town, chiefly in the town of Malmesbury, Western Cape, where it is uvular (called a bry). Some Afrikaans speakers from other areas also bry, either as a result of ancestry from the Malmesbury region or from difficulty pronouncing the alveolar trill.


title: Guttural R

text: In the Dutch Low Saxon area there are several cities which have the uvular rhotic: Steenwijk, Kampen, Zwolle and Deventer. In IJsselmuiden near Kampen the uvular r can also be heard. In the countryside the alveolar trill is common.


title: Guttural R

text: Although the first standardized pronunciation dictionary by Theodor Siebs prescribed an alveolar pronunciation, most varieties of Standard German are now spoken with a uvular rhotic, usually a fricative or approximant , rather than a trill . The alveolar pronunciation continues to be used in some Standard German varieties, now especially in the south of German-speaking Europe. It also remains common in classical singing and, to a lesser degree, in stage acting (see ).


title: Guttural R

text: In German dialects, the alveolar has survived somewhat more widely than in the standard language, though there are several regions, especially in Central German, where even the broadest rural dialects use a uvular R.


title: Guttural R

text: Regardless of whether a uvular or an alveolar pronunciation is used, German post-vocalic "r" is often vocalized to , , or a simple lengthening . This is most common in the syllable coda, as in non-rhotic English, but sometimes occurs before an underlying schwa, too. Vocalization of "r" is rare only in Alemannic and Swabian German.


title: Guttural R

text: Yiddish, the traditional language of Ashkenazi Jews in central and eastern Europe, is derived from Middle High German. As such it presumably used the alveolar R at first, but the uvular R then became predominant in many Yiddish dialects. It is unclear whether this happened through independent developments or under influence from modern German (a language widely spoken in large parts of eastern Europe until 1945).


title: Guttural R

text: Speakers of the traditional English dialect of Northumberland and northern County Durham use a uvular rhotic, known as the "Northumbrian Burr". However, it is no longer used by most contemporary speakers, who generally realize as an alveolar approximant, , in common with other varieties spoken in the English-speaking world.


title: Guttural R

text: Alveolar rhotics predominate in northern Scandinavia. Where they occur, they affect the succeeding alveolars, turning the clusters and , , , retroflex: . Thus the Norwegian word "norsk" is pronounced by speakers with an alveolar flap. This effect is rare in the speech of those using a uvular R ().


title: Guttural R

text: The rhotic used in Denmark is a voiced uvular approximant, and the nearby Swedish ex-Danish regions of Scania, Blekinge, southern Halland as well as a large part of Småland and on the Öland island, use a uvular trill or a uvular fricative.


title: Guttural R

text: To some extent in Östergötland and still quite commonly in Västergötland, a mixture of guttural and rolling rhotic consonants (e.g. and is used, with the pronunciation depending on the position in the word, the stress of the syllable and in some varieties depending on whether the consonant is geminated. The pronunciation remains if a word that is pronounced with a particular rhotic consonant is put into a compound word in a position where that realization would not otherwise occur if it were part of the same stem as the preceding sound. However, in Östergötland the pronunciation tends to gravitate more towards and in Västergötland the realization is commonly voiced.


title: Guttural R

text: Common from the time of Gustav III (Swedish king 1771–1792), who was much inspired by French culture and language, was the use of guttural R in the nobility and in the upper classes of Stockholm. This phenomenon vanished in the 1900s. The last well-known non-Southerner who spoke with a guttural R, and did not have a speech defect, was Anders Gernandt, a popular equitation commentator on TV.


title: Guttural R

text: Most of Norway uses an alveolar flap, but about one third of the inhabitants of Norway, primarily in the South-West region, are now using the uvular rhotic. In the western and southern part of South Norway, the uvular rhotic is still spreading and includes all towns and coastal areas of Agder, most of Rogaland, large parts of Hordaland, and Sogn og Fjordane in and around Florø. The origin was the city of Bergen as well as Kristiansand in the 18th century. Because retroflex consonants are mutations of and other alveolar or dental consonants, the use of a uvular rhotic means an absence of most retroflex consonants.


title: Guttural R

text: In Icelandic, the uvular rhotic-like or is an uncommon deviation from the normal alveolar trill or flap, and is considered a speech disorder.


title: Guttural R

text: In Slavic languages, the alveolar trill predominates, with the use of guttural rhotics seen as defective pronunciation. However, the uvular trill is common among the languages of the Sorbian minority in Saxony, eastern Germany, likely due to German influence. The uvular rhotic may also be found in a small minority in Silesia and other German-influenced regions of Poland and also Slovenia, but is overall quite rare even in these regions. It can also be perceived as an ethnic marker of Jewishness, particularly in Russian where Eastern European Jews often carried the uvular rhotic from their native Yiddish into their pronunciation of Russian.


title: Guttural R

text: In Hebrew, the classical pronunciation associated with the consonant ' () was tapped , and was grammatically treated as an ungeminable phoneme of the language. In most dialects of Hebrew among the Jewish diaspora, it remained a tap or a trill . However, in some Ashkenazi dialects as preserved among Jews in northern Europe it was a uvular rhotic, either a trill or a fricative . This was because many (but not all) native dialects of Yiddish were spoken that way, and their liturgical Hebrew carried the same pronunciation. Some Iraqi Jews also pronounce ' as a guttural , reflecting their dialect of Arabic.


title: Guttural R

text: An apparently unrelated uvular rhotic is believed to have appeared in the Tiberian vocalization of Hebrew, where it is believed to have coexisted with additional non-guttural, emphatic articulations of depending on circumstances.


title: Guttural R

text: Although an Ashkenazi Jew in the Russian Empire, the Zionist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda based his Standard Hebrew on Sephardi Hebrew, originally spoken in Spain, and therefore recommended an alveolar . However, just like him, the first waves of Jews to resettle in the Holy Land were Ashkenazi, and Standard Hebrew would come to be spoken with their native pronunciation. Consequently, by now nearly all Israeli Jews pronounce the consonant "rêš" () as a uvular approximant , specifically , which also exists in Yiddish.


title: Guttural R

text: The alveolar rhotic is still used today in some formal speech, such as radio news broadcasts, and in the past was widely used in television and singing.


title: Guttural R

text: Many Jewish immigrants to Israel spoke a variety of Arabic in their countries of origin and pronounced the Hebrew rhotic as an alveolar tap , similar to Arabic ' (). Gradually, many of them began pronouncing their Hebrew rhotic as a voiced uvular fricative , a sound similar or (depending on the Arabic dialect) identical to Arabic ' (). However, in modern Sephardic and Mizrahi poetry and folk music an alveolar rhotic continues to be used.


title: Guttural R

text: While most dialects of Arabic retain the classical pronunciation of () as an alveolar trill or tap , a few dialects use a uvular trill . These include:


title: Guttural R

text: The uvular was attested already in vernacular Arabic of the Abbasid period. Nowadays Christian Arabic of Baghdad exhibits also an alveolar trill in very few lexemes, but primarily used in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic. Native words with an alveolar trill are rare. Moreover, Mosul Arabic commonly has the voiced alveolar trill instead of a uvular fricative in numbers (e.g. "forty"). Although this guttural rhotic is rare in Arabic, uvular and velar sounds are common in this language. The uvular or velar fricative ~ is a common standard pronunciation of the letter ' (), and the uvular plosive is a standard pronunciation of the letter ' ().


title: Guttural R

text: In Amharic the alveolar trill is the usual pronunciation of . But there are also assertions that around Addis Abeba some dialects exhibit a uvular r. Note that this information is not very well supported among Semitists. Also in Gafat (extinct since the 1950s) a uvular fricative or trill might have existed.


title: Guttural R

text: The majority of Assyriologists deem an alveolar trill or tap the most likely pronunciation of Akkadian in most dialects. However, there are several indications toward a velar or uvular fricative ~ particularly supported by John Huehnergard. The main arguments constitute alternations with the voiceless uvular fricative (e.g. "ruššû/ḫuššû" "red"; "barmātu" "multicolored" (fem. pl.), the spelling "ba-aḫ-ma-a-tù" is attested). Besides shows certain phonological parallelisms with and other gutturals (especially the glottal stop ).


