title: Chelmsford

text: The Britvic UK headquarters at Britvic House in Broomfield Road closed in March 2012. It relocated to Hemel Hempstead to facilitate better transport links for its staff.


title: Chelmsford

text: On 14 March 2014 the Britvic Westway factory closed for good thus ending the company's 150-year association with the city.


title: Chelmsford

text: The Eastern Counties Railway arrived in Chelmsford in 1842. Owing to the geography of the city, three viaducts were constructed, the longest of which is the 18-arch Central Park viaduct. The station is at the end of the second viaduct. The third viaduct is at the River Chelmer, Springfield. The current Chelmsford railway station dates from around 1885.


title: Chelmsford

text: Around 14,000 commuters per day travel to London Liverpool Street on Greater Anglia services, making Chelmsford one of the busiest non-terminus stations outside London until 2010, when three early morning services were added from Chelmsford to London and three late evening services terminating at Chelmsford from London.


title: Chelmsford

text: Southbound services operate to London Liverpool Street and northbound services run to Colchester, Ipswich, Clacton-on-Sea, Harwich, Braintree and Norwich via the Great Eastern Main Line. Despite having elevated platforms, the station has full disabled access via a lift on each platform, as well as its stair access.


title: Chelmsford

text: Since 2011, a second station has been proposed to serve the new Beaulieu housing developments to the north-east of Chelmsford.


title: Chelmsford

text: The current bus terminal in Duke Street replaced the ageing 1930s bus station in March 2007 with shops, apartments and a covered roof for passengers.


title: Chelmsford

text: Essex County Council Highways & Transportation Department have considered constructing a 'Bus Rapid Transit System' to be built serving the Beaulieu Park/Springfield Area because of the increasing demand for Rapid Transit Plans in Ipswich, Colchester and Southend.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford has a park & ride service at nearby Sandon, just off Junction 18 of the A12. It runs from 7 am to 7 pm, Monday to Saturday, with five bus stops around the city (one near High Chelmer for shopping), and charges £2.50 per adult and is free for old-age pensioners or people under the age of 16. An adult weekly ticket is £12.50 and Adult monthly £47.00. It has a capacity of 1,200 cars. Opened in March 2006, it has proved highly successful and is widely used.


title: Chelmsford

text: A second service known as the Chelmer Valley Park and Ride was opened on the A130/A131 to the north of the city near Little Waltham in April 2011.


title: Chelmsford

text: The A12 trunk road, which connects London and Lowestoft, was originally built by the Romans to connect London and Colchester. It used to pass through the city until the £34.8m nine-mile (14 km) bypass around the east opened in November 1986. It links London and the M25 motorway with the docks at Harwich and Felixstowe, and the East Coast. Despite being notorious for frequent congestion, poor road surfaces, potholes and accidents, many people move to Chelmsford for it being so well connected by road and rail. The A414 trunk road between Hemel Hempstead and Maldon is a main road into the city (just off the A12) and links the city to junction 7 of the [M11] motorway in the west, near Harlow. The A130 provides a link to the A127 and A13, while the A131 passes through smaller towns and villages. The nearest motorway is the M25 "London Orbital" at J11 of the A12, 14 miles away, near Brentwood.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford is 25 to 30 minutes' drive from Stansted Airport (via A130/A120), and London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London City, Luton and Southend airports are all within reach.


title: Chelmsford

text: In the south-west of the city centre, the A138 meets the A414 at the Army and Navy roundabout which is notorious for its traffic congestion.


title: Chelmsford

text: Since 2 September 2013, to save money and reduce carbon emissions, many streets lights in the Chelmsford district switched over to Essex County Council's part-night street lighting scheme. This involves most street lights being switched off between 1:00 am and 5:00 am (Tuesday to Sunday) with exceptions such as the city centre area, key road junctions, some pedestrian crossings and known accident sites; on Monday mornings, the switch off is from midnight to 5:00 am.


title: Chelmsford

text: Proposals for a bypass of Chelmsford connecting the A12 interchange at Boreham (Junction 19) and the A131 were put forward for public consultation by Essex County Council in 2006, the preferred route was announced in March 2007. It comprises the creation of of two-lane dual carriageway and junctions connecting to the A12 and A131, it will sever 10 footpaths/bridleways and involve almost entirely greenfield construction. The scheme was estimated to cost £138 million in March 2007 but was increased to an estimated range of £229 – £262 million in February 2008. The scheme still requires funding and planning permission with applications timetabled for 2009–2011, a public inquiry timetabled for 2012 and with an estimated construction start date of 2014–2016. The Chelmsford North Action Group (NAG) objects to this scheme, stating that Chelmsford was to "be engulfed by huge motorways connecting the Channel Ports, via a new Lower Thames Crossing, A130, on to Stansted, M11 and A14".


title: Chelmsford

text: A second new Park and Ride scheme on the A130 near Little Waltham in addition to that at Sandon began construction in March 2010 at a price of £7.9 million. There has been criticism of the park and ride as some worry it would be unable to provide a service to the nearby Broomfield Hospital from the new site. The Little Waltham Park and Ride opened in April 2011.


title: Chelmsford

text: A new second railway station called Chelmsford Beaulieu for the city was announced in September 2009 to be built near the A12 Boreham Interchange, however as of 2021 the much delayed project has still not begun construction.


title: Chelmsford

text: A major new development on the Duke Street site of the old 1930s bus station was completed in 2007, which contains a new smaller bus station, shops and luxury apartments. The lower level apartments of this development and the bus station area is known as "Marconi Plaza", while the upper level apartments are known as the "Kings Tower". The new bus station and shops were opened in January 2007, while the rest of the development was ready in September 2007.


title: Chelmsford

text: A new housing development site near Beaulieu Park, towards the north of the city, is currently under construction; it will be an urban village containing around 3,500 homes.


title: Chelmsford

text: The public house "The Army and Navy", from which the roundabout gets its name, was demolished in March 2007. It was replaced by a Travelodge hotel, a "Frankie & Benny's" restaurant, a bed store and private apartments. Building work started at the site in October 2007 and the project was completed in December 2008.


title: Chelmsford

text: One of Chelmsford's two joint-tallest buildings, Melbourne Court (now renamed Parkside Court) in Melbourne Avenue, has received an £8,000,000 investment for extensive refurbishment and to create a new neighbourhood centre; this was completed early in 2009.


title: Chelmsford

text: Recently, plans were revealed for "Waterside", a large development of shops, bars and restaurants on the banks of the River Chelmer on derelict land near the Essex Records Office, at the end of Wharf Road. If this development goes ahead, High Bridge Road, which connects Parkway and Springfield Road, would be demolished along with the adjacent gasometers and a new central link road would be built.


title: Chelmsford

text: The former Anglia Ruskin University central campus, off Park Road, was demolished in January/February 2010; it has been redeveloped by social housing provider "Genesis" as a mixed use development of housing for social rent, alongside other new housing for private sale and several retail units, new squares, streets and plazas. The new development has been given the name "City Park West".


title: Chelmsford

text: High Chelmer shopping centre underwent a refit during 2008/2009 with new flooring, lighting with a new front entrance and a rebounded logo. Further work is being carried out in the shopping centre; an old portion was demolished in spring 2011 and the work was completed in early 2012.


title: Chelmsford

text: In January 2011, John Lewis announced, together with development partner Aquila House Holdings, that it was to anchor a brand new department store as part of a retail development at Bond Street. The site opened in September 2016.


title: Chelmsford

text: Hylands House and Park, just to the west of the city, are a country house and parkland which were saved from dereliction after being purchased by the local council in 1966, after the death of the last private owner, and is now open to the public. Dating from 1730, the house was much damaged by fire and vandalism by the time of the sale, but has since been completely restored by Chelmsford City Council and is now available for weddings and other private hires including conferences. The park was landscaped by Humphry Repton has hosted a wide range of community events, including the annual music festival V Festival. The 21st World Scout Jamboree 2007 was held at Hylands Park from 27 July to 8 August 2007. Within the grounds which comprise woodland, rolling grassland and lakes is a large children's play area with adjoining car parking.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford Museum in Oaklands Park, off Moulsham Street, is a local history and industrial heritage museum which incorporates the Essex Regiment Museum. A major £5 million extension and redevelopment scheme opened in January 2010 and the museum now includes exhibits and interactive displays focusing on Crompton, Marconi, and Hoffmann, as well as illustrating the development of the town and city from prehistory up to modern times. Further development in 2019 upgraded the museum to include new visitor facilities as well as new exhibits from the Saxon burial site at Broomfield. A second site at Sandford Mill – Chelmsford's former waterworks – displays further exhibits from Chelmsford's telecommunications, electrical engineering and rolling bearings industries.


title: Chelmsford

text: The Shire Hall is situated at the top of the High Street. Opened in July 1791 and built by local architect and Essex county surveyor John Johnson, it features a Portland Stone façade. One of the oldest and most prominent buildings in Chelmsford, it was built as a courthouse and there has been a court on the site since at least 1199. However this finally came to an end on 2 April 2012 with the opening of a new magistrates' court a short distance away in New Street.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford Cathedral, which is located directly behind the Shire Hall, is one of the oldest buildings in the city. Originally called "St Mary's Church", it became a cathedral when the Diocese of Chelmsford for the Bishop of Chelmsford was created in 1914. It is officially the second smallest in England behind Derby Cathedral.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford Prison is a male prison and Young Offenders Institution, constructed in 1830. The 1979 film special of the TV series "Porridge" with Ronnie Barker was filmed largely on location at Chelmsford Prison, while it was closed for repairs after a fire.


