title: Wesley Willis

text: Willis has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis", according to journalist Steve Marsh.


title: Wesley Willis

text: Willis is referenced on the song "Get Famous" by American indie rock band The Mountain Goats, released on September 14, 2020, with the line "Wesley Willis taught me how to write about you". The song references themes of fame and the exploitation and downfall of those who achieve it.


title: Wesley Willis

text: "Hellride" was the term used by Willis to describe his encounters with "demons" (delusions brought on by schizophrenia), which occurred mainly on the CTA bus lines in Chicago. According to Willis, his demons were trying to ruin his "Harmony Joy Music" or "Joy Rides".


title: Wesley Willis

text: The Wesley Willis Fiasco songs were punk rock songs with Willis howling his obscene, absurd rants as lyrics. The band recorded three cover songs, including of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak".


title: Wesley Willis

text: As a solo artist, Willis filled his albums with funny, bizarre, tense, and often obscene statements about crime, fast food, cultural trends, bus routes, violent confrontations with superheroes, and commands for his "demons" to engage in bestiality (in "The Daddy of Rock 'n' Roll", Willis explained that these songs would "gross out" the demons enough to make them leave him alone).


title: Wesley Willis

text: Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that despite Willis' prolific output his songs were essentially variations on the same simple structure, melody and lyrical themes. He also questioned record company motives for releasing albums by Willis: "It's certainly admirable that Willis has decided to not be tied down by his schizophrenia, but it often seems that his audience is laughing at him, not with him." Erlewine also wrote that listening to a Willis record felt "exploitive".


title: Wesley Willis

text: The only records from Willis that were professionally released for download or streaming are "Greatest Hits" (Vol. 1-3), "Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die", and "Rock Power".


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The Battle of Bataan (; January 7 – April 9, 1942) was fought by the United States and the Philippine Commonwealth against Japan during World War II. The battle represented the most intense phase of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. In January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The commander-in-chief of the U.S. and Filipino forces in the islands, General Douglas MacArthur, consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the Japanese army. By this time, the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia. The Bataan Peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Despite their lack of supplies, American and Filipino forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward. As the combined American and Filipino forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prevented immediate victory across the Pacific. The American surrender at Bataan to the Japanese, with 76,000 soldiers surrendering in the Philippines altogether, was the largest in American and Filipino military histories, and was the largest United States surrender since the American Civil War's Battle of Harpers Ferry. Soon afterwards, U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast Asian flank. In late summer 1941, the Roosevelt Administration began a series of moves toward Japan that could only conclude with war. It began supplying arms to Chiang Kai-shek in China, began a massive military build-up in the Philippines and imposed a series of embargoes, most importantly a refusal to sell Japan petroleum unless they evacuated all of China, including Manchukuo (Manchuria). This "ultimatum" was rejected by Japan and the fuse was lit.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: After Japanese carrier planes attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8, Manila time), Taiwan-based aircraft, within seven hours, pounded the main bases of the American Far East Air Force at Clark Field in Pampanga, Iba Field in Zambales, Nichols Field near Manila, and the headquarters of the United States Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines, at Cavite. Many American planes were caught on the ground and summarily destroyed. In one day, the Japanese had gained air superiority over the Philippine Islands. This forced the U.S. Asiatic Fleet to withdraw its surface ships from its naval base in Cavite and retreat southwards, leaving only the submarine force to resist the Japanese with untested, faulty torpedoes.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: From December 8 to 10, scattered resistance by ground troops and remaining American air and naval forces failed to stop preliminary landings to seize airfields at Batan Island, Aparri, and Vigan City. Army Air Force B-17s, often with little if any fighter escort, attacked Japanese ships offloading at Gonzaga and the Vigan landings on Luzon with no effect. Submarines of the Asiatic Fleet were also assigned to the effort.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: In one last coordinated action by the Far East Air Force, U.S. planes damaged two Japanese transports and a destroyer, and sank one minesweeper. Army Air Corps pilot Sam Marrett was killed while on his successful attack against the minesweeper. These air attacks and naval actions, however, did not significantly delay the Japanese assault.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: These small-scale landings preceded the main assault on December 22, 1941, at Lingayen Gulf on the beaches of La Union from San Fernando City all the way down south to Santo Tomas and at Lamon Bay, Tayabas, by the 14th Japanese Imperial Army, led by Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: By effectively neutralizing U.S. air and naval power in the Philippines, the Japanese gained supremacy that isolated the Philippines from reinforcement and resupply, and provided itself with both airfields for support of its invasion forces and staging bases for further operations in the Dutch East Indies.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: When MacArthur returned to active duty, the latest revision plans for the defense of the Philippine Islands had been completed in April 1941 and was called WPO-3, based on the joint Army-Navy War Plan Orange of 1938, which involved hostilities between the United States and Japan. Under WPO-3, the Philippine garrison was to hold the entrance to Manila Bay and deny its use to Japanese naval forces and ground forces were to prevent enemy landings. If the enemy prevailed, they were to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula, which was recognized as the key to the control of Manila Bay. It was to be defended to the "last extremity". In addition to the regular U.S. Army troops, the defenders could rely on the Philippine Army, which had been organized and trained by General MacArthur.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: However, in April 1941, the Navy estimated that it would require at least two years for the Pacific Fleet to fight its way across the Pacific. Army planners in early 1941 believed supplies would be exhausted within six months and the garrison would fall. MacArthur assumed command of the Allied army in July 1941 and rejected WPO-3 as defeatist, preferring a more aggressive course of action. He recommended—among other things—a coastal defense strategy that would include the entire archipelago. His recommendations were followed in the plan that was eventually approved. Due to MacArthur's decision, with tacit approval from Washington, to change the plan under War Plan Rainbow 5, it was ordered that the entire archipelago would be defended, with the necessary supplies dispersed behind the beachheads for defending forces to use while defending against the landings. With the return to War Plan Orange 3, the necessary supplies to support the defenders for the anticipated six-month-long defensive position were not available in the necessary quantities for the defenders who would withdraw to Bataan.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: When the Japanese made their first landings on December 10 and 12 at the northern and southern extremities of Luzon, General MacArthur made no disposition to contest them. He correctly surmised that these landings were designed to secure advance air bases and that the Japanese had no intention of driving on Manila from any of these beachheads. He did not regard the situation as serious enough to warrant a change in his plan to oppose the main attack, when it came, with an all-out defense at the beaches. The MacArthur Plan, then, remained in effect.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: On December 20, US Navy submarine spotted a large convoy of troop ships with escorts. This was General Homma's landing force, and included 85 troop transports, two battleships, six cruisers, and two dozen destroyers. The convoy was engaged by three submarines: USS "Stingray", , and , who fired torpedo after torpedo into the convoy, most of which failed to explode, due to the Mark XIV torpedo's defective detonators. In all, just two troop ships were sunk before Japanese destroyers chased the submarines away.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: General MacArthur intended to move his men with their equipment and supplies in good order to their defensive positions. He charged the North Luzon Force under Maj. Gen. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV with holding back the main Japanese assault and keeping the road to Bataan open for use by the South Luzon Force of Maj. Gen. George Parker, which proceeded quickly and in remarkably good order, given the chaotic situation. To achieve this, Wainwright deployed his forces in a series of five defensive lines outlined in WPO-3:


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The main force of General Masaharu Homma's 14th Area Army came ashore at Lingayen Gulf on the morning of December 22. The defenders failed to hold the beaches. By the end of the day, the Japanese had secured most of their objectives and were in position to emerge onto the central plain. Facing Homma's troops were four Filipino divisions: the 21st, the 71st, the 11th, and the 91st, as well as a battalion of Philippine Scouts backed by a few tanks. Along Route 3—a cobblestone road that led directly to Manila—the Japanese soon made contact with the Filipino 71st Division. At this point the action of the American artillery stalled the Japanese attack. However, Japanese planes and tanks entering the action routed the Filipino infantry, leaving the artillery uncovered. A second Japanese division landed at Lamon Bay, south of Manila, on December 23 and advanced north.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: It was now evident to General Wainwright that he could no longer hold back the Japanese advance. Late on the afternoon of the 23rd, Wainwright telephoned General MacArthur's headquarters in Manila and informed him that any further defense of the Lingayen beaches was "impracticable." He requested and was given permission to withdraw behind the Agno River. MacArthur weighed two choices: either make a firm stand on the line of the Agno and give Wainwright his best unit, the Philippine Division, for a counterattack; or withdraw all the way to Bataan in planned stages. He decided on the latter, thus abandoning his own plan for defense and reverting to the old ORANGE plan. Having made his decision to withdraw to Bataan, MacArthur notified all force commanders on the night of December 23 that "WPO-3 is in effect."


