title: AC Cars

text: In 1970, a special version of the coupé was built. It was based on an extended bodyshell that Frua built for Monteverdi which was supposed to become the second "Monteverdi 375/L" (Monteverdi chassis# 2002). After the alliance between Monteverdi and Frua broke apart in Summer 1969, that bodyshell remained in the Frua works in Turin. A year or so later Frua changed some details on front and rear, including some semi-hidden headlamps similar to those seen on the "Iso Lele" and the second series "Iso Grifo" before. The car was called AC 429; it remained a one-off.


title: AC Cars

text: The 1970s were not a good period for luxury car manufacturers and Derek Hurlock went searching for a totally new, smaller car. Mid-engined designs were in fashion at the time and in 1972 the Diablo, a prototype with an Austin Maxi engine and transaxle, was built by privateers Peter Bohanna and Robin Stables.


title: AC Cars

text: In much the same way as they had taken up the Tojeiro prototype and turned it into the Ace, AC acquired the rights and at the 1973 London Motor Show showed their own version, the mid-engined ME3000 with the 3.0-litre Ford Essex V6 engine installed transversely over a bespoke AC-designed gearbox. Development was virtually complete in 1976 when new Type Approval regulations were introduced. A prototype failed the crash test, and the chassis had to be redesigned. On the second attempt, the car passed with flying colours. This was a huge achievement for a tiny firm — Vauxhall had to make several attempts before the contemporary Chevette passed. For AC, such delays meant that the first production cars (now renamed 3000ME) were not delivered until 1979, by which time they were in direct competition with the Lotus Esprit. Although comfortable, brisk, nicely built and practical, the car's handling was heavily criticised by writers from Car Magazine, Autocar and Motor. AC's ambitions of selling 250 cars per year were a distant memory. After just 71 cars were sold, Hurlock called a halt to production as his health was suffering and the company was struggling in the teeth of a recession. In 1984, production stopped at Thames Ditton and the car and the AC name were licensed to a new company registered as AC (Scotland) plc run by David McDonald in a new factory in Hillington, Glasgow. Here, 30 cars were built, including a development car tested with Alfa Romeo's 2.5-litre V6 engine and a nearly complete Mark 2 prototype of the same. Regardless (or possibly because) of these developments, AC Scotland called in the receivers in 1985.


title: AC Cars

text: After selling the historic High Street works for redevelopment, AC themselves soldiered on as a service operation in the "21st Century" works on Summer Road until the Hurlock family finally sold their holdings in 1986 to William West.


title: AC Cars

text: After some complex machinations, the company was split between property interests and the car brand; the former was renamed and the latter was acquired by C.P.Autokraft's owner, Brian Angliss.


title: AC Cars

text: In 1982, Brian Angliss was running Autokraft, a Cobra restoration shop, parts supplier and replica manufacturer. To further such pursuits, he acquired some of the tooling from Thames Ditton and created the MKIV; the car had US-spec bumpers, a US-regulations compliant motor, and a larger interior with modern switchgear. About 480 cars were produced in his factory at Brooklands. He also produced a lightweight model which was more in tune with the original Cobra spirit, though it could not be exported to the US owing to federal regulations.


title: AC Cars

text: Early cars were sold as the Autokraft MKIV, but eventually Angliss acquired the rights to use the AC name. Derek Hurlock had been strongly protective of the name, but Angliss' high standards of craftsmanship won him over. When the Hurlock family finally sold up in 1986 Angliss fully acquired the AC trademark rights and set up a new AC company as a joint venture with Ford, who had also recently bought Aston Martin. A big conflict followed over the future direction for AC, but Angliss eventually won his independence as well as Ford's continuing and essential cooperation as an engine and parts supplier.


title: AC Cars

text: Also interested in aircraft, Angliss restored a Hawker Hurricane XIIB at Brooklands as well as acquiring two ex–Indian Air Force Hawker Tempest IIs as future projects. The Hurricane was registered as G-HURR and was destroyed in a fatal accident at the Shoreham air show in 2007.


title: AC Cars

text: Angliss looked for a new car to complement and perhaps replace the MKIV. At the 1993 London Motor Show, he introduced a new vehicle that he named the AC Ace. It was a modern automobile with a stainless steel chassis and an aluminium body, but was expensive to develop and build. The costs hit Angliss hard and he sold his large motor bike collection, vintage Bentley and other assets to try to make ends meet. The receivers were called in by 1996 after approximately 50 "new" Aces had been built.


title: AC Cars

text: In March 1996, largely due to the cost of developing the new Ace, Angliss' company went into receivership and was eventually sold to South African businessman Alan Lubinsky in December 1996, who continued car production in Weybridge, Surrey, under the name of AC Car Group Ltd.


title: AC Cars

text: Both the Cobra Mk IV and the Ace were made, and soon a 'CRS' version of the Mk IV was announced with a carbon fibre body shell, a 212 S/C version with Lotus twin-turbo V8 power, as well as the AC Superblower with a supercharger Ford V8. Two Aceca coupes (in closed version of the Ace) were also made.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2003, Carroll Shelby International and AC Motor Holdings Ltd. announced the production of an authentic Shelby/AC Cobra, with the production vehicle arriving at dealers in July 2004. Initially, available models included Shelby AC 427 S/C Cobra and Shelby AC 289 FIA Cobra, which would be branded as the CSX 1000 and CSX 7500 Series, respectively. In February 2004, the first handcrafted aluminium body shell was built at Frimley works.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2004, a new manufacturing plant was opened in Malta and production of the carbon-fibre-bodied AC MkV began. Due to problems with the factory building, production ceased in 2007.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2008, AC announced a joint venture with Brooklands Motor Company (the spiritual successor of Autokraft) in Weybridge, Surrey, UK and confirmed plans for the continuation of the traditional AC designed tubular chassis and aluminium-bodied models.<ref name="acheritage.co.uk/"></ref>


title: AC Cars

text: In April 2009, a joint venture in Germany was announced to manufacture the new AC MKVI. Following a supply deal with GM, the AC MKVI had a novel spaceframe chassis, 6.2-litre V8 engine and 6-speed manual transmission, and new Corvette brakes, retaining the original shape in lightweight composite material with the moulds taken from an original AC MKIII body. The car went into series production in July 2012 after two years of intense prototyping and development.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2010, AC announced a joint venture with the USA-based company Iconic which resulted in the design of the ultimate "Cobra": the "Iconic AC Roadster".


title: AC Cars

text: At the Geneva Motor Show in 2012, AC Cars showed three different models: the AC MK VI, AC MK II Classic, and AC 378 GT Zagato.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2020, AC Cars announced that they will be building a zero-emission version of the Cobra called the Series 1 Electric. 58 of these electric sports cars will be built alongside a 2.3-litre petrol version called the AC Cobra 140 Charter Edition.


title: AC Cars

text: In 2022, the new corporate structure began the production of 663 new AC Cobra models, with a slightly modified structure to adapt it to modern safety and technology requirements and obtain the European road homologation certificate.


title: AC Cars

text: In 1949, AC Cars produced four trains, each consisting three power cars and four coaches, for the Southend Pier Railway in Essex. These remained in use until 1976.