title: Chelmsford

text: The 1842 constructed, 18-arch Victorian railway viaduct (that spans the River Can in Central Park) is one of three railway viaducts in the city that carry the Great Eastern Main Line. The viaduct was constructed by the Eastern Counties Railway and opened for passenger traffic on 29 March 1843.


title: Chelmsford

text: The tallest structure by far in the borough is the former Chain Home radar tower in Great Baddow which rises to . The tower was constructed in 1937 and originally stood at the village of Canewdon's former RAF base (1936–1970). However, in 1956 it was relocated to Great Baddow. It is the only Chain Home tower still in its original unmodified form in the United Kingdom and is a highly visible landmark throughout the surrounding area. The tower was finally given Grade II listed building status in October 2019 by Historic England.


title: Chelmsford

text: From over 600,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene ice age, until the Anglian Stage around 478,000 to 424,000 years ago, the early River Thames flowed through the area where Chelmsford now stands, from Harlow to Colchester, before crossing what is now the North Sea to become a tributary of the Rhine. Consequently, gravel deposits are frequently found in the area and current and former gravel pits in the district are common.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford has two rivers, the River Can and the River Chelmer. Although often confused to be the same river in the city centre, they are quite separate until they join towards the east of the city to form the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation which heads out towards Maldon before flowing into tidal waters at the Blackwater Estuary. In the other direction, the Chelmer comes from the north from its source near Thaxted while the Can comes from the West from Writtle where it separates from the River Wid.


title: Chelmsford

text: Until the 1960s, these rivers were extremely prone to flooding the city centre area including two disastrous floods in August 1888 (known locally as 'The Great Flood') and in September 1958 (which also badly affected nearby Wickford) causing widespread damage. Flood prevention schemes in the 1960s on both rivers have largely prevented any further incidents here although the natural floodplains to the north and east such as The 'Baddow Meads' and The 'Chelmer Valley' continue to see flooding after prolonged heavy rainfall.


title: Chelmsford

text: As with most of the UK, Chelmsford has a temperate oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Köppen climate classification, however due to its proximity to continental Europe, Chelmsford enjoys warm summers and cool but not cold winters, with a relatively narrow annual temperature range and few extremes of temperature. Being in the southeast of England, the city enjoys a warmer climate than most of the United Kingdom and is one of the driest areas in the country. The nearest met office weather station is in Writtle, west of the city centre.


title: Chelmsford

text: The record highest temperature recorded in Chelmsford was on 19 July 2022 beating the previous record of which was set on 25 July 2019.


title: Chelmsford

text: The coldest temperature recorded in Chelmsford was on 29 January 1947. A low of was recorded during December 1981, and more recently the temperature fell to on 20 December 2010. Frost is common, occurring on an average of 53 nights of the year.


title: Chelmsford

text: Rainfall averages 591.8 mm a year, with daily totals of over 1 mm falling on 108.1 days of the year. Thunderstorms are rare and mostly occur during July and August. All averages refer to the 30-year observation period 1981–2010.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford was struck by a F1/F2 tornado on 23 November 1981 as part of the record-breaking nationwide United Kingdom tornado outbreak on that day causing some damage in the city centre.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford has a wide range of educational institutions. Higher education in the city is provided at one campus of Anglia Ruskin University (formerly called Anglia Polytechnic) and Writtle University College. Chelmsford College is the main provider of further education in the city. Sixth form colleges are attached to many of the secondary schools listed below.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford includes many primary schools, including The Bishop's C of E & R C Primary School, one of the few joint Anglican and Roman Catholic primary schools in the country


title: Chelmsford

text: Until their closure in the mid-2000s Anglia Television/ITV Anglia had offices located in Chelmsford city centre. Chelmsford is served by London and East Anglia regional variations of the BBC and ITV1.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford has its own Film Festival which was initially set up in 2017 by a few filmmakers and business owners who live in the Chelmsford area. This takes place predominantly at the Everyman Cinema in Chelmsford.


title: Chelmsford

text: In May 2022, Chelmsford hosted its first street art festival, "Concrete Canvas". The festival saw around 30 murals created in the cities Business Improvement District (BID). The artworks were created by a mix of local and internationally renowned street artists. They range from large pieces, installed on the walls of local businesses to smaller pieces on bollards and Openreach cabinets. The festival was supported by Chelmsford Council and Chelmsford For You.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford Cathedral is the second smallest cathedral in England after Derby Cathedral. It was built in the 15th and early 16th centuries, when it was the parish church of the prosperous medieval town. The Diocese of Chelmsford was established in 1914 from part of the Diocese of St Albans. It covers all of Essex and much of East London.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford is situated in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood and the two dioceses are now uniquely (at least within England) conterminous. With the coming of the Reformation the Catholic community of Chelmsford was subjected to the anti-Catholic laws and Chelmsford was the site of the death of a Catholic martyr, Saint John Payne. In the 19th century, native Catholics resurfaced and immigrants helped to build up the Catholic community. There are now three Catholic churches within Chelmsford along with a Norbertine canonry situated on New London Road; St. Philip's Priory and one of the largest Catholic private boarding schools in the country, New Hall School.


title: Chelmsford

text: Other denominations are represented, the Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventist Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Presbyterians, the Quakers, and the United Reformed Church all have places of worship within the city. The Jehovah's Witnesses' "Bethel", or UK supervisory office, is based in Chelmsford.


title: Chelmsford

text: For the local Muslim community, the majority of whom are Bengali and Pakistani, the Main Jamia Masjid mosque is located on Moulsham Street at the junction with Parkway.


title: Chelmsford

text: Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first-class county clubs that make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the county of Essex. The club is based at the County Ground in New Writtle Street close to the city centre.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford City Football Club plays in the National League South. The club's home ground is at the Chelmsford Sport and Athletics Centre, Melbourne Park, which it shares with Chelmsford Athletic Club. Chelmsford is one of the largest settlements in England without a Football League team. The city is home to the Chelmsford Sunday League, of which there are five divisions consisting of teams from around the area. The former ground of the club the New Writtle Street Stadium hosted greyhound racing which was one of two venues to do so. The other was at Springfield on local farmland on Pump Lane corner which took place during April 1949. The racing at both was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) and they were known as flapping tracks, which was the nickname given to independent tracks.


title: Chelmsford

text: The Chelmsford Rugby Football Club was established in 1920 and for the last 40 years has been playing rugby at Coronation Park in Timpsons Lane. As of 2016 the club has over 300 members and fields up to five senior teams each week. The club as of 2016 plays in the London 1 North league, the sixth tier of English rugby. In addition to the senior teams, there are 150 youth members providing teams from under 6's to under 17's. Chelmsford Hockey Club is a men's and ladies' field hockey club based in the city. It fields eight men's teams and five ladies' teams every weekend. The Ladies' 1st XI compete in the English Hockey League Conference East as of July 2016.


title: Chelmsford

text: Chelmsford Swimming Club has been running for over 100 years and is located in the Riverside Ice and Leisure building in Chelmsford. Based in the same building are the Chelmsford Chieftains, an ice hockey team that plays in the English National Ice Hockey League. The club promotes the use of junior players and local players from the Chelmsford and Essex area.


title: Chelmsford

text: Team Essex Volleyball Club is Chelmsford's national league volleyball club. It has four teams, which play in Volleyball England's national volleyball league. Its men's 1st team currently competes in the top division in the country, the Super 8s, while the women's 1st team competes one tier below the men. The club has a strong junior program and trains in The Boswells School in Chelmsford.


title: Chelmsford

text: Horse racing has been run at two separate venues using the name Chelmsford, neither actually in the city centre itself. The sport originally took place at Chelmsford Racecourse, at Galleywood, from the 18th century until its closure in 1935. A new racecourse was established at Great Leighs in 2008 and subsequently changed its name to Chelmsford City Racecourse.


title: Chelmsford

text: Since 2014 the city has held a marathon. Starting and ending in the city centre, the marathon takes in the city itself and the surrounding environs. The 2014 edition had over 1000 participants.


title: Baltic region

text: The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. The term "Baltic states" refers specifically to one such grouping.


title: Numbers game

text: The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. For many years the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack, published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York.


title: Numbers game

text: Gamblers place bets with a bookmaker ("bookie") at a tavern, bar, barber shop, social club, or any other semi-private place that acts as an illegal betting parlor. Runners carry the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a numbers bank.


title: Numbers game

text: Closely related is policy, known as the policy racket, or the policy game. The name "policy" is based on the similarity to cheap insurance, which is also a gamble on the future.


title: Numbers game

text: "Policy shops", where bettors choose numbers, operated in the United States prior to 1860. In 1875, a report of a select committee of the New York State Assembly stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form ... [that] gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing." It flourished especially in working class African American and Italian American communities across the country, though it was also played to a lesser extent in many working class Irish-American and Jewish-American communities. It was known in Cuban-American and Puerto Rican communities as "bolita" ("little ball").


title: Numbers game

text: Other sources date the origin of Policy, at least in its most well-known form, to 1885 in Chicago. During part of its run from 1868 to 1892, the Louisiana Lottery involved drawing several numbers from 1 to 78, and people wagering would choose their own numbers on which to place a bet. Initially, it instead ran by means of the sale of serially-numbered tickets, and at another point, the numbers drawn ran from 1 to 75.


title: Numbers game

text: By the early 20th century, the game was associated with poor and working-class communities, as it could be played for as little as a penny. Also, unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit to the bettors and policy winners could avoid paying income tax. Different policy banks would offer different rates, although a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical. Since the odds of winning were 999:1 against the bettors, the expected profit for racketeers was enormous.


