title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: The first story is about a young film buff named Satish, who lives with his mother. Satish has a habit of watching a Bollywood movie in theatres every Friday, on the last show of the day. He decides to watch the film "Darna Mana Hai". His mother warns him not to take the graveyard shortcut because it's Friday the 13th, a new moon night, and witches might appear. He pays no heed to his mother and takes the shortcut. He safely arrives at the cinema, buys his regular snacks, gets some change back, watches the movie, and returns home. On his return, he once again uses the graveyard shortcut. Walking through the graveyard, he hears clinking footsteps and begins to run. He sees a witch and falls to the ground in fright. His fear leads to his death. It turns out the footsteps were actually the coins jingling in his pocket as he walked and the witch he saw was actually a poster for a movie, "Darna Zaroori Hai".


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: Five children arrive at a haunted house. The resident of the house, an old woman, decides to tell them six scary stories. The children decide to have a competition to see who gets scared first. The first story is about a professor, Sunil Khanna, who is giving tuition to one of his Biotechnology students, Altaaf, at home. Every minute, the professor points out something (or someone) in his house, once in the kitchen, once in the dining room, and once on the sofa. The annoyed student decides to leave when the professor warns him not to leave the house, or the ghost will go after him as well. Curious, the student asks the professor about the ghost and the professor tells him that the ghost is an exact lookalike of himself, except he has a hollow face with a hat. The frightened student tries to run, but the professor takes him in front of the mirror and points at his reflection. The professor's reflection in the mirror looks exactly like the ghost he talked about.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: After the story, one child, Nisha, goes down to the washroom, only to come back as a ghost without revealing her real identity. Nisha sits down with the rest of the kids with a bowed head.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: The second story is about a photographer, Kunal, who finds a strange house when his car breaks down. There, Varsha invites him in and claims that she has been lonely for the past few years since her husband Rahul died. He tries to make a phone call, but is confronted by Rahul. He gets scared and says that Varsha opened the door, but gets astonished on listening that Varsha is the one who had died two years ago, and not Rahul. They then confess to a scared Kunal that they were playing a prank on him. The two explain to Kunal that Rahul has been trying to summon spirits and bring them down to earth. When Kunal interrupts by saying that he is in a hurry, Rahul plays as if he is summoning the spirit of a mechanic. After a few moments, the three hear a door knock. Rahul goes outside to check, and then he screams for Varsha. Rahul and Varsha find the corpse of Kunal on the driving seat of his broken-down car. Just then, Kunal walks out and declares in a chilly voice that spirits do come, whenever they are called, but sometimes sending them back becomes very difficult. He continues to laugh in a chilly voice.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: The third story revolves around a couple, Vishwas and his wife, who live with their son, Chintu. One day, the three are visited by an insurance agent Prabhakar Panditwho, who keeps warning them about the risks of life and that accidents are never predicted. Vishwas kicks him out of the house and their doorbell suddenly rings. They open the door, but find no one there. They go back inside the house, but the bell rings yet again. It is the agent again, who claims that it is raining outside and he has left his umbrella inside. He takes out many things such as a knife, a rope and a gun, which all represent different ways to die in life. Vishwas gets tired of him and asks him to leave. The agent then takes out the gun and threatens Vishwas and his family. Vishwas gets into a struggle with the agent, which results in the agent being accidentally shot. Before he dies, as if confirming his statement, he says, "See sir, accidents are never predicted!"


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: After the story, another child, Aditi, leaves the room to get water, but she comes back meeting the same fate as the two previous ones.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: A film director, Karan Chopra, decides to make a horror film. On the way to the sets, he gives a lift to a young woman, Riya, who pretends to be a ghost. Karan thinks she is just playing a prank, and Riya also claims later that she was just joking. When stormy weather hits, Karan takes Riya to his mansion. The electricity and lights go out and Riya's face starts to gore with blood. Karan still thinks that she is playing a prank, but when her voice turns ghostly, he falls to the floor and dies in shock. Riya takes off her mask, which was stained with fake blood, and a microphone that changed her voice to make it sound ghostly. It is revealed that she really was only playing a joke on him. She says that she was trying to audition for his new horror film, but it is too late now since Karan has already died.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: The fifth story centres on Ajay, a young man driving on the road. He finds a young woman standing on the highway. When he approaches her, he becomes frozen after seeing her burnt face. Shortly after, he wakes up in a jail and is accused of murdering a man. A police officer brings the mother of the murdered victim to the police station. But the mother is shocked to find that Ajay is possessed by the spirit of a woman, who turns out to be her daughter-in-law, Sandhya. It is revealed that the mother-in-law, her husband and her son had immolated the newly-wedded bride and her spirit has returned for revenge. Sandhya's spirit reveals that it possessed Ajay to dismember the son. The spirit possesses the police officer and shoots her mother-in-law. After the spirit leaves the officer's body, he realizes what has happened and secretly buries the body. Ajay is released and is driving back when he sees Sandhya's ghost in the backseat. She says that her father-in-law is in Pune on a business trip and she must fulfil her revenge. She assures him that she will not possess him; all he has to do is drop her to Pune.


title: Darna Zaroori Hai

text: After all of the stories are over, one boy, Ashu, claims that he is still not scared. The old lady smirks as the lights of the house suddenly turn off. The stunned boy looks around him. The lights turn back on immediately and he sees that he is the only one in the room: as if no one was ever there. The lights go off and turn back on again, this time to reveal his friends, all of whom are now ghosts, giving him eerie smiles. The old woman appears back on her chair, giving him a witch's smile. Realizing what is going on, the boy tries to make a frantic escape out of the house, but finds all the doors to be jammed and locked. Just as the boy looks back at the upstairs room to see if he was being followed, he sees the old lady right beside him, smirking. The old lady's hair is snow-white and scattered; her frightening smile gives the boy a heart attack and he dies at the scene. The next morning, the house is swarming with policemen and the media. The police clear away the bodies of the dead children. The old servant of the house tells the police officers that a long time ago, the house belonged to an old lady who loved children, but unfortunately, she had no children of her own. He explains that once he had left her for hours to get her some medication (just as the old lady had told the children), and when he returned, he found her dead. The film ends with a reporter reading the tragic story of a camping trip-turned-nightmare for the five children. He says that the exact cause of death of the children is still unknown and will most likely never be known, however, one thing is for certain- all the children died of cardiac failure or in simple words — fear.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Jerusalem (2009) is a play by Jez Butterworth; it opened in the Jerwood Theatre of the Royal Court Theatre in London. The production starred Mark Rylance as Johnny "Rooster" Byron and Mackenzie Crook as Ginger. After receiving rave reviews, its run was extended. In January 2010 it transferred to the Apollo Theatre; it played on Broadway in the summer of 2011.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The play has achieved wide acclaim: it has been described as "the greatest British play of the [21st] century" and one of the "best plays of all time".


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Butterworth's "Jerusalem" is not to be confused with the 2005 play of the same name by Simon Armitage.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: On St. Georges Day, the morning of the local county fair in Wiltshire, Johnny "Rooster" Byron, local 'waster' and modern-day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his young son wants him to take him to the fair, Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking, and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Johnny "Rooster" Byron – opinionated, eccentric, ex-daredevil and teller of fantastically improbable stories, he has a young son whom he rarely sees. He lives in a caravan in the local woods. He holds parties where he gets drunk and supplies drugs, some of them to under-age kids.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Ginger – underdog of the group, he is older than the others who hang around with Johnny, never having grown out of the lifestyle. He aspires to be a DJ, but is an unemployed plasterer.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The Professor – vague and whimsical, the elderly professor spouts philosophical nothings and unwittingly takes LSD.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Davey – young teenage abattoir worker who is best friends with Lee, and visits Rooster regularly for free drugs and alcohol. He can't stand the idea of leaving Wiltshire.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Troy Whitworth – local thug, the same age as Ginger. Troy's stepdaughter goes missing (after it is strongly implied he abuses her); he badly beats Johnny at the end of the play.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Lee – young teenager, he enters the play after having been hidden in the sofa asleep. He plans to emigrate to Australia the next day, despite having little money to take with him.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Phaedra – Troy's stepdaughter is seen at the beginning of both Acts One and Two singing the hymn "Jerusalem" and dressed in fairy wings. She is said to have disappeared; at the end of Act Two it is revealed that she is hiding in Johnny's caravan.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Pea and Tanya – two local girls who emerge from underneath Johnny's caravan, having fallen asleep drunk.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Dawn – Johnny's ex-girlfriend and mother to son Marky. Although she disapproves of his life, she kisses him again but there is no reconciliation.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Wesley – the local pub landlord, he is involved in the festivities for St George's Day and has been roped into doing Morris Dancing.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The BBC reported that the character of Johnny "Rooster" Byron was based on retired builder Micky Lay, who lived in a caravan in Pewsey, Wiltshire. Actor Mark Rylance met Lay and modelled his performance on Lay's mannerisms. He later gave Lay the Tony award he had received for his performance. Lay died of a heart attack in December 2013, while waiting for his local pub to open. Though the play does not specify a location of events, the community depicted is reportedly based on Pewsey, and the local festival is modelled on Pewsey's annual carnival fortnight.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The play makes frequent allusions to William Blake's lyrics to the song "Jerusalem", from which its title is derived.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The premiere of the play was at the Royal Court Theatre in London in the downstairs Jerwood Theatre. The staging involved live chickens, a live tortoise and goldfish, and several real trees surrounding an onstage caravan.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: It was directed by Ian Rickson and starred Mark Rylance as Johnny, Mackenzie Crook as Ginger, Alan David as the Professor, Tom Brooke as Lee, Danny Kirrane as Davey, Gerard Horan as Wesley and Barry Sloane as Troy Whitworth, Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Phaedra, Lucy Montgomery as Dawn, Dan Poole as Danny and Lennie Harvey as Marky.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: There are several of the Royal Court's trademark "in your face" shock tactics and an exceptionally high swear word count even by the exacting standards of the address, this rich three-hour play is also tender, touching, and blessed with both a ribald humour and a haunting sense of the mystery of things. — "The Daily Telegraph"


