title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Canadiens defeated the Jets in a four-game sweep. In Game 1, Joel Edmundson had two assists in the Canadiens' 5–3 victory. After Canadiens forward Jake Evans scored the empty-net goal against Winnipeg, Jets forward Mark Scheifele charged into the centre knocking him to the ice. Evans required a stretcher to leave the ice. Scheifele was suspended for four games following the hit. Tyler Toffoli scored the only goal of Game 2 as Carey Price shut out the Jets 1–0, making 30 saves in the process. In Game 3, Joel Armia scored twice and added an assist to Montreal's 5–1 victory, granting the Canadiens a 3–0 series lead. In Game 4, the Jets came back from a two-goal deficit in the second period, eventually forcing overtime. In the overtime period, Toffoli scored the series-winning goal at 1:39, completing the four-game sweep, and advancing Montreal to the Stanley Cup Semifinals.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first playoff series between these two teams. Vegas won their round-robin game in the previous year's Stanley Cup Qualifiers 4–3. These teams split their eight-game regular season series.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Golden Knights defeated the Avalanche in six games. In Game 1, the Golden Knights opted to start Robin Lehner in place of Marc-Andre Fleury; Lehner proceeded to allow seven goals in the game with Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog both scoring twice and Cale Makar assisting thrice in a 7–1 rout of Vegas. With Game 2 headed to overtime, Vegas forward Reilly Smith took a slashing penalty on Mikko Rantanen. On the ensuing power-play for Colorado, Rantanen scored to give the Avalanche a 3–2 victory. Jonathan Marchessault and Max Pacioretty scored 45 second apart in the third period of Game 3 taking the lead in the game and winning 3–2 for the Golden Knights. Marchessault scored a hat trick in Game 4, evening the series 2–2 with a 5–1 victory. In Game 5, the Avalanche grabbed a 2–0 lead, except the Golden Knights expunged that lead in the third period, marking their goals 3:04 apart and forcing overtime. In overtime, captain Mark Stone scored 50 seconds into the extra period, granting Vegas a 3–2 series lead with a 3–2 victory. In Game 6, Alex Pietrangelo scored a goal and two assists in a 6–3 victory, advancing Vegas to the third round for the second consecutive season.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first time since 1981 that this round was not contested as Conference Finals. Due to the league using an intra-divisional schedule during the regular season, none of the participants in the Stanley Cup Semifinals played each other during this year's regular season. The last time this occurred was in 1924 when the Stanley Cup was contested by the champions of the NHL, PCHA and WCHL.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. This was Vegas' second consecutive Semifinals/Conference Finals appearance and third within their four seasons of play. Vegas lost the previous year's Western Conference Final in five games to the Dallas Stars. Montreal made their eighth Semifinals/Conference Finals appearance since the league began using a 16-team or greater playoff format in 1980. Their most recent Semifinals/Conference Finals appearance was in the 2014 Eastern Conference Final, which they lost to the New York Rangers in six games.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Canadiens defeated the Golden Knights in six games. The Golden Knights struck first in Game 1; with the goal, Montreal trailed in a game for the first time since Game 4 of their First Round series with the Maple Leafs. Shea Theodore lead Vegas in that game scoring a goal and an assist in a 4–1 victory. In Game 2, the Canadiens scored twice in the first period and held off a third period rush by the Golden Knights to win 3–2. Back in Montreal for Game 3, Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury misplayed the puck behind his net, coughing up the puck to Josh Anderson who tied the game with 1:55 left in the game. In overtime, Jesperi Kotkaniemi threw the puck to an open Anderson and Paul Byron, the former of which scored to give Montreal a 3–2 victory. After missing Game 3, Canadiens' "interim" head coach Dominique Ducharme tested positive for COVID-19, placing him in isolation for fourteen days; he continued working with the team through phone and video calls, talking with the coaching staff and players through the remainder of the series. Robin Lehner started for Vegas in Game 4, making 27 saves in a 2–1 overtime win with Nicolas Roy scoring the game-winning goal 1:18 into the first overtime. In Game 5, Nick Suzuki provided a goal and two assists in Montreal's 4–1 victory, giving the Canadiens a chance to clinch a spot in the Finals in Game 6. Carey Price made 37 saves and Artturi Lehkonen scored the overtime series-winning goal in Game 6, sending the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1993. As the winners of the Semifinal and due to the temporary playoff restructuring, the Canadiens accepted their first Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, normally presented to the Western Conference playoff champions.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the second consecutive postseason match-up and the fourth overall playoff meeting between these two teams; with Tampa Bay winning all three previous series. Both teams were in their second consecutive Semifinals/Conference Finals appearance; Tampa Bay was in their seventh appearance while New York was in their eighth appearance in the Semifinals/Conference Finals since the league began using a 16-team or greater playoff format in 1980. Tampa Bay won the previous year's Eastern Conference Final match-up in six games. This was also the first Semifinal/Conference Final since 2014 to feature a rematch of the previous year's Semifinal/Conference Final series.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: The Lightning defeated the Islanders in seven games. In Game 1, Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves for New York, defeating Tampa Bay 2–1. The Lightning evened the series in Game 2, led by Nikita Kucherov's three assists in a 4–2 victory. Andrei Vasilevskiy was stout for the Lightning in Game 3, making 27 saves in a 2–1 victory. New York spoiled the Lightning's comeback in Game 4 with Ryan Pulock blocking a shot with 2.7 seconds left in the game to preserve a 3–2 lead, tying the series 2–2. The Lightning dominated in Game 5, scoring eight unanswered goals, granting Vasilevskiy a 21-save 8–0 shutout victory. In Game 6, which later proved to be the last game ever played at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Islanders overcame a 2–0 deficit and won in overtime thanks to Anthony Beauvillier's goal, preserving the series to a seventh game. Yanni Gourde scored the only goal of Game 7, short-handed early in the second period, whilst Vasilevskiy made 18 saves in a 1–0 shutout victory for Tampa Bay, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive season. As the winners of the Semifinal and due to the temporary playoff restructuring, the Lightning accepted the Prince of Wales Trophy normally presented to the Eastern Conference playoff champions.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams with Tampa Bay winning two of the three previous series. They last met in the 2015 Eastern Conference Second Round, which Tampa Bay won in six games. This was Tampa Bay's second consecutive Finals appearance and fourth overall. They won last year's Finals against the Dallas Stars in six games. Montreal appeared in their thirty-fifth Stanley Cup Finals. They are the most recent Canadian-based team to win the Stanley Cup, doing so in 1993 (their most recent Finals appearance) against the Los Angeles Kings, winning in five games. They were also the first Canadian team since the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 to reach the Finals. This was the first Finals since 2009 to feature two teams in the same time zone. These teams did not play each other during this year's regular season.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This is a combined table of the top five goaltenders based on goals against average and the top five goaltenders based on save percentage, with at least 420 minutes played. The table is sorted by GAA, and the criteria for inclusion are bolded.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: In Canada, for the seventh postseason under Rogers Media's current 12-year contract, coverage was broadcast by Sportsnet and CBC under the "Hockey Night in Canada" brand, and streamed on Sportsnet Now, CBCSports.ca (for games televised by CBC), or the subscription service Rogers NHL Live.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: For this season, lead play-by-play voice Jim Hughson did not call any of Sportsnet's playoff games, having opted to work only nationally televised Vancouver Canucks home games during the regular season. Consequently, Chris Cuthbert joined lead colour commentator Craig Simpson on Sportsnet's lead broadcast team, calling the Canadiens–Maple Leafs series on-site for the First Round, the Jets–Canadiens series in the Second Round, the Golden Knights–Canadiens series in the semifinals, and the entire 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. Harnarayan Singh and Louie DeBrusk served as the secondary team, doing a similar role for the Oilers–Jets series. John Bartlett and Garry Galley served as the tertiary team, calling a select number of games from the West, Central, and East Division series inside the Sportsnet studios on CBC, while those broadcast on Sportsnet were simulcasts of NBC Sports' feeds.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: This marked the final postseason under NBC Sports' 10-year contract for American television rights to the NHL. All national coverage of games were aired on either NBCSN, the NBC broadcast network, NHL Network, USA Network, or CNBC. During the First Round, excluding games exclusively broadcast on NBC, the regional rights holders of each participating U.S. team produced local telecasts of their respective games.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: After NBC's lead play-by-play voice Mike "Doc" Emrick retired at the end of the previous season, NBC split top play-by-play duties between Kenny Albert and John Forslund during the regular season. For the playoffs, Albert, Eddie Olczyk, and Brian Boucher served as the lead broadcast team while Forslund, Joe Micheletti, and Pierre McGuire served as the secondary team. Brendan Burke and A. J. Mleczko primarily served as the tertiary team. Rounding out NBC's broadcast crew were play-by-play voices Alex Faust and John Walton, and analysts Keith Jones, Dominic Moore, and Jody Shelley. Most first-round games were called remotely, with a few others called on-site. For the Second Round, all games were called on-site except the Jets–Canadiens series. All games were called on-site starting with the semifinals. Peacock, NBC's streaming service, streamed all remaining games of the Stanley Cup playoffs starting on June 14.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: As it had been done throughout the regular season due to COVID-19 protocols, the home broadcaster provided a neutral "world feed" to the other media partners for at the first two rounds: the home team's regional rightsholder during most first-round games in the U.S., NBC for the rest of the U.S. games, and Sportsnet for all games played in Canada.


