title: Sathyaraj

text: In addition to his managerial role, he also had a small acting part in the film. His first film as the leading hero in Tamil was "Saavi" in 1985, which was a box office success. He acted in about 75 films from 1978 to 1985, most of which featured Sathyaraj in antagonist roles.


title: Sathyaraj

text: In his early career between 1978 and 1982, the antagonistic roles he played were often henchman to the main villain M. N. Nambiar and other villains and his role would be minor, while the main lead was Sivaji Ganesan, Jaishankar, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Vijayakanth. His college friend Manivannan directed Sathyaraj for the first time in the Tamil film "January 1" in 1984, where Sathyaraj had a supporting role. Manivannan directed Sathyaraj in about 25 films from 1984 to 2013 and of them 18 had Sathyaraj as the main lead. His screen space as a villain increased after "24 Mani Neram" (1984), directed by Manivannan, in which Sathyaraj's role was on par with that of lead actor Mohan. His acting skills in the film were noticed by many and he became famous among the Tamil film audience. Sathyaraj also felt that his villainous roles in " Nooravathu Naal" and "Anbin Mugavari", both again directed by Manivannan, had better footage than that of Vijayakanth's and Mohan's. In "Needhiyin Nizhal" (1985), which featured Prabhu in the lead role, Sathyaraj had a minuscule supporting role and played second fiddle to the main villain M. N. Nambiar. Sathyaraj started receiving offers to act as the hero in Tamil films from 1985. Directors were reluctant to cast him as the protagonist as his second film as a lead actor "Iravu Pookkal" (1985) was not a success. Most of the films he was part of were of the action genre in this period.


title: Sathyaraj

text: In the 1986 film "Kadalora Kavithaigal", he played the lead romantic role and "Behindwoods" said: "Sathyaraj broke his image of an action hero and came up with a rollicking performance. He is the real star of the film." He received appreciation for playing his role in "Mr. Bharath" (1986), which revolved around the conflict between father, played by Sathyaraj and son (Rajinikanth). Sathyaraj acted as Rajinikanth's father in the film, though he was in fact 4 years younger than Rajinikanth. Manivanan, being friends with Sathyaraj, kept casting him in roles in his directorial ventures, regularly showcasing different emotions from Sathyaraj in films such as "Muthal Vasantham", "Palaivana Rojakkal" and "Vidinja Kalyanam".


title: Sathyaraj

text: After "Kadalora Kavithaigal", Sathyaraj had box office hits as the lead hero between 1986 and 1988 such as "Mandhira Punnagai", "Kadamai Kanniyam Kattupaadu", "Poovizhi Vasalile", "Makkal En Pakkam" (in which he had dual roles), "Annanagar Mudhal Theru", "En Bommukutty Ammavukku" and "Chinnappadass". Manivanan from 1987 onward started casting Sathyaraj in positive roles and their combination had box office hits like "Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi", "Jallikattu", "Ganam Courtar Avargale" and "Chinnappadas" in this period. Sathyaraj received the Best Tamil Actor award in Filmfare Awards South for his performance in "Vedham Pudhithu" (1987).


title: Sathyaraj

text: Sathyaraj had established himself as a leading actor and in "Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi", in which Prabhu and Sathyaraj were cast in the starring role, Prabhu's character played second fiddle to Sathyaraj's character. He played a bespectacled leading man in the commercially successful "Ganam Courtaar Avargaley" His 99th film was "Dravidan" and his 100th film was "Vaathiyaar Veettu Pillai" but the latter fared better at the box office.


title: Sathyaraj

text: In the 90s, he attempted more films of comedy and action genres and occasionally did romantic films. He had few unsuccessful films such as "Madurai Veeran Enga Saami", "Magudam", "Pangali" and "Kattalai" in this period as he became selective of choosing his roles as main lead hero. Many of them were commercially successful, such as "Velai Kidaichuduchu", "Nadigan", "Pudhu Manithan", "Rickshaw Mama", "Walter Vetrivel", "Airport", "Thai Maaman" "Veera Padhakkam" and "Azhagarsamy". Sathyaraj played a dual role as father and son in the box office hit "Amaithipadai", which is considered among his best performances. With regard to the film, he has stated: "I have no words for that film, as it took me to the next level as an actor". He also said that he almost did not sign up for the film as it was an antagonist character and he had moved away from antagonist roles and "gained some respectability" with films such as "Poovizhi Vaasalile", "Vedham Pudhidhu" and "Walter Vetrivel". After "Thai Maaman" became successful in 1994, the same team of Sathyaraj and director Guru Dhanapal decided to do their next venture "Maaman Magal" in 1995, which was also a moderate hit. He acted, produced and directed in his 125th film "Villadhi Villain", which had him in three distinct roles and it was a successful project.


title: Sathyaraj

text: His pairing opposite actress Khushbu and Meena became popular in this decade. The box office hits of the pair Kushboo-Sathyaraj include "Nadigan", "Bramma", "Rickshaw Mama", "Kalyana Galatta", "Suyamvaram", "Malabar Police" and "Unnai Kann Theduthey". The on-screen pair of Sathyaraj-Meena together had average grossers such as "Thai Maaman", "Maaman Magal" and "Vallal". His chemistry with actors Goundamani and Senthil has been well received and appreciated by the public and hence they have appeared in many movies together from "Vaazhkai Chakkaram" in 1990.


title: Sathyaraj

text: The year 2000 proved to be unsuccessful for Sathyaraj. 4 films between 2000 and 2001 "Veeranadai", "Puratchikkaaran", "Aandan Adimai" and the comedy film "Looty" were failures while his commercially successful films were Sundar C.'s "Unnai Kann Theduthey", P. Vasu's comedy film "Asathal" and Suraj's "Kunguma Pottu Gounder". As many new young actors such as Ajith Kumar, Vijay and Prashanth who debuted in the 1990s had established themselves successfully by 2000, and others such as R. Madhavan, Jiiva and Srikanth made their mark in the mid-2000s and also since Sathyaraj had been using wigs since 1985 in films as he had begun losing hair since then, critics felt Sathyaraj's career as solo lead actor may end by 2000.


title: Sathyaraj

text: Sathyaraj re-invented himself as a romantic hero with the 2002 film "Vivaramana Aalu", as a hero "Maaran" and with his performance in the comedy film "Aalukkoru Aasai" in 2003. Sathyaraj and director Sakthi Chidambaram's combination gave 3 consecutive films, "Ennamma Kannu", "Maha Nadigan" and "Englishkaran". His 2004 film "Sema Ragalai" opposite Devayani was a hit at box office.


title: Sathyaraj

text: Few films like "Ramachandra", "Sena", "Azhagesan" and "Gowravargal" received negative reviews in this decade. He co-starred with his son Sibiraj for the first time in "Jore" which was average. Bizhat described "It's interesting to watch the father – son combination together in "Jore". Sathyaraj then acted with his son in 3 more films "Mannin Maindhan", "Vetrivel Sakthivel" and "Kovai Brothers", in which the two were seen as brothers and these were commercially successful. In 2007, he produced a Tamil film "Lee", starring his son .


title: Sathyaraj

text: Other Films in the 2000s with Sathyaraj in the lead role that fared well at the box office were "6'2", "Vanakkam Thalaiva", "Kurukshetram", "Adavadi", "Periyar" and "Thangam". He received the Vijay Award for Best Actor for "Onbadhu Roobai Nottu" in 2007 and was also nominated for his performance in "Periyar" in the same year, in which he portrayed the life of social reformer and rationalist Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. About the role he said, "I myself being a rationalist, I found it easy to portray his character on screen. His principles and ideologies, like fighting for women's liberation and untouchability, have influenced me to a great extent".


title: Sathyaraj

text: He accepted supporting roles in Tamil films such as "Aagathan", "Guru Sishyan", "Aayiram Vilakku", "Uchithanai Muharnthaal", "Nanban", "Thalaivaa" and "Raja Rani". In "Nanban", he played a college professor and won the Best Supporting Actor awards at the Filmfare, Vijay and SIIMA ceremonies, while in "Thalaivaa", "Raja Rani", "Mirchi" and "Chennai Express" he played father characters. Sathyaraj and Manivannan worked together for the last time in "Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA", which was Manivannan's 50th and last directorial venture before his death. A sequel to "Amaidhipadai", it was also the 200th film of Sathyaraj and became a box office bomb.


title: Sathyaraj

text: He ventured into Telugu cinema after long time as a supporting actor in "Sankham" in 2009 and later did "Mirchi" in 2012, both of which were successful. He also entered Malayalam cinema with "Aagathan" in 2009. He played the role of Kattappa in "" (2015) and has reprised the role in the sequel "" (2017).


title: Sathyaraj

text: In 2015, at the age of 60, the media and public at large rechristened him as Kattappa, as he received nationwide popularity for his role in India's biggest motion picture "Baahubali: The Beginning". Since the time he made his debut as junior artiste at 24 years of age, he had been wanting to do a historical or a folklore film and it was his long cherished dream. He quoted in an interview in 2015: "I am a great fan of MGR who is popular in folklore films, like NTR in Telugu movies. My dream of doing a folklore at 24 has been realised at 60 through "Rajamouli". I played Rajinikanth's father when I was 31 and Rajini was 35, so I never cared for age..it never mattered to me."


