title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Max becomes curious about Batman after his "return" to Gotham City. Exceptionally skilled with computers and electronics, she creates a program that is designed to uncover Batman's secret identity to satisfy that curiosity. After unmasking Terry (following an incorrect assessment of him being a Jokerz hooligan), Max insists on being a part of his secret life and helps him with everything from computer hacking to come up with excuses to give his girlfriend Dana. She even expressed a desire to want to be the next Batgirl at some point, but both Bruce and Terry refused to allow that possibility to become a real one.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Max's importance is similar to that of Barbara Gordon and Lucius Fox combined in the comics, as the resident hacking and technology genius. Terry and Max remain close, but their relationship is never shown to exceed the boundaries of friendship, which is in contrast to the relationship between Barbara and Bruce, who were briefly involved. Max is, essentially, Terry's version of Alfred Pennyworth; Terry even jokingly referred to her as such on one occasion.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: The show has been revisited several times since its end, in "Justice League Unlimited", "Static Shock" and in the film "", but Max has not been seen or mentioned in any of these. However, she has made an appearance in the fourth issue of the ongoing comic book series "Batman Beyond" and presently of the first issue of the current "Batman Beyond" series that was released as part of DC Rebirth, which is part of a separate continuity that is part of the New 52 universe.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the episode "Hidden Agenda", Max reveals that she is writing a computer program to analyze all the data available on Batman and deduce his secret identity. She informs her friends Terry McGinnis and Dana Tan that she believes that Batman is a new person in the old suit, and is somehow connected to their school. This concerns Terry, who is the new Batman.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: When the school is vandalized by a gang of Jokerz, Max reconfigures her program to search for Jokerz instead. Unknown to her, the vandalism was targeted at her: the leader of the Jokerz, Terminal, is honor student Carter Wilson, and Max's standing is higher than his, outperforming him academically; at the current rate, she will be valedictorian instead of him.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry, as Batman, discovers that Max is a specific target and mistakenly believes that it is because of her computer program. He convinces her to stop running the program, but when Max goes to delete it, she learns that it has completed its analysis. Much to her surprise, Terry's name comes up on the list of potential Jokerz, and she becomes convinced that Terry is Terminal and sends him a message, threatening to expose his secret if he does not meet her. Further confusing the issue, Terry does not get the message until late, and Terminal (who was following her) shows up at the meeting place with his Jokerz. Terry arrives as Batman and rescues Max, revealing Terminal's true identity in the process.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Max later admits to Terry that she had thought he was one of the Jokerz but has now figured out the truth. She goes to delete her program, but Terry advises her that it has already been wiped after Bruce hacked into the school's computer systems. Max then immediately proves herself an asset by providing an alibi for why Terry did not call Dana the previous night when he was saving Max. Max tells Terry that he cannot call her Robin; he instead jokingly calls her "Alfred".


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the episode "Hooked Up", Max attempts to join Terry on patrol as his partner, even though both he and Bruce do not approve. Trying to prove her worth to Terry, she becomes addicted to Spellbinder's illegal VR technology, but fights off its influence and knocks Spellbinder out before he can injure Terry. Although Terry remains unwilling to allow her to physically assist him, he accepts her as his partner after she helps him defeat Curaré and disarming Metro Botha's nuclear weapon in the episode "Final Cut".


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry initially hides Bruce's identity from Max, but Max already has enough information to deduce that Terry's employer is the original Batman. In "Where's Terry?", when Terry goes missing in Gotham's maze of subway tunnels, Bruce and Max look for him together and manage to come to an understanding regarding their respective importance to Terry, although Bruce steadfastly refuses to allow her to become involved in rescuing Terry. At times, Bruce and Max become friends, despite the former being repeatedly and frustratedly annoyed by her contacting Terry for discussing high school issues.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry flirted with several girls throughout the show, but his main love interest has always been Dana Tan, his Chinese-American long-time girlfriend. In the episode "Big Time", she recognizes Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow by sight, suggesting that Dana and Terry knew each other since their early teens, although in "Rebirth", Terry's mother notes that Dana, Terry's "friend", left him her number, suggesting that they became a couple over the course of the series. Despite their commitment to each other, their relationship is strained as Terry struggles early on as Batman to balance his dual obligations. The two have been on the verge of breaking up several times, especially before Terry meets Melanie Walker, AKA Ten of the Royal Flush Gang, but despite being close to breaking up several times over, Dana somehow manages to forgive Terry for his absences, believing that Terry sees Bruce Wayne as a father-figure and doesn't want to fail him. The two are usually shown together many times through the series, including the film "".