title: Numbers game

text: In Boston (as well as elsewhere in the northeast), the game was commonly referred to as the "nigger pool", including in the city's newspapers, due to the game's popularity in black neighborhoods. The number was based on the handle from the early races at Suffolk Downs or, if Suffolk was closed, one of the racetracks in New York. The winner could be controlled by manipulating the handle.


title: Numbers game

text: After Jerry Angiulo became head of the Mafia in Boston, in 1950, he established a profit sharing plan whereby for every four numbers one of his runners turned in, they would get one for free. This resulted in the numbers game's taking off in Boston. According to Howie Carr, "The Boston American" was able to stay in business in part because it published the daily number.


title: Numbers game

text: During the 1950s, Wimpy and Walter Bennett ran a numbers ring in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. The Bennetts' protégé Stephen Flemmi took and collected bets for them.


title: Numbers game

text: Around the same time, Buddy McLean began forming a gang in Somerville, Massachusetts to, among other criminal activities, run numbers. This would become the Winter Hill Gang. By the 1970s, the Winter Hill Gang, then led by Whitey Bulger, moved bookies under its protection away from the numbers game to sports betting, as the state was starting its own lottery. Despite the creation of the state lottery, the numbers game's demise in Massachusetts was not immediate, as the state lottery had a lower payout and was taxed.


title: Numbers game

text: In the 1940s, Eddie Jones and his brothers earned more than $180,000 per week in the black community. While in jail for income tax evasion, Jones became acquainted with Sam Giancana, a hit-man for hire among top Italian Mafia figures. Back on the streets, the men became friends. Jones taught Giancana everything he knew about the policy game and how to memorize number combinations, and even hired Giancana to operate one of his many establishments.


title: Numbers game

text: Giancana made his first fortune through Jones. Aspiring to become a "made man", Giancana shared his knowledge of the policy game with the Dons, who were impressed. The Italian Mafia then focused their attention on the Jones market in the black community.


title: Numbers game

text: Under orders from the Dons, Giancana was instructed to remove Jones from his position and take over. To avoid being murdered by the mob, Jones walked away from his enterprise.


title: Numbers game

text: A 1941 trial exposed Detroit's extensive numbers operations. Among the policy houses operating were "Big Four Mutuale" (owned by John Roxborough, boxer Joe Louis's manager), "Yellow Dog" (owned by Everett Watson), "Tia Juana", "Interstate", "Mexico and Villa" (operated by Louis Weisberg), "New York", "Michigan", and others. Big Four was said in testimony to be doing $800,000 business a year, with profits of up to $6000 a week. Yellow Dog was said to be doing $4,900 daily in business, totaling $1.5 million annually. The grand jury in a trial of 71 defendants charged that 10 policy houses had been paying $600 a month in payoffs equally divided between the chief of police, the head prosecutor and the mayor, with smaller bribes in the $25 to $50 range going to individual police sergeants and lieutenants. Former mayor Richard Reading was said to have received $18,000 in payoffs. Reading, Roxborough, Watson, and several others were convicted on conspiracy charges, with Roxborough receiving a - to 5-year sentence, and Reading sentenced to four to five years.


title: Numbers game

text: Benny Mason, of the "B&M" policy house, and Buster Mathews of the "Goldfield" policy house, were the main kingpins of the numbers game in 1930s and 1940s Cleveland. In a 1935 raid on the B&M house on E. 46th St., police found 200 policy writers on hand who had handed in their books and were waiting for the payoff. In a 1949 arrest, police picked up a 35-year-old woman named Robinson who told them she had been a policy writer for the past month and a half, at $40 a week. She was writing slips for the Old Kentucky, Goldfield and Last Chance games, and her top sheet showed that she had written $500 in business on that day (which happened to be Good Friday) alone.


title: Numbers game

text: By the 1950s, there were eight rival numbers games operating in black sections of Cleveland, including "California Gold", "Mound Bayou" and "T. & O." The winning three-digit number from 000 to 999 was determined by the closing stock market results in the evening papers, with one digit each being taken from the totals for advances, declines, and unchanged. Bets of up to $2 would be placed with hundreds of numbers writers around the city, who would keep 25% of the money bet as their fee. In the mid-afternoon a runner (locally known as the pickup man or woman) would rendezvous with the writers to collect the policy slips and cash, which would be taken to a central location and totaled on adding machines prior to determining the winners. The runners kept 10% of the money bet as their fee. 65 cents on every dollar bet would be delivered to the "clearinghouse" parlors, which calculated the winners and paid off at 500 to 1 odds, keeping 15 cents on the dollar, on an average day when no "hot" number hit, for themselves. In the evening the runner would make the rounds again to deliver the cash winnings to those writers whose customers had hit the winning number, and winners would be paid. A number of bars, private clubs and taverns around town, including the "Tia Juana", served as centers of the action where bettors and writers would congregate and wait for the winners to be announced.


title: Numbers game

text: After a 1955 car bombing in which the girlfriend of Arthur "Little Brother" Drake was killed, police conducted a mass roundup of 28 numbers operators and runners on the east side, including Drake, Geech Bell, Don King, Edward Keeling, Dan Boone, Thomas Turk, and others. The following year Jewish gangster Shon Birns tried to keep the peace by setting up a 5-member syndicate of the leading black operators in Cleveland including Don King, Virgil Ogletree, Boone and Keeling to control the game, insure payouts when "hot" numbers which had been overbet hit for large scores, and limit the payoff odds to 500 to 1; Birns also attempted to introduce a new method of determining the winning number. The game was wildly popular; in the 1950s one Cleveland numbers house was said to clear $20,000 a day.


title: Numbers game

text: In Atlanta the game was known as "playing the bug." In 1936 "The Atlanta Constitution" wrote: "Both in the business section and the residential areas, one or more solicitors make their daily morning rounds into every office and every home. Then, in the afternoons, the "pay-off" men make their rounds over the same routes. Their patrons include every class of Atlanta citizens—professional men, businessmen, housewives, and even children." "The bug" was believed by police to be grossing citywide as much as $30,000 in bets a day at its height in 1937–1938. During a police crackdown in 1943, authorities claimed that the game was in decline and "they are lucky if they bank as much as $12,000 to $15,000 a day," after a raid on an alleged headquarters on Parsons Street. In 1944, eight bug rings were believed to be operating in the city, collectively handling a total of $15,000 to $20,000 in bets on an average day. Writers took out a 25% commission before passing on the rest of the day's receipts to the house.


title: Numbers game

text: Bug writers employed a number of schemes to foil police: in 1936 police observed writers carrying the day's bet slips gathering under the bridge which passes over the railroad tracks at Nelson St. As lottery squad officers watched, a pick-up car pulled up and stopped on the bridge overhead, the writers threw their paper sacks full of bet slips up to it, and the car sped off. In 1937 indictments were brought against the alleged "big shots" of the bug game in Atlanta, including Bob Hogg, the Hall brothers (Albert and Leonard), Flem King, Willie Carter, Walter Cutcliffe, Glenn House, and Henry F. Shorter. Henry Shorter was a barber who ran the game out of his barber shop. In 1944, Shorter was one of a select group of 20 African-American community leaders who were turned away from the polls when they attempted to vote in the Democratic primary; the Rev. M.L. King, father of Martin Luther King Jr., was among the others who participated in this protest.


title: Numbers game

text: Numbers games are popular in many Bahamian communities. While gambling in casinos is legal for tourists visiting the Bahamas, it is forbidden for Bahamian residents. There is also no legalized lottery for Bahamian nationals. As a result, the predominant form of gambling among residents is playing the Numbers.


title: Numbers game

text: The Italian lottery was operated as a racket for the American Mafia, originally in Italian-American neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Manhattan and Italian Harlem by mobsters of the Morello crime family. A young Joseph Bonanno, future boss of the Bonanno crime family, expanded the Italian lottery operation to all of Brooklyn and invested the profits in many legitimate businesses. In the 1930s, Vito Genovese, crime boss of the Genovese crime family, ruled the Italian lottery in New York and New Jersey, bringing in over $1 million per year, owned four Greenwich Village night clubs, a dog track in Virginia, and other legitimate businesses.


title: Numbers game

text: Dutch Schultz is said to have rigged this system, thanks to an idea from Otto Berman, by betting heavily on certain races to change the Win, Place and Show numbers that determine the winning lottery number. This allegedly added ten percent to the Mob take.


title: Numbers game

text: Francis A. J. Ianni, in his book "Black Mafia: Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime" writes: "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in Harlem, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues." By 1931, big time numbers operators in Harlem included James Warner, Stephanie St. Clair ("Madame Queen"), Casper Holstein, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, Wilfred Brunder, Jose Miro, Joseph Ison, Masjoe Ison and Simeon Francis. The game survived despite periodic police crackdowns.


title: Numbers game

text: Today, many state lotteries offer similar "daily numbers" games, typically relying on mechanical devices to draw the number. The state's rake is typically 50% rather than the 20–40% of the numbers game. The New York Lottery and Pennsylvania Lottery even use the names "Numbers" and "Daily Number" respectively. Despite the existence of legal alternatives, some gamblers still prefer to play with a bookie for a number of reasons. Among them are the ability to bet on credit, better payoffs, the convenience of calling in one's bet on the telephone, the ability to play if under the legal age, and the avoidance of government taxes.


title: Numbers game

text: One of the problems of the early game was to find a way to draw a random number. Initially, winning numbers were set by the daily outcome of a random drawing of numbered balls, or by spinning a "policy wheel," at the headquarters of the local numbers ring. The daily outcomes were publicized by being posted after the draw at the headquarters, and were often "fixed." The existence of rigged games, used to cheat players and drive competitors out of business, as well as the practical obstacles to holding a drawing for a lottery that is illegal, later led to the use of widely published unpredictable numbers, such as the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the United States Treasury, or the middle three digits of the number of shares traded that day on the New York Stock Exchange.