title: Guttural R

text: Guttural R exists among several Malay dialects. While standard Malay commonly uses coronal r (,), the guttural fricative (~) are more prominently used in many dialects in Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia as well as some parts of Sumatra and East Kalimantan. These dialects include:


title: Guttural R

text: These dialects mainly use the guttural fricative (~) for both /r/ and /gh/. Standard Malay includes both coronal r (,) and voiced guttural fricative /gh/ (~) as two different phonemes. To denote the guttural r in the dialects, the letter "r" is often replaced by "gh" or "q" in informal writing . Standard Malay words with voiced velar fricative (), such as "loghat" (dialect) and "ghaib" (invisible, mystical) are mostly Arabic loanwords spelled in their origin language with the letter in the Jawi alphabet.


title: Guttural R

text: Standard Basque uses a trill for (written as "r-", "-rr-", "-r"), but most speakers of the Lapurdian and Low Navarrese dialects use a voiced uvular fricative as in French. In the Southern Basque Country, the uvular articulation is seen as a speech defect, but the prevalence is higher among bilinguals than among Spanish monolinguals. Recently, speakers of Lapurdian and Low Navarrese are uvularizing the tap ("-r-") as well, thus neutralizing both rhotics.


title: Guttural R

text: Whereas standard Khmer uses an alveolar trill for , the colloquial Phnom Penh dialect uses a uvular pronunciation for the phoneme, which may be elided and leave behind a residual tonal or register contrast.


title: Guttural R

text: Hill-Maṛia (sometimes considered a dialect of Gondi) has a /ʁ/ corresponding to /r/ in other realated languages or *t̠ from proto Dravidian.


title: Guttural R

text: There are languages where certain indigenous guttural consonants came to be written with symbols used in other languages to represent rhotics, thereby giving the superficial appearance of a guttural R without actually functioning as true rhotic consonants.


title: Guttural R

text: The Inuit languages Greenlandic and Inuktitut either orthographize or transliterate their voiced uvular obstruent as . In Greenlandic, this phoneme is , while in Inuktitut it is . This spelling was convenient because these languages do not have non-lateral liquid consonants, and guttural realizations of are common in various languages, particularly the colonial languages Danish and French. But the Alaskan Inupiat language writes its phoneme instead as , reserving for its retroflex phoneme, which Greenlandic and Inuktitut do not have.


title: Sharaf U Dheen

text: Sharafudheen, professionally credited as Sharaf U Dheen, is an Indian actor who appears in Malayalam films. He made his acting debut in 2013 with "Neram". He got his breakthrough by portraying the role of "Girirajan Kozhi" in "Premam" (2015). Sharaf U Dheen's known for both his comedic and villain roles. He's best known for his roles in the films "Paavada" (2015), "Happy Wedding" (2016), "Pretham" (2016), "Georgettan's Pooram" (2017), "Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela" (2017), "Varathan" (2018), "Neeyum Njanum" (2019), "Children's Park" (2019), "Virus" (2019), "Anjaam Pathiraa" (2020), "Halal Love Story" (2020), and "Aarkkariyam" (2021).


title: Sharaf U Dheen

text: Sharafudheen hails from Aluva in the district of Ernakulam, Kerala. After having completed his studies, he marked his expertise in many industries. He later established a Travel Company at his hometown before foraying into Cinema. He is married to Beema from Changanassery in 2015. The couple has 2 Daughters.


title: Sharaf U Dheen

text: He made his acting debut in "Neram" in 2013, directed by Alphonse Puthren. He also acted in "Ohm Shanthi Oshaana" (2014) directed by Jude Anthany Joseph. He received breakthrough with the Alphonse Putharen-directed romantic-comedy "Premam" in 2015. In the film he played the role of Girirajan Kozhi, a flirt. He acted along with Prithviraj Sukumaran in the film "Pavada" in 2016. He has also worked in "Pretham", "Carbon" (2018) and "Thobama" (2018) which was produced by Alphonse Puthren. In 2019, he acted in his debut leading role in "Neeyum Njanum". In 2020 he appeared in "Anjaam Pathiraa", where he played a negative role.


The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) is a group of physicians and former journalists formed in April 2020 that has advocated for various unapproved, dubious, and/or ineffective treatments (e.g. hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and other miscellaneous combinations of drugs and vitamins) for COVID-19. The group is led by Paul E. Marik and Pierre Kory. Both would later join conservative or right-wing groups promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.


title: Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance

text: The World Health Organization, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and European Medicines Agency advise against the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 outside of clinical trials, but the FLCCC has contended that ivermectin could reduce viral load and accelerate recovery in patients.


text: The FLCCC was started by eight medics and two former journalists in April 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. According to its co-president, Paul E. Marik, the group has a shared interest in vitamin C.


text: The group initially started promoting Marik's discredited sepsis treatment protocol as a treatment for COVID-19, and in April 2020 it circulated press releases promoting vitamin C, heparin, hydroxychloroquine and other drugs, before pivoting to ivermectin promotion in October 2020.


text: In November 2021 the "Journal of Intensive Care Medicine" retracted a paper written by Kory, Marik, and others. The retraction was triggered when it was found the paper misreported the mortality figures of people treated for COVID-19 with the FLCCC's "MATH+" protocol, falsely making it appear to be an effective treatment.


text: In January 2021, the FLCCC presented findings on the use of the anti-parasite drug ivermectin against COVID-19 to the National Institutes of Health, which ruled there was "insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19" without clinical trials. A 2021 review article by FLCCC members on the efficacy of ivermectin, which was provisionally accepted by "Frontiers in Pharmacology", was subsequently rejected on account of what the publisher called "a series of strong, unsupported claims based on studies with insufficient statistical significance" meaning that the article did "not offer an objective [or] balanced scientific contribution to the evaluation of ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19". The FLCCC review article included a study from Egypt that was later retracted after anomalies were found in its data and concerns were raised about plagiarism.


text: In 2021 the FLCCC said "vaccination is part of the solution", but COVID-19 vaccines were not listed in its preventative protocols, and in June 2022 a FAQ on the website, "What is your position on vaccines?", was removed. In August 2021 one doctor, Eric Osgood, resigned from the FLCCC because the group "may be contributing to people making the choice not to get vaccinated". Osgood commented: "If you're going to have a page that's dedicated to 'How do you prevent yourself from getting COVID?' that page can't "not" have vaccines at the top of it?"


text: Susanna Priest, editor-in-chief of "Science Communication", has said the FLCCC's messaging is discouraging vaccination, thereby prolonging the pandemic.


text: Both co-founders of the group would later join conservative or right-wing groups promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.


text: In 2021, Fred Wagshul, a member of the FLCCC, prescribed ivermectin for a patient in a hospital in Ohio where he did not have admitting privileges. The patient's wife secured a temporary injunction from a judge of the Butler County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas ordering the man's doctors to administer ivermectin; a different judge of the same court overrode the order, determining that the plaintiff had failed to meet the requirements for a temporary injunction and writing, "there can be no doubt that the medical and scientific communities do not support the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19".


title: Military budget

text: A military budget (or military expenditure), also known as a defense budget, is the amount of financial resources dedicated by a state to raising and maintaining an armed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.


title: Military budget

text: Military budgets often reflect how strongly a country perceives the likelihood of threats against it, or the amount of aggression it wishes to conjure. It also gives an idea of how much financing should be provided for the upcoming fiscal year. The size of a budget also reflects the country's ability to fund military activities. Factors include the size of that country's economy, other financial demands on that entity, and the willingness of that entity's government or people to fund such military activity. Generally excluded from military expenditures is spending on internal law enforcement and disabled veteran rehabilitation. The effects of military expenditure on a nation's economy and society, and what determines military expenditure, are notable issues in political science and economics. There are controversial findings and theories regarding these topics. Generally, some suggest military expenditure is a boost to local economies. Still, others maintain military expenditure is a drag on development.


title: Military budget

text: Among the countries maintaining some of the world's largest military budgets, China, India, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are frequently recognized to be great powers.


title: Military budget

text: According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2018, total world military expenditure amounted to 1.822 Trillion US$.


title: Military budget

text: In 2018, the United States spent 3.2% of its GDP on its military, while China 1.9%, Russia 3.9%, France 2.3%, United Kingdom 1.8%, India 2.4%, Israel 4.3%, South Korea 2.6% and Germany spent 1.2% of its GDP on defense.


title: Military budget

text: The "Saturday Review" magazine in February 1898 outlined the levels of military expenditure as a percentage of "tax revenue" spent by the then great powers for the year 1897:


