title: Eastbourne

text: And the "Eastbourne Music & Arts Festival", a competitive festival held annually at the Winter Gardens. It was originally founded in 1961 and since 2021 has changed its name into "Eastbourne Performing Arts Festival".


title: Eastbourne

text: "Eastbourne Feastival", a family, food, music and culture festival which has been held annually since 2016.


title: Eastbourne

text: "Crossing The Screen International Film Festival", the longest running film festival of Eastbourne, founded in 2016.


title: Eastbourne

text: "Eastbourne Steampunk Festival". Organised by Eastbourne’s Bonfire Society since 2016 and celebrating retro-futuristic technology and aesthetics.


title: Eastbourne

text: "Eastbourne Vintage Festival", created in 2021 and held in Gildredge Park, one of the town’s most beautiful parks.


title: Eastbourne

text: "Springwater Festival", created in 2021 and hosting a range of events to celebrate all aspects of water along Eastbourne seafront.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne Bandstand lies on the seafront, between the Wish Tower and the pier. It stages 1812 Firework Concerts, Rock N Roll nights, Big Band concerts, Promenade concerts and tribute bands.


title: Eastbourne

text: There was once a second similar bandstand (also built in 1935) in the 'music gardens' near the Redoubt Fortress. The bandstand was removed to make way for the Pavilion Tearooms but the colonnades built around it are still there (behind the tea rooms). Before 1935 each of these sites had a smaller "birdcage" bandstand; the one in the music gardens having been moved from a rather precarious position opposite the Albion Hotel. The kiosk in the music gardens was originally one of the toll kiosks at the entrance to the pier.


title: Eastbourne

text: Grove Road is the location of two independent record shops and a venue called Printer's Playhouse (which hosts performances of live music and new plays).


title: Eastbourne

text: The local community radio station Seahaven FM on 95.6 is now the most local radio station to cover Eastbourne. Former local radio station Sovereign FM is now More Radio Eastbourne, broadcasting to Eastbourne from studios in Worthing.


title: Eastbourne

text: Regional radio stations, Heart Sussex, (previously Southern FM) has, since mid 2019, been networked from London and no longer has a Sussex base, which was previously in Portslade and BBC Radio Sussex which broadcasts from Brighton.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne has a local weekly tabloid newspaper, which is published every Friday, called The Eastbourne Herald (know locally as The Herald). Eastbourne is also served by Eastbourne Scoop, a weekly online-only media publication.


title: Eastbourne

text: The seafront and the iconic cliff at Beachy Head has been used for many scenes in feature films, and the local council set up a film liaison unit to encourage and facilitate the shooting of film sequences in and around the town. The 2006 Academy Award-nominated film "Notes on a Scandal" includes scenes filmed at Beachy Head, Cavendish Hotel and 117 Royal Parade. Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters were used as backdrops for scenes from the Quidditch World Cup in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". Scenes from "Half a Sixpence" (1967) were filmed on the pier and near to the bandstand. The seafront area was also used for the film "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" directed by Gurinder Chadha. The Langham Hotel was a filming location for "Made in Dagenham", which also featured the seafront and pier. A sequence of a rainy day at the seaside for the Doel family has as its backdrop the Wish Tower, the bandstand, the Cavendish Hotel and the pier in the 1987 British/American drama film "84 Charing Cross Road" directed by David Jones.


title: Eastbourne

text: Television too has used Eastbourne as a backdrop. The series "Little Britain" had the character Emily Howard strolling along the promenade. Other brief appearances were made in the television series "Agatha Christie's Marple", "The Two Ronnies", "French and Saunders" and "Foyle's War". A sequence of sketches that appear in each episode of "Bang, Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer", was shot in the old Jo Pip's / Cunninghams theatre venue on Seaside Road, which has since been developed into flats. The 1993 BBC drama series "Westbeach" was filmed on location in Eastbourne and surrounding areas. In 2021 Netflix series "The Crown" filmed an episode in the town and surrounding areas.


title: Eastbourne

text: The elderly female residents of Eastbourne were the inspiration for the song "Eastbourne Ladies" by English singer Kevin Coyne, which appeared on his 1973 album "Marjory Razorblade".


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne has numerous parks and gardens, although there are several smaller open spaces including Upperton Gardens, the Carpet Gardens and the Western Lawns. The first public park in Eastbourne was Hampden Park, originally owned by Lord Willingdon and opened on 12 August 1902. Facilities include: football pitches, rugby club, indoor bowls, a large lake (formerly a Decoy pond), lakeside cafe, children's recreation area, tennis courts, BMX and skate facility, disc golf course (target) and woodland. The largest and newest park is Shinewater Park, located on the west side of Langney and opened in 2002. There is a large fishing lake, basketball, football pitches, a BMX and skate park and children's playground.


title: Eastbourne

text: Gildredge Park is a large open park located between the town centre and Old Town; it is very popular with families and has a children's playground, cafe, tennis courts, disc golf course (target) and bowls lawns. The smaller, adjoining, Manor Gardens combines both lawns and shady areas as well as a rose garden. Until 2005, Manor Gardens was the home of the Towner Gallery. This gallery incorporated a permanent exhibition of local art and historical items, plus temporary art exhibitions of regional and national significance. It was relocated to a new, £8.6 million purpose-built facility adjacent to the Congress Theatre, Devonshire Park which opened on 4 April 2009.


title: Eastbourne

text: Princes Park obtained its name during a visit by the Duke of Windsor as Prince of Wales in 1931. Located at the eastern end of the seafront, it has a children's playground with paddling pool, cafe, bowls and a large lake, noted for its swans. The lake is used by a nearby water-sports centre, which offers kayak and windsurfing training. Princes Park lake is also home to Eastbourne Model Powerboat Club and Eastbourne Model Yacht Club. Close by are tennis and basketball courts and a football pitch. At the north of the park is the Oval, home of Eastbourne United F.C. On 21 July 2018, the park hosted the town's second LGBTQ+ Pride event which was attended by over 4,000 people.


title: Eastbourne

text: Devonshire Park, home to the pre-Wimbledon ladies tennis championships, is located just off the seafront in the towns cultural district. Other parks include: Helen Gardens and the Italian Gardens at the western end of the seafront, Sovereign Park between the main seafront and the marina and Motcombe Gardens in Old Town.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne's floral displays have been promoted, including the Carpet Gardens along the coastal road near the pier. The displays, and the town, have won the award the 'Coastal Resort B' category in the 2003 Britain in Bloom competition.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne's Devonshire Park is the venue for the Eastbourne International, a tennis tournament held in the town since 1974 and serving as a warm-up to Wimbledon. Previously a women only tournament, in 2009 the Lawn Tennis Association merged it with the men only event the Nottingham Open.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne has three senior football clubs: Eastbourne Borough F.C. play in the Conference South. Eastbourne Town F.C. and Eastbourne United Association F.C. play in the Southern Combination League Premier. Until 2021, Langney Wanderers F.C. were also in the Southern Combination League having won promotion to Division One in 2018 from playing in the local leagues.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne Eagles are a speedway club located at Arlington Stadium, just outside the town. Between 1997 and 2014, they competed in the Elite League, the highest level of speedway in the UK. They were champions in 2000. They now compete in the National League. Arlington stadium also sees stock-car racing on Wednesday evenings in the summer months.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne hosted a triathlon in 2016 and 2017, which attracted professional triathletes such as Ben Allen, Jacqui Slack, Lawrence Fanous and 2012 Biathle world champion Richard Stannard in addition to the hundreds of amateurs taking part. The event takes in the town's major landmarks, including the promenade and local South Downs National Park.


title: Eastbourne

text: Other local sports clubs include cricket, hockey, rugby, lacrosse and golf. Among Eastbourne's golf courses are the Royal Eastbourne, Eastbourne Downs, Willingdon and the Eastbourne Golfing Park. There is an annual extreme sports festival held at the eastern end of the seafront. Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club, on the seafront towards the eastern end, organises dinghy sailing for its members and visitors from Easter to Boxing Day and usually holds a National Championship Series for a popular UK class in the summer months.


title: Eastbourne

text: The Eastbourne Downland provides a spectacular backdrop to the town. The 4,000 acres of farmland and downland are owned by the town of Eastbourne, following the 1926 Eastbourne Corporation Act, which aimed to protect their unspoilt beauty "in perpetuity".


title: Eastbourne

text: The Eastbourne Downs include Beachy Head cliff, to the west of the town, a famous beauty spot and an infamous suicide spot. Statistics are not officially published to reduce suicidal mimicry, but unofficial statistics show it to be the third most common suicide spot.


title: Eastbourne

text: The lighthouse at the foot of the cliff came into operation in October 1902. Although originally manned by two keepers, it has been remotely monitored by Trinity House via a landline since June 1983. Prior to its construction, shipping had been warned by the Belle Tout Lighthouse on the cliff top some to the west. Belle Tout Lighthouse was operational from 1834 to 1902, and closed because its light was not visible in mist and low cloud. It became a private residence, but was severely damaged in the Second World War by Canadian artillery. In 1956, it was rebuilt as a house and remains a dwelling to this day. In March 1999, the structure was moved back from the cliff edge to save it from plunging into the sea. The structure may need to be moved again to safeguard it from cliff erosion.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne Pier was built between 1866 and 1872 at the junction of Grand and Marine Parades. The pier interrupts what would otherwise have been a ribbon development of buildings – to the west, high-class hotels, with modest family hotels and boarding houses to the east. The Eastbourne Pier Company was registered in April 1865 with a capital of £15,000 and on 18 April 1866 work began. It was opened by Lord Edward Cavendish on 13 June 1870, although it was not actually completed until two years later. On New Year's Day 1877 the landward half was swept away in a storm. It was rebuilt at a higher level, creating a drop towards the end of the pier. The pier is effectively built on stilts that rest in cups on the sea-bed allowing the whole structure to move during rough weather. It is roughly 300 metres (1000 ft) long. A domed 400-seater pavilion was constructed at a cost of £250 at the seaward end in 1888. A 1,000-seater theatre, bar, camera obscura and office suite replaced this in 1899/1901. At the same time, two saloons were built midway along the pier. Access to the camera obscura was destroyed by an arson attack in 1970, but was restored in 2003 with a new stairway built.