title: Numbers game

text: This is what led to the change from the game of policy, in which 12 or 13 numbers from 1 to 78 were drawn, and players bet on combinations of four or fewer of them, to the "numbers game," in which players chose a three-digit number to bet on.


title: Numbers game

text: The use of a central, independently-chosen number allowed for gamblers from a larger area to engage in the same game and also made larger wins possible. It also gave customers confidence in the fairness of the games, which could still generate vast profits even if run honestly, as they paid out only around $600 for every $1,000 wagered.


title: Numbers game

text: When the Treasury began rounding off the balance, many bookies began to use the "mutuel" number. This consisted of the last dollar digit of the daily total handle of the Win, Place and Show bets at a local race track, read from top to bottom. For example, if the daily handle (takings at the racetrack) was:


title: Numbers game

text: By 1936, "The Bug" had spread to cities such as Atlanta, where the winning number was determined by the last digit of that day's New York bond sales.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead (; ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 88,818.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead Priory and the Mersey Ferry were established in the 12th century. In the 19th century, Birkenhead expanded greatly as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Birkenhead Park and Hamilton Square were laid out as well as the first street tramway in Britain. The Mersey Railway connected Birkenhead and Liverpool with the world's first tunnel beneath a tidal estuary; the shipbuilding firm Cammell Laird and a seaport were established.


title: Birkenhead

text: In the second half of the 20th century, the town suffered a significant period of decline, with containerisation causing a reduction in port activity. The Wirral Waters development is planned to regenerate much of the dockland.


title: Birkenhead

text: The name Birkenhead probably means "headland overgrown with birch", from the Old English meaning birch tree, of which many once grew on the headland which jutted into the river at Woodside. The name is not derived from the Birket, a stream which enters the Mersey between Birkenhead and Seacombe. The Birket is a later name which was introduced by Ordnance Survey.


title: Birkenhead

text: The earliest records state that the Mersey ferry began operating from Birkenhead in 1150, when Benedictine monks under the leadership of Hamon de Mascy built a priory there. The priory was visited in 1275 and 1277 by Edward I. In a royal charter of 13 April 1330, Edward III granted the priory further rights.


title: Birkenhead

text: Distanced from the Industrial Revolution in Liverpool by the physical barrier of the River Mersey, Birkenhead retained its agricultural status until the advent of steam ferry services. In 1817 a steam ferry service started from Liverpool to Tranmere and in 1822 the paddle steamer, "Royal Mail", began operation between Liverpool and Woodside.


title: Birkenhead

text: Shipbuilding started in 1829. An ironworks was established by William Laird in 1824, and he was joined by his son John in 1828. The business eventually became the shipbuilder Cammell Laird. Notable naval vessels built at Birkenhead include HMS "Achilles", , , , , , , the pioneer submarine , (which sank in Liverpool Bay during sea trials, and was refloated and commissioned as HMS "Thunderbolt", only to be lost to enemy action with the loss of the entire crew), and . Merchant vessels were also built such as and .


title: Birkenhead

text: In 1833 an act was passed to introduce street paving, lighting and other improvements in the town. These included establishing a market and regulating the police force.


title: Birkenhead

text: In September 1932 thousands of unemployed people protested in a series of demonstrations organised by the local branch of the National Unemployed Workers Movement. After three days of rioting, police were brought in from elsewhere to help quell the rioters.


title: Birkenhead

text: In addition to the ferries and the railway, the Queensway road tunnel opened in 1934 and gave rapid access to Liverpool. This opened up the Wirral Peninsula for development, and prompted further growth of Birkenhead as an industrial centre. Bolstered by migration from rural Cheshire, southern


title: Birkenhead

text: Ireland and Wales, the town's population had grown from 110 in 1801 to 110,912 one hundred years later and stood at 142,501 by 1951.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead was struck by an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.


title: Birkenhead

text: 1989 saw the completion of a large shopping development within Birkenhead town centre, known as the Pyramids.


title: Birkenhead

text: Conway Park station was opened in 1998 as part of a development that saw Wirral Metropolitan College open a new campus nearby.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Wirral Waters development was announced in 2006, with work starting in 2011 and expecting to last for around 30 years.


title: Birkenhead

text: Wirral Council announced in 2020 the formulation of a 20 year development plan known as the 'Birkenhead 2040 Framework'. The plan aims to regenerate parts of Birkenhead, with the creation of a new park (Dock Branch Park), new housing and an improved greener environment.


title: Birkenhead

text: Formerly a township in Bidston Parish of the Wirral Hundred, Birkenhead was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1877, and became a county borough with the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. The borough included the parish of Birkenhead St. Mary and the townships of Bidston, Claughton with Grange, Oxton, Tranmere and part of Bebington, later known as Rock Ferry.


title: Birkenhead

text: The townships of Landican, Prenton and Thingwall were added in 1928, followed by Noctorum, Upton and Woodchurch in 1933.


title: Birkenhead

text: Prior to 1 April 1974, Birkenhead and the rest of the Wirral Peninsula were part of the county of Cheshire. The implementation of the Local Government Act 1972 caused Birkenhead to lose its county borough status. The town has since been administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. The


title: Birkenhead

text: The Birkenhead Urban Area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics, includes Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Ellesmere Port (which is outside the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral) and the contiguous built-up areas which link those towns. In the 2011 Census, the area so defined had a total population of 325,264, making it the 19th largest conurbation in England and Wales.


title: Birkenhead

text: Shipbuilding and ship repair has featured prominently in the local economy since the 19th century. Cammell Laird entered receivership in 2001. The shipyard was sold and became 'Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders' (NS&S), which grew into a successful business specialising in ship repair and conversion, including maintenance contracts for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. In September 2007 NS&S acquired the rights to use the Cammell Laird name. The company was renamed 'Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders' on 17 November 2008, seeing the famous name return to Birkenhead after a seven-year hiatus. In 2010, Cammell Laird secured a £50 million contract to construct the flight deck for , the first of two s. In 2015, Cammell Laird was selected as the preferred bidder to construct , a Royal Research Ship.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead Market was first established on what is now the site of Birkenhead Town Hall, between Chester Street and Hamilton Street, on 10 July 1835.


title: Birkenhead

text: An increase in the town's population by 1841 led to the opening on 11 July 1845 of a much expanded market on a larger site nearby. This market hall was built by Fox, Henderson & Co, who later built The Crystal Palace. Michael Marks, of Marks & Spencer, opened one of his first seven 'Penny Bazaar' stalls here during the 1880s. On 31 January 2018, Marks & Spencer announced the closure of their store, in the town centre of Birkenhead, happening in April.


title: Birkenhead

text: During the 1970s, the commercial centre of the town was redeveloped around the principal shopping area of Grange Road. Following two fires at the expanded Birkenhead Market in 1969 and 1974, it was moved to new premises adjoining the Grange Shopping Precinct development in 1977. Commercial expansion continued in the early 1990s when the Pyramids Shopping Centre was opened. The previous market site has been redeveloped with the construction of two office buildings, primarily to house Land Registry and Department for Work and Pensions offices.


title: Birkenhead

text: In February 2010, the town had an overall unemployment rate of 8.2% (males 12.4%, female 4.1%) as against a national average of 4.4%.


title: Birkenhead

text: In 2011, Birkenhead had a population of 88,818. The wider Urban Subdivision had a population of over 142,000. However, this latter figure includes areas such as Greasby and Frankby, which are separate from Birkenhead.


title: Birkenhead

text: The park was the forerunner of the Parks Movement and its influence was far reaching both in Britain and abroad – most notably on Frederick Law Olmsted's design for Central Park.


title: Birkenhead

text: Designed by Joseph Paxton (later Sir Joseph Paxton) in 1843 and officially opened in 1847, with great festivity. The park's Grand Entrance, modelled on the Temple of Illysus in Athens, and its 'Roman Boathouse' are notable features. There are sandstone lodges at the three entrances, each with a different style of architecture, Gothic, Norman and Italianate. There are also two lakes and an ornate 'Swiss Bridge'.


title: Birkenhead

text: William Laird, a Scot, and his son John, were influential in the design of the town. Parts were laid out in a grid-iron pattern like Edinburgh New Town with similar architecture. The chief architect was James Gillespie Graham from Edinburgh. This grid pattern was centred around Hamilton Square which was started in 1826 and, apart from Trafalgar Square in London, contains the most Grade I listed buildings in one place in England. including Birkenhead Town Hall. A short distance from Hamilton Square are two other notable landmarks: the Queensway Tunnel Main Entrance and the Woodside Ferry Terminal. The film "Chariots of Fire" had scenes shot at Woodside. These scenes were as a representation of Dover in the 1920s.


title: Birkenhead

text: Other notable landmarks include Bidston Windmill on a ridge behind the town, Flaybrick Watertower and Birkenhead Priory & St. Mary's Tower.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead had the first street tramway in Britain. Opened on 29 August 1860, the first line ran from Woodside (adjoining the terminal of the Mersey Ferry) to Birkenhead Park. This early system was horse-drawn and was the brainchild of flamboyant American, George Francis Train.


title: Birkenhead

text: The system was later electrified and operated from 1901 as Birkenhead Corporation Tramways; it closed in 1937. Two replica trams, imported from Hong Kong, have been brought into service as part of a heritage tramway between Woodside and Wirral Transport Museum; Birkenhead Corporation Tramways car No.20 is preserved on this line.


title: Birkenhead

text: As part of the "Wirral Waters" development, a street car service has been proposed, to be called Wirral Street Car.