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: "Jerusalem" is a bold, ebullient and often hilarious State-of-England or (almost) State-of-Olde-England play... [Johnny] is a shrewd, bold, defiant, charismatic, even mesmeric man born out of his time. Imagine King Arthur reincarnated as a troll and you have something of the quality he brings to the debased pastoral he grittily, comically and finally mournfully inhabits. — "The Times"


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Rylance is magnificent in a hugely demanding role, and restores one's faith in the power of theatre to make a really beautiful noise and on a scale that is both epic and potentially popular. — "The Independent"


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Following a successful run at London's 380-seat Royal Court theatre, "Jerusalem" transferred to London's West End at the 796-seat Apollo Theatre for a limited 12-week season from 28 January 2010, closing on 24 April 2010. There it received its first negative review. Tim Walker in the "Sunday Telegraph" wrote of the character of Rooster: "With his chest out and his head back, lined up in a vertical line with his bottom, the actor does indeed resemble a rooster. The problem with the term 'local personality,' however, is that it is all too often a polite euphemism for a crushing bore, and three hours in Rooster's company does prove to be something of an endurance test." Rylance won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: "Jerusalem" opened on Broadway on 21 April 2011 at the Music Box Theatre, following previews from 2 April 2011. It was scheduled to play a limited season until 24 July 2011, and then got a four-week extension (to 21 August). Mark Rylance reprises the role of Rooster, with Mackenzie Crook and most of the original Royal Court cast also transferring. The full cast for the production was announced on 17 February 2011, with John Gallagher, Jr., Max Baker, Geraldine Hughes, Richard Short, Molly Ranson, and James Riordan joining the show. The play received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play, but lost to "War Horse". Rylance won the Best Actor in a Play award for his performance.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: After its Broadway engagement, "Jerusalem" returned to the West End in London, playing at the Apollo from 8 October 2011 until 14 January 2012. Again, reviews were very positive, with "The Daily Telegraph" critic Charles Spencer giving it five stars (out of five), describing Mark Rylance as "an actor of indisputable greatness, giving the most thrilling performance it has ever been my privilege to witness."


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In January 2014, "Jerusalem" had its west coast premiere at the San Francisco Playhouse in San Francisco, California. The first professional production of the play without the involvement of playwright Jez Butterworth, the play garnered positive reviews, with "San Francisco Examiner" critic Jean Schiffman lauding Brian Dykstra's "enthralling, complex portrayal" of Johnny "Rooster" Byron.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In February 2018, Toronto's The Company Theatre (TCT) and Outside the March co-produced the Canadian premiere of "Jerusalem" at Crow's Theatre's Streetcar Crowsnest in association with Starvox Entertainment. The production starred Canadian actor Kim Coates, marking his return to the stage after almost 30 years. The production featured TCT's largest ensemble cast since their production of "Festen" (2008), which boasted a cast of 14:


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: Helmed by Outside the March's Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman, the production's creative team was composed of longtime TCT collaborators Michael Sinclair (stage manager: "Speaking in Tongues", 2012/13; "Belleville", 2014; "Domesticated", 2015; "John", 2017), sound designer Richard Feren ("The Test", 2011; musical composition: "Belleville", 2014) and set designer Nick Blais ("Domesticated", 2015). Lighting designer André du Toit and costume designer Lindsay Dagger Junkin rounded out the creative team. The artistic team also included Outside the March's six Artistic Accomplices from 2018: Nevada Banks, Carly Fawcett, Nicholas LePage, Lucy Meanwell, Rais Clark-Mendes and Calvin Peterson.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: "Jerusalem" was nominated for six awards in the 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award, and won in every category: Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Performance by Male in a Principal Role - Play (Coates), Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, Outstanding Direction (Cushman), Outstanding Scenic Design (Blais), and Outstanding Lighting Design (du Toit). The play was also awarded the John Caplan Audience Choice Award.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: "Jerusalem" returned to the Apollo in the West End in London, in a run from 16 April 2022 until 6 August 2022, with Mark Rylance, Mackenzie Crook, Gerard Horan, Barry Sloane and Alan David reprising their roles as Johnny "Rooster" Byron , Ginger, Wesley, Troy Whitworth and The Professor respectively.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In 2014 an outdoor production created by Common Players with Northcott Theatre, reimagined as “New Jerusalem”, toured around Devon and Somerset.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: May 2017 at Hampton Hill Theatre, Hampton, United Kingdom. Steve Webb played Rooster. Directed by John Buckingham. Jez Butterworth sent a brief filmed message of support to the cast


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In Summer 2018 a production of "Jerusalem" was staged at The Watermill Theatre, near Newbury, with Jasper Britton as Rooster.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In June 2019, United Players in Vancouver, Canada, mounted a production at the Jericho Arts Centre. Directed by Kathleen Duborg, with Adam Henderson as Rooster, the production received a very positive reception during its run.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In July 2019, Grec Festival 2019 in Barcelona, Spain, mounted production at the Teatre Grec. Directed by Julio Manrique and translation into Catalan by Cristina Genebat.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: The play was listed in the book and iPad app "Played in Britain: Modern Theatre in 100 Plays", where it was selected as being among one hundred of the “best and most influential plays” performed in Britain from 1945 - 2010.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In 2013, the play was voted 6th in English Touring Theatre's public poll to determine the "nation's favourite play", and was one of the most popular plays with voters in London and the South East of England.


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In 2014, the play was voted 9th in "WhatsOnStage.com"'s public poll to determine "The top 100 plays of all time!"


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In 2015, the play was included in Michael Billington's list of the "101 greatest plays" ever written in any western language. Billington later made a list for "The Guardian" of "the 25 best British plays since Jerusalem" (to celebrate the play being revived at the Watermill Theatre 2018) where he described Butterworth's play as "the hit that transformed British theatre."


title: Jerusalem (play)

text: In 2019, Dominic Cavendish wrote an article for "The Telegraph" titled "The greatest British play of the century: why Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem is a masterpiece".


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is wide, with the stage of the same depth and high. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The foundation of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden lies in the letters patent awarded by Charles II to Sir William Davenant in 1662, allowing Davenant to operate one of only two patent theatre companies ("The Duke's Company") in London. The letters patent remained in the possession of the patentees' heirs until the 19th century. Their whereabouts were unknown for some time, but as of 2019 they are held in the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Duke's Company at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned "The Beggar's Opera" from John Gay. The success of this venture provided him with the capital to build the Theatre Royal (designed by Edward Shepherd) at the site of an ancient convent garden. Inigo Jones had developed part of this property in the 1630s with a piazza and St Paul's church (now known colloquially as the actors' church). In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, a market which survived in that location until 1974.


title: Royal Opera House

text: At the opening of the theatre on 7 December 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in procession into the building for its inaugural production of William Congreve's "The Way of the World".


title: Royal Opera House

text: During its first century, the theatre was operated primarily as a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the two companies, competition was intense, and the companies often presented the same plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, performing himself, under the stage name "John Lun", as Harlequin. A tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre until 1939.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 1734, the theatre presented its first ballet, "Pygmalion". Marie Sallé discarded tradition and her corset and danced in diaphanous robes. George Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1719, but his first season of opera for the theatre was not presented until 1734. His first opera was "Il pastor fido," followed by "Ariodante" (1735), and the première of "Alcina", and "Atalanta" the following year. In 1743 there was a royal performance of "Messiah"; its success resulted in a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances. From 1735 until his death in 1759, Handel gave regular seasons at the theatre; many of his operas and oratorios were written for that venue or had their first London performances there. He bequeathed his organ to John Rich, and it was placed in a prominent position on the stage. It was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre on 20 September 1808. In 1792 the architect Henry Holland rebuilt the auditorium; he expanded its capacity within the existing shell of the building.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (designed by Robert Smirke) opened on 18 September 1809 with a performance of "Macbeth" followed by a musical entertainment called "The Quaker". The actor-manager John Philip Kemble, raised seat prices to help recoup the cost of rebuilding and the cost of an increased ground rent introduced by the landowner, the Duke of Bedford, but the move was so unpopular that audiences disrupted performances by beating sticks, hissing, booing and dancing. The "Old Price Riots" lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audience's demands.