title: Sathyaraj

text: He acted as lead role in the film "Oru Naal Iravil" (2015). A faithful remake of much acclaimed Malayalam movie, "Shutter" has been helmed by editor turned director, Antony with great integrity. Sathyaraj as the middle aged man brings so much life to his character. In 2016, he acted with his son Sibiraj in "Jackson Durai", another addition to the popular "Horror-comedy genre". Followed by the last movie series "" (2017). He played the role of DC Ratnavel "Randy", a Police officer in the film "Mersal" (2017) directed by Atlee. Sathyaraj won the Best Supporting Actor – Tamil for the movie "Kanaa" (2018). The following year, he subsequently starred in films like "Jersey", "Prati Roju Pandage" and "Thambi".


title: Sathyaraj

text: In 2021, he appears in "Tughlaq Durbar", inspired by Manivannan's political satire "Amaidhi Padai". Then Ponram's, "MGR Magan" which has Sathyaraj and Sasikumar starring. In "Theerpugal Virkapadum", he plays the role of a dad who seeks revenge for the injustice meted out to his daughter.


title: Sathyaraj

text: In 1979, Sathyaraj married Maheswari, niece of producer Madhampatti Sivakumar, and had two children, daughter Divya and son Sibiraj, also an actor. Sathyaraj is a staunch atheist.


title: Sathyaraj

text: Sathyaraj and Manivannan shared a close friendship since college and became frequent collaborators in films in Tamil cinema. "The Hindu" wrote: "His (Manivannan's) friendship with actor Sathiyaraj translated to several memorable moments on screen. Manivannan...along with Sathyaraj epitomised on screen what is colloquially known in Tamil as "nakkal" (snideness)". According to Behindwoods.com, Manivannan (as the director) and Sathyaraj had consecutive hit films together beginning from 1987 to 1994; "Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi", "Ganam Courtar Avargale", "Jallikattu", "Vaazhkai Chakkaram", "Pudhu Manithan", "Therku Theru Machan" and "Amaidhi Padai". About working with Manivannan, he has said that it "is a pleasure. There's no script, no dialogue sheet. It's all in his head. But, he extracts great performances". Sathyaraj and Manivannan also acted together in several films directed by other directors. About his personal relationship with Manivannan, Sathyaraj remarked "I still reminisce about the beautiful moments that I had with...Manivannan, a genius of a person. In fact, he is the one who taught me many things in life, and changed me, I became a good human from being just an actor. Every day, we used to have conversations over the phone on a wide range of topics. It was a 30-year relationship. No one could understand me the way he did". Manivannan died in 2013 and Sathyaraj has said that just 24 hours before his death they had discussed their next project and that he narrated him a story.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the KGB. In 1998, Litvinenko and several other Russian intelligence officers said they were ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky, a Russian businessman. After that, the Russian government began to persecute Litvinenko. He fled to the UK, where he criticised the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. In exile, Litvinenko worked with British and Spanish intelligence, sharing information about the Russian mafia in Europe and its connections with the Russian government.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko was poisoned and later hospitalized. He died on 23 November, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. Litvinenko's allegations about misdeeds of the FSB and his public deathbed accusations that Putin was behind his poisoning resulted in worldwide media coverage.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Subsequent investigations by British authorities into the circumstances of Litvinenko's death led to serious diplomatic difficulties between the British and Russian governments. In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Russia was responsible for the assassination of Litvinenko and ordered Russia to pay Litvinenko's wife €100,000 in damages plus €22,500 in costs. The ECHR found beyond reasonable doubt that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun killed Litvinenko. The Court's decision is in line with the findings of a 2016 UK inquiry. The UK concluded that the murder was "probably approved by Mr. [Nikolai] Patrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. In his books, "" and "Lubyanka Criminal Group", Litvinenko alleged that the FSB organized the bombing of apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities in 1999 to pave the way for the Second Chechen War, which brought Vladimir Putin to power. He accused Russian secret services of having arranged the Moscow theater hostage crisis, through their Chechen agent provocateur, and having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting. He also claimed that the terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri was under FSB control when he visited Russia in 1997.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Upon his arrival in London, he continued to support the Russian oligarch in exile, Boris Berezovsky, in his media campaign against the Russian government.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Just two weeks before his death, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. Earlier that day he had met two Russian ex-KGB officers, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London. Lugovoy is a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar (also reportedly poisoned in November 2006) and later the chief of security for the Russian TV channel ORT. Litvinenko had also had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly in London, with an Italian officer and "nuclear expert", Mario Scaramella, to whom he made allegations regarding Romano Prodi's connections with the KGB. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the death of Anna Politkovskaya, 48, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment in October 2006. He passed Litvinenko papers supposedly concerning her fate. On 20 November, it was reported that Scaramella had gone into hiding and feared for his life.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On the evening of 1 November, Litvinenko began vomiting and later developed bloody diarrhea. At one point, he could not walk without assistance. As the pain intensified, Litvinenko asked his wife to call an ambulance, before being hospitalized on 3 November. For several weeks, Litvinenko's condition worsened as doctors searched for the cause of the illness. Surrounded by friends, Litvinenko became physically weak, and spent periods unconscious. On his deathbed, Litvinenko stated to detectives that he believed President Putin had directly ordered his assassination. Three days before his death, photographs were taken of Litvinenko and released to the public. "I want the world to see what they did to me," he said.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 3 November 2006, Litvinenko (under the pseudonym of Edwin Carter) was admitted to Barnet Hospital in north London, where he was initially treated for gastroenteritis. As his condition worsened, he told doctors his true identity and claimed to have been poisoned, before being transferred on 17 November to University College Hospital in central London for intensive care. Subsequently, his blood and urine samples were sent to the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), where they are tested for radioactive poison using gamma spectroscopy. No discernible gamma rays were initially detected; however, a small gamma ray spike was noticed at an energy of 803 kilo-electron volts (keV), barely visible above the background. The BBC reported that by coincidence another scientist, who had worked on Britain's early atomic bomb programme decades before, happened to overhear a discussion about the small spike and recognised it as the gamma ray signal from the radioactive decay of polonium-210, which was a critical component of early nuclear bombs. On the evening of 22 November, shortly before his death, his doctors were informed the poison was likely to be polonium-210. Further tests on a larger urine sample using spectroscopy designed to detect alpha particles confirmed the result the following day.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Unlike most common radiation sources, polonium-210 emits very little gamma radiation (the low intensity gamma ray at an energy of 803 keV is the most prominent), but large amounts of alpha particles which do not penetrate even a sheet of paper or the epidermis of human skin, and is therefore relatively invisible to common radiation detectors such as Geiger counters. This explained why tests conducted by doctors and Scotland Yard at the hospital with Geiger counters were negative. Both gamma rays and alpha particles are classified as ionizing radiation which can cause radiation damage. An alpha-emitting substance can cause significant damage only if ingested or inhaled, acting on living cells like a short-range weapon. Hours before his death, Litvinenko was tested for alpha-emitters using special equipment.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Shortly after his death, the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) stated that tests had established Litvinenko had significant amounts of the radionuclide polonium-210 (Po) in his body, and that those who had contact with Litvinenko may also have been exposed to radiation. Mario Scaramella, who had eaten with Litvinenko at Itsu, reported that doctors had told him the body had five times the lethal dose of polonium-210. However, the table where he had sat with Litinenko on 1 November was later found to be free from radioactive contamination. On 30 November, it was reported that further medical tests had discovered Scaramella was not contaminated at all. British and US government officials said the use of Po as a poison had never been documented before, and it was probably the first time anyone had been tested for the presence of Po in their body.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: It was later discovered that the poison was in a teapot at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar from which Litvinenko drank some green tea on 1 November. The symptoms seen in Litvinenko appeared consistent with an administered activity of approximately 2 GBq (50 mCi) which corresponds to about 10 micrograms of Po. That is 200 times the median lethal dose of around 238 μCi or 50 nanograms in the case of ingestion. The studies of the biodistribution of Po using gamma-ray spectrometry in post-mortem samples were


