title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a mining concession from Lobengula, King of the Ndebele of Matabeleland. In 1888 he tried again. He sent John Moffat, son of the missionary Robert Moffat, who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of friendship with Britain, and to look favourably on Rhodes's proposals. His associate Charles Rudd, together with Francis Thompson and Rochfort Maguire, assured Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland. This limitation was left out of the document, known as the Rudd Concession, which Lobengula signed. Furthermore, it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to their operations. When Lobengula discovered later the true effects of the concession, he tried to renounce it, but the British Government ignored him.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: During the company's early days, Rhodes and his associates set themselves up to make millions (hundreds of millions in current pounds) over the coming years through what has been described as a ""suppressio veri" ... which must be regarded as one of Rhodes's least creditable actions". Contrary to what the British government and the public had been allowed to think, the Rudd Concession was not vested in the British South Africa Company, but in a short-lived ancillary concern of Rhodes, Rudd and a few others called the "Central Search Association", which was quietly formed in London in 1889. This entity renamed itself the "United Concessions Company" in 1890, and soon after sold the Rudd Concession to the Chartered Company for 1,000,000 shares. When Colonial Office functionaries discovered this chicanery in 1891, they advised Secretary of State for the Colonies Viscount Knutsford to consider revoking the concession, but no action was taken.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Armed with the Rudd Concession, in 1889 Rhodes obtained a charter from the British Government for his British South Africa Company (BSAC) to rule, police, and make new treaties and concessions from the Limpopo River to the great lakes of Central Africa. He obtained further concessions and treaties north of the Zambezi, such as those in Barotseland (the Lochner Concession with King Lewanika in 1890, which was similar to the Rudd Concession); and in the Lake Mweru area (Alfred Sharpe's 1890 Kazembe concession). Rhodes also sent Sharpe to get a concession over mineral-rich Katanga, but met his match in ruthlessness: when Sharpe was rebuffed by its ruler Msiri, King Leopold II of Belgium obtained a concession over Msiri's dead body for his Congo Free State.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes also wanted Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) incorporated in the BSAC charter. But three Tswana kings, including Khama III, travelled to Britain and won over British public opinion for it to remain governed by the British Colonial Office in London. Rhodes commented: "It is humiliating to be utterly beaten by these niggers."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The British Colonial Office also decided to administer British Central Africa (Nyasaland, today's Malawi) owing to the activism of David Livingstone trying to end the East African Arab-Swahili slave trade. Rhodes paid much of the cost so that the British Central Africa Commissioner Sir Harry Johnston, and his successor Alfred Sharpe, would assist with security for Rhodes in the BSAC's north-eastern territories. Johnston shared Rhodes's expansionist views, but he and his successors were not as pro-settler as Rhodes, and disagreed on dealings with Africans.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The BSAC had its own police force, the British South Africa Police, which was used to control Matabeleland and Mashonaland, in present-day Zimbabwe. The company had hoped to start a "new Rand" from the ancient gold mines of the Shona. Because gold deposits weren't as plentiful as they had hoped, many of the white settlers who accompanied the BSAC to Mashonaland became farmers rather than miners. White settlers and their locally-employed Native Police engaged in widespread indiscriminate rape of Ndebele women in the early 1890s.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The Ndebele and the Shona—the two main, but rival, peoples—took advantage of the absence of most of the BSAP for the Jameson Raid in January 1896; they separately rebelled against the coming of the European settlers, and the BSAC defeated them in the Second Matabele War. Rhodes went to Matabeleland after his resignation as Cape Colony Premier, and appointed himself Colonel in his own column of irregular troops moving from Salisbury to Bulawayo to relieve the siege of whites there. He remained Managing Director of the BSAC (with power of attorney to take decisions without reference back to the Board in London) until June 1896, defying Chamberlain's calls to resign, and he gave instructions that no mercy be shown in putting down the rebellion, telling officers that "Your instructions are" he told a major, to "do the most harm you can to the natives around you." He ordered a police officer to "kill all you can", even those Ndebele who begged for mercy and threw down their arms... Shortly after learning of the assassination of the Ndebele spiritual leader, Mlimo, by the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, and after participating in the cavalry charge at one of the last pitched battles of this phase of the war, Rhodes' associate Johan Colenbrander arranged for a meeting with the remaining Ndebele chiefs. Rhodes and a few colleagues walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills. In a series of meetings between August and October, he persuaded the Impi to lay down their arms, thus ending the Second Matabele War.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In the aftermath of the war in Matabeleland, but whilst the uprising in Mashonaland was being suppressed, Rhodes returned to London to give evidence to the UK House of Commons Select Committee of Enquiry into the Jameson Raid. As Rhodes had incriminating telegrams demonstrating the complicity and foreknowledge of the Raid by Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, he and his solicitor were able to blackmail Chamberlain into retaining the BSAC Charter, leaving the Company in charge of administering the territory north of the Limpopo even as it became a Crown Colony. Rhodes returned to Mashonaland, further overseeing the suppression of the uprising there into 1897. The scandal attached to his name did not prevent him rejoining the board of the BSAC in 1898. He remained an MP in the Cape Parliament and a Privy Councillor.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: By the end of 1894, the territories over which the BSAC had concessions or treaties, collectively called "Zambesia" after the Zambezi River flowing through the middle, comprised an area of 1,143,000 km between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika. In May 1895, its name was officially changed to "Rhodesia", reflecting Rhodes's popularity among settlers who had been using the name informally since 1891. The designation Southern Rhodesia was officially adopted in 1898 for the part south of the Zambezi, which later became Zimbabwe; and the designations North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia were used from 1895 for the territory which later became Northern Rhodesia, then Zambia. He built a house for himself in 1897 in Bulawayo.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes decreed in his will that he was to be buried in Matopos Hills (now Matobo Hills). After his death in the Cape in 1902, his body was transported by train to Bulawayo. His burial was attended by Ndebele chiefs, now paid agents of the BSAC administration, who asked that the firing party should not discharge their rifles as this would disturb the spirits. Then, for the first time, they gave a white man the Matabele royal salute, Bayete. Rhodes is buried alongside Leander Starr Jameson and 34 British soldiers killed in the Shangani Patrol. Despite occasional efforts to return his body to the United Kingdom, his grave remains there still, "part and parcel of the history of Zimbabwe" and attracts thousands of visitors each year.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: One of Rhodes's dreams was for a "red line" on the map from the Cape to Cairo (on geo-political maps, British dominions were always denoted in red or pink). Rhodes had been instrumental in securing southern African states for the Empire. He and others felt the best way to "unify the possessions, facilitate governance, enable the military to move quickly to hot spots or conduct war, help settlement, and foster trade" would be to build the "Cape to Cairo Railway".


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: This enterprise was not without its problems. France had a conflicting strategy in the late 1890s to link its colonies from west to east across the continent and the Portuguese produced the "Pink Map", representing their claims to sovereignty in Africa. Ultimately, Belgium and Germany proved to be the main obstacles to the British objective until the United Kingdom conquered and seized Tanganyika from the Germans as a League of Nations mandate.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes wanted to expand the British Empire because he believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was destined to greatness. In what he described as "a draft of some of my ideas" written in 1877 while a student at Oxford, Rhodes said of the English, "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory means the birth of more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes wanted to develop a Commonwealth in which all of the British-dominated countries in the empire would be represented in the British Parliament. Rhodes explicitly stipulated in his will that all races should be eligible for the scholarships. It is said that he wanted to develop an American elite of philosopher-kings who would have the United States rejoin the British Empire. As Rhodes also respected and admired the Germans and their Kaiser, he allowed German students to be included in the Rhodes scholarships. He believed that eventually the United Kingdom (including Ireland), the US, and Germany together would dominate the world and ensure perpetual peace.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes's views on race have been debated; he supported the rights of indigenous Africans to vote, but critics have labelled him as an "architect of apartheid" and a "white supremacist", particularly since 2015. According to Magubane, Rhodes was "unhappy that in many Cape Constituencies, Africans could be decisive if more of them exercised this right to vote under current law [referring to the Cape Qualified Franchise]," with Rhodes arguing that "the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India, in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa". Rhodes advocated the governance of indigenous Africans living in the Cape Colony "in a state of barbarism and communal tenure" as "a subject race. I do not go so far as the member for Victoria West, who would not give the black man a vote. ... If the whites maintain their position as the supreme race, the day may come when we shall be thankful that we have the natives with us in their proper position."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: However others have disputed these views. For example, historian Raymond C. Mensing notes that Rhodes has the reputation as the most flamboyant exemplar of the British imperial spirit, and always believed that British institutions were the best. Mensing argues that Rhodes quietly developed a more nuanced concept of imperial federation in Africa, and that his mature views were more balanced and realistic. According to Mensing, "Rhodes was not a biological or maximal racist. Despite his support for what became the basis for the apartheid system, he is best seen as a cultural or minimal racist". In a 2016 opinion piece for "The Times", Oxford University professor Nigel Biggar argued that although Rhodes was a committed imperialist, the charges of racism against him are unfounded. In a 2021 article, Biggar further argued that:


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: On domestic politics within Britain, Rhodes was a supporter of the Liberal Party. Rhodes' only major impact was his large-scale support of the Irish nationalist party, led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891).