title: AC Cars

text: The company also ventured briefly into the railway rolling stock business, building five four-wheel railbuses for British Rail in 1958.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by Europeans in 1629, Lynn is the 5th oldest colonial settlement in the Commonwealth. An early industrial center, Lynn was long colloquially referred to as the "City of Sin", owing to its historical reputation for crime and vice. Today, however, the city is known for its contemporary public art, immigrant population, historic architecture, downtown cultural district, loft-style apartments, and public parks and open spaces, which include the oceanfront Lynn Shore Reservation; the 2,200-acre, Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Lynn Woods Reservation; and the High Rock Reservation and Park designed by Olmsted's sons. Lynn also is home to Lynn Heritage State Park, the southernmost portion of the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway, and the seaside, National Register-listed Diamond Historic District. The population was 101,253 at the time of the 2020 United States Census.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: The area that is now known as Lynn was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to English colonization in the 1600s. At the time of European contact, the area today known as Lynn was primarily inhabited by the Naumkeag people under the powerful sachem Nanepashemet who controlled territory from the Mystic to the Merrimack Rivers. Colonists would not establish a legal agreement with the Naumkeag over the use of their land in Lynn until 1686 after a smallpox epidemic in 1633, King Philip's War, and missionary efforts significantly reduced their numbers and confined them to the Praying Town of Natick.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: English colonists settled Lynn not long after the 1607 establishment of Jamestown, Virginia and the 1620 arrival of the "Mayflower" at Plymouth. European settlement of the area was begun in 1629 by Edmund Ingalls, followed by John Tarbox of Lancashire in 1631. The area today encompassing Lynn was originally incorporated in 1629 as Saugus, the Massachusett name for the area. Three years after the settlement in Salem, five families moved onto Naumkeag lands in the interior of Lynn, then known as Saugus, and the Tomlin family constructed a large mill between today's Sluice and Flax Ponds. The mill not only supplied grains and sustenance for the settlers and trade with the Naumkeag people, but was used to create brews and many fermented casks of hops and wines to send back to King George in England.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn takes its name from King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, in honor of Reverend Samuel Whiting (Senior), Lynn's first official minister who arrived from King's Lynn in 1637.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: A noteworthy early Lynn colonist, Thomas Halsey, left Lynn to settle the East End of Long Island, where he and several others founded the Town of Southampton, New York. The resulting Halsey House—the oldest extant frame house in New York State (1648)—is now open to the public, under the aegis of the Southampton Colonial Society.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: As English settlement pushed deeper into Naumkeag territories, disease, missionary efforts, and loss of access to seasonal hunting, farming, and fishing grounds caused significant disruption to Naumkeag lifeways. In 1675, Naumkeag sachem Wenepoykin joined Metacomet in resisting English colonization in King Philip's War, for which he was enslaved and sent to Barbados. In 1686, under pressure to demonstrate legal title for lands they occupied during the administrative restructuring of the Dominion of New England, the selectmen of Lynn and Reading purchased a deed from Wenopoykin's heirs Kunkshamooshaw and Quonopohit for 16 pounds of sterling silver, though by this time they and most surviving Naumkeag were residents of the Natick Praying Town.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Further European settlement of Lynn led to several independent towns being formed, with Reading created in 1644; Lynnfield in 1782; Saugus in 1815; Swampscott in 1852; and Nahant in 1853. The City of Lynn was incorporated on May 14, 1850.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Colonial Lynn was an early center of tannery and shoe-making, which began in 1635. The boots worn by Continental Army soldiers during the Revolutionary War were made in Lynn, and the shoe-making industry drove the city's growth into the early nineteenth century. This legacy is reflected in the city's seal, which features a colonial boot.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 1816, a mail stage coach was operating through Lynn. By 1836, 23 stage coaches left the Lynn Hotel for Boston each day. The Eastern Railroad Line between Salem and East Boston opened on August 28, 1838. This was later merged with the Boston and Maine Railroad and called the Eastern Division. In 1847 telegraph wires passed through Lynn, but no telegraph service station was built until 1858.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: During the middle of the nineteenth century, estates and beach cottages were constructed along Lynn's shoreline, and the city's Atlantic coastline became a fashionable summer resort. Many of the structures built during this period are today situated within the National Register-listed Diamond Historic District.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Further inland, industrial activity contemporaneously expanded in Lynn. Shoe manufacturers, led by Charles A. Coffin and Silas Abbott Barton, invested in the early electric industry, specifically in 1883 with Elihu Thomson, Edwin J. Houston, and their Thomson-Houston Electric Company. That company merged with Edison Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, forming General Electric in 1892, with the two original GE plants being in Lynn and Schenectady. Coffin served as the first president of General Electric.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Initially the General Electric plant specialized in arc lights, electric motors, and meters. Later it specialized in aircraft electrical systems and components, and aircraft engines were built in Lynn during WWII. That engine plant evolved into the current jet engine plant during WWII because of research contacts at MIT in Cambridge.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Gerhard Neumann was a key player in jet engine group at GE in Lynn. The continuous interaction of material science research at MIT and the resulting improvements in jet engine efficiency and power have kept the jet engine plant in Lynn ever since.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: One of the largest strikes of the early labor movement began in the shoe factories of Lynn on February 22, 1860, when Lynn shoemakers marched through the streets to their workplaces and handed in their tools, protesting reduced wages. Known as the New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860, it was one of the earliest strikes of its kind in the United States.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 1841, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, moved to Lynn as a fugitive slave. Douglass wrote his first autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," while living in Lynn. The publication would become Douglass's best-known work. Douglass, his wife, and their five children lived in Lynn until 1848.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: On February 1, 1866, Mary Baker Eddy experienced the "fall in Lynn", often referred to by Christian Scientists as significant to the birth of their religion.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 1889 a massive fire swept through the downtown of Lynn, and would not be matched in size until nearly 100 years later. At the time the loss was the third largest from fire in New England history. A total of 296 building were destroyed, including 142 homes, 25 stores, the Central Square railroad depot, four banks and four newspaper buildings. It was estimated that 200 families were made homeless and 10,000 jobs were lost. Estimates put the total loss as high as .


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn experienced a wave of immigration during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During the 30 years between 1885 and 1915, Lynn's immigrant population increased from 9,800 to 29,500, representing nearly one-third of the city's total population. Polish and Russian Jews were the largest single group, numbering more than 6,000. The first Jewish settlers in Lynn, a group of twenty Hasidic European families, mostly from Russia, formed the Congregation Anshai Sfard, a Hasidic, conservative Jewish synagogue in 1888.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Catholic churches catering to the needs of specific language and ethnic groups also testify to the waves of immigrants. St. Jean Baptiste parish, eventually including a grammar school and high school, was founded in 1886, primarily for French-Canadians. Holy Family Church conducted services in Italian beginning in 1922, and St. Michael's church also provided church services and a grammar school for the Polish-speaking community, beginning in 1906. St. Patrick's church and school was a focus of the Irish-American community in Lynn. St. George's Greek Orthodox Church was founded in Lynn in 1905. Later in the 20th century, the city became an important center of greater Boston's Latino community. Additionally, several thousand Cambodians settled in Lynn between 1975 and 1979 and in the early 1980s.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Lynn was the world-leader in the production of shoes. 234 factories produced more than a million pairs of shoes each day, thanks in part to mechanization of the process by an African-American immigrant named Jan Ernst Matzeliger. From 1924 until 1974, the Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking School operated in the city. However, production declined throughout the 20th century, and the last shoe factory closed in 1981.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In the early 1900s, the Metropolitan District Commission acquired several coastal properties in Lynn and Nahant, in order to create Lynn Shore and Nahant Beach Reservations, and to construct adjoining Lynn Shore Drive. When it opened to the public in 1910, Lynn Shore Drive catalyzed new development along Lynn's coastline, yielding many of the early 20th century structures that constitute a majority of the contributing resources found in the National Register-listed Diamond Historic District.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lynn suffered several large fires. On November 28, 1981, a devastating inferno engulfed several former shoe factories, located at Broad and Washington Streets. Seventeen downtown buildings were destroyed in less than twelve hours, with property losses estimated to be totaling at least . At least 18 businesses were affected, resulting in the estimated loss of 1,500 jobs. The Lynn campus of the North Shore Community College, planning for which was already underway at the time of the fire, now occupies much of the burned area.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: A reputation for crime and vice gave rise to a taunting rhyme about Lynn which became popular throughout Eastern Massachusetts: "Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin, you'll never come out the way you went in, what looks like gold is really tin, the girls say 'no' but they'll give in, Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin." Another variation was "Lynn, Lynn the city of sin: if you ain't bad, you can't get in!"


