title: David Pocock

text: Pocock played for the Force, where he made his debut in 2006 against the Sharks in Durban. Pocock made appearances for Australian Schoolboys and Australia A in the 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup, earning man of the match multiple times in the tournament. He then made his Australia debut as a substitute against the Barbarians on 3 December 2008.


title: David Pocock

text: Pocock made his test debut in Hong Kong against New Zealand in late 2008, and then played against Italy and the Barbarians on the Wallabies spring tour. That same year he also captained the Australian Under 20s at the Junior World Championships in Wales, and was then awarded the Emirates Western Force captaincy for the development tour of England.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2009 Pocock played 13 Super Rugby games and was again called up to the Wallabies Squad. The year 2009 was a breakthrough year, during which he featured in 13 of the 14 Tests played by Australia – including a man of the match effort in the drawn Test against Ireland at Croke Park, as well as a maiden Test try during the 33–12 win over Wales at Cardiff. Pocock had earlier started the year by scoring his first try for his adopted country during the 55–7 win over the Barbarians in a non-cap match in Sydney. As a credit to his improving performance in the game Pocock replaced longstanding Wallaby openside flanker George Smith, late in the 2009 Tri-Nations. In the Wales test in the 2009 Autumn Internationals, he put his thumb back into its socket after it had been dislocated and continued to play. He was, however, substituted at half-time and replaced by George Smith.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2010, Pocock became the first choice openside flanker for the Wallabies. He won the John Eales Medal in 2010 – the highest honour in Australian Rugby. Pocock was recognised at an international level after being nominated alongside five other players for 2010 IRB Player of the Year, an award given to the best player in world rugby. In addition he was recognised with the Australia's Choice Wallaby of the Year and awarded the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Medal of Excellence.


title: David Pocock

text: Pocock took over the Wallabies captaincy during the 2012 midseason test series when regular captain James Horwill was injured.


title: David Pocock

text: At the conclusion of the 2012 Super Rugby season, he left the Western Force to join the ACT Brumbies.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2013, he underwent a knee reconstruction, and Michael Hooper became the Wallabies first choice number 7.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2014, in the course of his third game back after knee reconstruction, he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and had another knee reconstruction in late March 2014.


title: David Pocock

text: On 15 January 2015, Pocock and teammate Nic White were appointed vice-captains of the Brumbies for the 2015 Super Rugby season.


title: David Pocock

text: He played in all three games during the 2015 Rugby Championship, Australia won all those games and won the trophy for the first time since the 2011 Tri Nations Series.


title: David Pocock

text: On 23 September 2015, Pocock scored two tries in Australia's opening game of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, a 28–13 win against Fiji at the Millennium Stadium, as well as also scoring a try in a defeat to the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final the New Zealand All Blacks.


title: David Pocock

text: Pocock signed a three-year deal with the Panasonic Wild Knights of Japan's Top League in May 2016. The deal, agreed on in negotiations that also involved the Australian Rugby Union (now Rugby Australia), was structured to make him eligible to play for Australia in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He played the 2016–17 Japanese season with the Wild Knights; once that season ended in January 2017, he took a sabbatical from all rugby until the start of the Wild Knights' 2017–18 season. Immediately after the end of that season, he returned to Australia to play for the Brumbies in the 2018 and 2019 Super Rugby seasons, skipping the 2018–19 Japanese season. On 6 September 2019, Pocock announced his international retirement after the 2019 World Cup in Japan, where he will then complete his Japanese contract in 2019–20.


title: David Pocock

text: On 23 October 2020 Pocock announced his retirement from all forms of rugby to focus on conservation efforts.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2021 Pocock graduated with a Master of Sustainable Agriculture from Charles Sturt University which he began in 2013 while playing Rugby.


title: David Pocock

text: In 2012, he publicly supported the Australian Government’s since-revoked fixed price Emissions Trading Scheme, saying, "Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time and to finally see the government taking action is a bit of a turning point... It's probably not the perfect model, but I think it's a really good start and it's something we need to do for the future of Australians." In 2014, Pocock visited the Leard Blockade against the expansion of the Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest and was arrested for taking part in a nonviolent protest.


title: David Pocock

text: He has been a public advocate in the campaign for same-sex marriage in Australia. Although he and his partner Emma held a marriage ceremony in 2010, they had refused to sign documents that would result in their legal marriage until all Australians had the right to do the same. After the country enacted legislation to allow same-sex marriage in 2017, they officially signed marriage documentation on 1 December 2018.


title: David Pocock

text: Pocock has promoted accessibility for the hearing-impaired. He sought to bring an Auslan interpreter to the Senate floor for his first speech as a member of that body on 1 August 2022. Under Senate rules, Pocock was required to ask permission to bring a "stranger" to the floor, which is almost exclusively used for visiting dignitaries. The Greens supported his request, but both major parties opposed it, fearing that it would set a precedent to invite more "strangers". The government soon offered a compromise of having an interpreter shown on screens placed on the floor of the Senate. Pocock stated that he would pursue rules changes to allow Auslan interpreters on the Senate floor. During a 2015 rugby union match in which he scored a hat-trick, he made the Auslan sign for applause after one of his tries as a shout-out to a friend whose first language was Auslan.


title: David Pocock

text: In December 2021, Pocock announced he would be running as a candidate for the Senate, representing the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in the forthcoming federal election. On 18 March 2022, a political party called "David Pocock" was successfully registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, so that the name appeared above the line on the Senate ballot paper. In an interview with Television New Zealand in May called 'From Ruck to the Senate' Pocock explained his reasons for running for the Australian Senate as an independent candidate and how he hoped to bring a socially progressive voice to the Senate and reform the integrity monitoring process for politicians in parliament. He prosecuted an agenda to tackle corruption in government and political advertising laws, as well as campaign to increase Australia's expenditure on renewable energy, and restore the rights of territories to legislate on euthanasia. Pocock was declared elected by the Australian Electoral Commission on 14 June 2022, thereby winning the second of the two ACT seats and unseating incumbent Liberal Senator Zed Seselja to become the first non-Labor or Liberal person to be elected as a Senator for the ACT, and the second non-Labor or Liberal person elected to represent the ACT at the federal level (after Lewis Nott, who was MP for the ACT in 1949–1951).


title: David Pocock

text: In July 2022, Pocock opposed the Labor government's defunding of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. In November 2022, Pocock successfully negotiated an amendment for yearly assessments on the adequacy of Centrelink payments in exchange for passing Labor's changes to industrial relations laws.


title: David Pocock

text: Together with Luke O’Keefe, he runs a not-for-profit organisation, Eightytwenty Vision, that aims to help the less fortunate people of Zimbabwe.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: Rock 'n' Roll is the sixth studio album by English musician John Lennon. Released in February 1975, it is an album of late 1950s and early 1960s songs as covered by Lennon. Recording the album was problematic and spanned an entire year: Phil Spector produced sessions in October 1973 at A&M Studios, and Lennon produced sessions in October 1974 at the Record Plant (East). Lennon was being sued by Morris Levy over copyright infringement of one line in his song "Come Together". As part of an agreement, Lennon had to include three Levy-owned songs on "Rock 'n' Roll". Spector disappeared with the session recordings and was subsequently involved in a motor accident, leaving the album's tracks unrecoverable until the beginning of the "Walls and Bridges" sessions. With "Walls and Bridges" coming out first, featuring one Levy-owned song, Levy sued Lennon expecting to see Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" album.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: The album reached number 6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States, later being certified gold in both countries. It was supported by the single "Stand by Me", which peaked at number 20 in the US, and 30 in the UK. The cover photo was taken by Jürgen Vollmer during the Beatles' stay in Hamburg. It was to be Lennon's last solo album; with no recording contract obligation, he was on hiatus from the music business to raise his son Sean. Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono staged a comeback with their joint release "Double Fantasy" in 1980.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: In 1969, Lennon composed the song "Come Together" for the Beatles' album "Abbey Road". Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune "You Can't Catch Me", it bore a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the third line of the second verse ("Here come [old] flat-top") for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973. It was later settled out of court, with the agreement that, according to an announcement by Levy, Lennon had to "record three songs by Big Seven publishers on his next album". The songs [he] intends to record at this time are "You Can't Catch Me", "Angel Baby" and "Ya Ya"." Lennon had the right to change the last two songs to any other songs that were published by Big Seven. In the meantime, Lennon had split with Yoko Ono and was living in Los Angeles with his personal assistant, May Pang. Nostalgia was a popular trend on film with "American Graffiti", and television was readying the series "Happy Days" (Lennon and Pang had even visited the set). Lennon, rather than writing his own songs, and partly inspired by his arrangement to include at least three songs from Levy's publishing company catalogue, Big Seven Music, decided to record an album of oldies as his next release, following "Mind Games".


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: Lennon initially teamed up with producer Phil Spector to record the album, letting Spector have full control. Spector chose some of the songs, booked the studio, and the musicians. When news got around that Lennon was in Hollywood making a record, every musician there wanted to be part of the sessions. In mid-October 1973, sessions were booked at A&M Studios, with many of them having over 30 musicians, but the sessions quickly fell into disarray—fueled by alcohol. Spector once showed up dressed in a surgeon's outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio, hurting Lennon's ears. On another occasion, a bottle of whiskey had spilled on the A&M Studio's mixing console causing future sessions to be banned from the facility. Unknown to Lennon, each night Spector would remove the master tapes from the studio, and move them to his house. Spector then disappeared with the session tapes and would not be heard from for several months. Spector made one cryptic call to Lennon, claiming to have the "John Dean tapes" from the recent Watergate scandal; Lennon deduced that Spector meant he had the album's master tapes. When a car accident on 31 March 1974 left Spector in a coma, the project was put on indefinite hold. In mid-1974, Lennon returned to New York with Pang and began writing and recording a new album of original material, "Walls and Bridges". Shortly before these sessions began, Al Coury, then-head of A&R/promotion for Capitol Records retrieved the Spector tapes. Not wanting to break stride, Lennon shelved the tapes and completed work on "Walls and Bridges".