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: Edward St Aubyn (born 14 January 1960) is an English author and journalist. He is the author of ten novels, including notably the semi-autobiographical "Patrick Melrose" novels. In 2006, "Mother's Milk" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: St Aubyn was born in 1960 in London, the son of Roger Geoffrey St Aubyn (1906–1985), a surgeon, and his second wife, Lorna Mackintosh (1929–2005). On his father's side, he is a great-great grandson of Sir Edward St Aubyn, 1st Baronet, and a great-nephew of John St Aubyn, 1st Baron St Levan. On his mother's side, he is a grandson of Captain Alastair William Mackintosh of the Seaforth Highlanders, who was briefly married to Constance Talmadge 1926–1927), and Lela Emery (later Duchess of Talleyrand), daughter of the American businessman John Josiah Emery, Sr. He is a great-nephew of John J. Emery, Jr. and Audrey Emery, wife of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: St Aubyn’s father was first married to Sophie Helene "Freifrau" von Puthon of Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, whom he divorced in 1957. St Aubyn has two half-sisters by his father's first marriage, and an elder sister, Alexandra. He grew up in London and France, where his family had houses. He has described an unhappy childhood in which he was repeatedly raped by his sexually abusive father from the ages of 5 to 8, with the complicity of his mother.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: St Aubyn attended Sussex House and then Westminster School. In 1979 he went on to read English at Keble College, Oxford. At the time a heroin addict, he graduated with a pass, the lowest possible class of degree. He entered psychotherapy at the age of 25 and subsequently became a professional writer.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: From 1987 to 1990, St Aubyn was married to the author Nicola Shulman, now Marchioness of Normanby. He has a son, Lucian, by Jane Longman, daughter of Lady Elizabeth Longman and Mark Longman, and a daughter, Eleanor St Aubyn, by another previous relationship. He lives in London.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: Five of St Aubyn's novels, "Never Mind", "Bad News", "Some Hope", "Mother's Milk", and "At Last", form "The Patrick Melrose Novels," the first four of which were republished in a single volume in 2012, in anticipation of the fifth. They are based on the author's own life; the titular protagonist grows up in a highly dysfunctional upper-class English family, and deals with his father's sexual abuse, the deaths of both parents, alcoholism, heroin addiction and recovery, and marriage and parenthood.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: The books have been hailed as a powerful exploration of how emotional health can be carved out of childhood trauma.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: "Mother's Milk" was made into a feature film released in 2011. The screenplay was written by St Aubyn and director Gerald Fox. It stars Jack Davenport, Adrian Dunbar, Diana Quick, and Margaret Tyzack in her last performance.