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Meanwhile, Manuel L. Quezon, the President of the Philippine Commonwealth, together with his family and government staff were evacuated to Corregidor, along with MacArthur's United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) headquarters, on the night of December 24, 1941, while all USAFFE military personnel were removed from the major urban areas. On the 26th Manila was officially declared an open city and MacArthur's proclamation was published in the newspapers and broadcast over the radio. The Japanese were not notified officially of the proclamation but learned of it through radio broadcasts. The next day, and thereafter, they bombed the port area, from which supplies were being shipped to Bataan and Corregidor.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: After General Douglas MacArthur had withdrawn his army down the island of Luzon's central plain into the Bataan Peninsula, one last line existed before the Japanese invaders reached the main line of resistance. The Americans attempted to slow the Japanese entry into Bataan by fighting a delaying action at Layac, thus gaining time and deceiving the enemy as to the location of the main defensive positions. For the first time in World War II, American troops faced Japanese soldiers on the ground.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: From January 1 to 5, 1942, as the entire USAFFE converged from south and north, delaying actions were fought to allow the struggling withdrawal to Bataan. The fiercest fighting occurred at the hastily emplaced Porac–Guagua Line, where the 11th and 21st divisions, respectively led by Brigadier Generals William E. Brougher and Mateo Capinpin, with the 26th Cavalry Regiment of Colonel Clinton A. Pierce in reserve, held the line, mostly on open and unprepared ground, against massive aerial and artillery bombardment, strong tank assaults, and infantry banzai attacks by the Takahashi and Tanaka detachments. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Overlooked in this report are the actions of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the PA, led by senior instructor Col. Wallace A Mead. The 23rd Regiment established the defensive line at Porac-Pampanga on or around January 2, 1942. Colonel Mead was later awarded the Silver Star for his actions there. The 23rd's defense allowed Capinpin's forces to withdraw and establish new defensive positions. It was Capinpin's recount of the fighting that day that was offered as support for Mead's citation.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: War Plan Orange 3 called for two defensive lines across Bataan. The first extended across the peninsula from Mauban in the west to Mabatang, Abucay in the east. General Wainwright, commanding the newly organized I Philippine Corps of 22,500 troops, held the western sector. I Corps included the Philippine Army's 1st Regular, 31st, and 91st Divisions, the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts (PS)) and a battery of field artillery and self-propelled guns. General Parker and the new II Philippine Corps, which included the Philippine Army's 11th, 21st, 41st, and 51st divisions and the 57th Infantry (PS), and numbered 25,000 men, defended the eastern sector. All of the divisions, already under strength at the onset of war, had suffered serious combat losses, particularly to desertions. The U.S. Army's Philippine Division, made up of the 31st Infantry, the 45th Infantry (PS), and supporting units became the "Bataan Defense Force Reserve". Mount Natib, a -high mountain that split the peninsula, served as the boundary line between the two corps. The commanders anchored their lines on the mountain, but, since they considered the rugged terrain impassable, they did not extend their forces far up its slopes. The two corps were therefore not in direct contact with each other, leaving a serious gap in the defense line. With the fighting withdrawal completed, the Abucay–Mauban Line, the USAFFE's main battle position was now in place.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: On January 9, Japanese forces under Lieutenant General Susumu Morioka assaulted the eastern flank of the Abucay–Mauban Line, and were repulsed by the 91st Division of Brigadier General Luther Stevens and Colonel George S. Clark's 57th Infantry (PS). On January 12, amid fierce fighting, 2nd Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger, a platoon leader in the 57th Infantry, sacrificed his life when, armed with only a rifle and hand grenades, he forced his way into enemy foxholes during hand-to-hand combat, permitting his unit to retake Abucay Hacienda; for his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Another extreme act of bravery was put forth by a Filipino named Narciso Ortilano. He was on a water-cooled heavy machine gun when the Japanese burst out of a canebrake in a banzai attack. He shot dozens of the Japanese with his machine gun, then pulled out his Colt .45 and shot five more when the machine gun jammed. Then, when one Japanese soldier stabbed at him with a bayonet, he desperately tried to grab the gun, got his thumb cut off, but still held on, and then with a sudden burst of adrenalin he turned the gun on the enemy soldier and stabbed him in the chest. When another Japanese soldier swung a bayonet at him, he turned his rifle on the soldier and shot him dead. Narcisco received the Distinguished Service Cross.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Another attack on January 14 at the boundary of positions held by the 41st and 51st Divisions of Brigadier Generals Vicente Lim and Albert M. Jones, respectively, aided by the 43rd and Colonel Wallace A Mead's 23rd Infantry, stubbornly refused the Japanese their left flank. The Japanese advanced to the Salian River Valley through a gap made by the 51st Infantry's withdrawal. But a patrol discovered the infiltration, and units of the 21st Division rushed to the valley and repulsed the attackers after a savage encounter.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: At another engagement farther to the west, a Japanese force surprised and routed the 53rd Infantry of Colonel John R. Boatwright. This force also penetrated deep behind the Abucay–Mauban Line along the Abo-Abo River Valley, but their advance was held up by combined units of the 21st and 51st Divisions, the 31st Division of Brigadier General Clifford Bluemel, and Colonel John H. Rodman's 92nd Infantry at the Bani-Guirol Forest area. The 31st Infantry and the 45th Infantry, Philippine scouts of Colonel Thomas W. Doyle, partially restored the abandoned line of the 51st Division.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: On January 15, the reinforced 1st Regular Division of Brigadier General Fidel Segundo, defending the Morong sector, came under heavy bombardment, but held the line. The Japanese penetrated through a huge gap in the Silangan-Natib area and established a roadblock on Mauban Ridge, threatening to cut off the division's rear. Repeated attacks by the 91st Division and 71st Division, and 92nd Infantry failed to dislodge the Japanese. The attackers' nightly raids and infiltration tactics became more frequent. Previously, General Parker's II Corps had prevented a similar encirclement at the Salian River battle, but the position of General Wainwright's I Corps was deemed indefensible, and the Abucay–Mauban Line was abandoned on January 22.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Within four days, the Orion-Bagac Line was formed. But the defenders had yet to complete their withdrawal to the reserve battle position when the Japanese struck again, through a gap held by I Corps. General Bluemel hastily organized a defense along Trail Two, consisting of 32nd Infantry, 41st Infantry and 51st Division reinforcements, in time to stop a major offensive and plug the gap.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The remaining Japanese troops managed to get through, however, and held out at some rear sectors of the Orion-Bagac Line at the Tuol River Valley behind the 11th Division, and in the Gogo-Cotar River behind the 1st Regular Division. From January 23 to February 17, coordinated action by the defenders to eliminate these salients of resistance became known as the "Battle of the pockets". Fierce fighting marked the action. Captain Alfredo M. Santos, of the 1st Regular Division, outmaneuvered the enemy during their attempt to pocket the area. In both attempts, his unit successfully broke through the Gogo-Cotar and Tuol pockets, thus earning for himself the moniker "hero of the pockets". For his successes, he was promoted to major in the field. Major Santos was then given the hazardous mission of closing the gaps and annihilating the enemy troops who had infiltrated the lines, as the gap posed a serious threat to the positions and the security of the division. He led a counterattack against the strong and numerically superior Japanese forces positioned between the MLR and the Regimental Reserve Line (RRL). The fighting began at dawn on January 29, 1942, and the Americans restored the defensive sector assigned to the 1st Regular Division. On February 3, 1942, 1st Lieutenant Willibald C. Bianchi of the 45th Infantry, Philippine scouts, led a reinforced platoon forward against two enemy machine-gun nests, silenced them with grenades, and despite two machine gun wounds to the chest, then manned an antiaircraft machine gun until being knocked off the tank by a third severe wound. He was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions. Of the 2,000 Japanese soldiers engaged, 377 were reported to have escaped.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: General Homma, on February 8, ordered the suspension of offensive operations in order to reorganize his forces. This could not be carried out immediately, because the 16th Division remained engaged trying to extricate the pocketed 3rd Battalion, 20th Infantry. With further casualties, the remnants of the 3rd Battalion, 378 officers and men, were extricated on February 15. On February 22, the 14th Army line was withdrawn a few miles to the north, with USAFFE forces re-occupying positions evacuated by the Japanese.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: In an attempt to outflank I Corps and isolate the service command area commanded by USAFFE deputy commander Brigadier General Allan C. McBride, Japanese troops of the 2nd Battalion, 20th Infantry, 16th Division, were landed on the west coast of southern Bataan on the night of January 22. Intercepted by U.S. PT-34, two barges were sunk and the rest scattered in two groups, neither of which landed on the objective beach. The Japanese forces were contained on their beachheads by members of Philippine constabulary units, a hastily organized naval infantry battalion, and by personnel of several U.S. Army Air Corps pursuit squadrons fighting as infantry, including Ed Dyess and Ray C. Hunt.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The naval infantry consisted of 150 ground crewmen from Patrol Wing Ten, 80 sailors from the Cavite Naval Ammunition Depot, and 130 sailors from , with 120 sailors from the base facilities at Cavite, Olongapo, and Mariveles, and 120 Marines from an antiaircraft battery. Sailors used the Canopus machine shop to fabricate makeshift mountings for machine guns salvaged from Patrol Wing Ten's damaged aircraft. The Marines were distributed through the ranks, and the sailors were told to "watch them and do as they do." The sailors attempted to make their white uniforms more suitable for jungle combat by dying them with coffee grounds. The result was closer to yellow than khaki, and the diary of a dead Japanese officer described them as a suicide squad dressed in brightly colored uniforms and talking loudly in an attempt to draw fire and reveal the enemy positions.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Japanese commanders, in an attempt to hold onto their lodgements, reinforced the beachheads piecemeal, but could not break out. Battles were fought ferociously against a company-sized group at the Lapay-Longoskawayan points from January 23 to 29, at the Quinawan-Aglaloma points from January 22 to February 8, and at the Silalim-Anyasan points from January 27 to February 13. Out of the 2,000 Japanese troops committed to these battles, only 43 wounded returned to their lines. These engagements were collectively termed the "Battle of the Points".