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: With "Walls and Bridges" coming out first, Lennon had reneged on his deal with Levy, and Levy threatened to refile his lawsuit, but Lennon explained to Levy what had happened, and assured him that the covers album was indeed in the works. Levy gave Lennon use of his farm in upstate New York to rehearse material. Lennon then recalled the session musicians from "Walls and Bridges" to complete the oldies tracks. Several tracks never made it past the rehearsal stage: "C'mon Everybody", "Thirty Days", "That'll Be the Day" – the band also played a few impromptu jams. On 21 October, Lennon went into Record Plant East, completing the oldies tracks in a few days. Lennon wanted the musicians to stay close to the original arrangements of the songs, apart from "Do You Wanna Dance?". Mixing and editing lasted until mid-November. To assure him progress was being made, Lennon gave Levy a rough tape of the sessions to review. Levy took the tapes and pressed his own version of the album called "" on his record label, Adam VIII, then proceeded to sue Lennon, EMI and Capitol for $42 million for breach of contract. Capitol/EMI quickly sought an injunction. After two trials, in which Lennon had to convince the court of the difference between a rough version and a final take, Levy won $6,795 in damages, and Lennon won $144,700, in February 1976. The album was originally scheduled for release in April 1975; however, in February 1975, Capitol Records rush-released the official "Rock 'n' Roll" as a Capitol "budget" album (prefix code SK—one dollar cheaper than the usual releases) to counteract sales of the Levy album.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: Although some critics derided the album as "a step backward", "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" wrote that "John lends dignity to these classics; his singing is tender, convincing, and fond." AllMusic described the album "as a peak in [Lennon's] post-"Imagine" catalog: an album that catches him with nothing to prove and no need to try".


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: The album was released on 17 February 1975 in the US, and a few days later in the UK, on 21 February 1975. It reached number 6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States. On 10 March and 18 April 1975, in the US and UK respectively, "Stand by Me" was released as a single, backed with "Move Over Ms. L", a song that was meant to appear on "Walls and Bridges" but cut from the final line-up. It peaked at number 20 in the US and number 30 in the UK. Lennon promoted the song by appearing on the BBC TV show "Old Grey Whistle Test", which also featured an interview by Bob Harris. The show had Lennon singing live over the backing tracks of "Stand by Me" and "Slippin' and Slidin'". Lennon also appeared on "Salute to Sir Lew – The Master Showman" singing live again over backing tracks, this time for three songs: "Stand by Me", "Slippin' and Slidin'" and "Imagine". A second single, "Slippin N Slidin"/"Ain't That a Shame" (Apple 1883), was announced, promotional copies were pressed, but was never released. "Ya Ya", backed with "Be-Bop-A-Lula", was released as a single only in Germany, peaking at number 47 on the Media Control Charts. Lennon said the following about "Rock 'n' Roll": "It started in '73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on my own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can't begin to say, it's just barmy, there's a jinx on that album."


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: Not long after the album appeared, Lennon reconciled with Ono, and she soon became pregnant. Determined not to lose another baby after three consecutive miscarriages, Lennon decided to halt his musical career for his family. Sean Lennon was born that October (on his father's 35th birthday); following the release of the compilation "Shaved Fish", Lennon would not return with a new release until 1980. "Stand by Me" was reissued in the US, with "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", on 4 April 1977. The album re-charted in the UK on 17 January 1981, at number 64. In the US, it was reissued in October 1980, also at budget price, and it was briefly reissued in the UK by the budget label Music for Pleasure with an alternative cover on 25 November 1981. After Lennon's death, the album, along with seven other Lennon albums, was reissued by EMI as part of a box set, which was released in the UK on 15 June 1981. In 1981, Belgium and France issued the album, along with the Beatles' "Rock 'n' Roll Music", as part of a box set. The album was first issued on CD on 26 May 1987. In 1988 it was reissued in Australia with an alternative cover and under the title "Rip It Up". In 2004, Yoko Ono supervised the remixing of "Rock 'n' Roll" for its reissue, including four bonus tracks from the ill-fated Spector sessions. These leftovers from the sessions had already appeared, as part of 1986's "Menlove Ave." (a collection of outtakes) or the "John Lennon Anthology" box set. (The Lennon/Spector co-composition "Here We Go Again" was not included on the remastered "Rock 'n' Roll", and can be found on "Menlove Ave." as well as the soundtrack album for "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and the 2010 "Gimme Some Truth" 4-CD set under the 4th CD entitled "Roots" featuring the "Rock 'n' Roll" tracks). In 2010, the original album mixes were remastered, the album was available separately or as part of the "John Lennon Signature Box".


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: Lennon planned to use some of his childhood drawings for the cover of his oldies album, and production had already begun when Lennon switched gears, so the artwork was used instead for "Walls and Bridges". In September 1974, May Pang attended the first Beatlefest convention at Lennon's behest, and met Jürgen Vollmer, an old friend of the Beatles from Hamburg, Germany, who had photographed the band from their Hamburg days. He was selling some striking portraits, and Pang immediately phoned Lennon to tell him of her find. Reuniting with Vollmer in New York, Lennon chose one of his photos for the album's cover.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: The photo depicts Lennon in a doorway with three blurry figures walking past him in the foreground. Those figures are George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe and Paul McCartney. It was taken on 22 Wohlwill Street in Hamburg. The album's working title had been "Oldies But Mouldies"; no official title had been chosen until Lennon saw the neon sign prepared as cover art by John Uomoto, with Lennon's name and the words "ROCK 'N' ROLL" beneath. This struck Lennon in a positive way, and it became the album title.


title: Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

text: "All tracks produced and arranged by John Lennon, except * produced by Phil Spector, and arranged by Spector and Lennon."


title: Dominican Civil War

text: The Dominican Civil War (), also known as the April Revolution (), took place between April 24, 1965, and September 3, 1965, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It started when civilian and military supporters of the overthrown democratically-elected president Juan Bosch ousted the militarily-installed president Donald Reid Cabral from office. The second coup prompted General Elías Wessin y Wessin to organize elements of the military loyal to President Reid ("loyalists"), initiating an armed campaign against the "constitutionalist" rebels. In riposte, the dissidents passed out Cristóbal carbines and machine guns to several thousand civilian sympathizers and adherents. Allegations of foreign communist support for the rebels led to a United States intervention in the conflict (codenamed Operation Power Pack), which later transformed into an Organization of American States occupation of the country by the Inter-American Peace Force. Elections were held in 1966, in the aftermath of which Joaquín Balaguer was elected into the presidential seat. Later in the same year, foreign troops departed from the country.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño was the first democratically elected president of the Dominican Republic. Sworn into office in February 1963, he tried to implement a number of social reforms, which caused the anger of the business magnates and members of the army, who initiated a rumor campaign that accused Bosch of being a communist. On September 25, 1963, a group of twenty-five senior military commanders, led by General Elías Wessin y Wessin, expelled Bosch from the country and installed Donald Reid Cabral as the new president. Reid failed to gather popular support, and several factions prepared to launch a counter-"coup"; Constitutionalists under Bosch, a group in the Dominican army under Peña Taveras, supporters of the former Dominican Revolutionary Party leader Nicolás Silfa and plotters siding with Joaquín Balaguer.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: On April 24, 1965, three junior officers requested a meeting with President Donald Reid Cabral, who rejected the offer after he had received news of a suspected anti-government plot. When Chief of Staff Riviera Cuesta was instead sent to discuss with the officers at the August 16 military camp, he was immediately detained. A group of military constitutionalists and Dominican Revolutionary Party (DRP) supporters then seized the Radio Santo Domingo building and issued calls of sedition while Constitutionalist officers distributed weapons and Molotov cocktails to their civilian comrades. The transmissions prompted the garrison of the February 27 camp and a unit of the Dominican Navy's frogmen to defect. Large numbers of police officers abandoned their positions and changed into civilian clothing.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: The following day, Reid appointed General Wessin y Wessin as the new chief of staff. Wessin rallied the government troops, branded them Loyalists, and announced his plans of suppressing the rebellion. At 10:30 am rebels stormed the presidential palace and arrested Reid. Several hours later, four Loyalist P-51 Mustangs conducted aerial bombings of the National Palace and other Constitutionalist positions, and one plane was shot down during the incident. A single Loyalist vessel, , on the river Ozama, also bombarded the palace. Fearing that a mob, which had gathered at the palace, would lynch Reid, the rebel commander Francisco Caamaño allowed him to escape, as Reid had already lost the support of the Loyalists. The majority of the DRP leadership fled the capital, and Constitutionalists mobilized a total of 5,000 armed civilians and 1,500 members of the military. On April 26, José Rafael Molina Ureña was declared the provisional president, and large crowds gathered in the streets to demand Bosch's return from exile.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: In the meantime, US diplomats in Santo Domingo initiated preparations for evacuating 3,500 U.S citizens. In the early morning of April 27, a group of 1,176 foreign civilians who had assembled in Hotel Embajador were airlifted to the Bajos de Haina naval facility, where they boarded and , as well as the helicopters of HMM-264, which evacuated them from the island to and . Later that day, 1,500 Loyalist troops, supported by armored cars and tanks, marched from the San Isidro Air Base, captured Duarte Bridge, and took position on the west bank of the Ozama River. A second force, consisting of 700 soldiers, left San Cristóbal and attacked the western suburbs of Santo Domingo. Rebels overran the Fortaleza Ozama police headquarters and took 700 prisoners. On April 28, armed civilians attacked the Villa Consuelo police station and executed all of the police officers who survived the initial skirmish. One US Marine battalion landed in Haina and later moved to Hotel Embajador, where it provided assistance in the upcoming airlifts. During the night, 684 civilians were airlifted to USS "Boxer". One US Marine was killed by a rebel sniper during the operation.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: On April 29, the US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, William Tapley Bennett, who had sent numerous reports to US President Lyndon Johnson, reported that the situation had reached life-threatening proportions for US citizens and that the rebels received foreign support. Bennett stressed that the US had to act immediately, as the creation of an international coalition would be time-consuming. Contrary to the suggestions of his advisers, Johnson authorized the transformation of evacuation operations into a large-scale military intervention through Operation Power Pack, which was aimed to prevent the development of what he saw as a second Cuban Revolution. It was the first overt U.S. military intervention in Latin America in more than 30 years, although it came on the heels of U.S.-backed coups in Guatemala and Brazil, as well as ongoing covert interference in Cuba.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: At 2:16 a.m. on April 30, 1965, the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division landed at the San Isidro Air Base and started the US military intervention in the conflict. During the next couple of hours, two brigade combat teams and heavy equipment were also dispatched. At sunrise the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment moved up the San Isidoro highway, securing a position east of the Duarte bridge. The 1st Battalion 505th Infantry Regiment remained at the airbase and sent out patrols to the perimeter. A force of 1,700 Marines of the 6th Marine Expeditionary Unit occupied an area containing a number of foreign embassies. The locale was proclaimed an International Security Zone by the Organization of American States (OAS). Earlier in the day, the OAS also issued a resolution calling the combatants to end all hostilities. At 4:30 p.m., representatives of the loyalists, the rebels, and the US military signed a ceasefire that was to take effect at 11:45 p.m. That timing favored the demoralized Loyalists, who had lost control of Ciudad Colonial.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: On May 5, the OAS Peace Committee arrived in Santo Domingo, and a second definite ceasefire agreement was signed, which ended the main phase of the civil war. Under the Act of Santo Domingo, the OAS was tasked with overseeing the implementation of the peace deal as well as distributing food and medication through the capital. The treaties failed to prevent some violations such as small-scale firefights and sniper fire. A day later, OAS members established the Inter-American Peace Force (IAPF) with the goal of serving as a peacekeeping formation in the Dominican Republic. The IAPF had 1,748 Brazilian, Paraguayan, Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, Salvadoran and Honduran troops and was headed by Brazilian General Hugo Panasco Alvim, with US Army General Bruce Palmer serving as his deputy commander.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: On May 26, US forces began gradually withdrawing from the island. On June 15, the Constitutionalists launched a second and final attempt to expand the boundaries of their stronghold. In the bloodiest battle of the intervention, the rebels began their attack on US outposts. Using the greatest firepower yet, they used tear gas grenades, .50-caliber machine guns, 20 mm guns, mortars, rocket launchers, and tank fire. The 1st battalions of the 505th and 508th Infantry quickly went on the offensive. Two days of fighting cost the US five KIA and 31 WIA. The OAS forces, consisting of a large number of Brazilians and whose orders were to remain at their defenses, counted five wounded. The Constitutionalists claimed 67 dead and 165 injured.