title: Edward St Aubyn

text: In 2018 a five-part television series, "Patrick Melrose" was broadcast, a joint production of Showtime and Sky Atlantic. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Patrick Melrose (with the young Patrick played by Sebastian Maltz), with each episode based on a different novel in the series. The series premiered on Showtime on 12 May 2018 to favourable reviews.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Operation Hardtack I was a series of 35 nuclear tests conducted by the United States from April 28 to August 18 in 1958 at the Pacific Proving Grounds. At the time of testing, the Operation Hardtack I test series included more nuclear detonations than the total of prior nuclear explosions in the Pacific Ocean. These tests followed the "Project 58/58A" series, which occurred from 1957 December 6 to 1958, March 14, and preceded the Operation Argus series, which took place in 1958 from August 27 to September 6.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Operation Hardtack I was directed by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF 7). JTF-7 was a collaboration between the military and many civilians, but was structured like a military organization. Its 19,100 personnel were composed of members of the US military, federal civilian employees, as well as workers affiliated with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: There were three main research directions. The first was the development of new types of nuclear weapons. This was undertaken by detonating experimental devices created by the AEC's Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL). The DOD performed experiments and tests on these detonations that did not hamper the AEC's research. The second research direction was to examine how underwater explosions affected material, especially Navy ships, and was performed by the DOD. The Wahoo test was conducted in the open ocean, whereas Umbrella was in a lagoon. The final avenue of study was to analyze high-altitude nuclear tests to refine the detection of high-altitude nuclear tests and investigate defensive practices for combatting ballistic missiles. This research direction was composed of three individual tests and were the first high-altitude tests. The individual tests in the series were Orange, Teak, and Yucca. Orange and Teak were known collectively as Operation Newsreel and were rocket boosted. Yucca reached its altitude utilizing balloons.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Many events and proceedings leading up to Operation Hardtack I, such as previous nuclear testing results and the global political atmosphere, influenced its creation and design. One such historical circumstance was that nuclear radiation concerns were mounting publicly and abroad by 1956. During the 1956 Presidential Election, ending nuclear testing was a campaign issue and nuclear safety was one part of that discussion. At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was publicly proposing a moratorium on testing.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: In 1956 during June, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommended new radiation exposure limits for the general public in a report entitled: "The Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation". The AEC, which was the body that developed nuclear weapons, accepted the NAS recommended radiation exposure limits. Some AEC members asserted that the limits were reached incorrectly and should be reviewed in the future. Charles L. Dunham, AEC Director of the Division of Biology and Medicine (DBM), said that the new limits of nuclear radiation exposure would prevent them from continuing testing in Nevada. Dunham, in association with other AEC offices and officials, made recommendations to move further tests to the Pacific to eliminate the need to determine radiological fallout safety.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Also in 1956, the AEC was designing a test series that included nuclear detonations which would release significant amounts of nuclear fallout. The series came to be known as Operation Plumbbob and took place in 1957 from April 24 to October 7. Operation Plumbbob was followed by Project 58/58A and Operation Hardtack I, respectively. At the time of testing, Operation Plumbbob was the most extensive nuclear test series held at the Nevada Test Site. President Eisenhower was very cautious in approving Plumbbob due to public concern. Consequently, the AEC held brief and ultimately fruitless discussions of moving some of the tests in the Plumbbob series to the next planned Pacific Ocean series, Operation Hardtack I, to minimize radioactive fallout in and around the Nevada Test Site.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: When Operation Plumbbob began in the spring of 1957, the planning process of Operation Hardtack I was well underway and the number of nuclear detonations planned were more than those in the Plumbbob series. At the same time, radiation and nuclear proliferation concerns around the world had led to formal discussions between the US, USSR, and other countries on the topic of instituting a global ban on nuclear testing as a path to disarmament. In 1957 on August 9 AEC chairman Lewis L. Strauss proposed to President Eisenhower a preliminary plan of Operation Hardtack I. President Eisenhower objected to the length of the four-month testing period and that the plan called for 25 shots, which was one more than in Plumbbob. As a result of the discussion, Eisenhower consented to yields no larger than , and ordered that the testing period be as brief as possible.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Project 58/58A followed Operation Plumbbob and began almost two months later starting in 1957 on December 6. Project 58/58A was composed of four safety tests; they were not supposed to result in nuclear radiation. All four took place at the Nevada Test Site. The safety tests were intended to ensure that the bombs would not malfunction. However, the test named Coulomb-C which took place in 1957 on December 9 did malfunction. It resulted in an unanticipated blast. The blast released a nuclear radiation fallout cloud that traveled toward Los Angeles and resulted in low levels of nuclear radiation. The bomb failure added to public concern over nuclear testing's safety.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Some tests were cut in an effort to meet Eisenhower's demands for a shorter testing period, but new tests quickly filled their place. AEC chairman Strauss remarked that the large number of shots was due to the "DOD's requirement for an increasing number of different nuclear weapons types". Eisenhower eventually approved the plan for Operation Hardtack I in late January, even though it still contained 25 shots. On March 31, 1958, the USSR announced a suspension of all tests and called on the US to do the same. On May 9 the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, accepted Eisenhower's invitation for technical discussions on a nuclear testing moratorium and negotiations began on July 1 of the same year. Eisenhower announced to the US on August 22, 1958, that the ban would begin October 31. US scientists responded by seeking to add more tests to the Hardtack Series in case it turned out to be the last chance. Consequently, Operation Hardtack I consisted of 35 tests.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: There was public health concern with the number of shots in Operation Hardtack I. Studies released in March 1958 indicated that people as far as away could have severe retinal burns from two of the three high-altitude tests: Teak and Orange. It was then decided that they would be moved to Johnston Island, which was from the nearest inhabited island. The high-altitude nuclear tests delivered the first openly reported man-made high-altitude electromagnetic pulses (EMP). Teak, which was detonated at and was , produced an aurora-like effect that was visible from Hawaii, displaced from the detonation. Most radio communications immediately dropped across the Pacific Ocean. The blackout in Australia lasted for 9 hours and Hawaii's lasted for no less than 2 hours.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Operation Hardtack I contained three high-altitude tests called Operation Newsreel that were designed to study many effects that a nuclear explosion would have on materials and electronic systems. They were also used to test the energy of the explosion and what forms of energy they would produce. Yucca was the name of the first high-altitude test and it was performed near the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The other two high-altitude tests, Orange and Teak, were performed near the Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean about southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: There was some uncertainty on whether detonating a nuclear weapon at such high altitudes would cause a hole in the ozone layer. After multiple underwater tests there was evidence to show the energy created by the blast would create ozone. Project leads determined some destruction of ozone would occur which would then be replaced by the ozone created from the explosion. It was agreed that if this theory were wrong, the hole created in the ozone layer would be minuscule enough to cause no harm. Upon completion of Operation Newsreel, it was determined that there was very little evidence of any harm being caused to the natural ozone layer.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Yucca was the first high-altitude test performed during Operation Hardtack I and was detonated on April 28, 1958. It was lifted by a balloon to an altitude of and had a yield of .To achieve the altitude needed, the device was attached to a large helium-filled balloon which carried it to the detonation altitude. Due to issues with high winds on Enewetak Island, the balloon launches from ground were unsatisfactory, thus creating the need for a new method. The balloons were then deployed from an aircraft carrier which helped with deployment and the inflation. While the balloons were inflated, they were unable to take too much force from wind or the plastic material of the balloons would tear. While the balloons were inflating on the aircraft carrier, the ship could match and oppose the wind speed allowing for the balloon to be inflated in still air. To make sure the launch would be successful 86 balloon launches were tested.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Due to concerns of failures, many safety measures were employed. While on ground, the bomb used multiple pins to prevent certain safety features of the bomb from being deployed before liftoff. One such pin was used to stop the electrical systems so that the bomb would be unable to be armed. In case of a dud, the bomb would detach from the balloon and be allowed to drop into the ocean where many more safety features would come into action. Some of these features included probes which could detect saltwater which would destroy the electrical system so the conductive seawater could not cause a short which would detonate the bomb. Another concern was a nuclear device floating in the ocean should a misfire occur. To combat this, inserts were created which would dissolve in a few hours, thus scuttling the device.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: On the day of the launch many meteorological aspects were taken into account and calculations were done to ensure the bomb would reach the correct altitude. The bomb was loaded onto an aircraft carrier and preparations began. As the balloon was inflated multiple testing devices were connected to the balloon. The readings from these devices would be sent to multiple ships and aircraft so nothing would need to be recovered after the explosion. After all the preparations were done and the balloon was inflated, the device was released and began to climb. After almost three and a half hours of climbing the bomb was detonated at an altitude of . The aircraft carrier which carried Yucca was approximately from the detonation site. The shock wave from Yucca reached the carrier 3 minutes and 16 seconds after detonation.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The Yucca test had many Department of Defense projects attached to it for research purposes. Alongside testing the use of a balloon carrier, the Department of Defense wanted to research the electromagnetic waves emitted from a nuclear explosion. This test would be used to determine the impact a nuclear explosion would have on electronic devices. All of the data from these Department of Defense projects would be stored on recording devices on surrounding islands and in aircraft so data would not have to be recovered after the test. However, Yucca was carrying five different transmitting devices in canisters to help with research. While the balloon proved to be a great success, no data from the canisters were able to be retrieved due to equipment issues onboard one of the aircraft carriers.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The Teak test was launched from Johnston Island on July 31, 1958, and carried a payload of . Teak was the second high-altitude test after the success of Yucca. Instead of a balloon, the warhead for the Teak test would be carried by a Redstone missile; a modified Redstone missile had been used to launch Explorer I in January of the same year. Other nuclear weapons had been tested using the Redstone missile, but until this time the highest payload to have been detonated was during Operation Teapot. Teak would be the first high-altitude test to have a payload in the megaton range. The test was scheduled to take place from the Bikini Atoll. Due to the fact that the payloads of Teak and Orange were much larger than previous high-altitude shots, the test was moved to Johnston Island as to protect nearby native islanders from any retinal damage. As both Teak and Orange had been relocated these two tests were named Operation Newsreel. The name Newsreel came from the fact that these two tests were being moved to Johnston Island.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The safety precautions taken by the teams involved were precisely detailed. The day before the launch 187 team members would evacuate Johnston Island with 727 men the day of the test. This was to keep as few men on the island while still being able to operate the airfield and critical data instruments. Another problem the team members were concerned about was the issue of retinal damage. Since the payload of the bomb was so large, aircraft were scheduled to keep any civilian ships out of a radius of Johnston Island. Additionally, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was informed that it would be dangerous for any aircraft to fly within of Johnston Island. On the day of the test only about 175 men remained on Johnston Island to prepare for Teak to be launched and other various duties needed after.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: At 11:47 PM on July 31 Teak was launched; after 3 minutes it was detonated. Due to programming issues, the warhead detonated directly above Johnston Island. At time of detonation the rocket had flown to an altitude of . The explosion could be seen from Hawaii away and was said to be visible for almost half an hour. After the explosion, high frequency long-distance communication was interrupted across the Pacific. Due to this communication failure Johnston Island was unable to contact their superiors to advise of the test results until about eight hours after the detonation. Thirty minutes after detonation, a crew was sent out to collect the pod which had detached from the missile carrying the warhead. The pod had been irradiated and to handle it the crew members used disposable gloves in an attempt to protect themselves from beta radiation.