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes worked well with the Afrikaners in the Cape Colony; he supported teaching Dutch as well as English in public schools. While Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, he helped to remove most of their legal disabilities. He was a friend of Jan Hofmeyr, leader of the Afrikaner Bond, and it was largely because of Afrikaner support that he became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Rhodes advocated greater self-government for the Cape Colony, in line with his preference for the empire to be controlled by local settlers and politicians rather than by London.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Scholar and Zimbabwean author Peter Godwin, whilst critical of Rhodes, writes that he needs to be viewed via the prisms and cultural and social perspective of his epoch, positing that Rhodes "was no 19th-century Hitler. He wasn't so much a freak as a man of his time...Rhodes and the white pioneers in southern Africa did behave despicably by today's standards, but no worse than the white settlers in North America, South America, and Australia; and in some senses better, considering that the genocide of natives in Africa was less complete. For all the former African colonies are now ruled by indigenous peoples, unlike the Americas and the Antipodes, most of whose aboriginal natives were all but exterminated."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Godwin goes on to say "Rhodes and his cronies fit in perfectly with their surroundings and conformed to the morality (or lack of it) of the day. As is so often the case, history simply followed the gravitational pull of superior firepower."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes never married, pleading, "I have too much work on my hands" and saying that he would not be a dutiful husband. Author Robin Brown has claimed in "The Secret Society: Cecil John Rhodes’s Plan for a New World Order" that Rhodes was a homosexual who was in love with his private secretary, Neville Pickering, and that he established "… a homosexual hegemony—which was already operative in the Secret Society—[and] went on to influence, if not control, British politics at the beginning of the twentieth century". Paul Maylam of Rhodes University criticised the book in a review for "The Conversation" as "based heavily on surmise and assertion" and lacking "referenced source material to substantiate its claims", as well as being riddled with basic factual errors.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In the last years of his life, Rhodes was stalked by Polish princess Catherine Radziwiłł, born Rzewuska, who had married into the noble Polish family Radziwiłł. The princess falsely claimed that she was engaged to Rhodes, and that they were having an affair. She asked him to marry her, but Rhodes refused. In reaction, she accused him of loan fraud. He had to go to trial and testify against her accusation. She wrote a biography of Rhodes called "Cecil Rhodes: Man and Empire Maker". Her accusations were eventually proven to be false.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: During the Second Boer War Rhodes went to Kimberley at the onset of the siege, in a calculated move to raise the political stakes on the government to dedicate resources to the defence of the city. The military felt he was more of a liability than an asset and found him intolerable. The officer commanding the garrison of Kimberley, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kekewich, experienced serious personal difficulties with Rhodes because of the latter's inability to co-operate.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Despite these differences, Rhodes' company was instrumental in the defence of the city, providing water and refrigeration facilities, constructing fortifications, and manufacturing an armoured train, shells and a one-off gun named Long Cecil.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes used his position and influence to lobby the British government to relieve the siege of Kimberley, claiming in the press that the situation in the city was desperate. The military wanted to assemble a large force to take the Boer cities of Bloemfontein and Pretoria, but they were compelled to change their plans and send three separate smaller forces to relieve the sieges of Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Although Rhodes remained a leading figure in the politics of southern Africa, especially during the Second Boer War, he was dogged by ill health throughout his relatively short life.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: He was sent to Natal aged 16 because it was believed the climate might help problems with his heart. On returning to England in 1872, his health again deteriorated with heart and lung problems, to the extent that his doctor, Sir Morell Mackenzie, believed he would survive only six months. He returned to Kimberley where his health improved. From age 40 his heart condition returned with increasing severity until his death from heart failure in 1902, aged 48, at his seaside cottage in Muizenberg.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The government arranged an epic journey by train from the Cape to Rhodesia, with the funeral train stopping at every station to allow mourners to pay their respects. It was reported that at Kimberley, "practically the entire population marched in procession past the funeral car". He was finally laid to rest at World's View, a hilltop located approximately south of Bulawayo, in what was then Rhodesia. Today, his grave site is part of Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes has been the target of much recent criticism, with some historians attacking him as a ruthless imperialist and white supremacist. The continued presence of his grave in the Matopos (now Matobo) hills has not been without controversy in contemporary Zimbabwe. In December 2010, Cain Mathema, the governor of Bulawayo, branded the grave outside the country's second city an "insult to the African ancestors" and said he believed its presence had brought bad luck and poor weather to the region.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In February 2012, Mugabe loyalists and ZANU-PF activists visited the grave site demanding permission from the local chief to exhume Rhodes's remains and return them to Britain. Many considered this a nationalist political stunt in the run up to an election, and Local Chief Masuku and Godfrey Mahachi, one of the country's foremost archaeologists, strongly expressed their opposition to the grave being removed due to its historical significance to Zimbabwe. Then-president Robert Mugabe also opposed the move.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In 2004, Rhodes was voted 56th in the SABC 3 television series "Great South Africans". A preparatory school in the Midlands town of Gweru in Zimbabwe is named after him. In the early 2000s during the height of the land reform and racial tensions, ZANU-PF politicians called for a change in all the country's school names with colonial ties, however, efforts were mostly fruitless as most people felt that it was unnecessary and names of places they live in reflect the diverse identity and cultural heritage of the country but called for the government to embrace the history of the country and allow room for new names for new places in the ever-growing towns and cities.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In his second will, written in 1877 before he had accumulated his wealth, Rhodes wanted to create a secret society that would bring the whole world under British rule. His biographer calls it an "extensive fantasy." Rhodes envisioned a secret society to extend British rule worldwide, including China, Japan, all of Africa and South America, and indeed the United States as well:


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes's final will—when he actually did have money—was much more realistic and focused on scholarships. He also left a large area of land on the slopes of Table Mountain to the South African nation. Part of this estate became the upper campus of the University of Cape Town, another part became the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, while much was spared from development and is now an important conservation area.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In his last will, he provided for the establishment of the Rhodes Scholarship. Over the course of the previous half-century, governments, universities and individuals in the settler colonies had been establishing travelling scholarships for this purpose. The Rhodes awards fit the established pattern. The scholarship enabled male students from territories under British rule or formerly under British rule and from Germany to study at Rhodes's alma mater, the University of Oxford. Rhodes' aims were to promote leadership marked by public spirit and good character, and to "render war impossible" by promoting friendship between the great powers.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes Memorial stands on Rhodes's favourite spot on the slopes of Devil's Peak, Cape Town, with a view looking north and east towards the Cape to Cairo route. From 1910 to 1984 Rhodes's house in Cape Town, Groote Schuur, was the official Cape residence of the prime ministers of South Africa and continued as a presidential residence.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: His birthplace was established in 1938 as the Rhodes Memorial Museum, now known as Bishops Stortford Museum. The cottage in Muizenberg where he died is a provincial heritage site in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The cottage today is operated as a museum by the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, and is open to the public. A broad display of Rhodes material can be seen, including the original De Beers board room table around which diamonds worth billions of dollars were traded.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Rhodes University College, now Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, was established in his name by his trustees and founded by Act of Parliament on 31 May 1904.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The residents of Kimberley, Northern Cape elected to build a memorial in Rhodes's honour in their city, which was unveiled in 1907. The 72-ton bronze statue depicts Rhodes on his horse, looking north with map in hand, and dressed as he was when he met the Ndebele after their rebellion.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: The founder of the original country of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Cecil John Rhodes first visited Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands of the country in 1897. Captivated by the unspoilt and breathtaking beauty of the area, he immediately purchased a parcel of farms totalling 40000ha and then proceeded to import cattle from Mozambique and develop extensive plantations of apple and fruit trees. When he died in 1902, Rhodes bequeathed most of the estate to the nation, and this now forms the Rhodes Nyanga National Park. Rhodes's original farmhouse has been meticulously preserved and is now the Rhodes Nyanga Hotel. Housed in the original stables is a fascinating museum that focuses on Rhodes's life and his achievements.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Memorials to Rhodes have been opposed since at least the 1950s, when some Afrikaner students demanded the removal of a Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town. A 2015 movement, known as "Rhodes Must Fall" (or #RhodesMustFall on social media), began with student protests at the University of Cape Town that were successful in getting university authorities to remove the Rhodes statue from the campus. The protest also had the broader goal of highlighting what the activists considered the lack of systemic post-apartheid racial transformation in South African institutions.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: Following a series of protests and vandalism at the University of Cape Town, various allied movements both in South Africa and other countries have been launched in opposition to Cecil Rhodes memorials. These include a campaign to change the name of Rhodes University and to remove a statue of Rhodes from Oriel College, Oxford. The campaign was covered in a documentary by Channel 4, which was called "The Battle for Britain's Heroes". The documentary was commissioned after Afua Hirsch wrote an article on the topic. Moreover, an article by Amit Chaudhuri, in "The Guardian", suggested the criticism was "unsurprising and overdue". Other academics including Kehinde Andrews, prominent British academic and author specialising in Black studies, have vocally spoken in favour of #RhodesMustFall. However, Oriel College opted to keep the Rhodes statue, despite the protests. Oriel College claimed in 2016 they would lose about £100 million worth of gifts if they removed the statue. Nevertheless, in June 2020, the college voted in favour of setting up an independent commission of inquiry, amid widespread support for removing the statue.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: A statue of Rhodes was erected in the city of Bulawayo in 1904 in the city centre. In 1981 after the country's independence the statue was removed to the centenary park at the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: "Encyclopædia Britannica", discussing his legacy, wrote of Rhodes that he "once defined his policy as 'equal rights for every white man south of the Zambezi' and later, under liberal pressure, amended 'white' to 'civilized'. But he probably regarded the possibility of native Africans becoming 'civilized' as so remote that the two expressions, in his mind, came to the same thing."