title: Eastbourne

text: On 30 July 2014, a fire broke out in the middle building of the pier. BBC News reported that 80 firefighters attended the scene. One third of the pier was badly damaged.


title: Eastbourne

text: Central government paid Eastbourne Borough Council £2m in one-off funding, to compensate for lost income to the town from the temporary loss of the attraction. The Council spent this on a variety of projects and events in the hope of boosting the local economy.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne Redoubt on Royal Parade is one of three examples of a type of fortress built to withstand potential invasion from Napoleon's forces in the early 19th century. It houses collections from the Royal Sussex Regiment, the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars and the Sussex Combined Services Collection; including four Victoria Crosses and General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Steyr Automobile 1500A Afrika Korps Staff Car.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne's reputation for health, enhanced by bracing air and sea breezes contributed to the establishment of many independent schools in the 19th century and in 1871, the year which saw the arrival of Queenwood Ladies College, the town was just beginning a period of growth and prosperity. By 1896, Gowland's Eastbourne Directory listed 76 private schools for boys and girls. However, economic difficulties during the inter-war years saw a gradual decline in the number of independent schools.


title: Eastbourne

text: In 1930, the headmistress of Clovelly-Kepplestone, a well-established boarding school for girls, referred to "heavy financial losses experienced by schools in the past few years". In 1930, this school was forced to merge its junior and senior departments; in 1931, one of its buildings was sold off, and in 1934 the school closed altogether. Finally, indicative of the changes that would later befall many of the larger buildings in the town, the school was demolished to make way for a block of flats, which was completed in 1939.


title: Eastbourne

text: The Eastbourne (Blue Book) Directory for 1938 lists 39 independent schools in the town. With the fall of France in June 1940, and the risk of invasion, most left – the majority never to return. By 2020, the number had reduced to just three: St. Andrew's Prep School, Eastbourne College and St. Bede's Preparatory School


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne has 6 state secondary schools, 17 state primary schools, 1 primary special school and 2 secondary special schools. Parts of the University of Brighton are based in the Meads area of the town. There are several language colleges and schools, with students coming mainly from Europe.


title: Eastbourne

text: East Sussex College is a large further education college with a campus in Eastbourne. This state-funded college provides a range of GCSE, GCE A Level, BTEC and vocational programmes for students aged 16–19 years of age, plus a full range of adult FE programmes. It originated from a 2001 merger between Lewes Tertiary College and Eastbourne College of Arts and Technology (ECAT) to form Sussex Downs College, which then took over Park College (the old Eastbourne Sixth Form college) in 2003. In 2018, a further merger with Sussex Coast College in Hastings formed the current East Sussex College.


title: Eastbourne

text: The town is served by Eastbourne District General Hospital, part of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. As of 2014, the maternity unit of the hospital has been permanently transferred to the Conquest Hospital, Hastings after years of campaigning to save the unit. An earlier hospital, St Mary's, opened on Vicarage Road in 1877 as the infirmary to the local workhouse; it was demolished in 1990.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne has an RNLI lifeboat station. A new boat named "Diamond Jubilee" was launched in 2012 by the Earl and Countess of Wessex.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne Blind Society was founded in 1923, with a centre opened on Longstone Road in 1963. In 2018 the society had almost 800 members.


title: Eastbourne

text: As well as the medieval parish church of St Mary in Old Town, another remarkable church building in Eastbourne is the redbrick St Saviour's and St Peter's. Originally consecrated under the former name in 1872, it was designed by George Edmund Street but merged with St Peter's in 1971 when the latter was made redundant and demolished. The Catholic Church of Our Lady of Ransom is a generously proportioned building with a tall Gothic interior. One of the windows commemorates the exiled Polish-Lithuanian nobleman, Prince Lev Sapieha, who lived in the town, and there is much other artwork in the building. The recently formed Personal Ordinariate of Anglicans reconciled to the Catholic Church meets at St Agnes, another Victorian Gothic building.


title: Eastbourne

text: The tall flint tower of St Michael's at Ocklynge is one of Eastbourne's landmarks. The church was consecrated in 1902 and built on the site of the mission hall where the nonsense writer Lewis Carroll (the clergyman CL Dodgson) is known to have preached during his holidays in the town. All Souls, in Italian style, is a finely proportioned building with an Evangelical church tradition. Holy Trinity also has a strong history of Evangelism, particularly during the early 20th century when Canon Stephen Warner was the vicar for 28 years. There is a Greek Orthodox Church converted from a 19th-century Calvinistic chapel.


title: Eastbourne

text: The Strict Baptist Chapel in Grove Road is an interesting building, despite its rather grim street frontage. The United Reformed Church in Upperton Road has tall rogue Gothic windows set in red brick walls. Several other denominations have similarly interesting church buildings, including some of 20th century design, such as the Baptist Church in Eldon Road. The copyrights of many well-known hymns used in the English-speaking world are handled by Kingway's Thankyou Music of Eastbourne. There is a tradition of Judaism in Eastbourne, and a Jewish rest home. The Islamic community uses a small mosque that was formerly the Seeboard social club.


title: Eastbourne

text: Eastbourne is connected by road to London by the A22, and to Brighton and Hove and Hastings by the nearby A27. It is the largest town in Britain with no direct dual-carriageway link to the national motorway network (followed by Southport and Bath). The car is the most used form of transport in the town, with only 6% of journeys taken by bus; the local council transport plan aims to reduce the amount of car usage. Bus services within Eastbourne have been provided by Stagecoach Group under the name Stagecoach in Eastbourne since November 2008, when the company acquired Eastbourne Buses, a service run by the local council, and subsequently the independent company Cavendish Motor Services. Eastbourne Buses had been formed in 1903 by the County Borough of Eastbourne, who were the first local authority in the world authorised to run motor buses. As well as local journeys within the town, Stagecoach also runs routes to Polegate, Hailsham, Tunbridge Wells, Uckfield and East Grinstead at various frequencies, while the two routes to Hastings via Bexhill are run by Stagecoach South East from Hastings. The other main operator into Eastbourne is Brighton & Hove, owned by the Go-Ahead Group, which runs frequent services seven days a week from Brighton via Seaford and Newhaven. Limited numbers of additional buses are run by the Cuckmere Buses, and a regular National Express coach service operates daily from London's Victoria Coach Station.


title: Eastbourne

text: The main railway station is situated in the town centre and is served by Southern. The present station (the town's third), designed by F. D. Bannister, dates from 1886. It was originally on what was termed the "Eastbourne Branch" from Polegate. There was a rarely used triangular junction between Polegate and the now-closed "Stone Cross" which allowed trains to bypass the Branch; the track has now been lifted. Also on the erstwhile Branch is Hampden Park railway station to the north of the town. Regular services along the coast have invariably served Eastbourne. All trains, because of the layout, have to pass through Hampden Park once in each direction. This has the effect of making the Hampden Park level crossing very busy. Indeed, it is thought to be the busiest in the country. Regular services are to London Victoria, Gatwick Airport, Hastings and Ashford International and a commuter service to Brighton. Trains leave from London Victoria to Eastbourne with a journey time of 1hr 36mins. A miniature tramway once ran a mile across "the Crumbles" (then undeveloped) from near Princes Park/Wartling Road towards Langney Point. It opened in 1954 but ceased operation in 1970, relocating to Seaton in Devon after the owners had fallen out with the council; it is now the Seaton Tramway.


title: Eastbourne

text: Lewis Carroll holidayed in Eastbourne 19 times, taking lodgings in Lushington Road, where a blue plaque now marks the location of his first visit in 1877.


title: Eastbourne

text: Former students at the closed St Cyprian's School include George Orwell, Alaric Jacob, E. H. W. Meyerstein and Alan Hyman. The biographer and historian Philip Ziegler was also a pupil, as was the music historian Dyneley Hussey and politician, historian and diarist Alan Clark.


title: Eastbourne

text: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels often stayed in the area. Engels' ashes were scattered in the sea off Beachy Head at his request.


title: Eastbourne

text: Dec Cluskey from the 60s band The Bachelors is resident in Eastbourne. Dec and his brother Con performed together as The Bachelors right up until the 2020s, Con died on 8 April 2022, aged 86.


title: Eastbourne

text: Several bands have formed in Eastbourne, including: Toploader, Easyworld, the Divided, ROAM and Mobiles.


title: Eastbourne

text: David Bowie performed in Eastbourne several times. He included a mention of Eastbourne in his 1967 single, "The Laughing Gnome": "Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine, Then I put him on a train to Eastbourne, Carried his bag and gave him a fag ..."


title: Eastbourne

text: Frederick Soddy, radiochemist and economist, was born in Eastbourne and studied at Eastbourne College.


title: Eastbourne

text: NASA aerospace engineer Bruce Woodgate, who attended Eastbourne Grammar School, was the principal investigator and designer of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997.


title: Eastbourne

text: Michael Fish, who forecast the weather for BBC Television from 1974 to 2004, was born in Eastbourne and studied at Eastbourne College.


title: Eastbourne

text: George Mallory, the noted mountaineer, attended Glengorse Preparatory School in Chesterfield Road between 1896 and 1900.


title: Eastbourne

text: Count László Almásy, the basis of the lead character of "The English Patient", was educated by a private tutor at Berrow, and was a member of the pioneering Eastbourne Flying Club.