title: Birkenhead

text: Horse-drawn buses began operating in Birkenhead in 1848, to be replaced with motor vehicles after the First World War.


title: Birkenhead

text: Present-day services are run by operators including Arriva and Stagecoach, which are coordinated by Merseytravel.


title: Birkenhead

text: National Express provides long-distance coach services to other UK cities, with direct routes including London, Glasgow, Bangor and Newcastle.


title: Birkenhead

text: The bus station was opened in 1996. It is adjacent to The Grange shopping centre and Birkenhead Market.


title: Birkenhead

text: It has a total of eleven stands and incorporates a travel centre. The main bus operators at the station include Arriva North West and Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire.


title: Birkenhead

text: Services using the bus station operate around the town of Birkenhead, throughout the Wirral and to the nearby city of Liverpool via the Queensway Tunnel. The station also has frequent services to as far away as Chester.


title: Birkenhead

text: Railways reached Birkenhead in 1840, when the Chester and Birkenhead Railway began services. Birkenhead Grange Lane station opened at the same time, becoming the town's first terminus. Birkenhead Dock station opened in 1866, as the eastern terminus of the Hoylake Railway. With the opening of the Woodside and Birkenhead Dock Street Tramway in 1873, this station probably became the world's first tram to train interchange. In 1886, Birkenhead and Liverpool were linked by an underground railway system, which today is part of the Merseyrail network.


title: Birkenhead

text: The major underground station in Birkenhead is Hamilton Square, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square station is linked to the Liverpool Loop of the Wirral Line, which includes James Street, Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central stations; all of these are underground. Other stations in the town include Birkenhead Central, which is open but below ground level; Green Lane, below ground level; Rock Ferry; Conway Park, below ground level; Birkenhead Park; Birkenhead North; and Bidston.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Wirral Line from Birkenhead travels south to Chester and Ellesmere Port, north to New Brighton and westwards, across the Wirral Peninsula, to West Kirby. The Borderlands Line leaves Bidston station, in the north of Birkenhead and travels through the rural centre of Wirral, ultimately leaving England near Shotton and terminating in Wrexham, Wales.


title: Birkenhead

text: From 1878 until its closure in 1967, Birkenhead Woodside station was the town's mainline railway terminus. Originally sited close to Woodside Ferry Terminal, the site had been redeveloped as part of Cammell Laird ship builders. Latterly, the adjacent dry dock at Cammell Laird was filled in and the area redeveloped to provide flats, a bus depot and offices for HM Land Registry and the Child Support Agency.


title: Birkenhead

text: The town has one operational railway depot, Birkenhead North TMD; one disused, Birkenhead Central TMD; and two demolished, Birkenhead Mollington Street TMD and a further depot adjacent to Birkenhead Park station. The remains of the Birkenhead Dock Branch are still extant in a cutting through the centre of the town, which was used primarily for freight services. Much of the peripheral railway infrastructure, around the docks, has been removed since the 1980s.


title: Birkenhead

text: Junctions 1 and 3 of the M53 motorway facilitate access to the national motorway network. The A41 trunk road connects Woodside with Marble Arch in London. Two road tunnels, the Queensway road tunnel from Birkenhead and the Kingsway road tunnel from Wallasey, run underneath the River Mersey and connect the town to Liverpool.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead's dock system is part of the Port of Liverpool, operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company under the ownership of The Peel Group. The Twelve Quays ferry terminal allows a direct freight and passenger vehicle service to Dublin and Belfast. Daily Belfast services are run by Stena Line, using their RoPax ferries and from 2020 to 2021, which replaced and . The Mersey Ferry at Woodside operates a passenger service to Liverpool and chartered cruising.


title: Birkenhead

text: During winter months, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company operates a service from Birkenhead to Douglas using . Due to weather conditions, this service temporarily replaces the route that normally operates from the Liverpool landing stage using fast craft.


title: Birkenhead

text: The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport (formerly known as Speke Airport), about from Birkenhead. Manchester Airport is approximately away. Other nearby aviation facilities include Hawarden Airport and RAF Woodvale. Former airfields in the area include RAF Hooton Park and Bidston Aerodrome.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead has a number of maintained schools, including Birkenhead Park School (formed after the merger of Rock Ferry High School and Park High School) and the only all-boys Catholic grammar school in the area St. Anselm's College.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead also has two independently run schools. The oldest is Birkenhead School. It was exclusively a boys' school from its founding in 1860 until 2000, when its sixth form became co-educational. It became fully co-educational for pupils aged 3–18 in 2008. "Old Birkonians" (as former pupils are known) include the lawyer F.E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead); Andreas Whittam Smith (chairman of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and founder of "The Independent" newspaper); mountaineer Andrew Irvine; Philip Toosey (hero at the Bridge on the River Kwai); and Tony Hall (former Director-General of the BBC).


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead High School Academy, formerly Birkenhead Girls High School, is an all-ability state funded girls' Academy. It was founded in 1885 and caters for girls aged 3–19. Its sponsor was the Girls' Day School Trust, but is now publicly funded. Its alumnae include the actress Patricia Routledge. Birkenhead Girls High School decided to become a state-funded Academy school in 2009, increasing the availability of its education. Like the change to co-education at Birkenhead School, this decision was largely driven by falling pupil numbers; however to this date, it remains a single sex school.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead Institute Grammar School existed from 1889 in Whetstone Lane, before being moved to Claughton in the 1970s. The school closed in 1994. The school's alumni include Wilfred Owen.


title: Birkenhead

text: Previously situated at Borough Road, Birkenhead's college has campuses at Europa Boulevard and Twelve Quays. The college was originally Birkenhead Technical College, and has been known as Wirral Metropolitan College since the 1980s. The college had a theatre on Borough Road named after one of its most famous former students, Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and Member of Parliament, herself a Birkonian, born in 1936. The Borough Road campus and the Glenda Jackson Theatre were demolished in late 2005, to make way for flats, although Wirral Metropolitan College flourishes on other sites across Wirral. The theatre secretly housed an emergency command centre for the region in its basement, accessible via the college. Politicians and officials would have retreated to this secure bunker in the event of nuclear war to co-ordinate the recovery effort. By the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, the bunker had been decommissioned and the surrounding complex of rooms was used by the college as a rehearsal space and recording studio.


title: Birkenhead

text: Other colleges include the Birkenhead Sixth Form College, in the Claughton area of the town, formerly the site of Corpus Christi Catholic High School.


title: Birkenhead

text: Religion in Birkenhead dates back to 1150 when Hamon de Masci founded Birkenhead Priory for the Benedictine order.


title: Birkenhead

text: The current Anglican churches are St. James' Church, Christ Church and the Church of Christ the King which are all within the Diocese of Chester. Julie Conalty is the current suffragan Bishop of Birkenhead.


title: Birkenhead

text: Roman Catholic churches include the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and St. Werburgh's Church which are within the Diocese of Shrewsbury.


title: Birkenhead

text: The other religious buildings include the Wirral Christian Centre of the Elim Pentecostal Church and the Islamic Shah Jalal Mosque. The Jewish Birkenhead Synagogue existed from 1890 and closed prior to 2006.


title: Birkenhead

text: Flaybrick Memorial Gardens contains the town's former main cemetery, which is situated near to St. James' Church. Flaybrick Hill Cemetery has been superseded by Landican Cemetery.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead has one of the highest mortality rates among men over 65 in the UK. Birkenhead is served by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (through its Arrowe Park Hospital, St Catherine's Health Centre and Clatterbridge Hospital sites) and Wirral Primary Care Trust. Formerly, Birkenhead was also served by Birkenhead General Hospital on Park Road North and St. James' Hospital in Claughton, now demolished and redeveloped for housing.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Laird School of Art was the first public school of art outside London and was given to the town by John Laird. It opened on 27 September 1871. The Williamson Art Gallery was opened in 1928 and houses a fine collection of paintings, porcelain and pottery.


title: Birkenhead

text: In 1856, Birkenhead Library was opened as the country's first public library in an unincorporated borough.


title: Birkenhead

text: The library was situated in Hamilton Street until 1909, when it moved to a new building in Market Street South, near Birkenhead Market. In the 1930s, this building (along with much of the surrounding area) was demolished to make way for the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel. The present library, Birkenhead Central Library, is situated on Borough Road and was opened by King George V in 1934.


title: Birkenhead

text: Despite being in England, Birkenhead (known as "Penbedw", in Welsh) hosted Wales' National Eisteddfod in 1917 as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1879. As in Liverpool, migrants from Wales, especially North Wales, contributed greatly to the growth of the town and its cultural development in the 19th century. The first local Birkenhead Eisteddfod, a precursor of the national events, took place in 1864. The 1917 National Eisteddfod was notable for the award of the chair to the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, known as Hedd Wyn. The winner was announced, and the crowd waited for the winner to accept congratulations before the chairing ceremony, but no winner appeared. It was then announced that Hedd Wyn had been killed the previous month on the battlefield in Belgium, and the bardic chair was draped in black. These events were portrayed in the Academy Award nominated film "Hedd Wyn", and were apparently intended as a protest against the war policies of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was present. There is a commemorative stone for the event in Birkenhead Park. The first meeting of the international Celtic Congress also took place at the Birkenhead Eisteddfod.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Argyle Theatre was a major theatre and music hall which opened on 28 December 1868 and became notable for the calibre of artistes who appeared there. Later in its life, it was also used as a cinema. The theatre was destroyed by bombing in 1940.