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: As part of his legacy, on his death Rhodes left a significant amount of money to be used to finance talented young scholars ("race" was not a criterion) at Oxford. Currently, in Oxford a number of those South African and Zimbabwean recipients of funds from his legacy are campaigning for his statue to be removed from display in Oxford. When asked if there was any double standard or hypocrisy in being funded by the Rhodes Scholarship fund and benefiting from the opportunity, whilst at the same time campaigning against the legacy of Rhodes, one of the South African campaigners, Ntokozo Qwabe, replied that "this scholarship does not buy our silence...There is no hypocrisy in being a recipient of a Rhodes scholarship and being publicly critical of Cecil Rhodes and his legacy... There is no clause that binds us to find 'the good' in Rhodes’ character, nor to sanitise the imperialist, colonial agenda he propagated".


title: Cecil Rhodes

text: In June 2020, amid the wider context of Black Lives Matter protests, the governing body of Oxford's Oriel College voted to remove the statue of Rhodes located on the college's façade facing Oxford's High Street. The actual removal would not take place until at least early spring 2021, when a commission set up by the college delivered its report on the future of the statue. In May 2021, the commission reported that, while the majority of members supported the statue's removal, the costs to do so were prohibitively high, and the college would therefore not be taking action.


title: Andrew Wilson (actor)

text: Andrew Cunningham Wilson (born August 22, 1964) is an American film actor and director. He is the older brother of actors Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson.


title: Andrew Wilson (actor)

text: Wilson was born in Dallas, the eldest of three sons of photographer Laura Cunningham Wilson (born 1939) and Robert Andrew Wilson (1941–2017), an advertising executive and operator of a public television station. His brothers Owen and Luke are also actors. Wilson's parents are of Irish descent.


title: Andrew Wilson (actor)

text: Wilson has worked in the entertainment industry since the early 1990s, appearing in more than two dozen films. He has acted in three Wes Anderson films—with a main role in "Bottle Rocket" (1996)—and other notable credits include "Fever Pitch" (2005), "Idiocracy" (2006), "Church Ball" (2006), "Whip It!" (2009), "Druid" (2014), and "Time Trap" (2017).


title: Andrew Wilson (actor)

text: Wilson has often collaborated with his brothers, both as an actor and as a director. In 2005, he and brother Luke directed "The Wendell Baker Story", which starred Luke (in the title role) and brother Owen.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that make pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs and the cyclic release of estrogen and progesterone. The uterine cycle governs the preparation and maintenance of the lining of the uterus (womb) to receive an embryo. These cycles are concurrent and coordinated, normally last between 21 and 35 days, with a median length of 28 days, and continue for about 30–45 years.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Naturally occurring hormones drive the cycles; the cyclical rise and fall of the follicle stimulating hormone prompts the production and growth of oocytes (immature egg cells). The hormone estrogen stimulates the uterus lining (endometrium) to thicken to accommodate an embryo should fertilization occur. The blood supply of the thickened lining provides nutrients to a successfully implanted embryo. If implantation does not occur, the lining breaks down and blood is released. Triggered by falling progesterone levels, menstruation (a "period", in common parlance) is the cyclical shedding of the lining, and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Each cycle occurs in phases based on events either in the ovary (ovarian cycle) or in the uterus (uterine cycle). The ovarian cycle consists of the follicular phase, ovulation, and the luteal phase; the uterine cycle consists of the menstrual, proliferative and secretory phases. Day one of the menstrual cycle is the first day of the period, which lasts for about five days. Around day fourteen, an egg is usually released from the ovary. Menarche (the onset of the first period) usually occurs around the age of twelve years.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The menstrual cycle can cause some women to experience premenstrual syndrome with symptoms that may include tender breasts, and tiredness. More severe symptoms that affect daily living are classed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and are experienced by 3–8% of women. During the first few days of menstruation some women experience period pain that can spread from the abdomen to the back and upper thighs. The menstrual cycle can be modified by hormonal birth control.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The menstrual cycle encompasses the ovarian and uterine cycles. The ovarian cycle describes changes that occur in the follicles of the ovary, whereas the uterine cycle describes changes in the endometrial lining of the uterus. Both cycles can be divided into phases. The ovarian cycle consists of alternating follicular and luteal phases, and the uterine cycle consists of menstruation, the proliferative phase, and the secretory phase. The menstrual cycle is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain, and the anterior pituitary gland at the base of the brain. The hypothalamus releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which causes the nearby anterior pituitary to release follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). Before puberty, GnRH is released in low steady quantities and at a steady rate. After puberty, GnRH is released in large pulses, and the frequency and magnitude of these determine how much FSH and LH are produced by the pituitary.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Measured from the first day of one menstruation to the first day of the next, the length of a menstrual cycle varies but has a median length of 28 days. The cycle is often less regular at the beginning and end of a woman's reproductive life. At puberty, a child's body begins to mature into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction; the first period (called menarche) occurs at around 12 years of age and continues for about 30–45 years. Menstrual cycles end at menopause, which is usually between 45 and 55 years of age.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Between menarche and menopause the ovaries regularly alternate between luteal and follicular phases during the monthly menstrual cycle. Stimulated by gradually increasing amounts of estrogen in the follicular phase, discharges of blood flow stop and the uterine lining thickens. Follicles in the ovary begin developing under the influence of a complex interplay of hormones, and after several days one, or occasionally two, become dominant, while non-dominant follicles shrink and die. About mid-cycle, some 10–12 hours after the increase in luteinizing hormone, known as the LH surge, the dominant follicle releases an oocyte, in an event called ovulation.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: After ovulation, the oocyte lives for 24 hours or less without fertilization, while the remains of the dominant follicle in the ovary become a corpus luteum – a body with the primary function of producing large amounts of the hormone progesterone. Under the influence of progesterone, the uterine lining changes to prepare for potential implantation of an embryo to establish a pregnancy. The thickness of the endometrium continues to increase in response to mounting levels of estrogen, which is released by the antral follicle (a mature ovarian follicle) into the blood circulation. Peak levels of estrogen are reached at around day thirteen of the cycle and coincide with ovulation. If implantation does not occur within about two weeks, the corpus luteum degenerates into the corpus albicans, which does not produce hormones, causing a sharp drop in levels of both progesterone and estrogen. This drop causes the uterus to lose its lining in menstruation; it is around this time that the lowest levels of estrogen are reached.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: In an ovulatory menstrual cycle, the ovarian and uterine cycles are concurrent and coordinated and last between 21 and 35 days, with a population average of 27–29 days. Although the average length of the human menstrual cycle is similar to that of the lunar cycle, there is no causal relation between the two.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The ovaries contain a finite number of egg stem cells, granulosa cells and theca cells, which together form primordial follicles. At around 20 weeks into gestation some 7 million immature eggs have already formed in an ovary. This decreases to around 2 million by the time a girl is born, and 300,000 by the time she has her first period. On average, one egg matures and is released during ovulation each month after menarche. Beginning at puberty, these mature to primary follicles independently of the menstrual cycle. The development of the egg is called oogenesis and only one cell survives the divisions to await fertilization. The other cells are discarded as polar bodies, which cannot be fertilized. The follicular phase is the first part of the ovarian cycle and it ends with the completion of the antral follicles. Meiosis (cell division) remains incomplete in the egg cells until the antral follicle is formed. During this phase usually only one ovarian follicle fully matures and gets ready to release an egg. The follicular phase shortens significantly with age, lasting around 14 days in women aged 18–24 compared with 10 days in women aged 40–44.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Through the influence of a rise in follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) during the first days of the cycle, a few ovarian follicles are stimulated. These follicles, which have been developing for the better part of a year in a process known as folliculogenesis, compete with each other for dominance. All but one of these follicles will stop growing, while one dominant follicle – the one that has the most FSH receptors – will continue to maturity. The remaining follicles die in a process called follicular atresia. Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates further development of the ovarian follicle. The follicle that reaches maturity is called an antral follicle, and it contains the ovum (egg cell).


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The theca cells develop receptors that bind LH, and in response secrete large amounts of androstenedione. At the same time the granulosa cells surrounding the maturing follicle develop receptors that bind FSH, and in response start secreting androstenedione, which is converted to estrogen by the enzyme aromatase. The estrogen inhibits further production of FSH and LH by the pituitary gland. This negative feedback regulates levels of FSH and LH. The dominant follicle continues to secrete estrogen, and the rising estrogen levels make the pituitary more responsive to GnRH from the hypothalamus. As estrogen increases this becomes a positive feedback signal, which makes the pituitary secrete more FSH and LH. This surge of FSH and LH usually occurs one to two days before ovulation and is responsible for stimulating the rupture of the antral follicle and release of the oocyte.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Around day fourteen, the egg is released from the ovary. Called ovulation, this occurs when a mature egg is released from the ovarian follicles into the fallopian tube, about 10–12 hours after the peak in LH surge. Typically only one of the 15–20 stimulated follicles reaches full maturity, and just one egg is released. Ovulation only occurs in around 10% of cycles during the first two years following menarche, and by the age of 40–50, the number of ovarian follicles is depleted. LH initiates ovulation at around day 14 and stimulates the formation of the corpus luteum. Following further stimulation by LH, the corpus luteum produces and releases estrogen, progesterone, relaxin (which relaxes the uterus by inhibiting contractions of the myometrium), and inhibin (which inhibits further secretion of FSH).


