text: Two years after the events of the first film, Larry Daley has left his job as night guard at the American Museum of Natural History to start a company selling his own inventions on direct response television. He visits the museum and learns most of the exhibits will be moved to the Smithsonian Institution archives and replaced with holographic displays, but the Tablet of Ahkmenrah will stay behind, leaving the departing exhibits without the ability to come to life at night.


title: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

text: Later, Larry receives a panicked phone call from miniature cowboy Jedediah, who explains that Dexter the monkey brought the tablet to the Smithsonian, where they are under attack by Ahkmenrah's older brother Kahmunrah. Larry travels to Washington, DC and poses as a night guard to sneak into the archives, where he finds his friends trapped by Kahmunrah, who plans to use the tablet's powers to conquer the world.


text: Aided by General George A. Custer, who is captured, Larry is joined by Amelia Earhart. They evade Kahmunrah's soldiers and trap them inside the photograph of "V-J Day in Times Square", leading Kahmunrah to enlist Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Al Capone to retrieve the tablet. Larry is captured, but when the tablet fails to open the Gate of the Underworld, Kahmunrah traps Jedediah in an hourglass and gives Larry one hour to decipher the tablet's combination.


text: Amelia has fallen in love with Larry, and the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial mistakes them for a couple as they reach the National Air and Space Museum. They encounter various figures from the history of flight, including the Wright brothers, a squadron of Tuskegee Airmen, and Able the space monkey, while a group of Albert Einstein bobbleheads explain that the combination is the value of pi. Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone's troops arrive, prompting Larry and Amelia to escape in the Wright Flyer.


text: They crash into the Smithsonian, where Kahmunrah uses the combination to open the gate and summon an army of Horus warriors. Miniature Roman general Octavius arrives with the statue of Lincoln, frightening the warriors back to the Underworld, and Amelia gathers an army of allies including Larry's friends and Custer, leading to a climactic battle. Larry helps Custer overcome his fear of repeating the Battle of Little Big Horn, while Octavius rescues Jedediah, and Larry recovers the tablet and turns Capone, Bonaparte, and Ivan against each other. Armed with his flashlight, Larry duels a khopesh-wielding Kahmunrah as Amelia reopens the gate, allowing Larry to banish Kahmunrah to the Underworld.


text: Flying Larry and the New York exhibits home, Amelia reveals that she knows she is only a wax figure of the real aviator, and she and Larry share a kiss before she takes off back to the Smithsonian. Two months later, Larry has sold his company and made an anonymous donation to renovate the Natural History Museum and extend its nighttime visiting hours when the exhibits are alive; believed to be animatronics and hired reenactors, the exhibits are now able to interact with visitors at night. Back in his old job as night guard, Larry hits it off with a visitor named Tess, who bears a striking resemblance to Amelia.


text: Writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon confirmed to Dark Horizons that they were writing a sequel to "Night at the Museum," originally with the tentative title "Another Night at the Museum". The writers said that "there'll be existing characters and plenty of new ones."


text: 20th Century Fox announced that the sequel, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", would be released during Memorial Day weekend in 2009. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Patrick Gallagher, Jake Cherry, Rami Malek, Mizuo Peck, Brad Garrett and Robin Williams would return for the sequel, with Shawn Levy returning as director.


text: The film was mostly filmed in Vancouver and Montreal with some scenes filmed in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. A scene was shot at the Lincoln Memorial on the night of May 21, 2008. Scenes were also shot at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on August 18 and 20, 2008.


text: The trailer was released with "Bedtime Stories", "Yes Man" and "Marley & Me" in December 2008. The trailer accompanied the film "Bride Wars" in January, "The Pink Panther 2" in February, and "Dragonball Evolution" in April 2009. The film was also promoted as an opening skit on "American Idol," where a replica of the "Idol" judge seats are being held at the real Smithsonian Institution.


text: An alternate ending included on the DVD and Blu-ray releases featured the return of Dick Van Dyke as Cecil Fredericks, Bill Cobbs as Reginald, and Mickey Rooney as Gus.


text: As of 2009, numerous artifacts which inspired the film were on display at Smithsonian Museums along the National Mall. Many of the artifacts are labeled with "Night at the Museum" logos. Gift shops at the Smithsonian also sell a replica of the Einstein Bobble-head, created specifically as a tie-in to the film.


text: A trailer of "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" was released on December 19, 2008. The film premiered on May 14, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The film released in UK on May 20, 2009, on May 22, 2009 in United States, and in Japan on August 12, 2009.


text: At the end of its box office run, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" earned a gross of $177 million in North America and $236 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $413 million against a budget of $150 million.


text: On Friday, May 22, 2009, its opening day, the film's estimated gross was $16 million, for second day the film grossed $20 million and for third day the gross was $19 million, coming in ahead of "Terminator Salvation" (which released on Thursday) in 4,096 theaters at No. 1, reaching up to $54.1 million, with a $13,226 per-theater average over the Memorial Day weekend. By comparison, "Night at the Museum" reached up to $30 million on its opening weekend in December 2006. For its second weekend, the film grossed $24.35 million, for third weekend $14.6 million.


text: For the opening weekend of May 22, 2009 the film grossed $49 million while playing in theaters of 56 territories; the film debuted in UK ($6.6 million), Russia ($5.23 million) and France ($5.05 million). The largest market in other territories being UK, Japan, Germany, Australia and France where the film grossed $32.8 million, $21.49 million, $18.78 million, $14.03 million and $13.3 million. The film exhibited at 160 IMAX screens and contributing $5.4 million of the gross. The top grossing IMAX venue was the Smithsonian.


text: The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 44% approval rating, based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 5.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian" is busy enough to keep the kids interested but the slapstick goes overboard and the special effects (however well executed) throw the production into mania". Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


text: Most critics praised Amy Adams' and Hank Azaria's performances. Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" awarded the film 3 stars stating that "[Adams]'s terrific -- a sparkling screen presence." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B+ stating ""Battle of the Smithsonian" has plenty of life. But it's Adams who gives it zing." Also, many reviews noted the costume worn by Amy Adams during the movie. Perry Seibert of "TV Guide" gave the film 2 stars despite honoring that "thanks to Azaria, a master of comic timing. His grandiose, yet slightly fey bad guy is equally funny when he's chewing out minions as he is when deliberating if Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader are evil enough to join his team. Michael Rechtshaffen of "The Hollywood Reporter" and A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" enjoyed both performances.


text: One critic, Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club", panned the movie for its excessive use of special effects when he described the film as "a baffling master plot and a crowded pileup of special effects in search of something to do." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" awarded the film 1½ stars out of 4 saying "its premise is lame, its plot relentlessly predictable, its characters with personalities that would distinguish picture books."


text: In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


text: "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" was made available December 1, 2009, on DVD and Blu-ray as a two-disc Special Edition and a three-disc Digital Copy Edition.


text: , the film has sold 4,083,829 DVDs and 585,023 Blu-ray discs grossing $51.5 million and $11.7 million totalling $63.2 million in North America.


text: The video game based on the film was released on May 5, 2009. It was fairly well received in comparison to the majority of film-based video-games, netting a 7.5 out of 10 from IGN.com.


text: Ben Stiller admitted that a sequel was "a possibility" and on January 21, 2010, co-writer Thomas Lennon said to "Access Hollywood", "That after the success of two "Night at the Museum" films, it's no surprise that 20th Century Fox is looking to develop a third and that those suspicions are indeed true and how could you not? I think it's a really outstanding idea to do "Night at the Museum 3", in fact," he said. "I wonder if someone's not even already working on a script for that," he added with a raised eyebrow. "I cannot confirm that for a fact, but I cannot deny it for a fact either... It might be in the works." In an interview, Stiller confirmed the sequel, however, he said that it was only in the "ideas stage".


text: It was announced in February 2013 that the film, directed by Shawn Levy, would be released on December 25, 2014. On September 10, 2013, it was announced that shooting would start in February 2014. On November 8, 2013, English actor Dan Stevens was cast as Sir Lancelot. On November 15, 2013, it was announced Skyler Gisondo would be replacing Jake Cherry for the role of Nicky Daley. On December 18, 2013 it was announced that Robin Williams, Stiller, and Ricky Gervais would be returning for the sequel. On January 9, 2014, it was announced that Rebel Wilson would play a security guard in the British Museum. On January 14, 2014, the film's release date was moved up from December 25, 2014, to December 19, 2014. On January 23, 2014, it was announced Ben Kingsley would play an Egyptian Pharaoh at the British Museum. Principal photography and production began on January 27, 2014. In May 2014, principal photography ended.


text: On August 6, 2019, following the purchase of 21st Century Fox and its assets by The Walt Disney Company, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a fully animated sequel of "Night at the Museum" was in development. "" was released on December 9, 2022 on streaming service Disney+.