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: During the Teak test all crew on and around Johnston Island were given protective eyewear to prevent flash blindness from the explosion. After the explosion it was found that besides the hazard of blindness, thermal radiation was another concern—even at an altitude of . A crew member who was on Johnston Island at the time was said to have received a slight sunburn from the amount of thermal radiation which had reached the island. While only slight to the crew member it created issues for the local fauna. Many birds were seen on Johnston Island in distress. Unsure if this was caused by blindness or thermal radiation, the project members decided to take precautions to protect local wildlife during the Orange test.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Orange was launched twelve days after Teak on August 11, 1958. Orange, like Teak, was launched using a Redstone Missile and had a yield of . The same safety precautions used by Teak were implemented for the Orange launch. Seeing how smoothly the evacuation for the Teak launch went, it was decided that the evacuation did not need to occur the day before the launch and eight hundred and eight men were evacuated on August 11 to an aircraft carrier about northeast of the island. Along with protection for the project crew, it was decided after Teak that Sand Island, a local bird refuge, would need protection from the blast as well. To make sure that most of the wildlife was safe a smoke screen was created over Sand Island. Due to interest in Hawaii, it was announced on August 11 that there would be a nuclear test sometime between 10 PM and 6 AM.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The rocket carrying the warhead was launched at 11:27 from Johnston Island and traveled south. Like Teak, the flight lasted 3 minutes and was detonated at 11:30 PM about south of Johnston Island at an altitude of about .The trajectory of Orange was a major success after the incident with Teak being detonated directly over the island. The recovery crew for the pod that was with Orange was unable to locate the research pod which had been launched with the rocket. Although Orange was visible from Hawaii it was not the great spectacle Teak had been. The light from the blast was visible for about 5 minutes. The explosion had also been slightly obscured to the crew at Johnston Island by cloud coverage. The blast from Orange did not cause the large communication interruption that Teak had caused, but some commercial flights to Hawaii were said to have lost contact with air traffic controllers for a short period of time.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Of the 35 nuclear tests in Operation Hardtack I, four were surface burst shots: Cactus, Koa, Quince and Fig. These tests took place from May to August 1958, all at the Enewetak Atoll. Surface tests inherently present the potential for more radioactive exposure issues than the high-altitude or underwater detonations. This is because there is more material present to be converted to radioactive debris by excess neutrons due to the proximity to the Earth's surface, and due to the soil and other minerals excavated from the craters created by these blasts. The existence of this extra material allows for larger radioactive particles to be created and lifted into the blast cloud, falling back to the surface as fallout.Though surface and near-surface tests have a higher probability of radioactive exposure problems, the radioactive elements have significantly shorter residence times when injected into the atmosphere. As radioactive clouds from surface-type tests reach heights of around at maximum, and thus cannot extend higher than the lower stratosphere, the residence times can be up to 13 years less than the high-altitude blasts. During original concept planning in 1954, Enewetak was supposed to be the location of the smaller tests conducted during Operation Hardtack I. Due to poor weather conditions and policy changes in 1958, five of the UCRL tests which were planned to be conducted at the Bikini Atoll were moved to Enewetak. This included the later two surface blast devices in the Quince and Fig tests.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The Cactus test took place May 6, 1958 at approximately 0615. An land-surface type shot was detonated on a platform at the northern tip of Runit, Enewetak in the second of the 35 tests for Operation Hardtack I.The initial cloud from the explosion reached as high as within the first ten minutes, and settled at around by 20 minutes after detonation. The nuclear fallout prediction map proved to be accurate in determining the span and the intensity of the resultant fallout.Measured peak intensity of fallout reached at hour three directly above blast site on the North end of the Atoll. At mid-island the radiation was measured to be . The southern tip received a very small amount of radiation, due to the easterly winds.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Out of the eight Programs listed, DOD-affiliated Projects 1.4, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.12, 2.8, 3.2, 5.2, 5.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6 involved the Cactus test.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: One of the goals of this test was to study the physical characteristics of the crater and the surrounding area pre- and post-detonation associated with Project 1.4. A camera was mounted to a RB-50 aircraft and the resultant crater was mapped using photogrammetry. Measurements were taken from down to ground zero for both pre- and post detonation. Survey measurements of the Cactus test could not be made until the resultant radiation amounts had lowered to safer levels. Along with photogrammetric radial measurements, Airblast measurements were also recorded near surface zero for Cactus in accordance with Project 1.7. Similar to Project 1.8, Project 1.9 sought to determine transmission of blast pressure through the ground soil. Forty-three drums were buried at varying depths from ground zero of the Cactus detonation. Individuals from the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division—TRW Space Technologies Laboratory sought to the Shock Spectra Studies of Project 1.12. Measurement gauges were located between from the blast site. Fallout measurements and samples were taken by aircraft in the aftermath of the detonation, as part of Project 2.8. These surveys were designed in part to determine the impact of specific radionuclides to overall nuclear fallout. Samples were taken early post-blast using a new rocket sampler, the UCRL, which were then followed by B-57D and WB-50 aircraft. Between four and twenty-four hours post-detonation, the WB-50 collected several samples at in altitude. Project 3.2 involved structural tests of corrugated steel arches. One of these arches was placed away from the Cactus blast site. Eight days after the test, a crew of 13 men were allowed near the surface zero in order to extract the arch. The extraction took around twelve hours, and the radioactivity levels reached a maximum at during this time. Project 5.2 sought to determine the effects of the blast on two A4D-1 aircraft, both in thermal radiation and pressure. Nine film badges were placed throughout each aircraft in order to measure radiation. The Gamma dosimeter worn by the pilot in aircraft 827 indicated a neutron exposure level of . There is not information available for the dosimeter worn by the pilot in aircraft 831. Radiation recorded by six of the nine film badges ranged from . Information from the remaining three film badges, located at the Pilot's right leg, left sleeve, and left vest is not available. The pilot's exposures were both greater than . Project 5.3 was very similar to 5.2, focusing on the effects of the blast on the structure of two test FJ-4 aircraft. Radiation from film badges on aircraft 467 ranged from , and for aircraft number 310. In Project 6.4, the Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory (SRDL) investigated the electromagnetic pulses post-detonation, utilizing two instruments, one at Wotho (roughly from Enewetak) and one at Kusaie (around from Enewetak). Though Cactus is mentioned in Project 6.5, whose goal was to study the radar echoes from the fireball, it is not clear what destroyers were involved if any. Destroyers for the Teak, Fir and Yucca tests are explicitly stated. Project 6.6, the lasts of the projects that involved the Cactus test, sought to measure the physical properties of the stabilized radioactive cloud following the blast.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: At 0630 on May 13, the Koa surface device was detonated at the western side of Dridrilbwij. The size of the blast was , around 76 times larger than the yield of the previous surface test, Cactus. The test was conducted in a large water tank. Within 17 minutes of the blast, surface clouds reached approximately . Nuclear fallout predictions for Koa were larger and covered a broader range than Cactus, with significantly higher radiation levels, an order of magnitude larger, in the immediate region surrounding the blast. There had been a larger nuclear barge detonation, the Apache test, off the island of Dridrilbwij two years prior in 1956, during which the island survived. The detonation of the Koa device, however, caused complete destruction of the island.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The Department of Defense (DOD) sponsored a series of experiments for Koa: Projects 1.4, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.12, 2.9, 3.2, 3.6, 5.1, 5.3. 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.9. and 6.11. Project 1.4, which sought to study land craters post detonation for several shots, took ground survey measurements from surface zero out to . Detailed measurements could not be made until four days after the blast due to radiation levels. Using a boat, the majority of the crater was mapped, though some measurements could not be made until 1959 due to radioactivity levels around the Koa blast site. In Project 1.9, the blast-induced pressure through the soil was measured by burying 43 drums at depths ranging from and around feet from the Koa blast site. The early radioactive cloud samples, normally collected post-shot as a part of Project 2.8 using a UCRL rocket sampler, were not collected after the Koa test due to technical difficulties. Fallout at high and low altitudes utilizing B-57D and WB-50 aircraft were measured with no technical problems. Project 3.6, which was conducted only on Koa, tested the effects of the blast on reinforced-concrete slabs buried close to surface zero. One station was located at from the blast site, and the other was located away. Project 5.2 was designed to measure the radiation levels using film badges on different areas of the aircraft and on the pilot directly. Koa had the lowest average radiation measurements of the eight shots on this project, with aircraft 827 ranging from 0.01-0.02R and aircraft 831 reporting levels between 0.03-0.19R. Unlike in the Cactus test, all nine film badges from both aircraft were successfully recovered and reported.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Quince and Fig were a series of surface shots that occurred in early August at the center of Runit. They were the last of the Hardtack tests conducted at the Enewetak Atoll. Quince was detonated at 2:15pm on August 6, 1958. Twelve days later, the Fig device was detonated on August 18, 1958, at 4:00pm. Quince and Fig were UCRL devices with co-sponsorship through the DOD and the AEC, though the main focus of these tests was weapons development. One of the main differences between these two tests was that over 130 tons of soil from the Nevada Test Site had been shipped in and was placed at surface zero of the Fig test. The radioactive cloud from the Quince blast rose to . As Runit was to also be the detonation site for Fig, the area had to be decontaminated after the Quince test. Around of contaminated topsoil was removed from an area upwind of ground zero. An area of at the blast site was scraped to remove the top three inches of soil as well. Even with these precautions, the measured alpha activity was around 20,000 counts per minute (CPM), and the area closest to surface zero was roped off to prevent personnel from entering. Upon detonation, the mushroom cloud produced by the Fig device rose to approximately , with a base of roughly . Thirty minutes post detonation, radiation measurements at the blast site reached over 10,000 R/hr.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The DOD experiments for Quince and Fig included Projects 1.4, 1.7. 2.4, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, 2.14. and 8.7.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Barge mounted test detonations was a technique first used in 1954, and also compensated for the lack of land at the HP. When testing returned to Bikini atoll the use of barges as the shot point had begun, with one notable advantage, no radioactive surface zero areas were developed. Two large underwater craters were formed in 1954 and these were used as subsequent surface zeros for detonations fired from barges. This allowed the available land area to be used for the placement of measurement instrumentation and reuse of the same burst point without the long delays required for radiological cooling by natural decay or expensive and long decontamination procedures. Reuse of zero points also allowed reuse of instrument locations and recording shelters for several tests saving construction costs and time and Increasing test-scheduling flexibility. In HARDTACK the 26 barge events used only five detonation areas.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Fır predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship position, and aircraft participation. FIR was the first Bikini detonation of the Hardtack series. Detonated at 0550 on May 12, 1958. Fır was detonated on a barge in the Bravo crater, producing a yield range. After detonation, the cloud rose to . The FIR detonation was shortly followed by BUTTERNUT detonation on Enewetak 25 minutes later. DOD-sponsored experiments for FIR included Projects 3.7, 5.1, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6 and 6.11.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: BUTTERNUT predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion areas (radex), ship positions, and aircraft participation. Butternut was detonated at 0615 on May 12, 1958, 25 minutes after FIR had been detonated at Enewetak. BUTTERNUT was detonated on a barge west of Runit, producing a yield range of . The cloud rose to , stabilizing at . The DOD-sponsored experiments for BUTTERNUT were Projects 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.5, 6.6, and 6.9.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: HOLLY predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship positions, and aircraft participation. HOLLY was detonated at 0630 on May 21, 1958, on a barge west of Runit, from the nearest edge of the island, producing a yield range. The detonation produced a cloud that stabilized at an altitude of at the top and at its base. Project 6.6, was the only DOD-sponsored experiment for HOLLY, and was conducted on Enewetak Island.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: NUTMEG predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion area (radex), ship positions, and aircraft participation. The second Bikini shot, NUTMEG, was detonated at 0920 on May 22, 1958. NUTMEG was detonated on a barge in the ZUNI crater, and produced a yield range. The detonation cloud stabilized at by 0926. DOD-sponsored experiments for NUTMEG were Projects 6.3, 6.3a, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, and 6.11. Projects 6.3 and 6.3a had stations near the burst point on Eneman Island.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: YELLOWWOOD predicted fallout, surface radiological (radix) exclusion area, and ship positions. YELLOWWOOD was detonated at 1400 on May 26, 1958. YELLOWWOOD was detonated on a barge southwest of Enjebi, and produced a yield range. The DOD sponsored 13 experiments for YELLOWWOOD: Projects 2.4, 2.8, 3.7, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.8, 6.9, 6.11, and 8.1. Instrument stations for Project 2.4 were located on buoys in the lagoon. The remaining projects had more distant stations or were primarily airborne.