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The release of LH matures the egg and weakens the follicle wall in the ovary, causing the fully developed follicle to release its oocyte. If it is fertilized by a sperm, the oocyte promptly matures into an ootid, which blocks the other sperm cells and becomes a mature egg. If it is not fertilized by a sperm, the oocyte degenerates. The mature egg has a diameter of about , and is the largest human cell.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Which of the two ovaries – left or right – ovulates appears random; no left and right coordinating process is known. Occasionally both ovaries release an egg; if both eggs are fertilized, the result is fraternal twins. After release from the ovary, the egg is swept into the fallopian tube by the fimbria – a fringe of tissue at the end of each fallopian tube. After about a day, an unfertilized egg disintegrates or dissolves in the fallopian tube, and a fertilized egg reaches the uterus in three to five days.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Fertilization usually takes place in the ampulla, the widest section of the fallopian tubes. A fertilized egg immediately starts the process of embryonic development. The developing embryo takes about three days to reach the uterus, and another three days to implant into the endometrium. It has reached the blastocyst stage at the time of implantation: this is when pregnancy begins. The loss of the corpus luteum is prevented by fertilization of the egg. The syncytiotrophoblast (the outer layer of the resulting embryo-containing blastocyst that later becomes the outer layer of the placenta) produces human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is very similar to LH and preserves the corpus luteum. During the first few months of pregnancy, the corpus luteum continues to secrete progesterone and estrogens at slightly higher levels than those at ovulation. After this and for the rest of the pregnancy, the placenta secretes high levels of these hormones – along with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which stimulates the corpus luteum to secrete more progesterone and estrogens, blocking the menstrual cycle. These hormones also prepare the mammary glands for milk production.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Lasting about 14 days, the luteal phase is the final phase of the ovarian cycle and it corresponds to the secretory phase of the uterine cycle. During the luteal phase, the pituitary hormones FSH and LH cause the remaining parts of the dominant follicle to transform into the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone. The increased progesterone starts to induce the production of estrogen. The hormones produced by the corpus luteum also suppress production of the FSH and LH that the corpus luteum needs to maintain itself. The level of FSH and LH fall quickly, and the corpus luteum atrophies. Falling levels of progesterone trigger menstruation and the beginning of the next cycle. From the time of ovulation until progesterone withdrawal has caused menstruation to begin, the process typically takes about two weeks. For an individual woman, the follicular phase often varies in length from cycle to cycle; by contrast, the length of her luteal phase will be fairly consistent from cycle to cycle at 10 to 16 days (average 14 days).


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Menstruation (also called menstrual bleeding, menses or a period) is the first and most evident phase of the uterine cycle and first occurs at puberty. Called menarche, the first period occurs at the age of around twelve or thirteen years. The average age is generally later in the developing world and earlier in the developed world. In precocious puberty, it can occur as early as age eight years, and this can still be normal.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Menstruation is initiated each month by falling levels of estrogen and progesterone and the release of prostaglandins, which constrict the spiral arteries. This causes them to spasm, contract and break up. The blood supply to the endometrium is cut off and the cells of the top layer of the endometrium (the stratum functionalis) become deprived of oxygen and die. Later the whole layer is lost and only the bottom layer, the stratum basalis, is left in place. An enzyme called plasmin breaks up the blood clots in the menstrual fluid, which eases the flow of blood and broken down lining from the uterus. The flow of blood continues for 2–6 days and around 30–60 milliliters of blood is lost, and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The flow of blood normally serves as a sign that a woman has not become pregnant, but this cannot be taken as certainty, as several factors can cause bleeding during pregnancy. Menstruation occurs on average once a month from menarche to menopause, which corresponds with a woman's fertile years. The average age of menopause in women is 52 years, and it typically occurs between 45 and 55 years of age. Menopause is preceded by a stage of hormonal changes called perimenopause.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: "Eumenorrhea" denotes normal, regular menstruation that lasts for around the first 5 days of the cycle. Women who experience menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding) are more susceptible to iron deficiency than the average person.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The proliferative phase is the second phase of the uterine cycle when estrogen causes the lining of the uterus to grow and proliferate. The latter part of the follicular phase overlaps with the proliferative phase of the uterine cycle. As they mature, the ovarian follicles secrete increasing amounts of estradiol, an estrogen. The estrogens initiate the formation of a new layer of endometrium in the uterus with the spiral arterioles.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: As estrogen levels increase, cells in the cervix produce a type of cervical mucus that has a higher pH and is less viscous than usual, rendering it more friendly to sperm. This increases the chances of fertilization, which occurs around day 11 to day 14. This cervical mucus can be detected as a vaginal discharge that is copious and resembles raw egg whites. For women who are practicing fertility awareness, it is a sign that ovulation may be about to take place, but it does not mean ovulation will definitely occur.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: The secretory phase is the final phase of the uterine cycle and it corresponds to the luteal phase of the ovarian cycle. During the secretory phase, the corpus luteum produces progesterone, which plays a vital role in making the endometrium receptive to the implantation of a blastocyst (a fertilized egg, which has begun to grow). Glycogen, lipids, and proteins are secreted into the uterus and the cervical mucus thickens. In early pregnancy progesterone also increases blood flow and reduces the contractility of the smooth muscle in the uterus and raises the woman's basal body temperature.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Only two-thirds of overtly normal menstrual cycles are ovulatory, that is, cycles in which ovulation occurs. The other third lack ovulation or have a short luteal phase (less than ten days) in which progesterone production is insufficient for normal physiology and fertility. Cycles in which ovulation does not occur (anovulation) are common in girls who have just begun menstruating and in women around menopause. During the first two years following menarche, ovulation is absent in around half of cycles. Five years after menarche, ovulation occurs in around 75% of cycles and this reaches 80% in the following years. Anovulatory cycles are often overtly identical to normally ovulatory cycles. Any alteration to balance of hormones can lead to anovulation. Stress, anxiety and eating disorders can cause a fall in GnRH, and a disruption of the menstrual cycle. Chronic anovulation occurs in 6–15% of women during their reproductive years. Around menopause, hormone feedback dysregulation leads to anovulatory cycles. Although anovulation is not considered a disease, it can be a sign of an underlying condition such as polycystic ovary syndrome. Anovulatory cycles or short luteal phases are normal when women are under stress or athletes increasing the intensity of training. These changes are reversible as the stressors decrease or, in the case of the athlete, as she adapts to the training.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Although a normal and natural process, some women experience premenstrual syndrome with symptoms that may include acne, tender breasts, and tiredness. More severe symptoms that affect daily living are classed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder and are experienced by 3 to 8% of women. Dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps or period pain) is felt as painful cramps in the abdomen that can spread to the back and upper thighs during the first few days of menstruation. Debilitating period pain is not normal and can be a sign of something severe such as endometriosis. These issues can significantly affect a woman's health and quality of life and timely interventions can improve the lives of these women.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: There are common culturally communicated misbeliefs that the menstrual cycle affects women's moods, causes depression or irritability, or that menstruation is a painful, shameful or unclean experience. Often a woman's normal mood variation is falsely attributed to the menstrual cycle. Much of the research is weak, but there appears to be a very small increase in mood fluctuations during the luteal and menstrual phases, and a corresponding decrease during the rest of the cycle. Changing levels of estrogen and progesterone across the menstrual cycle exert systemic effects on aspects of physiology including the brain, metabolism, and musculoskeletal system. The result can be subtle physiological and observable changes to women's athletic performance including strength, aerobic, and anaerobic performance.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Changes to the brain have also been observed throughout the menstrual cycle but do not translate into measurable changes in intellectual achievement – including academic performance, problem-solving, memory, and creativity. Improvements in spatial reasoning ability during the menstruation phase of the cycle are probably caused by decreases in levels of estrogen and progesterone.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: In some women, ovulation features a characteristic pain called "mittelschmerz" (a German term meaning "middle pain"). The cause of the pain is associated with the ruptured follicle, causing a small amount of blood loss.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Even when normal, the changes in hormone levels during the menstrual cycle can increase the incidence of disorders such as autoimmune diseases, which might be caused by estrogen enhancement of the immune system.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Around 40% of women with epilepsy find that their seizures occur more frequently at certain phases of their menstrual cycle. This catamenial epilepsy may be due to a drop in progesterone if it occurs during the luteal phase or around menstruation, or a surge in estrogen if it occurs at ovulation. Women who have regular periods can take medication just before and during menstruation. Options include progesterone supplements, increasing the dose of their regular anticonvulsant drug, or temporarily adding an anticonvulsant such as clobazam or acetazolamide. If this is ineffective, or when a woman's menstrual cycle is irregular, then treatment is to stop the menstrual cycle occurring. This may be achieved using medroxyprogesterone, triptorelin or goserelin, or by sustained use of oral contraceptives.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Hormonal contraceptives prevent pregnancy by inhibiting the secretion of the hormones, FSH, LH and GnRH. Hormonal contraception that contains estrogen, such as combined oral contraceptive pills (COCPs), stop the development of the dominant follicle and the mid-cycle LH surge and thus ovulation. Sequential dosing and discontinuation of the COCP can mimic the uterine cycle and produce bleeding that resembles a period. In some cases, this bleeding is lighter.


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Progestin-only methods of hormonal contraception do not always prevent ovulation but instead work by stopping the cervical mucus from becoming sperm-friendly. Hormonal contraception is available in a variety of forms such as pills, patches, skin implants and hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs).


title: Menstrual cycle

text: Most female mammals have an estrous cycle, but only ten primate species, four bat species, the elephant shrews and the spiny mouse species Cairo spiny mouse ("Acomys cahirinus") have a menstrual cycle. The cycles are the same as in humans apart from the length, which ranges from 9 to 37 days. The lack of immediate relationship between these groups suggests that four distinct evolutionary events have caused menstruation to arise. In species that have a menstrual cycle, ovulation is not obvious to potential mates and there is no mating season. There are four theories on the evolutionary significance of menstruation:


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Aditya Roy Kapur (born 16 November 1985) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Hindi films. He made his acting debut in 2009 with the musical drama film "London Dreams". Kapur had his first commercial success came with the romantic musical "Aashiqui 2" in 2013 for which he received critical acclaim and won several awards including BIG Star Entertainment Awards for Best Actor in a Romantic Role.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In the same year, he did coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama film "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" for which he won International Indian Film Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Following a career downturn, in some of his failures "Daawat-e-Ishq" (2014), "Fitoor" (2016), "Ok Jaanu" (2017) and "Kalank" (2019). He gained praise for the action thriller film "Malang" (2020) and black comedy crime film "Ludo" (2020).


