title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Under US insistence on constitutional rule, elections for the presidency and legislature were scheduled.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 3 September 1967, Thiệu ran successfully for the presidency with Kỳ as his running mate. Thiệu took 34% of the vote and held the position until 21 April 1975. He promised democracy, social reform and vowed to "open wide the door of peace and leave it open". However, the poll was the start of a power struggle with Kỳ, who had been the main leader of South Vietnam in the preceding two years. The military had decided that they would support one candidate, and after both men wanted the job, Kỳ only backed down after being promised real influence behind the scenes through a military committee that would control proceedings. Thiệu was intent on concentrating power in his own hands.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: During the Lunar New Year of 1968, the communists launched a massive attack on the cities of Vietnam in an attempt to topple Thiệu and reunify the country under their rule. At the time of the attack on Saigon, Thiệu was out of town, having travelled to celebrate the new year at his wife's family's home at Mỹ Tho in the Mekong Delta. Kỳ, who was still in the capital, stepped into the spotlight and took command, organising the military forces in Saigon in the battle. The ARVN and the Americans repelled the communist onslaught. Kỳ's overshadowing of his superior during South Vietnam's deepest crisis further strained relations between the two men.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Although the communists were repelled and suffered heavy losses, South Vietnam suffered heavily as the conflict reached the cities for the first time in a substantial way. As ARVN troops were pulled back to defend the towns, the Việt Cộng gained in the countryside. The violence and destruction witnessed damaged public confidence in Thiệu, who apparently couldn't protect the citizens.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu's regime estimated the civilian dead at 14,300 with 24,000 wounded. 630,000 new refugees had been generated, joining the nearly 800,000 others already displaced by the war. By the end of 1968, 8% of the populace was living in a refugee camp. More than 70,000 homes had been destroyed and the nation's infrastructure was severely damaged. 1968 became the deadliest year of the war to date for South Vietnam, with 27,915 men killed.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In the wake of the offensive, however, Thiệu's regime became more energetic. On 1 February, Thiệu declared martial law, and in June, the National Assembly approved his request for a general mobilization of the population and the induction of 200,000 draftees into the armed forces by the end of the year; the bill had been blocked before the Tết Offensive. This increased South Vietnam's military to more than 900,000 men.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Mobilization and token anti-corruption campaigns were carried out. Three of the four ARVN corps commanders were replaced for poor performance during the offensive. Thiệu also established a National Recovery Committee to oversee food distribution, resettlement, and housing construction for the new refugees. The government perceived a new determination among the ordinary citizens, especially among previously apathetic urbanites who were angered by the communist attacks.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu used the period to consolidate his personal power. His only real political rival was Vice President Kỳ. In the aftermath of Tết, Kỳ supporters in the military and the administration were quickly removed from power, arrested, or exiled. A crack-down on the South Vietnamese press followed and there was a return of some of Diệm's Cần Lao members to positions of power. Within six months, the populace began to call him "the little dictator". Over the next few years, Kỳ became increasingly sidelined to the point of irrelevance.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In 1971, Thiệu ran for re-election, but his reputation for corruption made his political opponents believe the poll would be rigged, and they declined to run. As the only candidate, Thiệu was thus easily re-elected on 2 October, receiving 94% of the vote on an 87% turn-out, a figure widely held to be fraudulent. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 failed to end the fighting in South Vietnam, as North Vietnam immediately violated the cease-fire and attempted to make territorial gains, resulting in large battles.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In late 1973, the communists issued "Resolution 21", which called for "strategic raids" against South Vietnam to gain territory and to gauge the reaction of Thiệu and the American government. This started between March and November 1974, when the communists attacked Quang Duc Province and Biên Hòa. The US failed to respond to the communist violations and the ARVN lost a lot of supplies in the fighting.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu expressed his stance on the ceasefire by publicly proclaiming the "Four Nos": no negotiations with the communists; no communist political activities south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ); no coalition government; and no surrender of territory to the North Vietnamese or Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG), which went against the deal. Thiệu believed the American promise to reintroduce air power against the communists if they made any serious violations of the agreement, and he and his government also assumed that US aid would continue to be forthcoming at previous levels.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 1 July 1973, however, the US Congress passed legislation that all but prohibited any US combat activities over or in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. On 7 November, the legislative branch overrode Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act. In 1973–74, US funding was slashed to $965 million, a reduction of more than 50%. Despite Nixon's growing political difficulties and an increasingly hostile working relationship with the legislature over Vietnam, Thiệu, and most of the Saigon leadership, remained optimistic about ongoing aid. According to Vietnamese Air Force General Đổng Văn Khuyên, "Our leaders continued to believe in U.S. air intervention even after the U.S. Congress had expressly forbidden it ... [T]hey deluded themselves."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: As North Vietnam needed to replenish its armed forces in 1974, Thiệu decided to go on the attack. He stretched his own forces thinly by launching offensives that regained most of the territory captured by PAVN forces during the 1973 campaign, and retook 15% of the total land area controlled by the communists at the time of the cease-fire. In April, Thiệu launched the Svay Rieng Campaign against communist strongholds in eastern Cambodia near Tây Ninh, in what was the last major ARVN offensive. While these operations were successful, the cost in terms of manpower and resources was high. By the end of the year the military was experiencing equipment shortages as a result of decreased American aid, while communist forces continued to gain strength.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: By the end of October, the North Vietnamese had formulated their strategy for 1975 and 1976. In what became known as "Resolution of 1975", the party leadership reported that the war had reached its "final stage". The army was to consolidate its gains, eliminate South Vietnamese border outposts and secure its logistical corridor, and continue its force build-up in the south. During 1976, the final general offensive would begin. The communists decided to start by attacking Phước Long Province, around 140 km north of Saigon.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In the meantime, morale in and supplies for the ARVN continued to fade away. Desertion increased, and only 65% of registered personnel were present. Morale fell due to Thiệu's continued policy of promoting officers on the grounds of religion, loyalty and cronyism. Corruption and incompetence were endemic, with some officers "raising it almost to an art form". Under heavy criticism, Thiệu reluctantly sacked General Nguyễn Văn Toàn, a loyalist notorious for corruption.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: The aid cuts meant that an artillery piece could only fire four rounds a day, and each soldier had only 85 bullets per month. Due to lack of fuel and spare parts, air force transport operations shrank by up to 70%. Due to Thiệu's insistence on not surrendering any territory, the army was spread very thinly, defending useless terrain along a 600 mile (966 km) frontier, while the strategic reserve was occupied in static defensive roles. The situation was exacerbated by the collapse of the economy and a massive influx of refugees into the cities. Worldwide rises in fuel price due to the 1972 Arab oil embargo, and poor rice harvests throughout Asia, hit hard.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: By the end of 1974, around 370,000 communist troops were in South Vietnam, augmented by ever increasing influxes of military hardware. In mid-December, the communists attacked Phước Long, and quickly gained the upper hand, besieging the city.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 2 January 1975, Thiệu held an emergency meeting with General Dư Quốc Đống, who was in charge of the Phước Long situation, and other senior military figures. Đống presented a plan for the relief of Phước Long, but it was rejected because a lack of reserve forces of sufficient size available, a lack of airlift capability, and the belief that the besieged defenders could not hold out long enough for reinforcements. Thiệu decided to cede the entire province to the North Vietnamese, since it was considered to be less important than Tây Ninh, Pleiku, or Huế — economically, politically, and demographically.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 6 January 1975, Phước Long City became the first provincial capital permanently seized by the communists. Less than a sixth of the ARVN forces survived. Lê Duẩn declared that "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage so great as we have now." The communists thus decided to initiate a full-scale offensive against the central highlands, which had been named "Campaign 275". General Văn Tiến Dũng planned to take Buôn Ma Thuột, using 75,000–80,000 men to surround the city before capturing it.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Major General Phạm Văn Phú, the II Corps commander, was given adequate warnings of the impending attacks, but was not worried. He thought the true objective was Pleiku or Kon Tum and that Buôn Ma Thuột was a diversion. The town was therefore lightly defended and communists outnumbered defenders by more than 8:1. The battle for Buôn Ma Thuột began on 10 March and ended only eight days later. Reinforcements were flown in, but were dismantled and fled in chaos.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 18 March the communists took complete control of Đắk Lắk Province. ARVN forces began to rapidly shift positions in an attempt to keep the North Vietnamese from quickly pushing eastward to the coastal lowlands along Route 21. In the face of rapid communist advances, Thiệu had sent a delegation to Washington in early March to request an increase in aid. The US Ambassador Graham Martin also traveled to Washington to present the case to President Gerald Ford. However, the US Congress, increasingly reluctant to invest in what was seen as a lost cause, slashed a proposed $1.45 billion military aid package for 1975 to $700 million. The Ford administration, however, continued to encourage Thiệu to believe that money would eventually come.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: During this time, Thiệu was feeling the increased pressure and became increasingly paranoid. According to one of his closest advisors Nguyễn Tiến Hưng, he became "suspicious ... secretive ... and ever watchful for a "coup d'état" against him." His increasing isolation had begun to deny him "the services of competent people, adequate staff work, consultation, and coordination". Thieu's military decisions were followed faithfully by his officers who generally agreed that he "made all the decisions as to how the war should be conducted."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: By 11 March, Thiệu concluded that there was no hope of receiving the $300 million supplemental aid package from the US. On that basis he called a meeting attended by Generals Quang and Viên. After reviewing the situation, Thiệu pulled out a small-scale map of South Vietnam and discussed the possible redeployment of the armed forces to ""hold and defend only those populous and flourishing areas which were really most important"".