title: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

text: Amazon Web Services debuted advanced shot and save analytics for the playoffs, taking data from the player and puck tracking technology that was first implemented at the start of the regular season. NBC is using a redesigned score bug to display these new statistics.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: Richard William Stephen Shaw (December 8, 1966 – June 9, 2019), better known by his stage name Bushwick Bill, was a Jamaican-American rapper. He was a member of the Texas hip hop group Geto Boys, a group he originally joined as a breakdancer in 1986 as Little Billy. He went on to become one third of one incarnation of the group, alongside Willie D and Scarface.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: Bushwick Bill was born Richard William Stephen Shaw on December 8, 1966, in Kingston, Jamaica. His father was a merchant mariner, and his mother was a maid. Shaw was born with dwarfism and as an adult was listed as tall.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: Shaw got his start in the music industry in 1986 as a member of the Geto Boys, where he performed as a dancer known as Little Billy. He later transitioned to rapping, and was featured on the Geto Boys' debut album, "Making Trouble" in 1988. The album received little attention and negative reviews, which led to Rap-A-Lot dropping all members from the group except for Bill and DJ Ready Red. Soon after, Rap-A-Lot CEO J. Prince recruited Scarface and Willie Dee, two local aspiring artists out of Texas as the second incarnation of the group. The new lineup began recording together in 1988 and their debut project as a group and second overall for the Geto Boys, "Grip It! On That Other Level" was released in 1989 to much better reception, being considered a classic album and one of the earliest entries into the Horrorcore genre. It was around this time the group's lyrical content began to generate controversy, which was multiplied in 1991 when the cover of the group's third album "We Can't Be Stopped" depicted a graphic image of Bill moments after he shot himself during an argument with his girlfriend. Nevertheless, the album went on to be their most successful to that point, being certified platinum in 1992.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: Bushwick Bill can be heard on the album "The Chronic" by Dr. Dre; he appears in the video of "Dre Day" as one of Eazy-E's fellow rappers. His 1998 album "No Surrender…No Retreat" was dedicated to his friend Gil Epstein, a Fort Bend County prosecutor who was shot dead in Houston, Texas, in 1996.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: On June 19, 1991, Shaw's girlfriend shot him in the face during an argument, losing his right eye in the process; he had been under the influence of Everclear grain alcohol and PCP. The aftermath of the incident was documented on the album cover for Geto Boys' 1991 album "We Can't Be Stopped", which shows Shaw being pushed through the hospital on a gurney by bandmates Willie D and Scarface. Shaw claimed he "died and came back to life" during the incident, and he made reference to it in his music.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: In May 2010, Shaw was arrested in Georgia for possession of marijuana and cocaine. Based on his prior arrest record, he was facing deportation.


title: Bushwick Bill

text: On May 1, 2019, Shaw revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. On June 9, 2019, reports emerged that Shaw had died, but news of his death was later refuted by his son. However, it was subsequently reported and confirmed that Shaw died later that day at a hospital in Denver, Colorado.


title: TAI Anka

text: The TAI Anka is a family of unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries primarily for the Turkish Air Force. Envisioned in the early 2000s for aerial surveillance and reconnaissance missions, Anka has evolved into a modular platform with synthetic aperture radar, precise weapons and satellite communication.


title: TAI Anka

text: The basic version, Anka-A, was classified as a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle for reconnaissance missions. Introduced in 2010, Anka granted its first contract in 2013 from Turkish Air Force. The Force requested further studies in advanced uninterrupted intelligence, reconnaissance and communication technologies. The aircraft was set to a long development phase to introduce national mission computer, national flight control system, synthetic aperture radar, indigenous engine and friend or foe identification system. Anka-B made its first flight in 2014 and completed factory tests in 2015. In 2017, Turkish Aerospace Industries introduced Anka-S and the aircraft entered service with the Turkish Air Force.


title: TAI Anka

text: Turkish Aerospace Industries offers the aircraft in two versions, Anka-B and Anka-S. Anka-I was developed specifically for Turkey's National Intelligence Organization for signal intelligence. Anka has accumulated more than 90,000 flight hours as of March 2021.


title: TAI Anka

text: The TUAV system consists of three air vehicles (A/V), a ground control station (GCS), a ground data terminal (GDT), an automatic take-off and landing system (ATOLS), a transportable image exploitation system (TIES), a remote video terminal (RVT), and various ground support equipment (GSE).


title: TAI Anka

text: The TUAV system, which is designed for night and day missions including adverse weather conditions, performs real-time image intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, moving/stationary target detection, recognition, identification, and tracking missions.


title: TAI Anka

text: While the TUAV system has an open architecture to support other payloads and missions, the air vehicle is typically configured to carry the following payloads:


title: TAI Anka

text: The platform is also equipped with a digital flight control system, electro-mechanical actuators, and flight control sensor systems such as GPS, pitot-static, air data computer, navigation sensor, transducers, temperature, pressure, displacement sensors, etc. Various tasks are distributed along flight management computers and auxiliary control boxes. Identification and communication units and interface computers are employed in order to establish real time wide band communication and provide test and diagnostics functions. An air traffic radio is also integrated in the communication system for the integration of the aircraft into the civilian airspace. All flight critical equipment are dual or triple redundant and emergency modes of operational scenarios are taken into consideration for fail safe design.


title: TAI Anka

text: All airborne and ground-based flight control software is developed by TAI while payload and other relevant hardware and software items are aimed to be developed by national sub-contractors, such as Aselsan, AYESAS, and MilSOFT.


title: TAI Anka

text: UAV operations are supported by highly sophisticated ground control system with complete redundancy, developed by a domestic defence company Savronik. Whole mission segments of the air vehicle can be managed, monitored and controlled by a GCS. A pre-programmed mission plan can be loaded before the flight begins or can be altered during the flight. All the imagery stream of the payloads can be displayed and recorded in real time and all the payloads can be controlled from the GCS. ATOLS allows the air vehicle to perform its operation without operator intervention, including the most critical phases which are landing and take-off.


title: TAI Anka

text: In TIES, valuable intelligence information can be obtained by the analysis of bulky imagery data. TIES operators can initiate intelligence missions prior to or during flight. Refined information flows to the upper command layer in order to assist the headquarters to monitor a network of TUAV systems and benefit from the gathered intelligence information. Another interface of the TUAV system is the RVT, with which other friendly units who are close to the target area can utilize the real time imagery that TUAV air vehicle broadcasts.


title: TAI Anka

text: The contract regarding the development of an indigenous Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system for the reconnaissance requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces became effective on 24 December 2004. Within the framework of the program, a total of three prototypes and ground systems will be designed, developed, manufactured, and tested by mid-2011 as part of the prototype development phase. Subsequently, in 2012, the serial production phase of Anka-A would be launched and additional 10 systems (meaning 30 air vehicles) built for the Turkish Air Force.


title: TAI Anka

text: Turkey's Directorate for Defence Industries had stressed advanced variants of the Anka with greater payload capacity, extending Block-A capabilities to the features like:


title: TAI Anka

text: According to the authority, Anka would eventually have an indigenous 155 hp turbo-prop engine developed by TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI), with cooperation of local companies in the future.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 19 July 2012, the Turkish Defense Industry Executive Committee (SSIK) announced that Turkish Aerospace Industries had commenced research and development for the design and development of a "hunter killer" High-Altitude Long-Endurance version of the Anka UAV, named the Anka +A. It was planned that Anka +A will carry Cirit missiles of Turkey's ROKETSAN. The weight of Anka +A UCAV would be more than 4 tons compared to Anka Block A's 1.5 tons. It was highly expected that the UCAV would be presented to public in the events of IDEF'13 on 7–10 May 2013.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 30 January 2015, the Anka-B completed its maiden flight successfully. Anka Block B is an improved version of the Anka Block A. The UAV carries an Aselsan synthetic aperture radar/ground moving-target indicator payload in addition to the platform's electro-optical/infrared sensor. During the maiden flight, Anka-B successfully performed "basic shakedown" and auto-landing. The Anka Block B also has a greater payload capacity than that of the Anka-A which includes SAR/ISAR/GMTI radar (in addition to the cameras of Anka A) that obtains and remits high resolution intelligence data back to base. The Anka Block B paved the way for weaponisation of the platform in the foreseeable future. Anka Block B passed 30.000 feet, 26 hours and 200 km radius during the test flights. Turkish Air Force ordered 10 Anka Block B in 2013 at a cost of $300 million.


title: TAI Anka

text: Anka-S is a serial production configuration of Anka. It is equipped with a SATCOM antenna and a national flight control computer. Like Block A and Block B, Anka-S is powered by Thielert Centurion 2.0S. On the other hand, Turkish Engine Industries (TEI) indigenously developed TEI PD170 and PD180st engines that are capable of running with diesel and JP-8 jet fuel.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 25 October 2013, Turkish Undersecretariat for Defence Industry (SSM) ordered 10 Anka-S UAVs and 12 ground control stations for $290 million ($220.6 million + TRY 137 million). The UAVs would be delivered in three batches (2+4+4).