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur was born in Mumbai on 16 November 1985 to a Punjabi Hindu father, Kumud Roy Kapur, and a Jewish mother Salome Aaron. His grandfather, Raghupat Roy Kapur, was a film producer in the early 1940s. Kapur is the youngest of the three siblings; his eldest brother, Siddharth Roy Kapur, was the chief executive officer of UTV Motion Pictures and is married to the actress, Vidya Balan. His second elder brother, Kunaal Roy Kapur, is also an actor.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: His maternal grandparents, Sam and Ruby Aaron, were qualified dance teachers who introduced the Sama dance to India. He did his schooling from G. D. Somani Memorial School, in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai, where all his siblings studied and his mother directed school plays.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur enrolled in St. Xavier's in Class XI, but failed. He had to enroll in St. Andrew's College to avoid losing a year. Subsequently, he graduated from St. Xavier's College, affiliated to the University of Mumbai. During his school years, he wanted to be a cricketer but he quit cricket coaching classes after sixth standard.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur was initially a VJ on the music channel Channel V India, where his comic timing and "unique style of hosting" was appreciated. He starred in a show titled "Pakao" and also hosted the popular show, "India's Hottest" with VJ Bruna Abdullah till 2008.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur's Hindi film debut was a supporting role in the 2009 comedy-drama "London Dreams" starring Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn and Asin Thottumkal. The series of supporting roles continued with his two films released in 2010–the Akshay Kumar starrer "Action Replayy" and the Hrithik Roshan starrer "Guzaarish". However, none of these films performed well at the box office and were able to give Kapur his fame.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In 2013, Kapur found his breakthrough role as Rahul Jaykar in the romantic drama "Aashiqui 2" co-starring Shraddha Kapoor. Premiering on 26 April 2013, "Aashiqui 2" became a commercial success at the box-office and was one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2013, earning worldwide within the first four weeks. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama praised his performance, writing that "...Aditya Roy Kapur's depiction of the intense character is outstanding... [which] clearly demonstrates his potency as an artist of caliber and competence." "Hindustan Times" critic Anupama Chopra noted that Kapur "gives Rahul's angst a certain charm... He is earnest and broken." That year, Kapur played the supporting role of Avinash Arora in the film "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" which not only became one of the highest grossing Indian films but also the highest grossing film of his career.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In 2014, he played Tariq Haider in the romantic comedy film "Daawat-e-Ishq" alongside Parineeti Chopra. The film released to average reviews by critics, and was financially unsuccessful. In 2016, Kapur starred as Noor Nizami in the romantic drama film "Fitoor" alongside Katrina Kaif based on Charles Dickens' 1861 novel "Great Expectations". He also made cameo appearances in films "Dear Zindagi" and "Welcome To New York." In 2016, he was a part of the celebrity music tour "Dream Team Bollywood" and performed in San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York with Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, Alia Bhatt and Badshah.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In 2017, Kapur starred as Aditya Gunjal in the romantic drama film "Ok Jaanu" alongside Shraddha Kapoor which received mixed reviews from critics "Bollywood Hungama" stating that it is "a decent love story which works only in parts mainly because of the chemistry between Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor." In 2019, he starred as Dev Chaudhry in the romantic drama film "Kalank" alongside Alia Bhatt and Sonakshi Sinha. The film received mixed reviews upon release, with criticism towards its direction, storyline and length, but praise for its music, visuals and performances of the ensemble cast. Nonetheless, it was unsuccessful at the box office.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In 2019, Kapur starred as Adavit Thakur in the romantic action thriller "Malang" alongside Disha Patani. Kapur's performance got positive reviews from critics. Harshada Rege of "The Times of India" wrote, "Aditya impresses in the role of a guy whose life goes through a major upheaval. He shows restraint and finesses in his performance. The actor's physical transformation adds weight to all the kicks and punches he pulls in the film." "Bollywood Hungama" called his performance as "very convincing as a fearless man with a vengeance who can take on dozens of goons. "Malang" earned worldwide thus becoming a commercial success.


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: In 2020, he starred as Vishal Agnihotri in the action thriller road film "Sadak 2" alongside Sanjay Dutt and Alia Bhatt, which released on 28 August 2020 on the streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar. The film was universally panned by critics, with criticism for its performance, script, dialogues and use of clichés. Anupama Chopra of "Film Companion" wrote, "The storytelling, performances dialogue, cinematography, songs, background music – all seem to belong to the 90's". The same year he starred in the black comedy crime film "Ludo" as Aakash Chauhan alongside Sanya Malhotra which released on 12 November 2020 in Netflix and receiving positive reviews with praise towards its screenplay, cinematography, music, direction and performances of the cast. Nairita Mukherjee from "India Today" reviewed the movie positively, calling it 'naram-garam and delicious' which is "out-of-the-box while staying firmly in the box."


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur and Sanjana Sanghi began shooting for the action thriller film "Rashtra Kavach Om" in December 2020. It released theatrically on 1 July 2022 with received negative response from critics towards the storyline eventually became Box office bomb. Nairita Mukherjee of "India Today" wrote "Aditya Roy Kapur's glistening biceps, though impressive, may not be strong enough to hold the weight of this strictly average actioner".


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur will next star in crime thriller film "Gumraah" alongside Mrunal Thakur, the Hindi remake of the 2018 Tamil film "Thadam".


title: Aditya Roy Kapur

text: Kapur is frequently featured in the Times of India's Most Desirable Men list rank at No 28 in 2018 No 11 in 2019 and No 3 in 2020.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Robot Chicken is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The writers, most prominently Green, also provide many of the voices. Senreich, Goldstein, and Root were formerly writers for the popular action figure hobbyist magazine "ToyFare". "Robot Chicken" has won two Annie Awards and six Emmy Awards.


title: Robot Chicken

text: "Robot Chicken" was conceptually preceded by "Twisted ToyFare Theatre", a humorous photo comic strip appearing in "ToyFare: The Toy Magazine". Matthew Senreich, an editor for "ToyFare", got in touch with actor Seth Green when the former learned that the latter had made action figures of castmates from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and asked to photograph them. Months later, Green asked Senreich to collaborate on an animated short for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", featuring toy versions of himself and O'Brien. This led to the 12-episode stop-motion series "Sweet J Presents" on the Sony website Screenblast.com in 2001. Conan O'Brien is voiced by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane in the first episode ("Conan's Big Fun").


title: Robot Chicken

text: Continuing the concept of the web series, the show creators pitched "Robot Chicken" as a television series, the name being inspired by a dish on the menu at a West Hollywood Chinese restaurant, Kung Pao Bistro, where Green and Senreich had dined. (Other ideas for the series' name included "Junk in the Trunk", "The Deep End", and "Toyz in the Attic"; some of these would be reworked into episode titles for the first season.) Some television networks and sketch shows rejected the series, including Comedy Central, "MADtv", "Saturday Night Live", and even Cartoon Network. However, someone at that network passed the pitch along to its nighttime programming block, Adult Swim, around the same time that Seth MacFarlane (various voices, 2005–present) told Green and Senreich to pitch the show to the channel. On February 20, 2005, the series premiered on Adult Swim.


title: Robot Chicken

text: The show was created, written, and produced by Green and Senreich and produced by ShadowMachine Films (Seasons 1–5) and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in association with Stoop!d Monkey, Williams Street, Sony Pictures Digital (Seasons 1–5) and Sony Pictures Television (Seasons 6–10). The show mocks popular culture, referencing toys, movies, television, games, popular fads, and more obscure references like anime cartoons and older television programs, much in the same vein as comedy sketch shows like "Saturday Night Live". It employs stop-motion animation of toys, action figures, claymation, and various other objects, such as tongue depressors, "The Game of Life" pegs, and popsicle sticks. The show's creators were inspired by works such as "Monty Python's Flying Circus", "Pee-wee's Playhouse" and "The Kentucky Fried Movie".


title: Robot Chicken

text: One particular motif involves the idea of fantastical characters being placed in a more realistic world or situation (such as Stretch Armstrong requiring a corn syrup transplant after losing his abilities because of aging, Optimus Prime performing a prostate cancer PSA for the humans, and Godzilla having problems in the bedroom). The program aired dedicated to "Star Wars" which premiered June 17, 2007, in the US, featuring the voices of "Star Wars" notables George Lucas, Mark Hamill (from a previous episode), Billy Dee Williams, and Ahmed Best. The "Star Wars" episode was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award as Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).


title: Robot Chicken

text: The series was renewed for a 20-episode third season, which ran from August 12, 2007, to October 5, 2008. After an eight-month hiatus during the third season, the show returned on September 7, 2008, to air the remaining 5 episodes. The series was renewed for a fourth season which premiered on December 7, 2008, and ended on December 6, 2009. In early 2010, the show was renewed for a fifth and sixth season (40 more episodes total). Season five premiered on December 12, 2010. The second group of episodes began broadcasting on October 23, 2011. The 100th episode aired on January 15, 2012. In May 2012, Adult Swim announced they were picking up a sixth season of "Robot Chicken", which began airing in September 2012. The seventh season premiered on April 13, 2014. Season eight premiered on October 25, 2015. Season nine premiered on December 10, 2017. Season 10 premiered on September 29, 2019, containing the 200th episode. Season 11 premiered on September 6, 2021. The twelfth season is set to premiere sometime in 2023.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Following the 2020 cancellation of "The Venture Bros.", it is Adult Swim's longest running series, both in terms of years and episodes.