title: Dominican Civil War

text: The first postwar elections were held on July 1, 1966, and pit the conservative Reformist Party candidate, Joaquín Balaguer, against the former president Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño. Balaguer – with the support of the US – emerged victorious in the elections after he built his campaign on promises of reconciliation. On September 21, 1966, the last OAS peacekeepers withdrew from the island, which ended the foreign intervention in the conflict.


title: Brillouin zone

text: In mathematics and solid state physics, the first Brillouin zone is a uniquely defined primitive cell in reciprocal space. In the same way the Bravais lattice is divided up into Wigner–Seitz cells in the real lattice, the reciprocal lattice is broken up into Brillouin zones. The boundaries of this cell are given by planes related to points on the reciprocal lattice. The importance of the Brillouin zone stems from the description of waves in a periodic medium given by Bloch's theorem, in which it is found that the solutions can be completely characterized by their behavior in a single Brillouin zone.


title: Brillouin zone

text: The first Brillouin zone is the locus of points in reciprocal space that are closer to the origin of the reciprocal lattice than they are to any other reciprocal lattice points (see the derivation of the Wigner–Seitz cell). Another definition is as the set of points in "k"-space that can be reached from the origin without crossing any Bragg plane. Equivalently, this is the Voronoi cell around the origin of the reciprocal lattice.


title: Brillouin zone

text: There are also second, third, "etc.", Brillouin zones, corresponding to a sequence of disjoint regions (all with the same volume) at increasing distances from the origin, but these are used less frequently. As a result, the "first" Brillouin zone is often called simply the "Brillouin zone". In general, the "n"-th Brillouin zone consists of the set of points that can be reached from the origin by crossing exactly "n" − 1 distinct Bragg planes. A related concept is that of the irreducible Brillouin zone, which is the first Brillouin zone reduced by all of the symmetries in the point group of the lattice (point group of the crystal).


title: Brillouin zone

text: Within the Brillouin zone, a "constant-energy surface" represents the loci of all the formula_1-points (that is, all the electron momentum values) that have the same energy. Fermi surface is a special constant-energy surface that separates the unfilled orbitals from the filled ones at zero kelvin.


title: Brillouin zone

text: Other lattices have different types of high-symmetry points. They can be found in the illustrations below.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Akbaruddin Owaisi (born 14 June 1970) is an Indian politician and leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party in Telangana. Since 2014, he has been MLA of the Chandrayangutta constituency in the Telangana Legislative Assembly. Owaisi was appointed as the Chairman of Telangana Public Accounts Committee in 2019.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi has presided over the Chandrayangutta assembly constituency from 1999, winning for the fifth term in 2018. He assumed the position of floor leader in 2004.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: In 2011, while rallying, fifteen armed assailants attacked Owaisi with guns, swords and daggers. His assailants shot him in the abdomen, and he suffers from ongoing medical issues because the bullet is still lodged near his kidney which the doctors warned will affect his legs if removed.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi’s speeches have drawn comparisons with other populist leaders and his speeches have incited violence on multiple occasions.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi was born in Hyderabad on 14 June 1970. He was born to a Muslim family to Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi and his wife. Akbaruddin Owaisi and his father reconciled in 1998.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi has been elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Chandrayangutta constituency on five consecutive occasions, in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2018. He served as a deputy to his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi, who was leading the AIMIM in the House. In 2004, Akbaruddin became the floor leader of AIMIM in the Assembly upon Asaduddin's election to Lok Sabha from Hyderabad. He was re-elected in 2009 and lead the seven-member AIMIM in the House. Owaisi won his fourth consecutive victory in Assembly polls from Chandrayangutta assembly in 2014. Akbaruddin Owaisi won his Fifth Consecutive victory in Assembly polls from Chandrayangutta Assembly in 2018. In 2019, he was appointed as the Chairman of Telangana Public Accounts Committee.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi established Salar-e-Millat Educational Trust which runs a chain of Owaisi School of Excellence in Hyderabad. He provides free education to children in these schools.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Inside AIMIM Akbaruddin is know as Habeeb E-Millat. According to Companies House the trust is registered in the United Kingdom and Syed Mustafa Husseini is its director.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Academics suggest that Owaisi intentionally uses threatening language, and India's Hindu-led government to position himself and his party as a Pan-Indian Islamist movement. Subsequently, political commentators have drawn parallels between Owaisi's political strategy and Italy's nationalist, populist, right-wing Lega Nord party. Some describe Owaisi's brand of hate-speech as Stochastic, meaning the pan-Indian violence resulting from his speeches is sporadic and unpredictable. Thusly, Owaisi's words have a destabilising effect on India's nascent, sometimes fragile democracy.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: In August 2007, along with other elected and serving members of his party, Owaisi made death threats against Taslima Nasrin, pledging that the "fatwa" against her and Salman Rushdie would be upheld if they visited Hyderabad. Owaisi said, "we in Hyderabad want to behead this woman according to the fatwa."


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: While speaking at a rally in Kurnool in 2011, Owaisi used the derogatory terms Kafirs and Kufrastan to refer to MLAs in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Assembly. In the same rally he used the Urdu words "katil" (murderer), "darinda" (monster), "beimaan" (dishonest), "dhokebaaz" (cheat), and "chor" (thief) for the former Prime Minister of India, P V Narasimha Rao. Owaisi said that if Rao had not died, he (Owaisi) would have killed Rao with his own hands.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: In April 2012, Owaisi made derogatory and demeaning comments against the Hindu god Rama and his mother Kaushalya. Owaisi asked "Where all did Ram's mother go wandering and where did she give birth to him".


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: In August 2012, Owaisi claimed while speaking in Karimnagar that there have been "50,000" riots in India over 65 years since the country became independent. He claimed in the speech that a "majority" of those killed in the riots were Muslims.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: On 12 December 2012, Owaisi made derogatory remarks with hand gestures about a Hindu goddess at a public rally in Nizamabad. He said making hand gestures – "She, who is sitting," and added, "What is this new name Bhagyalakshmi, never heard of her. Shout such slogans such that the Bhagya also shakes and Lakshmi also falls down."