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radix) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. MAGNOLIA was detonated at 0600 on May 27, 1958. MAGONLIA was detonated on a barge southwest of the center of Runit, and produced a yield range. The detonation produced a cloud that stabilized at with its base at . The DOD-sponsored experiments for MAGNOLIA were Projects: 3.7, 5.2, and 5.3. Instruments for Project 3.7 were on Boken, Enjebi, and Runit.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: TOBACCO predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radix) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. TOBACCO was detonated at 1415 on May 30, 1958. TOBACCO was detonated on a barge northwest of Enjebi, and produced an yield range. The detonation produced an cloud that stabilized at by 1430. The DOD-sponsored experiments for TOBACCO were Projects 3.7, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 6.8. The project activity for Project 3.7 was on Boken, Enjebi, and Runit. Project 6.8 simply monitored TOBACCO from stations off Enewetak and Parry islands.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: SYCAMORE predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. SYCAMORE was detonated at 1500 on May 31, 1958. SYCAMORE was detonated on a barge moored in the BRAVO crater, and produced a yield range. DOD-sponsored experiments for SYCAMORE were Projects: 3.7, 5.1, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, and 6.11. Only Project 6.11 had an instrument site at the Bikini Atoll.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: MAPLE predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. MAPLE was detonated on June 11 at 0530 1958. MAPLE was detonated on a barge just south of Lomilik, and produced a yield range. The cloud produced by the detonation was tracked by radar from Benner. The DOD-sponsored experiments for MAPLE were Projects 5.1, 6.3, and 6.3a. Projects 6.3 and 6.3a shared the same, rather close-in sites on Lomilik.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: ASPEN predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship positions, and aircraft participation. ASPEN was detonated on 15 June 58 at 0530. ASPEN was detonated on a barge in the BRAVO crater of Bikini, southwest of Nam. ASPEN produced a yield range. The detonation produced a cloud as measured by radar from Benner. No experiments were sponsored by the DOD for this shot.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: WALNUT predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship positions, and aircraft participation. WALNUT was detonated on June 15, 1958, at 0630, 1 hour after the ASPEN event at Bikini. WALNUT was detonated on a barge southwest of Enjebi Island in Enewetak. The detonation produced a cloud, and produced a yield range. The DOD-sponsored experiments for WALNUT included Projects 2.4, 2.8, 3.7, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 8.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: LINDEN predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. LINDEN was detonated on June 18, 1958, at 1500. LINDEN was detonated on a barge west of the center of Runit Island at Enewetak. The detonation produced a cloud with a base, and produced an yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were conducted during LINDEN.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: REDWOOD predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship positions, and aircraft participation. REDWOOD was detonated on June 28, 1958, at 0530. REDWOOD was detonated on a barge south of Lomilik in Bikini. REDWOOD was followed by the ELDER detonation at Enewetak Atoll one hour later. The detonation cloud base was at and the top stabilized at , and produced a yield range. The only DOD-sponsored experiment for REDWOOD was Project 5.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: ELDER predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) areas, ship positions, and aircraft participation. ELDER, detonated on June 28, 1958, at 0630. ELDER was the second of a tandem shot with REDWOOD (detonated an hour earlier on Bikini). ELDER was detonated on a barge southeast of Enjebi Island in Enewetak. Initial cloud height had been well over , and produced an yield range. The only DOD-sponsored experiment for ELDER was project 5.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: OAK predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, and ship positions. OAK, one of the largest detonations at Enewetak Atoll, and was fired at 0730 on June 29, 1958. OAK was detonated on a barge moored on the reef southwest of Bokoluo Island. It was followed at noon by the HICKORY shot at Bikini. The Initial height of the cloud was estimated to be , and produced an yield range. Two DOD-sponsored experiments were included for OAK: Projects 2.8 and 5.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: HICKORY predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. HICKORY was detonated on June 29, 1958, at 1200. HICKORY was detonated on a barge off the west end of Enema at Bikini, 4½ hours after the OAK shot at Enewetak Atoll. The detonation cloud rose to with an estimated base, and produced a yield range. Projects 6.3 and 6.3a were the only DOD-sponsored experiments for HICKORY.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: SEQUOIA predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. SEQUOIA was detonated on July 2, 1958, at 0630. SEQUOIA was detonated on a barge west-northwest of Runit Island at Enewetak. The cloud stabilized at , and produced a yield range. SEQUIA had no DOD-sponsored experiments.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: CEDAR predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. CEDAR was detonated on July 3, 1958, at 0530. CEDAR was detonated on a barge in the BRAVO crater southwest of Nam, from the edge of the island at Bikini. The CEDAR detonation produced a cloud, and produced a yield range. The only DOD-sponsored experiment for CEDAR was Project 5.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: DOGWOOD predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. DOGWOOD was detonated on July 6, 1958, at 0630. DOGWOOD was detonated on a barge southwest of Enjebi, from the edge of the island at Enewetak. The cloud rose to , stabilizing at with a base, and produced a yield range. The only DOD-sponsored experiment for DOGWOOD Was Project 5.1.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: POPLAR predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. POPLAR was detonated on July 12, 1958, at 1530. POPLAR was detonated on a barge southwest of Nam, at Bikini. The detonation cloud quickly rose above the tracking radar limits of , and the base was established at at 1540, and produced a yield range. The only DOD-sponsored experiment for POPLAR was Project 3.7.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: SCAEVOLA predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. Scaevola was detonated on July 14, 1958, at 1600. Scaevola was detonated on a barge west of Runit Island at Enewetak. Its yield was low and the explosion did not destroy the shot barge but only damaged it, producing a yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were scheduled for Scaevola.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: PISONIA predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. PISONIA was detonated on July 18, 1958, at 1100. PISONIA was detonated on a barge west of Runit Island at Enewetak. The cloud rose immediately to , and produced a yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were scheduled for PISONIA.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: JUNIPER predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. JUNIPER, the last nuclear detonation to occur at Bikini, was detonated on July 22, 1958, at 1620. JUNIPER was detonated on a barge from the west end of Eneman in the ZUINI crater at Bikini . The detonation cloud rose to with an estimated base, and produced a yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were scheduled for JUNIPER.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: OLIVE predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. OLIVE was detonated on July 23, 1958, at 0830. OLIVE was detonated on a barge southwest of Enjebi Island, at Enewetak Atoll. from the nearest land at Enewetak. The cloud rose to with an estimated base, and produced a yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were scheduled for OLIVE.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: PINE predicted fallout, surface radiological exclusion (radex) area, ship positions, and aircraft participation. PINE was detonated on July 27, 1958, at 0830. PINE was detonated on a barge southwest of Enjebi Island, from the nearest land, at Enewetak. The cloud rose quickly to with an estimated base as measured by radar, and produced a yield range. No DOD-sponsored experiments were scheduled for PINE.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Underwater tests were conducted to assess the damages to Navy boats and materials. The location for these tests was Enewetak due to the uniformity of the sea bottom in the area. This is critical for the tests so that proper moorings of the target ships can be secured on the sea floor. The underwater explosions create a bubble from the expended energy of the blast. This bubble is due to the vaporization of water that directly absorbs the heat of the blast. This bubble may break the surface depending on how much energy is dispersed and the depth of the nuclear device. The bubble displaces large amounts of water that then collapses in on the bubble after all the energy is expended. The water collapsing in on the cavity is called the "radioactive pool" and has the highest concentration of radioactive material.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Many different projects were put in place to test the two underwater blasts. Wave generation, hydrodynamic variables, and energy released were all studied using multiple sensors. These sensors were placed in multiple areas such as target ships and floating balloons. Oceanographic, seismographic and hydrographic surveys were completed after each nuclear blast. A project that used a nuclear blast to clear minefields was studied using the Umbrella blast. One hundred and twenty inert mines were placed at different distances ranging from . These mines were then picked out of the water to study the effects of the blast at each interval.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: Another reason for underwater tests was to detect radiation contamination of ships after an underwater nuclear explosion. This meant that the contaminated ships required unique "radsafe" preparations so that the data could be quickly accounted for. After the data on the damage and radiation was recorded, the ships needed decontamination work completed before repairs could be completed. The Radiological and Decontamination Unit consisting of 200 enlisted and one officer was created for the task of decontamination. After decontamination, the target ships were repaired for use in a second underwater nuclear weapons test. The amount of radiation exposure was debated for the safety of the crews. Roentgens ( = ca 0,01 Gy in soft tissue) were used to gauge the gamma radiation that affected the units working on the nuclear tests.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: For the underwater test crew, a limit of per blast along with per operation was referenced as the limit for exposure. These initial limits were rejected and maximum permissible exposure standards (MPE) were solidified by commanders for the crews working on the decontamination unit. Due to the fast recovery of ships, high contamination values were expected by commanders and set the standard to four roentgens per hour (R/hr). An excess of was designated off limits of recovery units. Personnel were given special breathing equipment to work in the interior of ships with an R/hr higher than one. High numbers of personnel working the tests were used to keep individuals within the MPE. Times were calculated to keep the total exposure below two roentgens for the personnel working on the ships. A floating decontamination facility was created on board a transport ship for the Wahoo and Umbrella nuclear tests. This allowed important data analysis and an increase in recovery efficiency.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The nuclear explosion was carried out in open ocean outside of Enewetak. This nuclear test codenamed Wahoo was the first underwater test in the Operation Hardtack series. This test could be considered a continuation of the Wigwam nuclear blast (a deep water nuclear test off the coast of San Diego). Like its predecessor, the Wahoo shot was a scientific program that studied the effects of an underwater nuclear blast on Navy systems. The nuclear device was positioned deep in the Pacific Ocean. This deep water test required precise targeting arrays to be set up around the blast location, which presented unique problems for the arrays as the winds, sea currents and tides needed to be within certain limits for the data to be accurate. Testing arrays were placed at depths of around the nuclear device. The deep water mooring systems needed for the test proved to be difficult to position, leading many analysts to believe the data skewed. The target ships to be used for this program consisted of three destroyers, an active submarine, a submarine mockup used in Wigwam tests, and a merchant marine ship. It was predicted that no air blast or thermal effects would be presented from the underwater blast. The fallout from the blast was also predicted to stay within the target array due to the southwest surface winds.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The test conditions were met on May 16 allowing for the nuclear device to be detonated. Within a second of detonation, a spray dome was created that reached a height of after seven seconds. The overall shape of the spray dome resembled a cone with 45 degree sloped sides. Plumes were seen breaking through the spray dome after six seconds in every direction. The vertical plume continued rising until 12 seconds after the blast while the lateral plumes traveled for 20 seconds before collapsing. The diameter of the spray dome was approximately at the 20 second mark. The base surge reached a radius of in the downwind direction after 1.7 seconds. The downwind surge aided by a wind reached speeds of . This base surge could be seen for three and a half minutes and for longer from the air as it continued to move across the ocean. When the spray dome and base surge had dissipated, a foam patch could be seen spreading from the surface zero water to reach over . The nuclear blast was calculated to be . All fallout stayed within the predicted fallout area with a maximum of . The target ship at was directly hit by the shockwave, vibrating the entire ship and shaking it violently. The Moran merchant marine ship moored at away was immobilized due to shock damage to its main and auxiliary equipment while also suffering minor hull damage. One hour and ten minutes after detonation, a five-gallon water sample was taken directly above the blast location showing . The retrieval team entered a field after an hour and thirty five minutes.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The second underwater explosion of the Operation Hardtack series was code-named Umbrella. This test was conducted in the lagoon inside Enewetak. This test could be considered a continuation of underwater test Baker, which was conducted in Bikini Lagoon. Explosions in shallow water can create an underwater crater if close enough to the bottom. The target ships from the Wahoo test were towed into the lagoon to be used again for the Umbrella test. The damage from Wahoo was minor in all cases with the exception of the Moran which required extra refurbishing of the hull. These ships had to be washed down and have the measuring equipment replaced before being put into use. The mooring for Umbrella was considerably easier than for Wahoo due to the location and depth of the lagoon. Information gathered from the Wahoo shot directly affected the Umbrella plans with regard to target array placement and decontamination times. The device was placed with a buoy at a depth of .