title: Eastbourne

text: In 1993, following a suggestion to Eastbourne Borough Council by Eastbourne Civic Society (now Eastbourne Society), a joint project was set up to erect blue plaques on buildings associated with famous people. The principles for selection are broadly those already established by English Heritage for such plaques in London. The first was erected in November 1994 in Milnthorpe Road at the former home of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer.


title: Eastbourne

text: Former students at St Cyprian's include the politicians Richard Wood, who had lost both legs in war, and David Ormsby-Gore, later ambassador to the USA.


title: Eastbourne

text: Ed Balls, former MP Morley and Outwood and BBC Strictly Come Dancing contestant, married Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford in Eastbourne in January 1998.


title: Eastbourne

text: Olav Bjortomt, English international quiz player, four-time world champion (2003, 2015, 2018, 2019) and three time individual European champion (2010, 2014, 2015)


title: Eastbourne

text: The leading evangelist Canon Stephen Warner was the vicar of Holy Trinity between 1919 and 1947. Novelist Angela Carter was born in Eastbourne in 1940 before moving to South Yorkshire as a child.


title: Eastbourne

text: Aleister Crowley, occultist and mystic attended Eastbourne College and later edited a chess column for the "Eastbourne Gazette".


title: Eastbourne

text: Douglas Bader, who became a successful Second World War fighter pilot despite having lost both legs in a flying accident, attended Temple Grove Preparatory School in Compton Place Road.


title: Eastbourne

text: Military figures who had been students at St Cyprian's include: General Sir Lashmer Whistler; Major General Henry Foote VC; the submarine commander Rupert Lonsdale. Other ex-students at St Cyprian's include: the amateur jockey Anthony Mildmay; Seymour de Lotbiniere, one-time Director of Outside Broadcasts at the BBC; Jagaddipendra Narayan, a reigning Maharaja of Cooch Behar while at the school.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: The Acolyte is an upcoming American television series created by Leslye Headland for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the "Star Wars" franchise, set at the end of the era before the events of the main "Star Wars" films.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Amandla Stenberg and Lee Jung-jae star in the leading roles. Headland expressed interest in working on the "Star Wars" franchise by the end of 2019, and was developing a new series for Lucasfilm by April 2020. The series was announced with the title "The Acolyte" in December, and filming began in October 2022, in the United Kingdom.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: "The Acolyte" is set at the end of the era in a world of "shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers", approximately 100 years before "" (1999). A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: At the premiere of "" (2019), television writer Leslye Headland was asked about her interest in the "Star Wars" franchise and revealed that she was a big fan with many ideas for "Star Wars" films that she wanted to make if she was asked to by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. By April 2020, Headland was attached to write and serve as showrunner on a new female-centric "Star Wars" series for the streaming service Disney+. Staffing for the series had begun by then, and it was expected to be set in a different part of the franchise's timeline from other "Star Wars" projects. Lucasfilm confirmed Headland's series was in development on May 4, 2020, "Star Wars" Day. At Disney's Investor Day event on December 10, Kennedy announced that the series was titled "The Acolyte", and would be set at the end of the era before the events of the main "Star Wars" films. Lucasfilm executive Rayne Roberts was co-developing the series with Headland, who was influenced by the games and novels of the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe. "The Acolyte" consists of eight episodes.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Headland assembled a writers room for the series by June 2021, with the group each having different relationships with the franchise such as only being fans of the original trilogy, specifically being fans of Dave Filoni's "Star Wars" projects, or not being fans of the series at all. Cameron Squires was a staff writer on the series. In May 2022, Headland said writing for the series was mostly complete. She said the "female-centric" series would have a female protagonist, but would not exclude male characters or audiences. She also explained that the series would be introducing new characters and canon to the franchise that she hoped would interest existing fans, but she understood that not all fans would like it and felt that was fine due to the large amount of different "Star Wars" projects being produced.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Headland's pitch for the series was to explore the franchise from the perspective of the villains, and felt the High Republic era would be the best point in the timeline to do this because "the bad guys are wildly outnumbered [at that point and are] the underdogs". Lucasfilm had just launched a new series of books set in the High Republic era, and were interested in exploring it further with the series. The company was also interested in exploring new parts of the "Star Wars" timeline away from the films and other series such as "The Mandalorian". Headland said the series would explore the "political, personal, and spiritual" elements from the High Republic era. This was a way to explain how Emperor Palpatine could infiltrate the Galactic Senate during the films, with Headland asking "How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? [What] went wrong?" She described the High Republic era as "the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment", and noted that the Jedi Order would not yet be the "ascetic monk like figures living selflessly and bravely" that they are seen as in the films, instead wearing "uniforms [that] are gold and white, and it's almost like they would never get dirty... that's how little they're getting into skirmishes".


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Headland looked at the original influences on "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, including westerns and Akira Kurosawa samurai films, and decided to take more influence for the series from martial arts films which she felt were "a little bit more personal and less global and galactic". These included wuxia films by King Hu and Shaw Brothers Studio such as "Come Drink with Me" (1966) and "A Touch of Zen" (1971).


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Casting for the series was underway by the end of June 2021, with Lucasfilm looking to cast a young woman of color in the lead role. By December 2021, Amandla Stenberg was in talks to star in the role, and was confirmed to be cast in July 2022. In September 2022, Jodie Turner-Smith entered final negotiations to join the series, and Lee Jung-jae was cast as the male lead, while Manny Jacinto and Charlie Barnett were cast in undisclosed roles. In November, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman and Carrie-Anne Moss joined the cast in undisclosed roles. In December, Margarita Levieva joined the cast in an undisclosed role.


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Discussing the planned aesthetic for the series, Headland noted that Lucas wanted the original trilogy to have "this particular type of decay... this is a lived-in sci-fi fantasy world, not a sleek, well-put-together" one, but he made the prequel trilogy "much sleeker, better-looking, almost advanced". With "The Acolyte", Headland wanted to carry on this concept of "the further you go back, the more exciting and new and sleek and interesting things look".


title: The Acolyte (TV series)

text: Principal photography began by October 30, 2022, at Shinfield Studios in the United Kingdom, under the working title "Paradox", using the StageCraft volume.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The majority of the story takes place at the boarding school Yamaku High School for disabled students, located in an unnamed city somewhere in modern, northern Japan. The player takes the role of Hisao Nakai, an ordinary boy whose life changes dramatically after a heart attack caused by his long-dormant cardiac arrhythmia. After a lengthy hospitalization, he is forced to transfer to a school specialized in providing education and healthcare for students with disabilities. Over the course of the narrative, Hisao has the opportunity to come to grips with his condition and adjust to his new life.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The gameplay of "Katawa Shoujo" is choice-based, in which the player reads through text and occasionally has the chance to respond to prompts with a variety of preset responses. The decisions made initiate possible events or dialogue within the story. Depending on the choices made by the player, the story branches into multiple forks. Each of these paths chronicle Hisao's deepening and eventually romantic relationship (or lack thereof) with one of the five main female characters; these may variously end well, poorly, or neutrally.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The concept originated in a sketch created in December 2000 by Japanese doujinshi artist Raita Honjou (credited in Thanks as RAITA). From January 2007, the sketch was discussed extensively on the 4chan image board, and a development group was assembled from users of 4chan and other internet communities, who are of various nationalities; not necessarily Japanese. The group took the name Four Leaf Studios (based on 4chan's four-leaf clover logo).