title: Birkenhead

text: The "Theatre Royal", opened on 31 October 1864, was in Argyle Street and had a capacity of 1,850. This theatre was closed in 1919 and demolished in the 1930s. Another theatre, the "Hippodrome", which was converted into a cinema in the 1930s, stood on the site of what became the Co-operative department store in Grange Road.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Little Theatre was established in 1958 from a converted former Presbyterian church. The Pacific Road Arts Centre in Woodside opened in 1999, but in 2015 was converted to a “Business Hub”.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead is served by the "Liverpool Echo" local daily newspaper. The local weekly newspaper is the "Wirral Globe" and the online-only news website is "Birkenhead News".


title: Birkenhead

text: The local radio station Heart Wirral is based in offices at the Pacific Road Arts Centre. In addition, there are five other local radio stations that transmit to Birkenhead: BBC Radio Merseyside, Radio City 96.7, Greatest Hits Liverpool, Capital Liverpool and CityTalk.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead is situated within the television regions of BBC North West and ITV's Granada Television. The local television station Bay TV Liverpool also broadcasts to the area.


title: Birkenhead

text: As well as Birkenhead Park, other recreational open spaces in Birkenhead include Dock Branch Park, Mersey Park and Victoria Park. Arrowe Park is a large area of parkland at the western edge of the town. In 1929, the 3rd World Scout Jamboree was held there.


title: Birkenhead

text: The first two Boy Scout groups in the world are thought to have been founded as the 1st and 2nd Birkenhead groups at YMCA on the same night in 1908. The 2nd Birkenhead Scout Group is still operating and therefore is the longest running scout group in the world.


title: Birkenhead

text: The first known football club on the Wirral was Birkenhead F.C. which was founded in 1879 by Robert E. Lythgoe, a former Druids F.C. player. An unrelated, disbanded side had played under the name Tranmere Rovers Cricket Club in 1881–82. Other clubs included Belmont Football Club, founded in 1884. They adopted the name Tranmere Rovers F.C. the following year, and are a professional team who play at Prenton Park near the Tranmere area of the town. They were a founder member of Division Three North in 1921, and were a member of The Football League until 2015, when they were relegated to the Conference, the fifth tier of English football. They returned to the Football League three seasons later, after a 2-1 play off final win against Boreham Wood F.C. Cammell Laird 1907 F.C. is the town's semi-professional football club who play at Kirklands in Rock Ferry. They play in the North West Counties League Division One.


title: Birkenhead

text: The Birkenhead Park Football Club was founded in 1871, the same year as the Rugby Football Union. The club originally played in the Lower Park but moved to their current home in the Upper Park in 1885. Birkenhead Park also has its own cricket club.


title: Birkenhead

text: Also in the town are the Birkenhead North End and Victoria Cycling Clubs. Olympic riders from the clubs include Chris Boardman, Mark Bell, Steve Cummings and Rachel Heal.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead has been host to various rowing clubs since 1840. At present, Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club operates from a facility at the western end of West Float.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead is mentioned in the song "What She Said" on the album "Meat Is Murder" by the Smiths: ""What she read/All heady books/She'd sit and prophesize/(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead/To really really open her eyes).""


title: Birkenhead

text: The town is also referred to in the song "Everything Is Sorrow" on the Boo Radleys' "C'mon Kids" album: "I worked in Birkenhead for you/It brings me tears even now."


title: Birkenhead

text: A fairly detailed description of the town is given in Paul O'Grady's memoirs, "At My Mother's Knee... and Other Low Joints: The Autobiography".


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead is indirectly referenced by ""the Birken'ead drill"" in Rudyard Kipling's poem "Soldier an' Sailor Too": "To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about, / Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout; / But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew, / An' they done it, the Jollies – 'Er Majesty's Jollies – soldier an' sailor too!", as it refers to heroism by Royal Marines during the sinking of HMS Birkenhead, itself named after the town in which it was built. Other authors have done this as well.


title: Birkenhead

text: In August 2022 the British Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, Mick Whitley, supported the findings of local historian John Lamb, that Robert Louis Stevenson had set his 1881 classic novel "Treasure Island" in the towns of Birkenhead and Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula lying opposite Liverpool. This followed a previous announcement by Alan Evans of Wirral Borough Council that the French science fiction writer Jules Verne had also set his 1874 novel "The Mysterious Island" in Birkenhead. Their Letters of support for Mr Lamb's claims were posted on the "Jules Verne and the Heroes of Birkenhead" website in August 2022.


title: Birkenhead

text: In the arts, Birkenhead has produced several actors and performers including Lionel Gamlin, Roger Abbott, Glenda Jackson, Anew McMaster, Lewis Collins, Megs Jenkins, Taron Egerton, Patricia Routledge, Paul O'Grady (also known as Lily Savage), soprano Valerie Masterson and baritone George Baker. The dancer and actor Lindsay Kemp was born in the town but as a child moved to South Shields. Opera director Graham Vick was born in Birkenhead.


title: Birkenhead

text: Some notable artists were born in the town, such as Philip Wilson Steer, Robert Talbot Kelly, Tom Palin, Bessie Bamber, Annie R. Merrylees Arnold, the workers at the Della Robbia Pottery and two cartoonists: Norman Thelwell and Bill Tidy.


title: Birkenhead

text: It has also produced poets and authors such as A.S.J. Tessimond, Adrian Henri and Michael Z. Williamson. The World War I poet Wilfred Owen, though born in Oswestry, lived in Birkenhead from the age of 4 and was educated at the Birkenhead Institute High School (now demolished). Andreas Whittam Smith, founder editor of "The Independent", grew up in Birkenhead, where his father was an Anglican clergyman.


title: Birkenhead

text: There are several musicians linked to the area. Freddie Marks from Rod, Jane and Freddy was born in Birkenhead, as was John Gorman of The Scaffold. Indie band Half Man Half Biscuit hail from Birkenhead, as did boogie-rock band Engine, Paul Heaton, lead singer of the Housemartins and the Beautiful South, singer/songwriter Charlie Landsborough and Desmond Briscoe co-founder and original manager of the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Elvis Costello moved to Birkenhead in 1971 with his mother, who was from Liverpool, although Elvis Costello's father was himself from Birkenhead. Tony Friel (bassist from the Fall and the Passage), synthpop musician David Hughes (of Dalek I Love You, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Godot) and Malcolm Holmes (drummer with pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) were born there. David Balfe (music manager, and member of Dalek I Love You, Big in Japan, the Teardrop Explodes) attended primary and secondary school there. Miles Kane, musician, singer and songwriter and member of The Last Shadow Puppets and The Rascals, was born in the town as well as the opera singer Hugh Beresford. Classical composer William Lewarne Harris (1919-2013) was born in Birkenhead.


title: Birkenhead

text: F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, a leading Conservative politician of the early 20th century, was born in the town, as were Liberal Democrat politician Malcolm Bruce, Labour politician Stephen Ladyman, the prominent occultist Alex Sanders, and Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, the Director-General of the BBC. Theodora Llewelyn Davies was a British barrister and penal reform campaigner. She was the first woman admitted to the Inner Temple in 1920. Frank Ernest Field, Baron Field of Birkenhead DL, is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead from 1979 to 2019, serving as a Labour MP until August 2018 and thereafter as an Independent


title: Birkenhead

text: Aerodynamicists Gwen Alston and Melvill Jones were born in Birkenhead, as was Henry Herbert Collier, inventor and founder of the Matchless motorcycle marque.


title: Birkenhead

text: Sandy Irvine, a participant of the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, was born in Birkenhead. There has been speculation that George Mallory and he reached the summit. Similarly, Alan Rouse, a mountaineer who died in the 1986 K2 disaster, was educated in Birkenhead. Daniel Poole, a recipient of the Distinguished Conduct Medal during World War I was born in the town.


title: Birkenhead

text: Birkenhead has also produced notable sportsmen such as Matt Dawson, the rugby union player; 'Dixie' Dean (Everton F.C.), record-breaking footballer, who was born at 313 Laird Street; and several other footballers including Peter Davenport, Jason McAteer, David Thompson, Max Power, Jodie Taylor England Lionesses International. The football manager Nigel Adkins also hails from the town.


title: Birkenhead

text: The major redevelopment project under consideration is Peel Holdings' "Wirral Waters". This would allow for £4.5 billion of investment in the regeneration of the dockland area. This equates with an investment of over £14,000 for each of the 320,000 residents of the Wirral. At the East Float and Vittoria Dock, the development would include of new office space and for new residential flats. A retail and leisure quarter at the former Bidston Dock site would encompass another of space. The whole project would create more than 27,000 permanent new jobs, aside from the employment required for construction and other peripheral employment. The development would be expected to take up to thirty years.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: There have been several rounds of peace talks to halt Russia's 2022 invasion in Ukraine and end the Russo-Ukrainian War in an armistice. The first meeting was held on 28 February in Belarus, concluding without result, with delegations from both sides returning to their capitals for consultations. A second and third round of talks took place on 3 March, and 7 March 2022, on the Belarus–Ukraine border, in an undisclosed location in the Gomel region of Belarus. A fourth and fifth round of talks were respectively held on 10 and 14 March in Istanbul, Turkey.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Peace talks and the stability of international borders were further discussed in the Ukrainian parliament during the week of 9 May. During these meetings, Sweden and Finland applied to become full members of NATO. Following the 2022 Ukrainian eastern counteroffensive, Russia renewed calls for peace talks. Ukrainian leaders refused to reopen dialogue, claiming that the Russian government was not truly committed to peace and was simply stalling for time while its forces regrouped.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 24 February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced he was commencing a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine. Thousands of Russian troops subsequently entered Ukraine and began targeting Ukrainian military and civilian infrastructure with artillery strikes. Early in the invasion, Putin rejected a provisional peace deal proposed by Dmitry Kozak, which would've ended hostilities in exchange for guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: During a conversation between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on 27 February, it was agreed that a Ukrainian delegation would meet with Russian officials on the Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River, without preconditions. It was reported that Lukashenko assured Zelenskyy that all planes, helicopters, and missiles on Belarusian territory would remain on the ground during the negotiations.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: By 16 March, Mykhailo Podoliak was assigned as the chief negotiator for the Ukrainian peace delegation, who indicated that peace negotiations of a 15-point plan would involve the retraction of Russian forces from their advanced positions in Ukraine, along with international guarantees for military support and alliance in case of renewed Russian military action, in return for Ukraine not pursuing further affiliation with NATO.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: The first round of talks began on 28 February, near the Belarusian border. The Ukrainian president's office said that the main goals were to call for an immediate ceasefire, and for Russian troops to be withdrawn from Ukraine. It concluded with no immediate agreements.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 3 March, the second round of peace talks began. Both sides agreed to open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians. Russia's demands were Ukraine's recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea, independence for separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, and "de-militarisation" and "de-Nazification". Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that while his country was ready for talks to resume, Russia's demands had not changed.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: It was reported on 28 March that three members of the Ukrainian negotiating team, including Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian politician Rustem Umerov, were suffering from suspected poisoning. According to the independent newspaper "Meduza", prior to the alleged poisoning, Umerov was accused by the Kremlin and Russian state-controlled media of being an American spy, and that he was deliberately prolonging the negotiations to Ukraine's advantage. Umerov later wrote on Facebook that he was "fine", calling for people to not trust "unverified information".