title: Bounty hunter

text: A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outside the legal constraints that govern police officers and other agents of the state. This is because a bail agreement between a defendant and a bail bondsman is essentially a civil contract that is incumbent upon the bondsman to enforce. As a result, bounty hunters hired by a bail bondsman enjoy significant legal privileges, such as forcibly entering a defendant's home without probable cause or a search warrant; however, since they are not police officers, bounty hunters are legally exposed to liabilities that normally exempt agents of the state—as these immunities enable police to perform their designated functions effectively without fear—and everyday citizens approached by a bounty hunter are neither required to answer their questions nor allowed to be detained. Bounty hunters are typically independent contractors paid a commission of the total bail amount that is owed by the fugitive; they provide their own PLI and only get paid if they are able to find the "skip" and bring them in.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Bounty hunting is a vestige of common law which was created during the Middle Ages. Bounty hunters primarily draw their legal imprimatur from an 1872 Supreme Court decision, "Taylor v. Taintor". The practice historically existed in many parts of the world; however, as of the 21st century, it is found almost exclusively in the United States as the practice is illegal under the laws of most other countries. State laws vary widely as to the legality of the practice; Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin have outlawed commercial bail bonds, while Wyoming offers few (if any) regulations governing the practice.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In 1873, the Supreme Court noted that bounty hunters were a part of the U.S. law enforcement system with a decision in "Taylor v. Taintor":


title: Bounty hunter

text: In modern times, bounty hunters are known as bail enforcement agents or fugitive recovery agents and carry out arrests mostly of those who have skipped bail or whose bail has been revoked. The term "bounty hunting" is neither often used nor liked by many in the profession, due to its historical associations.


title: Bounty hunter

text: When undertaking arrest warrants, agents may wear bullet-resistant vests, badges, and other clothing bearing the inscription "bail enforcement agent" or similar titles. Many agents also use two-way radios to communicate with each other. Many agents arm themselves with firearms, or sometimes with less lethal weapons, such as tasers, batons, tear gas (CS gas, pepper spray), or pepper spray projectiles.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In the United States, the National Association of Fugitive Recovery Agents is the professional association representing this industry.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Bounty hunters in the United States are employed by bail bondsmen. The bounty hunter is usually paid about 10% of the total bail amount, but this commission can vary on an individual, case-by-case basis, usually depending upon the difficulty level of the assignment and the approach used to exonerate the bail bond. If the fugitive eludes bail, the bondsman, not the bounty hunter, is responsible for 100% of the total bail amount. This is a way of ensuring clients arrive at trial. As of 2003, bounty hunters claimed to catch 31,500 bail jumpers per year, about 90% of people who jump bail.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Bounty hunters have varying levels of authority in their duties with regard to their targets, depending on which states they operate in. Barring restrictions applicable state by state, a bounty hunter may enter the fugitive's legal residence without any warrant, besides the original bail bonds contract signed by the fugitive, to execute a re-arrest.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In some states, bounty hunters do not undergo any formal training, and are generally unlicensed, only requiring sanction from a bail bondsman to operate. In other states, however, they are held to varying standards of training and license. State legal requirements are often imposed on out-of-state bounty hunters, so a fugitive could temporarily escape rearrest by entering a state in which the bail agent has limited or no jurisdiction.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In the United States legal system, the 1873 U.S. Supreme Court case "Taylor v. Taintor", 16 Wall (83 U.S. 366, 21 L.Ed. 287), is cited as having established that the person into whose custody an accused is remanded as part of the accuser's bail has sweeping rights to that person. Though this may have been accurate at the time the decision was reached, the portion cited was obiter dictum and has no binding precedential value.


title: Bounty hunter

text: As of 2008, four states, Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin prohibited the practice, as they have abolished commercial bail bonds and banned the commercial bail bonds industry within their borders. As of 2012, Nebraska and Maine similarly prohibit surety bail bonds. The states of Texas and California require a license to engage in bounty hunting while other states may have no restrictions.


title: Bounty hunter

text: There have been some states that have rolled out specific laws that govern bounty hunting. For example, Minnesota laws provide that a bounty hunter cannot drive a white, black, maroon, or dark green vehicle, or wear any colors that are reserved for the police in the state (e.g. maroon, which is worn by the Minnesota Highway Patrol).


title: Bounty hunter

text: The State of Connecticut has a detailed licensing process which requires any person who wants to engage in the business as a bail enforcement agent (bounty hunter) to first obtain a professional license from the Commissioner of Public Safety; specifically detailing that "No person shall, as surety on a bond in a criminal proceeding or as an agent of such surety, engage in the business of taking or attempting to take into custody the principal on the bond who has failed to appear in court and for whom a re-arrest warrant or capias has been issued unless such person is licensed as a bail enforcement agent". Connecticut has strict standards which require bail enforcement agents to pass an extensive background check and, while engaging in fugitive recovery operations, wear a uniform, notify the local police barrack, wear a badge, and only carry licensed and approved firearms, including handguns and long guns which are permitted. Recently, the Connecticut State Police converted its bail enforcement agent licensing unit to reflect the role bail enforcement agents play in the Connecticut criminal justice system; placing them in the newly defined Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Several schools in Connecticut have obtained certification by the Connecticut State Police to pre-license bail enforcement agents in a minimum of 20 hours of criminal justice training and a minimum of eight hours of firearms training. Some of the more advanced schools offer specialized training in the area of tactical firearms to prepare BEAs for conducting dangerous recovery operations.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In Florida, only a "limited surety agent" licensed by the Florida Department of Financial Services - Bureau of Agent and Agency Licensing, may legally apprehend bail fugitives in addition to law enforcement's ability to arrest a fugitive pursuant to a bench warrant. According to the Chapter 648 of Florida Statute regarding Bail Bond Agents, "A person may not represent himself or herself to be a bail enforcement agent, bounty hunter, or other similar title in this state."


title: Bounty hunter

text: A Nevada bounty hunter is referred to as a bail enforcement agent or bail enforcement solicitor. In order to meet state requirements, the bail agent must complete a minimum 80 hours of training (or a POST certification), and that they pass the required examinations and obtain a bail enforcement agent license by the Nevada Division of Insurance within nine months of employment. To acquire such license, one must be at least 21 years old, a United States citizen, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and undergo the required training and pass a state examination.


title: Bounty hunter

text: A Texas bounty hunter is required to be a peace officer, Level III (armed) security officer, or a private investigator.


title: Bounty hunter

text: International extradition exists only by authority of an international treaty with the nation where the fugitive is located. Extradition treaties limit extradition to certain offenses and not all fugitives can be


title: Bounty hunter

text: extradited. Generally, the crime being charged against the fugitive must be recognized as a crime in the jurisdiction from which extradition is being sought.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Bail fugitive recovery agents may run into serious legal problems if they try to apprehend fugitives outside the United States, where they have no legal authority to arrest and taking a person into custody could be charged as kidnapping or some other serious crime. While the United States government and most states recognize a bail agent or fugitive recovery agent's powers of arrest, the governments in other countries, including sovereign Native American territories within the U.S., do not recognize a bail agent's or fugitive recovery agent's powers of arrest.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, star of the TV series "Dog the Bounty Hunter", was arrested in Mexico after he apprehended the multi-millionaire rapist and fugitive Andrew Luster. Chapman was subsequently released and returned to the U.S. but was later declared a fugitive by a Mexican prosecutor and was subsequently arrested in the United States to be extradited back to Mexico. All charges were later dropped due to the crime passing the statute of limitations date. Chapman has maintained that under Mexico's citizen arrest law, he and his crew acted under proper policy.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Daniel Kear of Fairfax, Virginia pursued and abducted Sidney Jaffe at a residence in Canada and returned him to Florida to face trial. Kear was extradited to Canada in 1983, and convicted of kidnapping.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Several bounty hunters have been arrested for killing the fugitive or apprehending the wrong individuals, mistaking innocent people for fugitives.


title: Bounty hunter

text: Unlike police officers, they have no legal protections against injuries to non-fugitives and few legal protections against injuries to their targets.


title: Bounty hunter

text: In a Texas case, bounty hunters Richard James and his partner DG Pearson were arrested in 2001 for felony charges during an arrest. The charges were levied by the fugitive and his family, but were later dismissed against the hunters after the fugitive's wife shot a deputy sheriff in another arrest attempt of the fugitive by the county sheriff's department. The hunters sued the fugitive and family, winning the civil suit for malicious prosecution with a judgment amount of $1.5 million.


title: William Calley

text: William Laws Calley Jr. (born June 8, 1943) is a former American army officer and war criminal convicted by court-martial for the premeditated killings of 200 to 400 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the Mỹ Lai massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Calley was released to house arrest under orders by President Richard Nixon three days after his conviction. A new trial was ordered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit but that ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court. Calley served three years of house arrest for the murders. Public opinion about Calley was divided.


title: William Calley

text: Calley was born in Miami, Florida. His father, William Laws Calley Sr., was a United States Navy veteran of World War II. Calley Jr. graduated from Miami Edison High School in Miami and then attended Palm Beach Junior College in 1963. He dropped out in 1964.


title: William Calley

text: Calley then had a variety of jobs before enlistment, including as a bellhop, dishwasher, salesman, insurance appraiser, and train conductor.


title: William Calley

text: Calley underwent eight weeks of basic combat training at Fort Bliss, Texas, followed by eight weeks of advanced individual training as a company clerk at Fort Lewis, Washington. Having scored high enough on his Armed Forces Qualification tests, he applied for and was accepted into Officer Candidate School (OCS).


title: William Calley

text: He then began 26 weeks of junior officer training at Fort Benning in mid-March 1967. Upon graduating from OCS Class No. 51 on September 7, 1967, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. He was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division "The Americal Division" , and began training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in preparation for deployment to South Vietnam.


title: William Calley

text: Calley's evaluations described him as average as an officer. Later, as the My Lai investigation progressed, a more negative picture emerged. Men in his platoon reported to Army investigators that Calley lacked common sense and could not read a map or compass properly.