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Scotland Yard initially investigated claims that Litvinenko was poisoned with thallium. It was reported that early tests appeared to confirm the presence of the poison. Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are hair loss and damage to peripheral nerves,<ref name="50/50"></ref> and a photograph of Litvinenko in hospital, released to the media on his behalf, indeed showed his hair to have fallen out. Litvinenko attributed his initial survival to his cardiovascular fitness and swift medical treatment. It was later suggested a radioactive isotope of thallium might have been used to poison Litvinenko. Amit Nathwani, one of Litvinenko's physicians, said "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning, and the chemical levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you'd see in toxicity." Litvinenko's condition deteriorated, and he was moved into intensive care on 20 November. Hours before his death, three unidentified circular-shaped objects were found in his stomach via an X-ray scan. It is thought these objects were almost certainly shadows caused by the presence of Prussian blue, the treatment he had been given for thallium poisoning.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Late on 22 November, Litvinenko's heart failed, and he died the following day; the official time of death was 9:21 pm at University College Hospital in London.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Litvinenko had ingested polonium-210, a poisonous radioactive isotope. Litvinenko's funeral took place on 7 December at the Central London mosque, after which his body was buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service Terrorism Unit has been investigating the poisoning and death. The head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, stated the police "will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr. Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met. There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV footage."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The United Kingdom Government COBRA committee met to discuss the investigation. Richard Kolko from the United States FBI stated "when requested by other nations, we provide assistance" – referring to the FBI now joining the investigation for their expertise on radioactive weapons. The Metropolitan Police announced on 6 December 2006 that it was treating Litvinenko's death as murder. Interpol has also joined the investigation, providing "speedy exchange of information" between British, Russian and German police.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: When it became clear that Litvinenko had been poisoned by a radioactive substance, a team of scientists were assembled to investigate how far the contamination had spread; traces of polonium-210 were subsequently found at more than 40 locations in and out of London. Detectives discovered three distinct polonium trails at three different dates, which according to the investigation suggests Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun made two failed attempts to administer polonium to Litvinenko before the final and successful one. The first attempt took place on 16 October 2006, when Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in London; they tried to poison him at an office of the Erinys security company in Mayfair, and later had lunch with him at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly Circus. On this occasion, Litvinenko ingested far less amount of polonium than the lethal dose and survived though feeling ill. Polonium trails left by the pair also started on 16 October; the Erinys boardroom, the Itsu restaurant, and their hotel rooms were found to be contaminated.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Apparently, Lugovoy and Kovtun did not fully realize they were handling a radioactive poison. Journalist Luke Harding described their behaviour as "idiotic, verging on suicidal"; while handling a leaky container, they stored it in their hotel rooms, used ordinary towels to clean up leaks, and eventually disposed of the poison in the bathroom sink. On 17 October, perhaps realizing they contaminated their rooms, they prematurely checked out, moved to another hotel, and left London the next day.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Another unsuccessful assassination attempt took place on 25 October, when Lugovoy flew to London again. He left radioactive traces again in his hotel prior to meeting Litvinenko at the hotel's tearoom, but did not administer the poison, perhaps due to security cameras in the room. He again disposed of the poison via his room's bathroom sink, and left London.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The third attempt to poison Litvinenko took place at around 5 pm of 1 November in the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square. The bus he travelled in to the hotel had no signs of radioactivity – but large amounts had been detected at the hotel. Polonium was subsequently found in a fourth-floor room and in a cup in the Pine Bar at the hotel. After the Millennium bar, Litvinenko stopped at the office of Boris Berezovsky. He used a fax machine, where radioactive contamination was found later. At 6 pm, Akhmed Zakayev picked Litvinenko up and brought him home to Muswell Hill. The amount of radioactivity left by Litvinenko in the car was so significant that the car was rendered unusable. Everything that he touched at home during the next three days was contaminated. His family was unable to return to the house even six months later. His wife tested positive for ingesting polonium, but did not leave a secondary trail behind her. This suggested that anyone who left a trail could not have picked up the polonium from Litvinenko (possibly, including Lugovoy and Kovtun). The patterns and levels of radioactivity the assassins left behind suggested that Litvinenko ingested polonium, whereas Lugovoy and Kovtun handled it directly. The human body dilutes polonium before excreting it in sweat, which results in a reduced radioactivity level. There were also traces of Po-210 found at the Hey Jo/Abracadabra bar, Dar Marrakesh restaurant, and Lambeth-Mercedes taxis.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Besides Litvinenko, only two people left polonium trails: Lugovoy and Kovtun, who were school friends and worked previously for Russian intelligence in the KGB and the GRU, respectively. They left more significant traces of polonium than Litvinenko, indicating that they handled the radioactive material directly, and did not ingest it.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in the Millennium hotel bar twice, on 1 November (when the poisoning took place), and earlier, on 16 October. Trails left by Lugovoy and Kovtun also started on that day. It was assumed that their first meeting with Litvinenko was either a rehearsal of the future poisoning, or an unsuccessful attempt at the poisoning.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Traces left by Lugovoy were also found in the office of Berezovsky that he visited on 31 October, a day before his second meeting with Litvinenko. Traces left by Kovtun were found in Hamburg, Germany. He left them on his way to London on 28 October. The traces were found in passenger jets BA875 and BA873 from Moscow to Heathrow on 25 and 31 October, as well as flights BA872 and BA874 from Heathrow to Moscow on 28 October and 3 November.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Andrey Lugovoy has said he flew from London to Moscow on a 3 November flight. He stated he arrived in London on 31 October to attend the football match between Arsenal and CSKA Moscow on 1 November.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: British Airways later published a list of 221 flights of the contaminated aircraft, involving around 33,000 passengers, and advised those potentially affected to contact the UK Department of Health for help. On 5 December, they issued an email to all of their customers, informing them that the aircraft had all been declared safe by the UK's Health Protection Agency and would be re-entering service.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: British authorities investigated the death and it was reported on 1 December that scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment had traced the source of the polonium to a nuclear power plant in Russia. On 3 December, reports stated that Britain had demanded the right to speak to at least five Russians implicated in Litvinenko's death, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Moscow was willing to answer "concrete questions." Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said on Tuesday 5 December that any Russian citizen who may be charged in the poisoning will be tried in Russia, not Britain. Moreover, Chaika stated that UK detectives may ask questions to Russian citizens only in the presence of Russian prosecutors.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office submitted a formal request to the Russian Government for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy to the UK to face criminal charges relating to Litvinenko's murder.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The Russian General Prosecutor's Office declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution (Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia). Russian authorities later said that Britain has not handed over any evidence against Lugovoy. Professor Daniel Tarschys, former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, commented that the Russian Constitution actually "opens the door" for the extradition, and Russia ratified three international treaties on extradition (on 10 December 1999); namely, the European Convention on Extradition and two Additional Protocols to it.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Yury Fedotov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, pointed out that when the Russian Federation ratified the European Convention on Extradition it entered a declaration concerning Article 6 in these terms: "The Russian Federation declares that in accordance with Article 61 (part 1) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a citizen of the Russian Federation may not be extradited to another state."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 7 July 2008, a British security source told the BBC's "Newsnight" programme: "We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement. There are very strong indications." The British government claimed that no intelligence or security officials were authorised to comment on the case.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: In January 2016, a UK public inquiry, headed by Sir Robert Owen, found that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were responsible for the poisoning of Litvinenko. The inquiry also found that there was a strong probability that Lugovoy and Kovtun were acting under the direction of the FSB, and that their actions were probably approved by both Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the FSB, and President Vladimir Putin.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's killing (a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia has been a party since 1998). The Court's findings were consistent with those of the UK inquiry; it ruled that it was "beyond reasonable doubt that the assassination had been carried out by" Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun; that there was "prima facie evidence of state involvement" and that there was a "strong" case that the two assassins were acting as agents of the Russian State; and that Russia had failed to investigate the murder or to identify and punish those responsible. The Court drew an adverse inference from Russia's refusal to disclose any documents from its investigation. The Court noted that the "planned and complex operation involving the procurement of a rare deadly poison, the travel arrangements for the pair, and repeated and sustained attempts to administer the poison indicated that Mr Litvinenko had been the target of the operation."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The Court ruled that Russia was to pay Litvinenko's widow, the applicant in the case, €100,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €22,500 in respect of costs and expenses. It rejected the applicant's claim for "punitive" damages in the amount of €3.5 million, in keeping with its established practice.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: In January 2007, the Polish newspaper "Dziennik" revealed that a target with a photo of Litvinenko on it was used for shooting practice by the "Vityaz Training Centre" in Balashikha in October 2002. The centre was not affiliated with the government and trained bodyguards, debt collectors and private security forces, although in November 2006 the centre was used by the Vityaz special forces ("spetsnaz") unit for a qualification examination due to their own centre being under renovation. The targets were photographed when the chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Sergei Mironov, came for a visit on 7 November 2006.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: On 2 March 2007, Paul Joyal, a former director of security for the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, who the previous weekend alleged on national television that the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko, was shot near his Maryland home. An FBI spokesman said the agency was "assisting" the police investigation into the shooting. Police would not confirm details of the shooting or of the condition of Joyal. A person familiar with the case said he was in critical condition in hospital. It was reported that while there were no indications that the shooting was linked to the Litvinenko case, it is unusual for the FBI to get involved in a local shooting incident. A person familiar with the situation said NBC had hired bodyguards for some of the journalists involved in the program.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Radiation scientist Matthew Puncher, working with colleagues, calculated the amount of polonium inside Litvinenko's body following his death. In 2015 and 2016, he made work visits in Russia. He returned from Russia "changed completely" - deeply depressed and obsessed about his error in a software program. In May 2016, he was found dead in his home with multiple extensive wounds from two kitchen knives. There was no evidence of a disturbance or a struggle. Home Office pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt could not entirely exclude that someone else had been involved but declared wounds were self-inflicted and a cause of death as haemorrhaging. Such suicides are extremely rare - one study counts 8 cases of multiple-site wounds for 513,182 suicides.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap. On 4 March 2018, he and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting him from Moscow, were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. By 15 March 2018, they were in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital. The poisoning is being investigated as an attempted murder. He holds both Russian and British citizenship. On 21 March 2018 Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said that Sergei Skripal is also a Russian citizen. On 29 March, Yulia was reported to be out of critical condition, conscious and talking. A week later, on 6 April, Skripal was said to no longer be in a critical state. He was discharged on 18 May.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who was contaminated by the agent used in the assassination attempt against Skripal, suffered under severe health and financial repercussions as a consequence. Dawn Sturgess and her partner, Charlie Rowley, were also accidentally exposed to the Novichok poison, which lead to Dawn Sturgess' death.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: A freelance killer would probably not be able to manufacture polonium from commercially available products in the amounts used for Litvinenko's poisoning, because macroscopic amounts of polonium can only be produced in state-regulated nuclear reactors, even though one might extract polonium from publicly available products, such as antistatic fans.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: As production of polonium-210 was discontinued in most countries in late 2000s, all of the world's legal polonium-210 (Po) production occurs in Russia in RBMK reactors. About 85 grams (450,000 Ci) are produced by Russia annually. More than one month earlier this or another figure was corrected to 0.8 grams per month by Ilkaev.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The production of polonium starts from bombardment of bismuth (Bi) with neutrons at the Mayak nuclear reactors in Ozersk, near the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia. The product is then transferred to the Avangard Electromechanical Plant in the closed city of Sarov. This of course does not exclude the possibility that the polonium that killed Litvinenko was imported by a licensed commercial distributor, but no one—including the Russian government—has proposed that this is likely, particularly in regard to the radiation detected on the British Airways passenger jets travelling between Moscow and London. Russian investigators have said they could not identify the source of polonium.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days and decays to the stable daughter isotope of lead, Pb. Therefore, the source is reduced to about one sixteenth of its original radioactivity about 18 months after production. By measuring the proportion of polonium and lead in a sample, one can establish the production date of polonium. The analysis of impurities in the polonium (a kind of "finger print") allows identification of the place of production. The isotope used in killing of Litvinenko has been traced by a British theoretical physics professor Norman Dombey:


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: In addition, Dombey pointed out that Avangard delivers a metallic polonium, which must have been further processed into a solution as used in the Litvinenko assassination; involvement of an FSB poison laboratory was also likely.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Philip Walker, professor of physics at the University of Surrey said: "This seems to have been a substance carefully chosen for its ability to be hard to detect in a person who has ingested it." Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB agent ever to defect to Britain, made a similar comment


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: that Litvinenko's assassination was carefully prepared and rehearsed by Russian secret services, but the poisoners were unaware that technology existed to detect traces left by polonium-210: "Did you know that polonium-210 leaves traces? I didn’t. And no one did. ...what they didn’t know was that this equipment, this technology exists in the West – they didn’t know that, and that was where they miscalculated."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Nick Priest, a nuclear scientist and expert on polonium who has worked at most of Russia's nuclear research facilities, says that although the execution of the plot was a "bout of stupidity", the choice of polonium was a "stroke of genius." He says: "the choice of poison was genius in that polonium, carried in a vial in water, can be carried in a pocket through airport screening devices without setting off any alarms", adding, "once administered, the polonium creates symptoms that don't suggest poison for days, allowing time for the perpetrator to make a getaway." Priest asserts that "whoever did it was probably not an expert in radiation protection, so they probably didn't realize how much contamination you can get just by opening the top (of the vial) and closing it again. With the right equipment, you can detect just one count per second."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Filmmaker and friend of Litvinenko Andrei Nekrasov has suggested that the poison was "sadistically designed to trigger a slow, tortuous and spectacular demise." Expert on Russia Paul Joyal suggested that "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin... If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you, in the most horrible way possible."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: The poisoning of Litvinenko immediately led to the suspicion that he was killed by Russian secret services.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Viktor Ilyukhin, a deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament's security committee for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that he "can’t exclude that possibility." He apparently referred to a recent Russian counter-terrorism law that gives the President the right to order such actions.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: An investigator of the Russian apartment bombings, Mikhail Trepashkin, wrote in a letter from prison that an FSB team had organised in 2002 to kill Litvinenko. He also reported FSB plans to kill relatives of Litvinenko in Moscow in 2002, although these have not been carried out. State Duma member Sergei Abeltsev commented on 24 November 2006: "The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am confident that this terrible death will be a serious warning to traitors of all colors, wherever they are located: In Russia, they do not pardon treachery. I would recommend citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his accomplice Litvinenko."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Shortly after the incident, Russian government dismissed allegations of FSB involvement in the assassination using the argument that Litvinenko was "not important" and "mentally unstable", implying that the government had no interest in killing such an insignificant figure. However, Eduard Limonov observed that the same argument was raised after the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, and described Litvinenko's death as "very public execution."


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: An explanation put forward by the Russian Government appeared to be that the deaths of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya were intended to embarrass President Putin. Other allegations included involvement of rogue FSB members or suggestions that Litvinenko was killed because of his research of certain Russian corporations or state officials, or as a political intrigue to undermine president Putin.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: In December 2006, Litvinenko's father Walter accused President Putin of ordering his son's murder and said he had no doubt the FSB had been involved. "The cynical murder of my son was a calculated act of intimidation," he said. In April 2018, Litvinenko senior, who had returned to Russia in 2012 after a period of exile in Italy, appeared in a 30-minute interview on RT and said his son had been murdered by Alex Goldfarb, who he said was an agent of the CIA. The elder Litvenko's later claims have been found to be false.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Extradition requests had been granted in the past (For example, in 2002 Murad Garabayev has been handed to Turkmenistan., Garabayev's extradition was later found unlawful by the Russian courts and he was awarded €20,000 in damages to be paid by the Russian government by the European Court of Human Rights.) Article 63 does not explicitly mention Russian citizens, and therefore does not apply to them, but only to foreign nationals living in Russia. Article 61 supersedes it for the people holding the Russian citizenship.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: According to the IAEA, in 1960, a person ingested 74 MBq of radium (assumed to be Ra) and this person died four years later. Harold McCluskey survived 11 years (eventually dying from cardio respiratory failure) after an intake of at least 37 MBq of Am (He was exposed in 1976). It is estimated that he suffered doses of 18 Gy to his bone mass, 520 Gy to the bone surface, 8 Gy to the liver and 1.6 Gy to the lungs; it is also claimed that a post mortem examination revealed no signs of cancer in his body. The October 1983 issue of the journal "Health Physics" was dedicated to McCluskey, and subsequent papers about him appeared in the September 1995 issue.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: Comparisons have been made to the alleged 2004 poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the alleged 2003 poisoning of Yuri Shchekochikhin and the fatal 1978 poisoning of the journalist Georgi Markov by the Bulgarian Committee for State Security. The incident with Litvinenko has also attracted comparisons to the poisoning by radioactive (unconfirmed) thallium of KGB defector Nikolay Khokhlov and journalist Shchekochikhin of "Novaya Gazeta" (the "Novaya Gazeta" interview with the former, coincidentally, prepared by Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was later found shot to death in her apartment building). Like Litvinenko, Shchekochikhin had investigated the Russian apartment bombings (he was a member of the Kovalev Commission that hired Litvinenko's friend Mikhail Trepashkin as a legal counsel).


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: KGB defector and British agent Oleg Gordievsky believes the murders of Yandarbiev, Yushenkov, Shchekochikhin, Tsepov, Politkovskaya and the incident with Litvinenko show that the FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations, which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth Department of the KGB. A comparison was also made with Roman Tsepov who was responsible for the personal security of Anatoly Sobchak and Putin, and who died in Russia in 2004 from poisoning by an unknown radioactive substance.


title: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

text: FSB special forces officers from Alpha Group and Vympel were seen to be using Litvinenko photos for target practice in shooting sessions just before his poisoning, according to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina.


title: Wag the Dog

text: Wag the Dog is a 1997 American political satire black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. The screenplay by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet was loosely adapted from Larry Beinhart's 1993 novel, "American Hero".


title: Wag the Dog

text: "Wag the Dog" was released one month before the outbreak of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the Clinton administration in August 1998, which prompted the media to draw comparisons between the film and reality. The comparison was also made in December 1998 when the administration initiated a bombing campaign of Iraq during Clinton's impeachment trial over the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. It was made again in the spring of 1999 when the administration intervened in the Kosovo War and initiated a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which coincidentally bordered Albania and contained ethnic Albanians. The film grossed $64.3 million on a $15 million budget and was well received by critics, who praised the direction, performances, themes, and humor. Hoffman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance and screenwriters David Mamet and Hilary Henkin were both nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Wag the Dog

text: The president is caught making advances on an underage girl inside the Oval Office, less than two weeks before the election. Conrad Brean, a top spin doctor, is brought in by presidential aide Winifred Ames to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a fictional war in Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead. Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footage of a fleeing orphan to arouse sympathy. The hoax is initially successful, with the president quickly gaining ground in the polls.