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu sketched on the map those areas which he considered most important, all of the III and IV Corps Tactical Zones. He also pointed out those areas that were currently under communist control which would have to be retaken. The key to the location of these operations were concentrations of natural resources such as rice, rubber and industries. The necessary territory included coastal areas where oil had been discovered on the continental shelf. These areas were to become, in Thiệu's words: ""Our untouchable heartland, the irreducible national stronghold."" With respect to the I and II Corps Zones, he drew a series of phase lines on the map indicating that South Vietnamese forces should hold what they could, but that they could redeploy southward if needed. Thiệu declared this new strategy as "Light at the top, heavy on the bottom."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: The critical decision was made on 14 March when Thiệu met with Phú. Thiệu had decided to abandon Pleiku and Kon Tum so that the II Corps forces could concentrate on retaking Buôn Ma Thuột, which he considered more important. Phú then decided that the only possible means of doing this was to retreat to the coast along Interprovincial Route 7B, a dilapidated, rough track with several downed bridges, before recuperating and counterattacking back into the highlands.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: The large-scale retreat of hundreds of thousands of military personnel and civilians would be dangerous. However, it was poorly planned, many senior officers were not kept informed, and some units were left behind or retreated incoherently. This was exacerbated by a three-day delay when the convoy encountered a broken bridge and had to rebuild it. The communist forces caught up, surrounded the convoy, and attacked it.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Heavy losses were incurred against the numerically dominant communists, who shelled and rocketed the soldiers and peasants alike. More bridge delays played into communist hands, and by the time the convoy reached Tuy Hòa on 27 March, it was estimated by the ARVN that only 20,000 of the 60,000 troops had survived, while only 25% of the estimated 180,000 civilians had escaped. Thiệu's order to evacuate, which was too late, had resulted in chaos and a bloodbath that left more than 150,000 dead. The planned operation to retake Buôn Ma Thuột never materialized because II Corps had been reduced to only 25% strength. Buoyed by their easy triumph the North Vietnamese overran the whole region.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: However, a worse collapse occurred in the northernmost I Corps, after a series of U-turns by Thiệu. It added to the fall of the highlands, which had already earned Thiệu much criticism. I Corps fielded three infantry divisions, the elite Airborne and Marine Divisions, four Ranger Groups and an armored brigade, under the command of Ngô Quang Trưởng, regarded as the nation's finest general. Until mid-March, the North Vietnamese had only tried to cut the highways, despite having five divisions and 27 further regiments. At a meeting on 13 March, Trưởng and the new III Corps commander, Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Toàn briefed Thiệu. Thiệu laid out his plan to consolidate a smaller proportion. As Trưởng understood it, he was free to redeploy his forces south to hold Đà Nẵng, South Vietnam's second largest city, thereby abandoning Huế. Offshore oil deposits were thought to be nearby. Thiệu also decided to remove the Airborne and Marines, leaving I Corps exposed.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu called Trưởng to Saigon on 19 March to detail his withdrawal plan. The president then stunned Trưởng by announcing that he had misinterpreted his previous orders: The old imperial capital of Huế was not to be abandoned, despite losing two divisions.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In the meantime, the withdrawal preparations and the increasing North Vietnamese pressure caused civilians to flee, clogging the highway and hampering the withdrawal. Trưởng requested permission for a withdrawal of his forces into the three enclaves as planned; Thiệu ordered him to "hold onto any territory he could with whatever forces he now had, including the Marine Division", implying that he could retreat if and when needed.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Trưởng returned to Đà Nẵng to the start of a North Vietnamese offensive. Thiệu made a nationwide radio broadcast that afternoon proclaiming that Huế would be held "at all costs", contradicting the previous order. That evening Trưởng ordered a retreat to a new defense line at the Mỹ Chánh River to defend Huế, thereby ceding all of Quảng Trị Province. He was confident that his forces could hold Huế, but was then astounded by a late afternoon message from Thiệu that ordered ""that because of inability to simultaneously defend all three enclaves, the I Corps commander was free ... to redeploy his forces for the defense of Đà Nẵng only."" The people of Quảng Trị and Huế began to leave their homes by the hundreds of thousands, joining an ever-growing exodus toward Đà Nẵng.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese closed in on Đà Nẵng amid the chaos caused by Thiệu's confused leadership. Within a few days I Corps was beyond control. The South Vietnamese tried to evacuate from the other urban enclaves into Đà Nẵng, but the 1st Division collapsed after its commander, Brigadier General Nguyễn Văn Diệm, angered by Thiệu's abandonment, told his men that ""We've been betrayed ... [i]t is now "sauve qui peu" ["every man for himself"] ... See you in Đà Nẵng."" The overland march, pummelled by communist artillery the entire way, degenerated into chaos as it moved toward Đà Nẵng. The remainder of the force deserted or began looting. Only a minority survived and some disillusioned officers committed suicide.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: As anarchy and looting enveloped Đà Nẵng, with a defense of the city becoming impossible, Trưởng requested permission to evacuate by sea, but Thiệu, baffled, refused to make a decision. When his communications with Saigon were sundered by communist shelling, Trưởng ordered a naval withdrawal, as Thiệu was not making a decision either way.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: With no support or leadership from Đà Nẵng, the evacuation turned into a costly debacle, as the communists pounded the city with artillery, killing tens of thousands. Many drowned while jostling for room on the boats; with no logistical support, those vessels sent were far too few for the millions of would-be evacuees. Only around 16,000 soldiers were pulled out, and of the almost two million civilians that packed Đà Nẵng, little more than 50,000 were evacuated. As a result, 70,000 troops were taken prisoner, along with around 100 fighter jets. During the fall of Đà Nẵng, no pitched battles had been fought. In quick succession, the few remaining cities along the coastline "fell like a row of porcelain vases sliding off a shelf" and half the country had fallen in two weeks. When his hometown of Phan Rang fell, retreating ARVN troops showed their disgust at Thiệu by demolishing his family's ancestral shrines and graves.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: By this time, the North Vietnamese Politburo no longer felt it necessary to wait until 1976 for the final offensive, and they sought to secure victory within two months, before the monsoon season began. On 7 April 1975, Lê Đức Thọ arrived at General Văn Tiến Dũng's headquarters near Loc Ninh to oversee the final battles. General Dũng prepared a three-pronged attack, which would seize the vital highway intersection at Xuân Lộc, the capital of Long Khánh Province and "the gateway to Saigon", before heading for Biên Hòa.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: The week-long fighting that erupted on 8 April in and around Xuân Lộc was the most significant engagement of the entire offensive. The South Vietnamese eventually committed 25,000 troops to the battle, almost one-third of their remaining forces. After conducting a valiant defense, the 18th Division was overwhelmed by a 6:1 numerical ratio, and the communists encircled Saigon.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 10 April, US President Gerald Ford went to Congress to request a US$722 million supplemental military aid package for South Vietnam plus $250 million in economic and refugee aid but Congress was not impressed. On 17 April the discussion ended—there would be no further military funding for Thiệu.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: On 21 April 1975, Thiệu, under intense political pressure, resigned as president after losing the confidence of his closest domestic allies. In his televised farewell speech during which he was close to tears, he admitted, for the first time, having ordered the evacuation of the Central Highlands and the north that had led to debacle. He then stated that it had been the inevitable course of action considering the situation, but still blamed the generals.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In a rambling and incoherent speech, Thiệu went on to excoriate the US, attacking "our great ally, [the] leader of the free world". "The United States has not respected its promises" he declared. "It is inhumane. It is not trustworthy. It is irresponsible." He added, "The United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days?", and "The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu bemoaned the American funding cuts, which he equated to desertion, saying, "You don't fight by miracles, you need high morale and bravery. But even if you are brave, you can't just stand there and bite the enemy. And we are fighting against Russia and China. We're having to bargain for aid from the United States like haggling for fish in the market and I am not going to continue this bargaining for a few million dollars when your [South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians] lives are at stake."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: He criticised the American policy, saying, "You Americans with your 500,000 soldiers in Vietnam! You were not defeated...you ran away!" He lambasted US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for signing the Paris Peace Accords, which the communists violated, and which he regarded as an American abandonment, stating "I never thought that such a good Secretary of State would produce a treaty that would bring us to our death". Thiệu also blamed the local media and foreign broadcasting organisations for lowering the morale of the military and the population by reporting on the corruption and setbacks of his government.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Immediately following the speech, Vice President Trần Văn Hương took the presidency, but the tide could not be stopped, and the communists overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, ending the war.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In his farewell speech, Thiệu said, "I resign, but I do not desert," but he fled to Taiwan on a C-118 transport plane five days later. According to Morley Safer, the CIA was involved in the flight of Thiệu, his aides, and a "planeload of suitcases containing heavy metal," though it was revealed in 2015 by Tuổi Trẻ, a Vietnamese news source, that the "heavy metal", which was 16 tons of gold, was left behind and given to the Soviet Union from 1979 onwards as debt payment. Thiệu also brought 15 tons of luggage with him.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: He settled in London, having obtained a visa there because his son was studying at Eton College. Thiệu kept a low profile, and in 1990 even the Foreign Office claimed to have no information on his whereabouts. In the early 1990s, Thiệu took up residence in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where he lived reclusively. He never produced an autobiography, rarely assented to interviews and shunned visitors. Neighbours had little contact with him or knowledge of him, aside from seeing him walking his dog. He did, however, appear in the 1980 documentary television mini-series "", discussing his time as president of South Vietnam.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu's aversion to public appearances was attributed to a fear of hostility from South Vietnamese who believed that he had failed them. He acknowledged his compatriots' low esteem of his administration in a 1992 interview, but said, "You say that you blame me for the fall of South Vietnam, you criticize me, everything. I let you do that. I like to see you do better than I." Thiệu continually predicted the demise of the Vietnamese Communist Party's grip on power and warned the United States government not to establish diplomatic relations with the communist regime. (Relations between the US and the communist regime in Hanoi were formally established in 1995.) Thiệu said that when the communists are deposed and "democracy is recovered," he would return to his homeland, but their hold on Vietnam remained unchallenged during his lifetime. He futilely offered to represent the refugee community in reconciliation talks with Hanoi so exiles could be allowed to return home.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu was criticized by many opponents and historians, but he was appreciated by others. The US ambassador to South Vietnam, Ellsworth Bunker, told former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird about Thiệu: "He is an individual of very considerable intellectual capacity. He made the decision in the beginning to follow the constitutional road, not to rule with a clique of generals, which many of them expected he would do. He has been acting more and more like a politician, getting out into the country, following up on pacification, talking to people, seeing what they want." The military historian Lewis Sorley suggests that Thiệu "was arguably a more honest and decent man than Lyndon Johnson, and – given the differences in their respective circumstances – quite likely a more effective president of his country."


