title: Welsh people

text: Even among Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being bilingual in English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. Some prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as code-switching).


title: Welsh people

text: Due to an increase in Welsh-language nursery education, recent census data reveals a reversal of decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers, according to research from the Welsh Language Board and Careers Wales. The Welsh Government identified media as one of six areas likely to experience greater demand for Welsh speakers: the sector is Wales's third-largest revenue earner.


title: Welsh people

text: Although Welsh is a minority language, and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for the language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of Welsh nationalism in the form of groups such as the political party Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual Welsh Parliament (Senedd) and entered on its records, with English translation. The high cost of translation from English to Welsh has proved controversial. In the past the rules of the British Parliament forbade the use of Welsh in any proceedings. Only English was allowed as the only language all members were assumed to speak. In 2017, the UK government agreed to support the use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee, although not in parliamentary debate in the house outside of this committee. In 2018 Welsh was used in the grand committee for the first time.


title: Welsh people

text: Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, inland Denbighshire, northern and south-western Powys, the Isle of Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, North Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and parts of western Glamorgan, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh-speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh-medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital.


title: Welsh people

text: For some, speaking Welsh is an important part of their Welsh identity. Parts of the culture are strongly connected to the language — notably the Eisteddfod tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. Wales also has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language.


title: Welsh people

text: Patagonian Welsh (Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a dialect of the Welsh language which is spoken in Y Wladfa in the Argentine region, Patagonia.


title: Welsh people

text: There has been migration from Wales to the rest of Britain throughout its history. During the Industrial Revolution thousands of Welsh people migrated, for example, to Liverpool and Ashton-in-Makerfield. As a result, some people from England, Scotland and Ireland have Welsh surnames.


title: Welsh people

text: Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, concentrated in certain areas. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived in Northern France; the centres of Welsh-French population are in coal mining towns, and particularly the French department of Pas-de-Calais along with miners from many other countries. They tended to cluster in communities around their churches.


title: Welsh people

text: Settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived in Newfoundland in the early 19th century, and founded towns in Labrador's coast region; in 1819, the ship "Albion" left Cardigan for New Brunswick, carrying Welsh settlers to Canada; on board were 27 Cardiganian families, many of whom were farmers. In 1852, Thomas Benbow Phillips of Tregaron established a settlement of about 100 Welsh people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.


title: Welsh people

text: Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population, Irish emigration to the USA may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration), to many countries, including the USA (in particular, Pennsylvania), Canada and Y Wladfa in Patagonia, Argentina. Jackson County, Ohio was sometimes referred to as "Little Wales", and one of several communities where Welsh was widely spoken. There was a Welsh language press but by the late 1940s, the last Welsh language newspaper, "y Drych" began to publish in English. Malad City in Idaho, which began as a Welsh Mormon settlement, lays claim to a greater proportion of inhabitants of Welsh descent than anywhere outside Wales itself. Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons", and flies the Welsh Flag as its school colours. Welsh people have also settled in New Zealand and Australia.


title: Welsh people

text: Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did 458,705 Canadians in Canada's 2011 census. This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the 2001 census).


title: Welsh people

text: There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the Mandan, a Native American tribe of the central United States, are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under Prince Madog in 1170.


title: Welsh people

text: The Ukrainian city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes (an engineer from Merthyr Tydfil) who constructed a steel plant and several coal mines in the region; the town was thus named "Yuzovka" (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes).


title: Welsh people

text: Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Wales. After she suffered from bronchopneumonia as a child, her parents were advised that it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. This led the family to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel is a German rock band, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer, and bassist Georg Listing. Their sound encompasses multiple genres, including pop rock, alternative rock, and electronic rock. They have had four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country. The band has sold more than 10 million records worldwide.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: After recording an unreleased demo-album under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, "Schrei", as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. "Schrei" sold more than half-a-million copies worldwide and spawned four top-five singles in both Germany and Austria.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: In 2007, the band released their second German-language album, "Zimmer 483", and their first English-language album, "Scream", which have combined album sales of over 2.5 million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, "Zimmer 483", spawned three top-five singles in Germany while the latter, "Scream", spawned two singles that reached the top-twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won their first MTV Video Music Award, for Best New Artist. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and to also win awards at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 and the award for Best Group at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2009. They won for Best World Stage Performance on 7 November 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an award at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Twin brothers Bill Kaulitz and Tom Kaulitz along with drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing formed the band in 2001 under the name Devilish, and they soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts. After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels. Soon after Sony BMG took them under contract, Hoffmann hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and had them give the teens instruction on songwriting and instrument playing; most of the songs of the first album were written by Hoffmann, Jost and Benzer (including the singles "Scream" and "Rescue me" which were completely written by them), only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written completely by Tokio Hotel themselves. Shortly before release of their first album, Sony terminated their contract.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: In 2005 Universal Music Group took Tokio Hotel under contract and developed a marketing plan. Their first single, "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), quickly rose in the charts, appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at No. 15 on 20 August 2005 and eventually reaching No. 1 on 26 August 2005; it also reached No. 1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Schrei" ("Scream"), climbed to the No. 5 position in the German charts. These two songs were written by singer Bill Kaulitz together with their group of producers Peter Hoffmann, David Jost, Pat Benzer and Dave Roth. Their debut album, "Schrei", was released on 19 September 2005, and was certified triple gold by the BVMI in 2006 for selling over 300,000 copies in Germany. In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached No. 1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The first single off their second album "Zimmer 483" ("Room 483"), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on 26 January 2007 and quickly reached No. 1 in Germany and Austria, and No. 2 in France. "Zimmer 483" was released in Germany on 23 February 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on 7 April. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, scheduled to start in March 2007, was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on 16 November. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 28 April 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel's first English-language album, "Scream", was released on 4 June 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as "Room 483" in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album "Zimmer 483". "Scream" contains English versions of a selection of songs from Tokio Hotel's German-language albums "Schrei" and "Zimmer 483". "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on 27 August 2007. The song reached No. 77 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on 1 November 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on 11 December 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates, starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After Tokio Hotel had appeared and performed live on MuchMusic while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on 8 April. "Scream" was released in Canada on 25 March and in the US on 6 May.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on 3 March 2008 in Brussels and continued through locations including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Serbia and Scandinavia. It was scheduled to finish on 9 April; during the concert in Marseille, France, on 14 March, Bill started to experience vocal problems. He let the audience sing more frequently than normal, and instead of the original 21 songs on the set list, the band played only 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band cancelled the Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled after the band's manager announced in "Bild" that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without a break. He had to undergo larynx surgery on 30 March to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords. The cyst resulted from a throat infection that had gone untreated. Following his surgery Bill could not speak for ten days and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation. If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged. Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008


title: Tokio Hotel

text: and after that they embarked on a second part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour, adding many open-air concerts and wrapping up the tour on 13 July in Werchter in Belgium.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: In August 2008 Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America, including a performance at the Bamboozled festival in New Jersey. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, where they won the award for Best New Artist. They returned to North America in October 2008 for a month-long tour of concerts and record-store signings. In December 2008 a behind-the-scenes DVD called "Tokio Hotel TV – Caught on Camera" was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature-stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, "Humanoid", which was released on 2 October in Germany and 6 October 2009 in the U.S., despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release. The album was recorded in both German and English, with both versions released simultaneously worldwide.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 10 August, it was announced on MTV News that the first German single would be "Automatisch" and that its English counterpart, "Automatic", would be released as a first single in the United States. On 20 August, MTV Buzzworthy released a video which previewed "Automatic" and Cherrytree Records announced that the English version of the song would be released in the US on 22 September. Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on 3 September.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 2 November 2009 Tom's blog announced that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and that its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The group toured thirty-two cities in Europe from 22 February to 14 April 2010. On 24 June 2010, the live music-video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun", was released on the band website.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 20 July 2010, they released their second live album, "Humanoid City Live", from Milan, Italy. On 22 November 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns" premiered on the Greek radio-station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of", a compilation album of their most successful songs.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 13 December 2010 their "Best of" was released in Germany. It was released internationally the next day. 2 December was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on the official Tokio Hotel website.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel performed their first concert in Asia (excluding their concert in Israel) at the Audi Showcase in Singapore, followed shortly by the TM Connects With Tokio Hotel event in Malaysia, promoting the sales of their album "Humanoid". They concluded the series of mini-concerts with Taiwan. They returned to Malaysia a couple of months later to perform at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010. They performed in Tokyo on 15 December 2010, after their South American tour concluded in Distrito Federal, Mexico on 2 December 2010. In February 2011 Tokio Hotel travelled to Japan to complete a second promo tour. A number of television appearances and media interviews took place between 8 and 11 February.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 28 April 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the network's first online award-show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans played after the winner was announced.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 24 June 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at "The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". Audi A1 presented the event, and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the band's first acoustic performance in Japan. On 25 June 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, formerly called the "Video Music Awards Japan", was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those affected by the 2011 earthquake.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Not long after finishing the "Welcome to Humanoid City Tour", Bill and Tom, with their manager David Jost, moved to Los Angeles and continue to live there.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 18 May 2012 Far East Movement released an album named ""Dirty Bass"", featuring the song "If I Die Tomorrow", which includes vocals by Bill.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 5 January 2013, Tom Kaulitz confirmed on the "BTK Twins" app (which was recalled in November) that a new album would be released in 2013. During MTV's Musical March Madness 2013 Tournament, Tokio Hotel promised to release their new album "if they repeat as March Madness Champs". Although they did not win the award, and despite inactivity, the band managed to gather a considerable amount of support from their fanbase. Once again, Tokio Hotel announced that they were planning to release a new single on 27 October 2013 and the album the following month. However, neither the album nor any new singles were released during that year.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 22 January 2014, the band's producer, Peter Hoffman, announced that recording for the new album had been completed and that they were in the process of selecting the track list. He stated that there was no release date yet, but the album would come out later in 2014. On 3 April, the band informed their fans via Facebook and Twitter about their recent website update, which included an official video teaser of them working on their upcoming album and never-before-seen photos of the members.<ref name="Tokio Hotel: We just made a little update to https://www.tokiohotel.com"></ref>