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: A third round of negotiations began on 7 March, amidst ongoing fighting and bombing. Although a deal had not been reached yet, Ukrainian negotiator and advisor to the president Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted that "there were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors." However, the day before, a Ukrainian negotiator was shot amid claims of spying for Russia.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 10 March, Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met for talks in Antalya, Turkey with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu as mediator, in the first high-level contact between the two sides since the beginning of the invasion. Ukraine had attempted to negotiate a 24-hour ceasefire to provide aid and evacuation to civilians, especially in Mariupol. After two hours of talks, no agreement was reached. Airstrikes on the port city continued.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: The fourth round of negotiations began on 14 March via video conference. The talks lasted a few hours and ended without a breakthrough. The two sides resumed talks on 15 March, after which Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the talks as beginning to "sound more realistic".


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: The two sides again resumed talks on 16 March. Later that day, the "Financial Times" reported that a 15-point plan, first discussed on 14 March, negotiated with the Russians was being identified by Zelenskyy as more realistic for ending the war. After the fourth day of talks on 17 March, Russia said an agreement has not been reached. Following the talks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that Russia was only "pretending to negotiate", in line with a strategy it has used elsewhere.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 20 March, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the mediator of the talks, described them as "making progress". Referring to his role as "an honest mediator and facilitator", he gave little further detail.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Following his address to the Israeli parliament, Zelenskyy said that Israel was also trying to encourage peace talks.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: The fifth round of talks, on 21 March, failed to achieve a breakthrough. Zelenskyy called for direct talks with Putin to end the war. Sergey Lavrov said direct talks between the two presidents would only go ahead once both sides are closer to reaching a settlement.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 28 March, Zelenskyy confirmed that a renewal of peace talk negotiations with Russia would start in Istanbul on 29 March, with the intention of discussing Ukrainian neutrality, along with the repudiation of any claims for Ukrainian NATO membership in the future. On 29 March, Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, indicated in agreement with French minister Le Drian that any Russian offers of peaceful negotiation about Ukraine, or withdrawal from Kyiv, should be regarded with diplomatic skepticism, based on a history of Russian unreliability in similar peace negotiations with other countries.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: According to a May report from "Ukrainska Pravda", the Russian side was ready for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, but it later came to a halt after the discovery of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and the surprise visit on 9 April of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who told Zelenskyy "Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with," and that "even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not." Three days after Johnson left Kyiv, Putin stated publicly that talks with Ukraine "had turned into a dead end". Another three days later, Roman Abramovich visited Kyiv in an attempt to resume negotiations, but was rebuffed by Zelenskyy as a non-neutral party. According to Fiona Hill and Angela Stent writing in "Foreign Affairs" in September, U.S. officials they spoke with said Russia and Ukraine "appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement", whereby the Russian forces would withdraw to the pre-invasion line and Ukraine would commit not to seek to join NATO in exchange security guarantees from a number of countries. However, in a July interview with Russian state media, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that this compromise was no longer an option, saying that even the Donbas was not enough and that the "geography had changed."


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 7 April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the peace deal Ukraine drafted and presented to the Russian government contained "unacceptable" elements. Lavrov said that the proposal diverged from the terms negotiators had agreed on. Mykhaylo Podolyak, a negotiator for Ukraine, said that the comments from Lavrov are a tactic to draw attention away from the war crime accusations against Russian forces. Lastly, Lavrov stated, "Despite all the provocations, the Russian delegation will continue with the negotiation process, pressing for our own draft agreement that clearly and fully outlines our initial and key positions and requirements."


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 11 April, the Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer, visited and spoke with Putin in Moscow in 'very direct, open and hard' talks which were skeptical of the short-term peaceful resolution of the invasion. By 26 April, the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres visited Russia for the purpose of speaking with Putin and Lavrov in separate meetings, and after the meetings with them indicating skepticism as to any short term resolution of differences between Russia and Ukraine largely due to very different respective perspectives on the circumstances of the invasion presently being adopted by each of the two nations.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: At the start of May, Lavrov stated that his belief (prefaced by stating that he "could be wrong") that Hitler was part Jewish; the claim was met with outrage from Israel's government officials. On 5 May, Putin retracted and apologized to Israel's prime minister for Lavrov's comment, who accepted the apology during discussions with Putin about Ukraine. Peace talks and stability of international borders were further discussed in the Ukrainian parliament during the week of 9 May. In the same week both Sweden and Finland applied to become full members of NATO.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Peace talks and stability of international borders were further discussed in parliament during the week of 9 May within both Sweden and Finland for application to become full members of NATO. On 13 May, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin initiated a telephone conversation with Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, the first call since 18 February, before the invasion. The call lasted about an hour with Austin urging an immediate ceasefire.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 15 May, Putin convened the Collective Security Treaty Organization, consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Belarus, to discuss issues of peace and border security related to Ukraine and NATO. In response to perceived instability of Russia's border with Finland following the application of Finland and Sweden for NATO membership, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia would deploy and station 12 divisions of troops on Russia's border with Finland. On 22 May, while visiting in Japan to discuss cooperative efforts between Japan and the US to assist peaceful resolutions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden stated that current US treaties with Taiwan would see the US providing direct military support to Taiwan in the event of diplomatic or military pressure exerted by China, in contrast to the limits of its financial support of Ukraine resisting Russian military operations.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Zelenskyy denounced suggestions by former US diplomat Henry Kissinger that Ukraine should cede control of Crimea and Donbas to Russia in exchange for peace. On 25 May, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would not agree to peace until Russia agreed to return Crimea and the Donbas region to Ukraine. Zelenskyy stressed that "Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia." He emphasized that Ukrainians own the land of Ukraine. , these peace negotiations have been frozen indefinitely.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: In September, Reuters reported that Dmitry Kozak had an agreement with the Ukrainian side with Ukraine's declaration that it will not join NATO, which was presented as Russia's key concern. The agreement was however blocked by Putin, who "expanded his objectives to include annexing swathes of Ukrainian territory". In the same month, Ukraine rejected a peace plan proposed by Mexico.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: On 21 September, Zelenskyy addressed the UN General Assembly with a pre-recorded video, laying out five "non-negotiable" conditions for a "peace formula", comprising "just punishment" of Russia for its crimes committed against Ukraine, protection of life by "all available means allowed by the UN charter", restoring security and territorial integrity, security guarantees from other countries, and determination for Ukraine to continue defending itself. Speaking to "Bild", Zelenskyy stated that he saw little chance of holding talks with Putin unless Russia withdrew its forces from Ukrainian territory. Following Putin's announcement of Russia annexing four regions of Ukrainian territory it had seized during its invasion, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would not hold peace talks with Russia while Putin was president.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Following the October 2022 missile strikes on Ukraine, China and India, who had abstained from condemning Russia at the UN, expressed concern and called for de-escalation and dialogue. Turkish President Erdogan expressed some hope for a diplomatic resolution, saying that Putin "is now more open to possible peace talks" and that Kyiv "was not rejecting such peace talks." The Russian government announced it was ready for a renewed dialogue, and indeed had always been open to negotiating an end to hostilities. The Ukrainian leadership responded that it did not believe Russia was truly committed to peace, and was simply hoping to stall for time while rebuilding its military capabilities for future offensives.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: Russia and Ukraine signed agreements with Turkey and the United Nations on 22 July 2022, intended to secure exports via the Black Sea of grain from both countries and fertilizer from Russia, to ease shortages in developing countries. The next day, Russia fired missiles at the port city of Odesa, through which Ukrainian grain flows and formally declared Ukrainian ports unsafe. As a result of the agreement, the first shipment of Ukraine grain to international destinations started on 1 August 2022.