title: Robot Chicken

text: The sketch series has an iconic opening sequence involving a mad scientist and a chicken set to theme music by Les Claypool of Primus. On a dark and stormy night, the scientist finds a chicken that has been the victim of roadkill, and takes it back to his laboratory to refashion into a cyborg. Midway through the opening sequence, the titular chicken turns his laser eye towards the camera and the title appears, just as Les Claypool cries (a line from "Frankenstein"), "It's alive!" The Mad Scientist then straps the re-animated Robot Chicken into a chair, uses calipers to hold his eyes open and forces him to watch a grid of television monitors showing different content (akin to imagery from "A Clockwork Orange"). The sketches are interspersed with static, resembling the act of channel surfing.


title: Robot Chicken

text: While the sketches lampoon various aspects of pop culture quite randomly, they frequently parody DC Comics superheroes as well as many other franchises. Original characters include the Nerd, the Humping Robot, and the show's creators as themselves (often facing potential cancellation at the end of a season), as well as the Mad Scientist and the Robot Chicken.


title: Robot Chicken

text: In the episode "1987", Michael Ian Black claims in the "Best Robot Chicken Ever" sketch that the opening sequence tells the viewers that they are the chicken, being forced to watch the skits. The frame story of the Robot Chicken and the Mad Scientist would not continue beyond the opening sequence until the 100th episode, entitled "Fight Club Paradise", when the chicken finally makes his escape and later kills the Mad Scientist when he takes his hen wife in response, fighting and killing several characters from previous skits (most of them being implied to be the Mad Scientist's henchmen) in the process.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Beginning in the sixth season (after the events of the show's 100th episode), the opening sequence features a role reversal. The Robot Chicken comes upon the body of the Mad Scientist, which has been decapitated. He turns him into a cyborg with a laser eye (this time blue instead of red, reflected by a title background color change). The chicken then straps the scientist to the same chair he was strapped to and forces him to watch the same TV monitors while the chicken and his wife share a kiss. In the seventh-season episode "Chipotle Miserables", the Mad Scientist's son rips out his father's remaining eye to open a door controlled by an optical biometric reader, then creates a posse of reanimated cyborg animals, as well as a cyborg homeless person. The posse then proceeds to kidnap all five then-living US presidents: Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The Robot Chicken and the now-reformed Mad Scientist team up to rescue the presidents, after which, the Mad Scientist punishes his son by forcing him to watch the TV monitors and the Robot Chicken flies away, free.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Beginning in the eighth season, a new opening sequence features the Robot Chicken frozen in a block of ice under snow, being uncovered by robots. Taken to a futuristic laboratory, the Robot Chicken is taken out of suspended animation by a masked scientist, revealed to be a descendant of the Mad Scientist who first reanimated the Robot Chicken. The descendant mad scientist then proceeds to force the Robot Chicken to watch a wall of projected images with different shows. In an extended version (seen in the Season 8 episode "Garbage Sushi" and the Season 9 episode "3 2 1 2 333, 222, 3...66?"), the sequence begins with a destroyed Statue of Liberty buried in snow (a reference to "Planet of the Apes") when two drones are flying together until one scans the frozen Robot Chicken.


title: Robot Chicken

text: In the ninth-season finale, the Nerd dies from a cliff-jump stunt in an attempt to get the show renewed. Beginning in the tenth season, a new opening sequence features the Nerd being turned into a cyborg by both the Robot Chicken and the Mad Scientist and being forced to watch the skits while they high five. The letters "TEN" in the title are highlighted to mark the show reaching ten seasons. In the 200th episode, as the title is shown, David Lynch shouts "Robot Chicken!" in an off-screen voice.


title: Robot Chicken

text: In the eleventh season, a new opening sequence features the Mad Scientist launching the Robot Chicken off a space station in a capsule. The capsule then crashes on the ground where the Robot Chicken meets another cyborg chicken, only in an elderly state (alluding to ""). The monolith-shaped TVs in the house show a baby Robot Chicken floating through space. Starting with the episode "May Cause a Whole Lotta Scabs", an extended version (set in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio) begins with a tribe of hominids watching the skits on the TVs while a hominid version of the Nerd bites a remote control to turn on the TV monitors. Suddenly, a hominid tries to take the remote, but the hominid Nerd kills it and gets the remote back, segueing into the opening sequence.


title: Robot Chicken

text: While "Robot Chicken" uses a variety of famous real people and fictional characters, it also has original characters created exclusively for the show.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Besides the celebrities and many famous voice actors that have contributed to this show, main and major recurring actors/writers are:


title: Robot Chicken

text: Revolver Entertainment have released the first four seasons and all three "Star Wars" specials on DVD in the United Kingdom. A box set including the first 3 seasons and a box set including all three "Star Wars" specials have also been released.


title: Robot Chicken

text: Madman Entertainment has released the first 9 seasons of "Robot Chicken" and specials on DVD in Australia and New Zealand.


title: Robot Chicken

text: The series airs in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of E4's Adult Swim block, in Canada on Adult Swim (previously Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block from 2006 to 2019) and also in Quebec on Télétoon's Télétoon la nuit block, in Australia on The Comedy Channel's Adult Swim block, in Russia on 2x2's Adult Swim block, in Germany on WarnerTV Comedy's Adult Swim block (previously TNT Serie's Adult Swim block from 2009 to 2017), and in Latin America on the I.Sat Adult Swim block (after the Adult Swim block was canceled from Cartoon Network Latin America in 2008). Many of the show's sketches from "Sweet J Presents" were redone for "Robot Chicken".


title: Danelaw

text: The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ; ) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian law. The term is first recorded in the early 11th century as "Dena lage". The areas that constituted the Danelaw lie in northern and eastern England, long occupied by Danes and other Norsemen.


title: Danelaw

text: The Danelaw originated from the invasion of the Great Heathen Army into England in the 9th century, although the term was not used to describe a geographic area until the 11th century. With the increase in population and productivity in Scandinavia, Viking warriors, having sought treasure and glory in the nearby British Isles, "proceeded to plough and support themselves", in the words of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" for the year 876.


title: Danelaw

text: Danelaw can describe the set of legal terms and definitions created in the treaties between Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex, and Guthrum, the Danish warlord, written following Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Edington in 878.


title: Danelaw

text: In 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum was formalised, defining the boundaries of their kingdoms, with provisions for peaceful relations between the English and the Vikings. The language spoken in England was affected by this clash of cultures, with the emergence of Anglo-Norse dialects.


title: Danelaw

text: The Danelaw roughly comprised these contemporary 15 shires: Leicester, York, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Essex, Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Middlesex, and Buckingham.


title: Danelaw

text: From around 800, there had been waves of Norse raids on the coastlines of Britain and Ireland. In 865, instead of raiding, the Danes landed a large army in East Anglia, with the intention of conquering the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. The armies of various Danish leaders had collaborated to make one combined force under a leadership that included Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless, the sons of the legendary Viking leader Ragnar Lodbrok. The combined army was described in the annals as the Great Heathen Army. After making peace with the local East Anglian king in return for horses, the Great Heathen Army moved north. In 867, they captured Northumbria and its capital, York ("Jorvik"), defeating both the recently deposed King Osberht of Northumbria and the usurper Ælla of Northumbria. The Danes then placed an Englishman, Ecgberht I of Northumbria, on the throne of Northumbria as a puppet ruler.


title: Danelaw

text: King Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred, led their army against the Danes at Nottingham, but the Danes refused to leave their fortifications. King Burgred of Mercia negotiated peace with Ivar, with the Danes keeping Nottingham in exchange for leaving the rest of Mercia alone.


title: Danelaw

text: Under Ivar the Boneless, the Danes continued their invasion in 869 by defeating King Edmund of East Anglia at Hoxne and conquering East Anglia. Once again, the brothers Æthelred and Alfred attempted to stop Ivar by attacking the Danes at Reading. They were repelled with heavy losses. The Danes pursued, and on 7 January 871, Æthelred and Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown. The Danes retreated to Basing (in Hampshire), where Æthelred attacked and was, in turn, defeated. Ivar was able to follow up this victory with another in March at Meretum (now Marton, Wiltshire).


title: Danelaw

text: On 23 April 871, King Æthelred died and Alfred succeeded him as King of Wessex. His army was weak and he was forced to pay tribute to Ivar in order to make peace with the Danes. During this peace, the Danes turned to the north and attacked Mercia, a campaign that lasted until 874. The Danish leader Ivar died during this campaign. Ivar was succeeded by Guthrum, who finished the campaign against Mercia. In ten years, the Danes had gained control over East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia, leaving just Wessex resisting.


title: Danelaw

text: Guthrum and the Danes brokered peace with Wessex in 876, when they captured the fortresses of Wareham and Exeter. Alfred laid siege to the Danes, who were forced to surrender after reinforcements were lost in a storm. Two years later, Guthrum again attacked Alfred, surprising him by attacking his forces wintering in Chippenham. King Alfred was saved when the Danish army coming from his rear was destroyed by inferior forces at the Battle of Cynuit. The modern location of "Cynuit" is disputed but suggestions include Countisbury Hill, near Lynmouth, Devon, or Kenwith Castle, Bideford, Devon, or Cannington, near Bridgwater, Somerset. Alfred was forced into hiding for a time, before returning in the spring of 878 to gather an army and attack Guthrum at Edington. The Danes were defeated and retreated to Chippenham, where King Alfred laid siege and soon forced them to surrender. As a term of surrender, King Alfred demanded that Guthrum be baptised a Christian; King Alfred served as his godfather.


title: Danelaw

text: Edward the Elder and his sister, Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, conquered Danish territories in the Midlands and East Anglia in a series of campaigns in the 910s, and some Danish jarls who submitted were allowed to keep their lands. Viking rule ended when Eric Bloodaxe was driven out of Northumbria in 954.