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: Thiệu and his wife Mai Anh celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Hawaii when the September 11 attacks happened. The fact that both planes (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175) that crashed into the World Trade Center had departed from Logan International Airport in Boston, had certain psychological effects on Thiệu and also affected his health. Because much of the air travel was affected by the attacks, the couple was stuck in Hawaii for more than a week. When they got home, Thiệu's condition had worsened.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: He died on 29 September 2001, aged 78, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, after he collapsed and was put on a respirator due to a stroke which he suffered at his Foxborough home. His funeral was held on 6 October 2001, at the Eaton & Mac Kay Funeral Home in Newton, Massachusetts. He was cremated and the location of his ashes is unknown. According to Mai Anh, before his death, Thiệu expressed his wish to be buried in his hometown of Phan Rang, otherwise his ashes will be scattered half into the sea and half on the mountain.


title: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

text: In 1951, Thiệu married Nguyễn Thị Mai Anh, the daughter of a wealthy herbal medicine practitioner from the Mekong Delta. She was a Roman Catholic, and Thiệu converted to Catholicism in 1958. Critics claimed that he did so in order to improve his prospects of rising up the military ranks, because Diệm was known to favor Catholics. The couple had two sons and one daughter.


title: STX Entertainment

text: STX Entertainment is a mini-major American entertainment and media company. Founded in March 2014 by film producer Robert Simonds, the studio produces film, television, and digital media projects.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In April 2020, STX announced that it would merge with the Indian studio Eros International plc. The merger was completed in July 2020, and STX became a division of ErosSTX. In December 2021, Jahm Najafi announced his intention to acquire STX from the merged company for $173 million–a sale completed in April 2022. Eros remains a minority, non-voting shareholder.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2012, Simonds and McGlashan began work on conceptualizing a media company based on the idea of producing medium-budget projects with a star attached, a method that had gone out of style with Hollywood studios. The conversation led to the launch of STX Entertainment in 2014, with the mission to finance, develop, produce, market, and distribute star-driven content around the world. Investors in the company included Hony Capital, Tencent, PCCW, TPG Growth, and Liberty Global. Individual investors include Gigi Pritzker, Beau Wrigley, and Dominic Ng.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In September 2017, it was reported that STX was considering an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK). It was reported that a listing on the SEHK could bring STX closer to Chinese investors and audiences. The "Wall Street Journal" stated that the company could be valued at $3.5 billion, after raising an additional $500 million following the IPO. In April 2018, the company filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.


title: STX Entertainment

text: STX called off its IPO in October 2018, citing the China–U.S. trade war, and conditions having deteriorated in Hong Kong due to turbulence in the mainland Chinese equity market. An overall co-funding agreement with Chinese company Huayi Brothers Media lapsed at the end of 2018, and in April 2019, co-founder Bill McGlashan was fired due to his being indicted in the college admissions bribery scandal.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In April 2020, STX announced that it would merge with the Indian film and television studio Eros International plc. Simonds stated that the merger would create "the first independent media company with the expertise and creative cultures of Hollywood and Bollywood, while also leveraging the important inroads both companies have made into the Chinese market." The combined company would be publicly-traded, inheriting Eros' listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The merger was closed on July 30, 2020; the combined company unveiled a new logo and branding as ErosSTX in September. The combined entity raised $125 million of new equity funding and received $350 million in credit led by JPMorgan.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In December 2021, amid financial shortcomings following the merger, Jahm Najafi's Najafi Companies announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire STX Entertainment from ErosSTX for $173 million. However, in late January 2022, Lionsgate also emerged as a potential suitor, looking to absorb either part or whole of STX, but the deal was later rejected, leaving only Najafi as a potential suitor. In April 2022, Najafi Companies completed its acquisition of STX Entertainment. Eros Media World will retain a 15% non-voting stake in the company. In July 2022, shortly after STX's motion picture chairman Adam Fogelson departed for the studio, "Deadline" reported that STX was in talks with Lionsgate over a potential film distribution deal. Shortly after, it was reported that STX Entertainment's U.K. offices, including the London office housing STXinternational's headquarters, were gradually shutting down. Following the departure of STXinternational head John Friedberg to join Black Bear Pictures' international division, it was announced the latter company was nearing a deal with STX to handle part of its slate internationally.


title: STX Entertainment

text: At launch, the film division of STX focused its efforts on creating a new model. Rather than pursuing the traditional distribution process, the company secured direct distribution agreements with North American theater chains AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Goodrich, Marcus Theatres, and Carmike Cinemas. In early 2015, the company signed a multiyear television output agreement to release films exclusively to Showtime Networks and its channels Showtime, The Movie Channel, and Flix during the premium television window. The deal covers STX Films theatrical releases through 2019. In April 2015, the company entered into a multiyear partnership with Universal Studios Home Entertainment for Universal to handle marketing, sales, and distribution services for Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD platforms for STX Films theatrical titles in North America. Film distribution was transferred to Studio Distribution Services, LLC., a joint venture between UPHE and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. That same month, STX Films closed a three-year slate deal with Huayi Brothers, one of China's largest film studios, enabling the companies to co-produce and co-distribute 12 to 15 films annually. In January 2017, STX Films signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Luc Besson's EuropaCorp Films USA to release their upcoming slate of films in the US. In February 2018, STX Films announced it would distribute Netflix and Martin Scorsese's mob drama "The Irishman" in China along with Media Asia Entertainment Group.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In May 2018, it was reported that STX would distribute and oversee production on Tencent Pictures and Free Association's film adaptation of the digital comic book "Zombie Brother", to be directed by David Sandberg. In July 2018, STX Films acquired domestic distribution rights to the civil rights drama "The Best of Enemies"; it stars Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, is directed by Robin Bissell, and was released on April 5, 2019.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In line with its mission to make medium-budget, star-driven content, STX Films projects have included "Hustlers" starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu, "I Feel Pretty" starring Amy Schumer, "Second Act", a romantic comedy starring Lopez and directed by Peter Segal, "Bad Moms" starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate; "Molly's Game", written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jessica Chastain; "The Gift", written, co-produced and directed by Joel Edgerton and starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall; "The Edge of Seventeen" starring Hailee Steinfeld; "The Foreigner" starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan; "Secret in Their Eyes" starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts; "The Boy" starring Lauren Cohan; and "Free State of Jones" starring Matthew McConaughey. In 2015, STX Films acquired its first feature at the Toronto International Film Festival, purchasing the worldwide rights to the sci-fi, action adventure "Hardcore Henry" for US$10 million.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2017, STX Films announced its expansion into animation and family content with a partnership with the Uglydoll brand. The "UglyDolls" film was produced by Robert Rodriguez, director of the "Spy Kids" film franchise, and it features the voices of Pitbull, Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Blake Shelton, and Janelle Monáe. It performed poorly at the box office, and received a lot of bad reviews from the critics. In January 2019, it was reported that STX is planning an animated "UglyDolls" television series with Hulu.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In January 2018, STX Films and Tencent Pictures announced a co-development deal with Jason Statham targeting the Chinese film market. Statham starred in "Furious 7" and "The Fate of the Furious", China's two highest-grossing imported films ever. In February 2018, STX Films signed a deal with Alibaba Pictures to co-develop and co-produce the action-sci-fi film "Steel Soldiers", produced by Robert Zemeckis. Under the deal, STX Films will handle US and international distribution with Alibaba Pictures retaining rights in Greater China.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In January 2019, STX Films had their first number one box office opening with "The Upside", which stars Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman, and earned $19.59 million in its opening weekend, and went on to earn over $100 million at the domestic box office. STX earned praise for its efficient marketing of the film, and for trimming "The Upside" from an R to PG-13 rating to widen its audience. That month, it was reported that Hart is partnering with STX Films to produce and star in two comedies: a body switch comedy called "Black Friday", and an untitled international romantic comedy.