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In order to counter its reputation as "the city of sin", Lynn launched a "City Of Firsts" advertising campaign in the early 1990s, which promoted Lynn as having:


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In a further effort to rebrand the municipality, city solicitor Michael Barry proposed renaming the city Ocean Park in 1997, but the initiative was unsuccessful.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Despite losing much of its industrial base during the 20th century, Lynn remained home to a division of General Electric Aviation; the West Lynn Creamery (now part of Dean Foods's Garelick Farms unit); C. L. Hauthaway & Sons, a polymer producer; Old Neighborhood Foods, a meat packer; Lynn Manufacturing, a maker of combustion chambers for the oil and gas heating industry; Sterling Machine Co.; and Durkee-Mower, makers of "Marshmallow Fluff"


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In the early 2000s, the renovation and adaptive re-use of downtown historic structures, together with new construction, launched a revitalization of Lynn, which remains ongoing. Arts, culture, and entertainment have been at the forefront of this revitalization, with new arts organizations, cultural venues, public art projects, and restaurants emerging in the downtown area. In 2012, the Massachusetts Cultural Council named downtown Lynn one of the first state-recognized arts and culture districts in Massachusetts.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 2015, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker established a task force, composed of representatives of multiple state and municipal public agencies, to further Lynn's revitalization.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Formerly vacant industrial buildings continue to be converted into loft spaces, and historic homes, particularly Lynn's Diamond Historic District, are being restored. In 2016, several large land parcels in Lynn were acquired by major developers. In November 2018, construction began on downtown Lynn's first luxury midrise—a 259-unit, 10-story building on Monroe Street. in December 2019, ground was broken on a 331-unit waterfront development on Carroll Parkway. Many of the recent and pending large real estate projects in Lynn are Transit-oriented developments, sited within a half-mile of Lynn station, which provides 20-minute train service to North Station.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn's revitalization has been bolstered by the city's emergence as a center of creative placemaking.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 2017, swaths of the city's downtown were transformed by a series of large-scale murals, painted on buildings by local, national, and international artists, as part of the city's inaugural Beyond Walls festival. Light-based interventions, including projections onto High Rock Tower, the installation of vintage neon signs on downtown buildings, and large-scale LED-illuminations of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority rail underpasses bisecting Lynn's Downtown, also have been deployed. In 2017, Mount Vernon Street, in the core of the downtown Central Square area, began to host block parties, food trucks, and other special events.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In April 2018, "The Boston Globe" named Lynn one of the "Top spots to live in Greater Boston in 2018."


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: On August 18, 2021, the new Frederick Douglass Park on Exchange Street was dedicated, directly across the street from the site of the Central Square railroad depot where Douglass was forcibly removed from the train in 1841. The park features a bronze bas-relief sculpture of Douglass. The park had been in the works since at least 2019 when a bill was filed in the Massachusetts Senate to designate the park area and its management by the Massachusetts DCR.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (19.87%) is water. Lynn is located beside Massachusetts Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Lynn's shoreline is divided in half by the town of Nahant, which divides Lynn Harbor to the south from Nahant Bay to the north. The city lies north of the Saugus River, and is also home to several brooks, as well as several ponds, the largest being Breed's Pond and Walden Pond (which has no relation to a similarly named pond in Concord). More than one-quarter of the town's land is covered by the Lynn Woods Reservation, which takes up much of the land in the northwestern part of the city. The city is also home to two beaches, Lynn Beach and King's Beach, both of which lie along Nahant Bay, as well as a boat ramp in Lynn Harbor.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn is located in the southern part of Essex County and is northeast of Boston and west-southwest of Cape Ann. The city is bordered by Nahant to the southeast, Swampscott to the east, Salem to the northeast, Peabody to the north, Lynnfield to the northwest, Saugus to the west and Revere (in Suffolk County) to the south. Lynn's water rights extend into Nahant Bay and share Lynn Harbor with Nahant. There is no land connection to Revere; the only connection is the General Edwards Bridge across the Pines River. Besides its downtown district, Lynn is also divided into East Lynn and West Lynn, which are further divided into even smaller areas.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 90,329 people, 33,310 households, and 20,988 families residing in the city.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Hispanic or Latino of any race were 32.1% of the population (10.5% Dominican, 6.3% Guatemalan, 5.4% Puerto Rican, 2.8% Salvadoran, 1.7% Mexican, 0.6% Honduran, 0.4% Colombian, 0.4% Spanish, 0.2% Peruvian, 0.2% Cuban).


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Cambodians form the largest Asian origin group in Lynn, with 3.9% of Lynn's total population of Cambodian ancestry. Other large Asian groups are those of Vietnamese (1.0%), Indian (0.4%), Chinese (0.3%), and Laotian (0.2%) ancestry.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.9% under the age of 18 and 75.1% over 18. Males accounted for 49% and females 51%.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Between 2009 and 2013, the median household income in Lynn was $44,849. The per capita income was $22,982. About 21.0% of the population was considered below the poverty line.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 1990 Lynn had 2,993 persons of Asian origin. In 2000 Lynn had 5,730 Asians, an increase of over 91%, making it one of ten Massachusetts cities with the largest Asian populations. In 2000 the city had 3,050 persons of Cambodian origin, making them the largest Asian subgroup in Lynn. That year the city had 1,112 persons of Vietnamese origin and 353 persons of Indian origin. From 1990 to 2000 the Vietnamese and Indian populations increased by 192% and 264%, respectively.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn was among the first communities in America to set aside a significant portion of its total land areas for open space—initially to secure a common public wood source. In 1693, Lynn restricted use of areas today encompassed by the Lynn Woods Reservation, and imposed fines for removing young trees. Although this land area was subsequently divided, in 1706, rights of public access were maintained, and, during the 19th century, recreational use of the woods increased.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: In 1850, the first hiking club in New England—the Lynn Exploring Circle—was established. In 1881, a group of Lynn residents organized the Trustees of the Free Public Forest to protect Lynn Woods by acquiring land and gifting it to the City. Frederick Law Olmsted was hired as a design consultant for Lynn Woods, in 1889, whereupon he recommended keeping the land wild, adding only limited public access improvements.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn Woods was among the natural resources that inspired landscape architect Charles Eliot and others to create Boston's Metropolitan Park System. In 1893, Eliot noted that Lynn Woods ""constitute the largest and most interesting, because the wildest, public domain in all New England.""


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Today, Lynn has 49 parks encompassing 1,540 aggregate acres, representing about 22% of the city's total 6,874-acre land area. Consequently, 96% of all Lynn residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park or open space.<ref name="https://parkserve.org/city/id/2537490/"></ref> The city's parks and open spaces include:


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn has three public high schools (Lynn English, Lynn Classical, and Lynn Vocational Technical High School), four middle/junior high schools, two alternative schools, and, as of Autumn 2015, 18 elementary schools. They are served by the Lynn Public Schools district.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: There is also an independent Catholic high school located in the city, St. Mary's High School. There are two Catholic primary schools, St. Pius V School and Sacred Heart School. There is also one interdenominational Christian school, North Shore Christian School.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: North Shore Community College has a campus in downtown Lynn (with its other campuses located in Danvers and Beverly).


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn has no Interstate or controlled-access highways, the nearest being U.S. Route 1 in Saugus and Lynnfield, and the combined Interstate 95 and Route 128 in Lynnfield. (The original design of Interstate 95 called for a route that would have paralleled Route 107 and crossed Lynn—including Lynn Woods—but the project was cancelled in 1972.) However, Massachusetts State Route 1A, Route 107, Route 129 and Route 129A all pass through Lynn. Route 107 passes from southwest to northeast along a relatively straight right-of-way through the city. It shares a concurrency with Route 129A, which follows Route 129's old route through the city between its parent route and Route 1A. Route 129 passes from the north of the city before turning south and passing through the downtown area and becoming concurrent with Route 1A for . Route 1A passes from Revere along the western portion of the Lynnway, a divided highway within the city, before passing further inland into Swampscott. The Lynnway itself runs along the coastline, leading to a rotary, which links the road to Nahant Road and Lynn Shore Drive, which follows the coast into Swampscott.


title: Lynn, Massachusetts

text: Lynn is served by Lynn station on the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, as well as River Works station (which is for GE Aviation employees only). A number of other stations were open until the mid 20th century. Numerous MBTA bus routes also connect Lynn with Boston and the neighboring communities. An extension of the Blue Line to downtown Lynn has been proposed, but not funded. A ferry service to downtown Boston was operated in 2014, 2015, and 2017. The nearest airport is Boston's Logan International Airport, about south.