title: Danelaw

text: The reasons for the waves of immigration were complex and bound to the political situation in Scandinavia at that time; moreover, they occurred when Viking settlers were also establishing their presence in the Hebrides, Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, L'Anse aux Meadows, France (Normandy), the Baltics, Russia and Ukraine (see Kievan Rus').


title: Danelaw

text: The Danes did not give up their designs on England. From 1016 to 1035, Cnut the Great ruled over a unified English kingdom, itself the product of a resurgent Wessex, as part of his North Sea Empire, together with Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden. Cnut was succeeded in England on his death by his son Harold Harefoot, until he died in 1040, after which another of Cnut's sons, Harthacnut, took the throne. Since Harthacnut was already on the Danish throne, this reunited the North Sea Empire. Harthacnut lived only another two years, and from his death in 1042 until 1066 the monarchy reverted to the English line in the form of Edward the Confessor.


title: Danelaw

text: Edward died in January 1066 without an obvious successor, and an English nobleman, Harold Godwinson, took the throne. In the autumn of that same year, two rival claimants to the throne led invasions of England in short succession. First, Harald Hardrada of Norway took York in September, but was defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire. Then, three weeks later, William of Normandy defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings, in Sussex, and in December he accepted the submission of Edgar the Ætheling, last in the line of Anglo-Saxon royal succession, at Berkhamsted.


title: Danelaw

text: The Danelaw appeared in legislation as late as the early 12th century with the "Leges Henrici Primi", where it is referred to as one of the laws together with those of Wessex and Mercia into which England was divided.


title: Danelaw

text: In the 11th century, when King Magnus I had freed Norway from Cnut the Great, the terms of the peace treaty provided that the first of the two kings Magnus (Norway) and Harthacnut (Denmark) to die would leave their dominion as an inheritance to the other. When Edward the Confessor ascended the throne of a united Dano-Saxon England, a Norse army was raised from every Norwegian colony in the British Isles and attacked Edward's England in support of Magnus', and after his death, his brother Harald Hardrada's, claim to the English throne. On the accession of Harold Godwinson after the death of Edward the Confessor, Hardrada invaded Northumbria with the support of Harold's brother Tostig Godwinson, and was defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, three weeks before William I's victory at the Battle of Hastings.


title: Danelaw

text: 865 − Danish raiders first began to settle in England. Led by the brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, they wintered in East Anglia, where they demanded and received tribute in exchange for a temporary peace. From there, they moved north and attacked Northumbria, which was in the midst of a civil war between the deposed king Osberht and a usurper Ælla. The Danes used the civil turmoil as an opportunity to capture York, which they sacked and burned.


title: Danelaw

text: 867 − Following the loss of York, Osberht and Ælla formed an alliance against the Danes. They launched a counter-attack, but the Danes killed both Osberht and Ælla and set up a puppet king on the Northumbrian throne. In response, King Æthelred of Wessex, along with his brother Alfred, marched against the Danes, who were positioned behind fortifications in Nottingham, but were unable to draw them into battle. In order to effect peace, King Burgred of Mercia ceded Nottingham to the Danes in exchange for leaving the rest of Mercia undisturbed.


title: Danelaw

text: 870 − King Edmund refused Ivar's demand. Ivar defeated and captured Edmund at Hoxne, adding East Anglia to the area controlled by the invading Danes. King Æthelred and Alfred attacked the Danes at Reading, but were repulsed with heavy losses. The Danes pursued them.


title: Danelaw

text: 871 − On 7 January, Æthelred and Alfred made their stand at Ashdown (on what is the Berkshire/North Wessex Downs now in Oxfordshire). Æthelred could not be found at the start of battle, as he was busy praying in his tent, so Alfred led the army into battle. Æthelred and Alfred defeated the Danes, who counted among their losses five jarls (nobles). The Danes retreated and set up fortifications at Basing (Basingstoke) in Hampshire, a mere from Reading. Æthelred attacked the Danish fortifications and was routed. The Danes followed up with another victory in March at Meretum (now Marton, Wiltshire).


title: Danelaw

text: King Æthelred died on 23 April 871 and Alfred took the throne of Wessex. For the rest of the year Alfred concentrated on attacking with small bands against isolated groups of Danes. He was moderately successful in this endeavour and was able to score minor victories against the Danes, but his army was on the verge of collapse. Alfred responded by paying off the Danes for a promise of peace. During the peace, the Danes turned north and attacked Mercia, which they finished off in short order, and captured London in the process. King Burgred of Mercia fought in vain against Ivar the Boneless and his Danish invaders for three years until 874, when he fled to Europe. During Ivar's campaign against Mercia, he died and was succeeded by Guthrum the Old. Guthrum quickly defeated Burgred and placed a puppet on the throne of Mercia. The Danes now controlled East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia, with only Wessex continuing to resist.


title: Danelaw

text: 875 − The Danes settled in Dorset, well inside of Alfred's Kingdom of Wessex, but Alfred quickly made peace with them.


title: Danelaw

text: 876 − The Danes broke the peace when they captured the fortress of Wareham, followed by a similar capture of Exeter in 877.


title: Danelaw

text: 877 − Alfred laid in a siege, while the Danes waited for reinforcements from Scandinavia. Unfortunately for the Danes, the fleet of reinforcements encountered a storm and lost more than 100 ships, and the Danes were forced to return to East Mercia in the north.


title: Danelaw

text: 878 − In January, Guthrum led an attack against Wessex that sought to capture Alfred while he wintered in Chippenham. Another Danish army landed in south Wales arrived and moved south with the intent of intercepting Alfred should he flee from Guthrum's forces. However, they stopped during their march to capture a small fortress at Countisbury Hill, held by a Wessex ealdorman named Odda. The Saxons, led by Odda, attacked the Danes while they slept and defeated their superior forces, saving Alfred from being trapped between the two armies. Alfred was forced to go into hiding for the rest of the winter and spring of 878 in the Somerset marshes in order to avoid the superior Danish forces. In the spring, Alfred was able to gather an army and attacked Guthrum and the Danes at Edington. The Danes were defeated and retreated to Chippenham, where the English pursued and laid siege to Guthrum's forces. The Danes were unable to hold out without relief and soon surrendered. Alfred demanded, as a term of the surrender, that Guthrum become baptised as a Christian, which Guthrum agreed to do, with Alfred acting as his godfather. Guthrum was true to his word and settled in East Anglia, at least for a while.


title: Danelaw

text: 884 − Guthrum attacked Kent, but was defeated by the English. This led to the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, which established the boundaries of the Danelaw and allowed for Danish self-rule in the region.


title: Danelaw

text: 903 − Æthelwald incited the East Anglian Danes into breaking the peace. They ravaged Mercia before winning a pyrrhic victory that saw the death of Æthelwald and the Danish King Eohric; this allowed Edward the Elder to consolidate power.


title: Danelaw

text: 911 − The English defeated the Danes at the Battle of Tettenhall. The Northumbrians ravaged Mercia but were trapped by Edward and forced to fight.


title: Danelaw

text: 917 − In return for peace and protection, the Kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia accepted Edward the Elder as their suzerain overlord.


title: Danelaw

text: 918 − The borough of Leicester submitted peaceably to Æthelflæd's rule. The people of York promised to accept her as their overlord, but she died before this could come to fruition. She was succeeded by her brother, the Kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex united in the person of King Edward.


title: Danelaw

text: 920 − Edward was accepted as father and lord by the King of the Scots, by Rægnold, the sons of Eadulf, the English, Norwegians, Danes and others all of whom dwelt in Northumbria and the King and people of the Strathclyde Welsh.


title: Danelaw

text: 954 − King Eric was driven out of Northumbria, his death marking the end of the prospect of a Northern Viking Kingdom stretching from York to Dublin and the Isles.


title: Danelaw

text: 1066 − Harald Hardrada landed with an army, hoping to take control of York and the English crown. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. This event is often cited as the end of the Viking era. The same year, William the Conqueror, himself a descendant of Vikings, successfully took the English throne and became the first Norman king of England.


title: Danelaw

text: 1069 − Sweyn II of Denmark landed with an army, in much the same way as Harald Hardrada. He took control of York after defeating the Norman garrison and inciting a local uprising. King William eventually defeated his forces and devastated the region in the Harrying of the North.


title: Danelaw

text: 1075 − One of Sweyn's sons, Knut, set sail for England to support an English rebellion, but it had been crushed before he arrived, so he settled for plundering the city of York and surrounding area, before returning home.


title: Danelaw

text: 1085 − Knut, now king, planned a major invasion against England but the assembled fleet never sailed. Other than Eystein II of Norway taking advantage of the civil war during Stephen's reign, to plunder the east coast of England, there were no serious invasions or raids of England by the Danes after this.


title: Danelaw

text: The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester, excluding the portion of Northumbria to the east of the Pennines.


title: Danelaw

text: Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln, broadly delineating the area now called the East Midlands. These strongholds became known as the "Five Boroughs". "Borough" derives from the Old English word (cognate with German , meaning castle), meaning a fortified and walled enclosure containing several households, anything from a large stockade to a fortified town. The meaning has since developed further.


title: Danelaw

text: The Danelaw was an important factor in the establishment of a civilian peace in the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon and Viking communities. It established, for example, equivalences in areas of legal contentiousness, such as the amount of reparation that should be payable in "wergild".


title: Danelaw

text: Many of the legalistic concepts were compatible; for example, the Viking "wapentake", the standard for land division in the Danelaw, was effectively interchangeable with the hundred. The use of the execution site and cemetery at Walkington Wold in east Yorkshire suggests a continuity of judicial practice.