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: On 22 December 2012, Owaisi addressed a rally of twenty to twenty-five thousand people in the Nirmal town of Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh. In his two-hour-long speech, Owaisi made multiple comments against Hindus, Hindu deities, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party Punjab Kesari reported that Owaisi referred to the Hindus as "impotent" and the Indian police as the "impotent army". He said that not even one crore impotent men can together father one child. He said that these people (Hindus) cannot face the Muslims, and whenever the Muslims start dominating the Hindus, the impotent army (police) intervenes. and added that the Muslims could "teach the rest of the world a lesson". Akbaruddin said that 25 crore Muslims would need just 15 minutes without the police to show 100 crore Hindus who is more powerful and will finish off 100 crore Hindus in 15 minutes.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi referred to Ajmal Amir Kasab, one of the Pakistani terrorists of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, as a "child", and compared him with Narendra Modi. He said that if the Muslims of India united like the Muslims of Andhra Pradesh, Narendra Modi would soon be hanged. Owaisi threatened that if his words were not heard, "O India, destruction and ruin will be your fate". He threatened that India will witness a bloodshed which has not been seen in the last 1000 years. He also dared Narendra Modi to come to Hyderabad, threatening by saying "we will show him then". Owaisi justified the Mumbai bombings of 1993 by saying they were a reaction to the demolition of Babri Masjid and atrocities on Muslims in India. He also questioned the punishment handed out to the accused of the bombings, naming Tiger Memon as one of those punished even though Tiger Memon is still at large.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi denigrated Hindu gods in his speech. Owaisi mocked Hindu cremation by saying "when you (Hindus) die, you become air after burning and go astray." Owaisi talked in derogatory terms about heritage places of India including Ayodhya, Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves. He said that if Muslims go away from India, they will take the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Qutb Minar with them, adding "What will then remain here? Just a razed Ram temple in Ayodhya and naked statues of Ajanta."


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi compared the state of Muslims of India to the state of Muslims of the world. Owaisi said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishva Hindu Parishad, and the Bharatiya Janata Party were poisonous snakes, and to "crush their heads" a stick is enough.<br>


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: After the speech, Owaisi left for London citing "medical treatment" as the reason. NDTV reported on 3 January that Owaisi was getting treated for intestinal injuries he sustained when he was attacked over a land dispute in 2011. Owaisi returned to Hyderabad on 7 January 2013.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: During interrogation a former Islamic State suicide bomber claimed that Owaisi's speeches influenced him. An interrogation report from 2015 revealed that Owaisi's speeches inspired his Jihadi mindset, prompting him to join the terrorist organisation.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: On 28 December 2012, a petition was filed in a local court in Nampally of Hyderabad against Akbaruddin Owaisi for hurting the sentiments of Hindus, and for making inflammatory, derogatory and offensive remarks. The Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission directed the Hyderabad Police Commissioner to submit an inquiry report on the alleged hate speech by 17 January 2013. On 3 January 2013, Abid Rasool Khan, General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, told the news channel CNN IBN that the state government had "taken cognizance of speech" and they were "collecting evidence to build a strong FIR and a water-tight case where we can book the person causing hatred." On 5 January 2013, a case was filed against Owaisi in Mumbai while a court in Vadodara served a notice on him for his alleged "hate speech". In May 2014, Andhra Pradesh government gave nod to prosecute Akbaruddin Owaisi in a 2004 case for an alleged hate speech.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi returned to Hyderabad on 7 January 2013 and was welcomed by his 7 MLA's and MIM leaders at the Hyderabad airport. He later drove to his house in the Banjara Hills area of the city. Owaisi failed to answer a police summons at Nirmal town on 8 January, citing ill-health, and asked for four days' time to appear for investigation. A team of doctors examined Owaisi at his home twice on 7 January. The police declared that he was fit for investigation, even though he complained of bad health. Owaisi also petitioned the High Court of Andhra Pradesh to quash the cases filed against him in lower courts. On 8 January, doctors examined him at the Gandhi Hospital and confirmed that their tests showed no medical grounds to prevent his arrest, following which he was arrested by Hyderabad police. At the Gandhi Hospital, Owaisi alleged that the doctors were trying to murder him by giving lethal injections.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: In 2019, Owaisi reiterated his 2013 remark that "if the police is removed for only 15 minutes that would be enough to balance the Hindu-Muslim population ratio" whilst speaking at a public meeting in Karimnagar, Telangana. Following the outburst, the 14th Additional chief metropolitan magistrate court in Telangana directed the Saidabad police force register a case against Owaisi after receiving complaints about a hate speech.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: On 13 April 2022, Owaisi was acquitted by a Telangana special sessions court from the changes of hate speeches delivered on 8 December 2012 in Nizamabad and on 22 December 2012 at Nirmal town due to contradictory evidences.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi's political opponents refer to him as a "divisive leader". The media frequently criticise him for his anti Hindu, "15 Minutes Speech", and for making death threats against Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: Several notable people and organisations criticised Owaisi for the speeches. The Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party president, G. Kishan Reddy called for booking Owaisi, annulment of his assembly membership and de-recognition of All India Majlis-e Ittihad al-Muslimin. Reddy said that "...religious bigotry, unabashed incitement of religious sentiments and contemptuous insinuation against Hindu gods and goddesses formed the crux of the speeches of a person who was sworn in as an MLA". In a statement issued by the Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA) on 30 December, several social activists criticised the speech saying that such "obnoxious" speeches will lead to division of society, violation of peace and conflicts. The social activists demanded exemplary action to prevent such "intolerable" acts in future. The signatories to the statement included Asghar Ali Engineer, Swami Agnivesh, Mahesh Bhatt, Hamid Mohammed Khan, Sandeep Pandey and Ram Puniyani. Journalist and BJP leader Balbir Punj said that Owaisi's speech was tantamount to inciting Muslims to revolt against the police and army and start a civil war, and he added that the silence of the media was surprising. Senior Congress Leader and National Spokesperson Raashid Alvi said, "I don't know what Akbar said in his speech and i don't think he said what you just mentioned, but i am sure that Andhra Pradesh Government will do the needful". Asaduddin Owaisi, elder brother of Akbaruddin, refused to comment on the speech saying the matter is sub judice. Congress politician Digvijay Singh said that everybody should think before speaking and demanded action against people making such speeches. TV news channel Times Now reported that the speech was so inflammatory and so provocative that they had decided not to broadcast it. Najeeb Jung, vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia university, told CNN-IBN that the police were giving excuses of backroom investigation. However, it only took two-minutes to investigate since the "TV cutout" was available for everybody to see and contents of speech were available on Wikipedia for everybody to read. Jung said that the speech incited incendiary feelings between two communities of an extremely serious nature, and refused to believe Owaisi was ill. BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said referring to Owaisi and his party that the spirit of Osama bin Laden had entered into such people and they were trying to behave like the Taliban.


title: Akbaruddin Owaisi

text: The speech sparked anger and outrage on Twitter. On 28 December, journalists Karan Thapar and Swapan Dasgupta tweeted "Inflammatory speech by MLA Akbaruddin – Remove police for 15 mins, We will finish off 1 billion Hindus." Writer Taslima Nasrin tweeted that Owaisi is trying to indoctrinate the Muslims of India and such speeches will "produce thousands of Kasabs". Farhan Akhtar tweeted on 2 January 2013: "How can two girls be arrested in less than 24 hours for a harmless FB post, but Owaisi roams free after his blatantly communal rant. He said Owaisi is doing a disservice to the people he pretends to serve and represent. Fact is he represents only himself and serves only himself". Meanwhile, Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, when asked about Owaisi in an interview, stated that Akbaruddin Owaisi is not a Muslim leader. Shazia Ilmi said "Communalists like Owaisi should be arrested and not be glorified! They spew hatred, divide Indians and insult our nation".


title: History of Walmart

text: The history of Walmart, an American discount department store chain, began in 1950 when businessman Sam Walton purchased a store from Luther E. Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas, and opened Walton's 5 & 10. The Walmart chain proper was founded in 1962 with a single store in Rogers, expanding outside Arkansas by 1968 and throughout the rest of the Southern United States by the 1980s, ultimately operating a store in every state of the United States, plus its first stores in Canada, by 1995. The expansion was largely fueled by new store construction, although the chains Mohr-Value and Kuhn's Big K were also acquired. The company introduced its warehouse club chain Sam's Club in 1983 and its first Supercenter stores in 1988. By the second decade of the 21st century, the chain had grown to over 11,000 stores in 27 countries.


title: History of Walmart

text: At some point, Sam Walton made the decision to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors by reducing his profit margin. Inspired by the successes of other discount department store chains, Walton opened the second store in Harrison, Arkansas, that year. Responsible for the purchase and maintenance of signage, Walton's assistant, Bob Bogle, came up with the name "Wal-Mart" for the new chain. By 1967, the company grew to 24 stores across the state of Arkansas, and had reached $12.6 million in sales, and by 1968, the company opened its first stores outside of Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri, and Claremore, Oklahoma.


title: History of Walmart

text: The company's first stock split occurred in May 1972 at a market price of $47. By this time, Walmart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma, and expanded into Tennessee in 1973, and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As the company expanded into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 associates, and total sales of $340.3 million.


title: History of Walmart

text: By 1977, Walmart expanded into Illinois and made its first corporate acquisition, assuming ownership and operation of the Mohr-Value stores, which operated in Missouri and Illinois. This was followed by the acquisition of the Hutcheson Shoe Company in 1978. In the same year Walmart also branched out into several new markets, launching its pharmacy, auto service center, and jewelry divisions.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1981, Walmart expanded into the southeastern US market, opening stores in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and acquiring 92 Kuhn's Big K stores. They expanded into Florida and Nebraska in 1982.


title: History of Walmart

text: In April 1983, the company opened its first Sam's Club store, a membership-based discount warehouse club, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. They also expanded into Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, and North Carolina and implemented "people greeters" in all of their stores. The first stores opened in Virginia in 1984.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1985, with 882 stores with sales of $8.4 billion and 104,000 associates, the company expanded into Wisconsin and Colorado, and the first stores opened in Minnesota in 1986.


title: History of Walmart

text: By the company's 25th anniversary in 1987, there were offices to track inventory, sales, and send instant communication to their stores. Continuing their technological upgrades, they had equipped 90% of their stores with barcode readers by 1988, to further assist in keeping track of their large inventory.