title: William Calley

text: In May or June 1969 near Chu Lai Base Area, Calley and two other Americal Division officers were in a jeep that passed a jeep containing five Marines. The Army jeep pulled the Marines over and one Army officer told the Marines "You soldiers better square away!" One of the Marines replied, "We ain't soldiers, motherfucker, we're Marines!" The Army lieutenants dismounted for further discussion of the matter. The ensuing fight ended only after one of the officers pulled his pistol and fired a round into the air. Two of the officers were briefly hospitalized while Calley was merely beaten up. The Marines pled guilty at special courts-martial, in each of which it was stipulated they had not known the soldiers had been officers.


title: William Calley

text: In March of 1968 Calley and his men arrived at the village of Mỹ Lai where they murdered hundreds of elderly men, women, children, and infants from allied South Vietnam. In addition, he and his men gang-raped many of the women, some as young as 12 years old, before mutilating them, even stopping to have lunch before resuming their slaughter. Calley would later state in court about the deaths, claiming an air strike killed the innocent civilians. There was no sign of enemy combatants in Mỹ Lai when he and his men arrived.


title: William Calley

text: The events in My Lai were initially covered up by the U.S. Army. In April 1969, nearly 13 months after the massacre, Ron Ridenhour, a GI who had been with the 11th Brigade, wrote letters to the President, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and 30 members of Congress. In these letters, Ridenhour described some of the atrocities committed by the soldiers at My Lai that he had been told about.


title: William Calley

text: Calley was charged on September 5, 1969, with six specifications of premeditated murder for the deaths of 109 South Vietnamese civilians near the village of Sơn Mỹ, at a hamlet called Mỹ Lai, called simply "My Lai" in the United States press. As many as 500 villagers – mostly women, children, infants, and the elderly – had been systematically killed by U.S. soldiers during a bloody rampage on March 16, 1968. Upon conviction, Calley could have faced the death penalty. On November 12, 1969, investigative reporters Seymour Hersh and Wayne Greenhaw broke the story and revealed that Calley had been charged with murdering 109 South Vietnamese.


title: William Calley

text: Calley's trial started on November 17, 1970. It was the military prosecution's contention that Calley, in defiance of the rules of engagement, ordered his men to deliberately murder unarmed Vietnamese civilians, even though his men were not under enemy fire at all. Testimony revealed that Calley had ordered the men of 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 23rd Infantry Division to kill everyone in the village.


title: William Calley

text: In presenting the case, the two military prosecutors, Aubrey M. Daniel III and John Partin, were hamstrung by the reluctance of many soldiers to testify against Calley. In addition, President Richard M. Nixon made public statements prior to the trial that were prejudicial to the defense, resulting in a letter from Daniel taking the President to task. Some soldiers refused to answer questions point-blank on the witness stand by citing the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.


title: William Calley

text: One holdout, Private First Class Paul David Meadlo, having been granted immunity, was ordered by Judge Reid W. Kennedy to testify or face contempt of court charges. Meadlo thus took the stand and recounted that as he stood guard over some 30 villagers whom he, along with Private Dennis Conti, had gathered at a defoliated area at the hamlet's southern tip, he was approached by Calley and told, regarding the civilians, "You know what to do with 'em". Meadlo took that as orders to only keep watch over them. Calley, however, returned 10 minutes later and became enraged by the fact that the villagers were still alive. After telling Meadlo that he had wanted them dead, Calley backed up about 20 feet, opened fire on them himself and ordered Meadlo to join in, which he did. Meadlo then proceeded to round up more villagers to be massacred.


title: William Calley

text: Conti's testimony corroborated that given by Meadlo, and laid the blame on Calley not only for the initiation of the massacre but also for the participation in it by his subordinates. Another witness, Leonard Gonzalez, told of finding seven women, all naked, all dead, killed by several M-79 grenade launcher rounds.


title: William Calley

text: Calley's original defense, that the death of the villagers was the result of an accidental airstrike, was overcome by prosecution witnesses. In his new defense, Calley claimed he was following the orders of his immediate superior, Captain Ernest Medina. Whether this order was actually given is disputed; Medina was acquitted of all charges relating to the incident at a separate trial in August 1971.


title: William Calley

text: Taking the witness stand, Calley, under the direct examination by his civilian defense lawyer George W. Latimer, claimed that on the previous day, his commanding officer, Captain Medina, made it clear that his unit was to move into the village and that everyone was to be shot, saying that they all were Viet Cong. Medina publicly denied that he had ever given such orders and stated that he had meant enemy soldiers, while Calley assumed that his order to "kill the enemy" meant to kill "everyone". On direct examination during his court martial, Calley stated:


title: William Calley

text: The prosecution called over 100 witnesses to testify against Calley during the trial. After President Nixon intervened in the trial, the assistant prosecutor, Captain Partin, wrote a letter to the White House saying that the presidential intervention had "degraded" and "defiled" the military justice system.


title: William Calley

text: After deliberating for 79 hours, the six-officer jury (five of whom had served in Vietnam) convicted him on March 29, 1971, of the premeditated murder of 22 South Vietnamese civilians. On March 31, 1971, Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, which includes the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison. Calley was the only one convicted of the 26 officers and soldiers initially charged for their part in the Mỹ Lai massacre or the subsequent cover-up. Many observers saw My Lai as a direct result of the military's attrition strategy with its emphasis on body counts and kill ratios.


title: William Calley

text: Many in the United States were outraged by what they perceived to be an overly harsh sentence for Calley. Georgia's Governor, Jimmy Carter, future President of the United States, instituted American Fighting Man's Day, and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on. Indiana's Governor Edgar Whitcomb asked that all state flags be flown at half-staff for Calley, and the governors of Utah and Mississippi also publicly disagreed with the verdict. The legislatures of Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, New Jersey, and South Carolina requested clemency for Calley. Alabama's governor, George Wallace, visited Calley in the stockade and requested that President Richard Nixon pardon him. After the conviction, the White House received over 5,000 telegrams; the ratio was 100 to 1 in favor of leniency. In a telephone survey of the U.S. public, 79 percent disagreed with the verdict, 81 percent believed that the life sentence Calley had received was too stern, and 69 percent believed Calley had been made a scapegoat.


title: William Calley

text: In a recollection on the Vietnam War, South Korea's "Vietnam Expeditionary Forces" commander Chae Myung-shin stated that "Calley tried to get revenge for the deaths of his troops. In a war, this is natural." Conversely, Colonel Harry G. Summers Jr. declared that Calley and Medina should have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, with their remains placed "at the gates of Fort Benning, at the Infantry School, as a reminder to those who pass under it of what an infantry officer ought to be."


title: William Calley

text: Three days after Calley's conviction, President Richard Nixon ordered Calley removed from prison and placed under house arrest at Fort Benning. On August 20, 1971, Lt. Gen. Albert O. Connor, Commanding General of Third Army, in his capacity as the convening authority, reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years in prison. As required by law, his conviction and sentence were reviewed and sustained by the United States Army Court of Military Review, and the United States Court of Military Appeals.


title: William Calley

text: Calley appealed his conviction to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. On February 27, 1974, Judge J. Robert Elliott granted a writ of "habeas corpus" and set Calley free on bail. The court held that Calley had been improperly convicted due to extensive pre-trial publicity, the military court's refusal to permit certain defense witnesses, the refusal of the United States House of Representatives to release testimony about the My Lai massacre taken in executive session, and inadequate notice of charges. As the Army appealed Judge Elliott's decision, Secretary of the Army Howard H. Callaway reviewed Calley's conviction and sentence as required by law. After reviewing the conclusions of the court-martial, Court of Military Review, and Court of Military Appeals, Callaway reduced Calley's sentence to just 10 years. Under military regulations, a prisoner is eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence. This made Calley eligible for parole after serving three years and four months.


title: William Calley

text: A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's ruling and returned Calley to custody on June 13, 1974. Calley once more appealed his conviction to Judge Elliott. He asked the Circuit Justice of the Fifth Circuit, Lewis F. Powell Jr., to set him free on bail while his appeal was pending, but Justice Powell denied the request.


title: William Calley

text: The district court once more found the pre-trial publicity, the denial of defense witnesses, and improperly drawn charges had denied Calley a fair trial, and ordered him released on September 25, 1974. Calley was released on bail while the government appealed the ruling. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the Army's latest appeal "en banc". The full court ruled 8-to-5 to overturn the district court, and ordered Calley's conviction and sentence reinstated on September 10, 1975. Because Calley had less than 10 days to serve before his possible parole, and because Army Secretary Callaway had expressed his intention to parole Calley as soon as possible, the Army refused to incarcerate Calley for the remaining 10 days of his sentence.


title: William Calley

text: Calley appealed the Fifth Circuit's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it declined to hear his case on April 5, 1976.


title: William Calley

text: On May 15, 1976, Calley married Penny Vick, the daughter of a Columbus, Georgia, jewelry store owner. Judge J. Robert Elliott attended the wedding. The couple had one son, and divorced in 2005 or 2006. Calley worked at his father-in-law's store, and became a gemologist and obtained his real estate license, which had initially been denied due to his prior criminal record. During his divorce, Calley claimed to be suffering from prostate cancer and gastrointestinal problems leaving him with no chance of earning a living.


title: William Calley

text: On August 19, 2009, while speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Calley issued an apology for his role in the Mỹ Lai massacre. Calley said:


title: William Calley

text: There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in Mỹ Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.


title: Bill Finger

text: Milton "Bill" Finger (February 8, 1914 – January 18, 1974) was an American comic strip, comic book, film and television writer who was the co-creator (with Bob Kane) of the DC Comics character Batman. Despite making major (sometimes, signature) contributions as an innovative writer, visionary mythos/world builder and illustration architect, Finger (and other creators of his era) was often relegated to ghostwriter status on many comics—including Batman, and the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott.