title: TAI Anka

text: In 2016, media reported that the TAI was manufacturing 4 Anka-S UAVs for the armed forces. The first two of these aircraft were to be equipped with StarFIRE 380-HDL FLIR payload. However, these would be replaced with Aselsan CATS later on.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 17 August 2018, Directorate for Defence Industries announced that the Anka-S completed its first live fire tests. The platform was tested with MAM-L ammunition developed by the Roketsan. In September, Ismail Demir, director of the Turkey's defence industry authority, shared a picture of the first Anka-S equipped with Aselsan CATS optical system. TAI delivered 2 more Anka-S to Turkish Air Force in September 2018, increasing the Anka-S inventory of Turkish Air Force to 8 aircraft. TAI is planning to deliver a total of 10 Anka-S to Turkish Air Force before 2019.


title: TAI Anka

text: In August 2018, the Anka-S carried out Turkey's first "satellite-controlled airstrike" according to the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries. In December, Anka completed its first flight with an engine manufactured domestically. In 2019, Anka broke its endurance records, flying longer than 24 hours.


title: TAI Anka

text: Although Anka have an operational range of about 100 miles, satellite-enabled Anka-S is capable of flying beyond "line of sight".


title: TAI Anka

text: Anka-I is an electronic warfare and intelligence UAV developed for the National Intelligence Organization. The aircraft is equipped with electronic warfare and intelligence systems (ELINT and COMINT).


title: TAI Anka

text: Turkiye's Vice President Fuat Oktay declared that a new jet engine version of the UCAV, dubbed Anka-3, was in development and would be out in 2023.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 5 February 2016 Anka drones performed its first mission flight in Turkey's eastern province of Elazığ performing a four-hour exploration and observation flight.


title: TAI Anka

text: In 2018, during the course of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch, the UAV for the first time used the Smart Micro Munition, MAM-L.


title: TAI Anka

text: During the course of the Turkish involvement on the Syrian Civil war Syrian Air defenses shot down an Anka-S near Dadikah, southeastern countryside of Idlib on 25 February 2020.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 27 February 2020 following the Turkish losses inflicted by Russian-backed Syrian government in northwestern Syria, Turkey launched Operation Spring Shield, with multiple Anka-S and Bayraktar TB2 drones deployed and extensively. The deployment was assessed by experts to be a tactical game-changer.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 1 March 2020, an Anka-S was shot down while operating in the Syrian province of Idlib by an air defence system, near the town of Saraqib.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 19 April 2020, amid the Second Libyan Civil War a combat drone was shot down in Alwhaska, near Misrata, GNA sources claimed the downed drone was a LNA Wing Loong II in turn LNA claimed they shot down a TAI Anka combat drone, however a UN Security Council report asserted the downed drone was a TAI Anka drone operated by GNA.


title: TAI Anka

text: On 23 May 2020, a second Anka drone backing the GNA forces is reported lost in Tarhouna, shot down by LNA air defenses.


title: TAI Anka

text: In October 2022, it was revealed that Turkey was using Anka for dropping Sonobuoy in the sea, in order to locate Greek submarines.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: The Syrian Interim Government (SIG) is an alternative government in Syria, formed by the umbrella opposition group, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. The interim government indirectly controls some areas of the country and claims to be the sole legitimate government on behalf of the Syrian opposition in defiance of the Council of Ministers of the Syrian Arab Republic. The interim government's headquarters in Syria are located in the city of Azaz in Aleppo Governorate.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: At a conference held in Istanbul on 19 March 2013, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) elected Ghassan Hitto as prime minister of a Syrian interim government. Hitto announced that a technical government would be formed led by 10 to 12 ministers, with the minister of defence to be chosen by the Free Syrian Army. At first, the SIG was "based in exile and lack[ed] an organizational base inside Syria." It was intended that the new ministries would not be placed in a single location but distributed in regions under the control of the Syrian opposition.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: A Christian, a Kurd and a woman were part of the first cabinet; Ahmad Ramadan of the SNC stated that the cabinet was appointed on a meritocratic basis. The Assyrian component of the National Coalition said that they were not given any attention in the selection of the cabinet. Its General Assembly has an administrative function. The first interim cabinet was dissolved in July 2014. A new cabinet was formed in October 2014.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: The SIG has been the primary civilian authority throughout most of Syria's opposition-held areas. Its system of administrative local councils operate services such as schools and hospitals in these areas. In December 2015, the SIG founded the Free Aleppo University (FAU), as an alternative to government-run universities; an estimated 7,000 students were enrolled in FAU in early 2018, with campuses in opposition-held territory across five provinces. In January 2018, the SIG moved the University's administration from Idlib to the west Aleppo town of Bashqateen. In late September 2016, the Syrian interim government minister for local administration was among a dozen people killed by an ISIL suicide bomber in the southern city of Inkhil.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: The interim government was based in Turkey and has received direct funding from the United States. In January 2015, the Syrian interim government received US$6 million from the United States, the first funding of this kind. The funds were to be used for reconstruction efforts and the strengthening of local government in opposition-held parts of Syria such as northern Aleppo and northwestern Idlib, with the interim government planning to expand into northern Latakia and northern Hama in the following months. By August 2017, the Syrian interim government stopped paying salaries to workers, and work within the interim government became voluntary work. As the Turkish occupation of northern Syria grew from 2016, the SIG moved into the Turkish-controlled territories and began to exert partial authority there, including providing documents to Syrian citizens.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: By late 2017, the SIG presided over 12 provincial councils and over 400 elected local councils. It held elections across Idlib Governorate in 2017. It also operates a major border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which generates an estimated $1 million revenue each month. In opposition areas outside the Turkish-occupied ones, the SIG has been in conflict with the Islamist Syrian Salvation Government for control since September 2017.


title: Syrian Interim Government

text: On 30 December 2017, at least 30 factions operating under the banner of the Syrian Interim Government merged in a unified armed group after four months of preparations. Jawad Abu Hatab, the SIG's Prime Minister and Defence Minister, announced the formation of the Syrian National Army (SNA) after meeting with rebel commanders in the town of Azaz. The newly formed body claimed to have 22,000 fighters, many of them trained and equipped by Turkey. The National Front for Liberation is also aligned to the Syrian Interim Government, and eventually became a subgroup of the SNA.


title: Zappos

text: Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an all-stock deal worth around $1.2 billion at the time. Amazon purchased all of the outstanding shares and warrants from Zappos for 10 million shares of Amazon's common stock and provided $40 million in cash and restricted stock for the Zappos employees.


title: Zappos

text: Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn. Swinmurn launched the company with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin, who invested $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched online in 1999 as "ShoeSite.com".


title: Zappos

text: In July 1999, the company's name was changed from ShoeSite to Zappos after "zapatos", the Spanish word meaning "shoes". In 2000, Venture Frogs invested in the business and Zappos moved into their office space. In 2001, Hsieh came on board as co-CEO with Nick Swinmurn.


title: Zappos

text: From 1999 to 2000, Zappos earned $1.6 million in gross sales. In 2001, Zappos brought in $8.6 million, a significant increase from the previous year. In 2004, Zappos reached $184 million in gross sales and received a $35 million investment from Sequoia Capital. That same year, they moved their headquarters from San Francisco to Henderson, Nevada. Over the next three years, Zappos doubled their annual revenues, hitting $840 million in gross sales. By 2007, the company expanded to include handbags, eyewear, clothing, watches, and kids’ merchandise. In 2008, Zappos hit $1 billion in annual sales. One year later, they debuted at No. 23 on Fortune's Top 100 Companies to Work For. In the early 2000s, Zappos made the decision to move away from its original business model wherein the company does not manage any inventory. Hsieh noted, "Even though it was hard to walk away from sales at a time when nobody is offering you money, we couldn't distinguish ourselves in the eyes of our customers if we weren't going to control the entire experience. We had to give up the easy money, manage the inventory, and take the risk." In 2015 Forbes reported Zappos produces "in excess of $2 billion in revenues annually".


title: Zappos

text: In 2009, Zappos announced an acquisition by Amazon. Within Zappos’ board of directors, two of the five—Hsieh and Alfred Lin—were primarily concerned with maintaining Zappos company culture, whereas the other three wanted to maximize profits in a down economy. Initially, Hsieh and Lin planned to buy out their board of directors, which they estimated would cost $200 million. In the midst of this, Amazon executives approached Zappos with the proposition of buying the company outright. After an hour-long meeting with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Hsieh sensed that Amazon would be open to letting Zappos continue to operate as an independent entity, and started negotiations. On July 22, 2009, Amazon announced that it would buy Zappos for $940 million in a stock and cash deal. Owners of shares of Zappos were set to receive approximately 10 million Amazon.com shares, and employees would receive a separate $40 million in cash and restricted stock units. The deal was eventually closed in November 2009 for a reported $1.2 billion.


title: Zappos

text: On June 22, 2012, Zappos announced it would be handing operations of its Kentucky warehouse to Amazon on September 1, 2012. The outlet housed in the Kentucky warehouse remains open, but the name was changed to 6pm Outlet.


title: Zappos

text: On January 16, 2012, Zappos announced that its computer systems were hacked, compromising the personal information of 24 million customers. In response, the company required all of its customers to change their passwords on the site, though it noted that it was highly unlikely that password information was obtained due to encryption. This incident led to a class action suit "In re Zappos.com, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation", with plaintiffs claiming that Zappos did not adequately protect their personal information. After the case was initially dismissed, plaintiffs appeal was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Zappos appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but this was ultimately rejected. As of July 2019 litigation continues.