title: Teja Sajja

text: Teja Sajja (born 23 August 1995) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Telugu films. He started his career in 1998 as child actor in the film "Choodalani Vundi". Sajja made his debut as an adult in 2019 with the film "Oh! Baby".


title: Teja Sajja

text: Teja's debut as a lead came with the 2021 film "Zombie Reddy", which was a commercial success. His other notable films include "Ishq" (2021) and "Adbhutham" (2021).


title: Teja Sajja

text: Sajja Teja was born on 23 August 1995 in Hyderabad of present-day Telangana. He did his schooling at The Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet. Sajja entered the film industry at a very young age and has acted in many successful films.


title: Teja Sajja

text: Sajja made his debut as a child artist at the age of two in Chiranjeevi's Choodalani Vundi and acted in about fifty other films alongside leading actors from the Telugu industry. Sajja did other films such as "Kalisundam Raa, Indra, Tagore, Yuvaraju, Gangotri, Vasantam, Samba, Chatrapathi, Balu" with actors like Venkatesh, Chiranjeevi, Prabhas, Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Pawan Kalyan. Sajja acted a supporting actor in "Oh! Baby" in 2019.


title: Teja Sajja

text: Sajja made his debut as a lead actor in 2021 with the film "Zombie Reddy". The film is the first zombie film in Telugu cinema. The film received positive reviews from critics. He also starred in Ishq: Not a Love Story with Priya Prakash Varrier which got mixed reviews. He completed his first Sci-fi romantic film named "Adbhutham" alongside Shivani Rajasekhar, the daughter of actors Rajasekhar (actor) and Jeevitha which had a direct OTT release in Hotstar.


title: History of Burger King

text: The predecessor to what is now the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King was founded on July 23, 1953, in Jacksonville, Florida, as Instant Burger King. Inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners, Keith J. Cramer and his stepfather Matthew Burns, began searching for a concept. After purchasing the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta" machines, the two opened their first stores around a cooking device known as the Insta-Broiler. The Insta-Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device. After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. The two initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain; the first step being to rename the company, Burger King. The duo ran the company as an independent entity for eight years, eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967.


title: History of Burger King

text: Pillsbury's management made several attempts at reorganization or restructuring the restaurant chain in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The most prominent change came in 1978 when Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company. In a plan called Operation Phoenix, Smith initiated a restructuring of corporate business practices at all levels of the company. Changes to the company included updated franchise agreements, a broadening of the menu, and new store designs to standardize the look and feel of the company. While these efforts were initially effective, many of them were eventually discarded, resulting in Burger King falling into a fiscal slump that damaged the financial performance of both Burger King and its parent. Poor operating performance and ineffectual leadership continued to bog the company down for many years, even after it was acquired in 1989 by the British entertainment conglomerate Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo. Eventually, the institutional neglect of the brand by Diageo damaged the company to the point where major franchises were driven out of business and its total value was significantly decreased. Diageo eventually decided to divest itself of the loss-making chain and put the company up for sale in 2000.


title: History of Burger King

text: In the 21st century, the company returned to independence when it was purchased from Diageo, by a group of investment firms led by TPG Capital for in 2002. The new owners rapidly moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, culminating with the company being taken public in 2006 with a highly successful initial public offering. The firm's strategy for turning the chain around included a new advertising agency and new ad campaigns, a revamped menu strategy, a series of programs designed to revamp individual stores, and a new restaurant concept called the BK Whopper Bar. These changes re-energized the company. Despite the successes of the new owners, the effects of the financial crisis of 2007–2010 weakened the company's financial outlook while those of its immediate competitor McDonald's grew. The falling value of Burger King eventually lead to TPG and its partners divesting their interest in the chain in a sale to 3G Capital of Brazil. Analysts from financial firms UBS and Stifel Nicolaus agreed that 3G will have to invest heavily in the company to help reverse its fortunes. After the deal was completed, the company's stock was removed from the New York Stock Exchange, ending a four-year period as a public company. The delisting of its stock was designed to help the company repair its fundamental business structures and continue working to close the gap with McDonald's without having to worry about pleasing shareholders. 3G later took the company public again after a series of changes to its operations and structure. Burger King would eventually be merged with Canadian-based donut and coffee chain Tim Hortons, igniting a political controversy in the United States over tax inversions.


title: History of Burger King

text: Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King by Keith J. Kramer and his wife's uncle, Matthew Burns. Their first stores were centered around a piece of equipment known as the Insta-Broiler, which was very effective at cooking burgers. It proved so successful that, as they grew through franchising, they required all of their franchises to carry the device.


title: History of Burger King

text: While the Jacksonville chain kept expanding, two friends named James McLamore and David R. Edgerton, both alumni of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration were seeking an opportunity to open their own business. McLamore had visited the original hamburger stand belonging to Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and sensing potential in their innovative assembly line-based production system, decided to open a similar operation.


title: History of Burger King

text: McLamore and Edgerton acquired a license to operate an Insta-Burger King franchise and opened their first location on 4 December 1954 at 3090 NW 36th Street in Miami. By 1959, the pair had stores at several locations within the Miami-Dade area, and operations were growing at a fast rate. However, the partners discovered that the insta-broiler units' heating elements were prone to degradation from the drippings of the beef patties. The pair eventually created a mechanized gas grill that avoided the problems by cooking the meat patties in a different way inside the unit. The new cooking appliance, which they called a flame broiler, moved the patties over the flame vertically on a chain link conveyor over the heating elements, a design that imparted grill lines on the patties similar to those made on a charcoal grill. The new unit worked so well that they made the decision to replace all of their Insta-Broilers with the newly designed unit.


title: History of Burger King

text: Even though the original Insta-Burger King had rapidly expanded throughout the state and its operations totaled more than 40 locations by 1955, the group ran into financial difficulties. McLamore and Edgarton purchased the national rights to the chain in 1959 and rechristened the company as Burger King of Miami. The company eventually became known as Burger King Corporation and began selling territorial licenses to private franchisees across the US by 1959.


title: History of Burger King

text: Besides the creation of the company's signature piece of equipment, the flame broiler, the company added two more features during this period that have since become closely associated with the chain. The first to be created was its mascot, the Burger King in 1955. The character would become a staple of its advertising over the next 60 years. The second creation was the company's signature sandwich, the Whopper. It was created in 1957 by James McLamore and originally sold for 37 cents. McLamore created the burger after he noticed that a rival restaurant was having success selling a larger burger. Believing that the success of the rival product was its size, he devised the Whopper. The name was chosen because he felt that it conveyed ""imagery of something big"". Finally, the company made its first forays into advertising in the new medium of television with commercials for the chain in 1958.


title: History of Burger King

text: In 1967, the Pillsbury Company acquired Burger King and its parent company Burger King Corporation from McLamore and Edgerton. At the time of the purchase, BK had grown to 274 restaurants in the United States and had an estimated value of . With the acquisition, Pillsbury was faced with a lack of consistency within the franchise framework. The Burger King Corporation franchising system set up by McLamore and Edgerton allowed the company to expand a great pace, but the lack of contractual restraints and controls on its franchisee operation led to inconsistencies in its products that in turn were a drag on the reputation of the chain. Additionally, the agreements gave the company too little power to prevent its franchises from doing as they wished with the business.


title: History of Burger King

text: One of the prime examples of the deficiencies in its former franchise structure can be illustrated by the relationship between Burger King and a Louisiana-based franchisee. Chart House, owned by brothers Billy and Jimmy Trotter, opened its first BK franchise in that state in 1963. By 1970 the Trotters' company had grown to over 350 stores across the country, with its own purchasing system, training program and inspection system. In 1973 Chart House attempted to purchase the chain from Pillsbury for , but Pillsbury declined. The Trotters then put forth a second plan that would have Pillsbury and Chart House spin off their respective holdings and merge the two entities into a separate jointly controlled company, which Pillsbury also declined. After the failed bids, the relationship between Pilsbury and the Trotters soured. When Chart House purchased several restaurants in Boston and Houston in 1979, Burger King sued the selling franchisees for not respecting their contractual right of first refusal and won, preventing the sale. The two parties eventually reach a settlement where Chart House kept the Houston locations in their portfolio. In the early 1980s Chart House spun off its Burger King restaurants to focus on its higher end chains; its Burger King holding company, DiversiFoods, was eventually acquired by Pillsbury in 1984 and folded into Burger King's operations.