title: Bill Finger

text: While Kane privately admitted in a 1980s audio interview with his autobiographer that Finger was responsible for "50–75% of all the creativity in Batman," for decades he publicly denied Finger had been anything more than a subcontractor executing Kane's ideas. As a result, Finger died in obscurity and poverty while the Batman brand, and Kane, amassed international fame and wealth. In the 2000s, Finger biographer Marc Tyler Nobleman's research uncovered previously unknown heirs. At the urging of Nobleman, the online comics fan community and others, Finger's granddaughter revived the fight to restore his lost legacy, which continued for years. In 2015, DC Comics' parent company conditionally agreed to recognize Finger's intellectual property claim as co-creator of the Batman characters and mythos, officially adding his name, going forward, to the "created by" credit line Kane had gotten contractually guaranteed in 1939.


title: Bill Finger

text: Bill Finger was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1914 to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His father, Louis Finger, was born in Austria-Hungary in 1890 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1907. Little is known about his biological mother Rosa Rosenblatt. His stepmother Tessie was born in 1892 in New York City. The family also included two daughters (or possibly nieces raised as daughters), Emily and Gilda. The family moved to The Bronx, New York City, where during the Great Depression Louis Finger was forced to close his tailor shop. Finger graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx in 1933.


title: Bill Finger

text: An aspiring writer and a part-time shoe salesman, Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938 after having met Kane, a fellow DeWitt Clinton alumnus, at a party. Kane later offered him a job ghost writing the strips "Rusty" and "Clip Carson".


title: Bill Finger

text: Early the following year, National Comics' success with the seminal superhero Superman in "Action Comics" prompted editors to scramble for similar heroes. In response, Kane conceived "the Bat-Man". Finger recalled Kane


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl instead of the domino mask, a cape instead of wings, adding gloves, and removing the red sections from the original costume. He later said his suggestions were influenced by Lee Falk's popular "The Phantom", a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was also familiar, and that he devised the name Bruce Wayne for the character's secret identity. Finger said, "Bruce Wayne's first name came from Robert Bruce, the Scottish patriot. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry. I searched for a name that would suggest colonialism. I tried Adams, Hancock ... then I thought of Mad Anthony Wayne." Kane decades later in his autobiography described Finger as "a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning ... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective." Nobleman said, "Bob [Kane] showed Bat-Man to [editor] Vin [Sullivan]—without Bill. Vin promptly wanted to run Bat-Man, and Bob negotiated a deal—without including Bill."


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger wrote both the initial script for Batman's debut in "Detective Comics" #27 (May 1939) and the character's second appearance, while Kane provided art. Batman proved a breakout hit, and Finger went on to write many of the early Batman stories, including making major contributions to the Joker character. Batman background artist and letterer George Roussos recalled:


title: Bill Finger

text: Robin was introduced as Batman's sidekick in "Detective Comics" #38 (April 1940). When Kane wanted Robin's origin to parallel Batman's, Finger made Robin's parents circus performers murdered while performing their trapeze act. Finger recalled:


title: Bill Finger

text: Comics historian Jim Steranko wrote in 1970 that Finger's slowness as a writer led Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth to suggest Kane replace him, a claim reflected in Joe Desris' description of Finger as "notoriously tardy". During Finger's absence, Gardner Fox contributed scripts that introduced Batman's early "Bat-" arsenal (the utility belt, the Bat-Gyro/plane and the Batarang). Upon his return, Finger created or co-created items such as the Batmobile and Batcave, and is credited with providing the name "Gotham City". Finger wrote the debut issue of Batman's self-titled comic book series which introduced the Joker and the Catwoman. Among the things that made his stories distinctive were a use of giant-sized props: enlarged pennies, sewing machines, or typewriters. Two of the prevalently featured trophies in Batman's Batcave, a full-size animatronic "Tyrannosaurus rex" and a giant replica of a Lincoln penny, were both introduced in stories written by Finger. He was one of the writers of the syndicated "Batman" comic strip from 1943 to 1946.


title: Bill Finger

text: Eventually, Finger left Kane's studio to work directly for DC Comics, where he supplied scripts for characters including Batman and Superman. A part of the Superman mythos which had originated on the radio program made its way into the comic books when kryptonite was featured in a story by Finger and Al Plastino in "Superman" #61 (Nov. 1949). As writer of the "Superboy" series, Finger created Lana Lang, a love-interest for the teenage superhero. Continuing his Batman work, he and artist Sheldon Moldoff introduced Ace the Bat-Hound in "Batman" #92 (June 1955), Bat-Mite in "Detective Comics" #267 (May 1959), Clayface in "Detective Comics" #298 (December 1961), and Betty Kane, the original Bat-Girl in "Batman" #139 (April 1961). Finger wrote for other companies, including Fawcett Comics, Quality Comics and Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics. Finger created the All-Winners Squad in "All Winners Comics" #19 (Fall 1946) for Timely.


title: Bill Finger

text: In 1994, Kane gave Finger co-credit for creating Batman's nemesis the Joker, despite claims on the character by artist Jerry Robinson:


title: Bill Finger

text: Robinson countered that he created the Joker to be Batman's larger-than-life nemesis when extra stories needed to be written quickly for "Batman" #1 and that he received credit for the story in a college course. Regarding the Conrad Veidt similarity, Robinson said:


title: Bill Finger

text: The Penguin debuted in "Detective Comics" #58 (Dec. 1941). According to Kane, he drew the Penguin after being inspired by the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes—a penguin with a top hat and cane. Finger, however, said he created the villain as a caricature of the aristocratic type, because "stuffy English gentlemen" reminded him of emperor penguins. Kane introduced the Scarecrow and drew his first appearance, which was scripted by Finger. Finger and Kane introduced Two-Face in "Detective Comics" #66 (Aug. 1942). The Riddler was created by Finger and Dick Sprang in issue #140 (Oct. 1948). The Calendar Man was another villain created by Finger without input from Kane.


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger collaborated with artist and character creator Martin Nodell on the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who debuted in "All-American Comics" #16 (July 1940). Both writer and artist received a byline on the strip, with Nodell in the earliest issues using the pseudonym "Mart Dellon".


title: Bill Finger

text: According to Nodell, Finger was brought in to write scripts after Nodell had already conceived the character. Nodell recalled in an undated, latter-day interview:


title: Bill Finger

text: As a screenwriter, Finger wrote or co-wrote the films "Death Comes to Planet Aytin", "The Green Slime", and "Track of the Moon Beast", and contributed scripts to the TV series' "Hawaiian Eye" and "77 Sunset Strip". He and Charles Sinclair wrote the two-part episode "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes / The Clock King Gets Crowned", airing October 12–13, 1966, in season two of the live-action "Batman" TV series. It was his first public credit for any Batman story.


title: Bill Finger

text: Artist Bob Kane negotiated a contract with National Comics (the future DC Comics) that signed away ownership of the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a sole mandatory byline on all Batman comics (and adaptations thereof). Finger's name, in contrast, did not appear as an official credit on Batman stories or films until 2015. Finger began receiving limited acknowledgment for his writing work in the 1960s; the letters page of "Batman" #169 (Feb. 1965), for example, features editor Julius Schwartz naming Finger as creator of the Riddler.


title: Bill Finger

text: Additionally, Finger did receive credit for his work for National's sister company, All-American Publications, during that time. For example, the first Wildcat story, in "Sensation Comics" #1 (Jan. 1942), has the byline "by Irwin Hasen and Bill Finger", and the first Green Lantern story (see above) is credited to "Mart Dellon and Bill Finger". National later absorbed All-American. National's practice in the 1950s made formal bylines rare in comics, with DC regularly granting credit only to Kane; William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, under his pseudonym of Charles Moulton; and to Sheldon Mayer.


title: Bill Finger

text: In 1989, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote, "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'" Comics historian Ron Goulart has referred to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger".


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger's contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, "[Bill] had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, ... creating almost all the other characters, ... the whole persona, the whole temper." Batman inker George Roussos, another contemporary, said, "Bob Kane had rough ideas, but Bill was the man behind Batman." A DC Comics press release in 2007 said, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics." Likewise, DC editor Paul Levitz wrote, "The Darknight [sic] Detective debuted in ["Detective"] #27, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger."


title: Bill Finger

text: Writer John Broome and penciler Gil Kane created the comic-book villain William Hand, a.k.a. Black Hand, as a tribute to Finger, on whom the character's name and likeness were based.


title: Bill Finger

text: In September 2015, DC Entertainment announced Finger would receive credit on the 2016 superhero film "" and the second season of "Gotham", following a deal between the Finger family and DC. Finger received his first formal credit as a creator of Batman in the October 2015 comic books "Batman and Robin Eternal" #3 and "Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis" #3. The updated acknowledgement for the character appeared as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger".


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999. In 1985, DC Comics named Finger as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication "Fifty Who Made DC Great". In his honor, Comic-Con International established in 2005 the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, which is given annually to "two recipients — one living and one deceased — who have produced a significant body of work in the comics field". Finger posthumously received an Inkpot Award in 2014.


title: Bill Finger

text: On December 8, 2017, the southeast corner of East 192nd Street and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx was named "Bill Finger Way". The corner was chosen for its proximity to Poe Park, where Finger and Kane used to meet to discuss their Batman character.