title: Tokio Hotel

text: After the comeback of Tokio Hotel TV, the band announced on Twitter that the album had been finished and was currently in the hands of the label. On 3 September 2014 Bill Kaulitz announced via his Instagram account that the name of the new album would be Kings of Suburbia and it would be released on 3 October.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 12 September, Tokio Hotel released a music video for the song "Run, Run, Run" from their new album. "Girl Got a Gun" was also released as a second promotional song on 19 September, followed by a music video on 23 September. The lead single from the album, Love Who Loves You Back, was released on 26 September, followed by a music video on 30 September.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The album was released in three versions on 3 October 2014 and was number one in 30 countries and in TOP5 in 17 more countries.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel's new world tour "Feel It All World Tour" started 6 March in Europe with "Part 1: the Club Experience", giving fans an exclusive personal encounter with the band in special club-sized venues. Part 2 will commence with dates in the United States, followed by dates in Latin America (Part 3) and Russia (Part 4). The second official single from the album is the namesake of the tour, "Feel It All". The video for it was released 27 March 2015, and the "Feel It All" EP was released for sale 3 April 2015.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: During an interview in May 2016, Bill Kaulitz announced that there would be a new album titled "Dream Machine" and a new world tour in 2017. In late December 2016 as promotion for the album, the band released the first two songs from the album on YouTube. The first, "Something New", was released on 23 December and the second, "What If", was released on 29 December.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 2 January 2017, the band announced via their official Facebook page that "Dream Machine" would be released on 3 March 2017. While they are no longer with Universal Music, they have since signed with Starwatch Music.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 25 September 2017, Tokio Hotel announced their North America tour dates for 2018, however these dates were later cancelled due to technical issues with the band's equipment.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The third single, "Boy Don't Cry" was released on 20 October 2017 along with its accompanying music video, with also three remixes; "Regi Remix", "Tiefschwarz Remix" and "Drangsal Edit".


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 29 October 2018, the band announced via their official Facebook page that they will be embarking on a new tour in 2019 named "Melancholic Paradise" wherein they will perform both familiar songs and new ones from their upcoming album. Only Europe dates have been announced at that time. The singles "Melancholic Paradise", "When It Rains It Pours" and "Chateau" were respectively released on 1 February 2019, 5 April 2019, and 17 November 2019.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: In October 2019, Bill Kaulitz announced via his Instagram account that the upcoming Tokio Hotel album has been finished with the recording sessions and that it will be released in 2020. Also, the next day, he has announced via his Instagram account that the band has added North America and Latin America legs to their "Melancholic Paradise Tour" for the same year with the release of the band sixth studio album. The band had only completed three venues on their North America and Latin America tour and the rest of the tour was since cancelled at the last minute before their show in Ecuador due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns worldwide.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: All photos, videos and content were removed from Tokio Hotel's official Instagram account early August 2020, and older photos of the band were uploaded instead. This was later revealed to be due to the 15th anniversary of the release of the band's debut single "Durch den Monsun" on 15 August 2005.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: During a live chat on Spotify, the band confirmed that new versions of "Durch den Monsun" and "Monsoon" will be released some time in Autumn 2020 as a celebration of the single's 15th anniversary. "Durch den Monsun 2020" and "Monsoon 2020" were respectively released on 2 October 2020 and 16 October 2020. Bill also confirmed that a new German-language song will be released later this year, and that a new tour is planned in 2021 for Europe and other continents. On 1 September 2020, Tokio Hotel revealed to have signed a new record deal with Sony Music Germany and Epic Records Germany throughout their official Instagram account.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Tokio Hotel announced on 4 December 2020 via Instagram their new single "Berlin", featuring a guest appearance from Canadian singer VVAVES, which was released on 11 December 2020.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 7 December 2020, the band announced via their official Facebook page and Instagram account that they will be embarking on a new tour in Autumn 2021 named "Beyond the World", promoting "Durch den Monsun 2020" and "Monsoon 2020", whilst wishing to perform more songs from their upcoming album. Only Europe dates have been announced at that time.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Via their #AskTokioHotel livestream on Twitter, the band have announced a new single called "White Lies", which will feature a guest appearance from German EDM duo VIZE. This was released on 15 January 2021.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 16 December 2020, the band appeared on MDR Sputnik's talk show "Friends of Sputnik", where they were interviewed by host Sissy Metzschke, and later performed the songs; "Durch den Monsun 2020", "Love Who Loves You Back", "Black", "Melancholic Paradise" and "Berlin". On 7 February 2021, the band appeared on "Super Bowl LV" on ProSieben, on which they performed the songs; "When It Rains It Pours", "Covered in Gold", "We Found Us", "What If", "White Lies" and "Stormy Weather".


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 19 March 2021, the band started a social media contest called the White Lies Cover Challenge, where they asked fans to create their own cover of "White Lies" on video and to submit it by 4 April 2021 on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #WhiteLiesCoverChallenge. The winning covers would then be used by the band in a fan video version of the song, which was uploaded to their official YouTube account on 15 April 2021.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The band had a new Instagram livestream on 25 March 2021, on which they announced a new song would be released on 28 May 2021. The new song will be a dance cover of "Behind Blue Eyes" by classic rock legend The Who, and like "White Lies", the cover will also feature a guest appearance from VIZE. The band also announced a remix version of "White Lies" with German DJ NOØN, which was released on 2 April 2021. Another remix version of the song with German DJ duo HBz was released on 7 May 2021.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 14 May 2021 the band have postponed the European leg of their "Beyond the World Tour" until Spring 2022. This is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, global lockdowns and restrictions.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Instead of the planned date of 28 May 2021, "Behind Blue Eyes" was released on 27 May 2021 to coincide with the band's live performance of the song on ProSieben's Germany's Next Topmodel on the same day.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 7 June 2021 the band started a social media contest called the Behind Blue Eyes Cover Challenge, where, like with "White Lies", they asked fans to create their own cover of "Behind Blue Eyes" on video and to submit it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #BBE_challenge. The winning covers would then be used by the band in a fan video version of the song.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 9 August 2021 Bill Kaulitz has revealed on a post on his official Instagram account that a new single will be released on 27 August 2021.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: A new single called "Sorry Not Sorry" was released by German rapper Badchieff on 27 August 2021 with Tokio Hotel making a guest appearance.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 27 August 2021 the band appeared on Spielesause 2021 (the German livestreaming event of Gamescom), where they performed "White Lies", "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Sorry Not Sorry" with Badchieff.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 4 October 2021 the band announced a new single called "Here Comes the Night" via Instagram. This was released on 22 October 2021 along with an official lyric video on YouTube, which features Bill Kaulitz singing the song with lyrics popping up on the screen.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 22 October 2021 the band performed in the restaurant China Club Berlin to promote the release of "Here Comes the Night", which was played after "White Lies" and "Behind Blue Eyes". A video of this was uploaded to the band's official YouTube channel on 28 October 2021.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 18 December 2021 the band announced a new single called "Bad Love" via Instagram. It was originally to be released on 21 January 2022; however the band posted a message on 18 January 2022 via their Discord server announcing their record label Sony Music Germany decided to postpone the release due to Bill and Tom Kaulitz being unable to travel to Germany in time for the promotion of the single. This was eventually released on 4 February 2022 along with its accompanying music video.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 6 March 2022 the band postponed their Beyond the World Tour until Spring 2023 in the wake of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A message written on their official Instagram page reads: "Dear Aliens, we are currently discussing on a daily basis what is appropriate to share and how to carry on with our music. It just doesn't feel right to do business as usual and we won't. At the same time music has always been a place of love, hope and unity and we're trying to find ways to keep sharing this with you. We're sure everybody understands that we can't pursue our upcoming tour as planned but we can announce today that we have successfully moved a majority of the shows to new dates in 2023. More to follow. All tickets remain valid. Sending love to each and everyone of you. George, Gustav, Tom and Bill."