title: History of Burger King

text: With the ongoing conflict with Chart House on the mind of the company's board in 1978, Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company. Smith initiated a restructuring of all future franchising agreements. New owners were barred from living more than an hour's drive from their restaurants, corporations were not permitted to own franchises, and franchisees could no longer operate other chains. This new policy effectively limited the size of franchisees and prevented larger franchises from challenging Burger King as Chart House had. It also became a requirement for the corporation to own the properties of any new store and lease them to franchisees. This policy would allow the company to take over the operations of failing stores or evict those owners who would not conform to the company guidelines and policies. Beyond the changes to the franchise system, Smith also restructured Burger King's corporate operations to better compete against his former employer as well as then up and coming chain Wendy's. He broadened the product offering by adding the Burger King specialty sandwich line in 1979, and also added many non-hamburger sandwiches including new chicken and fish offerings. The new line was one of the first attempts by a major fast food chain to target a specific demographic, in this case adults aged between 18 and 34 years, members of which were presumably willing spend more on a higher quality product. The new products were successful and the company's sales increased by 15%.


title: History of Burger King

text: After Smith's departure from the company for soft drinks producer PepsiCo in 1980, the company began to see a system-wide decline in sales. Pillsbury executive vice president of restaurant operations Norman E. Brinker was tasked with turning the brand around and strengthening its position against its main rival, McDonald's. One of his first acts was to initiate an advertising plan emphasizing claims that Burger King's flame-broiled burgers were better and larger than its rival's. The program, arguably the first attack ads on a food chain by a competitor, was controversial in that before it fast food ads only made allusions to the competition without ever mentioning them by name. McDonald's sued Burger King, their ad agency at the time J. Walter Thompson. The child actress Sarah Michelle Gellar was also implicated in the lawsuit because of her appearance in these television commercials. The suit was settled the following year on undisclosed terms. Despite the controversy, the ad plan, dubbed the Burger Wars, boosted same store sales. Brinker continued working for the company in this capacity until 1982 when he was promoted to president of Pillsbury's food service division, which included the company's other chains beyond Burger King. Brinker left the company in 1984 to take the helm at Dallas-based gourmet burger chain Chili's.


title: History of Burger King

text: With the departure of Smith and Brinker, Pillsbury allowed many of their changes to be relaxed, as well as scaled back on construction of new locations which had the effect of stalling corporate growth. By failing to follow through on the changes of the two men, Pillsbury caused its own value to diminish as it derived more than one third of its sales and two thirds of its profits from the burger chain. When the British alcoholic beverages company Grand Metropolitan PLC made a hostile bid for Pillsbury, the company devised a plan to spin off the financially flailing restaurant unit in hopes to raise an estimated US$2 billion that could be used to fend off the unwanted suitor. The complex potentially tax-free stock split plan would have led to the chain, along with its distribution system Distron, becoming a separate entity for the first time in over twenty years.


title: History of Burger King

text: Hoping that the special dividends created by the spin-off would have convinced shareholders not to accept the hostile bid, Pillsbury had its plans partially scuttled when the company's franchisees rejected the plan despite parts of which that would have given the franchises part ownership in the company and a seat on its new board. In a letter to Pillsbury chairman Phillip L. Smith, franchise representative Bill N. Pothitos stated that franchisees disapproved of the transaction on the grounds that they "strongly oppose this proposed course of conduct for one reason and one reason alone: It so restricts the ability of the Burger King Corporation to engage in future competitive growth and reinvestment in the Burger King system that our economic interests and investments will be placed in jeopardy." Another option floated by the company in December 1988 was to sell Burger King to a third party, a proposal that drew a favorable response from its franchises, never came to fruition.


title: History of Burger King

text: On top of the failure of the franchises to approve the spin-off, a series of lawsuits complicated the divestiture. Two legal challenges to the parent company were filed by investors, one in Pillsbury's home state of Minnesota and another in the state where it was incorporated, Delaware, in which the legality of the stock tender plan was questioned. These three events eventually forced Pillsbury to give up its bid to fend off Grand Metropolitan and agree to be acquired in November 1988 for a sum of US$5.7 billion.


title: History of Burger King

text: Between the time of the initial sales agreement in November 1988 and the finalization of the acquisition of Pillsbury in January 1989, Grand Metropolitan set about putting its own corporate stamp on Burger King; the stated goal of Grand Met CEO Allen Sheppard was to upgrade the overall performance of the chain and improve its standing as the second largest fast-food burger chain globally. To that end, he had the company initiate a three-prong strategy of evaluation of operations, personnel moves, and structural changes and improvements to fortify the company.


title: History of Burger King

text: Following through on the CEO's opinion that the company needed a consistent marketing plan and management team to succeed, the company began its moves by replacing its chairman and CEO Jerry W. Levin with its own choice of executives, Barry J. Gibbons, chairman and managing director of Grand Metropolitan Retailing, Ltd., as chief executive and Ian A. Martin, Grand Met's top executive in the United States, as chairman. The moves came to no surprise to Wall Street analysts and franchisees, as they were expected due to reservations about Levin after his appointment by the outgoing management at Pillsbury. Grand Met's first major restructuring move was the dismantling of Burger Kings 50-year-old purchasing and distribution arm, Distron. Unhappy with the distribution group, the company originally thought to dispose of the division after the purchase but instead decided to reorganize it into two separate groups, one for procurement (Burger King Purchasing or BKP) and another for distribution (Burger King Distribution Services or BKDS). With the restructuring, the company eliminated many positions and ended up laying off over a hundred staff members as a consequence.


title: History of Burger King

text: During the five years that led up to the purchase, the restaurant chain had a series of a half dozen ad programs accompanied by even more marketing directors, a situation that led "Adweek" to describe it as "ill-conceived marketing and downright sloppy strategic planning" in 1987. In order to reverse the trend, in December 1988 Grand Met set about reevaluating all aspects of the programs from the messages the company was sending to the customer through its commercials to the possibility of dropping its advertising agency of record, N. W. Ayer. After a six-month evaluation, BK dropped Ayer in favor of a two-way combination of D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) for overall programs and Saatchi & Saatchi for specific advertising programs such as the introduction of new products. The company hoped that the "dual-agency partnership" would provide a synergy that would bring together "some of the best minds in the advertising business" to establish a brand identity, or as a company spokesman stated, "what the consumers take away with them after they visit us--what we stand for..."


title: History of Burger King

text: Grand Met also made several moves in an attempt to broaden BK's business operations while expanding its presence globally. The first move by the company was the creation of the BK Expressway business concept, a new store format designed for locations where a traditional stand-alone restaurant was impractical. The company introduced two separate formats designed to operate in different business environments; the first concept was intended as a kiosk-type store that would be placed in locations such as sports venues and airports. The second concept store, designed with two drive-thrus and a minimal or even non-existent dining room, was designed to go in locations that were limited by high land costs or limited space. Both types of these new, smaller stores operated with a condensed menu prepared on new equipment designed specifically for the more compact footprints of the new locations. Expressway locations were also designed with lower start-up costs in mind; franchisees were wooed with the promise of a much smaller investment, approximately one third as much, than would be required to open a more traditional location. In August of the same year, Grand Met set about expanding Burger King's operations in Europe by acquiring UK-based United Biscuits restaurant operations, including the nearly 400-location burger chain Wimpy. With the purchase, described as a "rare opportunity" by CEO Sheppard, Grand Met set about converting certain Wimpy locations that employed a counter service system into Burger King locations. The merger of the United Biscuits properties with BK grew the company from about 30 restaurants in the UK to more than 60 within a year of the purchase, with another 30 locations added in early 1990. While other "Wimpy" locations are still in operation presently, they are now independent from BK and no longer have the presence they once did.