title: STX Entertainment

text: "Hustlers" had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the US on September 13, 2019. It grossed $105 million in the US and Canada, and $157.6 million worldwide. "The Gentlemen", written, directed and produced by Guy Ritchie and starring Matthew McConaughey, was released theatrically in January 2020. It grossed $115.2 million at the box office worldwide. As of July 2020, upcoming STX films include "Greenland" starring Gerard Butler, "Run Rabbit Run" starring Elisabeth Moss, "The Godmother" starring Jennifer Lopez, "Night Wolf" starring Kevin Hart, and "Muscle" starring Vin Diesel.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2016, STX Films became the fastest studio ever to hit $100 million at the domestic box office with the R-rated comedy "Bad Moms". The film has earned more than US$180 million worldwide, was the first R-rated comedy since "The Hangover" to get an A on CinemaScore and was the most profitable film of the year (by net profit). The film also earned a People's Choice Award for Best Comedy. The 2017 American crime drama "Molly's Game" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay along with BAFTA, WGA, and Golden Globe nominations. "The Edge of Seventeen" was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Movie of the Year, a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First-Time Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Hailee Steinfeld. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95%.


title: STX Entertainment

text: Genre films have also received recognition. The psychological horror-thriller "The Gift" was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First-Time Feature and won a Sitges Film Festival and Fangoria Chainsaw Award. "The Space Between Us" starring Gary Oldman was nominated for Choice Sci-Fi Movie and Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards. The horror thriller "The Bye Bye Man" overperformed industry expectations with a US$13.5 million domestic opening weekend. "The Foreigner", a co-production with Jackie Chan's Sparkle Roll Media, crossed $100 million in global box office revenue in October 2017. The film is one of the most successful U.S. and China co-productions, being classified as "a clear winner given that it cost just $35 million" and "a fine example of how a Chinese co-production can work."


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2019, "Hustlers" earned Jennifer Lopez the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress and award nominations including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female.


title: STX Entertainment

text: STX Films strives for female diversity in front of and behind the camera. More than 20 films have featured women in leading roles or were directed by women.


title: STX Entertainment

text: The television division's first project was the 2014 drama-thriller "State of Affairs", starring Katherine Heigl and Alfre Woodard. The 13-episode series was developed by STX TV (as it is stylized) and sold to NBC. In 2015, STX TV produced the NBC pilot "Problem Child", based on the 1990 film of the same name.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In April 2016, STX TV expanded into unscripted and reality content, hiring veteran TV producer Jason Goldberg. A few months later, the variety show "Number One Surprise" launched, which was the first TV series created by a US-based company specifically for broadcast in China. The series premiere in November 2016 on Hunan TV, a Chinese TV station, along with digital platforms Mango TV and PPTV, was viewed nearly 300 million times, and by January 2017 it was the #1 show in China with over 1 billion views.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In May 2017, STX TV announced it had acquired the first TV project from Kevin Kwan, author of "Crazy Rich Asians". In August 2018, Amazon Studios gave a script-to-series order for the untitled project, a globe-hopping drama set in Hong Kong, about a powerful family and their business empire. In July 2017, E! greenlit the reality series "The Platinum Life", produced by STX TV and Tower 2 Productions. In November 2017, STX TV announced its first scripted show "Valley of the Boom", a six-part docudrama series about the 1990s tech boom from showrunner and director Matthew Carnahan and executive producer Arianna Huffington. The show airs on NatGeo, with STX distributing in China. It premiered on January 13, 2019. STX Television produced season 23 of "True Life", which aired on MTV in 2017. The company also produced the docuseries "A Little Too Farr", following American country singer-songwriter Tyler Farr, which premiered on Verizon's go90 streaming service. In February 2018, Fox and STX TV announced that it is developing an unscripted series based on its film "Bad Moms". In April 2018, Mother Media Group, founded by former Endemol Shine and 20th Century Fox executives, signed a first-look deal with STX TV. Under the pact, the companies will collaborate to create, produce and distribute unscripted and hybrid series.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2018, it was reported that Netflix gave a six-episode series order to STX TV's hybrid docudrama miniseries "Ottoman Rising", which tells the story of Mehmed the Conqueror; later retitled "", it premiered on Netflix on January 24, 2020. It was also announced that YouTube Red will produce a TV spinoff based on STX's 2016 film "The Edge of Seventeen", with an entirely new cast.


title: STX Entertainment

text: The digital division of STX Entertainment focuses on digital programming, partnerships and distribution, which includes live events and virtual reality (VR). In August 2016, STX acquired the VR creator and distributor Surreal, renaming it STX Surreal. In its first year (2015), Surreal produced over 70 immersive VR experiences featuring Gordon Ramsay, Snoop Dogg, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Kimmel, Wolfgang Puck and Wiz Khalifa among others.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In 2017, STX Surreal was nominated for an interactive Daytime Emmy Award for the Nickelodeon short "Nickelodeon's Ultimate Halloween Haunted House 360 Challenge" and won a Shorty Award for Best Use of 360 Video for their 360° production of the 68th Emmy Awards, in collaboration with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Facebook. In June 2017, STX Surreal announced a partnership with media services agency Horizon Media to develop and produce VR and immersive content for the brand's new UNCVR unit. In 2018, STX Surreal announced a slate of original projects including "New Tricks", directed and produced by Ed Helms; "The Kiev Exchange", a spin-off of STX Films' "Mile 22"; "Jay and Silent Bob VR", written, produced, and directed by Kevin Smith; and untitled projects from Dave Bautista and Derek Kolstad.


title: STX Entertainment

text: Robert Rodriguez's live-action short-form VR film "The Limit", starring Michelle Rodriguez, was released by STX Surreal on major mobile headsets and on Android phones with cardboard viewers in November 2018. It is also going to be released on iOS, PlayStation VR, and Windows Mixed Reality. The Academy Award-winning visual effects studio DNEG worked on the film in post-production.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In December 2017, Dick Clark Productions sold Chinese distribution rights to the Golden Globe Awards and "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" to STX Digital. STX partnered with Tencent Video to be its distribution partner for both programs, including the production of a Chinese-language red carpet program for the Chinese feed of the Golden Globes.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In December 2018, it was reported that the renamed division, now called STX Alternative, signed a first-look development and production deal with Tracey Edmonds, to co-produce and co-develop scripted and unscripted content for traditional and alternative platforms. The first project, "Games People Play", based on the book "Games Divas Play" by Angela Burt-Murray, premiered on BET on April 23, 2019.


title: STX Entertainment

text: In April 2016, a dedicated international division opened to further expand global production and distribution capabilities; it was called STX International. Headquartered in London, the division is led by former Film4 head David Kosse. The division launched with a slate of six films that included Andy Serkis's directorial debut "Breathe" (which opened the 2017 London Film Festival), "Home Again" starring Reese Witherspoon, and the thriller "Wind River" starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Additional titles on the slate include Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World", Morten Tyldum's thriller "The Marsh King's Daughter" and Bart Layton's heist film "American Animals", along with titles from the main STX Films slate. STX bought the international distribution rights to "The Irishman" for $50 million. Renamed ErosSTX International following the merger of Eros International and STX in 2020, the company reverted back to its former name in April 2022 following STX's sale to Najafi Companies.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 34th most populous municipality in California. It is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Census. It is located primarily between Castro Valley, San Leandro and Union City, and lies at the eastern terminus of the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge. The city was devastated early in its history by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. From the early 20th century until the beginning of the 1980s, Hayward's economy was dominated by its now defunct food canning and salt production industries.


title: Hayward, California

text: Human habitation of the greater East Bay, including Hayward, dates from at least 4000 BC. The most recent pre-European inhabitants of the Hayward area were the Native American Ohlone people.


title: Hayward, California

text: In the 19th century, the land that is now Hayward became part of Rancho San Lorenzo, a Spanish land grant to Guillermo Castro, in 1841. The site of his home was on the former El Camino Viejo, or Castro Street (now Mission Boulevard) between C and D Streets, but the structure was severely damaged in the 1868 Hayward earthquake, with the Hayward Fault running directly under its location. Most of the city's structures were destroyed in the earthquake, the last major earthquake on the fault. In 1930, that site was chosen for the construction of the City Hall, which served the city until 1969.


title: Hayward, California

text: William Dutton Hayward arrived during the gold rush and "squatted" as he began to build a house next to the creek at the site of the old Polamares School. Guillermo Castro's Vaqueros came by one day and told Hayward to get off of Castro's property. William did leave, but went to Guillermo Castro directly and asked to buy a piece of his land. Castro sold him the area of what was east of Castro Street, now Mission Blvd. and the north side of A Street. William Hayward built a grand hotel on the property. He and his wife ran the hotel, which eventually burned to the ground around 1916.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward was originally known as "Hayward's", then as "Haywood", later as "Haywards", and eventually as "Hayward". There is some disagreement as to how it was named. Most historians believe it was named for William Dutton Hayward, who opened a hotel there in 1852. The U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System states the city was named after Alvinza Hayward, a millionaire from the California Gold Rush. Regardless of which Hayward the area was named for, the name was changed to "Haywood" when the post office was first established in 1860.


title: Hayward, California

text: Castro emigrated to Chile with most of his family in 1864 after he lost his land in a card game. His name survives in the community of Castro Valley, located in the valley next to Hayward, which Castro used to pasture his cattle. The ranch was split up and sold to various locals, William Hayward among them. William Hayward's fortunes took a turn for the grander when he constructed a resort hotel, which eventually grew to a hundred rooms. The surrounding area came to be called "Hayward's" after the hotel.