title: History of Walmart

text: In February 1988, company founder Sam Walton stepped down as chief executive officer, and David Glass was named to succeed him. Walton remained on as Chairman of the Corporate Board of Directors, and the company also restructured their senior management positions, elevating a cadre of executives to positions of greater responsibility.


title: History of Walmart

text: Also in 1988, the first Wal-Mart Supercenter was opened in Washington, Missouri. The supercenter concept features everything contained in an average Walmart discount store, in addition to a tire and oil change shop, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops such as banks, cellular telephone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, and fast food outlets.


title: History of Walmart

text: By 1988, Wal-Mart was the most profitable retailer in the United States, though it did not outsell K-Mart and Sears in terms of value of items purchased until late 1990 or early 1991.


title: History of Walmart

text: By 1988, Walmart was operating in 27 states, having expanded into Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Wyoming. By 1990, they expanded into California (which marked Walmart officially becoming a fully nationwide retailer), Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah. The Walmart Visitor's Center also opened this year on the site of Sam Walton's original store.


title: History of Walmart

text: The 1990s saw an era of furious growth on an unprecedented scale and the incorporation of several new ideas and technology into the business.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1990, US sales had quadrupled to $32 billion over the previous five years and Walmart acquired The McLane Company, a food service distributor, which was later sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1991, the company expanded into Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. Walmart expanded worldwide this year, with the opening of their first store outside the United States in Mexico City. They also acquired Western Merchandisers, Inc. of Amarillo, Texas. 1991 also saw the launch of the "Sam's American Choice" brand of products "Made in America" initiative, to stimulate American suppliers to produce more products and lower the price.


title: History of Walmart

text: On March 17, 1992 US President George H. W. Bush presented Sam Walton with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Walton died on April 5, 1992. His eldest son, S. Robson Walton, succeeded him as Chairman of the corporate board of directors, on April 7, 1992. This year, Walmart had a presence in 45 states which by this time expanded into Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, as well as Puerto Rico.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1993, the Walmart International Division was formed with Bobby Martin as its president. The company also expanded into Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Washington. Their stores also achieved the billion-dollar sales mark in one week in December 1993.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1994, the National Advertising Review Board challenged the Walmart slogan, "Always the low price. Always," contending that it implied that Walmart's prices were always the lowest and could mislead some shoppers. In response, Walmart adopted a new slogan, "Always low prices. Always."


title: History of Walmart

text: Also in 1994, the Code Adam program was instituted in Walmart stores. That same year, Walmart acquired 91 PACE Membership Warehouse clubs from Kmart and 122 Woolco stores in Canada in 1994. In addition, it opened 3 value clubs in Hong Kong, and had 96 stores in Mexico.


title: History of Walmart

text: By 1995, Walmart had 1,995 discount stores, 239 Supercenters, 433 SAM'S CLUBS and 276 international stores with sales at $93.6 billion (including US sales of $78 billion) and 675,000 associates. Walmart expanded into its final state (Vermont), and also expanded into South America, with three new units in Argentina and five in Brazil.


title: History of Walmart

text: The company entered the Chinese market in 1996 through a joint-venture agreement. Also, Walmart in Dickson City that had opened in 1992 closed due to falling debris (because it was built onto the side of a mountain) which hit the back of the store.In 1997, Walmart replaced Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company had its first $100 billion sales year, with sales totaling $118.1 billion. Also this year, they acquired 21 Wertkauf stores in Germany, and introduced their OneSource nutrition centers.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 1998, Walmart introduced the Neighborhood Market concept at three stores in Arkansas. Neighborhood Market stores are predominantly grocery stores, and are intended to attract customers with easier parking, less crowded aisles, and quicker checkout compared to an average grocery store. Internationally Walmart enters South Korea by acquiring 4 stores operated by Korea Makro.


title: History of Walmart

text: Also in 1998, Walmart launched its "Wal-Mart Television Network", a vast, in-store advertising network showing commercials for products sold in the stores, concert clips and music videos for a recording artist's media, trailers for upcoming movie releases, and news.


title: History of Walmart

text: The Asda chain in the United Kingdom became a subsidiary in 1999, and is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 2000, Lee Scott was named president and CEO and US sales had doubled to $156 billion since 1995. That same year, Walmart was ranked fifth by Fortune magazine on its Global Most Admired All-Stars list and in 2003 and 2004, it was named as the most admired company in America.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 2002, Walmart entered the Japanese market by acquiring a minor stake in Seiyu Group, who would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart by 2008.


title: History of Walmart

text: In 2005, Walmart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world, including 3,800 stores in the United States and 3,800 international units, and more than 1.6 million associates employed worldwide. Their US presence had grown so rapidly that there were only small pockets of the country that remained further than 60 miles away from the nearest Walmart. Approximately 138 million customers visited Walmart stores each week all over the world. Their corporate philanthropy efforts also assisted the US hurricane relief efforts with $18 million in cash donations. Through a purchase of stock in Central American Retail Holding Company (CARHCO), Walmart also entered the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.


title: History of Walmart

text: On May 22, 2006, Walmart announced the sale of its 16 stores in South Korea to Shinsegae Co, which rebranded the stores to E-Mart. Then on July 26, 2006 Walmart announced a complete pull-out from the German market; all existing 85 stores were sold to the Metro Group, which rebranded most of them to Real (hypermarket).


title: History of Walmart

text: On September 12, 2007, for the first time in 13 years, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save Money Live Better," instead of "Always Low Prices, Always." It commissioned Global Insight for the ads and the report stated that as of 2006, the retailer saves American families $2,500 yearly (up 7.3% from $2,329, 2004). The new research found that the reduction in price levels due to Walmart resulted to savings for consumers of $287 billion in 2006, equivalent to $957 per person and $2,500 per household.


title: History of Walmart

text: On June 30, 2008, Walmart unveiled the company's new logo, which stylized the name as "Walmart". A spark, a symbol chosen to represent Walmart associates, replaces the star. In early 2009, Walmart entered Chile by acquiring Distribucion y Servicio D&S SA. In May 2009 Walmart entered into a 50/50 partnership with Bharti to gain access to the Indian market.


title: History of Walmart

text: Also in 2008, a Walmart that was built atop a landfill in Garfield Heights, OH closed due to toxic fumes.


title: History of Walmart

text: On February 22, 2010, the company confirmed it was acquiring the video streaming company Vudu, Inc. for an estimated $100 million.


title: History of Walmart

text: In June 2011, Walmart acquired 51% of Massmart Holdings. This acquisition gives the company access to the African countries of: South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.


title: History of Walmart

text: The Massmart acquisition received final governmental approval in early 2012. The single store Mauritius was closed in January 2012.


title: History of Walmart

text: In light of recent events, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in the last eighteen months, as of July 2021; Walmart has displaced all cashiers at smaller stores and neighborhood locations. Such locations, only have Scan-and-Go self-checkout stations. Walmart Supercenter locations also will see replacement of cashiers by 2025, as mainly 25% of cashiers work in most locations, while other 75% cashier stalls are closed all day.


title: History of Walmart

text: In late 2005, Walmart designed two experimental stores, one in McKinney, Texas and the other in Aurora, Colorado, which featured wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, and xeriscape gardens.


title: History of Walmart

text: In March 2006, Walmart sought to appeal to a more affluent demographic, with the opening of a new supercenter in Plano, Texas, at the corner of Park Blvd. and the Dallas North Tollway which was intended to compete against stores that some viewed as more upscale and appealing. The new store features wooden floors, wider aisles, a sushi bar, a coffee/sandwich shop (with free Wi-Fi Internet access), a Subway, and higher-end items such as microbrew beer, expensive wines, and high-end electronics. The exterior sports the less-common hunter green background behind the Walmart letters instead of the trademark blue.


title: History of Walmart

text: In response to the popularity of organic food supermarkets, such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats, Walmart announced plans in May 2006, to increase the amount of organic food available in its stores. They announced that both conventionally grown and organic versions of certain products would be available, and the price of organic versions would not be more than 10% over the price of conventionally grown products. Since Walmart is one of the nation's largest grocery retailers, there was some concern expressed that their push to lower prices would not be sustainable for inexpensive organic food.


title: History of Walmart

text: Over the last decade or so Walmart has become involved in numerous lawsuits for a variety of reasons. The majority of the suits are class action lawsuits in which employees are suing for unpaid wages. They have also run into numerous discrimination cases in which employees are suing for being profiled out of money or out of jobs. For example, there were two separate cases, one in 2004 and one in 2005, in which black employees were suing two different Walmarts for denying them jobs based on race. These became so popular that the Reverend Jesse Jackson intervened and spoke during both of the proceedings. There are also many lawsuits in which women are suing Wal-Mart for discriminating against them. In one article written in 2004 USA today mentioned 32 different lawsuits that involved women suing Walmart. But still Walmart has prevailed. All of this has not had any effects on Walmart financially however, according to Fortune 500, Walmart still had $351 billion in revenue ($11 billion in profit) in 2007, a new high for the corporation.


title: History of Walmart

text: On December 3, 2008, the family of Walmart service worker Jdimytai Damour, who was killed by a stampede of shoppers frantically entering a Walmart store in Valley Stream, New York, on Black Friday (November 28), filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the corporation; Damour's family alleged Walmart of encouraging a mass number of customers to come to the store simultaneously. In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Walmart for "...inadequate crowd management following the Nov. 28, 2008, death of an employee at its Valley Stream, New York, store. The worker died of asphyxiation after being knocked to the ground and trampled by a crowd of about 2,000 shoppers who surged into the store for its annual 'Blitz Friday' pre-holiday sales event."