title: History of Burger King

text: The 1990s led off with Grand Met taking Burger King's soft drink contract to Coca-Cola from Pepsi. Traditionally Burger King had sold soft drinks from the Coca-Cola Company in the United States, but in 1983, PepsiCo was able to garner the US$444 million beverage supplier contract from its rival. Despite extreme market debate over the future of the contract, it was renewed for a second term in 1987. A sweetened contract that strengthened marketing and advertising program ties between Burger King and itself allowed Pepsi to keep supplying soft drinks to BK. Leading up to the decision, Pepsi had sponsored over 100 separate cross-promotions and product tie-ins, including a Fourth of July promotion where BK gave away a free Pepsi with each purchase. This fit into the goals of BK, which was looking for a partner that would provide "outstanding, impactful promotional support." However, the contract only lasted three more years when, partially based upon Pepsi's growth as a restaurant operator with Pepsico's own fast food division (which is now an independent unit called Yum! Brands), Burger King moved its beverage contract back to Coca-Cola. Accompanying the reintroduction of Coca-Cola, BK introduced its first major chicken sandwich since 1977; the new BK Broiler sandwich was a broiled sandwich targeting more health-conscious customers. The BK Broiler was a rapid hit and within six months of its introduction was selling more than a million units daily system wide.


title: History of Burger King

text: The company made an advertising coup that same year when it signed a 10-picture contract with the Walt Disney Company. The deal, which included such Disney films as "The Lion King", "Aladdin" and "Toy Story", came at the height of Disney's commercial rebirth. Accompanied with the new BK Kid's Club program, the company saw an impressive growth within the children's market. The company's new Kid's Club, its first major foray into a children's targeted ad campaign since the Burger King/Burger King Kingdom program of the 1970s, saw phenomenal growth with more than one million children signing up for the program within two months of its introduction.


title: History of Burger King

text: While many of the moves made by Grand Met were successful in generating additional sales and growth, the company continued to experience problems. While "Fortune Magazine" named CEO Gibbons as its Turnaround Champion for his success in reversing the fortunes of the company, several news outlets claimed that the changes he introduced were problematic because they deprived the company of valuable assets.


title: History of Burger King

text: In 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the company headquarters. The building, located on Old Cutler Rd. in Miami, was right in the center of the path of the hurricane. Located on the shoreline at the terminus of 184th St. (Eureka Drive), the highest storm surge levels was recorded (16.9 ft) at the site. The building suffered more than in damage and pushed the company from its offices during one of its more significant product pushes. Not only was the company forced from its facilities, roughly 300 members of its 700+ staff were left homeless. Immediately after the storm, Gibbons began a program to help get the company back on track. The company's recovery was helped due to pre-planning before the storm's landfall; Corporate backoffice data was moved to Seattle, Washington before the storm struck in order to safeguard critical records, and the company established a temporary "command center" at the Doral Resort and Country Club in Miami within eight days of the hurricanes passing. Additional operations were temporarily decentralized by temporarily shifting some corporate functions to regional offices. The facility would eventually take more than a year to rebuild, finally opening in September 1993.


title: History of Burger King

text: Not only did Gibbons work to repair the damage to the company offices, he made it a priority to allow its staff to deal with their personal situations. He made staff members job descriptions more flexible, encouraging staff members to take the initiative to perform a wide range of tasks. A corporate day care system was established, allowing staff to bring their children to work. Staff members were allowed to take off as much time as needed to reestablish themselves and corporate dress codes were relaxed. The company brought in counselors, insurance experts, tax consultants, child care advisers and construction companies to help the staff reorient themselves. The company also went so far as to arrange emergency loans for its employees.


title: History of Burger King

text: By 1993, Gibbons had tired of the post, and named a new successor to the post. He initially resigned his post as CEO of the company and was replaced by his chosen successor, COO James B. Adamson. Gibbons retained his position as chairman until he left the company


title: History of Burger King

text: Adamson continued the company's plans to expand into new markets such as universities, gas stations, airports and sports arenas with the intention of looking into new channels of distribution. Over the next year and a half he worked on a series of initiatives to strengthen the company; in a back to basics campaign, he oversaw a streamlining Burger King's menu and worked to improve and strengthen relations with franchisees. His changes were credited with a 28 percent increase in sales in BK's fiscal year 1995 and same store sales that were up 6 percent. He left in early 1995 when Denny's made him an offer to take the reins of the competitor; he left the company credited with fixing the deficiencies left by Gibbons and was temporarily replaced with David Nash. He was elevated to Chairman in July, with Robert Lowes as CEO. Lowes became chairman in November.


title: History of Burger King

text: In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo in a deal worth US$22 billion. Franchisees alleged that Diageo ignored the chain in favor of its liquor business; there were two more CEOs in the time Diageo owned the company.


title: History of Burger King

text: This institutionalized neglect further hurt the standing of the brand, in turn causing significant financial damage to Burger King's franchisees. By the time of the sale, Burger King's revenues and market share had declined significantly, and the company had fallen to a near tie for second place with rival Wendy's in the US market for hamburger chain restaurants. For many years leading into the early 2000s, Burger King and its various owners plus many of its larger franchisees closed many under-performing stores. Several of its largest franchisees entered bankruptcy due to the issues surrounding the performance of the brand.


title: History of Burger King

text: Diageo maintained ownership of BK until 2000 when Diageo decided to focus solely on their beverage products and divest itself of the chain. In 2001, the company put forth a plan to float approximately 20 percent of BKC on the NYSE. Burger King's franchises representation group, The National Franchise Association (NFA), sought to block this because it believed that any money raised from the issue would not be put into helping bolster the then flagging BK, but would instead end up being used to help Diageo bolster its liquor brands.


title: History of Burger King

text: Instead, the NFA sought to purchase the chain from Diageo, but the deal collapsed when the NFA was unable to put together an acceptable financing package.


title: History of Burger King

text: In 2002, a troika of private equity firms led by TPG Capital with associates Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners agreed to purchase BK from Diageo for , with the sale becoming complete in December of that year. The new owners, through several new CEOs, moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, the first major move was to rename the BK parent as Burger King Brands. The investment group initially planned to take BK public within the two years of the acquisition, this was delayed until 2006. On 1 February 2006, Out-going CEO Greg Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an initial public offering (IPO).


title: History of Burger King

text: On February 16, the company announced it had filed its registration for the IPO with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC on May 18, 2006. The stock sale generated $425 million in revenue, the largest IPO of a US-based restaurant chain on record. The proceeds from the sale were used by the company help pay back a loan taken out taken by the company in February used to pay dividends to the investment firms. According to one analyst at Renaissance Capital, Wall Street investors were not alarmed by the large payout due to the increased financial stability of the company resulting from changes made by the investor groups during the interim between the purchase in 2002 and the stock offering. Incoming CEO John W. Chidsey backed the payouts, stating that the financial firms spent considerable time and capital turning the company around.


title: History of Burger King

text: By the middle of its fiscal year 2008, the company had seen significant domestic growth for the first time in several years; for more than a dozen financial quarters, the company showed revenue increases and domestic expansion. During the first half of the calendar year 2008, the company initiated a plan to revitalize its stores with a program to replace or remodel almost all of its North American locations by the beginning of its fiscal year 2009 in July 2008. The renovation plan was credited with helping the company increase same-store sales by as much as 5.4 percent over the previous fiscal year versus its competitors McDonald's and Yum Brand's 3 percent increase, but the total costs of the renovation program affected the company's revenue stream for the final quarters of its 2008 fiscal year. Wall Street analysts had originally projected net income to be approximately 27¢ per share, but the company only reported a 25¢ per share profit. The smaller profit announcement temporarily drove Burger King's stock prices down after the announcement. Despite the lower than expected profit and small decline in stock value, Wall Street analysts were upbeat about Burger King's future earnings because it was felt that the renovations would contribute to future profits; one such analyst stated that the renovations would "pay for themselves".