title: Battle of Bataan

text: On the night of March 12, General MacArthur, his family, and several USAFFE staff officers left Corregidor for Mindanao aboard four PT boats commanded by Lieutenant Commander John D. Bulkeley. For this, and a number of other feats over the course of four months and eight days, Bulkeley was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross and other citations.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: MacArthur was eventually flown to Australia where he broadcast to the Filipino people his famous "I Shall Return" promise. MacArthur's departure marked the end of the USAFFE, and by March 22, the defending army was renamed the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), and Lieutenant General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV was placed in command.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: After the failure of their first attack against Bataan, the Japanese general headquarters sent strong artillery forces to the Philippines in order to smash the American fortifications. They had 190 artillery pieces, which included bigger guns like 150 mm cannons and the rare Type 45 240 mm howitzer. The 1st Artillery headquarters, under Major General Kineo Kitajima, who was a known authority on IJA artillery, also moved to the Philippines along with the main forces to command and control these artillery units. Also, the Japanese high command reinforced General Homma's 14th Imperial Army, and toward the end of March, the Japanese forces prepared for the final assault.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: On April 3, the entire Orion-Bagac Line was subjected to incessant bombings by 100 aircraft and artillery bombardment by 300 artillery pieces from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm, which turned the Mount Samat stronghold into an inferno. Over the course of the next three days (Good Friday to Easter Sunday, 1942), the Japanese 65th Brigade and 4th Division spearheaded the main attack at the left flank of II Corps. Everywhere along the line, the American and Filipino defenders were driven back by Japanese tanks and infantry.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Based on his two prior attempts, General Homma had estimated that the final offensive would require a week to breach the Orion-Bagac Line and a month to liquidate two final defense lines he believed had been prepared on Bataan. When the opening attack required just three days, he pushed his forces on April 6 to meet expected counterattacks head-on. The Japanese launched a drive into the center, penetrated into flanks held by the 22nd and 23rd Regiments of the 21st Division, captured Mount Samat and outflanked all of II Corps. Counterattacks by the U.S. Army and Philippine Scout regulars held in reserve were futile; only the 57th Infantry gained any ground, soon lost.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: All along the battle front, units of I Corps, together with the devastated remnants of II Corps, crumbled and straggled to the rear. The commanders on Bataan lost all contact with their units, except by runner in a few instances. In the last two days of the defense of Bataan, the entire Allied defense progressively disintegrated and collapsed, clogging all roads with refugees and fleeing troops (some were evacuated by "YAG-4" from the Mariveles Naval Base). By April 8, the senior U.S. commander on Bataan, Major General Edward P. King, saw the futility of further resistance, and put forth proposals for capitulation.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The next morning, April 9, 1942, General King met with Major General Kameichiro Nagano and, after several hours of negotiations, the remaining weary, starving and emaciated American and Filipino defenders on the battle-swept Bataan Peninsula surrendered.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The continued resistance of the force on Bataan after Singapore and the Indies had fallen made heartening news among the Allied peoples. However, the extension of time gained by the defense was very largely a result of the transfer of the 48th Division from Homma's army at a critical time, and the exhaustion of the weakened force that remained. It cost a far stronger Japanese army as many days of actual combat to take Malaya and Singapore Island as it cost Homma to take Bataan and Corregidor.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The surrender of Bataan hastened the fall of Corregidor a month later. There is a suggestion that without the stand, the Japanese might have quickly overrun all of the U.S. bases in the Pacific and could have quickly invaded Australia. Willoughby, MacArthur's Intelligence Officer, asserted after the war that the epic operation in Bataan and Corregidor became a decisive factor in the ultimate winning of the war, that it disrupted the Japanese timetable "in a way that was to prove crucial" and that "because of Bataan the Japanese never managed to detach enough men, planes, ships, and material to nail down Guadalcanal." Rather than allowing the operations on Luzon to upset their general timetable, the Japanese took steps that resulted in prolonging the resistance of Luzon in order to speed up their conquest of the Indies. Between the time of their advance into the Solomons and the American counter-landing on Guadalcanal in August, three months after the fall of Corregidor, they had ample troops available to build up their strength in the South Seas.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: However, historian Teodoro Agoncillo argues that the battle was "unnecessary in so far as the throwing away of precious lives was concerned, for it served no strategic purpose." It was only Yamashita who thought of invading Australia, something that Tojo did not support. Finally, not only did the USAFFE possess numerical superiority, it could have recaptured Manila easily (according to Homma).


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Ultimately, more than 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March. However, about 10,000–12,000 of these eventually escaped from the march to form guerrilla units in the mountains, tying down the occupying Japanese. On September 7, 1944, the Japanese ship "Shinyō Maru" was sunk by USS "Paddle"; on board the "Shinyo Maru" were U.S. POWs, of whom 668 died and 82 survived.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur initiated the Campaign for the Liberation of the Philippines, fulfilling his promise to return to the country he had left in 1942. As part of the campaign, the Battle for the recapture of Bataan (January 31 to February 21, 1945) by Allied forces and Philippine guerrillas avenged the surrender of the defunct United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) to invading Japanese forces.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor), April 9, the day Bataan fell into Japanese hands, was declared a national holiday in the Philippines. Previously called Bataan Day, the day is now known as Day of Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan, commemorating both the Fall of Bataan (April 9, 1942) and the Fall of Corregidor (May 6, 1942).


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The "Dambana ng Kagitingan" (Shrine of Valor) is a memorial shrine erected on top of Mount Samat in Pilar, Bataan, in the Philippines. The war memorial grounds feature a colonnade that houses an altar, esplanade, and a museum. On the peak of the mountain is the memorial cross standing about high.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: , commissioned on September 20, 1997, the United States Navy commemorates "those who served and sacrificed in the Philippines in the name of freedom in the Pacific".


title: Battle of Bataan

text: , commissioned on November 17, 1943, the United States Navy commemorated "those who served and sacrificed in the Philippines in the name of freedom in the Pacific" until her decommissioning on April 9, 1954.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The Bataan Death March Memorial Monument, erected in April 2001, is the only monument funded by the U.S. federal government dedicated to the victims of the Bataan Death March during World War II. The memorial was designed and sculpted by Las Cruces artist Kelley Hester and is located in Veterans Park along Roadrunner Parkway in New Mexico.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge is a bascule bridge on State Street in Chicago, Illinois, where it crosses the Chicago River. It was built in 1949 and rededicated on April 9, 1998, commemorating not only the Day of Valour but also the centennial of the declaration of Philippine independence from Spain in 1898.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Among the many films and television programs that feature the story of Bataan are "Bataan" (1943) starring Robert Taylor, the John Ford classic "They Were Expendable" (1945), starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed, "Back to Bataan" (1945) starring Wayne and Anthony Quinn, and two movies about the nurses of Bataan: "So Proudly We Hail!" (1943) and "Cry 'Havoc'" (1943).


title: Battle of Bataan

text: Dozens of documentaries have also featured stories from the Battle of Bataan including "A Legacy of Heroes: The Story of Bataan and Corregidor" (2003), "Ghosts of Bataan" (2005) and an episode of The History Channel series "Shootout", entitled "Raid on the Bataan Death Camp" (2006). Though largely focusing on the Cabanatuan Raid in 1945, this last program also featured stories from the 1942 battle; notably the stand of the 57th Infantry Regiment (PS) at Mabatang.


title: Battle of Bataan

text: The Battle of Bataan is referenced among important battles of American history in the song The House I Live In, sang by Frank Sinatra in the film of the same name and later taken up by Paul Robeson and various other singers: ""The little bridge at Concord, where Freedom’s fight began, / Our Gettysburg and Midway, and the story of Bataan"".


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Brandon Byron Jennings (born September 23, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player who played 9 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is known for being one of the first Americans to go from high school to the pros in Europe.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: After he graduated from Oak Hill Academy, Jennings played for professional basketball club Lottomatica Roma in Italy. After a year overseas, he declared for the 2009 NBA draft and was selected 10th overall by the Bucks. Jennings played four seasons in Milwaukee before being traded to the Detroit Pistons in 2013. He spent his next three seasons in Detroit before he was traded to the Orlando Magic in 2016. He went on to split the 2016–17 season between the New York Knicks and Washington Wizards.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Born to Alice Knox in Compton, California, he has a half brother named Terrence Phillips, a former guard at the University of Missouri. His father died when he was young.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Jennings attended Dominguez High School in Compton, California for his freshman and sophomore years. Before his junior year, Jennings transferred to Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. In his last year of high school, Jennings averaged 35.5 points per game and set the school record for points in a season (1,312). This performance earned him some of high school basketball's most prestigious awards: the 2008 Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award, 2007–08 Gatorade Player of the Year (Virginia), 2008 Parade Magazine Player of the Year and 2008 EA Sports Player of the Year. He led his 2006–2007 team to a 41–1 record and the top ranking in the "USA Today" Super 25 list of high school teams. He was rated as the nation's #1 high school basketball prospect in the class of 2008 by Scout.com, the #1 prospect in the ESPNU 150, and the #4 prospect by Rivals.com.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: In August 2006, Jennings was initially set to join USC. On April 24, 2007, he instead committed to the Arizona Wildcats, citing Arizona's quality academic faculty and his desire to play with Jerryd Bayless (Bayless left after one season to enter the 2008 NBA draft). In November 2007, "SLAM Magazine"'s third edition of PUNKS featured Jennings on the cover along with three other top-rated high school guards (Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans and Lance Stephenson).