title: Zappos

text: On September 9, 2013, Zappos moved their headquarters from Henderson, Nevada, to the former Las Vegas City Hall building in downtown Las Vegas. CEO Tony Hsieh, at the time stated that he wanted "to be in an area where everyone feels like they can hang out all the time and where there's not a huge distinction between working and playing." The move was lauded by Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman who said "This move will bring about a critical mass of creative persons to the inner core of Las Vegas in addition to causing a significant shot in the arm for the economy and for new jobs."


title: Zappos

text: On August 24, 2020, Tony Hsieh retired as CEO after 21 years at the helm. COO Kedar Deshpande took over as the new CEO. On November 27, 2020, Tony Hsieh died from smoke inhalation suffered in a house fire. After Deshpande left Zappos, Scott Schaefer, the company's VP of finance, was named Zappos CEO on April 6, 2022.


title: Zappos

text: As of 2010, shoes accounted for about 80% of Zappos' business. As of 2007, Zappos had expanded their inventory to include clothing, handbags and other accessories, which accounted for 20% of annual revenues. Zappos executives stated that they expected that clothing and accessories would bring in an additional $1 billion worth of revenue, as the clothing market is four times the size of the footwear market.


title: Zappos

text: The company sells many different types of footwear, including vegan shoes. In 2004, they launched a second line of shoes called Zappos Couture.


title: Zappos

text: CEO Tony Hsieh encouraged his employees to use social media networks to put a human face on the company and engage with customers, following their core value #6: "Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication". Zappos employees maintain an active presence on:


title: Zappos

text: In 2008, Zappos launched Zappos Insights, a video subscription service aimed at Fortune 1 million companies that are looking to improve their company operations and customer service. The service allows participants to ask questions to and receive answers from Zappos employees.


title: Zappos

text: Zappos Insights also offers a three-day bootcamp where participants visit the headquarters and have meetings with Zappos executives.


title: Zappos

text: Zappos sponsors the "Zappos Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon and ½ Marathon", which draw 28,000 runners each year. They also sponsor the Zappos WCC basketball championships. During the tournament, Zappos hosts "Kidz Day", which outfits local Las Vegas kids with a new pair of shoes and an event T-shirt.


title: Zappos

text: Zappos was ranked 23rd on the "Fortune" magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2009, 15th in 2010, sixth in 2011, dropping slightly to 11th in 2012.


title: History of Crimea

text: The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as "Tauris", "Taurica" (), and the "Tauric Chersonese" (, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome (63 BCE – 341 AD). The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341 AD – 1204 AD), the Empire of Trebizond (1204 AD – 1461 AD), and the independent Principality of Theodoro (ended 1475 AD). In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves.


title: History of Crimea

text: In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great. After two centuries of conflict, the Russian fleet had destroyed the Ottoman navy and the Russian army had inflicted heavy defeats on the Ottoman land forces. The ensuing Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca forced the Sublime Porte to recognize the Tatars of the Crimea as politically independent. Catherine the Great's incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 from the defeated Ottoman Empire into the Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area. The Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan's suzerainty. The Ottoman Empire's frontiers would gradually shrink, and Russia would proceed to push her frontier westwards to the Dniester. From 1853 to 1856, the strategic position of the peninsula in controlling the Black Sea meant that it was the site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War, where Russia lost to a French-led alliance.


title: History of Crimea

text: During the Russian Civil War, Crimea changed hands many times and was where Wrangel's anti-Bolshevik White Army made their last stand in 1920, with tens of thousands of those who remained being murdered as part of the Red Terror. In 1921, the Crimean ASSR was created as an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. During World War II, Crimea was occupied by Germany until 1944. The ASSR was downgraded to an oblast in 1945 following the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, and in 1954, Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR on the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Crimea was formed in 1992, although the republic was abolished in 1995 with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea established firmly under Ukrainian authority and Sevastopol being administered as a city with special status. A 1997 treaty partitioned the Soviet Black Sea Fleet allowing Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol with the lease extended in 2010.


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimea's status is disputed. In 2014 Crimea saw intense demonstrations against the removal of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych culminating in pro-Russian forces occupying strategic points in Crimea and the Republic of Crimea declared independence from Ukraine following a disputed referendum supporting reunification. Russia then formally annexed Crimea although most countries recognise Crimea as part of Ukraine.


title: History of Crimea

text: Archaeological evidence of human settlement in Crimea dates back to the Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found at Kiyik-Koba Cave have been dated to about 80,000 BP. Late Neanderthal occupations have also been found at Starosele (c. 46,000 BP) and Buran Kaya III (c. 30,000 BP).


title: History of Crimea

text: Archaeologists have found some of the earliest anatomically modern human remains in Europe in the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains (east of Simferopol). The fossils are about 32,000 years old, with the artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture.


title: History of Crimea

text: During the Last Glacial Maximum, along with the northern coast of the Black Sea in general, Crimea was an important refuge from which north-central Europe was re-populated after the end of the Ice Age. The East European Plain during this time was generally occupied by periglacial loess-steppe environments, although the climate was slightly warmer during several brief interstadials and began to warm significantly after the beginning of the Late Glacial Maximum. Human site occupation density was relatively high in the Crimean region and increased as early as c. 16,000 years before the present.


title: History of Crimea

text: Proponents of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis believe Crimea did not become a peninsula until relatively recently, with the rising of the Black Sea level in the 6th millennium BC.


title: History of Crimea

text: The beginning of the Neolithic in Crimea is not associated with agriculture, but instead with the beginning of pottery production, changes in flint tool-making technologies, and local domestication of pigs. The earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimean peninsula is from the Chalcolithic Ardych-Burun site, dating to the middle of the 4th millennium BC


title: History of Crimea

text: By the 3rd millennium BC, Crimea had been reached by the Yamna or "pit grave" culture, assumed to correspond to a late phase of Proto-Indo-European culture in the Kurgan hypothesis.


title: History of Crimea

text: Early Iron Age Crimea was settled by two groups separated by the Crimean Mountains, the Tauri to the south and the Iranic Scythians in the north.


title: History of Crimea

text: Taurians intermixed with the Scythians starting from the end of 3rd century BC were mentioned as "Tauroscythians" and "Scythotaurians" in the works of ancient Greek writers. In Geographica, Strabo refers to the Tauri as a Scythian tribe. However, Herodotus states that the Tauri tribes were geographically inhabited by the Scythians, but they are not Scythians. Also, the Taurians inspired the Greek myths of Iphigenia and Orestes.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Greeks, who eventually established colonies in Crimea during the Archaic Period, regarded the Tauri as a savage, warlike people. Even after centuries of Greek and Roman settlement, the Tauri were not pacified and continued to engage in piracy on the Black Sea. By the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian king Scilurus.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean Peninsula north of the Crimean Mountains was occupied by Scythian tribes. Their center was the city of Scythian Neapolis on the outskirts of present-day Simferopol. The town ruled over a small kingdom covering the lands between the lower Dnieper River and northern Crimea. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Scythian Neapolis was a city "with a mixed Scythian-Greek population, strong defensive walls and large public buildings constructed using the orders of Greek architecture". The city was eventually destroyed in the mid-3rd century AD by the Goths.


title: History of Crimea

text: The ancient Greeks were the first to name the region "Taurica" after the Tauri. As the Tauri inhabited only mountainous regions of southern Crimea, at first the name Taurica was used only to this southern part, but later it was extended to name the whole peninsula.


title: History of Crimea

text: Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Theodosia and Panticapaeum were established by Milesians. In the 5th century BC, Dorians from Heraclea Pontica founded the sea port of Chersonesos (in modern Sevastopol).


title: History of Crimea

text: The Persian Achaemenid Empire under Darius I expanded to Crimea as part of his campaigns against the Scythians in 513 BCE.


title: History of Crimea

text: In 438 BC, the Archon (ruler) of Panticapaeum assumed the title of the King of Cimmerian Bosporus, a state that maintained close relations with Athens, supplying the city with wheat, honey and other commodities. The last of that line of kings, Paerisades V, being hard-pressed by the Scythians, put himself under the protection of Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, in 114 BC. After the death of this sovereign, his son, Pharnaces II, was invested by Pompey with the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus in 63 BC as a reward for the assistance rendered to the Romans in their war against his father. In 15 BC, it was once again restored to the king of Pontus, but from then ranked as a tributary state of Rome.


title: History of Crimea

text: In the 2nd century BC, the eastern part of Taurica became part of the Bosporan Kingdom, before becoming a client kingdom of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC.


title: History of Crimea

text: During the AD 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries, Taurica was host to Roman legions and colonists in Charax, Crimea. The Charax colony was founded under Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians. The Roman colony was protected by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica; it also hosted a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. The camp was abandoned by the Romans in the mid-3rd century. This de facto province would have been controlled by the legatus of one of the Legions stationed in Charax.


title: History of Crimea

text: Throughout the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively by the Goths (AD 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (4th–8th century), the Khazars (8th century).