title: Danelaw

text: Under the Danelaw, between 30% and 50% of the population in the countryside had the legal status of 'sokeman', occupying an intermediate position between the free tenants and the bond tenants. This tended to provide more autonomy for the peasants. A sokeman was a free man within the lord's "soke", or jurisdiction.


title: Danelaw

text: According to many scholars, "... the Danelaw was an especially ‘free’ area of Britain because the rank and file of the Danish armies, from whom sokemen were descended, had settled in the area and imported their own social system."


title: Danelaw

text: The influence of this period of Scandinavian settlement can still be seen in the North of England and the East Midlands, and is particularly evident in place-names: name endings such as "-howe", "-by" (meaning "village") or "-thorp" ("hamlet") having Norse origins. There seems to be a remarkable number of "Kirby/Kirkby" names, some with remains of Anglo-Saxon building indicating both a Norse origin and early church building. Scandinavian names blended with the English "-ton" give rise to typical hybrid place-names.


title: Danelaw

text: Old East Norse and Old English were still somewhat mutually comprehensible. The contact between these languages in the Danelaw caused the incorporation of many Norse words into the English language, including the word law itself, "sky" and "window," and the third person pronouns "they", "them" and "their". Many Old Norse words still survive in the dialects of Northern England.


title: Danelaw

text: Four of the five boroughs became county towns—of the counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. However, Stamford failed to gain such status—perhaps because of the nearby autonomous territory of Rutland.


title: Danelaw

text: In 2000, the BBC commissioned a genetic survey of the British Isles by a team from University College London led by Professor David Goldstein for its programme 'Blood of the Vikings'. It concluded that Norse invaders settled sporadically throughout the British Isles with a particular concentration in certain areas, such as Orkney and Shetland. In this finding, the Vikings refers to Norwegian Vikings only, as the study did not set out to genetically distinguish descendants of Danish Vikings from descendants of Anglo-Saxon settlers. That was decided on the basis that the latter two groups originated from areas that overlap each other on the continental North Sea coast (ranging from the Jutland Peninsula to Belgium) and were therefore deemed inconvenient or difficult to genetically distinguish. A further genetic study in 2015 found some evidence that, after Anglo-Saxon migrants began settling (400s CE), their communities had lived alongside indigenous British ones, and not intermingled for the first hundred years before going on to become a homogenous genetic group. A 10-year genetic study published in 2020 found evidence of a major influx of Danish settlers into England during the Viking period.


title: Danelaw

text: Major archaeological sites that bear testimony to the Danelaw are few. The most famous is the site at York. Another Danelaw site is the cremation site at Heath Wood, Ingleby, Derbyshire.


title: Danelaw

text: Archaeological sites do not bear out the historically defined area as being a real demographic or trade boundary. This could be due to misallocation of the items and features on which this judgement is based as being indicative of either Anglo-Saxon or Norse presence. Otherwise, it could indicate that there was considerable population movement between the areas, or simply that after the treaty was made, it was ignored by one or both sides.


title: Danelaw

text: Thynghowe was an important Danelaw meeting place, today located in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. The word "howe" often indicates a prehistoric burial mound. Howe is derived from the Old Norse word meaning mound. The site's rediscovery was made by Lynda Mallett, Stuart Reddish and John Wood. The site had vanished from modern maps and was essentially lost to history until the local history enthusiasts made their discoveries. Experts think the rediscovered site, which lies amidst the old oaks of an area known as the Birklands in Sherwood Forest, may also yield clues as to the boundary of the ancient Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. English Heritage recently inspected the site and believes it is a national rarity. Thynghowe was a place where people came to resolve disputes and settle issues. It is a Norse word, although the site may be older still, perhaps even from the Bronze Age.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: The 1983 Cricket World Cup (officially the Prudential Cup '83) was the 3rd edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from 9 to 25 June 1983 in England and Wales and was won by India. Eight countries participated in the event. England, India, Pakistan and West Indies qualified for the semi-finals. The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each country played the others in its group twice. The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: The matches consisted of 60 overs per innings and were played in traditional white clothing and with red balls. They were all played during the day.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: The format of the 1983 World Cup was 2 groups of four teams, each team playing each other twice. The top two teams from each group then advanced to the semi finals with the winners further advancing to the finals. Every game was of 60 overs with all day matches.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: Eight teams qualified for the final tournament (seven full ICC members, including recently appointed full member Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe, who qualified by winning the 1982 ICC Trophy).


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: Unlike in previous Cricket World Cups, the group stages were played in a double round robin format. Group A comprised the hosts England, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka; while Group B contained reigning champions West Indies, India, Australia, and the sole qualifier Zimbabwe. Unlike in later World Cups, with formats designed such that all games could be screened live on television, matches took place simultaneously at multiple venues, with matches played every other day and a reserve day in case of rain, although only three of the matches required a second day.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: In Group A, England started strongly with a 106 run victory over New Zealand at The Oval, scoring an imposing 322/6 in their innings, driven by a partnership of 115 in 16 overs between Allan Lamb and Mike Gatting. Pakistan also started with a win, by 50 runs over Sri Lanka, despite being hampered throughout the tournament by Imran Khan being unfit to bowl, after scoring 338/5 in 60 overs. England's second group match brought a second win, as David Gower's 130, including five sixes and 12 fours, powered a 47 run win over Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, New Zealand beat Pakistan by 52 runs despite Abdul Qadir's 4/21 in 12 overs. England then beat Pakistan by 8 wickets with nearly ten overs to spare at Lord's, while Richard Hadlee's 5/25 saw Sri Lanka bowled out for 206, New Zealand getting home with over 20 overs to spare. England's only defeat of the group stages came in the fourth round of matches, against New Zealand, off the penultimate ball of the New Zealand innings. Pakistan triumphed over Sri Lanka, once again led by Abdul Qadir (5/44).


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: The fifth round of matches on 18 June saw England seal their place in the semi-final, with a first wicket partnership of 115 between Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavaré alone scoring nearly half of Pakistan's 232. Meanwhile, New Zealand failed to secure passage to the knockout stage, losing to Sri Lanka in a low scoring affair. In the final round of matches, England beat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets in a match with no implications for the final table. The match between New Zealand and Pakistan would decide the second qualifier. Any win by New Zealand would be sufficient to see them qualify; Pakistan had not only to win, but do so by a sufficient margin to overhaul New Zealand's average run rate. An 11 run victory for Pakistan proved sufficient, as Zaheer Abbas made an unbeaten 103 before New Zealand were bowled out.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: Group B started with the first shock of the tournament, as Zimbabwe beat Australia in what Wisden described as "a bigger surprise than any in the previous two world cups". Duncan Fletcher led the way, making 69* and being awarded man of the match. In the other opening Group B match, India delivered another "shocker" as they beat the holders West Indies by 34 runs, bowling them out for 228 with 35 balls to spare – the first defeat suffered by the West Indies in a World Cup as they had dominated both the 1975 and 1979 tournaments without losing a single match in either tournament. Wet weather in the second round of games played on 11 June led to low scores. West Indies scored 252/9 in their innings, which stretched over two days, against Australia; in response, Australia were bowled out for 151 in just 30.3 overs, an effort not helped by Graeme Wood being taken to hospital with severe concussion after being hit by Michael Holding. India comfortably beat Zimbabwe by 5 wickets in the contemporaneous fixture. Two days later, Australia thrashed India by 162 runs, with man of the match Trevor Chappell scoring 110 off 131 balls and Ken MacLeay taking 6/39. The other match that day was also a one-sided affair, as West Indies restricted Zimbabwe to just 217/7 in their 60 overs, despite Duncan Fletcher scoring another unbeaten half century, and then romped home with a partnership of 195 for the third wicket between Gordon Greenidge and Larry Gomes.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: In the first of the return fixtures, West Indies overcame India by 66 runs, with Viv Richards making 119; for the second time in the tournament, an opposing batsman retired hurt, as Dilip Vengsarkar was the unlucky batsman on this occasion, hit in the mouth by Malcolm Marshall. Australia beat Zimbabwe by 32 runs to level their account in the tournament. The India v Zimbabwe match on 18 June was described by Wisden as "a remarkable match [which] contained one of the most spectacular innings played in this form of cricket", as Kapil Dev coming in to bat with India at 9/4 that soon became 17/5, went on to score 175 not out from India's score of 266/8, which Zimbabwe narrowly failed to chase down, India winning by 31 runs. West Indies qualified for the semi-finals with a match to spare, beating Australia by 7 wickets substantially due to a partnership of 124 for the second wicket between Greenidge and Richards. That left West Indies versus Zimbabwe as a dead rubber, and West Indies duly won by ten wickets with nearly fifteen overs to spare. The final group B match was a straightforward tussle for qualification between Australia and India. However, after India had made 247 all out, in a team effort where the highest score was 40 and there were 37 extras, Australia collapsed to 129 all out, with Madan Lal and Roger Binny taking four wickets each.


title: 1983 Cricket World Cup

text: In the first semi-final, at Old Trafford on 22 June, England won the toss and elected to bat. The English batsmen mistimed many balls and used the bat's edge frequently, as the restrictive Indian bowling led England to score 213 (all out, 60 overs). Graeme Fowler (33 from 59 balls, 3 fours) top scored, and Kapil Dev took 3 for 35 in eleven overs, with Mohinder Amarnath and Roger Binny taking two wickets each. In reply, Yashpal Sharma (61 from 115 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) and Sandeep Patil (51 from 32 balls, 8 fours) made half-centuries, as India reached their target in 54.4 overs, winning by 6 wickets in a classic victory over the previous tournament's runners-up. Mohinder Amarnath (46 from 92 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) picked up the man-of-the-match award for his all round performance, which saw him add 46 runs to his earlier bowling success (2/27 in 12 overs).