title: Royal Opera House

text: During this time, entertainments were varied; opera and ballet were presented, but not exclusively. Kemble engaged a variety of acts, including the child performer "Master Betty"; the great clown Joseph Grimaldi made his name at Covent Garden. Many famous actors of the day appeared at the theatre, including the tragediennes Sarah Siddons and Eliza O'Neill, the Shakespearean actors William Macready, Edmund Kean and his son Charles. On 25 March 1833 Edmund Kean collapsed on stage while playing Othello, and died two months later.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 1806, the pantomime clown Joseph Grimaldi ("The Garrick of Clowns") had performed his greatest success in "Harlequin and Mother Goose; or the Golden Egg" at Covent Garden, and this was subsequently revived, at the new theatre. Grimaldi was an innovator: his performance as "Joey" introduced the clown to the world, building on the existing role of Harlequin derived from the "Commedia dell'arte". His father had been ballet-master at Drury Lane, and his physical comedy, his ability to invent visual tricks and buffoonery, and his ability to poke fun at the audience were extraordinary.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Early pantomimes were performed as mimes accompanied by music, but as Music hall became popular, Grimaldi introduced the pantomime dame to the theatre and was responsible for the tradition of audience singing. By 1821 dance and clowning had taken such a physical toll on Grimaldi that he could barely walk, and he retired from the theatre. By 1828, he was penniless; Drury Lane held a benefit concert for him after Covent Garden refused.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 1817, bare flame gaslight had replaced the former candles and oil lamps that lighted the Covent Garden stage. This was an improvement, but in 1837 Macready employed limelight in the theatre for the first time, during a performance of a pantomime, "Peeping Tom of Coventry". Limelight used a block of quicklime heated by an oxygen and hydrogen flame. This allowed the use of spotlights to highlight performers on the stage.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Theatres Act 1843 broke the patent theatres' monopoly of drama. At that time Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket was the main centre of ballet and opera but after a dispute with the management in 1846 Michael Costa, conductor at Her Majesty's, transferred his allegiance to Covent Garden, bringing most of the company with him. The auditorium was completely remodeled after an 1846 fire, during the following 1846–47 seasons, the company performed at the Lyceum Theatre. The theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera on 6 April 1847 with a performance of Rossini's "Semiramide".


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 1852, Louis Antoine Jullien the French eccentric composer of light music and conductor presented an opera of his own composition, "Pietro il Grande". Five performances were given of the 'spectacular', including live horses on the stage and very loud music. Critics considered it a complete failure and Jullien was ruined and fled to America.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Costa and his successors presented all operas in Italian, even those originally written in French, German or English, until 1892, when Gustav Mahler presented the debut of Wagner's Ring cycle at Covent Garden. The word "Italian" was then quietly dropped from the name of the opera house.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Work on a third theatre, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, started in 1857, and the new building, which still remains as the nucleus of the present theatre, was built by Lucas Brothers and opened on 15 May 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots".


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Royal English Opera company under the management of Louisa Pyne and William Harrison, made their last performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 11 December 1858 and took up residence at Covent Garden on 20 December 1858 with the premiere of Michael Balfe's "Satanella" – the first opera to have its world premiere at the new theatre – and continued there until 1865.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The theatre became the Royal Opera House (ROH) in 1892, and the number of French and German works offered increased. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet were given, and the building was also used for pantomime, recitals and political meetings.


title: Royal Opera House

text: During the First World War, the theatre was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works for use as a furniture repository.


title: Royal Opera House

text: From 1934 to 1936, Geoffrey Toye was managing director, working alongside the Artistic Director, Sir Thomas Beecham. Despite early successes, Toye and Beecham eventually fell out, and Toye resigned.


title: Royal Opera House

text: During the Second World War the ROH became a dance hall. There was a possibility that it would remain so after the war but, following lengthy negotiations, the music publishers Boosey & Hawkes acquired the lease of the building. David Webster was appointed General Administrator, and Sadler's Wells Ballet was invited to become the resident ballet company. The Covent Garden Opera Trust was created and laid out plans "to establish Covent Garden as the national centre of opera and ballet, employing British artists in all departments, wherever that is consistent with the maintenance of the best possible standards ..."


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Royal Opera House reopened on 20 February 1946 with a performance of "The Sleeping Beauty" in an extravagant new production designed by Oliver Messel. Webster, with his music director Karl Rankl, immediately began to build a resident company. In December 1946, they shared their first production, Purcell's "The Fairy-Queen", with the ballet company. On 14 January 1947, the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its first performance of Bizet's "Carmen".


title: Royal Opera House

text: Before the grand opening, the Royal Opera House presented one of the Robert Mayer Children's concerts on Saturday, 9 February 1946.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Several renovations had taken place to parts of the house in the 1960s, including improvements to the amphitheatre but the theatre clearly needed a major overhaul. In 1975 the Labour government gave land adjacent to the Royal Opera House for a long-overdue modernisation, refurbishment, and extension. In the early 1980s the first part of a major renovation included an extension to the rear of the theatre on the James Street corner. The development added two new ballet studios, offices, a Chorus Rehearsal Room and the Opera Rehearsal room. Dressing rooms were also added.


title: Royal Opera House

text: By 1995, sufficient funds from the Arts Lottery through Arts Council England and private fundraising had been raised to enable the company to embark upon a major £213 million reconstruction of the building by Carillion, which took place between 1997 and 1999, under the chairmanship of Sir Angus Stirling. This involved the demolition of almost the whole site including several adjacent buildings to make room for a major increase in the size of the complex. The auditorium itself remained, but well over half of the complex is new.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The design team was led by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones of Dixon Jones BDP as architects. The acoustic designers were Rob Harris and Jeremy Newton of Arup Acoustics. The building engineer was Arup with Stanhope as developer.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The new building has the same traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium as before, but with greatly improved technical, rehearsal, office, and educational facilities. Additionally, a new studio theatre, the Linbury, as well as more public space was created. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, which had fallen into disrepair and was used as a scenery store before redevelopment, created a new and extensive public gathering place. The venue is now claimed by the ROH to be the most modern theatre facility in Europe.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Surtitles, projected onto a screen above the proscenium, have been used for all opera performances since they were introduced for school matinees in 1983/4 season. Since the reopening of the theatre in 1999 an electronic libretto system provides translations onto small video screens for some seats, and additional monitors and screens are to be introduced to other parts of the house.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 2014 design work, known as the Open Up Project, began with the aim of improving the entrances, lobby areas and the Linbury Theatre. As part of the Open Up Project, IQ Projects were tasked with the renovation of the upper floor bar area and restaurant utilising various elements of bespoke glazing.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In October 2020, the BBC reported that the Royal Opera House has lost 60% of its income as a result of restrictions implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence, the 1971 ""Portrait of Sir David Webster"" by David Hockney, which had hung in the opera house for several decades, was put up for auction at Christie's. It eventually sold for £12.8 million. The funds raised from the sale were needed to ensure the survival of the institution. "Significant redundancies" and an appeal for public donations have also been made. In addition, the opera house has applied for a loan to the Culture Recovery Fund.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Paul Hamlyn Hall is a large iron and glass structure adjacent to, and with direct access to, the main opera house building. The hall now acts as the atrium and main public area of the opera house, with a champagne bar, restaurant and other hospitality services, and also providing access to the main auditorium at all levels.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The building was formerly known as Floral Hall. It was originally built by the Opera House to house a flower market (also selling fruits and vegetables), hence the name. It was designed by Edward Middleton Barry and opened in 1860. After being used as a concert hall, it became part of the Covent Garden Market in 1887. A fire broke out in the building in 1956, after which it sat derelict. It was acquired by the Opera House in 1977 and used as storage space.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The redevelopment of the Floral Hall as part of the 1990s redevelopment project involved lifting up the cast iron structure to accommodate new public areas for the opera house underneath. The southern side of the hall now connected with another building, so the cast iron south portico was dismantled and rebuilt in Borough Market, where it is separately Grate II heritage listed.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The redevelopment had gone ahead on the strength of a pledge of £10m from the philanthropist Alberto Vilar and for a number of years, it was known as the Vilar Floral Hall; however Vilar failed to make good his pledge. As a result, the name was changed in September 2005 to the Paul Hamlyn Hall, after the opera house received a donation of £10m from the estate of Paul Hamlyn, towards its education and development programmes.


title: Royal Opera House

text: As well as acting as a main public area for performances in the main auditorium, the Paul Hamlyn Hall is also used for hosting a number of events, including private functions, dances, exhibitions, concerts, and workshops.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Linbury Studio Theatre is a flexible, secondary performance space, constructed below ground level within the Royal Opera House. It has retractable raked seating and a floor which can be raised or lowered to form a studio floor, a raised stage, or a stage with orchestra pit. The theatre can accommodate up to 400 patrons and host a variety of different events. It has been used for private functions, traditional theatre shows, and concerts, as well as community and educational events, product launches, dinners and exhibitions, etc., and is one of the most technologically advanced performance venues in London with its own public areas, including a bar and cloakroom.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Linbury is most notable for hosting performances of experimental and independent dance and music, by independent companies and as part of the ROH2, the contemporary producing arm of the Royal Opera House. The Linbury Studio Theatre regularly stages performances by the Royal Ballet School and also hosts the Young British Dancer of the Year competition.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The venue was constructed as part of the 90s redevelopment of the Royal Opera House. It is named in recognition of donations made by the Linbury Trust towards the redevelopment. The Trust is operated by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and his wife Anya Linden, a former dancer with the Royal Ballet. The name Linbury is derived from the names Linden and Sainsbury. It was opened in 1999 with a collaboration from three Croydon secondary schools (including Coloma Convent Girls' School and Edenham High School) in an original performance called "About Face".


title: Royal Opera House

text: In 2008 the Royal Opera House and Manchester City Council began planning stages a new development known as Royal Opera House, Manchester. The proposal would have seen the Palace Theatre in Manchester refurbished, to create a theatre capable of staging productions by both the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera. It was intended that the Royal Opera House would take residence of the theatre for an annual 18-week season, staging 16 performances by the Royal Opera, 28 performances by the Royal Ballet and other small-scale productions. A year later The Lowry sent an open letter to the then Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw, Arts Council England, Manchester City Council and the ROH, calling for the scheme, in its current form, to be scrapped. In 2010 it was announced that the project was being shelved as part of larger arts-funding cuts.