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger married twice. He and his first wife, Portia, had a son: Frederick (nicknamed "Fred"). After their divorce, Finger married Edith "Lyn" Simmons in the late 1960s, but they were no longer married when he died in 1974.


title: Bill Finger

text: Finger's friend and longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair found Finger dead at his home at the condominium Allen House at 340 East 51st Street in Manhattan. The cause of death was occlusive coronary atherosclerosis. Finger had suffered three heart attacks, in 1963, 1970 and 1973. Although it was long believed by Sinclair, and others, that Finger was buried in an unmarked potter's field grave, his body was actually claimed by his son, Fred, who honored his wish to be cremated, and spread his ashes in the shape of a bat on a beach in Oregon. The first story of the issue "Batman" #259 in December 1974 would be dedicated to Finger's memory.


title: Bill Finger

text: Fred Finger had a daughter, Athena, born two years after Bill Finger's death. Fred died of complications from AIDS on January 13, 1992. Athena and her son are his only known living heirs, and her attempts (at the prompting of Nobleman and comics fans, and aided by her attorney half-sister) to restore Bill's legacy resulted in Warner Brothers' 2015 decision to officially recognize Finger as co-creator of Batman on film and TV projects going forward.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine, often abbreviated as BFMV, are a Welsh heavy metal band from Bridgend, formed in 1998. The band is currently composed of Matthew Tuck (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Michael Paget (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jason Bowld (drums) and Jamie Mathias (bass guitar, backing vocals). Former members include Michael Thomas, Jason James and Nick Crandle; the latter were on bass. They were formed under the name Jeff Killed John and started their music career by covering songs by Metallica and Nirvana. Jeff Killed John recorded six songs which were not released; two of these tracks were reworked later in their career as Bullet for My Valentine. A change of style from that of Jeff Killed John led the band to change their name. In 2002, the band secured a five-album deal with Sony BMG. The band has stated that their music is influenced by classic metal acts such as Metallica, Iron Maiden and Slayer. The band is part of the Cardiff music scene.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine's debut album "The Poison" was released on 3 October 2005 in the United Kingdom and on 14 February 2006 in the United States to coincide with Valentine's Day, in a nod to the band's name. The album entered the U.S. "Billboard" 200 at number 128. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The band made appearances at the Download Festival and "Kerrang!" XXV, and undertook a U.S. tour with Rob Zombie. Bullet for My Valentine's second studio album, "Scream Aim Fire", was released on 28 January 2008 and debuted at number four on the "Billboard" 200. The band's third album, "Fever", was released on 26 April 2010 and debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200. On 8 February 2013, the band released their fourth studio album, "Temper Temper", which peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard 200". On 14 August 2015, the band released their fifth studio album, "Venom", which peaked at number 8 on the "Billboard 200". On 29 June 2018, the band released their sixth studio album, "Gravity". Their self-titled seventh studio album was released on 5 November 2021. The band has sold over one million albums in the United States and over 3,000,000 albums worldwide and are the most-successful act in the "Kerrang!" Awards category of Best British Band with three wins.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Jeff Killed John was the forerunner band to Bullet for My Valentine and was formed in 1998 by Matthew Tuck, Michael "Padge" Paget, Nick Crandle, and Michael "Moose" Thomas while studying music at Bridgend College. They started playing Nirvana and Metallica cover songs. In 1999, the band released their first ever EP, "Better Off Alone". They released another two-track EP in 2002, "You/Play with Me", which was produced by Greg Haver. The EP was financed through the Pynci scheme for new Welsh musicians and the release garnered radio airplay on BBC Radio 1's broadcast at Newport's T.J.'s. Shortly after, the band released another two-track EP titled "Eye Spy". In 2003, their second EP was released titled "Don't Walk Away". This was a promotional CD and was shipped to different record companies, as well as being given out locally in Bridgend. Bassist Crandle left the band on the eve of entering the recording sessions for the band's self-titled EP and was replaced by Jason James, and the band changed their name to Bullet for My Valentine shortly thereafter. In late 2003, they released their final EP before record labels actually began to notice their potential. This happened due to the sudden change in their strategy and sound, which the band claims came "directly out of their heads." Their self-titled EP consisted of five songs; most of the songs became precursors of tracks from "The Poison".


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Roadrunner Records showed interest in Bullet for My Valentine and offered the band a deal. The offer was ultimately turned down, and the band signed a five-album record deal with Sony BMG and a UK licensing deal with Visible Noise. According to Tuck, they chose Sony because, "We thought that a lot more doors would be open to us." A self-titled EP was released on 15 November 2004 in the UK. Produced by Colin Richardson, it featured five tracks and marked the band's first official release. A second EP, "Hand of Blood," was released on 22 August 2005 through Trustkill Records and was only available in the U.S.; the release contained one extra track than the self-titled EP, "4 Words (To Choke Upon)." Daniel Lukes of "Decibel Magazine" reviewed the EP by stating, "The worst part is that the music itself isn't all that bad, for the genre." He went on to comment that the band should be "embarrassed" about the release. Zero Magazine's Josh Joyce complimented the band on "how technical they can get without confusing the kids."


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine's debut album, "The Poison", was released on 3 October 2005 in the UK and on Valentine's Day 2006 in the US. It entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 128, and attained number 11 on the Independent Albums chart. On 30 January 2009, the album was certified gold by the RIAA after 500,000 copies were sold in the US. Four singles were released from "The Poison": "4 Words (To Choke Upon)", "Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)", "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)", and "Tears Don't Fall". Bullet for My Valentine promoted the album by touring across the world. In 2005, with increased popularity, they played on the larger Download Festival Snickers stage; in 2006, the band were moved to near the top of the main stage bill. Other tours included opening for Metallica and Guns N' Roses in the summer of 2006,<ref name="Bullet for My Valentine - Matt Tuck, Vocals/Guitars"></ref> the Vans Warped Tour and Earthday Birthday.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: The band's headline performance at Kerrang XXV, a one-off gig at Brixton Academy in London on 28 January 2006, was filmed for their first DVD, "". During June 2007, Tuck suffered from laryngitis, which led to an emergency tonsillectomy in July. Bullet for My Valentine were forced to cancel several shows, including supporting Metallica for three dates on their Sick of the Studio '07 tour on 29 June in Bilbao, 5 July in Vienna, and 8 July at the recently completed Wembley Stadium in London. Unable to speak, Tuck wrote that as soon as doctors cleared him he would be in the studio working on the band's next album.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: The band's second studio album, "Scream Aim Fire", was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios and was produced by Colin Richardson. Tuck commented at the time, "It's a lot more up tempo, a lot more aggressive." The album was released on 28 January 2008. It sold 53,000 copies in its first week and peaked at number four on the "Billboard" 200. Three songs were released as singles: "Scream Aim Fire," "Hearts Burst into Fire," and "Waking the Demon."


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In support of the new album, the band toured North America and Australia in the spring of 2008 for the Taste of Chaos tour alongside Atreyu, Blessthefall, and Avenged Sevenfold. Bullet for My Valentine cut short the Canada portion of the tour and flew back home to support the daughter of James who was in hospital. The band performed in North America again in the summer of 2008 as part of the No Fear Tour with Bleeding Through, Cancer Bats and Black Tide. In late 2008, the band toured Europe, supported by Lacuna Coil, Bleeding Through, and Black Tide. In December 2008, "Scream Aim Fire" was re-released with four bonus tracks that were recorded during the album's studio sessions, but with re-recorded vocal-lines.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Matt Tuck spoke to Daniel Marez of "Metal Hammer" in March 2009 about the band's progress on writing and recording their third album. Tuck stated that there were four or five songs that were finished and that "usually we write and record 14 tracks that I then have to write vocal lines for, but this time I'm trying to write the vocals as I write the music." Bullet for My Valentine confirmed in August 2009 that they were aiming for an early 2010 release for the new album, while Tuck stated that the upcoming record is "a lot more mature-sounding, it's a lot more classic. It'll stand the test of time [more] than both the previous things we've done." In a January 2010 interview with "Rock Sound", Tuck stated explained details for the album: it would be titled "Fever", and the 11-track record would have a sound closer to "The Poison" rather than "Scream Aim Fire" and contain no ballads.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: During the summer of 2009, Bullet for My Valentine toured across the United States as part of the Mayhem Festival, alongside Killswitch Engage, Slayer and Marilyn Manson on the main stage; they also appeared on the UK leg of the Sonisphere tour at Knebworth, headlining the second stage. The band headlined the second stage at the Download Festival 2010 on the Friday night. The band was also confirmed for Nova Rock, Metaltown, Rock am Ring, Rock on the Range, The Bamboozle, Bilbao Live Festival, Fortarock and Graspop. In addition, Bullet for My Valentine also played alongside the Big Four on the Greek leg of Sonisphere. "Fever" was released on 27 April 2010. A free download of a new track called "Begging For Mercy" was released on the band's website on 14 February 2010 as part of a Twitter promotion. The song "Your Betrayal" was chosen as the lead single for the album and was released to radio on 8 March 2010. The second single is called "The Last Fight" and was released on 19 April 2010. The album artwork for this studio album was released on the official website on 5 March 2010. Bullet for My Valentine announced the start their US tour in support of "Fever". It began on 30 April with the bands Airbourne and Chiodos as support. On 12 March 2010, the band released the music videos for "The Last Fight" and "Your Betrayal." The band revealed the track listing on 15 March 2010. On 26 April the band played a secret show in London to celebrate the release of "Fever". This was their only UK headline show until the end of the year. The third single is called "Bittersweet Memories" and was released on 25 November 2010 with a music video.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 28 January 2011, Michael Paget stated that the group had already drawn proportions for the next studio album and will sound a lot like "Fever". He followed-along with stating that the band plans to have the songs for it written within 2011 and will begin recording the album by the end of the year. A couple tracks left from the "Fever" sessions might be re-done, re-arranged and re-recorded for the new record. The band played at Uproar Festival 2011, after which they began writing material for a fourth studio album.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 7 October 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, the band (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release their future material (including their next studio album) on the RCA Records brand. Also in October, frontman Matt Tuck announced that he will be working on a new side project which he has described as "metal as fuck", influenced by bands such as Pantera and Slipknot. On 1 May 2012 it was revealed that the project would be called AxeWound, and featured Liam Cormier (Cancer Bats), Mike Kingswood (Glamour of the Kill), Joe Copcutt (Rise to Remain), and Jason Bowld (Pitchshifter). In May 2012, it was announced that Bullet for My Valentine would be playing at the South African music festival Oppikoppi, as well as a once-off gig in Cape Town alongside Seether and Enter Shikari. They were slated to play in the country for the Coke Zero Fest of 2009, but pulled out at the last minute to record Fever. It was confirmed on 6 August 2012 that the final recording session of the band's fourth studio record was complete, and that the album would be out sometime in late 2012. Later that month on the 17th, the second line-up for the Australian music festival Soundwave was announced, containing Bullet for My Valentine.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine released the track "Temper Temper" on 22 October 2012. On 12 November 2012, the band released a music video for the song. The release date was confirmed to be 12 February 2013. The band premiered the song "Temper Temper" at Radio 1 Rocks where they were the headlining act. On 17 December 2012, the second single, "Riot" was released. On 24 May 2013, "P.O.W." was released the album's third single. On 7 June 2013, "Breaking Point" was released the album's fourth single.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: The band began touring in support of "Temper Temper" on 10 February 2013, and finished the tour on 3 November 2013. The tenth show of the tour, held at Birmingham's O2 Academy, was filmed by music video website Moshcam.com.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In an interview, Matt Tuck said that Bullet for My Valentine were going to start work on a new album before the Rule Britannia Tour, which took place between 1 and 6 December 2013 in which the band played arenas in Britain supported by Young Guns and Asking Alexandria. In the interview Matt also said that they were strongly considering working with Terry Date, who has worked with bands such as Pantera and Deftones. He also said the band would bring back the thrash metal elements from "Scream Aim Fire".