title: Brandon Jennings

text: In June 2008, Jennings attended the premiere of Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch's basketball movie "Gunnin' For That #1 Spot" at the Magic Johnson Theatre in Harlem. Also attending were Kevin Love, Stephenson, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, DJ Augustin and Yauch. The film follows eight top high school players—including Jennings—from their hometowns to New York City, for the 2006 Elite 24 at Rucker Park.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: In June 2008, Jennings announced that he was considering becoming the first American to skip college to play professionally in the Euroleague. The NBA requires players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from high school before entering the league, meaning that Jennings could not enter the 2008 NBA draft. Jennings declared that his goal was to play in the NBA and that playing overseas instead of at an American college could be his best route to gain experience and make money until he was eligible to join the NBA.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On July 16, 2008, Jennings signed with Lottomatica Roma of the Italian Serie A. The contract he signed with Roma was for $1.65 million net income guaranteed. After earning the contract with Lottomatica, Under Armour gave Jennings a $2 million contract to showcase their products in the Euroleague. Jennings was the first American player to go straight from high school to play professionally for a European team rather than play for a college basketball team since the NBA's age restriction rule was implemented.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: In the Italian Serie A 2008–09 season, Jennings averaged in 27 games, 5.5 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals in 17.0 minutes per game. He shot 35.1 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from 3-point range in Serie A play. In 16 Euroleague games, Jennings averaged 7.6 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.2 steals in 19.6 minutes per game. In the Euroleague he shot 38.7 percent from the field and 26.8 percent from 3-point range.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Jennings was selected tenth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2009 NBA draft. He became the first player who skipped college to play professional basketball in Europe to be drafted by an NBA team.During Jennings's NBA regular season debut on October 30, 2009, against the Philadelphia 76ers, where he recorded 17 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists in 34 minutes.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On November 14, 2009, in just his seventh game in the NBA, Jennings scored 55 points in a win over the Golden State Warriors. Jennings 55 points broke the team record for most points in a game by a rookie, previously set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1970, and was more than any rookie scored since Earl "The Pearl" Monroe scored 56 in 1968. He became the youngest player to ever score 55, collecting the second-highest total for a player under 21, behind only LeBron James's 56 points in March 2005, and the second-most points scored by a Milwaukee Buck (behind Michael Redd's 57 in 2006).


title: Brandon Jennings

text: During All-Star Weekend, he competed in the Skills Challenge. Jennings started all 82 games as a rookie, and led the Bucks to the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, where they lost to the Atlanta Hawks in seven games. He finished third in Rookie of the Year voting.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On October 30, 2010, Jennings recorded his first ever triple double, with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a win against the Charlotte Bobcats. On December 15, 2010, Jennings broke his left foot against the San Antonio Spurs when he came down awkwardly on his ankle. Despite the injury, he finished the game and played 30 minutes the following game against the Jazz. The team later confirmed that Jennings would miss the next four to six weeks as he recovered from surgery to repair a fracture in his left foot.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Jennings missed a total of 19 games with the injury before returning on January 29, 2011 in a 91–81 home victory over the New Jersey Nets. He scored a season-high 37 points against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 25, 2011.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: With Milwaukee struggling in Jennings' absence and his slow return to form after the injury, the Bucks missed the playoffs.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: With the NBA beginning the 2011–12 season in a lockout, Jennings played in the Drew League to stay in shape and prepare for the season. With the schedule shortened after the lockout ended, Jennings played and started in all of the 66 games. He recorded career highs with 19.1 points and 1.6 steals in 35.3 minutes per game.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Similar to the previous season, his season-high in points came in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks; this time, Jennings scored 36 points in a 100–86 win.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: With Jennings set to hit restricted free agency at the end of the 2012–13 season, he sought a long-term contract, saying he would not return to Milwaukee if they did not work out an agreement.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: During the Bucks home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jennings made a game-winning three at the buzzer to win the game for the Bucks. Jennings teamed up with Monta Ellis, who was acquired at the 2012 trade deadline, to form one of the NBA's most potent backcourts that year.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: With improved play under new coach Jim Boylan, Milwaukee returned to the playoffs for the first time since Jennings was a rookie. They qualified as the eighth seed. They were swept 4–0 by the reigning, and eventual, champions- the Miami Heat.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: During the 2013 NBA playoffs, Jennings came up with the phrase "Bucks in 6," when asked about his expectations for the series against the Miami Heat, meaning the Bucks would win in six games. Despite being swept by the Heat in that series, the phrase later regained prominence after the Bucks won the 2021 NBA Finals, which happened to be in six games. Coincidentally, they opened their championship run by sweeping the Heat. Jennings was invited to the championship parade, and the phrase was engraved on the design of the championship rings.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On July 31, 2013, Jennings was signed-and-traded to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton and Viacheslav Kravtsov. He agreed to a three-year contract, reportedly worth $25 million.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On December 5, 2013, Jennings returned to Milwaukee in a 105–98 win over the Bucks, finishing with 17 points and 11 assists. On January 11, 2014, in a game against the Phoenix Suns, Jennings recorded 16 assists in the first half, tying Isiah Thomas' franchise record for the most assists in a half.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On January 16, 2015, Jennings scored a season-high 37 points on 10-of-23 shooting in the 98-96 win over the Indiana Pacers. Five days later, he recorded 24 points and a career-high 21 assists in the 128–118 win over the Orlando Magic, becoming the first player to record a 20-point, 20-assist game in the NBA since Steve Nash in 2009.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On January 25, 2015, Jennings was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a ruptured left Achilles tendon that required surgery. On the season, he averaged 15.4 points, 6.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 41 games.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On December 17, 2015, Jennings voluntarily reported to the Grand Rapids Drive, the Pistons' D-League affiliate, on a rehab assignment. In his debut with the Drive on December 19, Jennings recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 assists in 27 minutes against the Iowa Energy. He was recalled by the Pistons the next day. On December 29, Jennings made his first appearance of the season for the Pistons, scoring seven points and adding four assists in 16 minutes off the bench against the New York Knicks. He had a season-best game in his fourth game back from injury, recording 17 points and 6 assists off the bench on January 4 in a 115–89 win over the Orlando Magic.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On February 16, 2016, Jennings was traded to the Orlando Magic, along with Ersan İlyasova, in exchange for Tobias Harris. The next day, he made his debut with the Magic in a 110–104 win over the Dallas Mavericks, recording 18 points, three rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On July 8, 2016, Jennings signed with the New York Knicks. He debuted in the Knicks's season opener on October 25, 2016 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 21 minutes off the bench, he recorded seven points, three rebounds and five assists in a 117–88 loss. On December 11, he scored 15 of his season high-tying 19 points in the fourth quarter of the Knicks' 118–112 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. On December 31, he set a new season high with 32 points in a 129–122 loss to the Houston Rockets. On February 27, 2017, he was waived by the Knicks.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On July 28, 2017, Jennings accepted a one-year, $1.5 million deal to play for the Shanxi Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association. On December 9, 2017, he was released by Shanxi. In 13 games, he averaged 27.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On March 11, 2018, Jennings signed a 10-day contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, returning to the franchise for a second stint. The following day, in his first game back with the Bucks, Jennings finished two rebounds shy of a triple-double with 16 points and 12 assists in a 121–103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. He signed a second 10-day contract on March 21, and a multi-year contract on April 1. On August 1, 2018, he was waived by the Bucks.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: On August 20, 2018, Jennings signed a one-year deal with the Russian team Zenit Saint Petersburg of the VTB United League. His contract with Zenit was terminated on November 20, 2018, after only 10 games and days after an Instagram post he made stating “Lesson in life: I will never play for a team and the dad is coaching his SON! Never again!" The father-son duo at the club at the time of his Instagram post were Vasily Karasev (then head coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg) and former NBA player Sergey Karasev.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Jennings participated in Steve Nash's Showdown in Chinatown charity soccer match in New York City on June 24, 2010.


title: Brandon Jennings

text: Jennings, specifically his tense relationship with Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles, was the subject of the song "Chartjunk" by indie rock band Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks in 2014.


title: 1988 in film

text: The following is an overview of events in 1988 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: "Look at Me" (stylized as "Look at Me!") is the debut single by American rapper XXXTentacion. The song premiered on December 30, 2015, on the SoundCloud account of Rojas, the song's co-producer, before initially being released for digital download as a single on January 29, 2016, becoming a sleeper hit in January 2017, in which the single was later re-released for digital download again with a remastered and clean version of the single on February 20, 2017, by Empire Distribution. The song serves as the lead single from his debut commercial mixtape "Revenge". The track was produced by Rojas and Jimmy Duval, and heavily samples the 2007 song "Changes" by British dubstep DJ and record producer Mala.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The song peaked at number 34 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. It currently has 205 million plays since its addition on SoundCloud, as well as over 470 million views on YouTube and had reached already 1.8B views on Spotify by 2022. "Look at Me" was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on August 14, 2017, with over one million single-equivalent units.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: In verified annotations added along with song's lyrics on Genius, Rojas, the song's co-producer, spoke about how the song came together:


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: One day me and X were sitting at the crib going through beats and he wasn't really rocking with any of them, and then the last one I showed him was that beat, and he was like, "Rojas, this is it!"