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 16 March 2022 the band announced a new single called "HIM", which was released on 8 April 2022 along with its official music video.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 28 April 2022 the band uploaded a "spoiler alert" snippet on their official TikTok account showing the vocals for their new single "When We Were Younger", which was released on 27 May 2022. An official snippet of the song was also posted on their official Discord server, and its official lyric video was uploaded onto their official YouTube account.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: The band recorded a new single with German indie rock band Kraftklub called "Fahr mit mir (4x4)". This was released on 8 July 2022.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: On 24 August 2022 the band uploaded a snippet of their new single "Happy People", featuring a guest appearance from Icelandic musician Daði Freyr, to their official YouTube channel. This was released on 21 October 2022.


title: Tokio Hotel

text: Since the release of the single "Durch den Monsun" in 2005, Tokio Hotel have gone on to win 110 awards in various categories and countries.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: The Spectacular Now is a 2013 American coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by James Ponsoldt, from a screenplay written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Tim Tharp. It stars Miles Teller (in his first film lead role) and Shailene Woodley as two high-schoolers Sutter and Aimee, whose unexpected encounter leads to a romance blossoming between the two. Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bob Odenkirk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Kyle Chandler are featured in supporting roles.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: "The Spectacular Now" premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 2, 2013 where the film garnered critical acclaim, and grossed over $6 million worldwide. It received two nominations at the 29th Independent Spirit Awards; Best Female Lead (for Woodley), and Best Screenplay.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Sutter Keely (Teller) is a charming and popular 18-year-old who has spent his senior year of high school partying and drinking alcohol. When his girlfriend Cassidy Roy (Larson) breaks up with him, Sutter goes home and writes a college application supplement, in which he says that his biggest hardship in life has been getting dumped by her. He goes out and gets blackout drunk after sneaking into a bar.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: The next morning, Sutter is woken up on a front lawn by Aimee Finecky (Woodley), a girl in his year whose name he does not know. Aimee is in the middle of her mother's paper route, and Sutter joins her to track down his car. The next day, he asks her to tutor him in geometry. He learns that she is smart, funny and into sci-fi and comics. Sutter goes home and deletes the supplement he wrote about his life's biggest hardship. He takes Aimee to a party the next day, and they go for a walk and drink. Aimee confesses she has never been drunk before, never had a boyfriend and does not think she can go to college because she has to take care of her mother. Sutter tells her she is not responsible for her mother before complimenting and kissing her.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: The next morning, Sutter wakes up hungover and realizes that he asked Aimee to prom at the party. He avoids Aimee during school and goes to Cassidy's house that night. They get drunk in her room and reminisce, but Cassidy tells him they have no future together and asks him to leave. After Aimee's friend warns Sutter not to hurt Aimee, Sutter takes Aimee to dinner at his sister Holly's house, where Aimee talks frankly about the death of her father from an opiate overdose and her dreams of a perfect marriage. Sutter and Aimee's relationship grows more serious and they eventually have sex. Afterward, Sutter confesses that his mother Sara (Leigh) kicked his father Tommy (Chandler) out when he was a child and has forbidden Sutter from seeing him, and the pair makes a pact to stand up to their mothers.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: On prom night, Sutter gifts Aimee a flask so they can drink together. After the dance, Aimee tells him that she is going to college in Philadelphia near her sister, who can help her find an apartment and a job. She asks Sutter to come with her and go to junior college, and he hesitantly agrees. Sutter gets his father's phone number from Holly and arranges to meet up to attend a baseball game, bringing Aimee with him. Tommy answers the door, under the influence, and admits he forgot about their plans and instead takes them to a local bar. Midway through the night, Tommy picks up a woman, asks Sutter to pick up the tab and to meet him back at his motel. But when he fails to arrive, they find him immediately back at the bar drinking with his friends. Sutter and Aimee leave, heartbroken.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Aimee attempts to comfort Sutter and says she loves him, but Sutter, angry and drunk, snaps at her. After almost causing an accident, he tells her he is bad for her and forces her out of the car. Aimee, crying and not paying attention to the road, is clipped by a passing car. Aimee's arm is broken but she forgives Sutter for the incident. After the graduation ceremony, Sutter refuses to drink with Aimee and talks to Cassidy, who tells Sutter that she is moving to California with her boyfriend. Later, Sutter's boss tells him he can only afford to keep one employee and would like to keep Sutter, who is good with customers, but only if he no longer keeps working drunk. Unable to guarantee his sobriety, Sutter quits.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Sutter drives past Aimee, who is waiting for him by the bus to Philadelphia, leaving her heartbroken. He gets drunk at a bar, drives home and totals his mailbox. After an argument with Sara, Sutter reassesses his life and completes the personal statement for his college application, despite having missed the submission deadline. He confesses that his biggest hardship is himself and his insistence to only live in the moment. He drives to Philadelphia and finds Aimee as she is leaving class. They make eye contact, and Aimee smiles ambivalently before the scene cuts.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: The rights to the novel were first acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures in 2009. Marc Webb, who had already directed Neustadter and Weber's script for "500 Days of Summer", was set to direct the film. According to Ponsoldt, Webb left the film to work on "The Amazing Spider-Man", and Searchlight lost the rights after that.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Principal photography commenced in Athens, Georgia, in July 2012 and wrapped a month later. While the novel is set in Oklahoma, director James Ponsoldt preferred to shoot in his hometown; he explained:


title: The Spectacular Now

text: The script didn't identify where it was set – the setting just wasn't a big city. It felt vaguely suburban – or kind of like a college town. It seemed to me that the script had a sense of place in the way that "Breaking Away" did. Athens was such an obvious candidate as a setting to shoot the film in – and it was really the only place I wanted to make the film. Filming in Athens was incredibly meaningful to me. We shot in the streets and houses of my childhood!


title: The Spectacular Now

text: "The Spectacular Now" opened in limited release in North America on August 2, 2013, in four theaters and grossed $197,415 with an average of $49,354 per theater and ranking #30 at the box office. The film's wide release was in 770 theaters and it ended up earning $6.9 million domestically and an additional $63,980 elsewhere for a total of $6.9 million, against its $2.5 million budget.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: "The Spectacular Now" was warmly received at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 7.78/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Spectacular Now" is an adroit, sensitive film that avoids typical coming-of-age story trappings." On Metacritic the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Roger Ebert, in one of the last reviews of his life, awarded the film a full four stars, stating in his review:


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Here is a lovely film about two high school seniors who look, speak and feel like real 18-year-old middle-American human beings. Do you have any idea how rare that is? They aren't crippled by irony. They aren't speeded up into cartoons. Their sex lives aren't insulted by scenes that treat them cheaply [...] What an affecting film this is. It respects its characters and doesn't use them for its own shabby purposes. How deeply we care about them. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are so "there". Being young is a solemn business when you really care about someone. Teller has a touch of John Cusack in his "Say Anything" period. Woodley is beautiful in a real person sort of way, studying him with concern, and then that warm smile. We have gone through senior year with these two. We have known them. We have been them.