title: Hayward, California

text: William Hayward eventually became the road commissioner for Alameda County. He used his authority to influence the construction of roads in his own favor. He was also an Alameda County supervisor. In 1876, a town was chartered by the State of California under the name of "Haywards". The name of the post office was then able to change because of the loss of the apostrophe before the "s". This change occurred in 1880. It remained "Haywards" until 1910 when the "s" was officially dropped. William Hayward died in 1891.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward grew steadily throughout the late 19th century, with an economy based on agriculture and tourism. Important crops were tomatoes, potatoes, peaches, cherries, and apricots. Hunt Brothers Cannery opened in 1895. Chicken and pigeon raising also played important roles in the economy. A rail line between Oakland and San Jose, the South Pacific Coast Railroad, was established but later destroyed in the 1868 earthquake. The Hayward shore of the Bay was developed into extensive salt evaporation ponds, and was one of the most productive areas in the world, with Leslie Salt being one of the largest companies.


title: Hayward, California

text: The first San Mateo–Hayward Bridge opened in 1929, connecting the city to the San Francisco Peninsula.


title: Hayward, California

text: During the 1930s, the Harry Rowell Rodeo Ranch, now within the bounds of Castro Valley, drew rodeo cowboys from across the continent, and Western movie actors such as Slim Pickens and others from Hollywood.


title: Hayward, California

text: Prior to World War II, Hayward had a high concentration of Japanese Americans, who were subject to the Japanese-American internment during the war. The war brought an economic and population boom to the area, as factories opened to manufacture war material. Many of the workers stayed after the end of the war. Two suburban tract housing pioneers, Oliver Rousseau and David D. Bohannon, were prominent builders of postwar housing in the area.


title: Hayward, California

text: California State University, Hayward opened in the Hayward Hills in 1957. Southland Mall was dedicated in 1964.


title: Hayward, California

text: The second San Mateo–Hayward Bridge opened in 1967. The City Center Building opened in 1969 and acted as the new city hall until 1989 when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the building and forced the city government to move out. The building was closed to the public in 1998, with the new Hayward City Hall opening the same year.


title: Hayward, California

text: The city's downtown area was slated for redevelopment in 2012 and 2013, with landscaping, new businesses opening up, and older ones getting façade upgrades.


title: Hayward, California

text: In May 2015, the city's former shoreline landfill was declared a site for conversion to a solar farm, set to generate enough electricity to power 1,200 homes. It will be one of 186 sites in the Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project.


title: Hayward, California

text: In October 2015, construction began for the Hayward 21st Century Library and Heritage Plaza. The library opened in September 2019, and the plaza was originally expected to open sometime in 2019.


title: Hayward, California

text: Mount Eden was a former city that was incorporated into Hayward in the 1950s, at the same time as Schafer Park.


title: Hayward, California

text: Russell City was a former unincorporated community. It existed from 1853 until 1964. It is now the location of an industrial park. The Russell City Energy Center, a 429-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant built by Calpine, is located there.


title: Hayward, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it (comprising 28.9%) is water.


title: Hayward, California

text: The Hayward Fault Zone runs through much of Hayward, including the downtown area. The United States Geological Survey has stated that there is an "increasing likelihood" of a major earthquake on this fault zone, with potentially serious resulting damage.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward borders on many municipalities and communities. The cities bordering on Hayward are San Leandro, Union City, Fremont, and Pleasanton. The census-designated places bordering on Hayward are Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Cherryland, Sunol, and Fairview.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has a Mediterranean climate, and contains microclimates, both of which are features of the greater Bay Area. In 2012, the USDA rated Hayward as a zone 10A climate.


title: Hayward, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Hayward had a population of 144,186. The population density was . The census determined racial and ethnic makeup of Hayward was 49,309 (34.2%) White, 17,099 (11.9%) African American, 1,396 (1.0%) Native American, 31,666 (22.0%) Asian (10.4% Filipino, 3.9% Chinese, 3.0% Indian, 2.7% Vietnamese, 0.5% Japanese, 0.5% Korean, 0.2% Cambodian, 0.1% Pakistani), 4,535 (3.1%) Pacific Islander, 30,004 (20.8%) from other races, and 10,177 (7.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 58,730 persons (40.7%), giving Hayward an aggregate Hispanic/Latino plurality population as categorized by census determined racial and ethnic groups. 30.2% of Hayward's population was Mexican, 2.5% Salvadoran, 1.5% Puerto Rican, 1.2% Nicaraguan, 1.0% Honduran, 0.5% Peruvian, and 0.2% Cuban. Hayward is the second most diverse city in the state by Census figures. It has been ranked nationwide as highly diverse, in combination with Oakland and Fremont.


title: Hayward, California

text: The Census reported that 141,462 people (98.1% of the population) lived in households, 1,954 (1.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 770 (0.5%) were institutionalized.


title: Hayward, California

text: There were 45,365 households, out of which 18,284 (40.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 21,720 (47.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 7,495 (16.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 3,344 (7.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 3,037 (6.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 421 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 9,359 households (20.6%) were made up of individuals, and 3,193 (7.0%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.12 persons. There were 32,559 families (71.8% of all households); the average family size was 3.60 persons.


title: Hayward, California

text: The city's age demographics were 35,379 people (24.5%) under the age of 18, 16,064 people (11.1%) aged 18 to 24, 44,005 people (30.5%) aged 25 to 44, 34,096 people (23.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 14,642 people (10.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.7 males.


title: Hayward, California

text: There were 48,296 housing units at an average density of , of which 45,365 were occupied, of which 23,935 (52.8%) were owner-occupied, and 21,430 (47.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 6.6%. About 75,039 people (52.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 66,423 people (46.1%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Hayward, California

text: The 2000 Census reported there were 140,030 people, 44,804 households, and 31,945 families in the city. The population density was 1,219.6/km (3,158.6/mi). There were 45,922 housing units at an average density of 400.0/km (1,035.8/mi). The racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 42.95% White, 10.98% Black or African American, 0.84% Native American, 18.98% Asian, 1.91% Pacific Islander, 16.81% from other races, and 7.52% from two or more races. 34.17% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Hayward, California

text: There were 44,804 households, out of which 37.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.7% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08 and the average family size was 3.58.


title: Hayward, California

text: The population profiled by age was 26.8% under the age of 18, 10.9% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.3 males.


title: Hayward, California

text: The median income for a household in the city was $51,177, and the median income for a family was $54,712. Males had a median income of $37,711 versus $31,481 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,695. 10.0% of the population and 7.2% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 11.7% of those under the age of 18 and 7.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has a council–manager government. Hayward's mayor is Barbara Halliday, elected in June 2014. City Council and other government meetings are cablecast on cable TV channel KHRT-TV.


title: Hayward, California

text: The city received an "AA", and an "AA+" rating for its general obligations, from the Fitch Group in 2012.


title: Hayward, California

text: In July 2012, Hayward began working on an updated 25-year General Plan, which was adopted on July 1, 2014. The city last updated their General Plan in 2002.


title: Hayward, California

text: The Hayward Hall of Justice, a branch of the California Superior Court, is the largest full-service courthouse in Alameda County.


title: Hayward, California

text: According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Hayward has 70,194 registered voters. Of those, 39,327 (56%) are registered Democrats, 6,960 (9.9%) are registered Republicans, and 21,104 (30.1%) have declined to state a political party.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has a large number of manufacturing companies, both corporate headquarters and plants. This includes some high-tech companies, with Hayward considered part of a northern extension of Silicon Valley. Manufacturing plants in Hayward include Annabelle Candy, Columbus Salame, the Shasta soft drink company, and a PepsiCo production and distribution center.


title: Hayward, California

text: The economy of Hayward in the first half of the twentieth century was based largely on the Hunt Brothers Cannery. The cannery was opened in Hayward in 1895 by brothers William and Joseph Hunt, who were fruit packers originally from Sebastopol, California. The Hunts initially packed local fruit, including cherries, peaches, and apricots, then added tomatoes, which became the mainstay of their business. At its height in the 1960s and 1970s, Hunt's operated three canneries in Hayward, at A, B, and C Streets; an adjacent can-making company; a pickling factory; and a glass manufacturing plant. From the 1890s until its closure in 1981, Hunt's employed a large percentage of the local population. The air around Hayward was permeated by the smell of tomatoes for three months of each year, during the canning season. The canneries closed in 1981, as there were no longer enough produce fields or fruit orchards near the cannery to make it economically viable. Much of the production was moved to the Sacramento Valley. The location of the former canneries is marked by a historic water tower with the Hayward logo. A housing development now occupies much of the former cannery site.


title: Hayward, California

text: Gillig, a bus manufacturer, was located in Hayward for more than 80 years before moving to Livermore in 2017.


title: Hayward, California

text: Much of the Bay coastal territory of Hayward was turned into salt ponds, with Oliver Salt and Leslie Salt operating there. Much of this land has in recent years been returned to salt marshes. A 1983 image of the ponds appears on a 2012 U.S. postage stamp. The Mervyns department store chain was headquartered in Hayward until it declared bankruptcy in 2008.


title: Hayward, California

text: According to the city's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were (in alphabetical order):


title: Hayward, California

text: Two businesses which had significant employment in fiscal year 2006, Mervyns (1,300) and Pacific Bell (940), no longer operate in Hayward.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward maintains the Hayward Fire Department (with nine stations) and the Hayward Police Department. Hayward has its own water and wastewater systems, but a small northern portion of the city's water is managed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The Hayward Public Library opened at the intersection of C Street and Mission Boulevard in 1951. In 2013, plans were under development to construct a $60 million library across the street from the existing building, with funding uncertain. Construction of the library began in 2016.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward is served by Interstate 880 (also known as the Nimitz Freeway), Interstate 580 with a major intersection near downtown connecting State Route 238 and Interstate 238, State Route 92 (Jackson Street) and State Route 238 (Mission Boulevard/Foothill Boulevard). State Route 92 continues west as the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge. The intersection of 880 and 92 was reconstructed over a four-year period, with completion of the project in October 2011. Mission Boulevard has been long known for chronic traffic congestion. Past proposals to convert Mission Boulevard to a freeway or build a 238 bypass have been controversial. One proposal, to build a freeway parallel to Mission Boulevard, extending a freeway south from 580 where it turns east towards Castro Valley, and connecting to Industrial Boulevard, had land purchased, but was cancelled in 2004 after years of debate. The land is now scheduled for sale and zoning.