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: In 15 minutes, it was done. X already knew the whole song in his head before he made it. He's creative as fuck. X decided to distort the whole track in one.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: We made it at Jimmy Duval's Studio. The beat was actually made for Retch, when he came down to Miami after he had a show in Tampa.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: He was staying at Jimmy’s crib after I introduced them, when me and Jimmy decided to work on some stuff for Retch. That’s when we made the "Look At Me!" beat. We never got to send it to Retch because he went to jail and I lost contact with him and his management.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: A couple months before I sampled it, I was listening to a song by Young Roddy called "Water" and I was fucking with him heavy. I thought the sample was really hard and I wanted to use it but I failed with it so many times before I got it right.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The song was originally listed as a feature of Rojas, who is also a DJ, before later being renamed as a whole following the initial iTunes release.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The track, which has a tempo of 139 BPM (beats per minute), heavily samples "Changes" by British dubstep DJ and record producer Mala. "Look at Me" features an extremely heavy and distorted bass, creating an aggressive feeling throughout the track. While some criticized the heavy distortion to be a case of bad mixing, Rojas, the producer, said the poor mixing and distortion on the track was intentional to differentiate the song from other popular hip hop songs at the time.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: "Look at Me" debuted at number 94 on US "Billboard" Hot 100 for the chart dated February 25, 2017, and peaked at number 34. The track charted for 20 weeks, becoming his longest charting song until the release of "SAD!" (later becoming his longest-charting track with 38 weeks on the chart). It is XXXTENTACION's first charting single, later making it into the "Billboard" Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2017 at number 99. "Look at Me" was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on July 31, 2019, with over two million units sold.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The official music video for "Look at Me" was released on the artist's YouTube channel on September 12, 2017. The video features both "Look at Me" and "Riot" by XXXTENTACION.


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The song first received notable attention and controversy in early 2017 when Canadian rapper Drake used a similar rap flow from "Look at Me" in an unreleased song. It sparked a viral surge in the song's popularity, as well as Onfroy himself, while he was incarcerated at the time. Drake released the song "KMT" featuring English rapper Giggs on his commercial mixtape "More Life", which was marketed as a "playlist."


title: Look at Me (XXXTentacion song)

text: The song received further controversy in September 2017 when the music video was released depicting a white child being hanged on stage in addition to other various depictions of murder and death. Although heavily criticized by conservative news outlets, Onfroy clarified via Instagram that the video was meant to be taken seriously as a form of art, and that it was a form of shock value. Soon after, Onfroy claimed on an Instagram video that a member of the Ku Klux Klan had threatened him for the depictions in the song.


title: Brian Tracy

text: Brian Tracy is a Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author. He is the author of over eighty books that have been translated into dozens of languages. His popular books are "Earn What You're Really Worth", "Eat That Frog!", "No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline" and "The Psychology of Achievement".


title: Brian Tracy

text: Tracy is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Brian Tracy International, a company Tracy founded in 1984 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It sells counseling on leadership, selling, self-esteem, goals, strategy, creativity, and success psychology. It is headquartered in Bankers Hill, San Diego, California.


title: Brian Tracy

text: In 2003, Tracy stood as one of 135 candidates in the California gubernatorial recall election on an independent platform, receiving 729 votes. His campaign was featured on the BBC Sunday morning radio show Broadcasting House, where each week presenter Eddie Mair phoned Tracy for an update on how the race was progressing. On election day, Mair flew to California to meet with Tracy in person, only to find that he had gone to Dubai during the final week of campaigning.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Presidential elections were held in Russia on 26 March 2000. Incumbent prime minister and acting president Vladimir Putin, who had succeeded Boris Yeltsin after his resignation on 31 December 1999, was seeking a four-year term in his own right and won the elections in the first round.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: In spring 1998, Boris Yeltsin dismissed his long-time head of government, Viktor Chernomyrdin, replacing him with Sergey Kirienko. Months later, in the wake of the August 1998 economic crisis in which the government defaulted on its debt and devalued the rouble simultaneously, Kirienko was replaced in favor of Yevgeny Primakov. In May 1999, Primakov was replaced with Sergei Stepashin. Then in August 1999, Vladimir Putin was named prime minister, making him the fifth in less than two years. Putin was not expected to last long in the role and was initially unknown and unpopular due to his ties to the Yeltsin government and state security. In the late summer and early fall of 1999, a wave of apartment bombings across Russia killed hundreds and injured thousands. The bombings, blamed on the Chechens, provided the opportunity for Putin to position himself as a strong and aggressive leader, capable of dealing with the Chechen threat.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Yeltsin had become exceedingly unpopular. Yeltsin was increasingly concerned about the Skuratov, Mercata and Mabetex scandals that had prompted articles of impeachment. He narrowly survived impeachment in May 1999. In mid-1999, Yevgeny Primakov and Yuri Luzhkov were considered the frontrunners for the presidency. Both were critical of Yeltsin, and he feared that they might prosecute him and his family for corruption should they ascend to power. Primakov had suggested that he would be “freeing up jail cells for the economic criminals he planned to arrest.”


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: On December 19, 1999, the Kremlin's Unity Party finished second in the Parliamentary elections with 23 percent; the Communist Party was first with 24 percent. By forming a coalition with Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, Yeltsin had secured a favorable majority in the Duma. By the December election, Putin's popularity had risen to 79% with 42% saying they would vote for him for President.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: On New Year's Eve 1999, Yeltsin announced that he would be resigning early in the belief that “Russia should enter the new millennium with new politicians, new faces, new people, who are intelligent, strong and energetic, while we, those who have been in power for many years, must leave.” In accordance with the constitution, Putin became acting president.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: The elections would be held on 26 March 2000, as Russian law required an election to be scheduled three months after the office of president is vacated. Before Yeltsin's resignation, the 2000 presidential election had been expected to be held in June or July. The Duma had originally passed legislation scheduling the first round of the election for June 4, with a runoff scheduled for June 25 if necessitated.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: In early 2000, Unity and the Communist Party had developed an alliance in the Duma that effectively cut off Putin's rivals, Yevgeny Primakov, Grigory Yavlinsky, and Sergei Kiriyenko. Yuri Luzhkov, the reelected Mayor of Moscow, announced that he would not compete for the presidency; Primakov pulled out two weeks after the parliamentary elections. The early election also reduced the chances that public sentiment would turn against the conflict in Chechnya.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: A new federal law, “On the election of the president of the Russian Federation” was passed in December 1999. It required that candidates gather a million signatures to be nominated (although the shortened election meant this was reduced to 500,000). A majority in the first round was enough to win. Failing that, a second round of voting between the top two candidates would be decided by majority vote. The new law also created stricter campaign finance provisions. The new law, in conjunction with the early election would have further helped Putin, who could rely on favorable state television coverage.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: A total of 33 candidates were nominated; 15 submitted the application forms to the Central Electoral Committee, and ultimately 12 candidates were registered:


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Gennady Zyuganov and Grigory Yavlinsky were the two strongest opposition candidates. Zyuganov ran on a platform of resistance to wholesale public ownership although illegally privatized property would be returned to the state. He opposed public land ownership and advocated for strong public services to be provided by the state. He would also strengthen the country's defense capabilities and would resist expansion by the United States and NATO. Grigorii Yavlinsky (Yabloko) ran as a free marketer but with measured state control. He wanted stronger oversight of public money, an end to the black market and reform of the tax system coinciding with an increase in public services. He also advocated for a strengthened role for the State Duma and a reduction in the size of the civil bureaucracy. He was the most pro-Western candidate, but only to an extent as he had been critical of the war in Chechnya yet remained skeptical of NATO. One of Putin's major campaign platforms was “dictatorship of the law” and “the stronger the state, the freer the people.”


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Putin mounted almost no campaign in advance of the 2000 elections. “He held no rallies, gave no speeches, and refused to participate in debates with his challengers.” The extent of Putin's campaign was a biographical interview broadcast on State Television, and a series of interviews with journalists, paid for by Boris Berezovsky, an oligarch who had helped to build the Unity Party in the Yeltsin years. Putin's platform was best reflected by an “Open letter to Russian voters” that ran in national newspapers on February 25, 2000. Because he refused to participate in the debates, Putin's challengers had no venue in which to challenge his program, vague as it may have been. A number of other candidates explained this as a refusal to clarify his position on various controversial issues.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Uncritical state television coverage of Putin's oversight of the conflict in Chechnya helped him to consolidate his popularity as Prime Minister, even as Yeltsin's popularity as President fell. Analysis of television coverage of the 1999 Duma and 2000 Presidential elections found that “it was ORT, and state television more generally, that had helped to create a party on short notice” and that “its coverage… was strongly supportive of the party it had created.” Further, TV channel ORT aggressively attacked credible opponents to Unity and Putin. Putin “received over a third of the coverage devoted to the candidates on all television channels, as much as Zyuganov (12%), Yavlinsky (11%) and Zhirinovsky (11%) put together.” He received more than a third of print media coverage, and was given outsize coverage even in opposition newspapers.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Putin announced a new press policy after he won the election. He stated that he believed in “free press” but this should not let the media become “means of mass disinformation and tools of struggle against the state.” He encouraged the state-owned media to control the market and provide the people with “objective information.”


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: The decision to conduct the presidential elections also in Chechnya was perceived as controversial by many observers due to the military campaign and security concerns. The legislative elections held on 19 December 1999 had been suspended in Chechnya for these reasons.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: There were many alleged serious forgeries reported that could have affected Putin's victory in the first round.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: The PACE observers delegation concluded that "the unequal access to television was one of the main reasons for a degree of unfairness of the campaign" and that "independent media have come under increasing pressure and that media in general, be they State-owned or private, failed to a large extent to provide impartial information about the election campaign and candidates."