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Most of the art, sound, and animation assets used in the game are original and were created for the game by a dedicated team of artists on the development forums. Background images used in the game were collected through an open call for background photos, from public-domain image collections, and by a dedicated photographer on the development team. These images were later filtered to match the art style of the rest of the game's drawings. Because real pictures were used, many of the locations in the game are based on real places, with Yamaku High School being constructed from images of Brown University. The city that the novel is set in, although unnamed, is based on Sendai and the school was written to be where Aoba Castle stands.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: On April 29, 2009, the team released an "Act One" preview. Act 1 has since been updated for several additional languages; as of Act 1's fifth version, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, German, Hungarian, and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese are included. The complete English-language novel was released on January 4, 2012.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: It was announced that the French-language translation would be released July 4, 2013 as both a download and a limited-edition physical edition. The French-language version was made available for download on July 8, 2013. A separate, full-patch adding a completed Russian translation was released independently by its translation group on December 9, 2013. On July 27, 2014, the International Spanish version was released and made available for download that same day. On April 1, 2015, in lieu of their traditional April Fools' Day prank, Four Leaf Studios released the Japanese translation. Additionally, they announced that a second physical release would be sold by the Japanese translation team at Comitia 112 and Comiket 88 (May 5 and August 16, 2015, respectively, at Tokyo Big Sight). The full visual novel has been released officially in English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Italian.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: On June 6, 2015, Four Leaf Studios announced the end of support and development for the visual novel and official translation projects, concluding with a final bug/typo patch. They released the English script files in full and instructions on how to patch in and distribute any future fan translations into languages not included in the final official version.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Following the release of the full game, Four Leaf Studios announced that it had no plans for its members to collaborate on any new projects. However, in their celebratory 1st anniversary blog post, Aura had stated that there might be future projects for 4LS announced in 2013, though no major projects were announced. Four Leaf Studio continued supporting fan works officially, hosting selected artists at their Comiket booth while selling new content such as original artbooks and light novels based on the game, with the last attendance taking place in 2017. In 2020, Raide, artist and co-director of the game, died.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Downloads for the complete novel and Act 1 alone are available for Windows, Mac OSX, and x86 Linux, available both as direct downloads from the official Katawa Shoujo website and over Bittorrent. The soundtrack is also available as a direct download.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Hisao Nakai, a high school student, is confessed to by his classmate Iwanako. Out of exhilaration, his heart beats so fast that he suffers a heart attack. Though Hisao survives, he is soon diagnosed with arrhythmia and remains in the hospital for four months. Due to his absence from school and the need for his condition to be monitored, Hisao is transferred to Yamaku Academy, a boarding school for high school students with various disabilities to acclimate them to a normal life.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Hisao arrives at the school a week prior to the school festival. There he meets five girls that he begins to take an interest in: Shizune Hakamichi, the deaf student council president who is in Hisao’s class; Lilly Satou, a blind girl and Shizune’s estranged paternal cousin whom Hisao has tea with while searching for the library; Hanako Ikezawa, a girl with massive burns on the right side of her body and Lilly’s best friend who is also in Hisao’s class but whom he first talks to in the library; Emi Ibarazaki, the school’s track-and-field star with prosthetic legs who literally runs into Hisao in the hallway; and Rin Tezuka, an art club member with no arms and Emi’s best friend whom Hisao meets while gathering festival supplies for Shizune. He also meets Kenji Setou, his near-sighted hall mate; Shiina “Misha” Mikado, Shizune’s Japanese sign language interpreter and fellow classmate; Mutou, his out-of-touch science teacher; and Yuuko, the school’s exasperated librarian who works part-time at a local tea shop, the Shanghai.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Depending on the choices the player makes, Hisao spends time at the festival with one of the five girls, leading into their Route. Alternatively, if the player refuses to acknowledge any of them, Hisao spends the festival drinking whiskey on the rooftop with Kenji, who pushes him off the roof to his death in a drunken stupor.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: In this route, Hisao is advised to get exercise to help with his condition, and becomes Emi’s running partner on the school track in the mornings. Emi also sets a strict exercise and dietary plan for Hisao with the help of her friend, the school nurse. This results in Hisao becoming fast friends with her and Rin, and the three frequently eat lunch together on the roof of the school. After such events as the trio attending Emi’s track meet and having a picnic together that gets rained out, Emi comes down with a cold from running in the rain. Hisao tends to her, where she falls asleep next to him and has a nightmare. The next day, Emi confesses her feelings for Hisao and they kiss.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Though their new relationship begins smoothly, and Hisao begins to improve his life by deciding to do a career in science with Mutou’s guidance, Emi suffers a setback when, due to her constant running, her legs receive rashes that become infected, forcing her to go without legs and use a wheelchair for several weeks. While consoling her, Hisao consummates his relationship with Emi. Soon afterwards, they began making sex a regular routine in their relationship, but their relationship is abruptly put on pause when Emi decides to take a break so they may focus on exams.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Over time after Emi recovers, Hisao realizes that their relationship is only physically intimate rather than emotionally so, and becomes progressively frustrated when Emi refuses to touch on certain moments in her life despite showing obvious signs of grief and depression that concern Hisao. Eventually, Emi tells Hisao outright that their relationship won’t go any deeper. Although soured on the relationship, Hisao remains optimistic after Emi invites him to have lunch with her and her mother, Meiko. However, the lunch ends abruptly when Hisao presses further about Emi’s past, and Emi demands that he leave.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Emi’s Route has two different endings from this point. In the bad ending, upon avoiding advice from Misha, Hisao tries to apologize to Emi, but she breaks up with him, and they never talk again. In the good ending, after either accepting the advice from Misha or other advice from Meiko, the nurse, and Rin, Hisao not only apologizes but professes his love for Emi, asserting that he wants to help her like she helped him. Emi, deciding to give Hisao a chance, takes him to her father’s grave and admits she never got over him dying in the same car accident that took her legs, no longer getting close to other people for fear of the same result, but realizes that she can finally open up to Hisao. Upon returning home, they make love and, after sleeping together for the first time, express a desire to move forward with their lives together.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: In this route, Hisao - who became an avid bookworm during his time in the hospital - bonds over this shared interest with Hanako, and spends the festival playing chess with her and later having tea with her and Lilly at the Shanghai. Afterwards. Hisao becomes good friends with the two girls, often eating lunch with them in a private room and occasionally holding tea parties in Lilly’s room. Hanako, normally an extremely shy and evasive person, begins slowly opening up to Hisao, and Lilly and Misha ask him to keep doing so as to make Hanako open up in general. Hisao spends time with Hanako on his own accord, and eventually, Hanako reveals the truth about her past after Lilly revealed Hisao’s condition to her: Hanako’s family home burned down, resulting in her severe burns and the death of her parents. Soon after, a fellow classmate and Emi’s track teammate, Miki Miura, asks Hisao if he likes Hanako; the player can have Hisao either admit or deny it.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Hanako’s birthday soon approaches, and Lilly and Hisao go into town to buy her presents. While doing group work, Misha and Shizune inadvertently cause Hisao to reveal this to Hanako, who suddenly begins having a panic attack. She is comforted by Shizune and Hisao, who takes her to the nurse to recuperate. Distraught at this turn of events, Hisao talks it over with Lilly, who reveals that she will be heading to her home in Scotland to visit her ill aunt for a time. They decide to have a small party for both Lilly and Hanako prior to the former leaving, joined by Lilly’s older sister Akira. The four drink wine supplied by Akira, and in her inebriated state, Hanako seemingly makes a move on Hisao. Later, Lilly and Akira take Hisao and Hanako to a jazz club, where the latter two play billiards together; Hisao and Hanako bond over their past trauma while playing, and assure each other that they are there for each other.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: After Lilly leaves, the player can choose to either call it a day or go into town with Hanako. Due to her absence and her upcoming birthday (which coincides with the anniversary of the fire), Hanako shuts herself in her room for several days. Hisao becomes worried about this and decides to visit Hanako, who acts even more distant than usual. On the day of her birthday, Hisao calls Lilly up for advice, and she tells him to treat Hanako like a friend rather than try to protect her. The bad ending results if the player chose to call it a day when Lilly left, regardless of how Hisao responds to Lilly’s advice: he visits her room again and tries to do something with her. Hanako suddenly becomes violently angry, snapping at Hisao for coddling her and declaring that she hates him, Lilly, and everyone else. Shaken and upset, Hisao returns to his room. Alternatively, if the player chose to go into town, two different endings occur while Hisao talks with Lilly. The neutral ending occurs when Hisao ignores Lilly’s advice; upon going to Hanako’s room, the two play a chess game, reaffirming their friendship.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The good ending occurs when Hisao takes Lilly’s advice, ultimately not visiting Hanako in her room, instead devoting his time to studying for exams. After a few days, Hisao does eventually go to her room, where he reveals to her the post-operative scar he received when the surgeons had to operate on his heart. Following this and an excursion into town, Hisao has a long talk with her where they describe each other’s lives prior to coming to Yamaku. Hanako then takes Hisao to her dorm, where she undresses to show the full extent of her scars to return Hisao’s earlier gesture. Caught up in each other, the two have sex and sleep together. Despite this, they began acting awkward around each other due to having taken such a big step above friendship without properly establishing themselves as a couple first. Hisao rectifies this by meeting with her in the park, where they express all of their true emotions: Hanako wishes for Hisao to treat her like an equal instead of someone in need of protection, while Hisao admits to depending on Hanako for emotional support. They then profess their love to each other, and while walking back, Hanako gives Hisao her first real kiss.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: In this route, Hisao goes into town on a whim where he runs into Lilly and meets Akira. He later befriends Lilly and Hanako and takes an interest in the former; in talking with Lilly, she learns that she reluctantly moved from Akira’s home to the dorms just earlier that year, and that she is half-Scottish. Later, Hisao and Lilly go shopping for Hanako’s birthday. Along the way they meet Akira and Lilly’s cousin Hideaki, who is also Shizune’s younger brother. Hisao buys his present for Hanako later, and also buys a small music box from the same store. Later noticing she seems depressed, Hisao takes Lilly to a cafe; as they both realize the outing has become a date, Hisao asks Lilly out again later. At Hanako’s party, the group drinks Akira’s wine and Hisao ends up sleeping over to avoid curfew. Tending to Lilly’s hangover the next morning, Hisao learns from her that she needs to head to Scotland to visit her sick aunt, but also that she has not seen her parents in six years due to her parents getting work in Inverness, Scotland, leaving Akira to raise Lilly in Japan for work and education respectively. Lilly is thus unsure how to act around her own parents. To cheer her up, Hisao gifts her the music box, and she kisses his cheek as a thank you.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Later, Hisao has lunch on the roof with Hanako, Lilly, Emi, and Rin, during which he seems to suffer a heart flutter. After recovering, Lilly gives him a paper crane as a parting gift, and she leaves the next day. Hisao spends the next couple of weeks studying and tending to Hanako. After a call with Lilly, he realizes he is in love with her. Lilly eventually returns, and to celebrate a long weekend, she invites Hisao and Hanako to spend some time in a guest house in Hokkaido. The day after arriving there, the trio try to walk into town, when Hisao suddenly experiences another heart flutter that knocks him unconscious. Waking up later that evening, he finds Lilly out in a field. Lilly admits that her concern for Hisao stems from a fear of abandonment like with her parents. The two break down and profess their love for each other, before going inside and repeatedly making love to each other before returning home the next evening.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Hisao and Lilly spend their time in bliss as exams pass while Hanako joins the newspaper club and becomes more socially active, but this idyllic living is interrupted when Akira reveals she will be moving to Scotland to work at her father’s company. The next day, Hisao and Lilly go for their first formal date at a high-end restaurant, where they discuss their past schooling and romantic situations. During this time, the player can bring up Iwanako’s situation; refusing to do so automatically results in the neutral ending. Later, while having sex again, Hisao’s heart flutters again, which starts to become a regular occurrence seemingly ignited by alcohol he has frequently drunk with Lilly prior. The next day, Akira privately meets with Hisao, and reveals that in addition to her taking the new job, her parents (whom Akira resents for not prioritizing their children) have invited Lilly to move to Scotland with them permanently. Lilly later informs Hisao that she accepted, effectively resulting in their breakup.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: A week later, Lilly moves out of Yamaku, making amends with Shizune and giving a tearful goodbye to Hanako as she does; the neutral ending occurs here should the choices made throughout the route reflect as such. Alternatively, the good ending occurs if Hisao told Lilly about Iwanako and other choices: Hisao becomes determined to talk to Lilly one final time, taking a taxi first to Shizune’s home and then, after being directed by Hideaki, to the airport. He rushes over there, but overexerts himself and suffers another heart attack. Hisao survives, and wakes up in the hospital two days later. Lilly learns of what happened and rushes back to Japan to visit Hisao. While they are reunited, Hisao apologizes to Lilly for relying on her without considering her feelings, and pleads with her to stay in Japan with him forever; she accepts. In a post-credits scene, Hisao, Lilly, and Akira take a walk to celebrate Hisao being discharged from the hospital, with Hisao and Lilly planning to go through college together before starting their careers as teachers. Akira bids them farewell before leaving to go back to Scotland, while Hisao and Lilly head back to Yamaku determined to move forward together.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: In this route, Hisao helps Rin and Emi paint a mural for the festival and expresses interest in joining the art club to its supervising teacher, Shinichi Nomiya. After spending the festival with Rin supervising the mural and later properly joining the art club, Hisao becomes tentative friends with Rin and Emi. Rin frequently describes Hisao as “gloomy” due to him rarely smiling since they’ve known each other. As time goes on, Nomiya tells Rin that he called in favors to have her art displayed in a gallery, but she confides in Hisao that she is not certain she is up to the task. Hisao encourages her to do it to the point of getting irritated, seemingly displeasing Rin. Afterwards, though, Hisao and Rin talk on the rooftop, where they discuss whether or not they would change themselves; when Hisao implies he would, Rin consoles him with a hug. This cheers Hisao up tremendously, and he vows to live life positively. Later, Rin catches a cold from Emi, who gives her cold medication that Rin proceeds to take too much of. Consequently, when Hisao goes to visit her, Rin deliriously kisses him, only to forget the next day. Rin takes Hisao to her happy place, a small meadow on the outskirts of town, and though Hisao reveals their kiss, the two reaffirm their friendship.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Rin agrees to have her work exhibited at the gallery of Nomiya’s friend Sae Saionji, but Sae tells her she would need to create way more art for it to be acceptable. Nomiya promptly gets Rin exempted from classes so Rin can make the rest of her paintings in Sae’s studio all day for weeks. Hisao visits Rin frequently, but each time is incredibly awkward after he confesses feelings to Rin, only to be rejected. After several weeks, Rin begins suffering artist’s block, and tells Hisao that she plans to destroy and rebuild herself to become the artist she feels she needs to be. Despite Hisao’s attempts at distracting her, Rin eventually tells Hisao to not visit any longer. However, after learning about how Sae’s husband committed suicide due to his artistic devotion, a concerned Hisao visits Rin and discovers her masturbating on the floor. He reluctantly helps her finish in an attempt to console her, and they sleep together platonically. Having Hisao attempt to confront Rin about her feelings the next day leads to the bad ending, where Hisao snaps at Rin and breaks off their friendship. Alternatively, Hisao expresses a desire to get through to Rin, but tells her he can’t be there for her with the exhibition any longer.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: A week later, Rin finishes her art and goes to Hisao’s room, where she confesses to him, but feeling used, he rejects her. The next day, Hisao and Emi go to Rin’s art exhibition, where Rin has an anxiety attack from being bombarded by interviewers. Hisao takes her outside to comfort her, where Rin says she wishes she had someone who didn’t have to ask her anything. The neutral ending occurs when Hisao questions Rin why people asking about her does not make her happy: Rin seems to recuperate and returns. Later, exams finish before summer vacation, and Hisao goes to visit Rin at the studio. However, Rin refuses to talk with him, still upset about Hisao rejecting her. While they walk together in the rain, Rin eventually reveals that all she wanted was for someone to empathize with her, and that she believed Hisao was that person. Hisao coldly states that people can never truly understand others without literally becoming them. Rin then reveals that she is going to transfer to an art school, cutting off her ties with everyone at Yamaku.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The good ending occurs when Hisao asks if Rin could ever really find someone like that: Rin goes back to Yamaku to recuperate, with Hisao and Emi following suit. After Hisao finishes exams the next day, he finds Rin in her classroom. He eventually convinces her to apologize to Nomiya, only to discover that he has been emotionally abusing her to do her artwork when she has merely seen it as a hobby. Hisao comforts her and realizes she was always trying to reach out to him via her paintings. As summer break arrives, Rin comes to Hisao’s dorm in the rain, where they make love. Afterwards, they go back to the meadow, where they profess their love and decide they don’t need to change if they like each other as they are. Rin then asks Hisao, “What’s the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?”.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: In this route, after frequent pestering from Shizune and Misha, Hisao decides to join the Student Council despite the three of them being the only members, and spends the festival with them watching fireworks on the rooftop. Hoping to properly connect with Shizune, Hisao begins taking a sign language elective and receiving tutoring from Misha. At the same time, Shizune, fearing Hisao has become depressed due to his condition, repeatedly holds menial contests with him in the hopes of lifting his spirits. The Student Council primarily spends its time preparing for the annual Tanabata festival. On the night of the festival, Hisao and Shizune end up alone together. Walking the school grounds late at night, Hisao confesses to Shizune, and she accepts.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Despite their new relationship, Hisao finds himself unable to progress it due to their Student Council work. He eventually gets the chance when Shizune invites him and Misha to spend a week in the summer with her family. There, Hisao meets Shizune’s father Jigoro, as well as Hideaki and Akira, with Lilly also present. He is mortified to learn that none of them learned sign language for Shizune, as well as by Jigoro’s domineering, emotionally abusive personality. Although Shizune consummates her relationship with Hisao on the trip, they become increasingly distant as Shizune dives into focusing on the next term’s student council elections. Misha, who cut her hair during the trip, also begins acting increasingly distant and lethargic, especially after she and Shizune have an offscreen fight.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Late one night, Misha enters Hisao’s room and tries to talk with him about Shizune, then proceeds to try and kiss him. The player can choose in this moment whether or not Hisao has sex with Misha. Regardless, Hisao confronts Misha the next day, and learns from her that she has had a longstanding crush on Shizune. She eventually confessed, but despite turning her down, Shizune kept Misha around as a friend, making Misha feel used especially as Hisao began to date Shizune; she then begins expressing suicidal thoughts. Hisao resolves to repair the trio’s relationship, but Misha continues to avoid him and Shizune for several weeks, so an oblivious Shizune begins trying to cheer her up.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The good and bad ending depend on whether or not Hisao refused or accepted sex with Misha respectively. If Hisao slept with her, Misha continues to avoid the two, and Shizune remains inconsiderate of Misha’s feelings. Eventually, realizing the problems she has in trying to suppress everyone, Shizune cuts all her ties, including breaking up with Hisao. If Hisao did not sleep with her, Misha eventually comes around, mending their friendship. Shizune, acknowledging her controlling nature, decides to change her ways and live for helping others by becoming a philanthropist; taking this to heart, Hisao decides to become a teacher at Yamaku and Misha a sign-language instructor overseas. The route ends with the trio delegating tasks to the new student council, before graduating together and promising to all reconnect in the future.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: "Katawa Shoujo" received generally favorable critical reception. Upon release, it was praised by some reviewers and fans, who most notably praised the game's sincere and respectful treatment of the setting. The game's sensitive handling of its eroge elements, instances of soft core erotic imagery on the relevant forks which were integral to its narratives, was also praised (it was also noted that as "adult content" is removed the game can be played with these scenes replaced, without the cost of losing much characterization and plot development). Other critics were less warm, with Dave Riley of Otaku USA Magazine claiming the game had "bad prose and bad characters."