title: 2022 Russia–Ukraine peace negotiations

text: In the poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) between 13 and 18 May 2022, 82% of Ukrainians said they did not support any territorial concessions to Russia, even if it would prolong the war. Another KIIS poll conducted in September 2022 found that 87% of Ukrainians opposed any territorial concessions to Russia.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Thomas Adrian Sands (born August 27, 1937) is an American pop music singer and actor. Working in show business as a child, Sands became an overnight sensation and instant teen idol when he appeared on "Kraft Television Theater" in January 1957 as "The Singin' Idol". The song from the show, "Teen-Age Crush", reached No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands was born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois; his father, Ben, was a pianist, and his mother, Grace, a big-band singer. He moved with the family to Shreveport, Louisiana. He began playing the guitar at eight and within a year had a job performing twice weekly on a local radio station. At the beginning of his teen years, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he attended Lamar High School and joined a band with "Jimmie Lee Durden and the Junior Cowboys", consisting of Sands, Durden, and Billy Reno. They performed on radio, at county fairs, and did personal appearances. He was only 15 when Colonel Tom Parker heard about him and signed him to RCA Records.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands's initial recordings achieved little in the way of sales but in early 1957 he was given the opportunity to star in an episode of "Kraft Television Theatre" called "The Singing Idol". He played the part of a singer who was very similar to Elvis Presley, with guitar, pompadour hair, and excitable teenage fans.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: On the show, his song presentation of a Joe Allison composition called "Teen-Age Crush" went over big with the young audience and, released as a single by Capitol Records, it went to No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 record chart and No. 1 on the "Cashbox" chart. It became a gold record.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands' sudden fame brought an offer to sing at the Academy Awards show. He did another episode of "Kraft Television Theatre", "Flesh and Blood" (1957), playing the son of a gangster. He also made "The Promise" for "Zane Grey Theatre" (1957), playing the son of a character played by Gary Merrill.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands' teen idol looks landed him a motion-picture contract with 20th Century Fox to star in a 1958 musical drama called "Sing, Boy, Sing", the feature film version of "The Singin' Idol". Fox had enjoyed success with films starring other teen idols such as Elvis Presley and Pat Boone but "Sing, Boy, Sing" was a financial failure.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands appeared on CBS Television on January 9, 1958 in an episode of "Shower of Stars", and played another singing star in "The Left-handed Welcome" for "Studio One in Hollywood" (1958).


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands supported Pat Boone in a musical for Fox, "Mardi Gras" (1958), which was a moderate hit. He also released the albums "Sands Storm" (1958), "This Thing Called Love" (1959), and "When I'm Thinking of You" (1959).


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands appeared in the 1960 episode of "Wagon Train" titled "The Larry Hanify Story", and also a later "Wagon Train"' episode in 1963, "The Gus Morgan Story". His later albums included "Sands at the Sands" (1960) and "Dream with Me" (1960). From May to November 1960, he served in the United States Air Force Reserves.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands' second lead role in a feature was in the teen comedy "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" (1961) with Fabian Forte, which was not a success. More popular was a fantasy musical he made at Disney, "Babes in Toyland" (1961), co-starring Annette Funicello. That year he and Funicello sang the Sherman Brothers' title song from the Walt Disney release of "The Parent Trap".


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands guested starred on "The Inner Panic" for "The United States Steel Hour" and was one of several pop stars who played US Rangers in Fox's "The Longest Day" (1962).


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands had married Nancy Sinatra whose father Frank offered Sands a role in "Come Blow Your Horn" but he turned it down. Sands studied acting in New York.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands appeared alongside Fred Astaire in "Blow High, Blow Clear" for "Alcoa Theatre" (1963). On May 14, 1963, Sands appeared, along with Claude Akins and Jim Davis, in "Trapped", one of the last episodes of NBC's "Laramie" western series. In the story line, series character Slim Sherman (John Smith) finds an injured kidnap victim in the woods, portrayed by Joan Freeman. Dennis Holmes, as series regular Mike Williams, rides away to seek help, but the kidnappers reclaim the hostage. Slim pursues the kidnappers but is mistaken as a third kidnapper by the girl's father, played by Barton MacLane. Sands played the girl's boyfriend, who had been ordered by her father to stop seeing her.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Later in 1963, Sands made several appearances on "Wagon Train" including "The Davey Baxter Story", "The Larry Hanify Story," "The Gus Morgan Story" (with Peter Falk), and "The Bob Stuart Story".


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands had a support role in the feature film "Ensign Pulver" (1964) at Warners. He guest starred on "Slattery's People" ("Question: Why the Lonely?... Why the Misbegotten?") and had a support role in the war feature "None But the Brave" (1965), starring and directed by Frank Sinatra.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands guest starred on "Kraft Suspense Theatre" ("A Lion Amongst Men", which earned him good reviews), "Combat!" ("More Than a Soldier"), "Valentine's Day" ("For Me and My Sal"), "Mr Novak" ("Let's Dig a Little Grammar", "And Then I Wrote..."), "Branded" ("That the Brave Endure"), "Bonanza" ("The Debt"), and "Hawaii Five-O" ("No Blue Skies").


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands divorced Nancy Sinatra in 1965. "The doors to Hollywood seemed to slam shut after the divorce from Nancy", he said. "I couldn't get acting roles, my singing career on TV and in films was over."


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: His last feature to date was "The Violent Ones" (1967) in which Sands had a supporting role. He moved to Hawaii in 1967.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: In Hawaii, Sands operated the Tommy Sands Nightclub Tour for five years, and performed at the Outrigger Hotel in Waikiki. His later appearances included episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" ("Hit Gun for Sale", "A Sentence to Steal"), and "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" ("Mystery on the Avalanche Express"). He occasionally returned to the mainland to work, appearing in dinner theatre.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Sands returned permanently to the mainland of the US in 1981, settling in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He toured regularly performing concerts.


title: Tommy Sands (American singer)

text: Tommy Sands and singer Nancy Sinatra married in 1960 and divorced in 1965. His career had declined significantly by 1965, triggering speculation that Frank Sinatra had him "blacklisted" in the entertainment industry after their divorce. Such reports were denied by both Sands and Sinatra. In 1974, Sands married Sheila Wallace, a secretary, in Honolulu, where he had relocated in an attempt in vain to revive his career.


title: Integer programming

text: An integer programming problem is a mathematical optimization or feasibility program in which some or all of the variables are restricted to be integers. In many settings the term refers to integer linear programming (ILP), in which the objective function and the constraints (other than the integer constraints) are linear.


title: Integer programming

text: Integer programming is NP-complete. In particular, the special case of 0-1 integer linear programming, in which unknowns are binary, and only the restrictions must be satisfied, is one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems.


title: Integer programming

text: If some decision variables are not discrete, the problem is known as a mixed-integer programming problem.


title: Integer programming

text: In integer linear programming, the "canonical form" is distinct from the "standard form". An integer linear program in canonical form is expressed thus (note that it is the formula_1 vector which is to be decided):


title: Integer programming

text: where formula_4 are vectors and formula_5 is a matrix. As with linear programs, ILPs not in standard form can be converted to standard form by eliminating inequalities, introducing slack variables (formula_6) and replacing variables that are not sign-constrained with the difference of two sign-constrained variables


title: Integer programming

text: The feasible integer points are shown in red, and the red dashed lines indicate their convex hull, which is the smallest convex polyhedron that contains all of these points. The blue lines together with the coordinate axes define the polyhedron of the LP relaxation, which is given by the inequalities without the integrality constraint. The goal of the optimization is to move the black dashed line as far upward while still touching the polyhedron. The optimal solutions of the integer problem are the points formula_8 and formula_9 which both have an objective value of 2. The unique optimum of the relaxation is formula_10 with objective value of 2.8. If the solution of the relaxation is rounded to the nearest integers, it is not feasible for the ILP.


title: Integer programming

text: The following is a reduction from minimum vertex cover to integer programming that will serve as the proof of NP-hardness.


title: Integer programming

text: Given that the constraints limit formula_13 to either 0 or 1, any feasible solution to the integer program is a subset of vertices. The first constraint implies that at least one end point of every edge is included in this subset. Therefore, the solution describes a vertex cover. Additionally given some vertex cover C, formula_13 can be set to 1 for any formula_15 and to 0 for any formula_16 thus giving us a feasible solution to the integer program. Thus we can conclude that if we minimize the sum of formula_13 we have also found the minimum vertex cover.


title: Integer programming

text: Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) involves problems in which only some of the variables, formula_18, are constrained to be integers, while other variables are allowed to be non-integers.


title: Integer programming

text: Zero-one linear programming (or binary integer programming) involves problems in which the variables are restricted to be either 0 or 1. Any bounded integer variable can be expressed as a combination of binary variables. For example, given an integer variable, formula_19, the variable can be expressed using formula_20 binary variables:


title: Integer programming

text: These considerations occur frequently in practice and so integer linear programming can be used in many applications areas, some of which are briefly described below.


title: Integer programming

text: Mixed-integer programming has many applications in industrial productions, including job-shop modelling. One important example happens in agricultural production planning involves determining production yield for several crops that can share resources (e.g. Land, labor, capital, seeds, fertilizer, etc.). A possible objective is to maximize the total production, without exceeding the available resources. In some cases, this can be expressed in terms of a linear program, but the variables must be constrained to be integer.


title: Integer programming

text: These problems involve service and vehicle scheduling in transportation networks. For example, a problem may involve assigning buses or subways to individual routes so that a timetable can be met, and also to equip them with drivers. Here binary decision variables indicate whether a bus or subway is assigned to a route and whether a driver is assigned to a particular train or subway. The zero-one programming technique has been successfully applied to solve a project selection problem in which projects are mutually exclusive and/or technologically interdependent. It is used in a special case of integer programming, in which all the decision variables are integers. It can assume the values either as zero or one.


title: Integer programming

text: Territorial partitioning or districting problem consists in partitioning a geographical region into districts in order to plan some operations while considering different criteria or constraints. Some requirements for this problem are: contiguity, compactness, balance or equity, respect of natural boundaries, and socio-economic homogeneity. Some applications for this type of problem include: political districting, school districting, health services districting and waste management districting.