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Royal Opera House opened a scenery-making facility for their operas and ballets at High House, Purfleet, Essex, on 6 December 2010. The building was designed by Nicholas Hare Architects. The East of England Development Agency, which partly funded developments on the park, notes that "the first phase includes the Royal Opera House's Bob and Tamar Manoukian Production Workshop and Community areas".


title: Royal Opera House

text: The Bob and Tamar Manoukian Costume Centre, also designed by Nicholas Hare Associates, opened in September 2015, and provides a costume-making facility for the Royal Opera House and a training centre for students of costume-making from South Essex College. The building also houses the Royal Opera House's collection of historically important costumes.


title: Royal Opera House

text: Other elements at High House, Purfleet, include The Backstage Centre, a new technical theatre and music training centre which is currently run by the National College for Creative Industries and was formally opened by Creative & Cultural Skills in March 2013, alongside renovated farm buildings. Acme studios opened a complex of 43 artist studios in Summer 2013.


title: Royal Opera House

text: In addition to opera and ballet performances, the Royal Opera House has hosted a number of other events including:


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: , the city has an estimated population of 1,503,690, with 716,470 households, and a population density of 10,000 persons per km. Kawasaki is the only city in Japan with more than one million inhabitants that is not a prefectural capital. The total area is .


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Archaeological evidence from the Japanese Paleolithic and Jōmon period can only be found in the northwest Tama Hills. The course of the Tama and the coast of the Bay of Tokyo have also changed in historical times, so that large parts of the urban area are geologically young.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: With the introduction of the Ritsuryō legal system, the area came to the Musashi Province in the 7th century. In the Nara period, the center of the Tachibana district was probably in the area of today's Takatsu district. Since the Heian period, the domain of the Inage clan has expanded here. Around the Heiken-ji Buddhist temple (better known as Kawasaki-Daishi), founded in 1128, a monzen-machi, a busy district for the supply of pilgrims, soon emerged. Between the Kamakura period and Sengoku period, smaller feudal lords ruled the area until it finally came under the control of the Later Hōjō clan.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: In 1611, Koizumi Jidayū had Nikaryō Yōsui built, a canal system on the right bank of the Tama for irrigating the fields, which in some cases still runs through the densely built-up city. On the long-distance Kaidō roads Tōkaidō and Nakaharakaidō built by Edo-Bakufu, stations were built in the area of what would later become Kawasaki, which increased its importance. The Kawasaki station (Kawasaki-juku, near today's Kawasaki station) on the Tōkaidō was not officially recognized until 1623 as the last of the 53 Tōkaidō stations. The Bakufu let the bridges over the Tama collapse and there were ferry connections to nearby Edo in several places in today's Kawasaki, which laid the foundation for the development of the city.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: The rapid urbanization of the area, which continues to this day, began in the Meiji and Taishō eras. In 1872, Kawasaki Station was established on the Tōkaidō Main Line which was Japan's first railway line. In 1889, the city (machi) Kawasaki in the district (gun) Tachibana was created according to the Japanese municipal system introduced the year before. In 1912 the border between Kanagawa and Tokyo prefectures was established as the Tama River. On July 1, 1924, the independent city (shi-) of Kawasaki with 48,394 inhabitants was formed through a merger with the city of Daishi (formerly Daishigawara) and the village of Miyuki.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: As part of World War II, the city was bombed three times by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between April 1945 and July 1945. The most serious attack was an area bombing with Napalm bombs on April 15, 1945. The attacks destroyed around 35% of the urban area and claimed 1,520 dead and 8,759 injured. The attacks burned down 9.3 km of the city (see Bombing of Tokyo).


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: On April 15, 1945, large parts of the area around the train station and the industrial area at the port were destroyed by air raids. Since the 1950s, residential areas for commuters have been created in the northeastern part of the city, which are connected directly to the centers of Tokyo by new railway lines. On April 1, 1972, Kawasaki became a decree-designated city (seirei shitei toshi) with 5 districts. 1973 the population exceeded the million mark. In 1982 the new districts of Miyamae and Asao were created by splitting off from the districts of Takatsu and Tama. In the course of deindustrialization, industrial areas have recently been increasingly converted into residential areas (mostly Multi-family residential), so that a further increase in population density can be expected.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Kawasaki is located on the right bank of the Tama River, which flows into the Tokyo Bay here. The city lies like a narrow band between Tokyo in the northeast and Yokohama in the southwest. The city connects the two major cities and is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, the largest and most densely populated urban areas in the world.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: The eastern area along the coast of Tokyo Bay is a densely populated industrial zone, part of the Keihin Industrial Zone. In contrast, the western districts in the Tama Hills consist largely of residential areas for commuters in the Tokyo / Yokohama region.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: In the northeast, Kawasaki borders the Special wards of Tokyo (starting at Tokyo Bay) Ōta and Setagaya, in the northwest the cities (-shi) belonging to Tokyo Prefecture (-shi) Komae, Chofu, Machida, Inagi, Tama enclose the place. The opposite southwest side is entirely occupied by the districts of Tsurumi, Kōhoku, Tsuzuki and Aoba in the city of Yokohama. With the completion of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, the city of Kisarazu, located on the opposite side of the Tokyo Bay in Chiba Prefecture, also became a neighbor in December 1997.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Two rivers cross the urban area. The Tama unites with the tributaries Misawa, Yamashita, Gotanda, Nikaryō main river and Hirase; Katahira, Asao, Shimpukuji, Arima, E, Shibu and Yagami flow into the Tsurumi.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: The land on the coast of the city is crossed by a network of canals (Tama Canal, Suehiro Canal, Chidori Canal, Yakō Canal, Daishi Canal, Mizue Canal, Shiohama Canal, Iriesaki Canal, Asano Canal, Ikegami Canal, Minami-Watarida Canal, Tanabe Canal, Shiraishi Canal and the Sakai Canal). In addition, the historic Nikaryō Yōsui canal still exists in the hinterland.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Kawasaki is governed by Mayor Norihiko Fukuda, an independent elected on 27 October 2013. The city assembly has 63 elected members. Mayor Fukuda was re-elected to a second term in office on 22 October 2017 with support from LDP and Kōmeitō against former municipal MP Akiko Yoshizawa and KPJ-supported former primary school teacher Hirokazu Ichiko.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: The 60-member city parliament of Kawasaki was re-elected in the unified elections in April 2019. The LDP remained the strongest with 19 seats.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Kawasaki was in June 2008 the second Japanese "government-designated city" (seirei shitei toshi) after Hiroshima, which allowed foreigners to participate in municipal referendums.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: In the 105-member prefectural parliament of Kanagawa, the districts of Kawasaki used as constituencies together choose 18 deputies.


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: For the House of Representatives (Japan), Kawasaki comprises the constituencies Kanagawa 9 (in the west), 10 (in the east) and 18 (in the middle). In the 2017 election, these went unchanged to Liberal Democrats Kazunori Tanaka and Daishirō Yamagiwa and ex-Democrat Hirofumi Ryū for the Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope, later to the Mirai Nippon faction).


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Kawasaki has several factories and development bases of the companies of heavy industry (e.g., JFE Group, Nippon Oil Corporation) and high technology (Fujitsu, NEC Corporation, Toshiba, Dell Japan and Sigma Corporation).