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: The PACE delegation also reported that the media got more and more dominated by politically influential owners. The TV channel ORT launched a slanderous campaign against Yavlinsky's image as his ratings started to rise sharply, and broadcasters generally nearly ignored candidates who did not fulfill interests of their owners. One of the main independent broadcasters, NTV, was subject to increasing financial and administrative pressure during the electoral campaign.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Harassment by the Kremlin was utilized to quiet criticism from domestic independent and opposition media, particularly television broadcasters. State agencies pressured media outlets (especially television outlets) to avoid issuing negative reports on the Chechen War. The two primary state-controlled media outlets gave overwhelmingly positive coverage to Putin's handling of the war. Multiple Western journalists (such as the Boston Globe's David Fillipov) had been either detained or expelled from the country because they strayed from Russian military guidance in Chechnya. Andrei Babitsky (a correspondent for Radio Liberty) was arrested under charges of aiding the Chechens. Under both Yeltsin and Putin, the Kremlin apparatus was applying financial pressure to Media-Most, a media holding group which had been unfriendly in their coverage.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: On the other hand, Zyuganov received much fairer media coverage than he had been subject to in the previous presidential election.


title: 2000 Russian presidential election

text: Polling stations were open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Putin won on the first ballot with 53.4% of the vote. Putin's highest official result was 85.42% in Ingushetia, while his lowest achievement was 29.65% in neighboring Chechnya. Zyuganov's results ranged from 47.41% in the Lipetsk region to 4.63% in Ingushetia. Yavlinsky's results ranged from 18.56% in Moscow to 0.42% in Dagestan. Zhirinovsky's results ranged from 6.13% in the Kamchatka region to 0.29% in Ingushetia.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wildcat and AW101 Merlin for commando and anti-submarine warfare and the BAE Hawk as an aggressor.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Fleet Air Arm today is a predominantly rotary force, with helicopters undertaking roles once performed by biplanes such as the Fairey Swordfish.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Fleet Air Arm was formed in 1924 as an organisational unit of the Royal Air Force, which was then operating the aircraft embarked on RN ships—the Royal Naval Air Service having been merged with the Army's Royal Flying Corps in 1918 to form the Royal Air Force—and did not come under the direct control of the Admiralty until mid-1939. During the Second World War, the Fleet Air Arm operated aircraft on ships as well as land-based aircraft that defended the Royal Navy's shore establishments and facilities.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: British naval flying started in 1909, with the construction of an airship for naval duties. In 1911 the Royal Navy graduated its first aeroplane pilots at the Royal Aero Club flying ground at RAF Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey under the tutelage of pioneer aviator George Bertram Cockburn. In May 1912, naval and army aviation were combined to become the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The Naval Wing of the RFC lasted until July 1914 when the Royal Navy reformed its air branch, under the Air Department of the Admiralty, naming it the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). By the outbreak of the First World War, in August 1914, the RNAS had more aircraft under its control than the remaining RFC. The roles of the RNAS were fleet reconnaissance, patrolling coasts for enemy ships and submarines, attacking enemy coastal territory and defending Britain from enemy air raids, along with deployment along the Western Front. In April 1918 the RNAS, which at this time had 67,000 officers and men, 2,949 aircraft, 103 airships and 126 coastal stations, merged with the RFC to form the Royal Air Force.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: On 1 April 1924, the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force was formed, encompassing those RAF units that normally embarked on aircraft carriers and fighting ships. The year was significant for British naval aviation as only weeks before the founding of the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Navy had commissioned , the world's first ship to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier. Over the following months RAF Fleet Air Arm Fairey IIID reconnaissance biplanes operated off Hermes, conducting flying trials.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: On 24 May 1939 the Fleet Air Arm was returned to Admiralty control under the "Inskip Award" (named after the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence overseeing the British re-armament programme) and renamed the Air Branch of the Royal Navy. At the onset of the Second World War, the Fleet Air Arm consisted of 20 squadrons with only 232 frontline aircraft, and 191 additional trainers. By the end of the war the strength of the Fleet Air Arm was 59 aircraft carriers, 3,700 aircraft, 72,000 officers and men and 56 Naval air stations.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: During the war, the FAA operated fighters, torpedo bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Following the Dunkirk evacuation and the commencement of the Battle of Britain, the Royal Air Force soon found itself critically short of fighter pilots. In the summer of 1940, the RAF had just over 800 fighter pilots and as personnel shortages worsened; the RAF turned to the Admiralty to ask for help from the Fleet Air Arm. Fleet Air Arm crews under RAF Fighter Command were either seconded individually to RAF fighter squadrons or entire as with 804 and 808 Naval Air Squadrons. The former provided dockyard defence during the Battle of Britain with Sea Gladiators.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: In British home waters and out into the Atlantic Ocean, operations against Axis shipping and submarines in support of the RN were mounted by RAF Coastal Command with large patrol bombers, flying boats and land-based fighter-bombers. The aircraft carrier had replaced the battleship as the capital ship of the RN and its aircraft were now its principal offensive weapons. The top scoring fighter ace with 17 victories was Commander Stanley Orr, the Royal Marine ace was Ronald Cuthbert Hay with 13 victories. A number of Royal Marines were FAA pilots during the war.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Notable Fleet Air Arm operations during the war included the Battle of Taranto, the sinking of the "Bismarck", the attempt to prevent the Channel Dash, Operation Tungsten against the "Tirpitz" and Operation Meridian against oil plants in Sumatra.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: After the war the FAA needed to fly jet aircraft from their carriers. The jet aircraft of the era were considerably less effective at low speeds than propeller aircraft, but propeller aircraft could not effectively fight jets at the high speeds flown by jet aircraft. The FAA took on its first jet, the Sea Vampire, in the late 1940s. The Sea Vampire was the first jet credited with taking off and landing on a carrier. The Air Arm continued with high-powered prop aircraft alongside the new jets resulting in the FAA being woefully outpowered during the Korean War. Nevertheless, jets were not yet wholly superior to propeller aircraft and a flight of ground attack Hawker Sea Furies downed a MiG-15 and damaged others in an engagement.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: As jets became larger, more powerful and faster they required more space to take off and land. The US Navy simply built much larger carriers. The Royal Navy had a few large carriers built and completed after the end of the war but another solution was sought. This was partly overcome by the introduction of a Royal Navy idea to angle the flight deck away from the centre line so that the aircraft landing had a clear run away from the usual forward deck park. An associated British invention, intended to provide more precise optical guidance to aircraft on final approaching the deck, was the Fresnel lens optical landing aid. Another Royal Navy invention was the use of a steam-powered catapult to cater for the larger and heavier aircraft (both systems were adopted by the US Navy).


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Defence cuts across the British armed forces during the 1960s and 1970s led to the withdrawal of existing Royal Navy aircraft carriers, transfer of Fleet Air Arm fixed-wing jet strike aircraft such as the F-4K (FG.1) Phantom II and Buccaneer S.2 to the Royal Air Force, and cancellation of large replacement aircraft carriers, including the CVA-01 design. The last conventional carrier to be retired was in 1978. When HMS "Hermes" was converted in 1980/81 to a STOVL carrier to operate Sea Harriers, a 'Ski-jump ramp' was fitted to aid take-off. A new series of small carriers, the anti-submarine warfare ships (known as "through deck cruisers") were built and equipped with the Sea Harrier a derivative of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier VTOL aircraft. These carriers incorporated an upswept forward section of the flight deck that deflected the aircraft upward on launch and permitted heavier loads to be carried by the Harrier, for example in weaponry, and the system was used extensively in the Falklands War, with both "Hermes" and "Invincible" part of the Task Force.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: At the end of the Cold War in 1989 the Fleet Air Arm was under the command of the Flag Officer Naval Air Command, a rear admiral based at RNAS Yeovilton.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: In 2000 the Sea Harrier force was merged with the RAF's Harrier GR7 fleet to form Joint Force Harrier. The Fleet Air Arm began withdrawing the Sea Harrier from service in 2004 with the disbandment of 800 NAS. 801 NAS disbanded on 28 March 2006 at RNAS Yeovilton (HMS "Heron"). 800 and 801 NAS were then combined to form the Naval Strike Wing, flying ex-RAF Harrier GR7 and GR9s. On 1 April 2010, NSW reverted to the identity of 800 Naval Air Squadron. The Harrier GR7 and GR9 retired from service in December 2010 following the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Two new carriers able to operate the F-35B short take-off and landing variant of the US Lockheed Martin Lightning II aircraft were constructed. In the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, it was announced that the carriers would enter service "from 2018". The procurement plan is for a force of 138 F-35 aircraft, which are intended to be operated by both the RAF and FAA from a common pool, in the same manner as the Joint Force Harrier. With the introduction of the F-35, the Fleet Air Arm will return to the operation of fixed-wing strike aircraft at sea. In 2013, an initial cadre of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy pilots and aircraft maintenance personnel were assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps' Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501), part of the U.S. Air Force's 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for training on the F-35B. 809 Naval Air Squadron will be the first FAA unit to operate the F-35B and will be based at RAF Marham.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Helicopters also became important combat platforms since the Second World War. Initially used in the search and rescue role, they were later developed for anti-submarine warfare and troop transport; during the 1956 Suez Crisis they were used to land Royal Marine Commando forces, the first time this had ever been done in combat. Originally operated only from carriers, the development of the Westland Wasp in the 1960s allowed helicopters to operate on all ships of frigate size or larger. Wasps, Sea Kings and Wessex helicopters all played an active part in the 1982 Falklands War, while Lynx helicopters played an attack role against Iraqi patrol boats in the 1991 Gulf War and Commando Sea King HC4s as well as the Lynx HMA Mk 8 from HMS "Argyll", assisted in suppressing rebel forces in the British intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War in 2000.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Fleet Air Arm has a museum near RNAS Yeovilton (HMS "Heron") in Somerset, England at which many of the great historical aircraft flown by the Service are on display, along with aircraft from other sources. There is also a Fleet Air Arm museum inside the Museum of Transport & Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. On display there is a full-size replica Fairey Swordfish, along with historic items and memorabilia.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: In 1938, Admiralty Fleet Orders 2885 announced the formation of an Air Branch of the Royal Naval Reserve. Thirty three unmarried men signed up for eighteen months full-time flying training; however, before these first volunteers were able to gain their wings Britain was at war. At the end of hostilities in 1945 the RNVR(A) was 46,000 strong, with over 8,000 aircrew. Post war the RNVR(A) comprised 12 dedicated reserve squadrons, grouped regionally into Air Divisions. However, defence cuts in 1957 disbanded the five Air Divisions, and the following year the RNVR was merged with the RNR.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: As of 1 December 2013, the Regular Fleet Air Arm has a reported strength of 5,000 personnel, which represents approximately 20% of the Royal Navy's total strength (excluding Royal Marines).