title: History of Walmart

text: , Walmart stores operate in Botswana, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Zambia.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: In the near future, children who have turned 16 years old are assigned by the government to a partner based on compatibility calculation, in order to increase the country's birth rate. Those who do not marry their assigned partner suffer severe penalties. Yukari Nejima finally confesses his love to schoolmate and long-time crush Misaki Takasaki and discovers she has liked him back. However, when he turns 16, he is assigned another girl, Ririna Sanada. Ririna is not that thrilled about being assigned, and is very willing to let Yukari freely relate with Misaki so she can learn what being in love is really like. The story follows their adventures of the teens as they try to relate with one another while keeping up appearances with the government.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: "Love and Lies" was serialized on DeNA's "Manga Box" app from August 2014 to January 2022. Twelve volumes were released by Kodansha. The French version, licensed by Pika Shonen, was first released on November 2, 2016 and the fifth volume was released on June 28, 2017. The English version has been licensed by Kodansha USA, with the first volume being released on August 22, 2017. An official fanbook was released on July 7, 2017 in Japan.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: An anime adaptation by Liden Films and directed by Seiki Takuno aired from July 4 to September 19, 2017. The four-member rock band Frederic performed the opening theme song titled while three-member unit Roy performed the ending theme song titled "Can't You Say". Sentai Filmworks have licensed the series and streamed the series on Anime Strike and on Hidive outside of the US. MVM Films has licensed the series in the UK.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: An original animation DVD was announced on the release of the seventh volume of the manga, with the DVD being bundled with the eighth volume of the manga on November 9, 2018. The release will include two episodes.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: A live-action film adaptation premiered in October 2017. Instead of a love triangle between one boy and two girls, it has one girl and two boys. The film stars Aoi Morikawa as Aoi Nisaka, the lead heroine; Takumi Kitamura as Yūto Shiba, Aoi's childhood friend; and Kanta Satō as Sōsuke Takachino, Aoi's arranged partner. The film was directed by Takeshi Furusawa and the screenplay done by Erika Yoshida.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: The manga's compiled book volumes have frequently ranked on Oricon's weekly top 50 comic charts. Volume 2 reached number 16, Volume 3 reached number 6, Volume 4 reached number 5, and Volume 5 reached number 15.


title: Love and Lies (manga)

text: Manga Box had reported "Love and Lies" as their most popular work with 3.5 million viewers, a month after the manga's launch in August 2014.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Alfa Romeo Spider (105/115 series) is a two-seater, front engine, rear drive roadster manufactured and marketed by Alfa Romeo from 1966 to 1994 in four distinct generations, or "Series", each with modifications ranging from modest to extensive.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: As successor to the Giulia Spider, the Spider remained in production for almost three decades. The first three Series were assembled by Pininfarina in Grugliasco and the fourth Series in San Giorgio Canavese. The last Spider of that series was manufactured in April 1993 — the last rear wheel drive Alfa Romeo before the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione of 2007.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In 2012, FCA Italy and Mazda studied the possibility of jointly developing a new Spider for 2015 based on the Mazda MX-5 platform. Ultimately, FCA and Mazda chose to manufacture a modern interpretation of the Fiat 124 Sport Spider rather than reviving the Alfa Romeo Spider.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In 1962 Alfa Romeo introduced the new 105 Series Giulia, which first complemented and then replaced the 101-series Giulietta. The sport variants of the Giulietta remained on sale for several more years, upgraded to the Giulia's 1.6-litre engine and rebadged Giulia, until analogous variants of the new models were ready.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Thus the Giulietta-based Giulia Spider 1600 and Giulia Spider Veloce were produced from 1962 to 1965 and from 1963 to 1965 respectively. The Alfa Romeo Spider was based on Giulia mechanicals, including its Alfa Romeo twin cam inline-four, independent front and solid axle rear suspension, and unibody construction, incorporating the relatively new principles of crumple zones into the front and rear. Following the evolution the other Giulia sport variants, the Spider was powered by a 1.6 L engine, later received a 1750 cc, then a 1300 cc, and finally a 2000 cc engine. Unlike any other Giulia derivative, it was upgraded and continued to sell through four decades, into the 1990s.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: As for its predecessor the Giulietta Spider, the Italian firm of Pininfarina was responsible for the design, manufacturing of the body, as well as final assembly. The 1600 Spider was the last project in which founder Battista Pininfarina was involved. Design director of Pininfarina at that time was Franco Martinengo.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The 1963 Giulia GT Spider was intended as a replacement for the Pininfarina-designed Giulia Spider. Centro Stile Alfa Romeo and Bertone presented a proposition for a two-seater sports car that was developed between 1962 and 1963. Chassis type 105.03 was the same as the future "Duetto" Spider. The car was designed by Ernesto Cattoni and realised by Bertone. The overal style was very similar to the Giugiaro-designed, coupé version of Giulia, but on a shorter chassis. The car never went into production and remained a prototype, bearing s/n 002.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The original 1966 Spider shape was the result of a number of Pininfarina design studies, concept cars showing traits incorporated in the final production design.<ref name="quattroruote 4/1966"></ref>


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The first one was the Alfa Romeo Superflow, a concept car built upon the chassis of a retired 6C 3000 CM racing car and first shown at the 1956 Turin Motor Show, designed by Aldo Brovarone. Despite being an aerodynamic coupé with prominent fins on the rear, and a futuristic all-plexiglas greenhouse and front wings, the Superflow already showed the overall body shape of the future Spider and the scallops on the sides.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In the following years the Superflow was updated three times into three more different concept cars, namely a Superflow II coupé, then an open-top spider and finally another Superflow IV coupé. The most significant in the Spider's design history was the second, the open-top Alfa Romeo Spider Super Sport, shown at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show. It did without the rear fins of the Superflow and Superflow II, showing for the first time the rounded cuttlebone-shaped tail and tail light configuration of the Spider.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Last of the Spider's forerunner was the Giulietta Sprint Speciale-based Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Spider Aerodinamica, which premiered at the 1961 Turin Motor Show. It was similar in shape to the production car, but for hideaway headlamps.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Despite the almost final design being ready in 1961, the continuing success of existing models and the economic challenges facing Italy at the time meant that the first pre-launch production Spiders began to emerge from the Pininfarina production line only at the end of 1965.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Spider was launched at the 36th Geneva Motor Show in March 1966, and together with the Giulia Sprint GT Veloce tested by the press at an event organised in Gardone Riviera. To choose a name for the spider Alfa Romeo announced a write-in competition, offering an example of the new car as a prize. Over 100,000 ballots were sent in, the great majority from Italy; the winner was Guidobaldo Trionfi from Brescia, who proposed the name "Duetto" (duet).


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: However it could not be officially adopted due to trademark issues, and the car was named simply Alfa Romeo Spider 1600.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Spider's 1,570 cc twin cam engine had dual Weber two-barrel side-draft carburetors, and produced (; or ). Sparsely fitted inside but including five speed manual transmission, disc brakes 15" wheels fitted with Pirelli Cinturato 155HR15 CA67 tyres. The price on launch in Italy was 2,195,000 lire. In the US the car sold for $3,950 (compared to $3,991 for a Lotus Elan and $2,607 for an MGB). In the UK the car's price was close to a Jaguar E-Type.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In January 1968, in Vietri sul Mare (Salerno), Alfa Romeo introduced the press to its "1750" line of cars, which included the new 1750 Berlina saloon, the Giulia Sprint-based 1750 GT Veloce coupé, and the 1600 Spider-based 1750 Spider Veloce, which replaced the original Spider 1600. All were powered by the same engine, a new 1,779 cc, (; or ) version of the Alfa Romeo twin cam engine.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Top speed rose to . The car did not bear any Spider badging, just a "1750" script below the rear Alfa Romeo badge. During the production run, the front repeater lights were moved ahead of the wheel arches.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: While in Europe the 1750 was fitted with two twin horizontal carburettors, starting with model year 1969 models for the North American market had SPICA (Società Pompe Iniezione Cassani & Affini, a subsidiary of Alfa Romeo) mechanical fuel injection. According to Alfa Romeo engine output and performance were unchanged from the carburetted version.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Modifications were also made to the suspension, brakes, electrics, 14" wheels and 165HR14 Pirelli Cinturato CA67 tyres, though the car looked effectively the same. Visible differences were limited to the rear-view mirror repositioned to the door, and badging on the tail, which read "Alfa Romeo" and "iniezione" (injection).