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: However, as the "Justice League Unlimited" episode "Epilogue" reveals, Terry ultimately grows into full acceptance of his role as Batman, and somewhere along the line discloses his secret to Dana. Despite knowing his secret, Dana shows to have accepted his double life and is willing to be with him, even if her safety is threatened. She is also frustrated with the fact that they have been dating for years and have not married. Although it takes him some time to get over his fears for her safety in the event that his identity is ever compromised, the episode ends with Terry planning to propose to her.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the comics, it was revealed that Dana had a brother named Doug who led an assault on Gotham as the leader of the Jokerz. Dana requests Terry and Bruce's help in finding him, but Doug manages to kill thousands of people by sending a large group of Jokerz as suicide bombers around the city. Doug confronts Dana and her family in the hospital (after he fractured their father's skull), but before Doug can kill them, Bruce manages to call Batman in to save the Tans, eventually resulting in Doug's death. Batman's rescue led Dana to figure out that Terry was Batman and what his connection to Bruce was. Bruce and Terry trusted Dana enough to keep the secret, and Dana's family agrees to implant Bruce with Doug's liver to save Bruce from dying of liver failure.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the midst of a spat with Dana, Terry meets Melanie Walker and the two become extremely attracted to one another instantly; however, Terry is crushed when he learns she too leads a double life: as Ten, the youngest member of the latest incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang. He discards a note Melanie had left him without reading it, choosing to be with Dana instead in his anger due to the betrayal, leaving Melanie apparently oblivious that her enemy and love interest are the same person.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry has additional encounters with Ten and the Royal Flush Gang; each time, he advises her to turn straight, showing that he still cares deeply about her. Their relationship is somewhat reminiscent of the one the original Batman had with Catwoman, and Bruce even notes it. Melanie is later shown to have gone straight and has abandoned the life of a criminal for a normal one.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In a comic book series based from the continuity of the animated series, Melanie is now enrolled in Terry and Dana's college, continuing the love triangle between them. After Batman and Ten stop Inque and Queen from stealing Two-Face's coin, Terry accuses Melanie of stealing the coin, leading the two to break up as Melanie accepts that she can never get Terry to trust her again no matter what she does.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the 2016 "DC Rebirth" series of "Batman Beyond", Melanie, at that time under rehab supervision by Jack Ryder, burgles Wayne Manor for a picture of Terry, who had moved there with Matt after his mother's death. She later helps Terry against Dr. Stanton, who assumed his son Kenny's identity as Payback, and then against a new Scarecrow. In the course of the latter fight, Terry is forced to unmask himself to calm his mind-controlled brother, thus revealing his secret identity to Melanie, and she is subsequently introduced to the Bat Family.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry upholds tradition by forging an alliance with Gotham City's police commissioner, Barbara Gordon, formerly Batgirl/Oracle and the daughter of James Gordon. The alliance starts out on an uneasy and sour note, as Barbara never fails to take Terry's juvenile record into account and believes he is too reckless for the role of Batman. The fact that Terry occasionally ruins police stakeout operations by intervening without fully assessing the situation sometimes worsens their relationship. In addition to this, Barbara, actually the last of the Bat-Family to retire from vigilantism, revealed she and Bruce were romantically involved at one point after her ex-boyfriend Dick Grayson left Gotham, but his unwavering focus on his mission strained their relationship and put it to an end, thus having a new Batman appears to have opened up old wounds for her.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Barbara is reluctant to assist the new Batman and to have a teenager as Gotham's new protector and sternly warns him to stay away from police matters. The film "" revealed that Barbara remains haunted by the torture that Tim Drake long ago suffered at the hands of the Joker. She advises Terry to give up being Batman, and once tries to arrest him after he is framed for murder by Spellbinder; however, when the truth comes out, Barbara rewards Terry with a civic service award as an apology. Barbara eventually relents, however, upon realizing that she could not deter him any more than she could have been deterred from being Batgirl.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Barbara eventually warms up to Terry, assisting him when Bruce is put out of action by a revived Joker. She states that she hopes Terry would avoid the lonely existence that Bruce leads. However, Barbara's attitude is different from Jim Gordon's, and she notes once that she is "not [her] father", never working as closely with Terry as her father did with Bruce.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the comics, Barbara works closer with Terry than in the animated series and gives him the necessary information about the criminals they face. She even gives him the opportunity to take the villains down before calling in for police support. She becomes more involved when Terry starts working with her former lover, Dick Grayson. At one point, she and Dick tell Terry that her relationship with Bruce went to shambles because Barbara was seeing both at the same time, while keeping her affair with Bruce secret from Dick. Eventually, this reached the breaking point when Barbara became pregnant from Bruce, who then decided to tell Dick without gaining her consent. Because Barbara would not relent from crimefighting, she suffered a miscarriage, all of which resulted in the bitter end of her participation as a member of the Bat-Family.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In 2011's "New 52" reboot of the series, Barbara is slightly younger than she was in the animated series (still retaining her red hair) and isn't hesitant to work with Terry likely due to the extreme circumstances the world was put in thanks to "Futures End". When Terry was presumed dead and Tim Drake was Batman, her role as the tech expert was similar to Bruce's role to Terry's Batman.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Though Terry never met Batman's former sidekick that was Robin and Nightwing in the animated series, the two did get the chance to meet in the tie-in comic. They work together to bring down Hush (who was a failed clone of Grayson), and Dick helped Terry with handling the Jokerz bombing Gotham and Undercloud. Though Dick was uninvolved in the superhero community for quite some time after losing his eye during a fight between Batman and the Joker, Terry has inspired him to return to the spotlight. When a GCPD detective outs Dick as Nightwing to the public, Terry and Max try to make the public think otherwise by having Terry interrogate the detective as a disguised, older Nightwing while Max plants alibis on the internet. Dick admits the truth to the public without jeopardizing his allies' secrets.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: After learning how Bruce impacted Dick and Barbara's romance, Terry loses trust in Bruce and chooses Dick to be his new mentor. Terry finds working with Dick easier than Bruce, because unlike the latter Dick reminds Terry of his commitment to his family and to his education.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry also managed to convince the Justice Lord counterpart of Dick to aid him in battling Lord Superman. After Lord Superman is defeated, Dick and Terry's counterpart are inspired by Terry to continue Bruce's legacy and begin their version of Batman Beyond. Dick becomes T's mentor for fighting criminals.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Although Terry and Tim cross paths in the film "", they don't officially get introduced to one another initially. After Bruce is attacked by a reborn Joker, who had returned through mysterious means and left for dead in the Batcave and Terry himself by the Joker's Jokerz while he was hanging out with his girlfriend. Terry becomes increasingly suspicious and after pressing Commissioner Barbara Gordon, learns of Tim's tragic past as to how and why he was forced to give up being the second Robin following his kidnapping, torture and psychotic break at the hands of the original Clown Prince of Crime and being turned into a miniature version of him after which he ended up killing the villain when ordered to kill his mentor, feeling sorry for him but ultimately concludes that he could very well be the link to the Joker's return and after meeting him he eventually learns to his shock that Tim is the new Joker, albeit unknowingly, prior to his death, the original Joker implanted a microchip containing his DNA and consciousness onto Tim. Terry ultimately defeats the new Joker and frees Tim from the programming. Terry then visits Tim in the hospital as the latter is recovering and gains respect and gratitude from him for saving his life and Tim acknowledges Terry to be worthy of the Batman mantle.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the comics, Tim appears in "Hush Beyond" where he reveals he has undergone intense psychological observation due to his time as the reborn Joker, struggling to keep his sanity intact and Terry removes Tim as a potential suspect when he is investigating the returned Hush. Tim then helps Terry by directing him to Dick Grayson, his predecessor and warns the latter that Dick won't be as welcoming as he was. He then appears in subsequent comics offering Terry advice every now and then. Tim however does not involve himself in Terry's superheroic activities due to a deal he made with Bruce after the latter offered him a job in Wayne Incorporated and offered to pay for Tim's children's tuition.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: T is Terry's counterpart in the Justice Lords timeline. In this timeline, Terry became estranged from his parents and became a member of the Jokerz. He was also dating the Justice Lord counterpart of Melanie, who was also part of the Jokerz.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: When Terry arrives in his reality in the "Justice Lords Beyond" story arc, he is disgusted by T's personality and actions as a Joker. He's also upset that T is distant from his parents and doesn't take advantage of his dad being alive in this reality. In the event, Terry's near-sacrifice at the hands of Lord Superman and courage convince T to turn his life around. T and this reality's Dick Grayson assist Terry in escaping and taking on Lord Superman. When Lord Superman is defeated, T gives Terry the chance to talk to his father in return for his actions. T and Dick are inspired by Terry to continue Batman's legacy and he becomes this reality's version of Batman Beyond.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Following this, Terry makes frequent visits to the timeline to monitor T's journey as a hero and becomes increasingly impressed with T's progress. He also takes the time to make visits with T's dad. However, when Rewire blackmails Batman into giving him access to the Justice Lords timeline, Bruce destroys the portal. T and the alternate Dick make one last visit over where T tells Terry that he told his father about his situation and that he wants to see both of them. However, Terry's accepted that T's father will never be his and decides not to go back to their timeline again. He tells T to spend time with his loved ones before they are gone and gives one last goodbye before T and Dick return to their timeline.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow is a con artist who dragged Terry into a life of crime. In the episode "Big Time", Terry reveals his background with Charlie to Max, explaining that the same felony which landed him in juvie for three months had Charlie put away for three years. Guilt-ridden, Terry would e-mail Charlie periodically while he was in prison. When Charlie is finally released, Terry convinces Bruce to give him a job at Wayne-Powers. This turns out to be a ploy by Charlie to aid in a corporate espionage scheme, during which Charlie is exposed to an experimental growth compound and mutated into a monstrous, disproportionate creature.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Despite Terry's friendship with Bigelow and the regret that his time in jail did not reform him, subsequent events in the episode "" make clear that Bigelow saw Terry merely as hired muscle, and thus he does not care of ruining lives such as Terry's for his own selfish ends. Terry finally lets go of his guilt toward Charlie and sees him for the threat and enemy he really is. Bigelow himself, though not knowing Terry's secrets, seeks to kill Batman to cement his status as supervillain Big Time. Terry and Charlie's friendship is reminiscent of Bruce and Harvey Dent, two best friends who eventually become enemies, another similarity that Bruce notes. However, unlike Dent, Charlie was never decent from the start and Terry hates himself for befriending him after Bigelow revealed his true color.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry grew up admiring other superheroes of his day, the Justice League Unlimited. Eventually, he is recruited by Superman to root out a traitor in the team, which turns out to be Superman himself, under the control of the extraterrestrial creature Starro. Though the rest of the team at first distrusts him due to his perceived inexperience, Terry gains their trust by saving their lives and freeing Superman from the alien's mind control. However, he says that he would prefer to be like his mentor and only partially serve on the Justice League.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: When Static is sent 40 years into the future from the time of the "Static Shock" series, he is forced to work with Terry to rescue Static's future self from Kobra. While Terry doubts his abilities at first, he eventually develops respect for him.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry seems to have rejoined, as later episodes of "Justice League Unlimited" show him as a regular member. In the alternate timeline shown in the JLU episode "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time Warped", Terry fights alongside Static (of that era) and Warhawk, with Bruce being leader, along with the time traveling members from the past include Bruce's counterpart as Batman. He is killed in the episode, though his death is undone due to actions of the original Batman.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Even prior to receiving training from Bruce, Terry appeared to be at least a well-abled street fighter. In the pilot episode "Rebirth", he is able to fend off a number of Jokerz without aid, and appears to have been a member of his high school's wrestling team before being kicked out because of his feud with obnoxious teammate Nelson Nash. As expected of Batman, he engages in regular, rigorous training to minimize his reliance on the Batsuit: under Bruce's tutelage, Terry has honed his body to at least Olympic levels.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Terry has engaged in combat outside of the Batsuit in various instances. His training has granted him exceptional reflexes, enabling him to evade gunfire and make impressive leaping attempts whether in or out of the Batsuit. In one instance, without the suit's aid, Terry survives a fall from several stories high by bouncing off a pillar that is about to crush him and lands on his feet. Terry even defeats his suit in single combat when it is controlled by the computerized consciousness of a deceased business mogul, armed only with the equipment in Bruce's vintage utility belt. Fifteen years after the last episode of "Batman Beyond", as Terry reaches his thirties, he is able to get through Amanda Waller's security systems and overpower her guards without the aid of his suit, suggesting that his skills are rivaling his mentor's when he was in his prime.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In "Epilogue", Waller comments that Terry has inherited several of Bruce's qualities: he possesses a high intellect (though Waller notes that Bruce is still the brighter of the pair) and has grown into Bruce's physical stature and build, having been significantly leaner than Bruce was as Batman during the series. Terry tends to rely on Bruce for the intellectual details when in the field, but he has received an amount of detective training from Bruce, allowing him to perform such feats as tracking down Shriek or determining a connection between Joker and Tim Drake when Bruce was incapacitated. Despite his detective training, Terry's ambition is to be a physician, and, under Bruce, he learns to create cures, remedies and antidotes. As a student, his main interests are in health or medical sciences and history; however, his responsibilities as Batman and less-than-stellar study habits have caused problems with his grades, as seen in "" where he needed to get a good grade on a Family Studies practical assignment to pass the class.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: As Batman, Terry emulates Bruce's deep, harsh tone. He does this of his own accord, to separate the entities of Terry and Batman (Terry can be heard using his "Batman voice" outside of the Batsuit in the episodes "Shriek" and "Future Shock"). Will Friedle has stated that he believes Terry's "Batman voice" is not just to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, but also to conceal his adolescence.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Though Bruce had taunt opponents when he was Batman, Terry, however, is habitually more so than his predecessor (reflecting Friedle's background as a comedic actor): on one occasion, he was able to put the revived Joker off-balance to the point of blind fury. Terry is also capable of using a rather convincing Brooklyn accent when undercover. Terry is a skilled motorcyclist, seen hijacking a Jokerz motorcycle in "Rebirth" and using it throughout the series, and has also demonstrated considerable skill in handling a flight-capable Batmobile.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: The Batsuit worn by Terry is the last incarnation created by Bruce before his retirement. Though it is at least 20 years old, it is still considered cutting-edge. In addition, after Terry becomes Batman, the suit is updated numerous times, and after it is damaged, he and Wayne are seen rebuilding and modifying it. The cowl in this suit covers the face completely, with the mouth being the only opening. The traditional cape has been eliminated in favor of retractable glider wings under the arms. Thrusters built into the boots allow flight in the absence of wind, although for prolonged long-range flight Terry typically uses the Batmobile. In case the suit is stolen, its circuitry can be paralyzed remotely.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: This Batsuit conforms to the size and physique of its wearer, being able to fit both the physically imposing Bruce and the significantly slimmer Terry. The material in the suit is resistant to massive concussive force, fire, lasers, electricity, bullets and low levels of radiation. After an incident where Terry nearly drowns, a built-in rebreather is added to allow him to remain underwater for long periods or breathe in other inhospitable areas.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: The suit possesses a two-way audio-visual link with the Batcomputer, allowing Terry to keep in contact with Bruce for superior tactical planning. The same applies to the Batmobile, which will automatically fly to the user's location when summoned. Directional microphones in the fingertips allow the user to hear and record audio through walls or at a distance - this data can then be transferred to a separate microchip as evidence. Lenses in the cowl's eyepieces transmit visual data to the wearer, allow for various scanning abilities and allow Wayne to monitor Terry's activities from the Batcave, seeing and hearing what he sees and hears and advising him. The cowl's lenses can also scan a number of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum allowing night vision among other things. However, as the suit's visual capabilities are entirely electronic, the user is effectively rendered blind if they are disrupted. The cowl also apparently includes some sort of targeting computer for calculating ballistic trajectories, as Terry tends to miss his target when throwing projectiles while not wearing the suit.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: The suit has several defensive capabilities. A device on the belt can electrically charge the suit to repel close attackers, added after Terry's encounters with the shapeshifting supervillain Inque; this same feature can be limited to just the hands, turning the defensive technology into an offensive one if necessary. The suit (and the Batmobile) also possesses a cloaking device that can render Terry invisible to the naked eye - although it cannot, however, filter ultraviolet light. Pads on hands and feet can be magnetically charged, allowing the user to cling to metal surfaces even when upside-down, similar to a bat.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: The suit's offensive capabilities are also significant. It carries a large number of dispensable Batarangs which, when inactive, are compact enough to be invisible to the naked eye. These Batarangs come with a range of auxiliary functions, such as producing electric shocks or explosions. The Batarangs are usually thrown by hand, but can be fired from wrist-mounted launchers. However, there is a limit to the amount of Batarangs the Batsuit can dispense; Batman has run out on at least one occasion. The utility belt is integrated into the suit and carries tracers, flash and smoke pellets, extinguisher capsules, flexicuffs and a detachable buzz saw on the buckle. Retractable claws on the fingers can be used to cut through objects and grip solid surfaces and the forearms are equipped with grappling hooks that can act as bolas.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Finally, the Batsuit possesses a number of other devices to aid in detective work. The right index finger possesses a retractable decoding device for electronic locks, the palms possess polygraph sensors, and the fingers can analyze most substances they are dipped into. Other, less-used devices, such as frequency scanners, also make appearances.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In the later comics, when Terry's suit was heavily damaged Bruce gave him a spare prototype Batsuit to join the Justice League on a mission. The most notable feature was a cape, and while the suit gave him identical physical abilities, its sensors and communication capabilities were less advanced.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: While on a mission into the parallel universe where the Justice Lords reside, Terry found an alternate version of his Batsuit (hidden in the compartment where Bruce kept the prototype suit) built by Lord Batman before his death to counter Lord Superman's powers and abilities, the extra enhancements included force fields, holographic projections, and it featured synthetic kryptonite as a weapon. After defeating Lord Superman, he and Dick Grayson started upgrading his own suit with the enhancements. The upgrades include a new pair of wings on Terry's Batsuit to help him gain better capability in flight, but Bruce rejects the new wings.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Seen only twice in the series, the Bat Armor is donned by Bruce in an encounter with Inque, who had kidnapped Terry and was holding him hostage. It is a retractable powered exoskeleton composed of heavy plate armor that enhances the survivability of the wearer, boosting their physical strength and resilience to superhuman levels greater than that of the Batsuit. When retracted, Bruce was able to wear a trench coat over it and not look like he had any considerable increase in body mass, although activating the armor shredded the trench coat in the process.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: Bruce created the Bat Armor years earlier in light of his increasing heart problems as a possible replacement for the Batsuit; however, during testing, using the armor nearly gave him a heart attack and he was forced to abandon that option. Understandably, Bruce only uses the Bat Armor in dire circumstances.