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: Following "Katawa Shoujo"s release, Raita, the artist who created the original image that the game was based upon, wrote a post in English on his Japanese-language blog, thanking the developers for creating the game. Raita mentioned that he had been "closely watch[ing] over" the production of the game and that he was "deeply affected" by the thought of the challenges that the development team had to overcome.


title: Katawa Shoujo

text: The game's soundtrack, entitled "Katawa Shoujo Enigmatic Box of Sound", was released for download on January 20, 2012. It was written primarily by musicians Sebastien "NicolArmarfi" Skaf and Andy "Blue123" Andi. An updated version of "Red Velvet" was released alongside the French language update on July 8, 2013, featuring saxophone player Japes. Two previously unreleased bonus tracks, "When It's Hard to Smile" and "Carefree Days", were released separately on February 10, 2010, and December 24, 2014, respectively.


title: Israel Hands

text: Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel "Treasure Island".


title: Israel Hands

text: Hands' first historical mention was in 1718, when Blackbeard gave him command of David Herriot's ship "Adventure" after Herriot was captured by Teach in March 1718. During the winter of 1717–1718, Blackbeard harassed shipping to and from the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico and traversing the Bay of Honduras. On April 4 or 5th of 1718, at Turneffe Atoll, Blackbeard captured the ten-gun log-cutting sloop "Adventure" and forced captain Herriot to join him. Also on board was Edward Robinson, the ship's gunner, who would later be involved in the Battle of Cape Fear River. Blackbeard then made Israel Hands captain of the "Adventure" and began sailing for North Carolina. Later, in June 1718, Teach ran his flagship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge", aground at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. He requested assistance from Hands with the "Adventure" in an effort to kedge the "Queen Anne's Revenge" off the bar. However, the "Adventure" also grounded and was abandoned. Teach, Hands and Stede Bonnet then took approximately half the pirates, marooning the rest, and set sail for Ocracoke.