title: Hayward, California

text: Mission, Jackson, and Foothill all converge at one congested intersection south of downtown, known historically as "Five Flags" for a line of flagpoles located there. To alleviate congestion in the downtown area, the city has converted the A Street, Mission and Foothill triangle to one-way thoroughfares (counterclockwise), and is adding road improvements, landscaping, and telephone/cable undergrounding to Mission Boulevard south to Industrial Boulevard, and to Foothill Boulevard north to 580. The plan, known as the Route 238 Corridor Improvement Project, broke ground July 2010, completed rerouting in 2013, and was completed in 2013.


title: Hayward, California

text: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the regional rapid transit system, has two stations in Hayward: the Hayward station, in downtown; and the South Hayward station, near the Hayward–Union City border. BART operates a repair yard in Hayward. The AC Transit bus system, which provides bus service for Alameda County and Contra Costa County, operates in Hayward, and has a repair/training center located there. Amtrak, the national rail passenger system, provides daily service at its Hayward station for the "Capitol Corridor" train, which runs between San Jose in the South Bay, and Auburn in the Greater Sacramento area.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has a general aviation airport, the Hayward Executive Airport. The Hayward Air National Guard station was located at the airport in 1942, until being reassigned to Moffett Field in 1980.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has one hospital with emergency departments, St. Rose Hospital, which was at risk of closure as of 2012. A Kaiser Permanente Medical Center closed in 2014, replaced by a San Leandro hospital. Horizon Services, which administers substance abuse recovery programs in Hayward and other locations in the Bay Area, operates out of Hayward, as does the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition. The Hayward Fire Department opened the Firehouse Clinic in November 2015, the first combined fire station/medical center in California.


title: Hayward, California

text: Four cemeteries are located in Hayward: Chapel of the Chimes, Mt. Eden Cemetery, Mount Saint Joseph Cemetery, and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, the last two being Catholic cemeteries.


title: Hayward, California

text: The city created the Hayward Public Art Program in 2008, to create murals to beautify the city and combat graffiti, and has commissioned numerous murals throughout the city. The program won a League of California Cities Helen Putnam Award of Excellence in 2011.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has been a Tree City USA since 1986. Hayward declared itself a nuclear-free zone, a largely symbolic act, in 1987. The city is the setting for the Hayward Gay Prom, one of the earliest and longest-running gay proms in the United States. The city introduced road signs in 2015 encouraging better behavior while walking or driving, using phrases like "It's a speed limit, not a suggestion".


title: Hayward, California

text: The slang term "Hella", which has spread globally, is said to have its roots in Hayward, tracing back to the 1970s.


title: Hayward, California

text: Many of Hayward's cultural landmarks and points of interest are in its downtown area. Three city hall buildings have been built: Hayward City Hall; the City Center Building, an abandoned 11-story building and Hayward's second city hall; and the first city hall at Alex Giualini Plaza, whose architectural motifs form the current city logo.


title: Hayward, California

text: Other downtown features include the Hayward Area Historical Society museum, which relocated and reopened in June 2014; Buffalo Bill's Brewery, one of the first brewpubs in California; Cinema Place, one Hayward's two movie theatre, with associated murals and an art gallery. Many of the Hayward Public Art Program murals are located downtown.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has two sites in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): the Green Shutter Hotel and Eden Congregational Church. A third site, Meek Mansion (also in the NRHP), while not within city limits, is managed by HARD and the Hayward Area Historical Society. The three sites are also on the California Register of Historical Resources. Agapius Honcharenko's Ukraina Ranch is the only California Historical Landmark in the city.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward has four parks administered by the East Bay Regional Park District: the Don Castro Regional Recreation Area, Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park, the Hayward Regional Shoreline, and Garin Regional Park. The Eden Landing Ecological Reserve is located at the Hayward shoreline, and includes of salt ponds set to be converted to tidal wetlands. Hayward is also home to the oldest Japanese garden in California designed along traditional lines. The Japanese Gardens was dedicated in 1980. The garden is administered by the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD), which operates a number of parks and facilities, primarily in Hayward, including Kennedy Park, the Sulphur Creek Nature Center, the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, and Memorial Park with the Hayward Plunge swim center. HARD is the largest recreation district in California.


title: Hayward, California

text: The East Bay FC Stompers amateur soccer team is based in Hayward. The All Pro Wrestling professional wrestling promotion and training school is based in Hayward, and performs shows there. Hayward was briefly considered for the new home of the New York Giants baseball team in 1957, with San Francisco acquiring the team.


title: Hayward, California

text: The Hayward Area Recreation and Park District operates the Skywest and Mission Hills golf courses. In addition to the two public golf courses, TPC Stonebrae, a private golf club, operates in Hayward. It hosts the Ellie Mae Classic (formerly known as the TPC Stonebrae Championship), part of the Web.com Tour since 2009.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward is home to the main campus of California State University, East Bay (CSUEB), formerly known as California State University, Hayward. It is a public university within the California State University system. Pioneer Amphitheatre is located there, and is host to public music festivals.


title: Hayward, California

text: Hayward is the home of Chabot College, a community college in the Chabot–Las Positas Community College District.


title: Hayward, California

text: Life Chiropractic College is also situated in Hayward. Founded as Pacific States Chiropractic College in 1976, it is best known for its Doctor of Chiropractic program.


title: Hayward, California

text: The majority of Hayward is served by the Hayward Unified School District (HUSD), which operates three high schools, Mount Eden, Tennyson, and Hayward High, all three HUSD high schools in 2018 got new football fields along with new performing arts center and other new classroom wings are planned.


title: Hayward, California

text: Small portions of Hayward are in the New Haven Unified School District, San Lorenzo Unified School District, Castro Valley Unified School District, and Pleasanton Unified School District.


title: Hayward, California

text: Additional high schools include the Eden Area Regional Occupational Program, the Leadership Public Schools, Hayward charter school (ranked #2 among charter schools statewide by a University of Southern California study) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation charter public high school, Impact Academy of Arts and Technology. The New Haven Unified School District operates in Union City and South Hayward/Fairway park area with two schools, Conley–Caraballo and Hillview Crest Elementary. Most students in South Hayward also attend other New Haven schools and James Logan High school. The San Lorenzo Unified School District operates Royal Sunset High School within Hayward. A large private high school, Moreau Catholic High School, is located in Hayward. Promise Neighborhood grant from the United States Department of Education, through CSUEB.


title: Hayward, California

text: Two newspapers of general circulation cover Hayward. From 1944 to 2016, Hayward ran a daily newspaper, the "Daily Review", published most recently by Bay Area News Group. The "Tri-City Voice" newspaper, based in Fremont and published twice weekly, covers Hayward as well as the Tri-City area of Fremont, Newark, and Union City. It was founded in 2002. The "East Bay Express" weekly newspaper, founded in 1978, covers Hayward as part of its East Bay coverage. , and radio from Oakland and San Francisco reach Hayward, as do some stations from San Jose, Sacramento, and Salinas. The city's cable TV carrier is Comcast. California State University, East Bay's student-run newspaper, "The Pioneer", has covered the East Bay since 1961. Chabot College's student radio station, KCRH, operates mostly within city limits.


title: Hayward, California

text: People from Hayward who are strongly associated with the city include founder William Dutton Hayward and the Ukrainian patriot and Greek Orthodox priest Agapius Honcharenko, who created a farm whose location is now an historic landmark. High-profile people from Hayward include Los Angeles Sparks point guard Chelsea Gray, football coach Bill Walsh, former Oakland Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, professional wrestler and actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, famous Bay Area rapper Spice 1, and former Treasurer of the United States Rosa Gumataotao Rios. Charles Plummer, prior to becoming Alameda County Sheriff, was the Police Chief of Hayward.


title: John Tortorella

text: John Francis Tortorella (born June 24, 1958) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player. He currently serves as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Tortorella was previously the head coach of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Vancouver Canucks; he led Tampa Bay to the 2004 Stanley Cup championship.


title: John Tortorella

text: He is the first American-born NHL coach to reach 500 wins and has twice won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella is well-known for his outspoken and sometimes confrontational nature, which has included criticizing his own players as well as media members.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella attended Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts, and he is listed on the school's athletic Hall of Fame wall (1976). He also attended the University of Maine, graduating in 1981. John's brother Jim Tortorella, a goaltender, is also listed on the wall.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella, nicknamed "The Paper Italian", played right wing for three years (1978–1981) at the University of Maine. While at Maine, he played with his brother Jim, who now serves as a men's ice hockey assistant coach for the Harvard Crimson. After college Tortorella went to Sweden to play a year in Kristianstads IK (1981–1982), after which he came back to the United States to play four years of minor pro hockey (1982–1986) in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL). During these years he skated with the Hampton Roads Gulls, Erie Golden Blades, Nashville South Stars and the Virginia Lancers.