title: Wag the Dog

text: When the CIA learns of the plot, they send Agent Young to confront Brean about the hoax. Brean convinces Young that revealing the deception is against his and the CIA's best interests. But when the CIA — in collusion with the president's rival candidate — reports that the war has ended, the media begins to focus back on the president's sexual abuse scandal. To counter this, Motss invents a hero who was left behind enemy lines in Albania. Inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe", Brean and Motss ask the Pentagon to provide a special forces soldier with a matching name (a sergeant named "Schumann" is identified) around whom a POW narrative can be constructed. As part of the hoax, folk singer Johnny Dean records a song called "Old Shoe", which is pressed onto a 78 rpm record, prematurely aged so that listeners will think it was recorded years earlier, and sent to the Library of Congress to be "found". Soon, large numbers of old pairs of shoes began appearing on phone and power lines, and a grassroots movement takes hold.


title: Wag the Dog

text: When the team goes to retrieve Schumann, they discover he is in fact a criminally insane Army convict. On the way back, their plane crashes en route to Andrews Air Force Base. The team survives and is rescued by a farmer, an illegal alien who is given expedited citizenship for a better story. However, Schumann is killed after he attempts to rape a gas station owner's daughter. Seizing the opportunity, Motss stages an elaborate military funeral for Schumann, claiming that he died from wounds sustained during his rescue.


title: Wag the Dog

text: While watching a political talk show, Motss gets frustrated that the media are crediting the president's upsurge in the polls to the bland campaign slogan of "Don't change horses in mid-stream" rather than to Motss's hard work. Motss states that he wants credit and will reveal his involvement, despite Brean's offer of an ambassadorship and the dire warning that he is "playing with his life". After Motss refuses to change his mind, Brean reluctantly orders his security staff to kill him. A newscast reports that Motss has died of a heart attack at home, the president was successfully re-elected, and an Albanian terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for a recent bombing.


title: Wag the Dog

text: The title of the film comes from the idiomatic English-language expression "the tail wagging the dog", which is referenced at the beginning of the film by a caption that reads:


title: Wag the Dog

text: Hoffman's character, Stanley Motss, is said to have been based directly upon famed producer Robert Evans. Similarities have been noted between the character and Evans' work habits, mannerisms, quirks, clothing style, hairstyle, and large, square-framed eyeglasses; in fact, the real Evans is said to have joked, "I'm magnificent in this film." Hoffman has never discussed any inspiration Evans may have provided for the role, and claims on the commentary track for the film's DVD release that much of Motss' characterization was based on Hoffman's father, Harry Hoffman, a former prop manager for Columbia Pictures.


title: Wag the Dog

text: The award of writing credits on the film became controversial at the time, due to objections by Barry Levinson. After Levinson became attached as director, David Mamet was hired to rewrite Hilary Henkin's screenplay, which was loosely adapted from Larry Beinhart's novel "American Hero".


title: Wag the Dog

text: Given the close relationship between Levinson and Mamet, New Line Cinema asked that Mamet be given sole credit for the screenplay. However, the Writers Guild of America intervened on Henkin's behalf to ensure that Henkin received first-position shared screenplay credit, finding that—as the original screenwriter—Henkin had created the screenplay's structure as well as much of the screen story and dialogue.


title: Wag the Dog

text: Levinson thereafter threatened to (but did not) quit the Guild, claiming that Mamet had written all of the dialogue as well as creating the characters of Motss and Schumann, and had originated most of the scenes set in Hollywood and all of the scenes set in Nashville. Levinson attributed the numerous similarities between Henkin's original version and the eventual shooting script to Henkin and Mamet working from the same novel, but the WGA disagreed in its credit arbitration ruling.


title: Wag the Dog

text: The film featured many songs created for the fictitious campaign waged by the protagonists; these songs include "Good Old Shoe", "The American Dream", and "The Men of the 303". However, none of these pieces made it onto the soundtrack CD. The CD featured only the title track (by British guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler) and seven of Knopfler's instrumentals.


title: Wag the Dog

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Wag the Dog" has an approval rating of 86% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, well-acted, and uncomfortably prescient political satire from director Barry Levinson and an all-star cast." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating, the film has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Wag the Dog

text: Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars and wrote in his review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", "The movie is a satire that contains just enough realistic ballast to be teasingly plausible; like "Dr. Strangelove", it makes you laugh, and then it makes you wonder." He ranked it as his tenth favorite film of 1997.


title: Wag the Dog

text: Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" rated it at number 12 on her list of the best political movies ever made.


title: Wag the Dog

text: "Wag the Dog" was released VHS on November 3, 1998, and on DVD on November 15, 2005. It is not available on Blu-ray.


title: Wag the Dog

text: On April 27, 2017, "Deadline" reported that Barry Levinson, Robert De Niro, and Tom Fontana were developing a television series based on the film for HBO. De Niro's Tribeca Productions was to co-produce along with Levinson and Fontana's company.


title: Wag the Dog

text: The political phrase "wag the dog" is used to indicate that attention is purposely being diverted from something of greater importance to something of lesser importance. The idiom stems from the 1870s. In a local newspaper, The "Daily Republican": "Calling to mind Lord Dundreary's conundrum, the "Baltimore American" thinks that for the Cincinnati Convention to control the Democratic party would be the 'tail wagging the dog'."


title: Wag the Dog

text: The phrase, then and now, indicates a backwards situation in which a small and seemingly unimportant entity (the tail) controls a bigger, more important one (the dog). It was again used in the 1960s. The film became a "reality" the year after it was released, due to the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Days after the scandal broke, President Bill Clinton ordered missile strikes against two countries, Afghanistan and Sudan. During his impeachment proceedings, Clinton also bombed Iraq, drawing further "wag the dog" accusations and with the scandal still on the public's mind in March 1999, his administration launched a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and Southern United States.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Founded in 1862, the original Union Pacific Rail Road was part of the first transcontinental railroad project, later known as the Overland Route. Over the next century, UP absorbed the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. In 1996, the Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific Transportation Company, itself a giant system that was absorbed by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of the Union Pacific Corporation, which are both headquartered at the Union Pacific Center, in Omaha, Nebraska.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The original company, the "Union Pacific Rail Road," incorporated on July 1, 1862 under the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. President Abraham Lincoln had approved the act, which authorized railroad construction from the Missouri River to the Pacific to ensure the stability of the Union throughout the American Civil War, but construction did not complete until after that conflict's conclusion. The resulting track ran westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet in Utah the Central Pacific Railroad line, which had been constructed eastward from Sacramento, California. The combined Union Pacific–Central Pacific line became known as the First transcontinental railroad and later the Overland Route.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha. The two lines were joined at Promontory Summit, Utah, west of Ogden on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America.Subsequently, the UP purchased three Mormon-built roads: the Utah Central Railroad extending south from Ogden to Salt Lake City, the Utah Southern Railroad extending south from Salt Lake City into the Utah Valley, and the Utah Northern Railroad extending north from Ogden into Idaho.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The original UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872. As detailed by "The Sun", Union Pacific's largest construction company, Crédit Mobilier, had overcharged Union Pacific; the railroad would then pass the inflated costs on to the United States government. To convince the federal government to accept the increased costs, Crédit Mobilier had bribed multiple congressmen. Several prominent UP board members (including Durant) had been involved in the scheme. The ensuing financial crisis of 1873 led to a credit crunch, but not bankruptcy.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: As boom followed bust, the Union Pacific continued to expand. A new company, with dominant stockholder Jay Gould, purchased the old on January 24, 1880. Gould already owned the Kansas Pacific (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad), and sought to merge it with UP. Through that merger, the original "Union Pacific Rail Road" transformed into "Union Pacific Railway."


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Extending towards the Pacific Northwest, Union Pacific built or purchased local lines to reach Portland, Oregon. Towards Colorado, it built the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway: a system combining narrow-gauge trackage into the heart of the Rockies and a standard gauge line that ran south from Denver, across New Mexico, and into Texas.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The Union Pacific Railway would later declare bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893. The resulting corporate reorganization reversed Gould's name change: Union Pacific "Railway" merged into a new Union Pacific "Railroad."