title: Batman (Terry McGinnis)

text: In addition to having his own ongoing comic book, the Tomorrow Knight made an appearance in "Superman Adventures" #64, chasing a futuristic version of Brainiac.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; ; , "Aram Xačʿatryan"; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet and Armenian composer and conductor. He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Born and raised in Tbilisi, the multicultural capital of Georgia, Khachaturian moved to Moscow in 1921 following the Sovietization of the Caucasus. Without prior music training, he enrolled in the Gnessin Musical Institute, subsequently studying at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Nikolai Myaskovsky, among others. His first major work, the Piano Concerto (1936), popularized his name within and outside the Soviet Union. It was followed by the Violin Concerto (1940) and the Cello Concerto (1946). His other significant compositions include the "Masquerade Suite" (1941), the Anthem of the Armenian SSR (1944), three symphonies (1935, 1943, 1947), and around 25 film scores. Khachaturian is best known for his ballet music—"Gayane" (1942) and "Spartacus" (1954). His most popular piece, the "Sabre Dance" from "Gayane", has been used extensively in popular culture and has been performed by a number of musicians worldwide. His style is "characterized by colorful harmonies, captivating rhythms, virtuosity, improvisations, and sensuous melodies".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: During most of his career, Khachaturian was approved by the Soviet government and held several high posts in the Union of Soviet Composers from the late 1930s, although he joined the Communist Party only in 1943. Along with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, he was officially denounced as a "formalist" and his music dubbed "anti-people" in 1948 but was restored later that year. After 1950 he taught at the Gnessin Institute and the Moscow Conservatory and turned to conducting. He traveled to Europe, Latin America and the United States with concerts of his own works. In 1957 Khachaturian became the Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, a position he held until his death.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian composed the first Armenian ballet music, symphony, concerto, and film score. He is considered the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century. While following the established musical traditions of Russia, he broadly incorporated Armenian and, to lesser extent, Caucasian, Eastern and Central European, and Middle Eastern peoples' folk music in his works. He is highly regarded in Armenia, where he is considered a "national treasure".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Aram Khachaturian was born on 6 June (24 May in Old Style) 1903 in the city of Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia) into an Armenian family. Some sources indicate Kojori, a village near Tiflis, as his birthplace. Khachaturian himself said he was born in Kojori. His father, Yeghia (Ilya), was born in the village of Upper Aza near Ordubad in Nakhichevan (present-day Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan) and moved to Tiflis at the age of 13; he owned a bookbinding shop by the age of 25. His mother, Kumash Sarkisovna, was from Lower Aza, also a village near Ordubad. Khachaturian's parents were betrothed before knowing each other, when Kumash was 9 and Yeghia was 19. They had 5 children, one daughter and four sons, of whom Aram was the youngest. Khachaturian received primary education at the commercial school of Tiflis, a school for merchants. He considered a career either in medicine or engineering.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In the 19th and early 20th centuries and throughout the early Soviet period, Tiflis (known as Tbilisi after 1936) was the largest city and the administrative center of the Caucasus. In Tiflis, which has historically been multicultural, Khachaturian was exposed to various cultures. The city had a large Armenian population and was a major Armenian cultural center until the Russian Revolution and the following years. In a 1952 article "My Idea of the Folk Element in Music", Khachaturian described the city environment and its influence on his career:


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1917, the Bolsheviks rose to power in Russia in the October Revolution. After over two years of fragile independence, Armenia fell to Soviet rule in late 1920. Georgia was also Sovietized by the spring of 1921. Both countries formally became part of the Soviet Union in December 1922.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1921, the eighteen-year-old Khachaturian moved to Moscow to join his oldest brother, Suren, who had settled in Moscow earlier and was a stage director at the Moscow Art Theatre by the time of his arrival. He enrolled at the Gnessin Musical Institute in 1922, simultaneously studying biology at the Moscow University. He initially studied the cello under Sergei Bychkov and later under Andrey Borysyak. In 1925, Mikhail Gnessin started a composition class at the institute, which Khachaturian joined. In this period, he wrote his first works: the "Dance Suite" for violin and piano (1926) and the Poem in C Sharp Minor (1927). Beginning with his earliest works, Khachaturian extensively used Armenian folk music in his compositions.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1929, Khachaturian entered the Moscow Conservatory to study composition under Nikolai Myaskovsky and orchestration under Sergei Vasilenko. He finished the conservatory in 1934 and went on to complete his graduate work in 1936.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: His Armenian-influenced First Symphony, which Khachaturian composed as a graduation work from the Moscow Conservatory in 1935, "drew the attention of prominent conductors and was soon performed by the best Soviet orchestras" and was admired by Shostakovich. He began an active creative career upon completing his graduate studies at the conservatory in 1936. He wrote his first major work, the Piano Concerto, that year. It proved to be a success, establishing him as a respected composer in the Soviet Union. It was "played and acclaimed far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union", and "established his name abroad".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: His Piano Concerto, along with the two later concertos—the Violin Concerto (1940), for which he won a Stalin Prize, second class. and the Cello Concerto (1946)—are "often considered a kind of a grand cycle". The Violin Concerto "gained international recognition" and became part of the international repertory. It was first performed by David Oistrakh.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian held important posts at the Composers' Union, becoming deputy chairman of the Moscow branch in 1937. He subsequently served as the Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee (Orgkom) of the Union between 1939 and 1948. He joined the Communist Party in 1943. "Throughout the early and mid-1940s, Khachaturian used that position to help shape Soviet music, always stressing but technically masterful composition. In fact, in his memoirs he reported pride about leading an institution that organized creative work in many musical genres and especially in all Soviet republics."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: The years preceding and following World War II were very productive for Khachaturian. In 1939 he made a six-month trip to his native Armenia "to make a thorough study of Armenian musical folklore and to collect folk-song and dance tunes" for his first ballet, "Happiness" which he completed in the same year. "His communion with Armenia's national culture and musical practice proved for him as he put it himself, 'a second conservatoire'. He learned a lot, saw and heard many things anew, and at the same time he had an insight into the tastes and artistic requirements of the Armenian people." In 1942, at the height of the Second World War, he reworked it into the ballet "Gayane". It was first performed by the Kirov Ballet (today known as Mariinsky Ballet) in Perm, while Leningrad was under siege. It was a great success that earned Khachaturian his second Stalin Prize, this time first-class. Khachaturian returned the prize money to the state with a request to use it for building a tank for the Red Army.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: He composed the Second Symphony (1943) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution and incidental music to "Masquerade" (1944), "a symphonic suite in the tradition of lavish classical Russian music", on Mikhail Lermontov's play of the same title. Both the ballet "Gayane" and the Second Symphony were "successful and were warmly praised by Shostakovich". In 1944, Khachaturian composed the largely symbolic Anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In mid-December 1947, the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (better known as Agitprop) submitted to Andrei Zhdanov, the secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, a document on the "shortcomings" in the development of Soviet music. On 10–13 January 1948, a conference was held at the Kremlin in the presence of seventy musicians, composers, conductors and others who were confronted by Zhdanov:


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: During the course of the conference, the newly appointed head of the Union of Soviet Composers, Tikhon Khrennikov complained that Khachaturian's "Symphonic Poem" had its premier in a half empty hall and that "everyone thought that Khachaturian's Cello Concerto was rubbish". In response, Khachaturian who admitted that speaking at such an event made him nervous conceded that composers of more complex work might be guilty of ignoring popular taste, thinking that it would catch up with them in time. Zhdanov interrupted to say that such an attitude was "extreme individualism". Khachaturian and other leading composers were denounced by the Communist Party as followers of the alleged formalism (i.e. "[a type of] music that was considered too advanced or difficult for the masses to enjoy") and their music was dubbed "anti-people". It was the Symphonic Poem (1947), later titled the Third Symphony, that officially earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party. Ironically, he wrote the work as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution. He stated: "I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people's joy and pride in their great and mighty country."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Musicologist Blair Johnston believes that his "music contained few, if any, of the objectionable traits found in the music of some of his more adventuresome colleagues. In retrospect, it was most likely Khachaturian's administrative role in the Union [of Soviet Composers], perceived by the government as a bastion of politically incorrect music, and not his music as such, which earned him a place on the black list of 1948." In March 1948, Khachaturian "made a very full and humble apology for his artistic 'errors' following the Zhdanov decree; his musical style, however, underwent no changes". He was sent to Armenia as a "punishment", and continued to be censured. Edward Rothstein argued that Khachaturian suffered less than Shostakovich and Prokofiev, "perhaps because of his folkloric and simple musical style."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: By December 1948 he was restored to favor, receiving praise for his score for "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (), a film biography of the Soviet leader.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1950, Khachaturian began conducting and started teaching composition at his alma maters—the Gnessin Institute (since 1950), and later at the Moscow Conservatory (since 1951). During his career as a university professor, Khachaturian emphasized the role of folk music to his students and instilled the idea that composers should master their nations' folk music heritage.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1950, he began working on his third and last ballet, "Spartacus" (1950–54), which later proved to be his last internationally acclaimed work. He revised "Spartacus" in 1968. He was named People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1954. Under Georgy Malenkov's brief rule, in 1954, Khachaturian became a mouthpiece, along with Ilya Ehrenburg, to "assure Soviet intellectuals that the ideological controls imposed by the draconic Zhdanov decrees of 1946–48 would be at least temporarily lifted."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: After completing "Spartacus", since the late 1950s, Khachaturian focused less on composition, and more on conducting, teaching, bureaucracy and travel. He served as the President of the Soviet Association of Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with Latin American States from 1958 and was a member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1962). "He frequently appeared in world forums in the role of champion of an apologist for the Soviet idea of creative orthodoxy." Khachaturian toured with concerts of his own works in around 30 countries, including in all the Eastern Bloc states, Italy (1950), Britain (1955, 1977), Latin America (1957) and the United States (1960, 1968). His January 1968 visit to U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. was a significant one. He conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a program of his own works.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian went on to serve again as Secretary of the Composers Union, starting in 1957 until his death. He was also a deputy in the fifth Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1958–62). In the last two decades of his life, Khachaturian wrote three concert rhapsodies—for violin (1961–62), cello (1963) and piano (1965)—and solo sonatas for unaccompanied cello, violin, and viola (1970s), which are considered to be his second and third instrumental trilogies.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian's works span a broad range of musical types, including ballets, symphonies, concertos, and film scores. Music critic Edward Greenfield expresses the opinion that Khachaturian "notably outshone other Soviet contemporaries in creating a sharply identifiable style, something which his successors have found impossible to emulate". He composed a great portion of his works in a ten-year span between 1936 and 1946, preceding and following the Second World War. Despite his formal restoration after the 1948 denunciation, Khachaturian only succeeded in composing one internationally acclaimed work in the last 30 years of his life, the ballet "Spartacus".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: According to James Bakst, what made Khachaturian unique among Soviet composers is "the blending of national Armenian vocal and instrumental intonations with contemporary orchestral techniques". Khachaturian's music is characterized by an active rhythmic development, which reaches either a mere repetition of the basic formula (ostinato) or "a game of emphasis within this formula".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian is best known internationally for his ballet music. His second ballet, "Gayane", was largely reworked from his first ballet, "Happiness". Anna Kisselgoff called it "one of the staples of the Soviet and Eastern European ballet repertory." "Spartacus" became his most acclaimed work in the post-Stalin period. These two compositions "remain his most successful compositions". According to Jonathan McCollum and Andy Nercessian, his music for these two ballets "can safely be included among the best known pieces of classical music throughout the world, a fact that is vitalized by perception that these are perhaps the only works through that the world really knows Armenian music".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: "Spartacus" was popularized when the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" was used as the theme for a popular BBC drama series "The Onedin Line" during the 1970s. The climax of "Spartacus" was also used in films such as "Caligula" (1979) and "" (2006). Joel Coen's "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994) also prominently featured music from "Spartacus" and "Gayane" (the "Sabre Dance" included). "Gayane"s "Adagio" was used, among other films, in Stanley Kubrick's futuristic film "".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian wrote three symphonies: the First in 1934/5, the Second in 1943, and the Third in 1947. He also wrote three concertos: the Piano Concerto (1936), the Violin Concerto (1940), and the Cello Concerto (1946).


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian wrote incidental music for several plays, including "Macbeth" (1934, 1955), "The Widow from Valencia" (1940), "Masquerade" (1941), "King Lear" (1958).


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian was the first Soviet composer to write music for sound films. He produced around 25 film scores. Among them is "Pepo" (1935), the first Armenian sound film. In 1950 he was awarded the Stalin Prize for the score of "The Battle of Stalingrad" (1949).


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Musicologist Marina Frolova-Walker describes Khachaturian as the only internationally renowned Soviet composer "who emerged from the nationalist project". James Bakst interpreted Khachaturian's views as follows: "Music is a language created by the people. The people create intonational music forms which reveal at once his national elements of an art work."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Composer Tigran Mansurian suggested that Khachaturian's music incorporates American characteristics and called the United States his "second homeland" in terms of musical influences, especially due to the sense of optimism in his works and lifestyle. Soviet musicologist Boris Yarustovsky argued that the influence from American culture was heard in some of the words of Khachaturian.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian is widely known for his use of folk songs of various ethnic groups in his compositions, most notably those of Armenians. Rosenberg argued that despite not having been born in Armenia, Khachaturian was "essentially an Armenian composer whose music exhibits his Armenian roots". "[M]any of his compositions evoke an Armenian melodic line. However, his works markedly differed from the conventional orchestrations of folk themes", writes Rouben Paul Adalian. He suggests that Khachaturian's works carry "the vibrant rhythms and stirring pace of Caucasian dance music", but at the same time are "original compositions that reworked that cultural material through new instrumentation and according to European musical canons, resulting in a sound unique to the composer". Richard Taruskin argued that "Khachaturian's 'Armenian' style was largely adapted from Gnesin's all-purpose Orientalist idiom."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian was particularly influenced by the folk-song collector, musicologist Komitas, and composers Alexander Spendiaryan and Romanos Melikian. Khachaturian acknowledged that Komitas "singlehandedly laid the foundations for Armenia's classical tradition". In a 1969 article about Komitas, Khachaturian called him his "greatest teacher".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: His plans to write an opera "on the destiny of the Armenian people, the tragic fate of Armenians scattered all over the world, their suffering and the struggle" never realized, and his "Armenian Rhapsody for mouth-organ and orchestra, intended for his close friend Larry Adler and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra" remained uncompleted. "Yet the intention, the spirit, was always there." Khachaturian emphasized his Armenian origin, stating:


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: During his university years, Khachaturian transcribed Armenian, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish and other folk songs. In his mature works, Khachaturian used elements from folk songs of Caucasian (including, but not limited to Georgians), Eastern European (Ukrainians, Poles) and Middle Eastern (Turks, Kurds) peoples. His first ballet, "Happiness", incorporates a Ukrainian gopak, Georgian, Armenian and Russian dances and a Lezginka, an energetic dance of many Caucasian peoples. The "Masquerade Suite" includes a Mazurka, a Polish folk dance music. The ballet "Gayane", like its predecessor, features a Lezginka. Act II of "Gayane" "is filled with Kurdish dances".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian is cited by musicologists as a follower of Russian classical traditions. According to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he "carried forward into the twentieth century the colorful, folk-inspired style of such nineteenth-century Russian composers as Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky". Like the members of The Five, especially Alexander Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, whose works to some extent served him as a model, Khachaturian drew heavily upon "Eastern" and "Oriental" material in creating compositions in various classical genres and styles of European origin. But Khachaturian's cultural identity and rigorous musical training within the Soviet establishment allowed him to penetrate more deeply to the essence of Eastern and Caucasian music and to incorporate it more fully in his mature work, including the ballets. "Never dissociating himself from the traditions of Russian music, he came to be regarded in Moscow as a mouthpiece of the entire Soviet Orient, gathering up all the diverse traditions into a grand generalization", concludes Marina Frolova-Walker.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian's notable students at the Gnessin Institute and the Moscow Conservatory included foreign composers, such as Aziz El-Shawan from Egypt and Anatol Vieru from Romania, and a number of Soviet composers: Tolib Shakhidi, Georgs Pelēcis, Mark Minkov, Alexey Rybnikov, Andrei Eshpai, Albert Markov, Nodar Gabunia (), Edgar Hovhannisyan, Mikael Tariverdiev, Eduard Khagagortyan ().


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: He inspired young Armenian composers and had a great influence on the development of Armenian music. Khachaturian's influence can be traced on chamber and symphonic music traditions of Armenia, including on Arno Babajanian, Edvard Mirzoyan, and Konstantin Orbelyan, among others.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian also had an influence on composers of Azerbaijan, Central Asia and East Asia. The music of the Japanese composer Roh Ogura had the influence of Khachaturian in "its rhythms and scoring." Harold C. Schonberg argued that Soviet-trained Chinese composers, such as Li Delun, were part of a "school of music strongly indebted to such Socialist-Realistic composers as Aram Khachaturian." Schonberg opined that the Chinese ballet "Red Detachment of Women" "sounds like Russian academism with a touch of Oriental exoticism. It is close to the kind of thing that Aram Khachaturian was writing in such socialist‐real[ist] ballets as "Spartacus.""


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1933 Khachaturian married the composer Nina Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky's class at the Moscow Conservatory. Charlotte Curtis described her as "a bulky Russian woman with naturally pink cheeks, black hair" who is "widely known as one of the Soviet Union's most popular women composers." Makarova said of their differences: "He is Armenian — temperamental, strong and a bit Oriental. I am Russian and lyric."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In early October 1965, Khachaturian was briefly admitted into a hospital in Geneva after a heart attack. He died in Moscow on 1 May 1978, after a long illness, just short of his 75th birthday. He was buried at the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan on 6 May, next to other distinguished Armenians.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1968 "New York Post" music critic Harriett Johnson characterized Khachaturian as "sturdy, stocky and youthful." In "Testimony", attributed by Solomon Volkov to Dmitri Shostakovich, the author wrote: "Meeting Khachaturian means, first of all, eating a good, filling meal, drinking with pleasure, and chatting about this and that. That's why, if I have the time, I never turn down a meeting with him." Shostakovich described his outlook as "a basically optimistic, life-asserting view of our reality." While the German conductor Kurt Masur, who met him several times, said Khachaturian was "sometimes an uncomfortable person."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian was an atheist. When asked about his visit to the Vatican, Khachaturian has been quoted as having said: "I'm an atheist, but I'm a son of the [Armenian] people who were the first to officially adopt Christianity and thus visiting the Vatican was my duty."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian always remained enthusiastic about communism. Jeffrey Adams argues that he was a "loyal Communist ideologue" who was "devoted to making art relevant to the common worker." He wrote: "the October Revolution fundamentally changed my whole life and, if I have really grown into a serious artist, then I am indebted only to the people and the Soviet Government. To this people is dedicated my entire conscious life, as is all my creative work."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian denied any censorship of his music in the Soviet Union and when asked about 1948 purges, he said: "Well, they thought my music was too loud, I did write for 15 trumpets and even Stokowski decided against our doing that music when he found out the instrumentation. But I wouldn't change it. The composer must stick to his conception."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In January 1971, Khachaturian, along with Shostakovich, Igor Moiseyev, Maya Plisetskaya called on President Richard Nixon to free Angela Davis. In 1973 he joined eleven Soviet composers in condemning the nuclear physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov after he met with Western correspondents.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian is generally considered one of the leading composers of the Soviet Union. Alongside Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, he has been generally cited as one of the three greatest composers of the Soviet era. The music critic Ronald Crichton wrote on his death that, in his lifetime, Khachaturian "ranked as the third most celebrated Soviet composer after Shostakovich and Prokofiev."


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: According to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, "his works do not enjoy the international reputation that those of" Shostakovich and Prokofiev do. With these two and Dmitry Kabalevsky, Khachaturian "was one of the few Soviet composers to have become known to the wider international public". According to music historian Harlow Robinson, "his proletariat origins, non-Russian ethnic origins and Soviet training [made him] a powerful symbol within the Soviet musical establishment of the ideal of a multinational Soviet cultural identity, an identity which the composer enthusiastically embraced and exploited both at home and abroad". Unlike Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Khachaturian was "entirely a creation of the Soviet musical and dance establishment".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Josef Woodard, writing for the "Los Angeles Times", suggests that Khachaturian has long been considered a "lighter-weight participant among 20th-century composers", while classic music broadcaster Norman Gilliland describes him as a "major" composer of the 20th century. Richard Taruskin argued in 1996 that Khachaturian has not been "certified as [a] great artist by the promoters of classical music." "New York Times" critic Harold C. Schonberg was often critical of Khachaturian. In 1968 he wrote that "Even at his best he was a minor figure, and his music these days has little to offer. Not because it is conventional, but because its materials and ideas are second-rate." Although describing him as an important and highly popular composer and a "man of pronounced gifts", Schonberg argued on his death in 1978 that Khachaturian "frankly composed popular music" and that after being exposed to his work it becomes evident that it is mostly "formula writing". While praising his work as exotic and colorful, he described Khachaturian as a "bureaucratic composer, turning out well-crafted pieces of no particular personality, and certainly nothing that would rock the boat".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1968 "New York Post" music critic Harriett Johnson argued that while some may describe Khachaturian's style as "pop," she praised "the individuality of his melodies, infiltrated as they are with Oriental flavor of his Armenian heritage" and "the elemental surge of his rhythm which easily grows wild." She described him as an "immense musician who believes in the peasant heart and who has said so unabashedly in his music." Tim Ashley wrote in "The Guardian" in 2009 that Khachaturian's popularity fell in the West, because of his image as one of Soviet music's "yes-men". He argued, "Such a view is simplistic, given that he had a major brush with the authorities in 1948." In 2003 conductor Marin Alsop opined that Khachaturian is "very underperformed" and "somewhat underrated․"


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Khachaturian was the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century, and the most famous representative of Soviet Armenian culture. He has been described as "by far the most important Armenian composer", the "Armenian Tchaikovsky", and deemed a key figure in 20th-century Armenian culture. He remains the only Armenian composer to rise to international significance. Khachaturian is credited for bringing Armenian music worldwide recognition. Şahan Arzruni has described Khachaturian as "the musical ambassador of Armenian culture".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: One of the "modern icons of Armenian pride", Khachaturian is considered a national treasure, and is celebrated by the Armenian people "as a famous son who earned world-wide recognition".


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: The philharmonic hall of the Yerevan Opera Theater has been officially called the Aram Khachaturian Grand Concert Hall since 1978. The House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian in Yerevan was inaugurated in 1982.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1998, the Central Bank of Armenia issued 50-dram banknotes depicting Khachaturian's portrait and the Yerevan Opera Theater on the obverse and an episode from the ballet "Gayane" and Mount Ararat on the reverse. It remained in use until 2004 when it was replaced by a coin. He is one of the two composers depicted on the Armenian currency (the other is Komitas, who is depicted on the 10,000 dram banknote since 2018).