title: John Tortorella

text: During his days in the ACHL, Tortorella briefly played with Oren Koules while with the Hampton Roads Gulls. The two later reunited in Tampa Bay, as Tortorella was the coach and Koules was one of the new owners of the Lightning. He never played a game in the NHL.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella has been credited by East Coast Hockey League founders Henry Brabham and Bill Coffey with coming up with the name for the league during a league meeting at a Ramada Inn in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At the time, Tortorella was the head coach of Brabham's Virginia Lancers, but left the Lancers to become the assistant coach of the American Hockey League's New Haven Nighthawks before the ECHL's inaugural season in 1988.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella's coaching career began with the American Hockey League (AHL)'s Rochester Americans and the ECHL's Virginia Lancers. He was also an assistant coach for the AHL's New Haven Nighthawks and Rochester Americans, and the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, Phoenix Coyotes, and New York Rangers. He won the Calder Cup with the 1996 Rochester Americans.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella (or "Torts" as he is sometimes called by the press and the fans) is known for his outspoken nature, which has included criticizing his own players. Tortorella is also known for his system of regularly rotating goaltending duties during his time in Tampa Bay, a system which was discontinued when he became head coach of the New York Rangers and used Henrik Lundqvist as the regular starting goalie. This system has somewhat resumed in the 2019-20 NHL season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the emergence of Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins as the goaltender tandem.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella took over the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2000–01 as head coach a mid-season replacement. He inherited a team that had been among the dregs of the league for four years, having lost 50 games or more in every season during that time. The team won only 12 of its last 43 games under his watch, finishing last in the division. The following season, the team finished well out of playoff contention despite finishing third in the Southeast Division. However, they showed signs of life for the first time in five years, cracking the 60-point barrier for the first time since 1996–97.


title: John Tortorella

text: The 2002–03 season marked Tortorella's first winning season as an NHL head coach, as the Lightning won their first Southeast Division title, losing to the New Jersey Devils four games to one in the second round of the 2003 playoffs. At the end of the season he was also recognized as a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, losing out to Minnesota's Jacques Lemaire.


title: John Tortorella

text: In 2003–04, Tortorella's fourth season with the team, the Lightning ran away with the Southeast Division title, tallying 106 points—the second-best record in the league. The Lightning were the top seed in the Eastern Conference and proceeded to defeat the New York Islanders, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Prince of Wales Trophy and the Eastern Conference Championship. In the Stanley Cup Final, they defeated the Western Conference champion Calgary Flames four games to three, winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. In doing so Tortorella became just the third American-born coach to win it and the first in 13 years. The team was in its eleventh year of existence. It was the last Stanley Cup won before the 2004–05 NHL lockout. A few days after winning the Stanley Cup, Tortorella won the 2004 Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.


title: John Tortorella

text: Before the start of the 2005–06 season – the NHL's first post-lockout campaign – Tampa Bay's starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin left the team due to the newly implemented salary cap restrictions. Tortorella was hard on Lightning goaltender John Grahame for much of the 2005–06.


title: John Tortorella

text: Grahame subsequently signed with the Carolina Hurricanes before the start of the 2006–07 season. Despite the Lightning winning a 2nd-team best 44 games in 2006–07, the Lightning were unable to defend their division title.


title: John Tortorella

text: On March 11, 2008 with the Lightning defeat of the New York Islanders, Tortorella passed Bob Johnson as the most successful American-born NHL coach with 235 victories.


title: John Tortorella

text: After he left the Lightning, Tortorella was an in-studio panelist on the "NHL on TSN". During this time, on November 7, 2008, Peter Laviolette would overtake his victory total for an American coach.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella was named head coach of the New York Rangers on February 23, 2009, replacing Tom Renney, who was relieved of his duties earlier that day. On March 17, he again became the American-born coach with the most wins in NHL history, this time surpassing Laviolette.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella was suspended one game by the NHL for an altercation with several Capitals fans behind the bench in the third period of Game 5 in the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. Replays show a fan clearly heckling Tortorella, before Tortorella responded by throwing a water bottle at a fan and then grabbing a stick from Aaron Voros and trying to spear the fan through a space between two panes of glass. He did not receive a penalty on the play despite the fact that NHL rules state any physical altercation with fans results in ejection from the game; however, the next day the NHL suspended him.


title: John Tortorella

text: When Laviolette became coach of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2009, the rivalry between the two teams became further heated with Tortorella and Laviolette being the winningest U.S.-born coaches in NHL history. On November 20, 2010 Tortorella became the first American-born coach to reach 300 NHL victories when the Rangers defeated the Minnesota Wild.


title: John Tortorella

text: In the 2011–12 season he guided the Rangers to the franchise's third ever 50-win season and the best record in the Eastern Conference with a total of 51–24–7 for 109 points. New York lost in the Conference Finals however, to the New Jersey Devils in six games. At season's end, Tortorella became a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for a third time, losing to Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues.


title: John Tortorella

text: On March 26, 2013 with a 5–2 defeat of Laviolette's Flyers, Tortorella became the first U.S.-born coach to reach 400 career victories.


title: John Tortorella

text: The Rangers fired Tortorella on May 29, 2013, four days after New York was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Boston Bruins.


title: John Tortorella

text: The Vancouver Canucks announced Tortorella as the team's new coach on June 25, 2013. He replaced Alain Vigneault, who coincidentally had been hired by the Rangers to replace Tortorella.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella earned his first victory with the Canucks against the Edmonton Oilers on October 5, 2013, with a final score of 6–2.


title: John Tortorella

text: During the first intermission of a game on January 18, 2014, Tortorella entered the Calgary Flames dressing room area in an apparent attempt to confront Flames coach Bob Hartley; after a line brawl in the opening seconds of the 1st period, Tortorella angrily attempted to confront Hartley, accusing him of starting a lineup with intent to injure a star Canuck player. Tortorella had to be physically restrained by several players and coaches. The NHL subsequently suspended him for 15 days without pay, barring him from being in contact with the team during his suspension. Canucks assistant coach Mike Sullivan took over the head coaching job during Tortorella's suspension.


title: John Tortorella

text: On March 2, 2014, Tortorella sparked controversy when he chose to start Eddie Läck in the 2014 Heritage Classic held in Vancouver over Roberto Luongo Luongo was openly disappointed and was traded two days later.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella's tenure with the Canucks would last only a single season, as the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008. On May 1, 2014, Tortorella and assistant coach Mike Sullivan were fired as part of a management overhaul that had also seen General Manager Mike Gillis let go several weeks prior.


title: John Tortorella

text: On October 21, 2015, Tortorella was hired to replace Todd Richards as the Columbus Blue Jackets' head coach, after the Blue Jackets started the 2015–16 season with a 0–7–0 record. As compensation for hiring Tortorella, the Vancouver Canucks received the 55th overall pick (used to select Jonah Gadjovich) in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft from the Blue Jackets. On March 19, 2016, the Blue Jackets faced the New Jersey Devils and Tortorella became the 26th head coach in NHL history, and the first born in the United States, to coach 1,000 games. On December 18, 2016, the Blue Jackets defeated the Canucks in overtime 4–3, making Tortorella the first American-born coach with 500 victories. His success in the 2016-17 NHL season resulted in his second Jack Adams Award.


title: John Tortorella

text: On January 10, 2019, Tortorella became the first American-born coach, and 19th overall, to reach 600 victories when the Blue Jackets defeated the Nashville Predators. In the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, Tortorella's Blue Jackets won their first playoff series in franchise history by eliminating his old team, the Tampa Bay Lightning; also being the first time that the Presidents' Trophy-winning team failed to win any playoff game despite the Lightning matching the record of 62 regular season wins.


title: John Tortorella

text: On January 1, 2020, Tortorella was fined $20,000 by the NHL for negative comments he made about the on-ice officials on December 29, 2019, after they mishandled the clock in overtime, causing the Blue Jackets to lose 3–2 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The NHL required Tortorella to refrain from similar behavior for the remainder of the year or be fined $25,000; however, on August 25, 2020, Tortorella was fined an additional $25,000 for his actions during virtual media availability following the Blue Jackets’ elimination from the playoff bubble by the eventual champion Tampa Bay Lightning. In spite of the controversy, he was named a Jack Adams finalist for the second time as Blue Jackets coach and fifth overall.


title: John Tortorella

text: On May 9, 2021, Tortorella agreed to mutually part ways with the Blue Jackets after the expiration of his contract. Tortorella finished his tenure with the Blue Jackets with the most wins of any head coach in franchise history.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella was the assistant coach of the U.S. National Men's hockey team in 2008–2009, replacing Peter Laviolette, which included leading the squad at the 2008 IIHF World Championship, where they finished sixth.


title: John Tortorella

text: Tortorella was tapped to coach Team USA at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. In the lead-up to the tournament, he said he would "sit" any player who protests during the playing of the national anthem. The team ultimately failed to make it out of the group stage, losing all three games.


title: Material

text: Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geological origin or biological function. Materials science is the study of materials, their properties and their applications.


title: Material

text: Raw materials can be processed in different ways to influence their properties, by purification, shaping or the introduction of other materials. New materials can be produced from raw materials by synthesis.


title: Material

text: In industry, materials are inputs to manufacturing processes to produce products or more complex materials.


title: Material

text: Materials chart the history of humanity. The system of the three prehistoric ages (Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age) were succeeded by historical ages: steel age in the 19th century, polymer age in the middle of the following century (plastic age) and silicon age in the second half of the 20th century.


title: Material

text: The relevant structure of materials has a different length scale depending on the material. The structure and composition of a material can be determined by microscopy or spectroscopy.