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Aviation & Carriers), the professional head (and also Rear Admiral Fleet Air Arm), is Rear Admiral Martin Connell as of February 2019. Under First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin’s plans, the professional head of the Fleet Air Arm is set to shortly change to a one-star role, headed by a Commodore.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Members of the Fleet Air Arm continue to be known as WAFUs. WAFU ("wet and flipping useless") is said to actually derive from "Weapon and Fuel Users", a stores category for clothing.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The RNR Air Branch was commissioned at RNAS Yeovilton on 16 July 1980, and shortly afterwards 38 ex-regular aircrew began refresher training. Today the RNR Air Branch comprises approximately 250 ex-regular service Officers and Ratings, covering all aviation trades, tasked to support the Fleet Air Arm.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The FAA is known for its use of the ‘Fleet Air Arm Zig Zag’: a light blue zig zag on a dark blue background.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The pattern is thought to have belonged to the "Perch Club", membership of which was restricted to those who had completed 100 deck landings without an accident. The zig zag was thought to have been taken from a Creeping Line Ahead, a parallel search pattern performed by FAA aircraft in a carrier task group.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Today, the dark blue background represents the Royal Navy; the colour of the zigzag represents the Royal Flying Corps, from which the Royal Naval Air Service was born; and the zigzag shape represents a nod to the Royal Artillery (red zigzag on blue background), given that the first people sent aloft in tethered balloons to spot the fall of shot were Royal Artillery observers. It was these observers who became early members of the Royal Flying Corps.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Aircrew wear flying badges, such as pilots wearing a pair of gold albatross wings. The wings badges also feature a crown and fouled anchor in the centre, to reflect the maritime element of the flying undertaken. Wings are worn on the left sleeve of naval aviators, unlike their other service counterparts.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The FAA operates fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. It uses the same aircraft designation system as the RAF.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Four types of fixed wing aircraft are operated by the FAA for training purposes: Pilot Grading is carried out using the Grob Tutor T1. Elementary Flying Training is then conducted on the Grob Prefect T1. From there, pilots are streamed to either Rotary or Fast-Jet.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Observer grading and training is done using four Beechcraft Avenger T1 before observers join their frontline aircraft.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Today the largest section of the FAA is the rotary wing section. Pilots designated for rotary wing service train under No. 1 Flying Training School at RAF Shawbury. The school is a tri-Service organisation consisting of civilian and military instructors (including Naval instructors and a Naval Air Squadron) that take the student from basic flying through to more advanced flying such as instrument flying, navigation, formation and captaincy.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The HC4/4A AW101 Merlin (nicknamed "Junglie Merlin") serves as a medium lifter and troop transporter in support of the Royal Marines. The FAA received the Merlin HC3/HC3A fleet from the RAF, replacing the Commando Sea King in September 2014. These have been marinised and replaced with HC4s/HC4As, under the Merlin Life Sustainment Programme (MLSP) that was placed on contract in December 2013.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The AW159 Wildcat: the BRH (Battlefield Reconnaissance Helicopter) replaces the Westland Lynx as the Battlefield Reconnaissance Helicopter of the FAA. Along with the Commando Merlin, these squadrons operate under Commando Helicopter Force, which provides airborne support to 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marines.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Wildcat HMA2 became the standard small ship borne helicopter in the FAA, with 28 Wildcats replacing the Lynx HMA8 in 2017. 28 AW159 Wildcat HMA2 helicopters perform a range of roles including anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare and airborne surveillance.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Merlin HM2 ("Grey Merlin") is the FAA's primary anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter, having replaced the Sea King HAS6 in the role. It is presently deployed with various ships of the Royal Navy. Merlin HM2 is set to operate Crowsnest replace the recently retired ASaC7 variant of the Sea King, which operated in the AEW role. The first Merlin HM2 test flight with Crowsnest was completed in April 2019. Initial operating capability of the system was significantly delayed. While Crowsnest was deployed with the U.K. carrier strike group in 2021, it experienced operating challenges and revised plans will now see Crowsnest achieve initial operating capability in the second quarter of 2023 and full operating capability in 2024/25. While all Merlins in the Royal Navy will be equipped to operate Crowsnest, only ten kits for the system are being acquired. It has been reported that initially five Merlins will be equipped with Crowsnest, three of these being normally assigned to the "high readiness" aircraft carrier.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The introduction of the F-35B Lightning II will see a restoration of fixed wing, front-line operations to the FAA since the retirement of Joint Force Harrier in 2010.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: An initial order of 48 airframes was made in 2012 to equip the air wings of the planned two "Queen Elizabeth"-class aircraft carriers, with the operation split between the FAA and the Royal Air Force, as was the case with Joint Force Harrier. 809 Naval Air Squadron was announced as the second UK unit to fly the F-35B (the first being 617 Squadron RAF) and will be the first FAA unit to operate the aircraft. It is understood that at least two further frontline squadrons will stand up in the future alongside 809, 617, 17(R) Test and Evaluation Squadron and an RAF-numbered Operational Conversion Unit, creating a total of six squadrons including the OCU and OEU. Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review of November 2015, the UK Government made a commitment to buying 138 F-35B, with at least 24 available for carrier use by 2023. Subsequently, following on the 2021 defence review, the First Sea Lord indicated that the new envisaged number was to be 60 aircraft initially and "then maybe more", up to a maximum of around 80 to hopefully equip four "deployable squadrons". In April 2022, the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Richard Knighton, told the House of Commons Defence Select Committee that the MoD was in discussions to purchase a second tranche of 26 F-35B fighters. Plans for frontline F-35B squadrons had been modified and now envisaged a total of three squadrons (rather than four) each deploying 12-16 aircraft. As of 2022, it is planned that at least one of these squadrons will be a Fleet Air Arm Squadron (No 809 Squadron). In surge conditions 24 F-35s might be deployed on the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers but a routine deployment would likely involve 12 aircraft.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: In January 2019, initial operating capability for the UK's F-35B was announced with 18 F-35Bs jointly delivered to the UK. As of November 2021, 20 aircraft were operational in the UK and were based at RAF Marham. These aircraft regularly deployed for operations on the "Queen Elizabeth-class" aircraft carriers. Another 3 F-35s remained in the US for testing and evaluation purposes.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: A Fleet Air Arm flying squadron is formally titled Naval Air Squadron (NAS), a title used as a suffix to the squadron number. The FAA assigns numbers in the 700–799 range to training and operational conversion squadrons and numbers in the 800–899 range to operational squadrons. Exceptions to the 700–799 include operational conversion squadrons which also hold some form of operational commitment where they are then titled 800–899. During WWII the 1700 and 1800 ranges were also used for operational squadrons.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: An additional flying unit of the Royal Navy is the FOST Helicopter Support Unit based at HMS "Raleigh" in Cornwall. This unit is not part of the Fleet Air Arm, but is directly under the control of Fleet operational Sea Training, operated by British International Helicopters (BIH). BIH also support various Royal Navy and NATO exercises with passenger and freight transfer services and transfers by hoist, for ships exercising both in the Atlantic and the North Sea.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: The Royal Navy share both operational and training duties on the Lightning II with the RAF under a banner organisation called the Lightning Force, which will operate in the same manner as Joint Force Harrier.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Until March 2019, the Fleet Air Arm had responsibility for the Royal Navy Historic Flight, a heritage unit of airworthy aircraft representing the history of aviation in the Royal Navy. The Historic Flight was disbanded on 31 March 2019, with responsibility for maintaining and operating the aircraft transferred to Navy Wings, a charitable body that also runs the Fly Navy Heritage Trust.


title: Fleet Air Arm

text: Some 64 naval pilots and nine observers have reached flag rank in the Royal Navy and four Royal Marines pilots general rank in the Royal Marines. Four of these admirals with pilot's 'wings' were air engineering officers (test pilots) and two were supply officers; two of the non-executive officers reached four-star rank: a supply officer, Admiral Sir Brian Brown (1934–), and a Royal Marine, General Sir Peter Whiteley (1920–2016).


title: Greater flamingo

text: The greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. It is found in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and in southern Europe.