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In the early 20th century, Union Pacific's focus shifted from expansion to internal improvement. Recognizing that farmers in the Central and Salinas Valleys of California grew produce far in excess of local markets, Union Pacific worked with its rival Southern Pacific to develop a spoilage-resistant rail-based transport system. These efforts came culminated in the 1906 founding of Pacific Fruit Express, soon to be the world's largest lessee of refrigerated railcars.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Meanwhile, Union Pacific worked to construct a faster, and more direct substitute for the original climb to Promontory Summit. In 1904, the Lucin cutoff opened, reducing curvature and grades. The original route would eventually be stripped of track in 1942 to provide war scrap.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: To attract customers during the Great Depression, Union Pacific's chairman W. Averell Harriman simultaneously sought to "spruce up" the quality of its rolling stock and to make its unique locations more desirable travel destinations. The first effort resulted in the purchase of the first streamlined train: the M-10000. The latter resulted in the Sun Valley ski resort in central Idaho; it opened in 1936 and finally was sold in 1964. Despite the fact that the M-10000 and its successors were among the first diesel locomotives, Union Pacific completed dieselization relatively late. In 1944, UP finally received delivery of its last steam locomotive: Union Pacific 844.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: As the 20th century waned, Union Pacific recognized—like most railroads—that remaining a regional railroad would only lead to bankruptcy. On December 31, 1925, UP and its subsidiaries operated routes and tracks; in 1980, these numbers had remained roughly constant (9,266 route-miles and 15,647 track-miles). But in 1982, UP acquired the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific railroads, and 1988, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas. By 1993, Union Pacific had doubled its system to routes.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: By then, few large (class I) railroads remained. The same year that Union Pacific merged with the Chicago and North Western (1995), Burlington Northern and ATSF announced plans to merge. The impending BNSF amalgamation would leave one mega-railroad in control of the west. In order to compete, UP quickly merged with Southern Pacific, thereby incorporating D&RGW and Cotton Belt, and forming a duopoly in the West. The merged railroad took the Union Pacific name.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The Union Pacific system includes hundreds of yards. Most are flat yards used for local switching. Other types of yards include intermodal terminals and hump yards. Most UP intermodal terminals are typically ports, but UP also has inland terminals for transfers to trucks, such as the terminal in San Antonio that opened in 2009 or the one in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, that opened in 2014.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In the late 2010s, Union Pacific began deactivating hump yards in favor of flat switching. In this, Union Pacific followed the industry-wide trend towards Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR); railway executive Hunter Harrison explained that under PSR, few yards receive enough variegated traffic to necessitate a hump. Union Pacific also closed facilities in Kansas City ("Neff yard"), Hinkle, Oregon, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 2019.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Union Pacific has owned some of the most powerful locomotives. These include members of the Challenger-type (including the 3985), and the Northern-type (including the 844), as well as the Big Boy steam locomotives (including the 4014). Union Pacific ordered the first diesel streamliner, the largest fleet of turbine-electric locomotives in the world, and still owns the largest operational diesel locomotive (the 6936).


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The yellow paint scheme was introduced in the spring of 1934. Engineers claimed the visibility of yellow would reduce grade crossing accidents. In 1941, UP introduced its yellow and gray color scheme with red highlights, which remains in use today.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The middle two-thirds of the locomotive body is painted "Armour Yellow", a color used by Armour and Company on the packaging of its meat products. A thin band of "Signal Red" divides this from the "Harbor Mist Gray" (a light gray) used for the body and roof above that point. There is also a thin band of Signal Red along the bottom of the locomotive body, but this color has gradually become yellow as new Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations for reflectorized tape came into effect in 2005; the trucks (painted Aluminum from 1955 to 1982), underframe, fuel tanks and everything else beneath that line are also Harbor Mist Gray. Lettering and numbering are in Signal Red, with black outlines. Most locomotives have white-outlined blue "wings" on the nose, on either side of the renowned shield featuring white lettering on a blue background and, below it, red and white vertical stripes. Beginning in early 2002, a number of units were repainted with a large, billowing American flag with the corporate motto "Building America" on the side, where the 'UNION PACIFIC' lettering is normally positioned.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Until 2017, UP operated some locomotives still in the paint scheme of their former railroads. In addition, some locomotives were renumbered by UP, varying in the degree of the previous railroads' logos being eradicated, but always with a yellow patch applied over the locomotive's former number and a new UP number applied on the cab. That allowed UP to number locomotives into its roster without spending the time and money necessary to perform a complete repaint. In May 2015, UP rostered 212 "patches", consisting of:


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In 2017, Union Pacific decided to repaint all locomotives which were not in the current corporate colors. , only 41 locomotives remained unpainted.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: From the second half of 2005 to the summer of 2006, UP unveiled a new set of six EMD SD70ACe locomotives in "Heritage Colors," painted in schemes reminiscent of railroads acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation since the 1980s. The engine numbers match the year that the predecessor railroad became part of the Union Pacific system. The locomotives commemorate the Missouri Pacific with UP 1982, the Western Pacific with UP 1983, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas with UP 1988, the Chicago and North Western with UP 1995, the Southern Pacific with UP 1996, and the Denver and Rio Grande Western with UP 1989.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In October 2005, UP unveiled SD70ACe 4141, commissioned in honor of George Bush. The locomotive has "George Bush 41" on the sides and its paint scheme resembles that of Air Force One. It was sent into storage in 2007, but returned in 2018 to power Bush's funeral train. It was donated to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on November 8, 2019.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: On March 31, 2010, UP dedicated a specially painted GE ES44AC locomotive commemorating the centennial of the Boy Scouts of America.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: On September 28, 2010, UP dedicated a specially painted GE ES44AC locomotive, as a tribute to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: On October 19, 2017, Union Pacific unveiled SD70AH 1943, "The Spirit of the Union Pacific", which is painted in a scheme to honor the United States armed forces.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In April 2021, Union Pacific repainted an SD70M into a commemorative paint scheme called "We Are ONE" to honor Juneteenth.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: UP also has a collection of locomotives painted for Operation Lifesaver, a rail safety organization founded in 1970.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: As of October 2013, the Union Pacific had 8,185 locomotives on its active roster. The locomotive fleet consists of 43 different models and had an average age of 17.8 years. According to Union Pacific, this is the largest fleet of diesel-electric locomotives in the US.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Union Pacific continues to use a small number of "heritage" steam locomotives and early streamlined diesel locomotives. This equipment is used on special charters (excursions).


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Union Pacific maintains an extensive fleet of low-emissions locomotives. Most are used in Los Angeles basin rail yards, to satisfy an air quality agreement with the local authorities.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: According to UP's 2007 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2007 it had more than 50,000 employees, 8,721 locomotives, and 94,284 freight cars.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In addition, it owns 6,950 different pieces of maintenance of way work equipment. At the end of 2007, the average age of UP's locomotive fleet was 14.8 years, the freight car fleet 28 years.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: UP was ranked 134th on the 2019 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue and had 41,967 employees. The president of Union Pacific since 2015 is Lance Fritz.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Union Pacific has been rated the worst company to work for in 2019 by 247wallst.com, citing CEO Lance Fritz's 12% approval rating and the 22% recommendation rating from Glassdoor.com.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: When Union Pacific bought out the Chicago & North Western in 1995, it inherited the railroad's Metra commuter rail services in the Chicago metropolitan area: the UP/North, UP/Northwest, and UP/West lines, all of which operate from the Ogilvie Transportation Center (the former North Western Station–a name still used by many Chicago residents). In order to ensure uniformity across the Chicago area commuter rail system, trains are branded as Metra services and use Metra equipment. However, Union Pacific crews continue to operate the trains under a purchase-of-service agreement.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Between 1869 and 1971, Union Pacific operated passenger service throughout its historic "Overland Route." These trains ran between Chicago and Omaha on the Chicago & Northwestern trackage starting in 1936. Disputes over trackage rights and passenger revenues with the C&NW prompted the UP to switch to the Milwaukee Road for the handling of its streamliner trains between Chicago and Omaha beginning in late 1955. The last intercity passenger train operated by UP was the westbound "City of Los Angeles", arriving at LA Union Station on May 2. Since then, Union Pacific has satisfied its common carrier requirements by hosting Amtrak trains.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Many Amtrak and commuter rail routes use Union Pacific rails. This list excludes the commuter services the company directly operates in Chicago (see above).