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimean Gothic, an East Germanic language, was spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century.


title: History of Crimea

text: In the 9th century CE, Byzantium established the Theme of Cherson to defend against incursions by the Rus' Khaganate. The Crimean peninsula from this time was contested between Byzantium, Rus' and Khazaria. The area remained the site of overlapping interests and contact between the early medieval Slavic, Turkic and Greek spheres.


title: History of Crimea

text: It became a center of slave trade. Slavs were sold to Byzantium and other places in Anatolia and the Middle East during this period.


title: History of Crimea

text: In the mid-10th century, the eastern area of Crimea was conquered by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and became part of the Kievan Rus' principality of Tmutarakan. The peninsula was wrested from the Byzantines by the Kievan Rus' in the 10th century; a major Byzantine outpost, Chersonesus was taken in 988 CE. A year later, Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted the hand of Emperor Basil II's sister Anna in marriage, and was baptized by the local Byzantine priest at Chersonesus, thus marking the entry of Rus' (later Russia) into the Christian world. Chersonesus Cathedral marks the location of this historic event.


title: History of Crimea

text: During the collapse of the Byzantine state some cities fell to its creditor the Republic of Genoa who also conquered cities controlled by its rival the Venice. During the entirety of this period, the urban areas were Greek-speaking and eastern Christian.


title: History of Crimea

text: Throughout the ancient and medieval period the interior and north of Crimea was occupied by a changing cast of invading steppe nomads, such as the Tauri, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Crimean Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks and Mongols.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Bosporan Kingdom had exercised some control of the majority of the peninsula at the height of its power, with Kievan Rus' also having some control of the interior of Crimea after the tenth century.


title: History of Crimea

text: The overseas territories of Trebizond, Perateia, had already been subjected to pressure from the Genoese and Kipchaks by the time Alexios I of Trebizond died in 1222, before the Mongol invasions began its western sweep through Volga Bulgaria in 1223.


title: History of Crimea

text: Kiev lost its hold on the Crimean interior in the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. In the summer of 1238 Batu Khan devastated the Crimean peninsula and pacified Mordovia, reaching Kiev by 1240. The Crimean interior came under the control of the Turco-Mongol Golden Horde from 1239 to 1441. The name "Crimea" (via Italian, from Turkic "Qirim") originates as the name of the provincial capital of the Golden Horde, the city now known as Staryi Krym.


title: History of Crimea

text: Trebizond's Perateia soon became the Principality of Theodoro and Genoese Gazaria, respectively sharing control of the south of Crimea until the Ottoman intervention of 1475.


title: History of Crimea

text: In the 13th century the Republic of Genoa seized the settlements that their rivals, the Venetians, had built along the Crimean coast and established themselves at Cembalo (present-day Balaklava), Soldaia (Sudak), Cherco (Kerch) and Caffa (Feodosiya), gaining control of the Crimean economy and the Black Sea commerce for two centuries. Genoa and its colonies fought a series of wars with the Mongol states between the 13th and 15th centuries.


title: History of Crimea

text: In 1346 the Golden Horde army besieging Genoese Kaffa (present-day Feodosiya) catapulted the bodies of Mongol warriors who had died of plague over the walls of the city. Historians have speculated that Genoese refugees from this engagement may have brought the Black Death to Western Europe.


title: History of Crimea

text: After Timur destroyed a Mongol Golden Horde army in 1399, the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under Hacı I Giray (a descendant of Genghis Khan) by 1443. Hacı I Giray and his successors reigned first at Qırq Yer, then - from the beginning of the 15th century - at Bakhchisaray.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the Kuban to the Dniester River, however, they were unable to take control of the commercial Genoese towns in the Crimea. After the Crimean Tatars asked for help from the Ottomans, an Ottoman invasion of the Genoese towns led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought Kaffa and the other trading towns under their control.


title: History of Crimea

text: After the capture of the Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Khan Meñli I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman suzerainty over the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="blacksea-crimea/hist"></ref> However, the Crimean Khans still had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, and followed the rules they thought best for them.


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimean Tatars introduced the practice of raids into Ukrainian lands (the Wild Fields), in which they captured slaves for sale. For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. In the 1570s close to 20,000 slaves a year went on sale in Kaffa.


title: History of Crimea

text: Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population. In 1769 a last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group dominated the Crimean Khanate from the 15th to the 18th centuries. They descend from a complicated mixture of Turkic peoples who settled in the Crimea from the 8th century, presumably also absorbing remnants of the Crimean Goths and the Genoese.


title: History of Crimea

text: Linguistically, the Crimean Tatars are related to the Khazars, who invaded the Crimea in the mid-8th century; the Crimean Tatar language forms part of the Kipchak or Northwestern branch of the Turkic languages, although it shows substantial Oghuz influence due to historical Ottoman Turkish presence in the Crimea.


title: History of Crimea

text: A small enclave of Crimean Karaites, a people of Jewish descent practising Karaism who later adopted a Turkic language, formed in the 13th century. It existed among the Muslim Crimean Tatars, primarily in the mountainous Çufut Qale area.


title: History of Crimea

text: In 1553–1554 Cossack Hetman Dmytro Vyshnevetsky (in office: 1550-1557) gathered together groups of Cossacks and constructed a fort designed to obstruct Tatar raids into Ukraine. With this action, he founded the Zaporozhian Sich, with which he would launch a series of attacks on the Crimean Peninsula and the Ottoman Turks.


title: History of Crimea

text: In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great. After two centuries of conflict, the Russian fleet had destroyed the Ottoman navy and the Russian army had inflicted heavy defeats on the Ottoman land forces. The ensuing Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca forced the Sublime Porte to recognize the Tatars of the Crimea as politically independent, meaning that the Crimean Khans fell under Russian influence with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. but did suffered a gradual internal collapse, particularly after a pogrom created a Russian aided exodus of Christian subjects who were overwhelmingly among the urban classes and created cities such as Mariupol. Catherine the Great's later incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 into the Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area. The Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan's suzerainty. The Ottoman Empire's frontiers would gradually shrink, and Russia would proceed to push her frontier westwards to the Dniester.


title: History of Crimea

text: On 28 December 1783 the Ottoman Empire signed an agreement negotiated by the Russian diplomat Bulgakov that recognised the loss of Crimea and other territories that had been held by the Khanate. Crimea went through a number of administrative reforms after Russian annexation, first as the Taurida Oblast in 1784 but in 1796 it was divided into two counties and attached it to the Novorossiysk Governorate, with a new Taurida Governorate established in 1802 with its capital at Simferopol. The governorate included both Crimea as well as larger adjacent areas of the mainland. In 1826 Adam Mickiewicz published his seminal work "The Crimean Sonnets" after travelling through the Black Sea Coast.


title: History of Crimea

text: By the late 19th century, Crimean Tatars continued to form a slight plurality of Crimea's still largely rural population and were the predominant portion of the population in the mountainous area and about half of the steppe population. There were large numbers of Russians concentrated in the Feodosiya district and Ukrainians as well as smaller numbers of Jews (including Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites), Belarusians, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks and Roma. Germans and Bulgarians settled in the Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving a large allotment and fertile land and later wealthy colonists began to buy land, mainly in Perekopsky and Evpatoria uyezds.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean War (1853–1856), a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Nassau, was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war in October 1853 over Russia's rights to protect Orthodox Christians; to stop Russia's conquests France and Britain entered in March 1854. While some of the war was fought elsewhere, the principal engagements were in Crimea.


title: History of Crimea

text: The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key, had never revealed a "greater confusion of purpose" but led to a war that stood out for its "notoriously incompetent international butchery".


title: History of Crimea

text: Following action in the Danubian Principalities and in the Black Sea, allied troops landed in Crimea in September 1854 and besieged the city of Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet and the associated threat of potential Russian penetration into the Mediterranean. After extensive fighting throughout Crimea, the city fell on 9 September 1855. The war ended with a Russian loss in February 1856.


title: History of Crimea

text: The war devastated much of the economic and social infrastructure of Crimea. The Crimean Tatars had to flee from their homeland "en masse", forced by the conditions created by the war, persecution, and land expropriations. Those who survived the trip, famine, and disease, resettled in Dobruja, Anatolia, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the Russian government decided to stop the process, as agriculture began to suffer due to the unattended fertile farmland.


title: History of Crimea

text: Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the military and political situation in Crimea was chaotic like that in much of Russia. During the ensuing Russian Civil War, Crimea changed hands numerous times and was for a time a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army. It was in Crimea that the White Russians led by General Wrangel made their last stand against Nestor Makhno and the Red Army in 1920. When resistance was crushed, many of the anti-Bolshevik fighters and civilians escaped by ship to Istanbul.


title: History of Crimea

text: Approximately 50,000 White prisoners of war and civilians were summarily executed by shooting or hanging after the defeat of General Wrangel at the end of 1920. This is considered one of the largest massacres in the Civil War.