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 2013, the UNESCO inscribed a collection of Khachaturian's handwritten notes and film music in the Memory of the World Register.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: Music schools are named after Khachaturian in Tbilisi, Moscow (established in 1967, named after him in 1996), Yerevan, Martuni, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Watertown, Massachusetts, U.S. (run by the Hamazkayin). Streets in Yerevan, Tbilisi, Moscow (), Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) and Simferopol (Crimea) are named after Khachaturian.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 1993 the festival of symphonic music Aram Khachaturian-93 was held in Yerevan. The Aram Khachaturian International Competition (Արամ Խաչատրյանի անվան միջազգային մրցույթ) is held annually in Yerevan since 2003.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: On 31 July 1999 a three-and-a-half meter high statue of Khachaturian in 19th-century realist style by Yuri Petrosyan was unveiled before the Khachaturian Hall of the Yerevan Opera Theater in attendance of President Robert Kocharyan, Speaker Karen Demirchyan and leading poet Silva Kaputikyan. On 30 April 2013, a bust of Khachaturian erected by sculptor Gevorg Gevorgyan was opened in the street named after him in Yerevan's Arabkir district by Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan on his 110th anniversary.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: A statue of Khachaturian by Georgiy Frangulyan was unveiled in Moscow on 31 October 2006. Notable attendees included Armenian President Kocharyan, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Russia's First Lady Lyudmila Putina. Busts of Khachaturian by the Armenian sculptor Mikael Soghoyan were erected at the Moscow Conservatory in 2017 and in front of an arts school named after him in Nizhny Novgorod in August 2021.


title: Aram Khachaturian

text: In 2003, an 83-minute-long documentary about Khachaturian with unique footage was directed by Peter Rosen and narrated by Eric Bogosian. The film won the Best Documentary at the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival. In 2004, TV Kultura, Russia's government-owned art channel, made a documentary on Khachaturian entitled "Century of Aram Khachaturian" (Век Арама Хачатуряна).


title: Executive Schedule

text: Executive Schedule () is the system of salaries given to the highest-ranked appointed officials in the executive branch of the U.S. government. The president of the United States appoints individuals to these positions, most with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. They include members of the president's Cabinet, several top-ranking officials of each executive department, the directors of some of the more prominent departmental and independent agencies, and several members of the Executive Office of the President.


title: Executive Schedule

text: There are five pay rates within the Executive Schedule, denoted with a Roman numeral with I being the highest level and V the lowest. Federal law lists the positions eligible for the Executive Schedule and the corresponding level. The law also gives the president the ability to grant Executive Schedule IV and V status to no more than 34 employees not listed.


title: Executive Schedule

text: Certain job titles tend to be placed at certain levels of the Executive Schedule. For example, in the executive departments, secretaries are on Level I; deputy secretaries are on Level II; under secretaries are mostly on Level III; and assistant secretaries, general counsels, inspectors general, chief financial officers, and chief information officers are mostly on Level IV. The directors of departmental and independent agencies vary widely in their placement, and are represented in every level from I to V, with their subordinates being placed on levels below them. A few agencies have general counsels, inspectors general, chief financial officers, or chief information officers on Level IV along with their departmental counterparts, although agency officials with these titles may instead be on another pay scale such as the Senior Executive Service.


title: Executive Schedule

text: Many political appointees have had their pay rate frozen at lower levels. According to , at the beginning of the first pay period for any position under the Executive Schedule, the amount of pay will be adjusted and rounded to the nearest multiple of US$100. If this amount is found to be midway between multiples of $100, then it will be rounded to the next highest multiple of $100.


title: Executive Schedule

text: Section 738 of division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (Public Law 115-141, March 23, 2018), continued the freeze on the payable pay rates for certain senior political officials at 2013 levels through January 5, 2019. The failure to enact new appropriations legislation may allow the freeze to expire. However, the officially established and posted pay rates (or pay ranges) for 2018 are in effect and used for determining pay for other employees. For more information, please see Compensation Policy Memorandum 2018-08 at https://chcoc.gov/content/continued-pay-freeze-certain-senior-political-officials-2.


title: Executive Schedule

text: Executive Schedule rates indirectly affect the rates of pay for other pay scales such as the General Schedule, Senior Executive Service, Senior Level, Senior Foreign Service, and other federal civilian pay systems, as well as the pay of uniformed military personnel, because various federal laws establishing those pay systems normally tie the maximum amount payable to various levels of the Executive Schedule. For example, no one paid on the General Schedule may earn more than the rate for Level IV of the Executive Schedule. Because of these pay caps and freezes to the Executive Schedule, federal workers at the top of their pay bands are often unable to receive pay increases, resulting in salary compression.


title: Executive Schedule

text: lists the positions that receive the amount of pay determined by Chapter 11 of Title 2. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level I is $226,300. There exist 21 positions, which are as follows:


title: Executive Schedule

text: lists positions given the rank of executive schedule II. Deputy secretaries of cabinet-level agencies usually have this rank. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level II is $203,700. While not listed, the deputy secretary of commerce is also at Level II of the Executive Schedule. The 53 positions are:


title: Executive Schedule

text: lists 125 positions granted the rank of level III. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level III is $187,300. The positions are:


title: Executive Schedule

text: Note: The Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision was level III before that office was abolished by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.


title: Executive Schedule

text: lists 346 non-obsolete positions with the rank of executive schedule level IV. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level IV is $176,300. The positions are:


title: Executive Schedule

text: lists the 143 positions that receive the amount of pay determined by Chapter 11 of Title 2. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level V is $165,300. The positions are as follows:


title: Executive Schedule

text: Per , the president can at any time appoint no more than 34 individuals to pay rates Level IV and V, provided that they are viewed as a necessary change to organization, management responsibility, or workload within a specific agency. This figure is in addition to Level IV and V positions specifically authorized in the bill. However, Senate consent is required and the pay rate takes effect only upon a new appointment to that position. All actions taken during this process are to be published in the "Federal Register", except when it is deemed that such publication would stand in conflict to national security. The president may not take action under this section with respect to a position, the pay for which is fixed at a specific rate by this subchapter, or by statute enacted after 14 August 1964.


title: Matilda II

text: The Infantry Tank Mark II, best known as the Matilda, was a British infantry tank of the Second World War.


title: Matilda II

text: The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the machine gun armed, two-man A11 Infantry Tank Mark I. The Mark I was also known as Matilda, and the larger A12 was initially known as the Matilda II or Matilda senior. The Mark I was abandoned in 1940, and from then on the A12 was almost always known simply as "the Matilda".


title: Matilda II

text: With its heavy armour, the Matilda II was an excellent infantry support tank but with somewhat limited speed and armament. It was the only British tank to serve from the start of the war to its end, although it is particularly associated with the North Africa Campaign. Only two were available for service by the outbreak of the World War II in 1939. It was replaced in front-line service by the lighter and less costly Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine beginning in late 1941.


title: Matilda II

text: The split between the infantry tank and cruisers had its origins in the First World War division between the first British heavy tanks and the faster Whippet Medium Mark A and its successors the Medium Mark B and Medium Mark C. During the interbellum, British tank experiments generally followed these basic classifications, which were made part of the overall doctrine with the work of Major-General Percy Hobart and the influence of Captain B.H. Liddell Hart.


title: Matilda II

text: In 1934, Hobart, the then "Inspector, Royal Tank Corps", postulated in a paper two alternatives for a tank to support the infantry. One was a very small, heavily armoured, machine gun-armed model that would be fielded in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy defences. The other was a larger vehicle with a cannon as well as machine guns and heavier armour proof against enemy field artillery. Vickers designed a tank to a General Staff specification based on the first option as the A11 Matilda. Within the limitations of military finances, the Master-General of the Ordnance, Hugh Elles, went for the smaller machine gun tank and the larger cannon-armed version did not proceed. This requirement was passed to Vickers-Armstrongs which had a prototype (A11E1) but with armour proof against current anti-tanks guns ready by September 1936.


title: Matilda II

text: The first suggestion for a larger Infantry Tank was made in 1936, with specification A12. The design was produced by the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and Vulcan Foundry was selected as the manufacturer. A12 used a number of design elements of the A7, a medium tank that was built in limited numbers in the early 1930s whose mechanical layout was used for many following designs. With its greatly increased armour, a lack of power was seen as a problem. The solution was to use two AEC straight-six water-cooled diesel engines, used in London buses, providing up to 87 hp each. These were linked along a common shaft. Suspension was to use the "Japanese Type" bell crank suspension used on the A7.


title: Matilda II

text: Vulcan received a contract for two wooden mock-ups and two mild-steel prototypes in November 1936. The first mock-up was delivered in April 1937 and the A12E1 prototype in April 1938. The prototypes proved excellent in a test, resulting in only a few changes to improve the gearbox, suspension and cooling. When war was recognised as imminent, production of the Matilda II was ordered and that of the Matilda I curtailed. The first order was placed shortly after trials were completed, with 140 ordered from Vulcan in June 1938.


title: Matilda II

text: The Matilda Senior weighed around , more than twice as much as its predecessor, and was armed with an Ordnance QF 2-pounder (40 mm) tank gun in a three-man turret. The turret traversed by hydraulic motor or by hand through 360 degrees; the gun could be elevated through an arc from −15 to +20 degrees. One of the most serious weaknesses of the Matilda II was the lack of a high-explosive round for its main gun. A high-explosive shell was designed for the 2-pounder but was rarely issued, as the bursting charge was so small. The main weapon against unarmoured targets was its machine gun.


title: Matilda II

text: The Matilda II had a conventional layout, with the driver's compartment located at the front of the tank's hull, the fighting compartment with the turret in the centre and the engine and transmission housed in the rear. The driver's position was normally accessed by a single hatch in the roof of the hull, and protected by a rotating armoured cover which could be held locked in either fully open or closed positions; emergency egress was made possible by a large escape hatch under the driver's seating position. The driver also had a direct vision viewing port with manually operated armoured shield and a single Mk IV periscope to use when buttoned up.


title: Matilda II

text: Like many other British infantry tanks, it was heavily armoured. The front glacis was up to thick; the nose plates top and bottom were thinner but angled. The sides of the hull were and the rear armour, protecting the engine to sides and rear, was .