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: June 9 saw the second underwater nuclear test of the Hardtack I series. The detonation occurred at 11:15 AM (local time) with clear skies and a wind from the east-northeast. Within one-tenth of a second, the spray dome had broken through the surface. The overall shape of the spray dome resembled a vertical column with the plumes helping create the shape. Within 20 seconds of detonation, the maximum height of the column reached . The base surge reached a distance around downwind, reaching out approximately in all directions. This base surge could be seen from the air for about 25 minutes and the foam patch over the blast location lasting even longer. The blast yield of the nuclear device was measured to be . The Umbrella blast created a crater in diameter and in depth in the lagoon. The maximum radiation reading was found to be by an aircraft flying over the blast location. Radiation was reported to be of small portions, and re-entry was granted 30 minutes after detonation. Out of the major target ships, the highest radiation reading was logged at of the stern of the "Moran". After all scientific data had been gathered from the target ships, they were restored to be seaworthy and towed back to Pearl Harbor. The "Moran" was concluded to be unseaworthy due to the blast and was sunk by naval gunfire near Ikuren Island.


title: Operation Hardtack I

text: The underwater nuclear tests (Wahoo and Umbrella) gathered scientific data that helped the Department of Defense understand the effects of nuclear weapons on Navy ships. Some of the key points found were that underwater nuclear blasts create less fallout due to the absorption of radioactive material in the water and vaporized droplets. Direct gamma radiation was found to be extremely low, but the base surge was found to be highly radioactive as it passed measurement devices. Smaller radiation concentrations followed in waves mimicking the initial base surge. Almost all free-field radiation activity was found to disappear after fifteen minutes allowing for return to normal operations. The impact of shock waves was less than previously expected. The damage from the shockwave was found to be negligible on the destroyers at the ranges tested, but equipment failure from the blast could immobilize the ships. The preliminary tests of explosive tapered charges were proven to simulate the shock waves of a nuclear device according to the data gathered.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World Tag Team Championship" without oversight from the board of directors. The first of these NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in 1950 in the San Francisco territory, which while billed as a "World" title was essentially restricted to the specific NWA territory. In 1957 as many as 13 versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were confirmed to be in existence. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, based in Los Angeles, closed and abandoned their version of the championship. The following year, the World Wrestling Federation, an NWA member at the time and which had its own World Tag Team Championship, split from the NWA in acrimony. This meant that only the Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA World Tag Team Championship was active within the NWA, but still being controlled by JCP, not the NWA board of directors. In 1991 that championship was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1992 the NWA board of directors decided to sanction one world-level NWA World Tag Team Championship, working with WCW to hold a tournament to determine the inaugural officially recognized, NWA World Tag Team Championship. In 1993, the NWA and WCW severed their relationship and the NWA took with it the tag team championship. The NWA would briefly allow the World Wrestling Federation to control the championship in 1998 but by 1999 that collaboration ended. In 2002 the NWA gave control of the NWA World Tag Team Championship to the newly formed NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA) promotion. TNA's control of the championship ended in 2007, with TNA creating the TNA World Tag Team Championship as a result. In subsequent years the championship has been defended on various continents including a period of time where it was held by several teams working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: The Skullcrushers (Rasche Brown and Keith Walker) held the championship for 777 days, making them the longest reigning champions in the history of the NWA board-recognized championship. Three teams have held the championship for just one day: David Flair and Dan Factor, Glacier and Jason Sugarman, and The Heatseekers (Sigmon and Elliot Russel).