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" also gave the film four stars out of four, describing it as "the best American movie of the year so far". He summarized his review by adding: ""The Spectacular Now" will bring you back to that time in your life when you were trying to soak in every moment, because everyone told you there's nothing better than your last year in high school." In "The Hollywood Reporter", critic Todd McCarthy called the film "a sincere, refreshingly unaffected look at teenagers and their attitudes about the future... Ordinary in some ways and extraordinary in others, "The Spectacular Now" benefits from an exceptional feel for its main characters on the parts of the director and lead actors."


title: The Spectacular Now

text: Dana Stevens of "Slate" also praised both the leads, commenting that "Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley have such a disarmingly direct and spontaneous connection as actors that Sutter and Aimee almost immediately come to seem like a couple you've known (or been part of) at some point in your life... "The Spectacular Now" captures the beauty and scariness and lacerating intensity of first love". "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman described it as "one of the rare truly soulful and authentic teen movies." He compared it favorably to "Say Anything..." and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", saying "like them, it's a movie about the experience of being caught on the cusp and truly not knowing which way you'll land."


title: The Spectacular Now

text: In "Variety", critic Rob Nelson wrote: "The scars and blemishes on the faces of the high-school lovers in "The Spectacular Now" are beautifully emblematic of director James Ponsoldt's bid to bring the American teen movie back to some semblance of reality, a bid that pays off spectacularly indeed." "Cinema Blend" called it "the rare Sundance coming-of-age story that feels like it matters", adding: ""The Spectacular Now" is an instant MVP of the first half of the festival, with potential breakout hit written all over it... you'll be hearing a lot about this one down the road, and it's got the goods to live up to the hype." Phoebe Reilly of "Spin" called the film "the next great teen movie" and "truly remarkable". She acclaimed Teller and Woodley for their "absurdly natural performances", with Sutter "uniquely irresistible" and Aimee "a perfect repertoire of nervous giggles and awkward mannerisms."


title: The Spectacular Now

text: At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, "The Spectacular Now" received the Special Jury Award for Acting.


title: Earl

text: Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word "eorl", meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form "jarl", and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. After the Norman Conquest, it became the equivalent of the continental count (in England in the earlier period, it was more akin to a duke; in Scotland, it assimilated the concept of mormaer). Alternative names for the rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the "hakushaku" (伯爵) of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era.


title: Earl

text: In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of "earl" never developed; instead, "countess" is used.


title: Earl

text: In Anglo-Saxon Britain, the term Ealdorman was used for men who held the highest political rank below King. Over time the Danish "eorl" became substituted for Ealdorman, which evolved into the modern form of the name.


title: Earl

text: The Norman-derived equivalent "count" (from Latin ) was not introduced following the Norman conquest of England though "countess" was and is used for the female title. Geoffrey Hughes writes, "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title 'Count' was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic 'Earl' […] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt".


title: Earl

text: In the other languages of Great Britain and Ireland, the term is translated as: Welsh , Irish and Scottish Gaelic , Scots , or , Cornish .


title: Earl

text: In Anglo-Saxon England, the ealdorman was appointed by the English king to be the chief officer in a shire. He commanded the local fyrd and presided with the bishop of the shire court. As compensation, he received the third penny—one-third of the profits of royal justice and one-third of the revenues from boroughs under his jurisdiction. By the late 900s, ealdormen often controlled multiple shires at once. During Cnut's reign (1016–1035), they became known as earls (from Old English meaning "noble"). He divided the kingdom into four earldoms: Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. Earls were governors or viceroys, ruling in the king's name, keeping the peace, dispensing justice, and raising armies. Like the earlier ealdormen, they received the third penny from their jurisdictions. There were, however, limitations on their authority. They could not mint coins or hold their own courts, and in theory, they could be removed by the king. In rank, earls were below the king and above thegns, they were therefore the king's chief counselors in the Witan. Earls were an "élite within an élite", numbering at most 25 men at any one time between 1000 and 1300.


title: Earl

text: When Edward the Confessor () came to the throne, he inherited the royal estates of Harthacnut but lacked family lands of his own. As a result, the earls collectively possessed more land than the king, especially Earl Godwin of Wessex. In 1066, according to the Domesday Book, the Godwin family estates were valued at £7,000, Earl Leofric of Mercia at £2,400, and Earl Siward of Northumbria at £350. In comparison, the king's lands were valued at £5,000. This concentration of land and wealth in the hands of the earls, and one earl in particular, weakened the Crown's authority. The situation was reversed when Godwin's son Harold became king, and he was able to restore the Crown's authority.


title: Earl

text: The Norman Conquest of 1066 introduced a new Anglo-Norman aristocracy that gradually replaced the old Anglo-Saxon elite. In Normandy, the equivalent of an earl was a count. In 1066, there were three counts in the Duchy of Normandy: Richard of Évreux, Robert of Eu, and Robert of Mortain. In Normandy, counts were junior members of the Norman dynasty with responsibility for guarding border regions. Elsewhere in France, the definition and powers of counts varied widely. Some counts were nearly independent rulers who gave only nominal loyalty to the King of France.


title: Earl

text: William I () reduced the size of earldoms; those created after 1071 had responsibility for one shire. Like Norman counts, earls became military governors assigned to vulnerable border or coastal areas. To protect the Welsh Marches, the king made Roger de Montgomery the Earl of Shrewsbury and Hugh d'Avranches the Earl of Chester (see Marcher Lord). Likewise, the king's half-brother Odo of Bayeux was made Earl of Kent to guard the English Channel. After the Revolt of the Earls in 1075, only four earldoms remained, all held by Anglo-Normans: Kent, Shrewsbury, Chester, and Northumbria. This number was reduced to three after 1082 when Odo of Bayeux was arrested and deprived of Kent. At the death of William Rufus in 1100, there were five earldoms: Chester, Shrewsbury, Surrey (or Warrenne), Warwick, and Huntingdon–Northampton. In 1122, Henry I made his illegitimate son Robert the Earl of Gloucester.


title: Earl

text: After the Conquest, new earldoms tended to be named for the city and castle in which they were based. However, some titles became attached to the family name rather than location. For example, the holder of the earldom of Surrey was more commonly called "Earl Warenne". The same was true of the earldom of Buckingham, whose holder was called "Earl Gifford". These earls may have preferred to be known by family names that were older and more prestigious than their newer territorial designations.


title: Earl

text: The number of earls rose from seven in 1135 to twenty in 1141 as King Stephen () created twelve new earls to reward supporters during the Anarchy, the civil war fought with his cousin Empress Matilda for the English throne. In 1138, Stephen created eight new earldoms. Waleran de Beaumont, who was already Count of Meulan in Normandy and the twin brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, was made Earl of Worcester. Their younger brother Hugh de Beaumont was made Earl of Bedford. Gilbert de Clare was made Earl of Pembroke, and his nephew, also named Gilbert de Clare, was made Earl of Hertford. William de Aumale was made Earl of York and Robert de Ferrers was made Earl of Derby as rewards for their service during the Battle of the Standard. William d'Aubigny was made Earl of Lincoln, and William de Roumare was made Earl of Cambridge. In 1140, William de Roumare was given the earldom of Lincoln in exchange for Cambridge, and William d'Aubigny received the Earldom of Sussex (commonly known as Arundel). The same year, Geoffrey de Mandeville was made Earl of Essex, and his is the oldest surviving charter of creation. Around the same time, Hugh Bigod was made Earl of Norfolk.


title: Earl

text: In February 1141, Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln, and Empress Matilda elected "Lady of the English" in April. At this time, she created three earldoms for her own supporters. Her illegitimate brother Reginald de Dunstanville was made Earl of Cornwall. Baldwin de Redvers was made Earl of Devon, and William de Mohun, lord of Dunster, was made Earl of Somerset. Aubrey de Vere was made Earl of Oxford in 1142. Sometime around 1143, Matilda's constable Patrick of Salisbury was made Earl of Salisbury.


title: Earl

text: During the Anarchy, earls took advantage of the power vacuum to assume Crown rights. Robert of Gloucester, Patrick of Salisbury, Robert of Leicester, and Henry of Northumbria all minted their own coinage. Earls and barons had also built adulterine castles (castles built without royal permission).


title: Earl

text: It fell to Stephen's successor Henry II () to again curtail the power of earls. He confiscated or demolished illegal castles. He reduced the number of earldoms by allowing them to die with their holders and did not create new ones. During his reign, "the title became a mark of rank, rather than a substantive office: the real power lay with the king's sheriffs and justices."


title: Earl

text: The real power possessed by any individual earl in this period depended on the amount of land and wealth he possessed that could be translated into patronage and influence. The more land and resources concentrated in a region, the more influence an earl had. The most powerful were the earls of Chester, who by the middle of the 13th century were described as earls palatine. Their power derived from owning most of the land in Cheshire. As a result, the shire court and the earl's honour court were identical, and the sheriff answered to the earl. The Earl of Oxford, however, possessed less than an acre of land in Oxfordshire (most of his land was in Essex), and therefore possessed no power in the county.