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimea changed hands several times over the course of the conflict and several political entities were set up on the peninsula. These included:


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimea became part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on 18 October 1921 as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which became part of the Soviet Union in 1922, with a degree of autonomy and run as a Crimean Tatar enclave.


title: History of Crimea

text: However, this did not protect the Crimean Tatars, who constituted about 25% of the Crimean population, from Joseph Stalin's repressions of the 1930s. The Greeks were another cultural group that suffered. Their lands were lost during the process of collectivisation, in which farmers were not compensated with wages. Schools which taught Greek were closed and Greek literature was destroyed, because the Soviets considered the Greeks as "counter-revolutionary" with their links to capitalist state Greece, and their independent culture.


title: History of Crimea

text: From 1923 until 1944 there was an effort to create Jewish settlements in Crimea. There were two attempts to establish Jewish autonomy in Crimea, but both were ultimately unsuccessful.


title: History of Crimea

text: Crimea experienced two severe famines in the 20th century, the Famine of 1921–1922 and the Holodomor of 1932–1933. A large Slavic population influx occurred in the 1930s as a result of the Soviet policy of regional development. These demographic changes permanently altered the ethnic balance in the region.


title: History of Crimea

text: During World War II, Crimea was a scene of some of the bloodiest battles. The leaders of the Third Reich were anxious to conquer and colonize the fertile and beautiful peninsula as part of their policy of resettling the Germans in Eastern Europe at the expense of the Slavs. In the Crimean campaign, German and Romanian troops suffered heavy casualties in the summer of 1941 as they tried to advance through the narrow Isthmus of Perekop linking Crimea to the Soviet mainland. Once the German army broke through (Operation Trappenjagd), they occupied most of Crimea, with the exception of the city of Sevastopol, which was besieged and later awarded the honorary title of Hero City after the war. The Red Army lost over 170,000 men killed or taken prisoner, and three armies (44th, 47th, and 51st) with twenty-one divisions.


title: History of Crimea

text: Sevastopol held out from October 1941 until 4 July 1942 when the Germans finally captured the city. From 1 September 1942, the peninsula was administered as the "Generalbezirk Krim" (general district of Crimea) "und Teilbezirk" (and sub-district) "Taurien" by the Nazi "Generalkommissar" Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld (1898–1977), under the authority of the three consecutive Reichskommissare for the entire Ukraine. In spite of heavy-handed tactics by the Nazis and the assistance of the Romanian and Italian troops, the Crimean mountains remained an unconquered stronghold of the native resistance (the partisans) until the day when the peninsula was freed from the occupying force.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean Jews were targeted for annihilation during the Nazi occupation. According to Yitzhak Arad, "In January 1942 a company of Tatar volunteers was established in Simferopol under the command of "Einsatzgruppe 11". This company participated in anti-Jewish manhunts and murder actions in the rural regions." Around 40,000 Crimean Jew were murdered.


title: History of Crimea

text: The successful Crimean offensive meant that in 1944 Sevastopol came under the control of troops from the Soviet Union. The so-called "City of Russian Glory" once known for its beautiful architecture was entirely destroyed and had to be rebuilt stone by stone. Due to its enormous historical and symbolic meaning for the Russians, it became a priority for Stalin and the Soviet government to have it restored to its former glory within the shortest time possible.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean port of Yalta hosted the Yalta Conference of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill which was later seen as dividing Europe between the Communist and democratic spheres.


title: History of Crimea

text: On 18 May 1944, the entire population of the Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported in the "Sürgün" (Crimean Tatar for exile) to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's Soviet government as a form of collective punishment on the grounds that they allegedly had collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces and formed pro-German Tatar Legions. On 26 June of the same year Armenian, Bulgarian and Greek population was also deported to Central Asia, and partially to Ufa and its surroundings in the Ural mountains. A total of more than 230,000 people – about a fifth of the total population of the Crimean Peninsula at that time – were deported, mainly to Uzbekistan. 14,300 Greeks, 12,075 Bulgarians, and about 10,000 Armenians were also expelled. By the end of summer 1944, the ethnic cleansing of Crimea was complete. In 1967, the Crimean Tatars were rehabilitated, but they were banned from legally returning to their homeland until the last days of the Soviet Union. The deportation was formally recognized as a genocide by Ukraine and three other countries between 2015 and 2019.


title: History of Crimea

text: The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished on 30 June 1945 and transformed into the Crimean Oblast (province) of the Russian SFSR. A process of De-Tatarization of Crimea was started to remove the memory of the Tartars.


title: History of Crimea

text: On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR under Nikita Khrushchev issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The action was attributed to Nikita Khrushchev, then-First Secretary of the Communist Party. This Supreme Soviet Decree states that this transfer was motivated by "the commonality of the economy, the proximity, and close economic and cultural relations between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR". The year 1954 happened to mark the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which was signed in 1654 by representatives of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate and Tsar Alexis of Russia.


title: History of Crimea

text: The construction of North Crimean Canal, a land improvement canal for irrigation and watering of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, and the Crimean peninsula, was started in 1957 soon after the transfer of Crimea. The canal also has multiple branches throughout Kherson Oblast and the Crimean peninsula. The main project works took place between 1961 and 1971 and had three stages. The construction was conducted by the Komosomol members sent by the Komsomol travel ticket (Komsomolskaya putyovka) as part of shock construction projects and accounted for some 10,000 "volunteer" workers.


title: History of Crimea

text: In the post-war years, Crimea thrived as a tourist destination, with new attractions and sanatoriums for tourists. Tourists came from all around the Soviet Union and aligned countries, particularly from the German Democratic Republic. In time the peninsula also became a major tourist destination for cruises originating in Greece and Turkey. Crimea's infrastructure and manufacturing also developed, particularly around the sea ports at Kerch and Sevastopol and in the oblast's landlocked capital, Simferopol. Populations of Ukrainians and Russians alike doubled, with more than 1.6 million Russians and 626,000 Ukrainians living on the peninsula by 1989.


title: History of Crimea

text: With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence the majority ethnic Russian Crimean peninsula was reorganized as the Republic of Crimea, after a 1991 referendum with the Crimean authorities pushing for more independence from Ukraine and closer links with Russia. In 1995 the Republic was forcibly abolished by Ukraine with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea established firmly under Ukrainian authority. There were also intermittent tensions with Russia over the Soviet Fleet, although a 1997 treaty partitioned the Soviet Black Sea Fleet allowing Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol with the lease extended in 2010. As a result of the overthrow of the relatively pro Russian president Yanukovych, Russian annexed Crimea in 2014.


title: History of Crimea

text: The events in Kyiv that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych sparked demonstrations against the new Ukrainian government. At the same time Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed Ukrainian events with security service chiefs remarking that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia". On 27 February, Russian troops captured strategic sites across Crimea. This led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, the Crimean status referendum and the declaration of Crimea's independence on 16 March 2014. Although Russia initially claimed their military was not involved in the events, it later admitted that they were. Russia formally incorporated Crimea on 18 March 2014. Following the annexation, Russia escalated its military presence on the peninsula and made nuclear threats to solidify the new status quo on the ground.


title: History of Crimea

text: Ukraine and many other countries condemned the annexation and consider it to be a violation of international law and Russian agreements safeguarding the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The annexation led to the other members of the then-G8 suspending Russia from the group and introducing sanctions. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the referendum and annexation, adopting a resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders".


title: History of Crimea

text: The Russian government opposes the "annexation" label, with Putin defending the referendum as complying with the principle of the self-determination of peoples.


title: History of Crimea

text: Within days of the signing of the accession treaty, the process of integrating Crimea into the Russian federation began with the Russian ruble going into official circulation and later to be the sole currency for legal tender with clocks also moved to Moscow time. A revision of the Russian Constitution was officially released with the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol added to the federal subjects of the Russian Federation, and the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia. Since the annexation Russia has supported large migration into Crimea.


title: History of Crimea

text: Once Ukraine lost control of the territory in 2014, it shut off the water supply of the North Crimean Canal which supplies 85% of the peninsula's freshwater needs from the Dnieper river, the nation's main waterway. Development of new sources of water was undertaken, with huge difficulties, to replace closed Ukrainian sources. In 2022, Russia conquered portions of Kherson Oblast, which allowed it to unblock the North Crimean canal by force, resuming water supply into Crimea.


title: History of Crimea

text: Beginning in July 2022, a series of explosions and fires occurred on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from where the Russian Army had launched its offensive on Southern Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Occupied Crimea was a base for the subsequent Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast and Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Ukrainian government has not accepted responsibility for all of the attacks.


title: Licor 43

text: It was invented in 1946 by Diego Zamora, along with his brother and sister, Angel and Josefina Zamora, and Emilio Restoy, Josefina's husband. The Licor 43 website states they based their recipe on the "Liqvor Mirabilis" (marvellous liquid), a golden, aromatic elixir produced and infused from local fruits and herbs in Carthago Nova during the 3rd century. "Liqvor Mirabilis" was encountered by the Romans when they conquered the region in 209 BC; despite the Romans banning its production and consumption, the Carthaginians continued producing in secret. This legend served as the inspiration for the Zamora's invention of Licor 43.


title: Licor 43

text: The name of the modern-day liqueur originates from its use of 43 different ingredients; while its recipe is a closely guarded secret by the Zamora family, it is known to contain citrus and fruit juices, and to be flavoured with vanilla, among other aromatic herbs and spices.


title: Licor 43

text: Licor 43 is the most popular liqueur in Spain. As of 2011, it was the fastest growing premium liqueur in the world in its category, and is present in more than 60 countries. During a 2015 inquiry into the best-selling alcohols in The World's 50 Best Bars (the bar version of William Reed's The World's 50 Best Restaurants), Licor 43 was ranked as the 9th best-selling digestif worldwide. According to the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR), a data analytics company that tracks alcoholic beverage trends and measures country, category, and brand performance, Licor 43 was the fastest growing liquor of scale globally in 2017.


title: Licor 43

text: Méxican carajillos specifically call for "licor del 43" as the alcohol combined with espresso and ice. In the Canary Islands, it is an essential ingredient for a Barraquito, a variant of the highly popular cortado condensada (espresso with condensed milk) coffee.