title: Kawasaki, Kanagawa

text: Kawasaki is twinned with the following cities in Japan, worldwide, across the world, and on the entire Earth.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail (Jawi: ; 8 April 1932 – 22 January 2010) was the 24th Sultan of Johor and the 4th Sultan of Modern Johor. He succeeded his father Sultan Ismail upon the latter's death on 10 May 1981. He was the eighth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Supreme King or High King) of Malaysia from 26 April 1984 to 25 April 1989. Sultan Iskandar's reign lasted for almost 29 years until his death in January 2010. His children are married into the different royal houses of Malaysia. His eldest daughter Tunku Kamariah, the Tengku Puan Laksamana, married the Tengku Laksamana of Selangor, Tengku Sulaiman Shah. His successor and eldest son Sultan Ibrahim married Raja Zarith Sofiah of the Perak Royal Family. His daughter Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah married the heir apparent of Pahang, now Sultan Abdullah. His younger son Tunku Abdul Majid married a member of the Kedah Royal Family, Tunku Teh Mazni.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: As was the case with his grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim, Sultan Iskandar's independent mindset resulted in strained relations with the Malaysian federal government on numerous occasions. This was more so during his days as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, whereby a number of notable public incidents involved Sultan Iskandar. Nevertheless, Sultan Iskandar was reputed to show great concern to his subjects, and was held in high esteem by many of his subjects–particularly the Malays and Orang Aslis. His time as the Sultan of Johor was marred by accusations of violence and brutality. Sultan Iskandar was notorious for his bad temper which often resulted in violent episodes of rage and brutality to members of his staff and the general public. The 1992 Gomez incident surrounding the Sultan eventually culminated in the removal of "legal immunity" for members of the royal family.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar is reputed to have been a staunch disciplinarian, with willingness to occasionally voice personal opinions on governmental issues. On the personal side, subjects who have personally approached the Sultan in his later years described him as a person with a warm and generous personality. However, past critics had also argued that Sultan Iskandar was a person with a turbulent temper. These claims were made by citing records of past notorious incidents, which include an experience of being disinherited from being the Tunku Mahkota of Johor (or Crown Prince in English) by his father, in 1961, as well as a series of alleged criminal acts occurring between the 1970s and the 1990s which were published in the press and provoked widespread moral outrage within the Malaysian public.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: During his younger days as a prince, Iskandar was commonly known by his first name, "Mahmood" or his full name "Mahmood Iskandar". He largely discontinued the use of his first name after he became Sultan in 1981, although some people still referred to him by his full name on an occasional basis.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar (known as Tunku Mahmood Iskandar until 1981) was the third and eldest surviving son of Sultan Ismail ibni Sultan Ibrahim by Sultanah Aminah binti Ungku Ahmad, and was born on at 11:30 am. Friday 8 April 1932 in Istana Semayam, Johor Bahru. (He had two older brothers, both of whom died in infancy.) Mahmood received his primary and lower secondary education in Ngee Heng Primary School and the English College Johore Bahru (now Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar) in Johor Bahru. In 1952, he was sent to Australia for higher secondary education at the Trinity Grammar School. After completing high school in 1953, Mahmood travelled to the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, where he enrolled into the Upper Chine School for three years.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Upon completing his studies, Mahmood returned to Malaysia in 1956 and briefly served as a cadet officer in the Johor Civil Service, taking charge of affairs in District Affairs, Land and Treasury departments until his appointment as the Tunku Mahkota of Johor in May 1959.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Mahmood was appointed the Tunku Mahkota of Johor from 1959 to 1961, and Raja Muda of Johor from 1966 to 1981, by Sultan Ismail. On 29 April 1981, he was re-appointed as the Tunku Mahkota shortly before his father's death.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: On 10 May 1981, Mahmood was appointed as the Regent of Johor following the death of his father, and was sworn in as Sultan a day later, shortly before his father was buried. In turn, his younger brother, Tunku Abdul Rahman (not to be confused with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister), formerly the Tunku Mahkota of Johor for twenty years under Sultan Ismail, was demoted to a lower position, the Tunku Bendahara of Johor, a post which he held until his death in 1989. In the same year on 12 December, Sultan Iskandar was appointed as the Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Unlike the other preceding Sultan of Johors who had their own coronation ceremony, he did not have one.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Under the council of rulers, the elective monarchy system of Malaysia, Sultan Iskandar was elected on 9 February 1984 as the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, shortly before his predecessor's term expired on 26 April 1984. He succeeded the Sultan of Pahang as the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong on 26 April. A royal investiture was held shortly after that, in which he donned the traditional suit of the Agong, whereby he was officially installed. Sultan Iskandar served in the capacity as the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong until 1989, whereby the Sultan of Perak succeeded him. As the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Iskandar was automatically designated under constitutional provisions as the Supreme Commander of the Malaysian Armed Forces, holding the rank of the Marshal of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal Malaysian Navy and Field Marshal of the Army.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: On 8 April 2006, the Sultan appointed his grandson Tunku Ismail Idris—the son of the Tunku Mahkota then—as the Raja Muda during an investiture in conjunction on his birthday. The rank of Raja Muda denotes that Ismail is second in position in terms of the order of succession to the Johor royal throne.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar held annual open house events either at Istana Bukit Serene, his official residence, or at Istana Besar. On these days, the Sultan and his eldest son, the Tunku Mahkota, held special sessions whereby Johoreans came up to pay their respects to him. The Sultan also bestowed honorary awards on distinguished Malaysians from his annual birthday honours list on his birthdays. As a matter of convention, the state government gazetted 8 April as a state public holiday to mark his birthday.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Shortly before he became Agong in April 1984, Sultan Iskandar issued a proposal for the Orang Aslis to be referred to as the "Bumiputera Asli" (literally, Original Sons of the Soil). The proposal was made as Sultan Iskandar suggested that the Orang Aslis maintained a distinct identity from the Malays as the majority of them were not Muslims. The proposal was subsequently scrapped, and the government made subsequent attempts to assimilate the Orang Aslis with the mainstream Malay society. After his inauguration as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, he donated his Agong's salary to various scholarship boards that were open to Malaysians of all races.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar issued a decree in 2007 which only allowed residences and properties owned by the Sultan and the Tunku Mahkota to be called Istana, while properties belonging to other members of the royal family are to be known as "Kediaman". The terms "Istana" and "Kediaman" are translated as "Palace" and "Residences" in English, respectively. The following December, Sultan Iskandar gave his endorsement for the state government to gazette a proposed legislation which bans Muslims in the state from practising Yoga, citing that Hindu elements in the exercise went against Islamic teachings. Applications to seek the Sultan's consent came from the state religious council, who acted under the instructions of the National Fatwa Council.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar graced the official landmark opening of the Sultan Iskandar customs, immigration and quarantine complex on 1 December 2008, in the presence of the Tunku Mahkota and several key cabinet ministers. The complex was named in honour of the Sultan, who expressed optimism in its success during his opening speech.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Since his ascension to the throne, Sultan Iskandar fostered particularly close neighbourly ties with Singapore, by developing a personal rapport with top Singaporean leaders. This practice has also been taken up by his sons, the Tunku Mahkota and Tunku Aris Bendahara. Media reports highlighted the particularly warm reception which leaders of both countries received whenever they visited each other's domains, particularly in July 1988, when Sultan Iskandar's visit to Singapore marked the first official visit by any Yang di-Pertuan Agong since 1957. Between these years, Sultan Iskandar has been awarded or been given the following awards by Singaporean political leaders:


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Relations with Singapore took a dive after the International Court of Justice ruled in Singapore's favour following a long legal battle over the sovereignty of Pedra Branca. At the inaugural session of the 12th Johor State Assembly in 2008, the Sultan stated his stand on Malaysia's sovereignty over Pedra Branca, and vowed to find legal means to retrieve the island's sovereignty.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar also fostered a fairly close relationship with the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, particularly during his days as the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. In 2006, they were again seen together in public, after Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah made a state visit to Johor to express his interest in Iskandar Development Region.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Prior to his life as the Sultan or Agong, and even during the 1980s and early 1990s, Mahmood's reputation was more or less marred by a number of alleged controversial incidents which received occasional attention from the media. One of these earliest incidents was the loss of his status as Mahkota in 1961—a position which his father, Sultan Ismail, appointed to him two years earlier, citing reasons of alleged misbehaviour after confidential reports accusing him of incarcerating a policeman reached the Sultan. Iskandar's younger brother, Abdul Rahman (Tunku Mahkota of Johor) was appointed as the Tunku Mahkota in favour of him. Nevertheless, in 1966, Mahmood Iskandar was appointed the Raja Muda—which puts him second in line to the throne. In April 1981, Mahmood was reinstated as Mahkota shortly before his father's death the following month and was subsequently installed as the Sultan of Johor, under the orders of his father.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: However, some eyewitnesses challenged the legitimacy of Mahmood's reappointment as the Mahkota, by arguing that they witnessed Sultan Ismail already having lapsed into coma at the time of his appointment as the Regent. Records stated that Sultan Ismail lapsed into a coma on 8 May, three days before his death. Relations with the Menteri Besar of Johor, Othman Saat deteriorated when the latter questioned Iskandar's legitimacy to the throne, which led to an incident which saw the Sultan issuing an order to the Menteri Besar to vacate his office within 24 hours, shortly after Sultan Ismail's death, citing reasons for the need for that office space for his own. The Menteri Besar heeded his order, though the Sultan did not move in as he had said. Othman Saat subsequently resigned the following year as the Menteri Besar.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In 1972, Mahmood was charged for causing assault with a mace to two men for overtaking his car and was convicted the following year. A year later, reports also surfaced another similar attack upon a young couple, when Iskandar, together with his bodyguard, attacked them with chemicals and a mace after having offended him. Another alleged incident took place at about this time when Mahmood chained up two policemen in a dog kennel for a day after having angered him.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Five years later, Mahmood was charged and convicted of manslaughter after shooting and killing a man near his private helicopter whom he took to be a smuggler. In both cases, his father, Sultan Ismail, intervened and granted official pardons to Mahmood. Similarly, his eldest son, Tunku Ibrahim Ismail, was convicted in the 1980s of shooting dead a man in a nightclub during a feud, but was quickly pardoned.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In 1987, Sultan Iskandar was accused of causing the death of a golf caddy in Cameron Highlands by assault, following an incident in which the golf caddy laughed when the Sultan missed a hole. Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, pointed out that the Sultan (then the Agong) could not be prosecuted due to the immunity that was accorded to the rulers, yet he condemned Sultan Iskandar's actions at the same time. In the end the matter was let off without much public attention. The brother of the caddy – who also suffered injuries from the incident, being distressed from what he saw, subsequently ran amok in Kuala Lumpur and had to be quarantined in a mental hospital.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In late 1992, two separate assault cases by the Sultan himself as well as his younger son, Tunku Abdul Majid Idris, on hockey coaches culminated in the stripping of immunity of rulers from prosecution. Both cases received considerable headlines in the local and international news which was aptly dubbed as "The Gomez Incident". The incident was kicked off on 10 July 1992, when Sultan Iskandar's second son, the Tunku Bendahara– Tunku Abdul Majid Idris, lost his temper during a hockey match with the Perak hockey team after Perak won the match by a penalty stroke, and assaulted the Perak goalkeeper, Mohamed Ja'afar Mohamed Vello. The goalkeeper later lodged a police report on 30 July. The incident received public attention, especially when the matter was debated in parliament. The incident resulted in the Malaysian Hockey Federation issuing Majid -- then second-in line to the throne after his elder brother -- a ban of five years from participating in any tournaments following investigations. Tunku Abdul Majid was later convicted of assault in January 1993, of which the chief justice sentenced him to a year in prison, on top of a RM 2000 fine. He was released on a bail, and these charges were later dropped on grounds of immunity, which was still applicable at the time when the act was committed.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The Sultan responded to the ban by putting pressure on the state authorities to enforce isolation of the Johor hockey teams from all national tournaments. In November 1992, Douglas Gomez, a coach for the Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar field hockey team, expressed his displeasure of being called to withdraw from a semi-final national hockey match by the Director of the Johor Education Department. The incident attracted the attention of the Sultan, who personally summoned Gomez to his palace, Istana Bukit Serene, where he was promptly reprimanded and assaulted by the Sultan. Following Gomez's meeting with the Sultan, Gomez sought treatment to his face and stomach. Subsequently, he lodged a police report against the Sultan for assault. Gomez elaborated that the Sultan's bodyguards and members of the Johor Military Force present were merely onlookers, and that the Sultan was solely responsible for the injuries.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The assault resulted in a public outcry over the event which pressured all levels of the government right up to the top ranks of the federal government to investigate into the matter. In the closing months of 1992, and also the opening months of 1993, dozens of articles mentioning misdeeds by the royal families of several states–but in particular Sultan Iskandar himself were published. A good deal of these alleged misdeeds that were mentioned included the charging of exorbitant fines–way above the prescribed legal limits–upon offenders who had obstructed the Sultan's car, amongst others. Sultan Iskandar, nevertheless bore the brunt of the backlash by the numerous references centred towards alleged acts of criminal wrongdoings even though many of the listed acts were committed by other members of the royal family.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The vociferous spate of criticisms roused by the press prompted Members of Parliament of the Dewan Rakyat to convene a special session on 10 December 1992. All 96 parliamentarians present on that day passed a unanimous resolution which called for action to curb the powers of the rulers if necessary. During the special meeting, parliamentarians disclosed past criminal records of Sultan Iskandar and his two sons, all of whom had been involved in a total of at least 23 cases of assault and manslaughter, five of which were cases committed by the Sultan after 1981, two cases by the Mahkota and three cases by the Bendahara.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: A bill was passed by both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara on 19 and 20 January 1993 respectively. The bill, which proposed to remove legal immunity was approved by six out of nine sultans—but saw stiff opposition from three, two of which included Ismail Petra, the Sultan of Kelantan and the Sultan Iskandar himself. Sultan Iskandar took up the initiative to obtain more royal support to stall the implementation of the proposed bill. The bill, which proposed to strip rulers and members of the royal families of legal immunity, would make them prosecutable by the law in any cases of proven criminal wrongdoings.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar organised a rally which was to be held outside the palace with the aim of garnering public support to stall the bill's implementation. However, this was cancelled after intense pressure from the government. A report made during the rally quoted Sultan Iskandar calling upon all local civil servants to boycott state and federal functions in a show of support for his motion. Meanwhile, the federal government continued to pressure the rulers into assenting to the bills, which they did after several revisions of the bill were made by the government. Following which, the proposed bill was enshrined into the Federal Constitution in March 1993.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The bill allowed rulers who violated the laws to be prosecuted, while the Sedition Act of 1948 was also amended to allow public criticism of the rulers. A special court was created–presided by the Lord President of the Federal Court–to empower and prosecute members of the rulers and immediate members of the royal household.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar and his family members were not prosecuted for their past violations of the law on grounds that the royal immunity was still applicable when the incidences occurred. Nevertheless, shortly after the incident, Sultan Iskandar was prompted to take steps to rehabilitate his public image, which was more or less tarnished by the incident. In a public speech shortly after the episode, the Sultan was noted to have toned down somewhat on his hardline image and appeared to be somewhat more humble, appealing to Johoreans to maintain their loyalty to him.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The Gomez incident also led to a review and proposal by the Federal Government in August 1993 to disband the Johor Military Force (JMF). However, the bill to disband the JMF was subsequently repealed by parliament.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Shortly before his election as the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong in 1983, a spate of reports alleging Sultan Iskandar's intention to launch a coup d'état by launching a state of emergency to overthrow the government circulated within political circles, which reached Mahathir himself. The Sultan was reportedly having fostered close relations with several key military personnel, including the Army chief himself Jeneral Zain Hashim. The government subsequently took action to curb constitutional loopholes within the constitution and took to task of reducing the power of royal veto in passing legislation, culminating to a constitutional crisis in late 1983. Nevertheless, during his inaugural speech as the Agong in 1984, about a month after the constitutional amendments were passed in parliament, Sultan Iskandar voiced public support for the revised constitution and pledged to act in accordance to the Prime Minister's advise.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: A diplomatic scandal between the United Kingdom and Malaysia broke out in 1984, when several British newspapers published pieces on Sultan Iskandar's coronation, citing the headlines such as "Killer becomes King" and "King a Killer", which enraged the Malaysian government, who demanded an apology from the British government. The British government refused to apologise on behalf of the newspapers, hence triggering tensions between the two countries. Two months later, in June 1984, Sultan Iskandar in his capacity as the Agong, surprised the Malaysian public when he publicly called upon the Deputy Prime Minister, Musa Hitam, to make a public apology in front of the entire congregation present at the National Mosque. Sultan Iskandar, on his part, was angry over remarks which Musa made during the course of the 1983 constitutional crisis that he deemed to be disrespectful. Musa abided to the Agong's demand and boldly came forward to make the apology, which was greeted by a thunderous applause from the entire congregation. The event, which was broadcast live throughout the nation on Malaysian Radio (although the television stations abruptly terminated its broadcast halfway), was seen by many observers as an act of confrontation by the Agong to put Musa in his place.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In 1988, also serving in his capacity as the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong, the Lord President of the Federal Court Tun Salleh Abas was sacked by the Agong in what led to the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis. However, observers suggested a remarkably warm relationship between then-Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad with the Agong, both of whom shared common resentment against the chief justice, Salleh Abas. In 1973, Iskandar was convicted of assault and was sentenced to six months imprisonment, of which Salleh Abas served as the public prosecutor hearing the case. As the public prosecutor, Salleh had appealed to the chief justice, Raja Azlan Shah (father to the current Sultan of Perak), for handing down a heavier sentence for Iskandar, which naturally earned his wrath. The sacking of the Lord President, was however not without controversy, given the alleged manner in which the Agong and Prime Minister had handled the matter–including an incident which the Agong had refused to forgive the Lord President in spite of Salleh's willingness to offer his apology to the Agong, which he turned down.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar's public call to support Abdullah Badawi's administration in October 2006 created a minor stir among Mahathir's supporters, when he remarked that "Mahathir should act like a pensioner". The call came at a time when Mahathir's spate of criticisms against Abdullah's were at its most vociferous period. The Sultan was the first state ruler to publicly defend the policy of the government during the period of Mahathir's criticisms against the Abdullah administration. Earlier sources however, noted Sultan Iskandar's concerns with the deepening rift between Mahathir and Abdullah and had asked to be photographed together with the two leaders during the United Malays National Organisations (UMNO) 60th anniversary celebrations in Johor Bahru.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: A month later, in November 2006, another small stir erupted during the launching ceremony of the Iskandar Development Region, when Sultan Iskandar voiced his opinion that the Causeway, which connects Johor and Singapore, should be removed to allow ships to pass through and promoting development of the state. He also remarked that the people should be wary of all foreigners as they were "vultures" and also urged the people not to hold them in high regard, citing his displeasure that his ancestors were "deceived" by dirty tactics employed by colonialists to build the Causeway.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: At the inaugural 12th Johor State Assembly Seating in April 2008, a minor controversy erupted when one opposition member of parliament (MP), Gwee Tong Hiang, flouted dress regulations by appearing in a lounge suit and tie instead of the usual official attire and songkok. This resulted in him being dismissed from the assembly chamber shortly before the Sultan's arrival. Gwee, a Democratic Action Party (DAP) MP, reportedly argued that there was no stated order to wear the official attire and songkok and stated his desire to wear a western suit, promptly drew flak from other MPs and the Menteri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman who had earlier on met to agree to don in the official attire and songkok prior to the assembly, whereby Gwee was absent. The Sultan, apparently angry at Gwee, sharply criticised him two days later and publicly called upon Gwee to seek an audience with him.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: During his days as the Agong, Sultan Iskandar was often seen in public carrying a pistol in his waistband, which drew considerable concern and discomfort from the Malaysian public due to his past record of criminal offences. He was also reputed to have led a flamboyant lifestyle, which also drew similar scepticism. He was also known to be a motorbike enthusiast; documentaries on national patriotism would feature Sultan Iskandar, the then-Agong, riding out on a police motorbike and his flamboyant appearance during a few public ceremonies. These documentaries drew criticisms from the Malaysian public, who felt that the television clips of Sultan Iskandar were inappropriate for its theme and national image.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In 1956, Mahmood married Josephine Ruby Trevorrow, from Cornwall, United Kingdom, with whom he had four children, including his successor, Ibrahim Ismail and the current queen of Malaysia, Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah. The marriage ended with divorce in 1962. He remarried in 1961 – shortly before his divorce to Trevorrow, to Tengku Zanariah, who came from the Kelantan royal family. Tengku Zanariah had six children with the Sultan. Analysts such as Kate Wharton have observed that any literal references to Trevorrow's association with Sultan Iskandar was carefully omitted in all official biographies.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: As a youth, Mahmood qualified as a pilot, having trained in handling light and medium aircraft and helicopters. He was also apt in handling motorcycles, reportedly possessing the skills to strip a motorcycle down to its component parts and then reassembling it.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: The Sultan is also well known for his passion in many types of open-air sports, especially polo and golf. In his later years, he spent much of his free time at the Royal Johor Country Club. In addition, he also played tennis and squash on a regular basis. Within private circles, Sultan Iskandar was fondly known as "Moody", a testimony to his first name "Mahmud." His son, Abdul Majid, inherited his interest in amateur golf and once served as the President of the Malaysian Golf Association.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: He is involved in the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis which the then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad used his 1992 Gomez beating incident as a leverage to hijack the Malaysian judiciary system by sacking the then Lord of President of the Federal Court of Malaysia (Now known as Chief Justice of Malaysia), Tun Haji Mohamed Salleh bin Abas in an effort to claim his political success.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: In addition, he kept a large collection of pets, particularly peacocks, at his Istana Bukit Serene compound, where he lived with the Sultanah. In his youth, Iskandar resided at Istana Bukit Coombe, located at the top of Coombe Hill. It was built upon Dutch architectural designs, and was later renamed Istana Bukit Iskandar. The palace was later demolished in 1987, six years after Sultan Iskandar succeeded his late father as Sultan.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: He made a personal friendship with Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. His son picked Aquino up at Changi airport and drove to Johor where he and Aquino had a meeting with the latter days before the former Philippine senator was assassinated.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: After undergoing a coronary bypass operation in the United States in 2000, close aides reported that Sultan Iskandar slowed down somewhat in his pace of life and took to playing golf only on an occasional basis. A bout of bronchitis in January 2008 saw the Sultan being briefly admitted and treated in a local hospital.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar died on 22 January 2010 at 7:15 pm at the Puteri Specialist Hospital, Johor Bahru. after being admitted earlier in the day following an illness at age 77. His death was only officially announced at 11:20 pm by Menteri Besar of Johor Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman announced that flags be lowered to half mast Johor starting from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. He was brought to the Istana Besar, Johor Bahru for laying in state and is buried in the Mahmoodiah Royal Mausoleum the next day at 2:00 pm. Before that, the public was allowed to pay their last respects to Sultan Iskandar from early morning.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Among the royal family were present and other dignitaries were present to give their last respects is the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah, the Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, the Sultan of Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah, the Sultan of Kedah Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, the Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz, the Regent of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail, the Tengku Mahkota of Pahang Tengku Abdullah, and the Tengku Mahkota of Kelantan Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra. Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, cut short his visit to India to attend his funeral. Also present were Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: His son the Tunku Mahkota of Johor Tunku Ibrahim Ismail was proclaimed as the next Sultan of Johor also on 23 January.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: One of his grandsons (the son of his second son, Abdul Majid), Mahmood Iskandar, was named after him. Some of his children and grandchildren are also similarly named after his forebears, notably his older son, Ibrahim, who was named after the Sultan's grandfather, Sultan Ibrahim. Sultan Iskandar also followed his grandfather's and father's footsteps of using the royal monogram "S.I.". The monogram's letters represent the initials of their title and names respectively.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: Sultan Iskandar is a fourth generation descendant of Sultan Abu Bakar, who in turn was the son of Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim, the Temenggong of Johor. In turn, some of Daeng Ibrahim's patrilineal ancestors were also Temenggongs of Johor serving under their respective Sultans. It is from this ancestral heritage to which the dynastical name of his lineage is known—Temenggong dynasty. The preceding Sultan prior to Sultan Abu Bakar, Ali and his predecessors who ruled Johor from the 17th to 19th centuries, were descended from Abdul Jalil, a Bendahara. Abdul Jalil became Sultan in 1699 after the death of Sultan Mahmud Shah and adopted the title Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah IV. In this pattern, the names of the dynasties which the ruling houses of Johor were known. The Temenggong dynasty is also related to the Bendahara dynasty by bloodline; genealogical records show that Sultan Abdul Jalil IV is also a direct patrilineal ancestor of Sultan Iskandar.