title: Earl

text: An earldom along with its land was inherited generally according to primogeniture. If the only heirs were female, then the land would be partitioned equally between co-heirs with the eldest co-heir receiving the title. In 1204, Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester, died without children. His heirs were his sisters, Amice and Margaret. Amice's son, Simon de Montfort, succeeded as Earl of Leicester, and Margaret's husband, Saer de Quincy, was created the Earl of Winchester in 1207. This was the first new hereditary earldom created since the reign of Stephen.


title: Earl

text: In 1227, Henry III () granted his justiciar and chief minister, Hubert de Burgh, the earldom of Kent. The terms of inheritance, however, were unprecedented: the earldom was to pass to Hubert's son by his third wife Margaret of Scotland, thereby passing over his eldest son by his first wife. It may have been thought that Margaret's royal blood made her children more worthy of inheritance.


title: Earl

text: By the 13th century earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. The only way to become an earl was to inherit the title or to marry into one—and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him.


title: Earl

text: Earls still held influence and, as "companions of the king", generally acted in support of the king's power. They showed their own power prominently in 1327 when they deposed King Edward II. They would later do the same with other kings of whom they disapproved. In 1337 Edward III declared that he intended to create six new earldoms.


title: Earl

text: An earldom became, with a few exceptions, the default rank of the peerage to which a former prime minister was elevated. However, the last prime minister to accept an earldom was Harold Macmillan, who became Earl of Stockton in 1984.


title: Earl

text: The first Irish earldom was the Earl of Ulster, granted to the Norman knight Hugh de Lacy in 1205 by John, King of England and Lord of Ireland. Other early earldoms were Earl of Carrick (1315), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Desmond (1329) and Earl of Waterford (1446, extant).


title: Earl

text: After the Tudor reconquest of Ireland (1530s–1603), native Irish kings and clan chiefs were encouraged to submit to the English king (now also King of Ireland) and were, in return, granted noble titles in the Peerage of Ireland. Notable among those who agreed to this policy of "surrender and regrant" were Ulick na gCeann Burke, 1st Earl of Clanricarde, Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond, Donald McCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancare, Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim and Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell later rebelled against the crown and were forced to flee Ireland in 1607; their departure, along with about ninety followers, is famed in Irish history as the Flight of the Earls, seen as the ultimate demise of native Irish monarchy.


title: Earl

text: Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801, and the last Irish earldom was created in 1824. The Republic of Ireland does not recognise titles of nobility.


title: Earl

text: Notable later Irish earls include Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan; Postmaster General Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty; Prime Minister William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (later made a marquess) and the (alleged) murderer John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan.


title: Earl

text: The oldest earldoms in Scotland (with the exception of the Earldom of Dunbar and March) originated from the office of mormaer, such as the Mormaer of Fife, of Strathearn, etc.; subsequent earldoms developed by analogy. The principal distinction between earldom and mormaer is that earldoms were granted as fiefs of the King, while mormaers were virtually independent. The "earl" is thought to have been introduced by the anglophile king David I. While the power attached to the office of earl was swept away in England by the Norman Conquest, in Scotland earldoms retained substantial powers, such as regality throughout the Middle Ages.


title: Earl

text: It is important to distinguish between the land controlled directly by the earl, in a landlord-like sense, and the region over which he could exercise his office. Scottish use of Latin terms "provincia" and "comitatus" makes the difference clear. Initially these terms were synonymous, as in England, but by the 12th century they were seen as distinct concepts, with "comitatus" referring to the land under direct control of the earl, and "provincia" referring to the province; hence, the "comitatus" might now only be a small region of the "provincia". Thus, unlike England, the term "county", which ultimately evolved from the Latin "comitatus", was not historically used for Scotland's main political subdivisions.


title: Earl

text: Sheriffs were introduced at a similar time to earls, but unlike England, where sheriffs were officers who implemented the decisions of the shire court, in Scotland they were specifically charged with upholding the king's interests in the region, thus being more like a coroner. As such, a parallel system of justice arose, between that provided by magnates (represented by the earls), and that by the king (represented by sheriffs), in a similar way to England having both Courts Baron and Magistrates, respectively. Inevitably, this led to a degree of forum shopping, with the king's offering - the Sheriff - gradually winning.


title: Earl

text: As in England, as the centuries wore on, the term "earl" came to be disassociated from the office, and later kings started granting the title of "earl" without it, and gradually without even an associated "comitatus". By the 16th century there started to be earls of towns, of villages, and even of isolated houses; it had simply become a label for marking status, rather than an office of intrinsic power. In 1746, in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising, the Heritable Jurisdictions Act brought the powers of the remaining ancient earldoms under the control of the sheriffs; "earl" is now simply a noble rank.


title: Earl

text: Some of the most significant Earls (Welsh: "ieirll", singular "iarll") in Welsh history were those from the West of England. As Wales remained independent of any Norman jurisdiction, the more powerful Earls in England were encouraged to invade and establish effective "buffer states" to be run as autonomous lordships. These Marcher Lords included the earls of Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Pembroke and Shrewsbury (see also English Earls of March).


title: Earl

text: The first Earldoms created within Wales were the Lordship of Glamorgan (a comital title) and the Earldom of Pembroke.


title: Earl

text: Tir Iarll (English: "Earl's land") is an area of Glamorgan, which has traditionally had a particular resonance in Welsh culture.


title: Earl

text: A British earl is entitled to a coronet bearing eight strawberry leaves (four visible) and eight silver balls (or pearls) around the rim (five visible). The actual coronet is rarely, if ever, worn except at the coronation of a new monarch, but in heraldry an earl may bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield.


title: Earl

text: An earl has the title "Earl of [X]" when the title originates from a placename, or "Earl [X]" when the title comes from a surname. In either case, he is referred to as "Lord [X]", and his wife as "Lady [X]". A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses "Lady [X]", but her husband does not have a title (unless he has one in his own right).


title: Earl

text: The eldest son of an earl, though not himself a peer, is entitled to use a courtesy title, usually the highest of his father's lesser titles (if any). For instance, the eldest son of The Earl of Wessex is styled as James, Viscount Severn. The eldest son of the eldest son of an earl is entitled to use one of his grandfather's lesser titles, normally the second-highest of the lesser titles. Younger sons are styled "The Honourable" ["Forename"] ["Surname"], and daughters, "The Lady" ["Forename"] ["Surname"] (Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example).


title: Earl

text: There is no difference between the courtesy titles given to the children of earls and the children of countesses in their own right, provided the husband of the countess has a lower rank than she does. If her husband has a higher rank, their children will be given titles according to his rank.


title: Earl

text: In the peerage of Scotland, when there are no courtesy titles involved, the heir to an earldom, and indeed any level of peerage, is styled "Master of [X]", and successive sons as "The Honourable [Firstname Surname]".