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: A new lower priced spider, the Spider 1300 Junior, was introduced in June 1968 alongside the GTA 1300 Junior competition coupé.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Top speed was . From a mechanical standpoint the Junior differed from the 1750 only in engine displacement and output, while inside it lacked some features of the pricier model: namely opening quarter lights, centre console, and the three-spoke wood rimmed steering wheel, replaced by a two-spoke plastic rimmed one. From outside the Junior version could be recognised by its black-coloured lower front bumper and absence of plastic headlamp fairings.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Due to the shape of its long, round tail, the Series 1 Spider is sometimes known as the "Osso di seppia" (Italian for cuttlebone) or "boat tail" to differentiate it from the "Kamm tail" Series 2. In North America the Series 1 is sometimes called the dovetail spider or Duetto.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In 1970 the first significant change to the exterior styling was introduced on the 1750 Spider Veloce, with the original's distinctive elongated round tail revised to a Kamm tail, improving luggage space. Numerous other small changes took place both inside and out, such as a slightly different grille, new door handles, a more raked windscreen, top-hinged pedals and improved interior trim.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: 1971 saw the Spider Veloce receive a new, larger powerplant—a 1962 cc, unit—and consequently the name was changed from 1750 Spider Veloce to 2000 Spider Veloce. The 1600 Spider restarted production a year later as the Spider 1600 Junior, and was visually identical to the 1300.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: 1974 saw the introduction of the rare, factory request, Spider-Targa. Based on the Spider, it featured a Porsche style solid rear window and black lift out GRP roof panels. Fewer than 2,000 examples were manufactured and this was the only Spider with a partly-solid roof Spider. The factory later introduced a model-specific hard top.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The 1300 and 2000 cars were modified in 1974 and 1975 respectively to include two small seats behind the front seats, becoming a "two plus two" four seater. The 1300 model was discontinued in 1977. Also, between 1974 and 1976, the early-style stainless-steel bumpers were discontinued and replaced with black, rubber-clad units to meet increasingly stringent North American crash requirements. The fuel injected (SPICA) 2-liter version for the US market received the "tipo" 115.41 model code.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: 4,557 of the 1300 Junior were made and 4,848 of the 1600 Junior. 16,320 Spider Veloce 2000 were made and 22,059 of the Spider Veloce 2000 Iniezione (US version). Of the 1750 Spider Veloce, 4,027 were made.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In 1978 former F1 champion Niki Lauda joined Brabham Alfa Romeo F1 team and to celebrate this new addition to Alfa's race team, it was decided that Niki Lauda was to be commemorated by a special edition Spider in his name. Niki Lauda special edition was launched at the 1978 Long Beach Grand Prix, the chassis # 001 was driven on the circuit by Niki himself. All together Lauda edition was made 350 examples. The car had only cosmetic changes, with the exception of the spoiler.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Series 3 Spider debuted in North America for the 1982 model year with the introduction of 2.0 litre Bosch electronic fuel injection to replace the SPICA mechanical injection.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Spider received a further styling revision in 1983, with introduction of black rubber front and rear bumpers, a front bumper incorporating the grille, a small soft rubber spoiler added to the rear kammback, and various other minor mechanical and aesthetic modifications. The 1600 car (never available in North America) dropped the "Junior" name.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The "Quadrifoglio Verde" (Green Fourleaf Clover) model was introduced in 1986, with many aesthetic tweaks, including sideskirts, mirrors, new front and rear spoilers, hard rubber trunk mounted spoilers with integral third stoplight, unique 15" alloys and optional removable hardtop. Different interior trim included blood red carpets and gray leather seats with red stitching. The QV was offered in only three colours: red, silver and black. It was otherwise mechanically identical to the standard Spider Veloce model, with a DOHC 2 valves per cylinder four-cylinder engine, fuel fed by twin two-barrel 40DCOM4/5 Weber carburetors in Europe producing at 5400 rpm and at 4000 rpm of torque; while in North American models retained the Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection introduced for the 1982 model year except that the VVT mechanism was now L-Jet activated and five-speed manual transmission.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The interior received a new center console, lower dash panels (to meet U.S. regulations) and a single monopod gauge cluster (with electronic gauges). For the North American market a model marketed as the "Graduate" acknowledged the model's appearance in the 1967 film, "The Graduate", starring Dustin Hoffman.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: The Graduate was intended as a less expensive entry-level model with the same engine and transmission as the Quadrifoglio and Veloce, but with steel wheels, manual windows, vinyl seats, and vinyl top. Air conditioning and a dealer-installed radio were the only options. The Graduate arrived in 1985 in North America and continued until 1990.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Minor changes occurred from 1986 to 89, including new paint colors, a center high mount stop lamp (CHMSL) midway through 1986 for North American models, a move away from the brown carpet and new turn signal levers.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: To comply with federal passive safety standards, a subset of Model Year 1988 examples featured automatic seatbelts with the shoulder belts' internia reel retractors mounted behind and between the front seats, and routed through guides mounted on the inboard shoulder of the upper seat backs.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Series 4 launched in 1990 with Bosch Motronic electronic fuel injection, full-width body-colored plastic bumper fascias, an electric cooling fan, full-width rear taillights, on-board diagnostics an optional automatic transmission — and eliminating the front under-bumper and rear trunk-lid spoilers of previous series.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In North America, Series 4 launched for model year 1991; 1990 models were Series 3 with Motronic fuel injection. North American Series 4 models featured power steering, larger knee bolsters and a driver-side airbag also appeared as standard for North American market Spiders, which were available in two configurations: Spider and Spider Veloce. The Veloce substituted leather seats for the base model's vinyl; 15" alloy wheels were one size up from the standard steel wheels with hubcaps; and air conditioning and a cloth top were standard.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Production of the original Spider ended in 1993. An all-new Alfa Spider was presented one year later.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: For French market a numbered edition was marketed as the "Beauté". 120 units were produced in white and navy blue two-tone, with blue hood and white leather seats.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: A limited edition Spider Commemorative Edition (CE) was manufactured for North America as a 1994 model. Each of these 190 carried a small numbered dashboard plaque. The CE carried a special badge on the nose, a "CE" script badge below the "Spider Veloce" emblem on the tail, gold center caps on 15" wheels, and burl wood interior trim. Each came with a leather portfolio, numbered keychain, and documentation. The cars followed the VIN sequence 008276 to 008460.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: In Europe this version was also marketed with 1.6 L engine used in series 3, fitted with Weber 40DCOM4/5 carburettors.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: Production of the first generation Alfa Romeo Spider spanned from 1966 to 1993, and amounted to 124,104 cars.


title: Alfa Romeo Spider

text: A 1966 Series 1 Spider 1600 is featured in the 1967 film "The Graduate", giving the model widespread visibility. A "Graduate" trim level was subsequently marketed in the United States in the 1980s.<ref name="conceptcarz.com/vehicle"></ref>


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan (, "Āzarbāijān" ; , "Āzerbāyjān" ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Iranian Azerbaijan includes three northwestern Iranian provinces: West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Ardabil. Some authors also include Zanjan in this list, some in a geographical sense, others only culturally (due to the predominance of the Azeri Turkic population there). The region is mostly populated by Azerbaijanis, with minority populations of Kurds, Armenians, Tats, Talysh, Assyrians and Persians.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Iranian Azerbaijan is the land originally and historically called Azerbaijan; the Azerbaijani-populated Republic of Azerbaijan appropriated the name of the neighbouring Azerbaijani-populated region in Iran during the 20th century. Historic Azerbaijan was called "Atropatene" in antiquity and "Aturpatakan" (Adurbadagan) in the pre-Islamic Middle Ages. Some people refer to Iranian Azerbaijan as South (or Southern) Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan as Northern Azerbaijan, although others believe that these terms are irredentist and politically motivated.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Following military defeats at the hands of the Russian Empire, Qajar Persia ceded all of its territories in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia to Russia via the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813 and the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828. The territories south of the Aras River, which comprised the region historically known as Azerbaijan, became the new north-west frontier of the Persian Empire and later Iran. The territories north of the Aras River, which were not known by the name Azerbaijan at the time of their capture by Russia, were absorbed into the Russian Empire, renamed the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic during the country's short-lived independence from 1918 to 1920, incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, and finally became the independent Republic of Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union dissolved.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The name Azerbaijan itself is derived from "Atropates", the Persian Satrap (governor) of Medea in the Achaemenid empire, who ruled a region found in modern Iranian Azerbaijan called "Atropatene". Atropates's name is believed to be derived from the Old Persian roots meaning "protected by fire." The name is also mentioned in the Avestan Frawardin Yasht: "âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide" which translates literally to: "We worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata." According to the "Encyclopaedia of Islam": "In Middle Persian the name of the province was called Āturpātākān, older new-Persian Ādharbādhagān (آذربادگان/آذرآبادگان), Ādharbāyagān, at present Āzerbāydjān/Āzarbāydjān, Greek "Atropatḗnē" (̓Ατροπατήνη), Byzantine Greek "Adravigánon" (᾿Αδραβιγάνων), Armenian "Atrpatakan" (Ատրպատական), Syriac "Adhorbāyghān"." The name Atropat in Middle Persian was transformed to Adharbad and is connected with Zoroastrianism. A famous Zoroastrian priest by the name Adarbad Mahraspandan is well known for his counsels. Azerbaijan, due to its numerous fire-temples has also been quoted in a variety of historic sources as being the birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster although modern scholars have not yet reached an agreement on the location of his birth.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: In the early the 19th century, Qajar Iran was forced to cede to Imperial Russia its Caucasian territories north of the Aras River (modern-day Dagestan, Georgia, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan), through the treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828). Following the disintegration of the Russian Empire in 1917, as well as the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, in 1918, the leading Musavat government adopted the name "Azerbaijan" for the newly established Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which was proclaimed on May 27, 1918, for political reasons, even though the name of "Azerbaijan" had always been used to refer to the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran. Thus, until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, this designation had been used exclusively to identify the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The oldest kingdom known in Iranian Azerbaijan is that of the Mannea who ruled a region south-east of Lake Urmia centered around modern Saqqez. The Manneans were a confederation of Iranian and non-Iranian groups. According to Professor Zadok:


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Mannaeans were conquered and absorbed by an Iranian people called Matieni, and the country was called Matiene, with Lake Urmia called Lake Matianus. Matiene was later conquered by the Medes and became a satrapy of the Median empire and then a sub-satrapy of the Median satrapy of the Persian Empire.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he appointed (328 BC) as governor the Persian general Atropates, who eventually established an independent dynasty. The region, which came to be known as Atropatene or Media Atropatene (after Atropates), was much disputed. In the 2nd century BC, it was liberated from Seleucid domination by Mithradates I of Arsacid dynasty, and was later made a province of the Sassanid Empire of Ardashir I. Under the Sassanids, Azerbaijan was ruled by a "marzubān", and, towards the end of the period, belonged to the family of Farrokh Hormizd.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Large parts of the region were conquered by the Kingdom of Armenia. Large parts of the region made up part of historical Armenia. The parts of historical Armenia within what is modern-day Azerbaijan comprise; Nor Shirakan, Vaspurakan, and Paytakaran. Vaspurakan, of which large parts were located in what is modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan is described as the cradle of Armenian civilization.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: On 26 May 451 AD, a very important battle was fought that would prove immensely pivotal in Armenian history. On the Avarayr Plain, at what is modern-day Churs (modern-day West Azerbaijan Province), the Armenian Army under Vardan Mamikonian clashed with Sassanid Persia. Although the Persians were victorious on the battlefield itself, the battle proved to be a major strategic victory for Armenians, as Avarayr paved the way to the Nvarsak Treaty (484 AD), which affirmed Armenia's right to practice Christianity freely.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, briefly held the region in the 7th century until peace was made with the Sassanids. After the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Arab invaders converted most of its people to Islam and made it part of the caliphate.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: During the Arab invasion of Iran, the Spahbed of Iran was Rostam Farrokhzad, the son of Farrukh Hormizd, who was the son of Vinduyih, the uncle of Khosrau I and brother of the Sasanian usurper Vistahm. Rustam himself was born in Azerbaijan and led the Sasanian army into battle. He is also mentioned in the Shahnameh.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Sasanian army was defeated at the battle of al-Qādisiyyah and Rostam Farrokhzad, along with many other Sasanian veterans, was killed. In 642, Piruz Khosrow, one of the Sasanian survivors during the battle of al-Qādisiyyah, fought against the Muslims at Nahavand, which was a gateway to the provinces of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Caucasian Albania. The battle was fierce, but the Sasanian troops lost during the battle. This opened the gateway for the Muslims to enter Azerbaijan. The Muslims then invaded Azerbaijan and captured Isfandiyar, the son of Farrukhzad. Isfandiyar then promised, in return for his life, that he would agree to surrender his estates in Azerbaijan and aid the Muslims in defeating his brother, Bahram. Bahram was then defeated and sued for peace. A pact was drawn up according to which Azerbaijan was surrendered to Caliph Umar on usual terms of paying the annual Jizya.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Muslims settled in Azerbaijan as they did in many parts of Iran. According to the Iranian Azerbaijani historian Ahmad Kasravi, more Muslims settled in Azerbaijan compared to other provinces due to the province's plentiful and fertile pastures. Local revolts against the Caliphate were common and the most famous of these revolts was the Persian Khurramite movement.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: After the revolt of Babak Khorramdin, who was a Zoroastrian of neo-Mazdakite background, the Abbasid caliphate's grip on Azerbaijan weakened, allowing native dynasties to rise in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was taken over by the Kurdish Daisam and the Sallarid Marzuban, the latter united it with Arran, Shirvan, and most of Eastern Armenia. After confrontations with the local Dailamite and Kurdish populations who had already established their own dynasties and emirates in different parts of Azerbaijan, the Seljuks dominated the region in the 11th and early 12th centuries, at which point the linguistic Turkification of the native Iranian populations began. In 1136, Azerbaijan fell to the Atabakan-e-Azerbaijan and Atabakan-e-Maragheh. It was later invaded by the Khwarizm Shah Jalal ad-din who held Azerbaijan until the advent of the Mongol invasions.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: In the early years of the 13th century, large parts of Azerbaijan were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia, at the time led by Tamar the Great. Under the command of the brothers Zakaria and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, the Georgians conquered Ardabil and Tabriz in 1208, and Qazvin and Khoy in 1210.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Mongols under Hulagu Khan established their capital at Maragheh. The book "Safina-yi Tabriz" describes the general state of Tabriz during the Ilkhanid period. After being conquered by Timur in the 14th century, Tabriz became an important provincial capital of the Timurid empire. Later, Tabriz became the capital of the Kara Koyunlu empire.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: It was out of Ardabil (ancient Artavilla) that the Safavid dynasty arose to renew the state of Persia and establish Shi'ism as the official religion of Iran. Around the same time, the population of what is now Azerbaijan and Iran were converted to Shiism, and both nations remain the only nations in the world with a significantly Shia majority, with Iran having the largest Shia population by percentage, with the Republic of Azerbaijan having the second-largest Shia population by percentage.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: After 1502, Azerbaijan became the chief bulwark and military base of the Safavids. It was the chief province from which the various Iranian empires would control their Caucasian provinces, all the way up to Dagestan in the early 19th century. In the meantime, between 1514 and 1603, the Ottomans sometimes occupied Tabriz and other parts of the province during their numerous wars with their Safavid ideological and political archrivals. The Safavid control was restored by Shah Abbas but during the Afghan invasion (1722–8) the Ottomans recaptured Azerbaijan and other western provinces of Iran, until Nader Shah expelled them. At the beginning of the reign of Karim Khan Zand, the Azad Khan Afghan unsuccessfully revolted in Azerbaijan and later the Dumbuli Kurds of Khoy and other tribal chiefs ruled various parts of the territory. Azad Khan was defeated however by Erekle II. With the advent of the Qajars, Azerbaijan became the traditional residence of the heirs-apparent. Even until then Azerbaijan remained the main area from where the high-ranked governors would control the various territories and Khanates of the Caucasus while the main power stayed in Tehran.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Though the first Qajar Iranian ruler, Agha Mohammad Khan, had reconquered the Caucasus and all of Iran in several swift campaigns, such as the harsh re-subjugation of Georgia in 1795, Iran would eventually irrevocably lose all of the Caucasus region to neighbouring Imperial Russia during the course of the 19th century, which had a crucial impact on the region of modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan. Shortly after the reconquest of Georgia, Agha Mohammad Shah was assassinated while preparing a second expedition in 1797 in Shusha. The reassertion of Iranian hegemony over Georgia did not last long; in 1799 the Russians marched into Tbilisi, which would mark the beginning of the end of the Iranian-ruled domains in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day Georgia, Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Dagestan thanks to the 19th century Russo-Persian Wars.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Since the late 17th/early 18th century, the Russians were actively pursuing an expansionist policy towards its neighbouring empires to its south, namely the Ottoman Empire and the successive Iranian kingdoms. Agha Mohammad Khan's death and the Russian troops entering the Iranian possession of Tbilisi in 1799, led directly to the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), the first of a number of Russo-Persian wars during the 19th century, and the most devastating and humiliating one. By the end of the war in 1813 and the resulting Treaty of Gulistan, Qajar Iran was forced to cede Georgia, most of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan, and Dagestan to Russia. The only Caucasian territories remaining in Iranian hands were what is now Armenia, the Nakhichevan Khanate, and the Talysh Khanate. The next war, the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), resulted in an even more humiliating defeat, with Iran being forced to cede the remaining Caucasian regions, as well as having Russian troops temporarily occupying Tabriz and Iranian Azerbaijan. As Iran was unwilling to allow the Russians to gain possession over its Caucasian territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus, the millennia-old ancient ties between Iran and the Caucasus region were only severed by the superior Russian force of Russia through these 19th-century wars.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The area to the North of the river Aras, which included the territory of the contemporary republic of Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Armenia, were Iranian territory until they were occupied by Russia during the 19th century.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Through the course of the 19th century Iran lost to Russia regions which had been part Iran for centuries. By the end of the 19th century, the border between Iran and Russia was set more southwards, at the Aras River, which is currently the border between Iran and Armenia – Azerbaijan.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Subsequently, the Russians were very influential in Northern Iran including Azerbaijan (as Northern Iran fell into Russia's sphere of influence for decades). After 1905, the representatives of Azerbaijan were very active in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution as a result to this Russian influence.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Russian (Tsarist) army occupied Iranian Azerbaijan in 1909 and again in 1912–1914 and 1915–1918, followed by Ottoman forces in 1914–1915 and 1918–1919; Bolshevik forces occupied Iranian Azerbaijan and other parts of Iran in 1920–1921, and Soviet forces occupied Iranian Azerbaijan in 1941, creating a very short-lived autonomous, Soviet-supported state from November 1945 to November 1946, which was dissolved after the reunification of Iranian Azerbaijan with Iran in November of the same year. The period roughly from the last major Russo-Persian War up to this date is so-called the period of high Russian influences in Iran. All of Northern Iran, including Iranian Azerbaijan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Qazvin, and many other places all the way up to Isfahan fell into the Russian sphere of influence. Russian armies were stationed in many regions of Iranian Azerbaijan, Russian schools were founded, and many Russians settled in the region, but less than in Gilan and Mazandaran. Also, Azerbaijan saw the large influx of the so-called White émigrées who fled to Iran following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Iranian nationalism is partly the product of Azerbaijani intellectuals. Azerbaijani provinces have played a major in the cultural and economic life of Iran in both the Pahlavi era as well as the Iranian Constitutional and Islamic revolution.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan, both West and East, possess a large number of monuments from all periods of history.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Iranian Azerbaijan is generally considered the north-west portion of Iran comprising the provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil. It shares borders with the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, and Iraq. There are 17 rivers and two lakes in the region. Cotton, nuts, textiles, tea, machinery, and electrical equipment are the main industries. The northern, alpine region, which includes Lake Urmia, is mountainous, with deep valleys and fertile lowlands.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The region is bounded in the north by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the West by Lake Urmia and Kurdish-inhabited areas of Iran, and in the East by Gilan.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: Most of the biggest rivers in Azerbaijan flow into either Urmia Lake or the Caspian Sea (both of which are endorheic). Some of the major rivers are:


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: "Arasbārān" in the former Qaradagh, is a UNESCO registered biosphere reserve (since 1976) and an Iranian Dept. of Environment designated "Protected Area" in East Azarbaijan Province, Iran, with a varying altitude from in the vicinity of the Aras River to and covers an area of . The biosphere is also home to some 23,500 nomads. Arasbaran is confined to Aras River in the north, Meshgin Shahr County and Moghan in the east, Sarab County in the south, and Tabriz and Marand counties in the west.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Mugan plain is a plain located between Iran and the southern part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The highest density of irrigation canals is in the section of the Mugan plain which lies in the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is located on the bank of the Aras river extending to Iran.


title: Azerbaijan (Iran)

text: The Urmia Plain is in the West Azerbaijan Province, situated on western side of Lake Urmia and the eastern side of Turkish border.