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: α. Al-Mutawakkil Alallah (also spelled in Arabic as Motawakkil Alallah), which means "He who puts his trust in God" is an Islamic title used by the Sultan. (Najeebabadi, pg 465)


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: β. In Islamic cultures, the title Al-Marhum means "to one whom mercy has been shown. This is used for Muslim rulers who are deceased. (Schimmel (1989), pg 59)


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: δ. In Malaysian royalty, ibni means "son of" in English, derived from the Arabic term "ibn. Most laymen would otherwise use the term "bin" to denote "son of" in their names. "Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules" (1978), pg 390


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: ε. Section B Planning and Implementation, Part 3 Physical Planning Initiatives, CHAPTER 13, Johor Bahru City Centre, Iskandar Malaysia, pg 6, "... This was followed later by the 21st Sultan of Johor – Sultan Abu Bakar (1862–1895) who laid the foundation for developing Johor into a modern state. ..."


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: ζ. On Sultan Iskandar's 69th birthday, various companies and organisations published congratulatory advertisements wishing him well for the birthday. In these advertisements, the Sultan was addressed by his honorary titles and name: Duli Yang Maha Mulia Baginda Al Mutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, D.K. Sultan Dan Yang Dipertuan Bagi Negeri Dan Jajahan Takluk Johor Darul Ta'zim. (His first name "Mahmud" was not mentioned.) Advertisements, 8 April 2001, pg 2–3, 5–7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17–19, New Sunday Times "Special" (Sultan of Johor's Birthday)


title: Iskandar of Johor

text: η. The Temenggong is a high-ranking Malay official in ancient times, who is responsible to the Sultan. The duty of the Temenggong is to maintain law and order within the kingdom. In the case of Johor during the 19th century, the Sultan's powers were gradually diminished over the decades and it was under Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim when his authority supersedes those of the Sultan, effectively becoming Johor's paramount ruler. (Sardesai (1989), pg 58)


title: Ephemeris

text: In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly velocity) over time. Historically, positions were given as printed tables of values, given at regular intervals of date and time. The calculation of these tables was one of the first applications of mechanical computers. Modern ephemerides are often provided in electronic form. However, printed ephemerides are still produced, as they are useful when computational devices are not available.


title: Ephemeris

text: The astronomical position calculated from an ephemeris is often given in the spherical polar coordinate system of right ascension and declination, together with the distance from the origin if applicable. Some of the astronomical phenomena of interest to astronomers are eclipses, apparent retrograde motion/planetary stations, planetary es, sidereal time, positions for the mean and true nodes of the moon, the phases of the Moon, and the positions of minor celestial bodies such as Chiron.


title: Ephemeris

text: For scientific uses, a modern planetary ephemeris comprises software that generates positions of planets and often of their satellites, asteroids, or comets, at virtually any time desired by the user.


title: Ephemeris

text: After introduction of computers in the 1950's it became feasible to use numerical integration to compute ephemerides. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris is a prime example. Conventional so-called analytical ephemerides that utilize series expansions for the coordinates have also been developed, but of much increased size and accuracy as compared to the past, by making use of computers to manage the tens of thousands of terms. Ephemeride Lunaire Parisienne and VSOP are examples.


title: Ephemeris

text: Typically, such ephemerides cover several centuries, past and future; the future ones can be covered because the field of celestial mechanics has developed several accurate theories. Nevertheless, there are secular phenomena which cannot adequately be considered by ephemerides. The greatest uncertainties in the positions of planets are caused by the perturbations of numerous asteroids, most of whose masses and orbits are poorly known, rendering their effect uncertain. Reflecting the continuing influx of new data and observations, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has revised its published ephemerides nearly every year since 1981.


title: Ephemeris

text: Solar System ephemerides are essential for the navigation of spacecraft and for all kinds of space observations of the planets, their natural satellites, stars, and galaxies.


title: Ephemeris

text: Scientific ephemerides for sky observers mostly contain the positions of celestial bodies in right ascension and declination, because these coordinates are the most frequently used on star maps and telescopes. The equinox of the coordinate system must be given. It is, in nearly all cases, either the actual equinox (the equinox valid for that moment, often referred to as "of date" or "current"), or that of one of the "standard" equinoxes, typically J2000.0, B1950.0, or J1900. Star maps almost always use one of the standard equinoxes.


title: Ephemeris

text: Scientific ephemerides often contain further useful data about the moon, planet, asteroid, or comet beyond the pure coordinates in the sky, such as elongation to the Sun, brightness, distance, velocity, apparent diameter in the sky, phase angle, times of rise, transit, and set, etc.