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors. The union has approximately 1.3 million members as of 2015. Formerly known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, the IBT is a member of the Strategic Organizing Center and Canadian Labour Congress.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The American Federation of Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsters since 1887. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers' International Union (TDIU). In 1901, a group of teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, broke from the TDIU and formed the Teamsters National Union. Unlike the TDIU, which permitted large employers to be members, the new Teamsters National Union permitted only employees, teamster helpers, and owner-operators owning only a single team to join, and advocated higher wages and shorter hours more aggressively than the TDIU. Claiming more than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president, Albert Young, applied for membership in the AFL. The AFL asked the TDIU to merge with Young's union to form a new, AFL-affiliated union and the two groups did so in 1903, forming the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), and electing Cornelius Shea as the new union's first president. The election process proved tumultuous. Shea effectively controlled the convention because the Chicago locals—representing nearly half the IBT's membership—supported his candidacy "en bloc". Shea was opposed by John Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago. Sheridan and George Innes, president of the TDIU, accused Shea of embezzlement in an attempt to prevent his election. Shea won the election on August 8, 1903, by a vote of 605 to 480. The new grouping elected Edward L. Turley of Chicago as secretary-treasurer and Albert Young as general organizer.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The union, like most unions within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) at the time, had a largely decentralized structure, with a number of local unions that governed themselves autonomously and tended to look only after their own interests in the geographical jurisdiction in which they operated.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The teamsters were vitally important to the labor movement, for a strike or sympathy strike by the teamsters could paralyze the movement of goods throughout a city and bring a strike into nearly every neighborhood. It also meant that teamsters leaders were able to demand bribes in order to avoid strikes, and control of a teamsters local could bring organized crime significant revenues. During Shea's presidency, the entire teamsters union was notoriously corrupt.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Several major strikes occupied the union in its first three years. In November 1903, teamsters employed by the Chicago City Railway went out on strike. Shea attempted to stop sympathy strikes by other teamster locals, but three locals walked out and eventually disaffiliated over the sympathy-strike issue. A sympathy strike in support of 18,000 striking meat cutters in Chicago in July 1904 led to riots before the extensive use of strikebreakers led Shea to force his members back to work (leading to the collapse of the meat cutters' strike). In the midst of the strife in 1904, the teamsters convention in Cincinnati, Ohio re-elected Shea by acclamation on August 8, 1904. Under his leadership, the union had expanded to nearly 50,000 members in 821 locals in 300 cities, making the Teamsters one of the largest unions in the United States.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: In 1905 10,000 teamsters struck in support of locked-out tailors at Montgomery Ward, and eventually more than 25,000 teamsters manned the picket lines.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: But when local newspapers discovered that Shea was living in a local brothel, kept a 19-year-old waitress as a mistress, and had spent the strike hosting parties, public support for the strike collapsed and the strike ended on August 1, 1905. Despite the revelations, Shea won re-election on August 12, 1905, by a vote of 129 to 121.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Shea was re-elected again in 1905 and 1906, although significant challenges to his presidency occurred each time. Shea's first trial on charges stemming from the 1905 Montgomery Ward strike ended in a mistrial. However, during the 1906 re-election Shea had promised that he would resign the presidency once his trial had ended. But he did not, and most union members withdrew their support for him. Daniel J. Tobin of Boston was elected Shea's successor by a vote of 104 to 94 in August 1907.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Tobin was president of the Teamsters from 1907 to 1952. Although he faced opposition in his re-election races in 1908, 1909 and 1910, he never faced opposition again until his retirement in 1952.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The Teamsters began to expand dramatically and mature organizationally under Tobin. He pushed for the development of "joint councils" to which all local unions were forced to affiliate. Varying in geographical and industrial jurisdiction, the joint councils became important incubators for up-and-coming leadership and negotiating master agreements which covered all employers in a given industry. Tobin also actively discouraged strikes in order to bring discipline to the union and encourage employers to sign contracts, and founded and edited the union magazine, the "International Teamster." Under Tobin, the Teamsters also first developed the "regional conference" system (developed by Dave Beck in Seattle), which provided stability, organizing strength, and leadership to the international union.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Tobin undertook long jurisdictional battles with many unions during this period. Fierce disputes occurred between the Teamsters and the Gasoline State Operators' National Council (an AFL federal union of gas station attendants), the International Longshoremen's Association, the Retail Clerks International Union, and the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. The most significant disagreement, however, was with the United Brewery Workers over the right to represent beer wagon drivers. While the Teamsters lost this battle in 1913, when the AFL awarded jurisdiction to the Brewers, they won when the issue came before the AFL Executive Board again in 1933, when the Brewers were still recovering from their near-elimination during Prohibition. The raids and new member organizing in the 1930s led to significant membership increases. Teamster membership stood at just 82,000 in 1932. Tobin took advantage of the wave of pro-union sentiment engendered by the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act, and by 1935 union membership had increased nearly 65 percent to 135,000. By 1941, Tobin had a dues-paying membership of 530,000—making the Teamsters the fastest-growing labor union in the United States.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: One of the most significant events in union history occurred in 1934. A group of radicals in Local 574 in Minneapolis—led by Farrell Dobbs, Carl Skoglund, and the Dunne brothers (Ray, Miles and Grant), all members of the Trotskyist Communist League of America—began successfully organizing coal truck drivers in the winter of 1933. Tobin, an ardent anti-communist, opposed their efforts and refused to support their 1933 strike. Local 574 struck again in 1934, leading to several riots over a nine-day period in May. When the employers' association reneged on the agreement, Local 574 resumed the strike, although it ended again after nine days when martial law was declared by Governor Floyd B. Olson. Although Local 574 won a contract recognizing the union and which broke the back of the anti-union Citizens Alliance in Minneapolis, Tobin expelled Local 574 from the Teamsters. Member outrage was extensive, and in August 1936 he was forced to recharter the local as 544. Within a year the newly formed Local 544 had organized 250,000 truckers in the Midwest and formed the Central Conference of Teamsters.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Extensive organizing also occurred in the West. Harry Bridges, radical leader of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), was leading "the march inland"—an attempt to organize warehouse workers away from shipping ports. Alarmed by Bridges' radical politics and worried that the ILWU would encroach on Teamster jurisdictions, Dave Beck formed a large regional organization (the Western Conference of Teamsters) to engage in fierce organizing battles and membership raids against the ILWU which led to the establishment of many new locals and the organization of tens of thousands of new members.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: But corruption became even more widespread in the Teamsters during the Tobin administration. By 1941, the union was considered the most corrupt in the United States, and the most abusive towards its own members. Tobin vigorously defended the union against such accusations, but also instituted many constitutional and organizational changes and practices which made it easier for union officials to engage in criminal offenses.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: By the beginning of World War II, the Teamsters was one of the most powerful unions in the country, and Teamster leaders were influential in the corridors of power. Union membership had risen more than 390 percent between 1935 and 1941 to 530,000. In June 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed IBT President Daniel J. Tobin to be the official White House liaison to organized labor, and later that year chair of the Labor Division of the Democratic National Committee. In 1942, President Roosevelt appointed Tobin special representative to the United Kingdom and charged him with investigating the state of the labor movement there. Tobin was considered three times for Secretary of Labor, and twice refused the post—in 1943 and 1947. On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt gave his famous "Fala speech" while campaigning in the 1944 presidential election. Because of Roosevelt's strong relationship with Tobin and the union's large membership, the President delivered his speech before the Teamster convention.