title: Greater flamingo

text: The greater flamingo was described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. It was previously thought to be the same species as the American flamingo ("Phoenicopterus ruber"), but because of coloring differences of its head, neck, body, and bill, the two flamingos are now most commonly considered separate species. The greater flamingo has no subspecies.


title: Greater flamingo

text: The greater flamingo is the largest living species of flamingo, averaging tall and weighing . The largest male flamingos have been recorded at up to tall and .


title: Greater flamingo

text: Most of the plumage is pinkish-white, but the wing coverts are red and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. The bill is pink with a restricted black tip, and the legs are entirely pink. The call is a goose-like honking.


title: Greater flamingo

text: Chicks are covered in gray fluffy down. Subadult flamingos are paler with dark legs. Adults feeding chicks also become paler, but retain the bright pink legs. The coloration comes from the carotenoid pigments in the organisms that live in their feeding grounds.


title: Greater flamingo

text: Secretions of the uropygial gland also contain carotenoids. During the breeding season, greater flamingos increase the frequency of their spreading uropygial secretions over their feathers and thereby enhance their color. This cosmetic use of uropygial secretions has been described as applying "make-up".


title: Greater flamingo

text: It is found in parts of Africa, southern Asia (Bangladesh and coastal regions of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka), the Middle East (Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Oman, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) and southern Europe (including Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and South of France). The most northern breeding spot is the Zwillbrocker Venn in western Germany, close to the border with the Netherlands. They have been recorded breeding in the United Arab Emirates at three different locations in the Abu Dhabi Emirate.


title: Greater flamingo

text: In Gujarat, a state of India, flamingos can be observed at the Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary, Flamingo City, and in the Thol Bird Sanctuary. They remain there during the entire winter season.


title: Greater flamingo

text: The greater flamingo resides in mudflats and shallow coastal lagoons with salt water. Using its feet, the bird stirs up the mud, then sucks water through its bill and filters out small shrimp, seeds, blue-green algae, microscopic organisms, and mollusks. The greater flamingo feeds with its head down, and its upper jaw is movable and not rigidly fixed to its skull.


title: Greater flamingo

text: The typical lifespan in captivity, according to Basel Zoo, is over 60 years. In the wild, the average lifespan is 30 – 40 years.


title: Greater flamingo

text: Adult greater flamingos have few natural predators. Eggs and chicks may be eaten by raptors, crows, gulls, and the marabou stork ("Leptoptilos crumenifer"); an estimated half of the predation of greater flamingo eggs and chicks is from the yellow-legged gull ("Larus michahellis").


title: Greater flamingo

text: The primary threats to flamingo populations are bacteria, toxins, and pollution in water supplies, which is usually run-off from manufacturing companies, and encroachment on their habitat.


title: Greater flamingo

text: The first recorded zoo hatch was in 1959 at Zoo Basel. In Zoo Basel's breeding program, over 400 birds have been hatched with between 20 and 27 per year since 2000. The oldest known greater flamingo was a bird at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia that died aged at least 83 years. The bird's exact age is not known; he was already a mature adult when he arrived in Adelaide in 1933. He was euthanized in January 2014 due to complications of old age.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: "I Believe I Can Fly" is a song written, produced, and performed by American singer R. Kelly from the soundtrack to the 1996 film "Space Jam". It was originally released on November 26, 1996, and was later included on Kelly's 1998 album "R."


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: In early 1997, "I Believe I Can Fly" reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, kept from the number-one spot by Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart". Although Kelly has had two number one songs on the Hot 100, "I Believe I Can Fly" is his most successful single. It reached the number-one spot of the "Billboard" R&B Singles Chart and remained there for six non-consecutive weeks, keeping "Un-Break My Heart" from the top position of that chart for four of those weeks. Internationally, "I Believe I Can Fly" topped the charts in eight countries, including the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: The song received five nominations at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, winning Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Song Written for Visual Media, while losing Song of the Year and Record of the Year. It was ranked number 406 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. The music video was directed by Kelly with Hype Williams and designed by visual artist and designer Ron Norsworthy.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: In a 2013 interview with The Boombox, R. Kelly was asked about the creative process behind the song: "When I met Michael Jordan on a basketball court at an athletic club — we hooped together in Chicago — he came to me and asked me if I wanted to do a song for his upcoming movie," Kelly said. "I was like, 'Yeah!' I didn't even ask what it was. [Eventually] he let me know what it was, we went to a screening to watch it and that's when I ended up coming up with 'I Believe I Can Fly'. I knew from the first melody that was gonna be the song that was gonna take me out of R&B and into another genre of music."


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: A writer for "Associated Press" described the song as "majestic" and "gospel-styled", noting that "hearing R. Kelly's booming voice reach a crescendo while backed up by a choir is a rousing performance that will get many replays". Larry Flick from "Billboard" wrote that it is "highly inspirational" and "embodying the mind-set of the two superstars [Michael Jordan and R. Kelly]". He added, ""If I can dream it, I can achieve it." A great motivator for the children who will flock to the silver screen for Jordan". A reviewer from "Chicago Sun-Times" viewed it as a "warm anthem".


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: Ross Scarano from "Complex" said, "Like it or not, R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" works because of R. Kelly. There's not another singer alive with the same combination of ability, earnest conviction, and personal demons—demons that Kelly believes he needs the listener's support to fight." He added that the singer "calls on strings and a choir and every bit of strength available in his lungs and vocal chords to rise above the broad struggle described in the lyrics." David Browne from "Entertainment Weekly" opined that the "go-for-it lyrics and florid orchestration seem to have been written with a future Disney musical in mind."


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger noted "I Believe I Can Fly"'s "genuine power as a redemption song" and also called it "the most convincing self-help song". British newspaper "Lennox Herald" picked it as the "undoubted highlight" of the "Space Jam" album". Thessa Mooji from "Music & Media" described it as a "dramatic ballad". "Music Week" rated it three out of five, calling it "a smoochy gospel-tinged ballad". They added, "A huge hit in the US and should ignite here."


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: A reviewer for "People Magazine" labeled it as "schmaltzy but potent". "Sunday Mirror" rated it five out of ten, writing, "'I believe I can soar' sings R. Kelly but I suppose we should be thankful that he's released a proper song for once instead of those awful rap cover versions which are clogging up the charts these days. It's taken from the film "Space Jam" and if you bought Toni Braxton's last single and liked "The Bodyguard" then you will buy this for sure. I believe it will fly to the top of the charts though it makes me sore to say it." James L. Brown from "USC Today" deemed it a "long slow ballad".


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: In 2004, "Rolling Stone" ranked "I Believe I Can Fly" number 406 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: The music video for "I Believe I Can Fly" was directed by Hype Williams. It begins at an old farm, where a young boy is playing with his ball. By the farm lies an autumn yellow cornfield, where R. Kelly starts singing. In another scene, a large screen by the farm are showing clips from "Space Jam", while Kelly performs on the ground. Later in the video, the singer sits in an autumn forest. Behind him is the screen where the film's clips are displayed. In the last part of the video, Kelly conducts a large choir in a sports hall, accompanied by an orchestra. After Kelly has sung the last stanzas of the song, the choir claps as the video ends.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: Other than appearing on the soundtrack for the film "Space Jam", "I Believe I Can Fly" was performed by the school band in the 2002 film "Drumline" during the high school graduation ceremony of Devon Miles (played by Nick Cannon).


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: In The TP-2.com Tour, Kelly performed a 10-minute long remix of "I Believe I Can Fly," which included dialogue from a priest, Kelly's mother, and God as characters. The remix was later featured on the bootleg release "".


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: Since its release, it has become commonly associated with the NBA, most notably with Michael Jordan. The song also played at the conclusion of NBC's broadcast of the 1997 NBA Finals.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: In addition to the NBA, the song also found use at other sporting events, most notably at Major League Baseball's New York Yankees home games during their four consecutive World Series runs from 1998 to 2001, the first three of which they won.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: A version of the song, recorded by the Halifax community choir, was used as the backing track to a 2012 UK TV advertisement for the Halifax Bank.


title: I Believe I Can Fly

text: On October 13, 2012, when the Space Shuttle Endeavour was being transferred from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center through the streets of Los Angeles, the recording was played as the shuttle left The Forum, and the song was performed live by James Ingram later that day at Debbie Allen's live show celebrating the Endeavour's arrival at the corner of Crenshaw Blvd and Martin Luther King Blvd. (The shuttle was delayed over five hours in arriving there; to keep the crowd entertained, the performance went on only slightly delayed.)


title: Toll road

text: A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or "toll") is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and maintenance.


title: Toll road

text: Toll roads have existed in some form since antiquity, with tolls levied on passing travelers on foot, wagon, or horseback; a practice that continued with the automobile, and many modern tollways charge fees for motor vehicles exclusively. The amount of the toll usually varies by vehicle type, weight, or number of axles, with freight trucks often charged higher rates than cars.


title: Toll road

text: Tolls are often collected at toll plazas, toll booths, toll houses, toll stations, toll bars, toll barriers, or toll gates. Some toll collection points are automatic, and the user deposits money in a machine which opens the gate once the correct toll has been paid. To cut costs and minimise time delay, many tolls are collected with electronic toll collection equipment which automatically communicates with a toll payer's transponder or uses automatic number-plate recognition to charge drivers by debiting their accounts.


title: Toll road

text: Criticisms of toll roads include the time taken to stop and pay the toll, and the cost of the toll booth operators—up to about one-third of revenue in some cases. Automated toll-paying systems help minimise both of these. Others object to paying "twice" for the same road: in fuel taxes and in tolls.