title: Ephemeris

text: Celestial navigation serves as a backup to Satellite navigation. Software is widely available to assist with this form of navigation; some of this software has a self-contained ephemeris. When software is used that does not contain an ephemeris, or if no software is used, position data for celestial objects may be obtained from the modern "Nautical Almanac" or "Air Almanac".


title: Ephemeris

text: An ephemeris is usually only correct for a particular location on the Earth. In many cases, the differences are too small to matter. However, for nearby asteroids or the Moon, they can be quite important.


title: Ephemeris

text: Other modern ephemerides recently created are the EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon), from the Russian Institute for Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the INPOP ("") by the French IMCCE.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: The USS "Midway" Museum is a historical naval aircraft carrier museum located in downtown San Diego, California at Navy Pier. The museum consists of the aircraft carrier . The ship houses an extensive collection of aircraft, many of which were built in Southern California.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: The USS "Midway" was the United States' longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century, from 1945 to 1992. Approximately 200,000 Sailors served aboard the carrier, known for several naval aviation breakthroughs as well as several humanitarian missions. It was the only carrier to serve the entire length of the Cold War and beyond. It is currently a museum ship in San Diego, California.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: "Midway" opened as a museum on 7 June 2004. By 2012 annual visitation exceeded 1 million visitors. As of 2015 "Midway" is the most popular naval warship museum in the United States. The museum has over 13,000 members, and hosts more than 700 events a year, including more than 400 active-duty Navy retirements, re-enlistments, and changes of command. The museum also hosts approximately 50,000 students on field trips and 5,000 children in its overnight program annually.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: Admission includes a self-guided audio tour, narrated by former "Midway" Sailors to more than 60 locations, including sleeping quarters, engine room, galley, bridge, brig, post office, foc's'le, pilots' ready rooms, officers quarters, primary flight control, and "officers country". Other features include climb-aboard aircraft and cockpits, videos, flight simulators, and a narrated audio tour for youngsters.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: In addition to private events, the museum has hosted several events, including a nationally broadcast NCAA basketball game between San Diego State University and Syracuse University in 2012. "American Idol" has filmed an episode on "Midway", as have the Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, FOX News, "The Bachelor", "Extreme Makeover", History Channel, and Military Channel. The nationally televised annual "Battle on the Midway" collegiate wrestling showcase has been staged each November on the flight deck of the museum since 2017.


title: USS Midway Museum

text: Membership has grown to more than 25,000. A high definition, holographic movie theater, "The Battle of Midway Theater", was added in 2017, and in 2019 the museum added a virtual reality flight simulator ride in addition to its existing four flight simulators. The GI Film Festival and the San Diego International Film Festival have scheduled screenings at the museum.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The Reichstag of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) was the lower house of Germany's parliament; the upper house was the Reichsrat, which represented the states. The Reichstag convened for the first time on 24 June 1920, taking over from the Weimar National Assembly, which had served as an interim parliament following the collapse of the German Empire in November 1918.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: Under the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the Reichstag was elected every four years by universal, equal, secret and direct suffrage, using a system of party-list proportional representation. All citizens who had reached the age of 20 were allowed to vote, including women for the first time, but excluding soldiers on active duty. The Reichstag voted on the laws of the Reich and was responsible for the budget, questions of war and peace, and confirmation of state treaties. Oversight of the Reich government (the ministers responsible for executing the laws) also resided with the Reichstag. It could force individual ministers or the entire government to resign by means of a vote of no confidence, and under Article 48 of the constitution it could rescind emergency decrees issued by the Reich president. The Reich president could dissolve the Reichstag under Article 25 of the constitution, but only once for the same reason.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The Reichstag as a free and democratic institution ceased to exist following the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 which granted Chancellor Adolf Hitler the power to draft and enforce laws as he pleased.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The main rights, duties and responsibilities of the Reichstag were defined in the Weimar Constitution. (All references to constitutional articles can be found in the footnoted English translation).


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: Each voter had one vote, which was cast on an electoral district ballot. The number of seats was determined by proportional representation. The number of Reichstag seats fluctuated because they depended on the total number of votes cast, with one seat allocated for 60,000 votes. In 1919 the Weimar National Assembly consisted of 421 members; in 1933 the last Reichstag had 647.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: In the election to the Weimar National Assembly, the group of eligible voters expanded considerably, from 14,441,400 in 1912 (the last Reichstag election under the Empire) to 37,362,100 in 1919, primarily because women had been given the right to vote and the voting age was lowered from 25 to 20. Those who could not exercise the right to vote were active duty soldiers, people living in a sanatorium or nursing home and those in criminal or pre-trial detention. Citizenship had to have been obtained at least one year before election day. The election date was set by the Reich president. After November 1918 it had to be a Sunday or a public holiday, in accordance with a long-standing social democratic demand.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The Reich was divided into 35 electoral districts (sg. ) that were combined into 16 electoral associations (sg. ). The parties drew up a list of candidates for each electoral district in which they were participating and also a list of candidates at the Reich level.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: A district received one seat for every 60,000 votes cast for a list, with the first 60,000 votes going to the first candidate on the list (as ranked by the party), the second 60,000 to the second candidate, and so on. Residual votes were transferred to the level of the electoral association. There, the remaining votes from the districts making up the association were added together; for a full 60,000 votes, there was one seat from the district list that had contributed the most residual votes. Any additional remaining votes were carried over to the national level where a party again received one seat (from the national list) per 60,000 votes.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: A number of additional rules were added to this basic procedure. The most important was that a party could win seats only if it had received 30,000 or more votes in at least one district. Furthermore, a national list could deliver only as many seats as the party had already received in total at the lower levels. These provisions disadvantaged small parties without a regional focus. They nevertheless also resulted in a large number of parties being represented in the Reichstag. Beyond the 30,000 vote hurdle there was no minimum threshold (such as the 5% threshold of second votes in modern Germany) for a party to enter the Reichstag.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The Reichstag president and his deputies (the Presidium) were elected by Reichstag members at the beginning of the legislative period. According to parliamentary custom, a representative of the strongest party in the Reichstag was usually elected president.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The Presidium was supported by the Council of Elders (). The body consisted of the Reichstag president, the deputy presidents and a total of twenty-one members appointed by the Reichstag parties. Those appointed usually included the party chairmen. The Council of Elders was chaired and convened by the president or his deputies. The body was responsible for reaching agreement among the parties on agendas and work plans. These agreements were not, however, legally binding. The Council of Elders also determined the chairmen of the committees and their deputies as well as certain other organizational issues. In spite of its limited powers, the Council of Elders had considerable importance for the functioning of parliament. In essence, its tasks were comparable to those of the in the modern German Bundestag.


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: Between 1919 and 1933 there was one election to the constituent National Assembly and eight to the Reichstag. While parties of the political center dominated in 1919 (the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Centre Party and German Democratic Party (DDP)), the party spectrum of the Weimar Republic was characterized by fragmentation and, towards the end, increasing radicalization (the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Nazi Party (NSDAP)).


title: Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

text: The powers given to the Reich president in constitutional articles 48 and 25 (emergency decrees and dissolution of parliament) made possible the so-called presidential cabinets () from 1930 onward, when the Reich president and the Reich government largely did the legislative work instead of the Reichstag. The practice was reinforced by the electoral successes of the anti-republican Nazi Party and the Communist Party of Germany, which together had a majority in the Reichstag following the Reichstag election of 31 July 1932. In 1933 the National Socialists used the two constitutional articles, along with the ability to transfer legislation from the Reichstag to the government through an Enabling Act, to establish a dictatorship. With the banning of the left-wing parties and the forced self-dissolution of the center and right-wing parties in the spring of 1933, the Reichstag became a one-party pseudo-parliament dominated by the NSDAP. Its last session was held on 26 April 1942.


title: Wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: Wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured two disciplines, freestyle and Greco-Roman, which were further divided into different weight categories. Men competed in both disciplines whereas women only participated in the freestyle events, with 18 gold medals awarded. Wrestling had been contested at every modern Summer Olympic Games, except Paris 1900.


title: Wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: Around 288 wrestlers were expected to compete in 18 events at the 2020 Summer Olympics which was postponed in March 2020 and planned for 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics

text: 16 wrestlers compete in each division. The competition consists of a single-elimination tournament, with a repechage used to determine the winner of two bronze medals. The two finalists face off for gold and silver medals. Each wrestler who loses to one of the two finalists moves into the repechage, culminating in a pair of bronze medal matches featuring the semifinal losers each facing the remaining repechage opponent from their half of the bracket.


title: Scary Hours 2

text: Scary Hours 2 is the fourth extended play by Canadian rapper Drake and a sequel to his second extended play "Scary Hours" (2018). It was released on March 5, 2021, and features two collaborations with American rappers Lil Baby and Rick Ross. The lead single, "What's Next", was released alongside the EP with an accompanying music video.


title: Scary Hours 2

text: In January 2021, Drake announced that his upcoming sixth studio album "Certified Lover Boy" would be delayed until later in 2021. Two months later, "Scary Hours 2" was announced a day prior to release on Drake's social media platforms.


title: Scary Hours 2

text: The multi-single managed to chart on three charts, the Austrian, Italian, and German album charts, at number 10, 54 and 80, respectively.