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In November 2013, Bullet for My Valentine revealed though their Facebook page they were working on a new song. A short snippet of the song, titled "Raising Hell," was released on Matt Tuck's Vine profile on the 15th. The song was first played three days later via BBC Radio 1's Rock Show. It was made available for streaming and a music video for the song was released a week later.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In 2014, Matt announced on Twitter that the band were entering the studio to record a fifth album. On 28 August 2014,the band appeared on paranormal television show Most Haunted for an investigation at the Newton House in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In an interview with "Kerrang!" on 21 January 2015, Matt revealed that Bullet for My Valentine will be hitting the studio next month with producer Colin Richardson who produced both "The Poison" and "Scream Aim Fire", rather than Terry Date, who was the suggested producer initially. Tuck also said that their fifth album will be their heaviest album yet.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 9 February 2015, Bullet for My Valentine announced the departure of bassist Jason James, adding that they would announce a replacement when they felt "the time was right." They went on to say that until the announcement, they'd be busy and focused on recording their new record.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: The band released the song "No Way Out" on 18 May 2015. The band also revealed their fifth studio album to be titled "Venom" and their new bassist was going to be Jamie Mathias, formerly of metal band Revoker. "Venom" was set for release on 14 August 2015, the same day an expansive UK tour was announced. It was also revealed that Bullet for My Valentine will headline London's Camden Rocks festival which takes place on 30 May 2015. On 29 June 2015, the band released the third single from the album "You Want a Battle? (Here's a War)". On 16 October 2015, the band released a video for the song, title track. On 8 February 2016, the band released a video for the song, "Worthless".


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: In 2016, Bullet for My Valentine announced that drummer Michael Thomas would sit out for a few months to be with his wife as they were expecting their first child. Jason Bowld, former drummer of Pitchshifter and Tuck's bandmate from AxeWound, became Thomas' replacement. In April, they signed a new worldwide deal with Spinefarm Records. Matt Tuck later tweeted "Here we go again. #BFMV6" which implied the band had started working on their sixth effort. Later in the year, the band released a new single titled "Don't Need You". A music video was released with the video as well. At the end of 2017, Michael Thomas was replaced by Jason Bowld full-time.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 1 April 2018, the band debuted a new song, "Over It", on BBC Radio 1. The song was the first single off their sixth studio album, "Gravity", which was confirmed for release on 29 June 2018. On 26 April 2018, the song "Piece of Me" was released. On 18 May 2018, the band released another new song, "Letting You Go", and released a music video for the song on 3 June 2018. On 15 October 2018, the band released a music video for the track "Not Dead Yet".


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 19 May 2020, in an interview with "Rock Sound", Tuck announced that the band was in the process of writing a new album. After several mixed-to-negative reviews by critics on "Gravity", they decided to working on a new record which would be 'heavier' compared to the latest album. However, the production of the upcoming release, confirmed to be once again produced by Carl Bown, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuck commented about the upcoming album: "So it's not ideal, and we did have a lot of plans for the rest of the year for writing and making the record, which are on the backburner now until further notice. [...] It's pretty brutal, to be honest. It couldn't be more of a contrast with "Gravity" in a ferocious style. It's very technical. [...] The riffs are crushing. There's probably 60 percent aggressive vocals, 40 [percent] clean, which is a ratio we've never really dabbled with before. [...] It's very heavy, it's very technical. For the Bullet fans out there that kind of like that side of this band, it's very cool and very exciting. It feels good."


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: On 11 June 2021, Bullet for My Valentine unveiled a new Patreon page, The Army of Noise, posting that it is "the only place to get the latest BFMV news, early tix, BTS, merch discounts and exclusive items, signed gifts and more. Plus, a portion of each sub goes to the Teenage Cancer Trust." On 15 June 2021, ahead of their headline slot at this weekend's Download Pilot, the band announced that they are planning to release new music on Friday, 18 June, with a 30-second video teaser hinting at some potentially heavy new music. On that day, the band officially released the new single "Knives" along with its music video. At the same time, they officially announced that their self-titled seventh studio album was set for release on 22 October 2021 while also revealed the album cover and the track list. On 23 July 2021, the band released the second single "Parasite" and its corresponding music video. On 10 September 2021, the band released the third single "Shatter" alongside an accompanying music video. On 20 September 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and manufacturing delays, the band announced that they pushed back the release of the album to 5 November 2021. On 1 October 2021, one month before the album release, the band released the fourth single "Rainbow Veins". On 8 April 2022, the band released the fifth single "Omen" while also announcing the deluxe edition of the album which is set to be released on 8 July 2022. At the same time, the band officially revealed the album cover and the track list. On 30 April 2022, the band delayed the release of the deluxe edition from 8 July 2022 to 5 August 2022. On 27 May 2022, the group unveiled another single "Stitches". On 29 July 2022, their seventh single, "No More Tears to Cry", was released.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine has been described as metalcore, heavy metal, melodic metalcore, thrash metal, hard rock, emo, screamo, and post-hardcore. According to "Decibel", Bullet for My Valentine's music consists of "'heavy metal' leads" and "'post-hardcore' vocals". According to AllMusic, Bullet for My Valentine blend "muscular riffs and emo harmonies" and also "take cues from '80s metal bands and punk-infused metal to make melodic, metallic, dark rock songs." The band describe two of their albums, "The Poison" and "Fever", as having a "super dark" tone. Before they were known as Bullet for My Valentine, Jeff Killed John's music followed the nu metal trend set by bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. The band then changed their name to Bullet for My Valentine and reworked their musical strategy; they decided to play heavy metal songs with "harmony guitars and big angelic choruses," according to Matthew Tuck.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Tuck personally said of the band's sound that "...we're a hard rock band with metal influences, and I've said that from day one." Kirk Miller of "Decibel" praised the band for the effort in synchronised song structures. When asked of their views on their looks, members of the band have stated that they would not change their sound or image for a commercial approach; Tuck also said, "Without sounding harsh, we're more interested in what our music sounds like than what our fucking hair looks like." Matt Tuck told "Exclaim!": "A lot of people already think we're more of an emo band just because of the name of the band. People need to give the music a fair listen musically before they decide to judge it. I say we're a melodic metal band, really. That's how I'd describe us." Tuck said he prefers people call Bullet for My Valentine a heavy metal band instead of categorizing the band under specific subgenres. Jeff Treppel of "MetalSucks" described the band's first two albums as "solid examples of poppy metalcore." In an interview with Robert Gray from Ultimate-Guitar in 2010, Tuck said that when making the album "Scream Aim Fire", Bullet for My Valentine were bothered by critics and journalists who criticized the band and said the band aren't "real metal". Tuck said that the band tried to please people like critics and journalists with "Scream Aim Fire". Tuck said: ""Scream Aim Fire" was an album we wrote to try to prove people wrong, and wasn't an album we made for ourselves. "Fever" is an album that was a hundred percent us; we didn't listen to anyone's opinions, what critics' opinions were, or what people thought we should do, or how we should sound." Tuck also said about "Scream Aim Fire": "Some of it was written a hundred percent for us, but we tried a little bit too hard to be metal when we should've just carried on doing what we did really - like we did on all of "The Poison" material." When Tuck was asked if he defines Bullet for My Valentine as a heavy metal band or a hard rock band, Tuck said:


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: Bullet for My Valentine's influences include Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Testament, Stuck Mojo, Megadeth, Slayer, Machine Head, Sepultura, Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Queen, Led Zeppelin, and Dire Straits.


title: Bullet for My Valentine

text: According to Michael Thomas, these are the bands that inspire Bullet for My Valentine's "catchy vocals, aggressive riffs and melodies," Matt Tuck has stated in an interview, his songwriting is highly influenced by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Bob Dylan. He goes on to say that "these bands just are proper old school songwriters."


title: Lunar calendar

text: A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gregorian calendar, is a solar calendar system that originally evolved out of a lunar calendar system. A purely lunar calendar is also distinguished from a lunisolar calendar, whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the solar year through some process of intercalation. The details of when months begin vary from calendar to calendar, with some using new, full, or crescent moons and others employing detailed calculations.


title: Lunar calendar

text: Since each lunation is approximately  days, it is common for the months of a lunar calendar to alternate between 29 and 30 days. Since the period of 12 such lunations, a lunar year, is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 34 seconds (354.36707 days), purely lunar calendars are 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year. In purely lunar calendars, which do not make use of intercalation, like the Islamic calendar, the lunar months cycle through all the seasons of a solar year over the course of a 33–34 lunar-year cycle.


title: Lunar calendar

text: Although the Gregorian calendar is in common and legal use in most countries, traditional lunar and lunisolar calendars continue to be used throughout the world to determine religious festivals and national holidays. Such holidays include Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew calendar); Easter (the Computus); the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian New Year (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian calendars, respectively); the Nepali New Year (Nepali calendar); the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chuseok (Chinese and Korean calendars); Loi Krathong (Thai calendar); the Bengali New Year and Durga Puja (Bengali calendar); Sunuwar calendar; Vesak/Buddha's Birthday (Buddhist calendar); Diwali (Hindu calendars); Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (Islamic calendar).


title: Lunar calendar

text: The Japanese Calendar formerly used both the lunar and lunisolar calendar before it was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar during the Meiji government in 1872. Holidays such as the Japanese New Year were simply transposed on top as opposed to being calculated like other countries that use the lunisolar and Gregorian calendars together, for example the Japanese New Year now falls on January 1, creating a month delay as opposed to other East Asian Countries. See customary issues in modern Japan.


title: Lunar calendar

text: A lunisolar calendar was found at Warren Field in Scotland and has been dated to , during the Mesolithic period. Some scholars argue for lunar calendars still earlier—Rappenglück in the marks on a  year-old cave painting at Lascaux and Marshack in the marks on a  year-old bone baton—but their findings remain controversial. Scholars have argued that ancient hunters conducted regular astronomical observations of the Moon back in the Upper Palaeolithic. Samuel L. Macey dates the earliest uses of the Moon as a time-measuring device back to 28,000–30,000 years ago.


title: Lunar calendar

text: Most calendars referred to as "lunar" calendars are in fact lunisolar calendars. Their months are based on observations of the lunar cycle, with intercalation being used to bring them into general agreement with the solar year. The solar "civic calendar" that was used in ancient Egypt showed traces of its origin in the earlier lunar calendar, which continued to be used alongside it for religious and agricultural purposes. Present-day lunisolar calendars include the Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindu, Hebrew and Thai calendars.


title: Lunar calendar

text: Synodic months are 29 or 30 days in length, making a lunar year of 12 months about 11 to 12 days shorter than a solar year. Some lunar calendars do not use intercalation, for example the lunar Hijri calendar used by most Muslims. For those that do, such as the Hebrew calendar, and Buddhist Calendars in Myanmar, the most common form of intercalation is to add an additional month every second or third year. Some lunisolar calendars are also calibrated by annual natural events which are affected by lunar cycles as well as the solar cycle. An example of this is the lunar calendar of the Banks Islands, which includes three months in which the edible palolo worms mass on the beaches. These events occur at the last quarter of the lunar month, as the reproductive cycle of the palolos is synchronized with the moon.


title: Lunar calendar

text: Lunar and lunisolar calendars differ as to which day is the first day of the month. In some lunisolar calendars, such as the Chinese calendar, the first day of a month is the day when an astronomical new moon occurs in a particular time zone. In others, such as some Hindu calendars, each month begins on the day after the full moon. Others are based on the first sighting of the lunar crescent, such as the lunar Hijri calendar (and, historically, the Hebrew calendar).


title: Lunar calendar

text: The length of each lunar cycle varies slightly from the average value. In addition, observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions. Thus to avoid uncertainty about the calendar, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules to determine the start of each calendar month.


title: Lunar calendar

text: The average length of the synodic month is 29.53059 days. Thus it is convenient if months generally alternate between 29 and 30 days (sometimes termed respectively ""hollow"" and ""full""). The distribution of "hollow" and "full" months can be determined using continued fractions, and examining successive approximations for the length of the month in terms of fractions of a day.


title: Lunar calendar

text: In the table below, the first column gives a sequence of such continued fractions. So to devise a calendar from each, one would take the number of days as given in the numerator and divide it into the number of months as given in the denominator. The second column shows, for reference, the time length of that cycle in years and days. The next double column shows how many of the months must be full and how many must be hollow; in each case, there is only one possible combination (how they are ordered within the cycle is not relevant).


title: Lunar calendar

text: The next column shows the decimal value of each fraction; that is the effective average length of a month over one cycle. It will be noted that each successive value comes closer to the length of the synodic month. Finally, the last two columns show roughly how long it will take (assuming one adheres to the pattern exactly) for the calendar months to be about a day off the synodic month, and which way off it will be.


title: Lunar calendar

text: These fractions can be used to construct a lunar calendar, or in combination with a solar calendar to produce a lunisolar calendar. A 49-month cycle was proposed as the basis of an alternative Easter computation by Isaac Newton around 1700. The tabular Islamic calendar's 360-month cycle is equivalent to 24 of the cycles, minus a correction of one day. It comes to 10,631 days (29 years, including 7 leap years + 39 days) with 191 months of 30 days and 169 months of 29 days.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word "cashmere" deriving from an anglicisation of "Kashmir", when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes.


title: Cashmere wool

text: A number of countries produce cashmere and have improved processing techniques over the years but China and Mongolia are two of the leading producers as of 2019. Afghanistan is ranked third.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Some yarns and clothing marketed as containing cashmere have been found to contain little to no cashmere fiber, so more stringent testing has been requested to make sure items are fairly represented.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Poor land management and overgrazing to increase production of the valuable fiber has resulted in the decimation and transformation of grasslands into deserts in Asia, increasing local temperatures and causing air pollution which has traveled as far as Canada and the United States.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Cashmere wool fiber is used for clothing and other textile articles is obtained from the neck region of Cashmere. Historically, fine-haired Cashmere goats have been called "Capra hircus laniger", as if they were a subspecies of the domestic goat "Capra hircus". However, they are now more commonly considered part of the domestic goat subspecies "Capra aegagrus hircus" or the alternate version "Hircus Blythi Goat". Cashmere goats produce a double fleece that consists of a fine, soft undercoat or underdown of hair mingled with a straighter and much coarser outer coating of hair called guard hair. For the fine underdown to be sold and processed further, it must be de-haired. De-hairing is a mechanical process that separates the coarse hairs from the fine hair. After de-hairing, the resulting cashmere is ready to be dyed and converted into textile yarn, fabrics and garments.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Cashmere wool is collected during the spring moulting season when the goats naturally shed their winter coat. In the Northern Hemisphere, the goats moult as early as March and as late as May.


title: Cashmere wool

text: In some regions, the mixed mass of down and coarse hair is removed by hand with a coarse comb that pulls tufts of fiber from the animal as the comb is raked through the fleece. The collected fiber then has a higher yield of pure cashmere after the fiber has been washed and dehaired. The long, coarse guard hair is then typically clipped from the animal and is often used for brushes, interfacings and other non-apparel uses. Animals in Iran, Afghanistan, New Zealand, and Australia are typically shorn of their fleece, resulting in a higher coarse hair content and lower pure cashmere yield. In America, the most popular method is combing. The process takes up to two weeks, but with a trained eye for when the fiber is releasing, it is possible to comb the fibers out in about a week. The term "baby cashmere" is used for fibres harvested from younger goats, and has a reputation of being softer.


title: Cashmere wool

text: China has become the largest producer of raw cashmere, estimated at 19,200 metric tons (in hair) per year (2016). Mongolia follows with 8,900 tons (in hair) as of 2016, while Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian republics produce lesser amounts. The annual world raw production is estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 tons (13,605 and 18,140 tonnes) (in hair). Pure cashmere, resulting from removing animal grease, dirt and coarse hairs from the fleece, is estimated at 6,500 tons (5,895 tonnes). Ultra-fine Cashmere or Pashmina is still produced by communities in Kashmir but its rarity and high price, along with political instability in the region, make it very hard to source and to regulate quality. It is estimated that the average yearly production per goat is .


title: Cashmere wool

text: Pure cashmere can be dyed and spun into yarns and knitted into jumpers (sweaters), hats, gloves, socks and other clothing, or woven into fabrics then cut and assembled into garments such as outer coats, jackets, trousers (pants), pajamas, scarves, blankets, and other items. Fabric and garment producers in Scotland, Italy, and Japan have long been known as market leaders. Cashmere may also be blended with other fibers to bring the garment cost down, or to gain their properties, such as elasticity from wool, or sheen from silk.