title: Licor 43

text: A "mini-beer" is a Licor 43 cocktail designed to visually imitate a beer. A miniature pint glass is mostly filled with Licor 43 and topped with a chilled dairy-based liquid, such as heavy cream or Irish Cream. The colour of Licor 43 mimics the amber colour of a pale beer, and the dairy product mimics the white colour of a beer's foamy head. A common cocktail variation in Mexico is the “Sandrillo” which includes Licor 43 shaken with whole milk.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Neoprene exhibits good chemical stability and maintains flexibility over a wide temperature range. Neoprene is sold either as solid rubber or in latex form and is used in a wide variety of commercial applications, such as laptop sleeves, orthopaedic braces (wrist, knee, etc.), electrical insulation, liquid and sheet-applied elastomeric membranes or flashings, and automotive fan belts.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene is produced by free-radical polymerization of chloroprene. In commercial production, this polymer is prepared by free radical emulsion polymerization. Polymerization is initiated using potassium persulfate. Bifunctional nucleophiles, metal oxides (e.g. zinc oxide), and thioureas are used to crosslink individual polymer strands.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists on April 17, 1930, after Dr Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont attended a lecture by Fr Julius Arthur Nieuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Nieuwland's research was focused on acetylene chemistry and during the course of his work he produced divinyl acetylene, a jelly that firms into an elastic compound similar to rubber when passed over sulfur dichloride. After DuPont purchased the patent rights from the university, Wallace Carothers of DuPont took over commercial development of Nieuwland's discovery in collaboration with Nieuwland himself and DuPont chemists Arnold Collins, Ira Williams and James Kirby. Collins focused on monovinyl acetylene and allowed it to react with hydrogen chloride gas, manufacturing chloroprene.


title: Neoprene

text: DuPont first marketed the compound in 1931 under the trade name DuPrene, but its commercial possibilities were limited by the original manufacturing process, which left the product with a foul odor. A new process was developed, which eliminated the odor-causing byproducts and halved production costs, and the company began selling the material to manufacturers of finished end-products. To prevent shoddy manufacturers from harming the product's reputation, the trademark DuPrene was restricted to apply only to the material sold by DuPont. Since the company itself did not manufacture any DuPrene-containing end products, the trademark was dropped in 1937 and replaced with a generic name, neoprene, in an attempt "to signify that the material is an ingredient, not a finished consumer product". DuPont then worked extensively to generate demand for its product, implementing a marketing strategy that included publishing its own technical journal, which extensively publicized neoprene's uses as well as advertising other companies' neoprene-based products. By 1939, sales of neoprene were generating profits over $300,000 for the company ().


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene resists degradation more than natural or synthetic rubber. This relative inertness makes neoprene well suited for demanding applications such as gaskets, hoses, and corrosion-resistant coatings. It can be used as a base for adhesives, noise isolation in power transformer installations, and as padding in external metal cases to protect the contents while allowing a snug fit. It resists burning better than exclusively hydrocarbon based rubbers, resulting in its appearance in weather stripping for fire doors and in combat related attire such as gloves and face masks. Because of its tolerance of extreme conditions, neoprene is used to line landfills. Neoprene's burn point is around 260 °C (500 °F).


title: Neoprene

text: In its native state, neoprene is a very pliable rubber-like material with insulating properties similar to rubber or other solid plastics.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene foam is used in many applications and is produced in either closed-cell or open-cell form. The closed-cell form is waterproof, less compressible and more expensive. The open-cell form can be breathable. It is manufactured by foaming the rubber with nitrogen gas, where the tiny enclosed and separated gas bubbles can also serve as insulation. Nitrogen gas is most commonly used for the foaming of Neoprene foam due to its inertness, flame resistance, and large range of processing temperatures.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene is used as a component of elastomeric bridge bearings, to support heavy loads while permitting small horizontal movements.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene is a popular material in making protective clothing for aquatic activities. Foamed neoprene is commonly used to make fly fishing waders, wetsuits, and drysuits as it provides excellent insulation against cold. The foam is quite buoyant, and divers compensate for this by wearing weights. Since foam neoprene contains gas pockets, the material compresses under water pressure, getting thinner at greater depths; a 7 mm neoprene wet suit offers much less exposure protection under 100 feet of water than at the surface. A recent advance in neoprene for wet suits is the "super-flex" variety, which uses spandex in the knit liner fabric for greater flexibility and stretch. A drysuit is similar to a wetsuit, but uses thicker and more durable neoprene to create an entirely waterproof suit that is suitable for wear in extremely cold water or polluted water.


title: Neoprene

text: Recently, neoprene has become a favorite material for lifestyle and other home accessories including laptop sleeves, tablet holders, remote controls, mouse pads, and cycling chamois.


title: Neoprene

text: The Rhodes piano used hammer tips made of neoprene in its electric pianos, after changing from felt hammers around 1970.


title: Neoprene

text: Hydroponic and aerated gardening systems make use of small neoprene inserts to hold plants in place while propagating cuttings or using net cups. Inserts are relatively small, ranging in size from . Neoprene is a good choice for supporting plants because of its flexibility and softness, allowing plants to be held securely in place without the chance of causing damage to the stem. Neoprene root covers also help block out light from entering the rooting chamber of hydroponic systems, allowing for better root growth and helping to deter the growth of algae.


title: Neoprene

text: During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Neoprene was identified by some health experts as an effective material to use for home made face masks. Some commercial face mask manufacturers that use Neoprene have claimed 99.9% filtration for particles as small as 0.1 microns. The size of Coronavirus is identified to be on average 0.125 microns.


title: Neoprene

text: Neoprene is used for Halloween masks and masks used for face protection, for insulating CPU sockets when extreme overclocking at subzero temperatures, to make waterproof automotive seat covers, in liquid and sheet-applied elastomeric roof membranes or flashings, and in a neoprene-spandex mixture for manufacture of wheelchair positioning harnesses.


title: Neoprene

text: In tabletop wargames, neoprene mats printed with grassy, sandy, icy, or other natural features have become popular gaming surfaces. They are durable, firm and stable, and attractive in appearance, and also favoured for their ability to roll up in storage but lie flat when unrolled.


title: Neoprene

text: Because of its chemical resistance and overall durability, neoprene is sometimes used in the manufacture of dishwashing gloves, especially as an alternative to latex.


title: Neoprene

text: In fashion, neoprene has been used by designers such as Gareth Pugh, Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Lanvin and Vera Wang. This trend, promoted by street style bloggers such as Jim Joquico of Fashion Chameleon, gained traction and trickled down to mainstream fashion around 2014.