title: Israel Hands

text: Captain Charles Johnson wrote that Hands was shot in the knee when Teach fired at another of his crew, missing him but striking Hands. Hands asked Teach for his reasons, whereupon Teach remarked that, "if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was."


title: Israel Hands

text: On 22 November 1718 Teach was killed by troops dispatched from Virginia and led by Robert Maynard. At the time Hands was in Bath, North Carolina, recuperating from his permanently disabling pistol wound. However, he was unable to escape the roundup of pirates in Bath that followed Blackbeard's death. Following his capture, he and fifteen others were taken to Williamsburg, Virginia, to stand trial. In exchange for a pardon, Hands testified against corrupt North Carolina officials with whom Teach had consorted.


title: Israel Hands

text: What happened to Hands after this is not known for certain. However, in Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 "A General History of the Pyrates", Hands is said to have died a beggar in London.


title: Israel Hands

text: Israel Hands appears as a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island" and media based on it, in which he is the "Hispaniola"s coxswain and one of Long John Silver's pirates. He is described as the late Captain Flint's gunner and no mention is made of Blackbeard. Hands engages in a prolonged battle with Jim Hawkins before being shot by the boy.


title: Israel Hands

text: Hands features in the children's adventure book "Kintana and the Captain's Curse" by Susan Brownrigg.


title: Israel Hands

text: Hands appears very briefly in the 2013 video game "", showing a crate of medicine needed for the population of Nassau to Blackbeard, leading him to hold hostages at Charleston.


title: Bre-Z

text: Calesha "Bre-Z" Murray (born July 22, 1987) is an American actress and rapper, best known for her roles as Tamia "Coop" Cooper in the American drama series "All American" and as Freda Gatz in "Empire".


title: Bre-Z

text: Bre-Z was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Wilmington, Delaware. Her grandmother gave her the nickname "Bre-Z" at birth when she would not stop crying until a window was shut, so they called her "breezy". She found out it wasn't her real name when she began elementary school. As a child, she had short hair and people would often mistake her for a boy. In sixth grade, she decided that she wanted to pursue music. Her mother worked in the entertainment industry, and Bre-z once woke up to Wu-Tang Clan in her living room, so Bre-Z knew that she would become involved in the entertainment industry from a young age. Bre-Z graduated high school in 2005. She attended Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. In 2008, she moved to Atlanta when her mom found a job there, Bre-Z began cutting hair. Bre-Z began cutting hair at the age of 10, and comes from a family of barbers, with her grandfather, father, and mother all working as barbers. While working as a barber, she cut hair for Akon and Ludacris. In 2014, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a musician with only one dollar in her bank account.


title: Bre-Z

text: Bre-Z began her music career at age 14 with impromptu performances around Philadelphia. Her brother used to rap, and she would perform his songs until she began writing her own. When she was 15, she met Freeway of Roc-A-Fella Records rap group State Property. Freeway put her in a studio and recorded her first song with her.


title: Bre-Z

text: Bre-Z began writing songs with Dr. Dre, Jennifer Lopez, and The Game. She moved to Los Angeles when she was 24 to pursue her music. In 2015, after landing an audition through a barbershop connection, Bre-Z was cast in the role of Freda Gatz. It was her first audition and first time acting. She appeared on the soundtrack several times throughout her time on the show, sometimes performing her own raps. In November 2018, she was the grand marshal of the Xavier University homecoming parade.


title: Bre-Z

text: In 2018, Bre-Z was cast as Tamia "Coop" Cooper in the drama "All American". She once stated that "Coop is literally Bre-Z in high school," emphasizing the similarities between her and her character. Her role has been praised as breaking barriers for the LGBTQ community.


title: Bre-Z

text: She released an EP, "The Grl" in 2015 on her independent label. Her most recent album is titled "Full Circle".


title: Bre-Z

text: In regard to her sexuality, Bre-Z has stated that she wants to keep her romantic interests private. In one interview, Bre-Z said, "I love everybody. But when it gets down to whatever is underneath my clothes, whatever is inside of my home, or in my bedroom... I feel like at some point, being in the public eye, you have to keep something for yourself. And that's just what I choose to keep for me."


title: B.League

text: The B.League is a professional men's basketball league that began in Japan in September 2016. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that was operated by the FIBA-affiliated Japan Basketball Association and the independently operated bj league. The merger had been mandated by FIBA as a condition to Japan having its membership resumed following suspension in November 2014.


title: B.League

text: The Japan Basketball Association was formed in 1930 and has operated Japan's top basketball leagues under various names since 1967. Throughout the history of the association, teams have been affiliated with large corporations and players have been employed by their respective owner company rather than competing as professional basketball players. In the early 1990s soccer in Japan moved away from a similar corporate structure and launched the J.League in 1993. The JBA commenced investigating the professionalization of basketball in the same year, and in 1997 lifted the ban on professional players. Despite this, the structure of the Japan Super League remained amateur in nature, with most teams remaining under the control of a corporate sponsor/owner.


title: B.League

text: In 2005 a rival bj league was launched in competition with the Super League, based on an American franchise system of professional teams. In response, the JBA re-launched the Super League as the Japan Basketball League in 2007, but there was still a mixture of professional and corporate teams in the competition. The JBL was again rebranded as the National Basketball League in 2013. Since the establishment of the bj league in 2005, both competitions rapidly expanded the number of teams, with 45 teams participating between the two competitions in 2015.


title: B.League

text: FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, grew concerned with the division and disorganization of the sport within the country. After the JBA failed to comply with deadlines to commence reorganizing the domestic leagues, FIBA suspended Japan from international competitions in November 2014. A task force to investigate the reformation of the domestic leagues was formed and Saburō Kawabuchi was appointed co-chairman. In May 2015, upon FIBA's recommendation, Kawabuchi was appointed as president of the JBA. The merger of the two competing leagues into the B.League was announced in June 2015 and the international suspension was lifted by FIBA in August. Telecommunications company Softbank were named as the league's top sponsor for the inaugural season in March 2016.


title: B.League

text: The 2016–17 season commenced with an inaugural match between four-time JBL/NBL champions Alvark Tokyo, who finished on top of the NBL ladder in 2015–16, and four-time bj-league champions Ryukyu Golden Kings, who won the 2015–16 bj-league championship, at Yoyogi National Gymnasium on 22 September 2016. A full round of games involving all other teams commenced on September 24.


title: B.League

text: Since the 2021–22 season, the winners and runners-up of each season qualify for the East Asia Super League.


title: B.League

text: The league consists of two divisions, named B1 ,and B2. For the 2022–23 season, the first division (B1) has 24 teams and the second division (B2) has 14 teams, with a system of promotion and relegation between these two divisions. Each of the first two divisions is further divided into two conferences, East and West.


title: B.League

text: In the first division, each team plays a 60-game regular-season schedule that consists of 36 games against teams within their conference (4 games against each team) and 24 games against teams in the other conference (2 games against eight teams and 4 games against the remaining two teams). Eight teams qualify for the playoffs, including the top three teams from each conference, and the next two teams with the best records, regardless of their conference, as wild cards. The playoffs consist of the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final rounds, with a best-of-three format in each round. Each round is played at the team's home court, which finished with the higher winning percentage during the season.


title: B.League

text: In the second division, the regular season will also consist of a 60-game schedule, but with 42 games against teams within their own conference (6 games against each team) and 18 games against teams in the other conference (2 games against seven teams and 4 games against the remaining team). The playoff qualification and match format is identical to the first division: Eight teams qualify for the playoffs, which includes the top three teams from each conference, and the next two teams with the best records, regardless of their conference, as wild cards. The playoffs consist of quarterfinal, semifinal, and final rounds, with a best-of-three format in each round. Each round is played at the home court of the team that finished with the higher winning percentage during the season.


title: B.League

text: The B.League typically holds promotion-relegation playoffs each year to determine which second division teams will be promoted to the first division and which first division teams will be relegated to the second division for the following season. For the 2020-21 season, it was announced that the top two teams from the second division will be automatically promoted to the first division. Other promotions and relegations will not take place.


title: B.League

text: In the 2014–15 season, there were 12 teams in the NBL, 10 teams in the National Basketball Development League (NBDL, the NBL's second division league) and 24 teams in the bj-league. All 46 teams sought entrance to the B.League's inaugural 2016–17 season, along with the Wakayama Trians, who withdrew from the NBL in January 2015 due to financial difficulty. Ultimately, all clubs were accepted into the league except for the Trians and the Hiroshima Lightning, who were in their first season as a bj-league expansion club. The allocation of the 45 teams into three divisions was announced in two phases in July and August 2015. In April 2016 the league announced rules regarding official team names, shortened names and abbreviations to be used by the clubs. A list of names to be used by each club in the 2016–17 season was also published. Beginning in the 2020–21 season, the B.League was reformatted to only have two conferences each, East and West, in the first and second divisions.


title: B.League

text: Each club in the first and second divisions will be allowed up to three registered foreign players, excluding one foreign-born player who has become a naturalized Japanese citizen.


title: B.League

text: Naturalized players can play as Japanese citizens and have no limitations. Each club will be allowed one naturalized player.