title: Cashmere wool

text: The town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, in the United States was an incubator for the cashmere wool industry. It had the first power looms for woolens and the first manufacture of "satinets". Capron Mill had the first power looms, in 1820. It burned on July 21, 2007, in the Bernat Mill fire.


title: Cashmere wool

text: In the United States, under the U.S. Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939, as amended, (15 U. S. Code Section 68b(a)(6)), a wool or textile product may be labelled as containing cashmere only if the following criteria are met:


title: Cashmere wool

text: Mongolia supplies 9,600 tons of raw cashmere per year to the world. 15% of the total raw cashmere supplied by Mongolia is being used to manufacture finished goods whereas the remaining 85% is being exported in semi processed form. 70% of the total raw material used to produce finished garments in Mongolia is being procured by Gobi Corporation with the remaining 30% being used by other producers in Mongolia.


title: Cashmere wool

text: The global fashion luxury cashmere clothing market is expected to reach US $4.2 billion in 2025, growing at an annual rate of 3.86% per year between 2018 and 2025.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Cashmere has been manufactured in Mongolia, Nepal and Kashmir for thousands of years. The fiber is also known as "pashm" (Persian for "wool") or "pashmina" (Persian/Urdu word derived from Pashm) for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir. References to woolen shawls appear in texts surviving from between the 3rd century BC and the 11th century AD. However, a popular notion in Kashmir is that it was the 15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abidin, who founded the local wool industry by bringing weavers from Turkestan. Another local tradition sees the founder of all Kashmiri crafts in the famous 14th century saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani who, tradition goes, brought 700 craftsmen from Persia to Kashmir. When Ali Hamadani visited Ladakh he discovered for the first time in history the warmth and fineness of Ladakh goat wool. He combed some goat wool and made a pair of socks with his own hands. Afterwards he gifted those socks to the king of Kashmir, Sultan Qutubdin (1374-89 AD). Sultan was amazed by their durability and fineness. Ali Hamadani brought some raw goat wool from Ladakh and suggested the king to start shawl weaving in Kashmir. That was the starting point of the usage of the cashmere wool.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Trading in commercial quantities of raw cashmere between Asia and Europe began with Valerie Audresset SA, Louviers, France, claiming to be the first European company to commercially spin cashmere. The down was imported from Tibet through Kazan, the capital of the Russian province of Volga, and was used in France to create imitation woven shawls. Unlike the Kashmir shawls, the French shawls had a different pattern on each side. The imported cashmere was spread out on large sieves and beaten with sticks to open the fibers and clear away the dirt. After opening, the cashmere was washed and children removed the coarse hair. The down was then carded and combed using the same methods used for worsted spinning.


title: Cashmere wool

text: In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Kashmir (then called cashmere by the British) had a thriving industry producing shawls from goat down imported from Tibet and Tartary through Ladakh. The down trade was controlled by treaties signed as a result of previous wars The Shawls were introduced into western Europe when General Napoleon Bonaparte sent one to Paris from his campaign in Ottoman Egypt. The shawl's arrival is said to have created an immediate sensation and plans were put in place to start manufacturing the product in France.


title: Cashmere wool

text: In 1799 at his factory in Reims, William-Louis Ternaux, the leading woolens manufacturer in France under Napoleon, began to produce imitation India shawls ("cachemires") using the wool of Spanish merino sheep. By 1811, with government assistance, Ternaux also began experimenting with the production of real India shawls using what he called "laine de Perse", i.e., the down ("duvet") of Tibetan-cashmere goats. In 1818, Ternaux resolved to help establish herds of cashmere goats in France. A famous expedition to Persia was organized, led by the orientalist and diplomat Pierre Amédée Jaubert, to be financed in part by the French government. Of the acquired herd of 1,500 animals, only 256 arrived safely in the spring of 1819 at Marseilles and Toulon via the Crimea. About 100 of the cashmere goats were then purchased by the French government (at 2,000 francs each) and sent to the royal sheep farm at Perpignan. The remainder, about 180 including new-borns, went to Ternaux's property at Saint-Ouen outside Paris. Although Ternaux had little success getting small farmers to add cashmeres to their sheep herds, a few wealthy landowners were willing to experiment with the goats. For example, Ternaux's herd was seen in 1823 by C.T.Tower of Weald Hall, Essex, England. Tower purchased two female and two male goats and took them back to England, wherein 1828 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for rearing a herd of cashmeres. Also, a few of Ternaux's goats were purchased for a model farm at Grignon, near Versailles, run by M. Polonceau. Polonceau crossbred the cashmeres with Angora goats to improve the down for spinning and weaving. This Cashmere-Angora herd was seen by William Riley of New South Wales in 1828, and again in 1831 when Riley purchased thirteen of the goats for trans-shipment to Australia. At the time, the average production of the Polonceau herd was 16 ounces (500 grams) of down. Ternaux's herd at St. Ouen still numbered 150 when the famous industrialist died in 1833. The herd at Perpignan died out by 1829.


title: Cashmere wool

text: By 1830, weaving cashmere shawls with French-produced yarn had become an important Scottish industry. The Scottish Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures offered a 300 pound sterling reward to the first person who could spin cashmere in Scotland based on the French system. Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane collected the required information while in Paris and received a Scottish patent for the process in 1831. In the autumn of 1831, he sold the patent to Henry Houldsworth and sons of Glasgow. In 1832 Henry Houldsworth and sons commenced the manufacture of yarn, and in 1833 received the reward.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Dawson International claim to have invented the first commercial dehairing machine in 1890, and from 1906 they purchased cashmere from China, but were restricted to purchasing fiber from Beijing and Tianjin until 1978. In 1978 trade was liberalised and Dawson International began buying cashmere from many provinces.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Many early textile centers developed as part of the American Industrial Revolution. Among them, the Blackstone Valley became a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, became an early textile center in the Blackstone Valley which was known for the manufacture of cashmere wool and satinets.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Austrian Textile Manufacturer Bernhard Altmann is credited with bringing cashmere to the United States of America on a mass scale beginning in 1947.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Attempts to improve Afghanistan's cashmere industry by importing Italian goats in the 2010s have been criticized as wasteful.


title: Cashmere wool

text: The production of cashmere wool has been criticized for the detrimental environmental effects directly resulting from raising the herds. Due to the way the goats destroy the plants they eat, by pulling them up by the roots rather than grazing the tops, as well as having sharp hooves that pierce the grounds they tread, the high demand for cashmere is causing grasslands in China and Mongolia to disappear, air pollution to increase and the herds to starve. Factories in Alashan are forced to close several days a week due to water rationing as the deserts there expand by 400 square miles per year. As of 2016, the degradation of 65% of the grasslands in the area has been linked to a four-degree Fahrenheit increase in the temperature of Mongolia, three degrees higher than temperatures in other areas of the world. With proper management, the grasslands could recover in the space of ten years. Mitigation efforts include changing trades, grazing bans, hand-feeding the goats, and attempting to convince Mongolian herders to raise yaks or camels instead of or in addition to fewer goats, as the hair from these animals is also valuable and their impact on grasslands is less.


title: Cashmere wool

text: Air pollution, caused by the combination of industrial heavy burning of coal creating atmospheric particulates, and the desert dust storms resulting from disappearing grasslands in China and Mongolia, crosses the Pacific Ocean to the Americas. Health officials in Canada, China, Mongolia and the US have had to issue air quality warnings to the public.


title: Cashmere wool

text: The demand for the fiber has caused some vendors, both knowingly and not, to sell yarns or textiles containing little to no cashmere representing themselves as being composed of cashmere. Wool and other fibers have been mixed in by unscrupulous manufacturers, deliberately selling mislabeled items to well-known department stores. Complaints of mislabeling after testing for cashmere content were reported by the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute to the Federal Trade Commission, leading to more stringent examination of cashmere products.


title: Bitter Sweet Symphony

text: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by the English rock band the Verve, from their third studio album, "Urban Hymns" (1997). It was produced by Youth and released on 16 June 1997 by Hut Recordings and Virgin Records as the album's lead single.


title: Bitter Sweet Symphony

text: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is based on a sample from a 1965 version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. The Verve added strings, guitar, percussion and vocals. They obtained rights to use the "Last Time" sample from the copyright holder, Decca Records, but were denied permission from the Rolling Stones' former manager, Allen Klein. Following a lawsuit, the Verve relinquished all royalties and the Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were added to the songwriting credits. In 2019, after Klein's death, Jagger, Richards and Klein's son ceded the rights to the Verve songwriter Richard Ashcroft.


title: Bitter Sweet Symphony

text: The music video features Ashcroft walking down a busy pavement in Hoxton, London, bumping into passersby. It was played frequently on music channels and was nominated for several awards. The music video was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, and Best Alternative Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Bitter Sweet Symphony

text: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, and stayed on the chart for three months. It was released in the US in March 1998 by Virgin Records America, reaching number 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It was named "Rolling Stone" and "NME" Single of the Year and was nominated for Best British Single at the 1998 Brit Awards. In 1999, it was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is considered one of the defining songs of the Britpop era.


title: Bitter Sweet Symphony

text: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is based on a sample of a 1965 orchestral version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. The group was formed by Andrew Loog Oldham, the former producer and manager of the Rolling Stones, who enlisted musicians to create symphonic versions of Rolling Stones songs. The strings in the sample were written and arranged by David Whitaker.