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: On June 28, 2004, a UP train collided with an idle BNSF train in a San Antonio suburb. In the course of the derailment, a 90-ton tank car carrying liquified chlorine was punctured. As the chlorine vaporized, a toxic "yellow cloud" formed, killing three and causing 43 hospitalizations. The costs of cleanup and property damaged during the incident exceeded $7 million.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Investigations of the Macdona incident revealed several serious safety lapses on the part of the Union Pacific and its employees, including employees not following the company's own safety rules. While the immediate cause of the derailment was the UP crew's "fatigue," chlorine tank cars had been improperly placed near the front of the train, a danger in the case of derailment.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The Macdona incident was not the first derailment in the San Antonio area. Between May and November 1994, Union Pacific trains derailed five times, killing at least 4 people. Between June 2004 and March 2005, 10 trains derailed, killing as many people.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In the aftermath of Macdona, the Federal Railroad Administration signed a compliance agreement with the railroad in which the railroad promised to rectify the "notable deficiencies" that regulators found. But the relative impunity UP seemed to exhibit regarding the derailment led to suggestions that the FRA was far "too cozy...to the railroads." In March 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry supported a plan to reroute trains around large urban population centers in Texas, including San Antonio, but such a plan was purely voluntary and had no timetable associated.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Trains have continued to derail in the area including an incident in June 2009 where tank cars containing chlorine and petroleum naptha xylene derailed, but did not spill.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The City of San Jose, California threatened Union Pacific with a lawsuit in 2019 after years of complaints about transient and graffiti blight going unaddressed. For the first time in many years, Union Pacific cleaned out along the tracks starting in November 2019. San Jose Councilman Sergio Jimenez said “The reality is that Union Pacific has not been a good neighbor,” San Jose's mayor Sam Liccardo said"At any given conference of mayors, you won’t hear anyone expressing confidence that Union Pacific will respond nimbly or collaboratively," and "But we are hopeful that the (memorandum of understanding) will turn a page on Union Pacific’s behavior in the past to enable a more collaborative relationship going forward.""The Mercury News" reports that company has been uncooperative and non responsive to working together, such as failing to come through with graffiti abatement as Union Pacific had promised the city.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In 2022, Legislators in Utah brought forth two separate bills specifically aimed at Union Pacific. The first, HB181, was raised after some municipalities encountered resistance from Union Pacific when attempting to upgrade rail crossings. In Logan, Utah, Union Pacific altered a construction agreement to require the city to pay maintenance fees in perpetuity for an upgraded crossing, a mandate which was against state code. The proposed legislation would make it easier for municipalities to get crossing improvements approved, and clarifies which party must pay associated maintenance costs. The second bill, HB405, would have required Union Pacific to replace their ageing fleet of Tier 0 switching locomotives with hydrogen or electric engines by 2028, due to Utah having very poor air quality in winter months. According to Utah Senator Schultz, Union Pacific was uncooperative on the switching locomotive bill if Utah did not drop the railroad crossings bill. Ultimately, HB181 passed, and HB405 was dropped after Union Pacific made voluntary commitments to replace several tier 0 switching locomotives with less polluting tier 2 locomotives, as well as to test some all electric ones in the Utah Roper Rail Yard.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In Eugene, Oregon, where pollution from a century-old rail yard has been seeping into groundwater, the UP and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality launched a study of ground contamination in 2008. The pollutants are mostly petroleum hydrocarbons, industrial solvents, and metals.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In 2007, Union Pacific Railroad worked with the US EPA to develop a way to reduce locomotive exhaust emissions. They discovered that adding an oxidation catalyst filtering canister to the diesel engine's exhaust manifold and using ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel would reduce particulate emissions by about half, unburned hydrocarbons by 38 percent, and carbon monoxide by 82 percent.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The company's Fuel Master program rewards locomotive engineers who save the most fuel each month. The program has saved the company millions of dollars, much of which has been returned to the engineers. In 2006, the program's founder, Wayne Kennedy, received the John H. Chafee Environmental Award, and the program was recognized by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In January 2018, a former waste water operator at Union Pacific Albina Yard in Portland, Oregon employed by the railroad's contractor Mott MacDonald negligently released thousands of gallons of oil into the environment. The operator was distracted by a cell phone and allowed the tank to overflow for over an hour. An engineering firm hired by Union Pacific estimates of it was released into nearby Willamette River, not including the spill that was captured by the containment booms. Employees of United States Environmental Protection Agency who were working at facilities nearby placed booms to contain the oil spill. Federal prosecutors have charged the operator Robert LaRue Webb II with violation of the Clean Water Act for releasing the oil into the environment. Webb plead guilty in August 2019 and was sentenced to two years probation and a $2,500 fine.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In 2016, the Union Pacific Railroad Co. was named as a defendant in a lawsuit seeking cleanup of a contaminated rail yard site that operated in Lafayette, Louisiana, from the late 1800s until the 1960s.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: In 2020, Houston residents living near a Union Pacific Railroad Company rail yard filed lawsuits against the Union Pacific. These lawsuits followed the finding by the State of Texas of a higher-than-expected incidence of certain cancers in residents living close to the yard.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: A State of Texas report released in 2021 identified an additional cancer cluster of lymphoblastic leukemia in children.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are the largest owner-partners of EMP, a domestic freight interline intermodal freight transport service that rents and moves more than 35,000 53-foot containers and chassis throughout North America. Other partners in the freight company include CN Railway, CP Railway, I&M Rail Link, Iowa Interstate Railroad, Wisconsin Central Ltd., and Kansas City Southern Railway.