title: B.League

text: In line with Japan Basketball Association regulations, foreign citizens who were either born or raised in Japan and graduated from Japanese elementary and junior high school will not be treated as a foreign player for the purpose of these rules.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Polycythemia vera is an uncommon myeloproliferative neoplasm (a type of chronic leukemia) in which the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells. It may also result in the overproduction of white blood cells and platelets.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Most of the health concerns associated with polycythemia vera are caused by the blood being thicker as a result of the increased red blood cells. It is more common in the elderly and may be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Common signs and symptoms include itching (pruritus), and severe burning pain in the hands or feet that is usually accompanied by a reddish or bluish coloration of the skin. Patients with polycythemia vera are more likely to have gouty arthritis. Treatment consists primarily of phlebotomy.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: People with polycythemia vera can be asymptomatic. A classic symptom of polycythemia vera is pruritus or itching, particularly after exposure to warm water (such as when taking a bath), which may be due to abnormal histamine release or prostaglandin production. Such itching is present in approximately 40% of patients with polycythemia vera. Gouty arthritis may be present in up to 20% of patients. Peptic ulcer disease is also common in patients with polycythemia vera; most likely due to increased histamine from mast cells, but may be related to an increased susceptibility to infection with the ulcer-causing bacterium "H. pylori". Another possible mechanism for the development for peptic ulcer is increased histamine release and gastric hyperacidity related with polycythemia vera.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: A classic symptom of polycythemia vera (and the related myeloproliferative disease essential thrombocythemia) is erythromelalgia. This is a burning pain in the hands or feet, usually accompanied by a reddish or bluish coloration of the skin. Erythromelalgia is caused by an increased platelet count or increased platelet "stickiness" (aggregation), resulting in the formation of tiny blood clots in the vessels of the extremity; it responds rapidly to treatment with aspirin.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Patients with polycythemia vera are prone to the development of blood clots (thrombosis). A major thrombotic complication (e.g. heart attack, stroke, deep venous thrombosis, or Budd-Chiari syndrome) may sometimes be the first symptom or indication that a person has polycythemia vera. Headaches, lack of concentration and fatigue are common symptoms that occur in patients with polycythemia vera as well.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Polycythemia vera (PCV), being a primary polycythemia, is caused by neoplastic proliferation and maturation of erythroid, megakaryocytic and granulocytic elements to produce what is referred to as panmyelosis. In contrast to secondary polycythemias, PCV is associated with a low serum level of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO). Instead, PCV cells often carry activating mutation in the tyrosine kinase (JAK2) gene, which acts in signaling pathways of the EPO-receptor, making those cells proliferate independent from EPO.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Physical exam findings are non-specific, but may include enlarged liver or spleen, plethora, or gouty nodules. The diagnosis is often suspected on the basis of laboratory tests. Common findings include an elevated hemoglobin level and hematocrit, reflecting the increased number of red blood cells; the platelet count or white blood cell count may also be increased. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is decreased due to an increase in zeta potential. Because polycythemia vera results from an essential increase in erythrocyte production, patients have normal blood oxygenation and a low erythropoietin (EPO) level.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: In primary polycythemia, there may be 8 to 9 million and occasionally 11 million erythrocytes per cubic millimeter of blood (a normal range for adults is 4–6), and the hematocrit may be as high as 70 to 80%. In addition, the total blood volume sometimes increases to as much as twice normal. The entire vascular system can become markedly engorged with blood, and circulation times for blood throughout the body can increase up to twice the normal value. The increased numbers of erythrocytes can cause the viscosity of the blood to increase as much as five times normal. Capillaries can become plugged by the very viscous blood, and the flow of blood through the vessels tends to be extremely sluggish.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: As a consequence of the above, people with untreated polycythemia vera are at a risk of various thrombotic events (deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism), heart attack and stroke, and have a substantial risk of Budd-Chiari syndrome (hepatic vein thrombosis), or myelofibrosis. The condition is considered chronic; no cure exists. Symptomatic treatment (see below) can normalize the blood count and most patients can live a normal life for years.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: The disease appears more common in Jews of European extraction than in most non-Jewish populations. Some familial forms of polycythemia vera are noted, but the mode of inheritance is not clear.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: A mutation in the JAK2 kinase (V617F) is strongly associated with polycythemia vera. "JAK2" is a member of the Janus kinase family and makes the erythroid precursors hypersensitive to erythropoietin (EPO). This mutation may be helpful in making a diagnosis or as a target for future therapy.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Following history and examination, the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) recommend the following tests are performed:


title: Polycythemia vera

text: If the JAK2 mutation is negative and there is no obvious secondary causes the BCSH suggest the following tests:


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Other features that may be seen in polycythemia vera include a low ESR and a raised leukocyte alkaline phosphatase.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: The diagnostic criteria for polycythemia vera have recently been updated by the BCSH. This replaces the previous Polycythemia Vera Study Group criteria.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: JAK2-negative polycythemia vera - diagnosis requires A1 + A2 + A3 + either another A or two B criteria:


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Untreated, polycythemia vera can be fatal, with the median survival in patients being 1.5-3 years. Data on the effect of life-span of an individual with treated polycythemia vera is inconclusive due to the rarity of the disease. Studies show the median survival rate of controlled Polycythemia Vera ranges from 10 to 20 years.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Frequent blood withdrawals (phlebotomy) is one form of treatment, which often may be combined with other therapies. The removal of blood from the body induces iron deficiency, thereby decreasing the hemoglobin / hematocrit level, and reducing the risk of blood clots. Phlebotomy is typically performed to bring their hematocrit (red blood cell percentage) down below 45 for men or 42 for women. It has been observed that phlebotomy also reduces cognitive impairment.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Medications are also used which reduce the number of red blood cells. These include hydroxyurea and interferon therapy, among others. The tendency of some practitioners to avoid chemotherapy if possible, especially in young patients, is a result of research indicating possible increased risk of transformation to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). While hydroxyurea is considered a safer chemotherapy in this aspect, there is still some debate about its long-term safety.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: There are indications that the lung cancer drug erlotinib may be an additional treatment option for those with certain genetic markers.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Ropeginterferon alfa-2b (Besremi) was approved for medical use in the European Union in February 2019, and in the United States in November 2021. Ropeginterferon alfa-2b is the first medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat polycythemia vera that people can take regardless of their treatment history, and the first interferon therapy specifically approved for polycythemia vera. Interferon alfa-2b is also used.


title: Polycythemia vera

text: Polycythemia vera occurs in all age groups, although the incidence increases with age. One study found the median age at diagnosis to be 60 years, while a Mayo Clinic study in Olmsted County, Minnesota found that the highest incidence was in people aged 70–79 years. The overall incidence in the Minnesota population was 1.9 per 100,000 person-years, and the disease was more common in men than women. A cluster around a toxic site was confirmed in northeast Pennsylvania in 2008.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: St. Louis Lambert International Airport is the primary commercial airport serving metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Commonly referred to as Lambert Field or simply Lambert, it is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Missouri. The airport sits northwest of downtown St. Louis in unincorporated St. Louis County between Berkeley and Bridgeton. The airport provides nonstop service to airports throughout the United States and to the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. In 2019, it served nearly 16 million passengers with more than 259 daily departures to 78 nonstop domestic and international locations.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: Named for Albert Bond Lambert, an Olympic medalist and prominent St. Louis aviator, the airport rose to international prominence in the 20th century thanks to its association with Charles Lindbergh, its groundbreaking air traffic control (ATC), its status as the primary hub of Trans World Airlines (TWA), and its iconic terminal.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: St. Louis Lambert International Airport is connected by the MetroLink mass transportation rail system to other parts of the St. Louis metropolitan area, including a future connection to the region's secondary commercial airport, MidAmerica St. Louis Airport about to the east.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: The airport had its beginnings in 1909, when the Aero Club of St. Louis created a balloon launching base called the Permanent Aviation Field and Dirigible Harbor in Kinloch Park, a suburban development of the 1890s. In October 1910, the airfield hosted the first International Air Meet, attracting "many famous persons," including the Wright brothers, who brought six airplanes and their Exhibition Team. President Theodore Roosevelt accepted the club's telegraphed invitation to attend, and after initially ruling out a flight, took off on October 11 with pilot Arch Hoxsey, becoming the first U.S. president to fly. The following year, the airfield—generally called Kinloch Field—was the takeoff point for what is generally regarded as the first parachute jump from an airplane. The club's lease on the land expired in 1912, and the field was closed and its grandstand demolished. Efforts to revive the facility were unsuccessful.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In June 1920, a nearby 170-acre field was leased to the Missouri Aeronautical Society, which named its facility the St. Louis Flying Field. Among the Society's leading members was Albert Bond Lambert, an Olympic silver medalist golfer in the 1904 Summer Games, president of Lambert Pharmaceutical Corporation (which made Listerine), and the first person to receive a pilot's license in St. Louis. So vigorous was Lambert in his efforts to promote St. Louis aviation that in 1923 the field was renamed Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field. "Major" Lambert (his "rank" was given by the Aero Club and not the military) purchased the field outright in February 1925, and added hangars and a passenger terminal. In the late 1920s, the airport became the first with an air traffic control system–albeit one that communicated with pilots via waving flags. The first controller was Archie League.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: Charles Lindbergh's first piloting job was flying airmail for Robertson Aircraft Corporation from the airfield. He stopped at the airport during his cross-country San Diego to New York flight about a week before his record-breaking flight to Paris in 1927. In February 1928, the City of St. Louis leased the airport for $1. Later that year, Lambert sold the airport to the city after a $2 million bond issue was passed, making it one of the first municipally owned airports in the United States.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 1925, the airport became home to Naval Air Station St. Louis, a Naval Air Reserve facility that became an active-duty installation during World War II.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 1930, the airport was officially christened Lambert–St. Louis Municipal Airport by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The first terminal building opened in 1933, and within the decade, the airport was served by Robertson Air Lines, Marquette Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, and Transcontinental & Western Air (later renamed TWA).