title: History of Burger King

text: Further modernization plans were introduced in 2009 with the company's "20/20" store designs and its "BK Whopper Bar" concept. The 20/20 concept, officially unveiled in Amsterdam on 10 October, featured a radical new design that featured bright colors, corrugated metal accents and plain brick walls that are designed to compete with chains in the fast casual restaurant market segment. A new system of in-store advertising was also introduced as part of the new format, static menu boards are to be replaced with high definition video displays. With the introduction of the 20/20 format, all future Burger King locations will be constructed using the design framework. Additionally, any future restaurant renovations must also conform to the new standard. The primary drawback of the design is its costs to the individual owners of BK restaurants; franchises must pay between to renovate their buildings to Burger King specs.


title: History of Burger King

text: The Whopper Bar is a concept from the company that upends its traditional fast food operations with a newer high end concept designed to compete with fast casual and casual dining restaurants. The new format is described by the company as a more "playful" variation on the standard Burger King location. The locations feature an open kitchen with a semi-circular metal counter top designed to allow customers to watch as its "Whopperistas" put together the order. The exposed kitchen concept allows customers to view the preparation of their foods. Decoration of the new locations is limited to plasma televisions playing looped videos of open flames. The concept is similar to the McCafé concept from rival McDonald's, and like the McCafé locations they are designed to go into malls, airports and casinos and other areas with limited amounts of space.


title: History of Burger King

text: With the opening of its Whopper Bar locations in the United States during 2010, Burger King reported that it would be the first time in its North American locations that beer would be available for purchase. Although beer is available at fast food restaurants throughout Europe, including Burger King, this is the first time a major fast food chain has attempted to sell beer in the United States. The company will be selling products from SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch including Budweiser, Bud Lite and Miller Lite in aluminum bottles designed to maintain temperature. The move, designed to target the important 30-and-under demographic, has been called risky by industry analysts because of the company is known as a fast food purveyor and not as an alcoholic beverages seller. Other industry consultants have disagreed with the assessment, believing that the move is a practical one because the company is growing with its aging customer base.


title: History of Burger King

text: The latest chapter in the company's ownership history began in September 2010 when TPG and its partners announced it would sell their 31 percent stake in Burger King to another private equity company, 3G Capital, for US$24 per share, or . Between March 2004 and March 2009, the company experienced a score of consecutive profitable quarters that were credited with re-energizing the company, however with the slowing of the economy during the financial crisis of 2007-2010 the company's business has declined while its immediate competitor McDonald's grew. Analysts, including John Glass of Morgan Stanley and David Tarantino of Robert W. Baird & Co., part of the reasons for the company's slowed performance is its continue reliance on the super fan. Market-research firm Sandelman & Associates reported that this segment had seen a decline in visits by this demographic group by more than 50 percent during the recession, while restaurant industry analyst Bonnie Riggs at market-research firm NPD Group reported the 18–24 transferred much of its business from the fast food segment to the fast casual segment, compounding the decline.


title: History of Burger King

text: The offer, representing a 46 percent premium over the stocks selling price at the time, came as a surprise to Burger King CEO John Chidsey. The proposed sale was expected to help the company repair its fundamental business structures and continue working to close the gap with McDonald's. Analysts commenting on the transaction stated that 3G will have to invest heavily in the company to help reverse its fortunes. David Palmer from UBS stated the company will need to work with its large group of franchise owners to brighten its locations and stabilize sales which could take several years and require significant reinvestment, while Steve West of Stifel Nicolaus stated that Burger King will need at least a year to right its fundamentals.


title: History of Burger King

text: Upon completion of the acquisition in October 2010, 3G began an immediate restructuring of the company. Seven of the top executives were released, while another 261 employees were laid off from the company's headquarters. Chidsey eventually resigned in April 2011, being replaced Alex Behring, one of 3G's managing partners. The position of CEO was taken over by Bernardo Hees shortly after the acquisition.


title: History of Burger King

text: As part of the restructuring, 3G also moved to change many aspects of corporate operations throughout 2011–2012. One of the first moves was to terminate Burger King's relationship with ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, replacing it with McGarryBowen. 3G also began a menu restructuring, with the first product being a revamped version of BK's Chicken Tenders product. Other new or reformulated products would follow. In terms of its franchise operations, Burger King initiated a move to become more like competitors Subway and KFC and began to sell off the majority of corporately owned restaurants in order to become an exclusive franchised operation. 3G also moved to mend relations with its American franchises, which had become rather rancorous during TPG's tenure. Several lawsuits were settled and corporate policies that were at the center of the corporate disputes with the franchises were ended or amended.


title: History of Burger King

text: In 2011 they partnered with British venture capital firm Justice Holdings to take the company public again. They also initiated a massive expansion of operations via franchising in the BRIC nations and Africa with more than 2500 new planned locations.


title: History of Burger King

text: In August 2014, Burger King announced its intent to acquire the Canadian restaurant and coffee shop chain Tim Hortons. 3G Capital purchased Tim Hortons at $65.50 per-share, and a new holding company was formed, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. 3G holds a 51% majority stake, Tim Hortons' existing shareholders owning 22%, and a 27% stake held by Burger King shareholders. Berkshire Hathaway partially funded the purchase by buying $3 billion worth of preferred shares. Burger King CEO Daniel Schwartz became CEO of the company, with existing Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira becoming vice-chairman and director. The two chains retained separate operations post-merger, with Burger King remaining in its Miami headquarters. The deal was subject to approval by Tim Hortons shareholders and Canadian regulatory authorities. A Tim Hortons representative stated that the proposed merger would allow Tim Hortons to leverage Burger King's resources for international growth. The combined company became the third-largest international chain of fast food restaurants. From 1995 to 2005, Tim Hortons had been owned by Wendy's Restaurants, a competitor to Burger King.


title: History of Burger King

text: Although "tax inversions" (in which a company decreases the amount of taxes it pays by moving its headquarters to a country with lower rates, but maintains the majority of their operations in their previous location) have been a recent financial trend, it will not have as much of an impact on Burger King's reincorporation in Canada: the corporate tax rate in the United States is 39.1%, Canada's corporate tax rate is only 26%, but Burger King had used various sheltering techniques to reduce its tax rate to 27.5%. As a high-profile instance of tax inversion, news of the merger was criticized by U.S. politicians, who felt that the move would result in a loss of tax revenue to foreign interests, and could result in further government pressure against inversions (which had, until the Burger King merger, been primarily invoked by pharmaceutical firms).


title: History of Burger King

text: Since being founded in 1954, Burger King has undergone five changes of ownership. Further, during the ownership tenure of Grand Metropolitan, Grand Met merged with Guinness in 1997 to form a new company, Diageo. TPG Capital's ownership was shared with Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, both of which held minority shares. During 3G Capital's ownership, 3G divested a 29% stake of the chain to Justice Holdings of Great Britain when the chain was again taken public in 2012. When Burger King merged with Tim Hortons in 2014, Berkshire Hathaway bought into the newly combined chain as part of an debt-equity financing deal.


title: Video game producer

text: The earliest documented use of the term "producer" in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Arts in 1982. Hawkins said in 1983:


title: Video game producer

text: Sierra On-Line's 1982 computer game "Time Zone" may be the first to list credits for "Producer" and "Executive Producer". As of late 1983 Electronic Arts had five producers: A product marketer and two others from Hawkins' former employer Apple ("good at working with engineering people"), one former IBM salesman and executive recruiter, and one product marketer from Automated Simulations; it popularized the use of the title in the industry. Hawkins' vision—influenced by his relationship with Jerry Moss—was that producers would manage artists and repertoire in the same way as in the music business, and Hawkins brought in record producers from A&M Records to help train those first producers. Activision made Brad Fregger their first producer in April 1983.


title: Video game producer

text: Although the term is an industry standard today, it was dismissed as "imitation Hollywood" by many game executives and press members at the time. Over its entire history, the role of the video game producer has been defined in a wide range of ways by different companies and different teams, and there are a variety of positions within the industry referred to as "producer".