title: Material

text: A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials, usually by combining several materials to form a composite and / or tuning the shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement to achieve the desired property.


title: Material

text: In foams and textiles, the chemical structure is less relevant to immediately observable properties than larger-scale material features: the holes in foams, and the weave in textiles.


title: Material

text: Materials may degrade or undergo changes of properties at different temperatures. Thermal properties also include the material's thermal conductivity and heat capacity, relating to the transfer and storage of thermal energy by the material.


title: Material

text: Materials can be compared and categorized by any quantitative measure of their behavior under various conditions. Notable additional properties include the optical, electrical, and magnetic behavior of materials.


title: ShAK-12

text: The ShAK-12, (Russian: ШАК-12) originally under the name "ASh-12.7" (АШ-12.7, which stands for "Автомат штурмовой 12.7мм" or "automatic assault 12.7mm") battle rifle is a dedicated CQB/Urban Operations weapon, developed by TsKIB SOO ("Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Arms"), a subsidiary of the KBP Instrument Design Bureau of Tula, Russia, by request from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). The weapon was designed with extreme short-range stopping power in mind for FSB urban combat units. According to the Russian press, the first batch of ShAK-12 battle rifles were delivered to the FSB in late 2011.


title: ShAK-12

text: The ShAK-12 is a dedicated "Close/Urban combat" weapon for high-risk law enforcement operations, which must combine high stopping power with limited penetration and a short 'dangerous range', to avoid collateral damage to innocent bystanders or hostages. To achieve these goals, the designers of the ShAK-12 developed special large-calibre ammunition, loaded with a variety of bullets. The ammunition used for the ShAK-12 is the 12.7×55mm straight-walled, rimless brass case based on .338 Lapua Magnum, originally developed by the same organization that developed the silenced VKS sniper rifle. Standard loading for the ShAK-12 is a lightweight, subsonic ammunition with an aluminium core, exposed at the front and hollowed at the rear and partially enclosed into a bi-metal jacket. The cartridge has a bullet weight of 7-33 grams when utilizing ShAK-12 loads. It has several loadings; light, heavy and a duplex load with two light bullets.


title: ShAK-12

text: This new Russian cartridge bears certain conceptual similarities to a family of big-bore cartridges developed in the US for the AR-15 platform, such as .458 SOCOM, .499 LWR or .50 Beowulf, although the Russian cartridge uses a longer case and generally a heavier bullet load. Its US counterparts are usually loaded with bullets weighing 19 grams and up.


title: ShAK-12

text: The ShAK-12 features a bullpup layout, with a stamped steel receiver and a polymer housing/stock. It utilizes a short recoil operating system, which means that after it fires the round the barrel slides backwards with the bolt for a short distance, utilizing the recoil of the cartridge, while the bolt keeps traveling backwards fully to eject the spent shell casing without redirecting gasses. It is unknown what kind of locking system it uses, however it most likely uses a 2 or 3 lug rotating bolt. Firing controls include two separate levers; a fire mode selector (Semi/Auto) at the rear and an ambidextrous safety (Safe/Fire) above the pistol grip. There are several configurations of the basic rifle. The first one features an integral carrying handle with a built-in rear diopter sight and a folding front sight. A length of Picatinny rail is installed on the carrying handle to accept various optical sights. Another version that was observed on some photos features a "flat top" configuration with a Picatinny rail running on top of the receiver, as well as front and rear sights installed on folding bases. Other variations have a Picatinny rail below the fore end or a 40mm underbarrel grenade launcher. Muzzle devices include a muzzle brake or a quickly-detachable suppressor. The Russian Federal Security Service has adopted the ShAK-12 in small numbers, with other designs such as the Dragunov sniper rifle and Heckler & Koch MR308 remaining more common.


title: Corleone

text: Corleone (; or ) is an Italian town and "comune" of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily.


title: Corleone

text: Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack Dragna, Giuseppe Morello, Michele Navarra, Luciano Leggio, Leoluca Bagarella, Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. It is also the birthplace of several fictional characters in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel "The Godfather", including the eponymous Vito (Andolini) Corleone.


title: Corleone

text: The local mafia clan, the Corleonesi, led the Mafia in the 1980s and 1990s, and were the most violent and ruthless group ever to take control of the organization.


title: Corleone

text: Corleone municipality has an area of with a population density of 49 inhabitants per square kilometer. It is located in an inland area of the mountain, in the valley between the Rocca di Maschi, the Castello Soprano and the Castello Sottano. Corleone is located at above sea level.


title: Corleone

text: The etymology of the name is uncertain, undergoing various modifications from the Ancient Greek "Kouroullounè" to the Arabic "Kurulliùn" \ "Qurlayun" of the Emirate of Sicily, from Latin "Curilionum" to the Norman "Coraigliòn", from the Aragonese "Conillon", "Coniglione" from which the Sicilian "Cunigghiuni" originated. The modern name originates from 1556.


title: Corleone

text: Another belief is that the name derives from an Arab fighter named Kurliyun (cf. Coeur Leon, Lionheart), who conquered it for the Aghlabids in 840.


title: Corleone

text: The territory of Corleone has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Recent research has identified several settlements distributed around two main areas: Pietralunga and The Old One ("La Vecchia"). This name refers to a mountain that rises to about , and is about from today's town. The site of Pietralunga was occupied from the final Neolithic Period to the Bronze Age (the presence of a glass bell decorated in pointillé) while the site of The Old One has been inhabited since the Middle Ages (the presence of an imposing castle with towers has recently been identified). However, the biggest part of the settlement was built in the archaic and classical period. "A few materials relating to the Hellenistic period found at the site have supported the identification of the ancient town situated on the Old One with the ancient town of Schera, cited by Cicero, Cluverio and Ptolemy, although the archaeological remains on which this theory is based are still too unstable. (D'Angelo - Spatafora).


title: Corleone

text: In 840, Corleone was conquered by the North African Aghlabids during the Muslim conquest of Sicily. It was during the Muslim occupation that it gained economic, military and strategic importance. In 1080 the city was conquered by the Normans, and in 1095 it was annexed to the Diocese of Palermo. Even in the 1170s it was recorded that the majority of the population of the area was Muslim (more than 80%), including those bearing Arabo-Islamic names derived from Greek. There was also a mosque, called Masgid al-Barid, within the town. Following the large-scale anti-Muslim attacks by Lombard settlers in eastern Sicily in 1161 led by future King of Sicily, Tancred, the town became a refuge for many fleeing Muslims. In 1208, a Muslim uprising succeeded in retaking the town from Christian rule. In 1222, while speaking with the pope, Frederick II of Sicily cited the need to fight the Muslims of Corleone as a reason for his inability to send a large crusader army to Jerusalem. To this day, the rock formation, Castello Soprano, has a Saracen lookout tower on top of it. While the town's other rock formation, Castello Sottano, did not preserve its own Saracen fortification, it is nonetheless still known as Castello di Saraceni.


title: Corleone

text: Nearly a century later, in 1180, it was enfeoffed (deeded) to the new diocese of Monreale. In this period, Corleone was largely repopulated by Ghibellines from Alessandria (modern Piedmont), Brescia and elsewhere—"Lombards" led by Oddone de Camerana. The migrations were encouraged by Emperor Frederick II of Sicily, to strengthen his position against the Guelphs. In 1249, however, he revoked the privilege and gave the city to the royal property, though the migration of the inhabitants from the Po Valley continued until the beginning of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. Another Camerana, named Boniface, distinguished himself in the revolution of the Sicilian Vespers. He led the insurrection against the Angevins with three thousand people from Corleone, in alliance with the city of Palermo. In recognition, the Senate of Palermo called Corleone "soror mea" (my sister).


title: Corleone

text: During the reign of Frederick IV of Sicily, called The Simple, the city successfully rebelled against the crown but was recaptured in 1355. Corleone was besieged from Ventimiglia in 1358. During the reign of the four vicars, Corleone became the property of the powerful Chiaramonte family, but in 1391 was donated by Mary Queen of Sicily to Berardo Queralt, canon of Lerida, but he never took possession. Instead, it was occupied by Nicholas Peralta, vicar William's son, but King Martin the Younger returned it to the royal property, confirming its privileges in 1397 and giving it some tax relief.


title: Corleone

text: In March 1434, King Alfonso the Magnanimous went to Corleone and conceded some tolls to the city with the aim of restoring the walls and to meet other needs, promising also the inalienability of the city to which he gave the title of "Animosa Civitas" (brave city). However, in 1440 Corleone was sold to Federico Ventimiglia for 19,000 florins. This concession was revoked in May 1447 by King Alfonso, to be resold in the same year to a certain John of Bologna. In 1452 the city was finally granted to attorney James Pilaya. In 1516, Corleone joined the revolutionary movements of Palermo against the Viceroy Moncada. The revolt of Corleone, led by Fabio La Porta, received popular support as its purpose was the request for tax relief. However, the revolt was violently repressed by the viceroy's troops led by the Vicar General Gerardo Bonanno. Towards the end of the same century, social conditions in the city worsened further because of the plague of 1575–77 and the famine of 1592. On June 3, 1625, Corleone was sold, with other cities, to some Genoese merchants from whom Corleone redeemed itself upon payment of 15,200 florins. The terms of sale were, however, very serious. In 1648, the city was sold to the jurist Joseph Sgarlata, who then accepted the redemption upon payment.


title: Corleone

text: Remarkable demographic growth was reported in the 15th and 16th centuries, following the arrival of several religious orders.