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In August 1942, voters passed a $4.5 million bond issue to expand the airport by and build a new terminal.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: During World War II, the airport became a manufacturing base for the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (later McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing) and Curtiss-Wright.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: After the war, NAS St. Louis reverted to a reserve installation, supporting carrier-based fighters and land-based patrol aircraft. When it closed in 1958, most of its facilities were acquired by the Missouri Air National Guard and became Lambert Field Air National Guard Base. Some other facilities were retained by non-flying activities of the Naval Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve, while the rest was redeveloped to expand airline operations at the airport.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: To handle increasing passenger traffic, Minoru Yamasaki was commissioned to design a new terminal, which began construction in 1953. Completed in 1956 at a total cost of $7.2 million, the three-domed design preceded terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City and Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport. A fourth dome was added in 1965 following the passage of a $200 million airport revenue bond.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 44 weekday TWA departures; American, 24; Delta, 16; Ozark, 14; Eastern, 13; Braniff, 6 and Central, 2. The first scheduled jet was a TWA 707 to New York on July 21, 1959.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In the 1970s, St. Louis city officials proposed to replace Lambert with a new airport in suburban Illinois. After Missouri residents rejected that, Lambert in 1977 received a $290-million expansion that lengthened the runways, increased the number of gates to 81, and boosted its capacity by half. (In 1997, MidAmerica St. Louis Airport would open in Mascoutah, Illinois, far from the site proposed in the 1970s.) Concourse A and Concourse C were rebuilt into bi-level structures with jet bridges as part of a $25 million project in the mid-1970s designed by Sverdrup. The other concourses were demolished. Construction began in the spring of 1976 and was completed in September 1977. A $20 million, extension of Concourse C for TWA and a $46 million, Concourse D for Ozark Air Lines (also designed by Sverdrup) were completed in December 1982.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: Ozark established its only hub at Lambert in the late 1950s. The airline grew rapidly, going from 36 million revenue passenger miles in 1955, to 229 million revenue passenger miles in 1965. The jet age came to Ozark in 1966 with the Douglas DC-9-10 and its network expanded to Denver, Indianapolis, Louisville, Washington, D.C., New York City, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando. With the addition of jets, Ozark began its fastest period of growth, jumping to 653 million revenue passenger miles in 1970 and 936 million revenue passenger miles in 1975; Ozark soon faced heavy competition in TWA's new hub at Lambert.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 1979, the year after airline deregulation, STL's dominant carriers were TWA (36 routes) and Ozark (25), followed by American (17) and Eastern (12). Other carriers at STL included Air Illinois, Air Indiana, Braniff International Airways, Britt Airways, Brower Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Northwest Orient, Republic Airlines, Texas International Airlines, Trans-Mo Airlines, and USAir.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: After airline deregulation in 1978, airlines began to change their operations to a hub and spoke model. Trans World Airlines (TWA) was headquartered in New York City but its main base of employment was at Kansas City International Airport (KCI) and had large operations at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) as well as St. Louis. TWA deemed Kansas City's terminals unsuitable to serve as a primary hub. TWA reluctantly ruled out Chicago, as its Chicago operation was already losing $25 million a year under competition from American Airlines and United Airlines. This meant that St. Louis was the carrier's only viable option. TWA downsized in Chicago and built up in St. Louis, swapping three Chicago gates for five of American's St. Louis gates. By December 1982, St. Louis accounted for 20% of TWA's domestic capacity. Lambert's terminal was initially too small for this operation, and TWA was forced to use temporary terminals, mobile lounges and airstairs to handle the additional flights. After Concourse D was completed in 1985, TWA began transatlantic service from Lambert to London, Frankfurt, and Paris.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: TWA's hub grew again in 1986 when the airline bought Ozark Air Lines, which operated its hub from Lambert's B, C, and D concourses. In 1985, TWA had accounted for 56.6% of boardings at STL while Ozark accounted for 26.3%, so the merged carriers controlled over 80% of the traffic. As of 1986, TWA served STL with nonstop service to 84 cities, an increase from 80 cities served by TWA and/or Ozark in 1985, before the merger.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: Lambert again grew in importance for TWA after the airline declared bankruptcy in 1992 and the following year moved its headquarters to St. Louis from Mount Kisco, New York. TWA increased the number of cities served and started routing more connecting passengers through its hub at Lambert. The total number of passengers departing Lambert jumped almost 20% in a year, from 19.9 million passengers in 1993 to 23.4 million in 1994. Growth continued, to 27.3 million by 1997 and the airport's all-time peak of 30.6 million in 2000.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: By September 1999, Lambert was TWA's main hub, with 103 destinations served by 515 daily flights: 352 on TWA mainline aircraft and 163 on Trans World Express flights operated by its commuter airline partners. Lambert became the eighth-busiest U.S. airport by flights. Congestion caused delays during peak hours and was exacerbated when bad weather reduced the number of usable runways from three to one, and traffic projections made in the 1980s and 1990s predicted enough growth to strain the airport and the national air traffic system. As a result, city leaders decided to build a runway, dubbed Runway 11/29, parallel to the two larger existing runways. At $1.1 billion, it was the costliest public works program in St. Louis history. It required moving seven major roads and destroying about 2,000 homes, six churches, and four schools in Bridgeton. Work began in 1998 and continued even as traffic at the airport declined after the 9/11 attacks, the collapse of TWA and its subsequent purchase by American, and American's flight reductions several years later.<ref name="11/29"></ref>


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: As TWA entered the new millennium, its financial condition deteriorated; it was purchased by American Airlines in April 2001. The last day of operations for TWA was December 1, 2001, including a ceremonial last flight to TWA's original and historic hometown of Kansas City before returning to St. Louis one final time. The following day, TWA was officially absorbed into American Airlines. The plan for Lambert was to become a reliever hub for the existing American hubs at Chicago–O'Hare and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). American was looking at something strategic with its new St. Louis hub to potentially offload some of the pressure on O'Hare as well as provide a significant boost to the airline's east/west connectivity.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: The September 11 attacks depressed air service nationwide: total airline industry domestic revenue passenger miles dropped 20% in October 2001 and 17% in November 2001. Overnight, American no longer had the same need for a hub that bypassed its hubs at Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, which suddenly became less congested. As a result of this and the ongoing economic recession, service at Lambert was reduced to 207 flights by November 2003. Total passenger traffic dropped to 20.4 million that same year. On the international front, flights to Paris went to seasonal in December 2001 and transatlantic service was soon discontinued altogether when American dropped flights to London in late 2003.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 2006, the United States Air Force (USAF) announced plans to turn the 131st Fighter Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard into the 131st Bomb Wing. The wing's 20 F-15C and F-15D aircraft were moved to the Montana Air National Guard's 120th Airlift Wing at Great Falls International Airport/Air National Guard Base, Montana and the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The pilots and maintainers moved to Whiteman AFB, Missouri to fly and maintain the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber as the first Air National Guard wing to fly the aircraft. Lambert Field Air National Guard Base formally shut down on June 13, 2009, when the final two F-15C Eagles did a low approach over the field and then flew away, ending an 86-year chapter of Lambert's history.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: 2006 also saw the completion of the W-1W airport expansion after eight years of work. The culmination of this program was the opening of Runway 11/29, the airport's fourth, on April 13, 2006, when American Airlines Flight 2470 became the first commercial airliner to land on the new runway.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 2008, Lambert's position as an American Airlines hub faced further pressure due to increased fuel costs and softened demand because of a depressed economy. American cut its overall system capacity by over 5% during 2008. At Lambert, American shifted more flights from mainline to regional. Total passengers enplaned fell 6% to 14.4 million in 2008, then fell another 11% to 12.8 million passengers in 2009. In 2009, American announced that as a part of the airline's restructuring, it would close its St. Louis hub by reducing its operations from about 200 daily flights to 36 daily flights by summer 2010. American's closure of the St. Louis hub coincided with its new "Cornerstone" plan, wherein the airline would concentrate itself in several major markets: Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In the aftermath of the American hub closure, Southwest Airlines boosted daily departures from 74 to 83, adding six new destinations for a total of 31. Southwest quickly replaced American as the carrier with the most daily flights, and continues to dominate the airport to this day.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: On April 22, 2011, a tornado (rated EF4 nearby but not at the airport itself) struck the airport's Terminal 1, destroying jetways and breaking more than half of the windows. The wind damaged a Southwest Airlines aircraft by pushing a baggage conveyor belt into it. Four American Airlines aircraft were damaged, including one that was buffeted by crosswinds while taxiing after landing. Another aircraft, with passengers still on board, was moved away from its jetway by the storm. The FAA closed the airport at 8:54 pm CDT, and reopened it the following day at temporarily lower capacity. The damage to Concourse C even forced several airlines to use vacant gates in the B and D concourses. Concourse C underwent renovations and repairs and reopened on April 2, 2012.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In late 2016, officials with the City of St. Louis announced that brand researchers had found that travelers might be confused by the name "Lambert–St. Louis International Airport". They said they might rename it St. Louis International Airport at Lambert Field to freshen up the airport's image and emphasize "St. Louis" in the name. Descendants of Albert Bond Lambert opposed the change, arguing that it de-emphasized the importance of Maj. Lambert to the airport's history and the history of aviation. The proposal was amended, and the St. Louis Airport Commission voted unanimously to change the name to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In 2018, WOW air began four weekly A321 flights between St. Louis and Reykjavík, marking a return of transatlantic service to the airport for the first time since 2003. Despite strong sales, WOW announced in October 2018 that it would end the route due to the airline's financial struggles. Other domestic carriers such as Sun Country Airlines and Spirit Airlines have begun flying from Lambert in recent years.


title: St. Louis Lambert International Airport

text: In December 2021, Lufthansa announced nonstop service between St. Louis and Frankfurt beginning in June 2022. The flight will be the first full service transatlantic flight from St. Louis since American Airlines ended their London route in 2003, and is being backed by several area corporations, including Sigma-Aldrich and Monsanto, both of which have been acquired by German firms in recent years.