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Nonetheless, Teamsters members were restive. Dissident members of the union accused the leadership of suppressing democracy in the union, a charge President Tobin angrily denied. Over the next year, Tobin cracked down on dissidents and trusted several large locals led by his political opponents.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: During World War II, The Teamsters strongly endorsed the American labor movement's no-strike pledge. The Teamsters agreed to cease raiding other unions and not strike for the duration of the national emergency. President Tobin even ordered Teamsters members to cross picket lines put up by other unions. Nevertheless, the national leadership sanctioned strikes by Midwestern truckers in August 1942, Southern truckers in October 1943, and brewery workers and milk delivery drivers in January 1945. The Teamsters did not, however, participate in the great post-war wave of labor strikes. In the two years following the cessation of hostilities, the Teamsters struck only three times: 10,000 truckers in New Jersey struck for two weeks; workers at UPS struck nationwide for three weeks; and workers at Railway Express Agency struck for almost a month.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Teamsters leaders strongly opposed enactment of the Taft–Hartley Act and repeatedly called for its repeal. President Tobin, however, was one of the first labor leaders to sign the non-communist affidavit required by the law.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The great wave of organizing which the union engaged in during the Great Depression and the war significantly boosted the political power of a number of regional Teamsters leaders, and the leadership of the union engaged in a number of power struggles in the post-war period. By 1949, the union's membership had topped one million. Dave Beck (elected an international vice-president in 1940) was increasingly influential in the international union, and Tobin attempted to check his growing power but failed. In 1946, Beck successfully overcame Tobin's opposition and won approval of an amendment to the union's constitution creating the post of executive vice-president. Beck then won the 1947 election to fill the position. Beck also successfully opposed in 1947 a Tobin-backed dues increase to fund new organizing. The following year, Beck was able to demand the ouster of the editor of "International Teamster" magazine and install his own man in the job.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: In 1948, Beck allied with his long-time rival Jimmy Hoffa and effectively seized control of the union. He announced a raid on the International Association of Machinists local at Boeing. Although President Dan Tobin publicly repudiated Beck's actions, Beck had more than enough support from Hoffa and other members of the executive board to force Tobin to back down. Five months later, Beck won approval of a plan to dissolve the union's four divisions and replace them with 16 divisions organized around each of the major job categories in the union's membership. In 1951, Tom Hickey, reformist leader of the Teamsters in New York City, won election to the Teamsters executive board. Tobin needed Beck's support to prevent Hickey's election, and Beck refused to give it.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: On September 4, 1952, Tobin announced he would step down as president of the Teamsters at the end of his term. At the union's 1952 convention, Beck was elected General President and pushed through a number of changes intended to make it harder for a challenger to build the necessary majority to unseat a president or reject his policies.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Beck was elected to the Executive Council of the AFL on August 13, 1953, but his election generated a tremendous political battle between AFL President George Meany, who supported his election, and federation vice presidents who felt Beck was corrupt and should not be elected to the post. Beck was the first Teamster president to negotiate a nationwide master contract and a national grievance arbitration plan, established organizing drives in the Deep South and the East, and built the current Teamsters headquarters (the "Marble Palace") in Washington, D.C. on Louisiana Avenue NW (across a small plaza from the United States Senate). But his intervention in a construction and a milk strike (both centered on New York City), and refusal to intervene in a Northeastern trucking strike created major political problems for him. Perceiving Beck to be weak, Jimmy Hoffa began challenging Beck on various union decisions and policies in 1956 with an eye to unseating him as General President in the regularly scheduled union elections in 1957.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Infiltration by organized crime dominated the agenda of the Teamsters throughout the 1950s. The Teamsters had suffered from extensive corruption since its formation in 1903. Although the more extreme, public forms of corruption had been eliminated after General President Cornelius Shea was removed from office, the extent of corruption and control by organized crime increased during General President Tobin's time in office (1907 to 1952). In 1929, the Teamsters and unions in Chicago even approached gangster Roger Touhy and asked for his protection from Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit, which were seeking to control the area's unions. Evidence of widespread corruption within the Teamsters began emerging shortly after Tobin retired. In Kansas City, corrupt Teamsters locals spent years seeking bribes, embezzling money, and engaging in extensive extortion and labor rackets as well as beatings, vandalism and even bombings in an attempt to control the construction and trucking industries. The problem was so serious that the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on the issue.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Hoffa's attempt to challenge Beck caused a major national scandal which led to two Congressional investigations, several indictments for fraud and other crimes against Beck and Hoffa, strict new federal legislation and regulations regarding labor unions, and even helped launch the political career of Robert F. Kennedy. Believing he needed additional votes to unseat Beck, in October 1956 mobster Johnny Dio met with Hoffa in New York City and the two men conspired to create as many as 15 paper locals to boost Hoffa's delegate totals. When the paper locals applied for charters from the international union, Hoffa's political foes were outraged. A major battle broke out within the Teamsters over whether to charter the locals, and the media attention led to inquiries by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations. Beck and other Teamster leaders challenged the authority of the U.S. Senate to investigate the union, which caused the Senate to establish the Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management—a new committee with broad subpoena and investigative powers. Senator John L. McClellan, chair of the select committee, hired Robert F. Kennedy as the subcommittee's chief counsel and investigator.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The Select Committee (also known as the McClellan Committee, after its chairman), exposed widespread corruption in the Teamsters union. Dave Beck fled the country for a month to avoid its subpoenas before returning. Four of the paper locals were dissolved to avoid committee scrutiny, several Teamster staffers were charged with contempt of Congress, and union records were lost or destroyed (allegedly on purpose), and wiretaps were played in public before a national television audience in which Dio and Hoffa discussed the creation of even more paper locals. Evidence was unearthed of a mob-sponsored plot in which Oregon Teamsters unions would seize control of the state legislature, state police, and state attorney general's office through bribery, extortion and blackmail. Initially, members of the union did not believe the charges, and support for Beck was strong, but after three months of continuous allegations of wrongdoing many rank-and-file Teamsters withdrew their support and openly called for Beck to resign. Beck initially refused to address the allegations, but broke his silence and denounced the committee's inquiry on March 6. But even as the committee conducted its investigation, the Teamsters chartered even more paper locals. In mid-March 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was arrested for allegedly trying to bribe a Senate aide. Hoffa denied the charges, but the arrest triggered additional investigations and more arrests and indictments over the following weeks. A week later, Beck admitted to receiving an interest-free $300,000 loan from the Teamsters which he had never repaid, and Senate investigators claimed that loans to Beck and other union officials (and their businesses) had cost the union more than $700,000. Beck appeared before the select committee for the first time on March 25, 1957, and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 117 times. The McClellan Committee turned its focus to Hoffa and other Teamsters officials, and presented testimony and evidence alleging widespread corruption in Hoffa-controlled Teamster units.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Several historic legal developments came out of the select committee's investigation. The scandals uncovered by the McClellan committee, which affected not only the Teamsters but several other unions, led directly to the passage of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act) in 1959. The right of union officials to exercise their Fifth Amendment rights was upheld and a significant refinement of constitutional law made when the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the right of union officials to not divulge the location of union records in "Curcio v. United States", 354 U.S. 118 (1957).