title: Neoprene

text: Some people are allergic to neoprene while others can get dermatitis from thiourea residues left from its production. The most common accelerator in the vulcanization of polychloroprene is ethylene thiourea (ETU), which has been classified as reprotoxic. The European rubber industry project called SafeRubber focused on alternatives to the use of ETU.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a space flight simulation video game developed by Mexican developer Squad for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In the game, players direct a nascent space program, staffed and crewed by green humanoid aliens known as "Kerbals". The game features a realistic orbital physics engine, allowing for various real-life orbital maneuvers such as Hohmann transfer orbits and orbital rendezvous.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The first public version was released digitally on Squad's "Kerbal Space Program" storefront on 24 June 2011, and joined Steam's early access program on 20 March 2013. The game was released out of beta on 27 April 2015. "Kerbal Space Program" has support for user-created mods that add new features. Popular mods have received support and inclusion in the game by Squad. People such as Scott Manley and organizations involved in space travel have taken an interest in the game, including NASA, the European Space Agency, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno, CEO and CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk and Peter Beck, CEO and CTO of Rocket Lab.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: In May 2017, Squad announced that the game had been purchased by video game company Take-Two Interactive, who will help support Squad in keeping the console versions up-to-date alongside the personal computer versions. An "Enhanced Edition" was released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in January 2018, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in September 2021 by Private Division, a publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. Two expansions for the game have been released as downloadable content: "Making History" in March 2018 and "Breaking Ground" in May 2019. A sequel, "Kerbal Space Program 2", is scheduled for release on February 24, 2023.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The player administers a space program operated by Kerbals, a species of small green humanoids, who have constructed a spaceport called the Kerbal Space Center (KSC) on their home planet, Kerbin. From this space center players can create rockets, aircraft, spaceplanes, rovers, and other craft from a provided set of components. Once built, the craft can be launched by players from the KSC launch pad or runway in an attempt to complete player-set or game-directed missions while avoiding partial or catastrophic failure (such as lack of fuel or structural failure). Players control their spacecraft in three dimensions with little assistance other than a Stability Assist System (SAS) to keep their rocket oriented. Provided it maintains sufficient thrust and fuel, a spacecraft can enter orbit or even travel to other celestial bodies. To visualize vehicle trajectory, the player must switch into map mode; this displays the orbit or trajectory of the player vehicle, as well as the position and trajectory of other spacecraft and planetary bodies. These planets and other vehicles can be targeted to view information needed for rendezvous and docking, such as ascending and descending nodes, target direction, and relative velocity to the target. While in map mode, players can also access maneuver nodes to plan out trajectory changes in advance, which helps in accurately planning burns.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Missions (either player-set or assigned "contracts") involve goals such as reaching a certain altitude, escaping the atmosphere, reaching a stable orbit, landing on a certain planetary body, rescuing stranded Kerbals, capturing asteroids, and creating space stations and surface bases. Players may also set challenges for each other on the game's forums, such as visiting all five moons of Jool (the in-game analog for Jupiter), or use mods to test each other's spacecraft in air combat tournaments.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Players can control in-game astronauts, known as Kerbals, who can perform extravehicular activities (EVA). While on EVA, Kerbals may use their EVA suit propellant system to maneuver in space and around craft and space stations, similar to the use of NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit. Actions that can be performed while on EVA include repairing landing legs, wheels, and deploying or repacking parachutes. Kerbals can also collect material from science experiments, allowing them to store data inside the ship's capsule. During an EVA on any solid planet or moon, a Kerbal can place a flag or take a surface sample.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Historical spacecraft can be recreated and their accomplishments mimicked, such as the Apollo program, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, or the International Space Station. Various parts in the game are based off of real life parts, such as the Mk1-3 Command Pod being very similar to the Apollo command and service module, and Probodobodyne Stayputnik being similar in name, function, and shape to the Soviet probe Sputnik. Players may install mods which implement destinations, weapons, additional rocket parts, and goals, such as attempting challenges in a real-scale solar system. Mods can also add informational displays showing craft and orbital statistics such as delta-v and orbital inclination, while a few can near-fully automate flight. Some mods have been added into the game, due to popularity. For example, resource mining, to get ore for refining into fuel, has been implemented from a popular mod.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The major celestial bodies in the game in order of their proximity to the parent star, the Sun, are Moho, Eve, Kerbin, Duna, Dres, Jool, and Eeloo (respectively analogs of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, and Pluto). Community modifications are able to expand this planetary system, even being able to add exoplanets or other solar systems. Moons in the system include Gilly, a captured asteroid around Eve; the Mun and Minmus, the two moons of Kerbin; Ike, the single moon of Duna; and the five moons of Jool, which include Laythe, an ocean moon dotted with islands; Vall, an ice moon; Tylo, a large Kerbin-sized moon; and Bop and Pol, the two outermost captured asteroids. Laythe is the only moon to have an atmosphere or liquid water. Moho, Dres, and Eeloo do not possess moons.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The player starts a new game by choosing one of three game modes: sandbox, science, and career mode. In sandbox mode, players may attempt to construct a suitable vehicle for any desired project without penalties for failure and entirely user-assigned missions. Many players have constructed unrealistic spacecraft in this mode, such as impractically large, complicated, or expensive rockets. This mode is also frequently used to create replicas of real-life vehicles.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: In science mode, the initial selection of parts is limited. More complex parts can be unlocked in the Research and Development building by advancing "science" with various experiments on Kerbin and elsewhere throughout the solar system. This mode was designed to ease new players into the game and prevent them from getting overwhelmed.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Career mode extends science mode by adding funds, reputation, and contracts. To build and launch new rockets, the players must complete contracts, earning funds to pay for the necessary parts and fuel. Reputation affects how many contracts are given to the player; less reputation leads to fewer, lower-quality contracts. Declining a contract will reduce the likelihood that a contract of the same type will appear later while also decreasing reputation. Players must upgrade buildings in the space center to unlock new features such as improved tracking, higher spacecraft mass limit, larger part count limit, and increased available contracts.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: While the game is not a perfect simulation of reality, it has been praised for its accurate orbital mechanics; all objects in the game except the celestial bodies are simulated using Newtonian dynamics. For instance, rocket thrust is applied to a vehicle's frame based on the placement of force-generating elements, and joints between parts have limited strength, allowing vehicles to be torn apart by excessive or misdirected forces.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The game simulates trajectories and orbits using patched conic approximation instead of a full n-body simulation; thus, it does not support Lagrange points, perturbations, Lissajous orbits, halo orbits or tidal forces. According to the developers, implementing full n-body physics would require the entire physics engine to be rewritten.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The in-game astronauts, Kerbals, are physically simulated. Hitting an object with their feet will cause them to tumble.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Some celestial bodies have atmospheres of varying heights and densities, affecting the impact of drag on wings and parachutes. The simulations are accurate enough that real-world techniques such as aerobraking are viable methods of navigating the solar system. Aerobraking, however, has become a much more difficult method of velocity reduction since the full 1.0 release due to improved aerodynamics and optional heating during atmospheric entry. In-game atmospheres thin out into space but have finite heights, unlike real atmospheres.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: "Kerbal Space Program" alters the scale of its solar system for gameplay purposes. For example, Kerbin (the game's analog of Earth) has a radius of only , approximately that of Earth's. To compensate for the gravitational consequences of this size difference, Kerbin's density is over 10 times that of Earth's. The planets themselves are also significantly closer together than the planets in the real-life Solar System. However, some mods port the real-world solar system into the game with accurate scaling, environments, and additional parts to make up for the extra power requirements.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The "Making History" expansion, released March 2018, adds additional elements to the game, some of which are historic parts from the Apollo program. These include a lunar lander, basic rocket parts of the Saturn V and more. A level editor allows the players to create their own scenarios. New launch sites, including an island, are added. There are also new suits added that referenced the USSR's cosmonaut program.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: "Breaking Ground", released May 2019, adds robotic parts, which can be used to build helicopters, propeller airplanes, suspension systems, and robots. The parts include pistons, hinges and rotors. New suits were added as well. A major addition are surface features and science. The player can find certain rocks on surfaces of planets and analyze them using robotic arms. Science experiments such as active seismometers and weather stations can be deployed by the Kerbals and can be used to gather extra science points in science and career mode.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Director Felipe Falanghe was hired by Squad in April 2010. At the time, the company did not develop software. According to Falanghe, the name "Kerbal" came from the names he gave small tin figurines he installed in modified fireworks as a teenager. In October 2010, development on "Kerbal Space Program" was authorized by co-founder Adrian Goya but deferred until Falanghe had completed his projects. "Kerbal Space Program" was first compiled on 17 January 2011. The game's first public release, version 0.7.3, was on 24 June 2011. The game entered beta on 14 December 2014, with version 0.90, and was released out of beta on 27 April 2015.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Version 0.7.3 was the first public release of "Kerbal Space Program", and was released on 24 June 2011. It was downloaded over 5,000 times. Compared to future versions of this game, 0.7.3 was quite rudimentary. There was no stability assist mode, Kerbin did not rotate and the Sun was simply a directional light source. There were no fuel flow mechanics, no control surfaces, and no other celestial bodies. Later versions added additional planets and moons, as well as the ability to load and save collections of parts, known as "subassemblies". Tutorials were also added at this stage.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Version 0.24, titled "First Contract" and released on 17 July 2014, added the contracts and reputation system to the game's career mode; however, players were still able to play career mode without these features in the new science mode. Contracts reward the player with currency and reputation. Funds can be used to purchase rocket parts, and reputation results in better and more lucrative contracts.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The final alpha release, 0.25, included a new economic system, and a major rework of aircraft components.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Version 0.90, nicknamed "Beta Than Ever," was released on 15 December 2014. This was the only beta update for "Kerbal Space Program". Featuring extensively rewritten code for the editor, it introduced the ability to sort parts by several characteristics and to assign parts to custom categories. Players could now offset parts, including into space. Career mode featured building upgrades; only the creation of small rockets with low mass and a part count is initially supported, but the player can upgrade each of the facilities to increase size limitations or unlock other capabilities.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Version 1.0 was the first full release of "Kerbal Space Program". It was nicknamed "We Have Liftoff!" and released on 27 April 2015. Version 1.0 completely overhauled the flight and drag model for a more realistic simulation, now ignoring drag on rocket parts which were occluded from the air flow. It also allowed for body lift, so that parts that were not specifically designed as wings (such as structural panels) could still generate lift. 1.0 added shock heating and heat shields, making atmospheric entry much more dangerous, as well as air brakes and procedurally generated fairings. All parts received internal modeling. Resource mining was added to refine into fuel or monopropellant. 1.0 also brought several improvements to Kerbals, who could now have various specializations. For example, "Engineer" Kerbals can repair wheels and landing legs. Female Kerbals were also added to the game. Version 1.1, nicknamed "Turbo Charged", was released on 19 April 2016, almost one year after the last major update. The game engine was upgraded from Unity 4 to Unity 5, resulting in an increase in performance, as well as a stable 64-bit client, removing memory constraints caused by too many mods being installed. Much of the game was rewritten to accomplish this.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Squad released Version 1.2, nicknamed "Loud And Clear", to upgrade the game from Unity 5 to 5.4 and introduce performance and minor gameplay improvements. The patch entered experimental testing on 6 September 2016 and was officially released on 11 October 2016. Its main new features include communication satellites, relay systems, and KerbNet. Several updates have been released since.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: On 10 June 2021, Squad announced that update 1.12 "On Final Approach", would be the last major planned release and that the Squad developers would join the Intercept Games team working on KSP 2.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: On 27 January 2014, it was revealed that Squad was working on an education-themed version of the game entitled "KerbalEdu" in collaboration with TeacherGaming LLC, creators of "". It has since been released and includes an improved user interface for easier data gathering and summary, pre-made lessons that focus on certain constructions, options to use the metric system, and a "robust pedagogy" that includes information outside of the game that ties into its content.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: Squad has also made an Asteroid Mission Pack, with full support from NASA. Released on 1 April 2014, it is based on the real-life initiative to send humans out to study asteroids.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: The majority of the game's music was provided by royalty-free composer Kevin MacLeod, with the rest of the soundtrack having been written by Squad's in-house composer Victor Machado. The game's main theme was composed by lead designer Felipe Falanghe and arranged by Machado.


title: Kerbal Space Program

text: On 5 June 2015, it was announced that "Kerbal Space Program" was being ported to the PlayStation 4 by Flying Tiger Entertainment. In August 2015, it was announced that Xbox One and Wii U ports were also in development by Flying Tiger Entertainment.