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1948 six professional wrestling promoters in the United States joined together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as a governing body for a number of different wrestling promotions, which then became known as the NWA territories. The promoters, (Pinkie George, Al Haft, Tony Stecher, Harry Light, Orville Brown and Sam Muchnick) formed a board of directors and decided that they would endorse two wrestling championships that all territories would recognize, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Those two championships were controlled by the board, who would meet to vote on who should be given the championship next.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: At the time tag team wrestling, or matches where teams of two wrestlers would fight each other, was not popular across all territories, so the board of directors did not sanction a specific NWA World Tag Team Championship. This meant that each territory was free to create their own "World Tag Team Championship" as they saw fit and use it within their territory without board approval. Tag team wrestling first rose to popularity on the west coast of the United States, which led to the Los Angeles territory, promoted by Johnny Doyle, creating the first NWA World Tag Team Championship of the territory era when the Dusek Riot Squad (Emil and Ernie) were billed as the champions on a July 14, 1949 show in Long Beach. The following year the San Francisco territory followed suit and created their local version of the championship when Ray Eckert and Hard Boiled Haggerty defeated the team of Ron Etchison and Larry Moquin on April 4, 1950. A month later the Midwest Wrestling Association territory, covering Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, created their own version of the championship on May 26, 1950, as the Dusek Riot Squad (Emil and Joe) won that championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1953 the Chicago-based promoter Fred Kohler introduced the team of Lord James Blears and Lord Lathol Laytham as the local NWA World Tag Team champions, billing them as having won the championship in a different NWA territory before they began working for Kohler. Historic records do not indicate that Blears and Laytham had actually won the championship elsewhere. From mid-1953 the championship became the main tag team championship of the Illinois-Wisconsin territory. A few months later promoter Ed Don George brought in the Chicago champions to his Ohio-Upstate New York territory and used them to bring an air of legitimacy to his own version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, allowing local wrestlers Bill Melby and Billy Darnell to defeat Blears and Martino Angelo (who substituted for an injured Athol).


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1954 the Canadian Athletic Promotion, based in Montreal, used the NWA World Tag Team Championship name as well, but by the end of the year they had abandoned it. Also in 1954, Georgia Championship Wrestling introduced the Georgia version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, using the Chicago version (held by Reggie Lisowki and Art Neilson) to start the Georgia branch.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: The following year NWA founders Paul "Pinkie" George and Max Clayton introduced an Iowa-Nebraska version, with the champions splitting their time between George's Iowa territory and Clayton's Nebraska territory. The promoters billed Joe Tangaroa and Guy Brunetti as the local champions, recognizing the championship of the Chicago version up until September 1955, then splitting off in to their own lineage. Also in 1955, the first of two Texas-based NWA World Tag Team Championships was created by the Amarillo, Texas-based Big Time Wrestling, owned by Doc Sarpolis and Dory Funk. They followed in the footsteps of other NWA territories by having the Chicago champions (Lisowski and Neilson) travel to their territory to lose a version of the championship to start the local version. In this case Neilson worked regularly in the territory, while Lisowski left after only a brief stay. The promoters chose to have Rip Rogers replace Lisowski for the Amarillo version of the champions. Another version was introduced around 1955–1956 in the Idaho-Utah territory based out of Salt Lake City. The Indianapolis territory soon introduced another local version by recognizing the lineage of the Chicago version, before splitting it off into a separate entity in 1957 when Nicoli and Boris Volkoff won the championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: Three additional versions of the championship were introduced in 1957, the first of which was in Minneapolis, where the Kalmikoffs (Ivan and Karol) won a tournament to become champions. The second new championship was also the second Texas-based championship as the eastern Texas-based Houston-Dallas territory introduced Verne Gagne and Wilbur Snyder as their local champions. The third championship introduced in 1957 was used by Nick Gulas' NWA Mid-America promotion when Gulas introduced the Corsicans (Corsica Joe and Corsica Jean) as champions when they made their debut for NWA Mid-America.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: No new championships were introduced in 1958 or 1959, but with all versions being active but that of Montreal, thirteen versions were being defended across the United States in 1957. In 1959/1960 the unity of the NWA was strained as several promotions broke away from the NWA, choosing to join with Minnesota promoter Verne Gagne to form the American Wrestling Association. This meant that the Minneapolis, Chicago, Iowa-Nebraska, Indianapolis and Idaho-Utah versions of the championship were all abandoned, replaced by the AWA World Tag Team Championship that was recognized in all of those territories.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: While the NWA lost some territories with the exodus to the AWA, others were added and additional NWA World Tag Team Championships were still being introduced. In 1961 Championship Wrestling from Florida created the Florida version of the championship as the Von Brauners (Kurt and Karl Von Brauner) became regular performers in Florida. In 1964 the Detroit-based Big Time Wrestling announced that Chris and John Tolos had won the newly created Detroit version of the championship on February 16, 1965. In 1966 NWA All-Star Wrestling introduced their own version, but by mid-1968 the promotion discontinued using them in favor of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1968 the Amarillo territory stopped using their version of the world championship, favoring the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship instead. Only months later the Eastern Texas version was abandoned as well, once more in favor of a more regional championship name, the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship. Georgia Championship Wrestling followed the trend in 1969, with the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship. By 1970 the Ohio-Upstate New York territory left the NWA and became known as the National Wrestling Federation, in the process they rebranded the tag team championship as it became known as the NWF World Tag Team Championship. No territory created a new world tag team championship until 1975 where the NWA Mid-Atlantic promotion in the Carolinas introduced the Mid-Atlantic version, the first new championship in nine years. This championship would later also be recognized by Georgia Championship Wrestling. In 1977 the NWA Mid-America territory was split in two as Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett took over a large part of the territory when they created the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). After the territory splits NWA Mid-America abandoned their version of the world tag team championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1979 the San Francisco version of the championship was abandoned, while Hollywood Wrestling reintroduced the Los Angeles version of the championship shortly afterwards. The same year the Central States version was abandoned, in favor of the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship. The Detroit territory closed its doors in 1980, ending their version of the championship. In 1981 World Class Championship Wrestling briefly brought back the east Texas version of the championship, but later abandoned it in favor of the NWA Americas Tag Team Championship.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1982 the Los Angeles territory closed, abandoning their version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship. This meant that the Mid-Atlantic version of the championship became the only NWA World Tag Team Championship that was still active from that point forward. In 1980 MACW owner and promoter Jim Crockett Jr. became president of the NWA and started to consolidate the south eastern promotion, branding them as the "National Wrestling Alliance" while officially being known as Jim Crockett Promotions. The consolidation of the Crockett brand was done in part to combat the country-wide expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the early 1980s, breaking with the territory approach of the NWA. With JCP gaining national television deals the Mid-Atlantic version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship became a de facto "World" championship, moving from a regional championship and later recognized as a "World Championship" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, the premier wrestling magazine at the time.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: In 1988 the cost of the rapid expansion of JCP forced Crockett to sell his promotion to Ted Turner. Turner began to rebrand the promotion as World Championship Wrestling, but still used the NWA prefix for all of their championships at that point in time. In January 1991 WCW officially split from the NWA, spinning off the NWA Championships into WCW championships, which meant that then-reigning champions Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) became the first champions to officially be labeled as WCW World Tag Team Champions. At that point in time the NWA did not determine a new set of NWA World Tag Team Champions.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: A year after parting ways with the NWA, the two parties came to an agreement for WCW to host a tournament for the first ever officially board of directors sanctioned NWA World Tag Team Championship. To push the "world" aspect of the championship WCW and the NWA brought in several international teams for the tournament. Teams such as Sliver King and El Texano from Mexico, Hiroshi Hase and Akira Nogami from Japan, Miguel Perez Jr. and Ricky Santana from Puerto Rico and Joe and Dean Malenko representing "Europe". The first round of the tournament took place on June 22, 1992, at WCW's Clash of the Champions XIX show, while the remaining tournament took place at the 1992 Great American Bash. In the period of time between the Clash and the Great American Bash the team of Terry Gordy and Steve Williams had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from The Steiner Brothers, and when they won the tournament at the Great American Bash they became double champions, carrying two belts each for their matches.


title: NWA World Tag Team Championship

text: WCW had five championship changes happen for the combined WCW/NWA World Tag Team Championships happen between July 1992 and August 1993, after which the NWA broke off their relationship with WCW once more. Then-champions Arn Anderson and Paul Roma were stripped of the NWA championship, a fact that was not mentioned on TV as they kept defending the WCW championship. While the NWA initially recognized the five WCW booked championship reigns, they later removed them from their official history.