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Rank-and-file anger over the McClellan Committee's revelations eventually led Beck to retire from the Teamsters and allowed Jimmy Hoffa to take over. Immediately after his testimony in late March 1957, Beck won approval from the union's executive board to establish a $1 million fund to defend himself and the union from the committee's allegations. But member outrage at the expenditure was significant, and permission to establish the fund rescinded. Member anger continued to grow throughout the spring, and Beck's majority support on the executive board vanished. Beck was called before the McClellan Committee again in early May 1957, and additional interest-free loans and other potentially illegal and unethical financial transactions exposed. Based on these revelations, Beck was indicted for tax evasion on May 2, 1957.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Beck's legal troubles led him to retire and Hoffa to win election to the union presidency. Support for Beck among the membership evaporated. Beck announced on May 25 he would not run for re-election in October. The announcement created chaos among the union leadership, and despite additional indictments Hoffa announced he would seek the presidency on July 19. Rank-and-file support for Hoffa was strong, although there were some attempts to organize an opposition candidate. Hoffa's opponents asked a federal judge to postpone the election, but the request was granted only temporarily and Hoffa was duly elected General President of the union on October 4, 1957. Beck offered to retire early to allow Hoffa to take control of the union in December. A federal district court barred Hoffa from taking power unless he was acquitted in his wiretapping trial. The ruling was upheld by a court of appeals, but the trial ended in a hung jury on December 19, 1957, and Hoffa assumed the presidency on February 1, 1958.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The worsening corruption scandal led the AFL–CIO to eject the Teamsters. AFL–CIO President George Meany, worried that corruption scandals plaguing a number of unions at the time might lead to harsh regulation of unions or even the withdrawal of federal labor law protection, began an anti-corruption drive in April 1956. New rules were enacted by the labor federation's executive council that provided for the removal of vice presidents engaged in corruption as well as the ejection of unions considered corrupt. The McClellan Committee's investigation only worsened the dispute between the AFL–CIO and the Teamsters. In January 1957, the AFL–CIO proposed a new rule which would bar officers of the federation from continuing to hold office if they exercised their Fifth Amendment rights in a corruption investigation. Beck opposed the new rule, but the Ethical Practices Committee of AFL–CIO instituted the rule on January 31, 1957. The Teamsters were given 90 days to reform, but Beck retaliated by promising more raids on AFL–CIO member unions if the union was ousted. Beck's opposition prompted a successful move by Meany to remove Beck from AFL–CIO executive council on grounds of corruption. After extensive hearings and appeals which lasted from July to September 1957, the AFL–CIO voted on September 25, 1957, to eject the Teamsters if the union did not institute reforms within 30 days. Beck refused to institute any reforms, and the election of Jimmy Hoffa (whom the AFL–CIO considered as corrupt as Beck) led the labor federation to suspend the Teamsters union on October 24, 1957. Meany offered to keep the Teamsters within the AFL–CIO if Hoffa resigned as president, but Hoffa refused and the formal expulsion occurred on December 6, 1957.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The Teamsters were not the only corrupt union in the AFL–CIO by any means. Another was the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represented stevedores in most East Coast ports. The Teamsters had long desired to bring all shipping and transportation workers into the union, so that no product could be moved anywhere in the U.S. without it being touched by Teamsters hands. As the ILA came under increasing attack for permitting corruption in its locals, President Beck sought to bring the ILA into the Teamsters. The AFL ousted the ILA in September 1953, and formed the International Brotherhood of Longshoremen-AFL (IBL-AFL) to represent longshoremen on the Great Lakes and East Coast. The Teamsters planned to raid the expelled union, and may even have hoped to seize control of the IBL-AFL. Beck undertook a campaign to bring the ILA back into the AFL in early 1955, but the election of mob associate Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio as an ILA vice president forced Beck to end the effort. But even as Beck backed away from any ILA deal, Jimmy Hoffa secretly negotiated a major package of financial and staff aid to the ILA and then went public with the deal—forcing Beck to accept it as a fait accompli or risk embarrassing Hoffa. The AFL–CIO threatened to expel the Teamsters if it aided the ILA. Beck fought Hoffa over the ILA aid package and won, withdrawing the offer to the ILA in the spring of 1956.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The ILA was not the only union the Teamsters sought to merge with. The union attempted to merge with the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers in 1955, but the effort failed. The union also sought a merger with the Brewery Workers, but the smaller union rejected the offer. When the overture failed, the Teamsters raided the Brewery Workers, leading to fierce protests by the CIO.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Raiding by the Teamsters was such a serious issue that it prompted the AFL and CIO, which had attempted to sign a no-raid agreement for years, to finally negotiate and implement such a pact in December 1953. President Beck initially refused to sign the agreement, and threatened to take the Teamsters out of the AFL if forced to adhere to it. Three months after the pact was signed, the Teamsters agreed to submit to the terms of the no-raid agreement. Shortly thereafter, the AFL adopted Article 20 of its constitution, which prevented its member unions from raiding one another. The union's affection for raiding led it to initially oppose the AFL–CIO merger in January 1955, but it quickly reversed itself.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Hoffa achieved his goal of unifying all freight drivers under a single collective bargaining agreement, the National Master Freight Agreement, in 1964. Hoffa used the grievance procedures of the agreement, which authorized selective strikes against particular employers, to police the agreement or, if Hoffa thought that it served the union's interest, to drive marginal employers out of the industry. The union won substantial gains for its members, fostering a nostalgic image of the Hoffa era as the golden age for Teamster drivers. Hoffa also succeeded where Tobin had failed, concentrating power at the international level, dominating the conferences which Beck and Dobbs had helped build.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: In addition, Hoffa was instrumental in using the assets of the Teamsters' pension plans, particularly the Central States plan, to support Mafia projects, such as the development of Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s. Pension funds were loaned to finance Las Vegas casinos such as the Stardust Resort & Casino, the Fremont Hotel & Casino, the Desert Inn, the Dunes hotel and casino (which was controlled by Hoffa's attorney, Morris Shenker), the Four Queens, the Aladdin Hotel & Casino, Circus Circus, and Caesars Palace. The pension fund also made a number of loans to associates and relatives of high-ranking Teamster officials. A close associate of Hoffa during this period was Allen Dorfman. Dorfman owned an insurance agency that provided insurance claims processing to the Teamsters' union, and which was the subject of an investigation by the McClellan Committee. Dorfman also had increasing influence over loans made by the Teamsters' pension fund, and after Hoffa went to prison in 1967, Dorfman had primary control over the fund. Dorfman was murdered in January 1983, shortly after his conviction, along with Teamsters' president Roy Lee Williams, in a bribery case.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Hoffa was, moreover, defiantly unwilling to reform the union or limit his own power in response to the attacks from Robert F. Kennedy, formerly chief counsel to the McClellan Committee, then Attorney General. Kennedy's Department of Justice tried to convict Hoffa for a variety of offenses over the 1960s, finally succeeding on a witness tampering charge in 1964, with key testimony provided by Teamsters business agent Edward Grady Partin of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After exhausting his appeals, Hoffa entered prison in 1967.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Hoffa installed Frank Fitzsimmons, an associate from his days in Local 299 in Detroit, to hold his place for him while he served time. Fitzsimmons, however, began to enjoy the exercise of power in Hoffa's absence; in addition, the organized crime figures around him found that he was more pliant than Hoffa had been. While President Nixon's pardon barred Hoffa from resuming any role in the Teamsters until 1980, Hoffa challenged the legality of that condition and planned to run again for presidency of the union, but disappeared in 1975 under mysterious circumstances. He is presumed dead, although his body has never been found.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Under General President Frank Fitzsimmons, authority within the Teamsters was decentralized back into the hands of regional, joint council, and local leaders. While this helped solidify Fitzsimmons' own political position in the union, it also made it more difficult for the union to act decisively on policy issues. Fitzsimmons also moved the union's political stands slowly to the left, supporting universal health care, an immediate end to the Vietnam War, urban renewal, and community organizing. In 1968, Fitzsimmons and United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther formed the Alliance for Labor Action, a new national trade union center which competed with the AFL–CIO. The Alliance dissolved in 1972 after Reuther's death. While the Teamsters won rich national master contracts in trucking and package delivery in the 1970s, it did little to adapt to the changes occurring in the transportation industry.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: A major jurisdictional battle with the United Farm Workers (UFW) broke out in 1970, and did not end until 1977. The Teamsters and UFW had both claimed jurisdiction over farm workers for many years, and in 1967 had signed an agreement settling their differences. But decentralization of power within the union led several Teamster leaders in California to repudiate this agreement without Fitzsimmons' permission and organize large numbers of field workers. His hand forced, Fitzsimmons ordered Teamsters contract negotiators to re-open the handful of contracts it had signed with California growers. The UFW sued, the AFL–CIO condemned the action, and many employers negotiated contracts with the Teamsters rather than with the UFW. The Teamsters subsequently signed contracts (which many denounced as sweetheart deals) with more than 375 California growers. Although an agreement giving UFW jurisdiction over field workers and the Teamsters jurisdiction over packing and warehouse workers was reached on September 27, 1973, Fitzsimmons reneged on the agreement within a month and moved ahead with forming a farm workers regional union in California. The organizing battles even became violent at times. By 1975, the UFW had won 24 elections and the Teamsters 14; UFW membership had plummeted to just 6,000 from nearly 70,000 while the Teamsters farmworker division counted 55,000 workers. The UFW signed an agreement with Fitzsimmons in March 1977 in which the UFW agreed to seek to organize only those workers covered by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, while the Teamsters retained jurisdiction over some agricultural workers, who had been covered by Teamsters Local Union contracts prior to the formation of the UFW.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: In October 1973, Fitzsimmons ended the long-running jurisdictional dispute with the United Brewery Workers, and the Brewery Workers merged with the Teamsters.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: In 1979 Congress passed legislation that deregulated the freight industry, removing the Interstate Commerce Commission's power to impose detailed regulatory tariffs on interstate carriers. The union tried to fight deregulation by attempting to bribe Senator Howard Cannon of Nevada. That attempt not only failed, but resulted in the conviction in 1982 of Roy Williams, the General President who had succeeded Fitzsimmons in 1981. Williams subsequently resigned in 1983 as a condition of remaining free on bail while his appeal proceeded.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Deregulation had catastrophic effects on the Teamsters, opening up the industry to competition from non-union companies who sought to cut costs by avoiding unionization and curbing wages. Nearly 200 unionized carriers went out of business in the first few years of deregulation, leaving thirty percent of Teamsters in the freight division unemployed. The remaining unionized carriers demanded concessions in wages, work rules, and hours.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: Williams' successor, Jackie Presser, was prepared to grant most of these concessions in the form of a special freight "relief rider" that would cut wages by up to 35 percent and establish two-tier wages. Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which had grown out of efforts to reject the 1976 freight agreement, launched a successful national campaign to defeat the relief rider, which was defeated by a vote of 94,086 to 13,082.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The pressure on the freight industry and the national freight agreement continued, however. By the end of the 1990s the National Master Freight Agreement, which had covered 500,000 drivers in the late 1970s, dropped to fewer than 200,000, with numerous local riders weakening it further in some areas.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The decline in working conditions in the freight industry, combined with long-simmering unhappiness among members employed by the United Parcel Service, led to the development of two nationwide dissident groups within the union in the 1980s: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), an assemblage of a number of local efforts, and the Professional Drivers Council, better known as PROD, which began as a public interest group affiliated with Ralph Nader that was concerned with worker safety. The two groups merged in 1979.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: TDU was able to win some local offices within the union, although the International Union often attempted to make those victories meaningless by marginalizing the officer or the union. TDU acquired greater prominence, however, with the election reforms forced on the union by the consent decree it had entered into in 1989 on the eve of trial on a suit brought by the federal government under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: The decree required the direct election of International officers by the membership, as TDU had been demanding for years leading up to the decree, to replace the indirect election by delegates at the union's convention. While the delegates at the union's 1991 convention balked at amending the Constitution, they ultimately capitulated under pressure from the government.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: That consent decree might not have been possible, however, if it had not been for the testimony of Roy Williams, who described, in an affidavit he gave the government in return for a delay of his imprisonment, his own dealings with organized crime as the Secretary-Treasurer of a local union in Kansas City and as an officer of the International Union. The decree also gave the government the power to install an Independent Review Board with the power to expel any member of the union for "conduct unbecoming to the union", which the IRB proceeded to exercise far more aggressively than the Teamsters officials who had agreed to the decree had expected.


title: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

text: While the government was pursuing a civil case against the union as an entity, it was also indicting Presser, who had succeeded Williams as General President, for embezzling from two different local unions in Cleveland prior to his election as president. Presser resigned in 1988, but died before his trial was scheduled to begin. He was succeeded by William J. McCarthy, who came from the same local that Dan Tobin had led eighty years earlier.