title: Union Pacific Railroad

text: The Union Pacific Railroad Museum is a former Carnegie library in Council Bluffs, Iowa, that houses artifacts, photographs, and documents that trace the development of the railroad and the American West. The company pays upkeep on the privately owned building, which houses part of Union Pacific's corporate collection, one of the oldest in the United States. Holdings include weapons from the late 19th and 20th centuries, outlaw paraphernalia, a sampling of the immigrants' possessions, and a photograph collection comprising more than 500,000 images.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: The history of Oldham Athletic began with the founding of Pine Villa F.C. in 1895, a team that played in the Manchester and Lancashire leagues. When neighbours Oldham County folded in 1899, Pine Villa moved into their stadium and changed their name to Oldham Athletic. They won the Lancashire Combination title in 1906–07 and were elected into the Football League. They won promotion out of the Second Division in 1909–10 and went on to finish second in the First Division in 1914–15, before being relegated in 1923. Another relegation in 1935 left them in the Third Division North, which they won at the end of the 1952–53 campaign, only to be relegated back into the following year. Placed in the Fourth Division, they secured promotion in 1962–63, and again in 1970–71 after another relegation in 1969.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Jimmy Frizzell managed the club from 1970 to 1982 and under his leadership, Oldham won the Third Division title in 1973–74. He was succeeded by Joe Royle, who also had a 12-year spell in charge, during which time Oldham reached the League Cup final in 1990, before winning the Second Division title in 1990–91, which took them back into the top-flight for the first time in 68 years. Oldham were founder members of the Premier League in 1992, but were relegated two years later and fell to the third tier by 1997. The club ended a 21-season-long stay in the third tier – which encompassed numerous financial crises – with relegation out of League One in 2018. At the end of the 2021–22 season, relegation from League Two was confirmed and the club fell into the National League, becoming the first former Premier League team to play non-League football.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: They play home matches at Boundary Park. Known as the "Latics", Oldham traditionally play in blue shirts. The club has a rivalry known as the Roses derby with Huddersfield Town, as well as long-standing local rivalries with Bolton Wanderers, Rochdale and Stockport County.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In July 1895, licensee John Garland with his son formed a football club named Pine Villa Football Club with a group of friends inside the Featherstall & Junction Inn. The club was initially named after the Pine Mill whose shadow the club played in. The term Villa is thought to have originated due to Aston Villa's dominance at the time of formation. The club changed its appearance and name in 1899 to Oldham Athletic Football Club. The club immediately gained professional status and played in both the Lancashire Combination and Lancashire League. Unlike many clubs, Oldham Athletic gained quick success and gained acceptance into the Football League in 1907–08. After three years in the Second Division, Latics gained promotion to the First Division.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Within a couple of seasons, Oldham had announced themselves serious contenders, finishing 4th in the league in 1912–13, and reaching the F.A. Cup semi-finals the same season, losing out 1–0 versus Aston Villa. In 1914–15, Latics reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup but were knocked out once again after a 0–3 replay against Sheffield United. In the league that season they almost won it all; Latics lost the league by one point, as close as they have ever come to winning the league. Latics early success was only halted by the First World War.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Following the return of competitive football after the First World War, Oldham Athletic struggled to find their early success before they returned to the Second Division in 1923 – it would be another 68 years before they played top division football again.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Many of the players from their former squads had either retired from football or had been killed in the war. Their highest success came in the 1929–30 season as they finished in 3rd, missing out on promotion by finishing two points behind Chelsea From then on they slowly but surely fell down the league table, until a final placing of 21st at the end of the 1934–35 season saw them relegated to the Third Division North. They found life in this new division much more to their liking, coming 7th in their first season and following this with three seasons in the top five. Promotion back to the Second Division looked like it might just be a possibility, but the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 brought an end to League Football. Players' contracts were terminated, and relying largely on guest players, the club was to play in the war-time Northern League until August 1946.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Following the return of competitive football there was to be no immediate success for Oldham Athletic. They finished 19th in the first league season after the war and manager Frank Womack resigned. In spite of reaching a more respectable 6th place under his successor Billy Wooton in 1949, it wasn't until the appointment of George Hardwick as player-manager in November 1950 that the club found any real form.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Hardwick's appointment came at a cost, with a £15,000 transfer fee paid to Middlesbrough. This was a huge amount at the time, especially for a third division club, but it was to stir up the town and its fans, who now looked forward to seeing a man who had been captain of England only two years previously in charge of its club's fortunes. In Hardwick's first full season in charge they finished 4th after topping the table for a considerable time. Home gates stayed high, with an amazing 33,450 watching a 1–0 win over local rivals Stockport County in March 1952, after a January game in the snow had established a new club scoring record when Chester were beaten 11–2. Eric Gemmell scored seven of these to establish an individual club record for one game which still stands to date. The season after, Oldham Athletic proudly finished champions of the division and won promotion to the Second Division. With an ageing squad and little money to recruit, however, the season that followed was a massive disappointment. Only eight games were won, Oldham finished in last place and quickly returned to the Third Division North, where a first equally disappointing season saw them finish no higher than 10th.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Hardwick resigned in 1955 and between then and 1960, they continued to struggle, finishing below the top 20 on three occasions. With a 15th-place finish in 1958–59, Oldham became a founding member of a newly formed Fourth Division. In the following season they finished in the 23rd position – their lowest position in the entire League, and had to apply for reelection, which they passed as the League chose to drop Gateshead, who had finished above them, in favour of newcomers Peterborough United.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Ken Bates entered the picture at Oldham Athletic in the early 1960s (where he was chairman for 5 years), and along with the appointment of manager Jack Rowley, the club's fortunes turned for the better. During the 1962–63 season, Oldham Athletic again gained promotion to the Third Division as Rowley left as manager. Over the next six seasons, Oldham struggled with consistency in the league and at the manager position, with Les McDowall, Gordon Hurst and Jimmy McIlroy all spending time at the managerial position.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In the 1968–69, Jack Rowley once more returned as manager. With their inconsistency, Rowley and Bates could not save the club from a last-place finish and inevitable relegation. Midway through the 1969–70 season, Rowley and Bates both left the club as Jimmy Frizzell became the Latics manager, a position he held for the next 13 seasons.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In the 1970–71 season, Oldham saw their best result since 1962–63 as they finished in third place, earning promotion back to the Third Division. After a mid-table finish in their first season, Latics missed out on promotion, finishing in fourth place, seven points behind local rivals and league champions Bolton Wanderers. In the 1973–74 season, the Latics finished in 1st place and returned to the Second Division for the first time in 21 years. Oldham's trip back to the Second Division was far more successful than their previous visit. During Frizzell's remaining time at the club, the Latics remained in the Second Division, but with little FA Cup and Football League Cup success.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In June 1982, the club appointed Joe Royle as their manager. Royle's side finished 7th in his first season in charge, but fell to 19th in his second. In the 1986–87 season, Oldham narrowly missed promotion to the First Division finishing three points behind Portsmouth and losing in the inaugural play-offs to Leeds United, when previous seasons would have seen them automatically promoted.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Royle's Latics reached Wembley Stadium in the 1990 Football League Cup Final versus Nottingham Forest, where they lost 1–0. The next season, Oldham did not have the same cup success, but instead found success by winning the Second Division and returning to the First Division for the first time in 68 years. In their first season back in the top flight, the club finished 17th and became one of the founding members of the newly formed Premier League. After two further seasons at the top level, Oldham faced relegation yet again and during the following season, the Joe Royle era came to an end, as he left the club for Everton.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: During this era, Oldham Athletic reached the FA Cup semi-finals twice, both times losing to Manchester United after a replay. In 1994 they were less than a minute away from winning 1–0 in extra time when a Mark Hughes equaliser for Manchester United saw the game at Wembley Stadium end in a 1–1 draw, and Oldham were crushed 4–1 in the replay at Maine Road. Many fans of Oldham in the years since have described the last minute equaliser by Hughes the start of a decline from which Oldham have never recovered. Oldham failed to win any of their seven remaining league games following the semi-final and were relegated on the final day of the season after a 1–1 draw at Norwich City.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Graeme Sharp took over as Oldham's player-manager on the departure of Joe Royle in November 1994, but he was unable to mount a promotion challenge and the pressure continued to build up a year later when Oldham narrowly avoided relegation. Relegation to Division Two happened at the end of the 1996–97 season, just after Sharp had resigned to be succeeded by Neil Warnock.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: As one of the biggest clubs in Division Two for 1997–98, and being managed by Warnock who had achieved no less than five promotions with other clubs in the last 11 years, Oldham Athletic were tipped for an immediate return to Division One, but they finished a disappointing 13th in the league and Warnock resigned. Oldham would ultimately stay in the third tier for 21 years. Veteran striker Andy Ritchie took over as player-manager, but he too failed to mount a promotion challenge and was sacked in October 2001 to be succeeded by Mick Wadsworth.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In 2001, Oxford-based businessman Chris Moore purchased Oldham Athletic, vowing to take the club back to Premier League football within five years. Wadsworth quit as manager in the summer of 2002 to make way for Iain Dowie, who transformed Oldham's fortunes on the pitch as they made their first serious challenge for promotion in Division Two. Oldham finished fifth and their promotion dreams were ended in the playoffs, and their fans were furious when Moore decided to end his interest with the club, leaving behind large debts and a weak squad, and after selling the better players at a fraction of their market value at the time. For a while, it looked as though the club would go out of business, but a takeover deal was soon completed.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In 2004–05, Simon Blitz and two other partners, Simon Corney and Danny Gazal, purchased Oldham Athletic, trying to rescue the club from possible liquidation. While trying to repay debts, Oldham struggled for several seasons, barely avoiding relegation once more in 2004–05. In 2006–07, Oldham's fortune turned for the better once more as the club narrowly missed out on promotion, losing to Blackpool 5–2 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final. After two years with the club, manager John Sheridan was sacked on 15 March 2009, immediately being replaced by former manager Royle. After being offered the job on a permanent basis, Royle rejected the proposal and announced that he would be leaving the club after the final game of the season. Darlington boss Dave Penney was announced as Royle's successor on 30 April. Penney was dismissed as Oldham manager on 6 May 2010, with his assistant, Martin Gray, taking over as caretaker manager for the final game of season 2009–10. During June 2010, Paul Dickov was named as Oldham Athletic player-manager signing a one-year contract. On 3 February 2013, he left his role as manager despite having knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup the previous week.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: On 18 March 2013, the club hired Lee Johnson to become the next manager; at the time of his appointment, he was the youngest manager in the Football League at 31. The club narrowly avoided relegation for the 2012–13 season, finishing 19th and just three points above the drop zone. The club fared better in Johnson's second season, finishing mid-table at 15th.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In January 2015, it was reported that Oldham was attempting to sign Ched Evans, an accused rapist. The move faced a significant public backlash, including from politicians, while a petition against the signing gained 60,000 signatures and Verlin Rainwater Solutions withdrew club sponsorship. Oldham ultimately decided not to sign Evans due to "unbearable pressure" while condemning the "vile and abusive threats, some including death threats, which have been made to our fans, sponsors and staff".


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: In January 2018, Moroccan football agent Abdallah Lemsagam agreed a deal with the club's majority shareholder Corney, ending his 14-year association with Oldham. Gazal and Blitz had left in 2010, with Corney staying as the majority shareholder. Lemsagam owned 97% of the club, while the Supporters' Trust maintained a 3% stake. The takeover did not include Boundary Park's North Stand, which the club did not own but could use on match days. In the two years prior to the Lemsagam deal, Oldham had faced a number of winding-up orders for non-payment of its tax bills, and saw its ground raided by HMRC in November 2017.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Oldham were relegated to League Two on 5 May 2018. They had not been in the fourth tier since 1971. The club faced further HMRC winding-up petitions in late 2019 and early 2020. Former owner Blitz sought to put the club into administration on 6 March 2020 because of debts owed to his company, Brass Bank, which owned Boundary Park, but the case was adjourned to 21 April after a "significant" proportion of the debt was paid, as was Oldham's tax debt to HMRC. One-time Watford owner Laurence Bassini was reported to be interested in buying the club, but this was labelled as "false" during the 6 March hearing.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Former Australia international Harry Kewell took over as Oldham manager in August, at the start of the 2020–21 season and recorded 11 wins, six draws and 15 defeats before he was sacked by the club in March 2021. He left the club 10 points above the relegation places; some fans regarded the club's decision as premature given that Oldham had recently beaten promotion challengers Newport County, Forest Green Rovers and Salford City. Keith Curle stepped in as temporary head coach, and made the move permanent in May 2021, but his efforts to build a stronger squad were hampered by an EFL transfer embargo, COVID-19 illness, and fans protests against the club's owner.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: On 7 September, with the club in 23rd position in the fourth tier, Lemsagam insisted he did not wish to sell his stake. Curle left Oldham in November. In December 2021, three Legends were sadly banned for "promoting their dislike" of the club's owner; while the bans were overturned after a public outcry, protests continued, and Lemsagam announced he was willing to sell the club amid accusations of late payment of salaries, threats of player strikes, and concerns about administration (eventually avoided). Sheridan was re-appointed as manager in January 2022, but could not halt the slide towards the National League. With two games still to play, Oldham were relegated from the English Football League following a 2–1 home defeat by Salford City on 23 April, a match interrupted by an on-pitch protest by fans against the club's owner. The club became the first former Premier League team to drop into non-league since its creation in 1992.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Following the relegation, the club's supporters' trust started to campaign for a community takeover of the club. On 30 June 2022, after Lemsagam and the Boundary Park owner agreed to a sale, it was reported Oldham Athletic could be sold within the next month to an unnamed local business. On 28 July 2022, it was confirmed that the club had been sold to businessman Frank Rothwell, owner of Oldham-based Manchester Cabins, and that Oldham were at an advanced stage in negotiations to buy Boundary Park from former owner Simon Blitz - a deal concluded in late August 2022.


title: Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

text: Oldham started their first National League campaign with just two wins from their first eight games. Sheridan stepped down as manager on 17 September 2022 following a 3–2 defeat of Eastleigh and was replaced by David Unsworth.