title: Matilda II

text: The cast, cylindrical three-man turret was seated on ball-bearing ring mount and its armour was all round. The turret was laid out such that the gunner and commander were seated in a laddered arrangement on the left side of the gun, and the loader on the right. The commander was given a rotating cupola with a two-piece hatch and a single panoramic Mk IV periscope installed in the forward-facing hatch door. The same device was also mounted in a fixed position in the turret roof, forward of the commander's cupola, and giving the gunner some situational awareness and target finding capabilities. The loader used a single, rectangular hatch in the turret's roof on the right side. The turret was equipped with a basket around which much of the ammunition stowage was contained. The turret had a power traverse system used under normal conditions, and a manually-operated mechanical emergency assist.


title: Matilda II

text: The armour of the Matilda was the heaviest of its era. Contemporary German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks had hull armour, while the T-34 had (angled at 60 degrees). Matilda's side and rear armour was relatively heavy even at the end of the war when tanks like the M4 Sherman carried about 40 mm, and late models of the Panther carried 50 mm. The shape of the nose armour was based on Christie's designs and came to a narrow point with storage lockers added on either side. The heavy armour of the Matilda's cast turret became legendary; for a time in 1940–1941, the Matilda earned the nickname "Queen of the Desert".


title: Matilda II

text: While the Matilda possessed a degree of protection that was unmatched in the North African theatre, the sheer weight of the armour on the vehicle contributed to a very low average speed of about on desert terrain and on roads. At the time, this was not thought to be a problem, since British infantry tank doctrine valued heavy armour and trench-crossing ability over speed and cross-country mobility (which was considered to be characteristic of cruiser tanks such as the Crusader). The slow speed of the Matilda was further exacerbated by a troublesome suspension and a comparatively weak power unit, which was created from two AEC 6-cylinder bus engines linked to a single shaft. This arrangement was complicated and time-consuming to maintain, as it required mechanics to work on each engine separately and subjected automotive components to uneven wear-and-tear. It did provide some mechanical redundancy, since failure in one engine would not prevent the Matilda from using the other. The combined power of the engines went through a six-speed Wilson epicyclic gearbox, operated by compressed air.


title: Matilda II

text: The tank's suspension system was that which had been developed by Vickers for their Medium C prototype in the mid-1920s The tank was carried by five double wheels bogies on each side. Four of the bogies were on bellcranks in pairs, with a common horizontal coil spring. The fifth bogie at the rear was sprung against a hull bracket. Between the first bogie and the idler wheel, was a larger diameter vertically sprung "jockey wheel". The first Matildas had return rollers; these were replaced in later models by track skids, which were far easier to manufacture and to service in the field.


title: Matilda II

text: The turret carried the main armament, with the machine gun to the right in a rotating internal mantlet. Traverse was by a hydraulic system. As the gun was balanced for ease of movement by the gunner, much of the breech end was behind the trunnions. Two smoke grenade launchers were carried on the right side of the turret. The grenade launcher mechanisms were cut down Lee–Enfield rifles, each loaded with a smoke grenade. Its camouflage scheme was designed by Major Denys Pavitt of the Camouflage Development And Training Centre based on the dazzle patterns of First World War ships. The design incorporated block colours, visually breaking the tank in half.


title: Matilda II

text: The first Matilda was produced in 1937, but only two were in service when war broke out in September 1939. Following the initial order from Vulcan Foundry, a second order was placed shortly after with Ruston & Hornsby. Some 2,987 tanks were produced by the Vulcan Foundry, John Fowler & Co. of Leeds, Ruston & Hornsby, and later by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at Horwich Works; Harland and Wolff, and the North British Locomotive Company Glasgow. The last were delivered in August 1943.


title: Matilda II

text: The Matilda was difficult to manufacture. For example, the pointed nose was a single casting that, upon initial release from the mould, was thicker than required in some areas. To avoid a needless addition to the tank's weight, the thick areas were ground away. This process required highly skilled workers and additional time. The complex suspension and multi-piece hull side coverings also added time to manufacturing.


title: Matilda II

text: The Matilda was first used in combat by the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in France in 1940. Only 23 of the unit's tanks were Matilda IIs; the rest of the British infantry tanks in France were the smaller machine-gun armed A11 Matilda. Its 2-pounder gun was comparable to other tank guns in the 37 to 45 mm range. Due to the thickness of its armour, it was largely immune, but not impervious, to the guns of the German tanks and anti-tank guns in France. The Germans found the 88 mm anti-aircraft guns were the only effective counter-measure. In the counter-attack at Arras of 21 May 1940, 18 British Matilda IIs (and Matilda Is) were able to briefly disrupt German progress, but, being unsupported, they sustained heavy losses (30 tanks lost) after breaking through to the rear area of 7th Panzer Division. A gun line of artillery and later 88mm flak guns, personally organised by General Rommel was needed to repel the attack. All vehicles surviving the battles around Dunkirk were abandoned when the BEF evacuated.


title: Matilda II

text: Up to early 1942, in the war in North Africa, the Matilda proved highly effective against Italian and German tanks, although vulnerable to the larger calibre and medium calibre anti-tank guns.


title: Matilda II

text: In late 1940, during Operation Compass, Matildas of the British 7th Armoured Division wreaked havoc among the Italian forces in Egypt. The Italians were equipped with L3 tankettes and M11/39 medium tanks, neither of which had any chance against the Matildas. Italian gunners were to discover that the Matildas were impervious to a wide assortment of artillery. Matildas continued to confound the Italians as the British pushed them out of Egypt and entered Libya to take Bardia and Tobruk. Even as late as November 1941, German infantry combat reports show the impotence of ill-equipped infantry against the Matilda.


title: Matilda II

text: Ultimately, in the rapid manoeuvre warfare often practised in the open desert of North Africa, the Matilda's low speed and unreliable steering mechanism became major problems. Another snag was the lack of a high-explosive shell (the appropriate shell existed but was not issued). When the German "Afrika Korps" arrived in North Africa, the 88 mm anti-aircraft gun was again pressed into service against the Matilda, causing heavy losses during Operation Battleaxe, when sixty-four Matildas were lost. The arrival of the more powerful 5 cm Pak 38 and 7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank guns also provided a means for the German infantry to engage Matilda tanks at combat ranges. Nevertheless, during Operation Crusader Matilda tanks of 1st and 32nd Army Tank Brigades were instrumental in the break-out from Tobruk and the capture of the Axis fortress of Bardia. The operation was decided by the infantry tanks, after the failure of the cruiser tanks of the 7th Armoured Division to overcome the Axis tank forces in the open desert.


title: Matilda II

text: As the German army received new tanks with more powerful guns, as well as more powerful anti-tank guns and ammunition, the Matilda proved less and less effective. Firing tests conducted by the "Afrika korps" showed that the Matilda had become vulnerable to a number of German weapons at ordinary combat ranges. Due to the small size of the turret and the need to balance the gun in it, up-gunning the Matilda, without developing a larger turret, was impractical. There was at least one instance of the turret from the A24/A27 cruiser tank series being fitted to a Matilda, complete with 6-pounder gun. As the size of the Matilda's turret ring was 54 inches (1.37 m) vs. the 57 inches of the A27, it was possible that a larger turret ring had been superimposed on the hull. The Churchill Mark III also had a 54-inch turret ring but was armed with a 6-pounder and that might have offered an alternative route. It was also somewhat expensive to produce. Vickers proposed an alternative, the Valentine tank, which had the same gun and a similar level of armour protection but on a faster and cheaper chassis derived from that of their "heavy cruiser" Cruiser Mk II. With the arrival of the Valentine in autumn 1941, the Matilda was phased out by the British Army through attrition, with lost vehicles no longer being replaced. By the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 1942), few Matildas were in service, with many having been lost during Operation Crusader and then the Gazala battles in early summer of 1942. Around twenty-five took part in the battle as mine-clearing Matilda Scorpion mine flail tanks.


title: Matilda II

text: In early 1941, a small number of Matildas were used during the East Africa Campaign at the Battle of Keren. However, the mountainous terrain of East Africa did not allow the tanks of B Squadron 4th Royal Tank Regiment to be as effective as the tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment had been in Egypt and Libya.


title: Matilda II

text: A total of 409 Matilda IIs were supplied by Britain to the Australian army between 1942 and 1944, and a further 33 close-support Matildas were transferred from New Zealand to the Australian army in 1944, as New Zealand made the decision to use only close-support Valentine tanks in the Pacific theatre, to minimise supply problems. The Australian 4th Armoured Brigade used them against Japanese forces in the South West Pacific Area, first in the Huon Peninsula campaign in October 1943. Matilda II tanks remained in action until the last day of the war in the Wewak, Bougainville and Borneo campaigns, which made the Matilda the only British tank to remain in service throughout the war.


title: Matilda II

text: The tanks were often employed in dense jungle with limited visibility, and could be subject to point-blank fire from hidden Japanese heavy artillery pieces. The Matilda's heavy armour (enhanced by the crews with spare track links) proved to be reasonably effective protection against this. In this fighting, the close-support version of the Matilda, armed with an Ordnance QF 3-inch howitzer, was preferred by the Australians as it was more effective against Japanese bunkers. Local modifications to the tanks included improving the waterproofing, and adding an outside infantry telephone so supporting troops could more easily communicate with the tank crew. Guards were fitted to the suspension to stop it from being tangled with jungle undergrowth, and metal panels fitted to make it harder for Japanese soldiers to attach adhesive demolition charges to the hull.


title: Matilda II

text: The Matilda Frog, an Australian-modified version of the tank that replaced the gun with a flamethrower saw some successful use against the Japanese on Borneo. Another Australian version, the Matilda Hedgehog, which could fire seven mortar shells, was successfully tested but was developed too late to see combat service.


title: Matilda II

text: The Red Army received 918 of the 1,084 Matildas sent to the USSR. The Soviet Matildas saw action as early as the Battle of Moscow and became fairly common during 1942. Unsurprisingly, the tank was found to be too slow and unreliable. Crews often complained that snow and dirt were accumulating behind the "skirt" panels, clogging the suspension. The heavy armour on the Matilda was comparable to that of the Red Army's KV-1 heavy tanks, but the Matilda had nowhere near the firepower of the KV. Most Soviet Matildas were expended during 1942 but a few served on as late as 1944. The Soviets modified the tanks with the addition of sections of steel welded to the tracks to give better grip.


title: Matilda II

text: Following Operation Battleaxe a dozen Matildas left behind the Axis lines were repaired and put into service by the Germans. Several vehicles were transported to Kummersdorf where they were evaluated, including trials by live fire. The German designation was "Infanterie Panzerkampfwagen Mk.II 748(e)" translating roughly as "Infantry Tank Mk.II Number 748 (English)". The Matildas were well-regarded by their German users although their use in battle caused confusion to both sides, despite extra-prominent German markings. Czech historian writes that the Romanians had also captured some Soviet Matildas, but no other source mentions this, so it may be a confusion.


title: Matilda II

text: Around 70 Matilda IIs survive in various degrees of preservation. Around 30 are in Australia, either in museums, displayed as public monuments or in private ownership. A notable collection is that of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum, at Puckapunyal, Australia, which has five Matilda IIs on display, including a Matilda Frog flame tank, a Matilda Hedgehog and a Matilda Bulldozer.


title: Matilda II

text: Tanks in running condition are owned by The Tank Museum Bovington in the United Kingdom, the American Heritage Museum in the United States, and several private owners in Australia. The Tank Museum completely restored a Matilda II tank from 2015 to 2018, with updates provided through YouTube. While a gearbox fault prevented it running at the 2018 Tankfest (its first advertised running event since 2013), the issue was corrected and the tank has run at several events since. The Tank Museum at Bovington also displays the only surviving Matilda Canal Defence Light, currently housed in the Vehicle Conservation Centre. The WW2 Tank Stories display has a Matilda in desert Caunter camouflage scheme In the UK, the Imperial War Museum also has a Matilda - listed as a Mk V - with additional turret ring armour on display in the Land Warfare Hall at their Duxford site. The Royal NSW Lancers Museum in Parramatta in Sydney has a MKII "ACE" fitted with a 3 in. howitzer in place of the 2 pounder.


title: Matilda II

text: Other examples are displayed at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Belgium, the Yad La-Shiryon museum in the Latrun, the Musée des Blindés in France, and the Cavalry Tank Museum at Ahmednagar in India.


title: Barbadians

text: (pronounced ) are people who are identified with the country of Barbados, by being citizens or their descendants in the Barbadian diaspora. The connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Barbadians, several (or all) of those connections exist and are collectively the source of their identity. Barbadians are a multi-ethnic and multicultural society of various ethnic, religious and national origins; therefore Barbadians do not necessarily equate their ethnicity with their Barbadian nationality.


title: Barbadians

text: Most Barbadians are of African or mixed-race descent. They are descendants of slaves brought from West Africa. White Barbadians are mainly of British and Irish descent. There is also a small population of Syrians, Lebanese, Jewish, Indian and Chinese people in the country.


title: Barbadians

text: Many Barbadians now live overseas and outside of Barbados; the majority have migrated to Anglophone countries, including around 65,000 in the United States, 37,780 in Canada, some 19,000 in the United Kingdom, and some 500–1,000 Barbadians in Liberia. In addition to Anglophone countries other groups of Barbadians have moved to Latin countries including Brazil, Cuba and Panama.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (, ) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary, being separate from, but no longer subject to, the Austrian Empire. The compromise put an end to the 18-year-long military dictatorship and absolutist rule over Hungary which Emperor Franz Joseph had instituted after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Hungary was restored. The agreement also restored the old historic constitution of the Kingdom of Hungary.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: Hungarian political leaders had two main goals during the negotiations. One was to regain the traditional status (both legal and political) of the Hungarian state, which had been lost after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The other was to restore the series of reform laws (the so-called April Laws) of the revolutionary parliament of 1848, which were based on the 12 points that established modern civil and political rights, economic and societal reforms in Hungary. The April Laws of the Hungarian revolutionary parliament (with the exception of the laws based on the 9th and 10th points) were restored by Franz Joseph.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: Under the Compromise, the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, headed by a single monarch who reigned as Emperor of Austria in the Austrian half of the empire, and as King of Hungary in the Kingdom of Hungary. The Cisleithanian (Austrian) and Transleithanian (Hungarian) states were governed by separate parliaments and prime ministers. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies. For these purposes, "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence were maintained under the monarch's direct authority, as was a third finance ministry responsible only for financing the two "common" portfolios.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: The relationship of Hungary to Austria before the 1848 revolution had been personal union, whereas after the compromise of 1867 her status was reduced to partnership in a real union. Thus Hungarian society widely considered the compromise as a betrayal of the vital Hungarian interests and the achievements of the reforms of 1848. The compromise remained bitterly unpopular among ethnic Hungarian voters: ethnic Hungarians did not generally support the ruling Liberal party in Hungarian parliamentary elections. Therefore, the political maintenance of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, and thus Austria-Hungary itself, was mostly a result of the popularity of the pro-compromise ruling Liberal Party among ethnic minority voters in the Kingdom of Hungary.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: According to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, "There were three of us who made the agreement: Deák, Andrássy and myself."


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: In the Middle Ages, the Duchy of Austria was an autonomous state within the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, and the Kingdom of Hungary was a sovereign state outside the empire. In 1526, Hungary was defeated and partially conquered by the Ottoman Empire. King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia had no legitimate heir and died young in the Battle of Mohács. Louis II's brother-in-law, Ferdinand I of Habsburg, was elected King of Hungary by a rump Parliament in Pozsony in December 1526. The Ottomans were subsequently driven out of Hungary by international Western Christian forces led by Prince Eugene of Savoy between 1686 and 1699. From 1526 to 1804, Hungary was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty as kings of Hungary, but remained nominally and legally separate from the other lands of the Habsburg monarchy.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: Unlike other Habsburg-ruled areas, the Kingdom of Hungary had an old historic constitution, which limited the power of the Crown and had greatly increased the authority of the parliament since the 13th century.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: In 1804, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also ruler of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria in which all his lands were included. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, which had functioned as a composite monarchy for about 300 years. (Composite states/monarchies were the most common / dominant form of states in early modern era Europe.) Until the 1848 revolution, the workings of the overarching structure and the status of Hungary stayed much the same as they had been before 1804. The Kingdom of Hungary had always been considered a separate realm, the country's status was affirmed by Article X, which was added to Hungary's constitution in 1790 during the phase of the composite monarchy; it described the state as a "Regnum Independens". Hungary's affairs continued to be administered by its own institutions (King and Diet) as they had been previously. Thus, under the new arrangements, no Austrian imperial institutions were involved in its internal government. From the perspective of the Court since 1723, "regnum Hungariae" had been a hereditary province of the dynasty's three main branches on both lines. From the perspective of the "ország" (the country), Hungary was "regnum independens", a separate Land as Article X of 1790 stipulated. In 1804 Emperor Francis II assumed the title of Emperor of Austria for all the "Erblande" of the dynasty and for the other Lands, including Hungary. Thus Hungary formally became part of the Empire of Austria. The Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806. However the involvement of Kingdom of Hungary in a different state was legally impossible, due to the old Hungarian constitution and Hungarian public law. The Court reassured the diet, however, that the assumption of the monarch's newly adopted title (Emperor of Austria) did not in any sense affect the laws and the constitution on the territory of Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian legal system and judicial system remained separated and independent from the unified legal and judicial systems of the other Habsburg ruled areas.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: The administration and the structures of central government of Kingdom of Hungary remained separate from the Austrian administration and Austrian government until the 1848 revolution. Hungary was governed to a greater degree by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary (the Gubernium) in Pressburg (Pozsony) and, to a lesser extent, by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna, independent of the Imperial Chancellery of Austria.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: "At any time in the past, Hungary might have made peace with a power with which Austria was at war, if the kings had not falsified their oath by not assembling the Hungarian Parliament: for the Diet always had the lawful right of [declaring] War and Peace."


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: From 1526 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs borders, which separated Hungary from the united customs system of other Habsburg-ruled territories.


title: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

text: While in most Western European countries (like France and the United Kingdom) the king's reign began immediately upon the death of his predecessor, in Hungary the coronation was absolutely indispensable as if it were not properly executed, the Kingdom stayed "orphaned". Even during the long personal union between the Kingdom of Hungary and other Habsburg-ruled areas, the Habsburg monarchs had to be crowned as King of Hungary in order to promulgate laws there or exercise his royal prerogatives in the territory of Hungary. Since the Golden Bull of 1222, all Hungarian monarchs had to take a coronation oath during the coronation procedure, where the new monarchs had to agree to uphold the constitutional arrangement of the country, to preserve the liberties of his subjects and the territorial integrity of the realm.