title: Video game producer

text: There are relatively few superstars of game production that parallel those in film, in part because top producers are usually employed by publishers who choose to play down publicizing their contributions. Unlike many of their counterparts in film or music, these producers do not run their own independent companies.


title: Video game producer

text: Most video and computer games are developed by third-party developers. In these cases, there may be external and internal producers. External producers may act as "executive producers" and are employed by the game's publisher. Internal producers work for the developer itself and have more of a hands-on role. Some game developers may have no internal producers, however, and may rely solely on the publisher's producer.


title: Video game producer

text: For an internal producer, associate producers tend to specialize in an area of expertise depending on the team they are producing for and what skills they have a background in. These specializations include but are not limited to: programming, design, art, sound, and quality assurance. A normal producer is usually the project manager and is in charge of delivering the product to the publisher on time and on budget. An executive producer will be managing all of the products in the company and making sure that the games are on track to meet their goals and stay within the company's goals and direction.


title: Video game producer

text: For an external producer, their job responsibilities may focus mainly on overseeing several projects being worked on by a number of developers. While keeping updated on the progress of the games being developed externally, they inform the upper management of the publisher of the status of the pending projects and any problems they may be experiencing. If a publisher's producer is overseeing a game being developed internally, their role is more akin to that of an internal producer and will generally only work on one game or a few small games.


title: Video game producer

text: As games have grown larger and more expensive, line producers have become part of some teams. Based on filmmaking traditions, line producers focus on project scheduling and costing to ensure titles are completed on time and on budget.


title: Video game producer

text: An internal producer is heavily involved in the development of, usually, a single game. Responsibilities for this position vary from company to company, but in general, the person in this position has the following duties:


title: Video game producer

text: In short, the internal producer is ultimately responsible for timely delivery and final quality of the game.


title: Video game producer

text: For small games, the producer may interact directly with the programming and creative staff. For larger games, the producer will seek the assistance of the lead programmer, art lead, game designer and testing lead. While it is customary for the producer to meet with the entire development staff from time to time, for larger games, they will only meet with the leads on a regular basis to keep updated on the development status. In smaller studios, a producer may fill any slack in the production team by doing the odd job of writing the game manual or producing game assets.


title: Video game producer

text: For most games, the producer does not have a large role but does have some influence on the development of the video game design. While not a game designer, the producer has to weave the wishes of the publisher or upper management into the design. They usually seek the assistance of the game designer in this effort. So the final game design is a result the effort of the designer and some influence of the producer.


title: Video game producer

text: In general, video game producers earn the third most out of game development positions, behind business (management) and programmers.


title: Video game producer

text: According to an annual survey of salaries in the industry, producers earn an average of USD$75,000 annually. A video game producer with less than 3 years of experience makes, on average, around $55,000 annually. A video game producer with more than 6 years of experience makes, on average, over $125,000 annually. The salaries of a video game producer will vary depending on the region and the studio.


title: Video game producer

text: Most video game producers complete a bachelor's degree program in game design, computer science, digital media or business. Popular computer programming languages for video game development include C, C++, Assembly, C# and Java. Some common courses are communications, mathematics, accounting, art, digital modeling and animation.


title: Video game producer

text: Employers typically require three plus years of experience, since a producer has to have gone through the development cycle several times to really understand how unpredictable the business is. The most common path to becoming a video game producer begins by first working as a game tester, then moving up the quality assurance ladder, and then eventually on to production. This is easier to accomplish if one stays with the same studio, reaping the benefits of having built relationships with the production department.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: China Airlines Flight 140 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (serving Taipei, Taiwan) to Nagoya Airport in Nagoya, Japan.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: On 26 April 1994, the Airbus A300B4-622R was completing a routine flight and approach, when, just seconds before landing at Nagoya Airport, the takeoff/go-around setting (TO/GA) was inadvertently triggered. The pilots attempted to pitch the aircraft down while the autopilot, which was not disabled, was pitching the aircraft up. The aircraft ultimately stalled and crashed into the ground, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: To date, the accident remains the deadliest accident in the history of China Airlines and the second-deadliest aviation accident on Japanese soil, behind Japan Airlines Flight 123. It is also the third-deadliest aviation accident or incident involving an Airbus A300, after Iran Air Flight 655 and later American Airlines Flight 587.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: The flight took off from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport at 16:53 Taiwan Standard Time bound for Nagoya Airport. At the controls were Captain Wang Lo-chi () age 42 and First Officer Chuang Meng-jung () age 26. The en-route flight was uneventful; the descent started at 19:47 and the aircraft passed the outer marker at 20:12. Just from the runway threshold at above ground level (AGL), the first officer (co-pilot) inadvertently selected the takeoff/go-around setting (also known as a TO/GA), which tells the autopilot to increase the throttles to take off/go-around power.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: The crew attempted to correct the situation, manually reducing the throttles and pushing the yoke forward. However, they did not disconnect the autopilot, which was still acting on the inadvertent go-around command it had been given, so it increased its own efforts to overcome the action of the pilot. The autopilot followed its procedures and moved the horizontal stabilizer to its full nose-up position. The pilots, realizing the landing must be aborted and not understanding that the TO/GA was still engaged, then knowingly executed a manual go-around, pulling back on the yoke and adding to the nose-up attitude that the autopilot was already trying to execute. The aircraft levelled off for about 15 seconds and continued descending until about where there were two bursts of thrust applied in quick succession and the aircraft was nose up in a steep climb. The resulting extreme nose-up attitude, combined with decreasing relative airspeed due to insufficient thrust, resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Airspeed dropped quickly, the aircraft stalled and struck the ground at 20:15:45. 31-year-old Noriyasu Shirai, a survivor, said that a flight attendant announced that the aircraft would crash after it stalled. Sylvanie Detonio, the only survivor who could be interviewed on 27 April, said that passengers received no warning prior to the crash.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: Of the 271 people on board (15 crew and 256 passengers), only seven passengers survived. All of the survivors were seated in rows 7 through 15. On 27 April 1994, officials said there were 10 survivors (including a three-year-old) and that a Filipino, two Taiwanese and seven Japanese survived. By 6 May, only seven remained alive, including three children.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: The crash, which destroyed the aircraft (delivered less than three years earlier in 1991), was primarily attributed to crew error for their failure to correct the controls as well as the airspeed. Nine months earlier, Airbus had advised its customers to modify the air flight system so it would fully disengage the autopilot "when certain manual controls input is applied on the control wheel in GO-AROUND mode", which would have included the yoke-forward movement the pilots made on this accident flight. The accident aircraft was scheduled to only receive the update the next time it required a more substantial service break, because "China Airlines judged that the modifications were not urgent". These factors were deemed contributing incidents to the crash, after the primary failure of the pilots to take control of the situation once it began.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: The investigation also revealed that the pilot had been trained for the A300 on a flight simulator in Bangkok which was not programmed with the problematic GO-AROUND behavior. Therefore his belief that pushing on the yoke would override the automatic controls was appropriate for the configuration he had trained on, as well as for the Boeing 747 aircraft that he had spent most of his career flying.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: Japanese prosecutors declined to pursue charges of professional negligence on the airline's senior management as it was "difficult to call into question the criminal responsibility of the four individuals because aptitude levels achieved through training at the carrier were similar to those at other airlines". The pilots could not be prosecuted since they died in the accident.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: A class action suit was filed against China Airlines and Airbus Industries for compensation. In December 2003, the Nagoya District Court ordered China Airlines to pay a combined 5 billion yen to 232 people, but cleared Airbus of liability. Some of the bereaved and survivors felt that the compensation was inadequate and a further class action suit was filed and ultimately settled in April 2007 when the airline apologized for the accident and provided additional compensation.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: There had been earlier "out-of-trim incidents" with the Airbus A300-600R. Airbus had the company that made the flight control computer produce a modification to the air flight system that would disengage the autopilot "when certain manual controls input is applied on the control wheel in GO-AROUND mode". This modification was first available in September 1993 and the aircraft that had crashed had been scheduled to receive the upgrade. The aircraft had not received the update at the time of the crash because "China Airlines judged that the modifications were not urgent".


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: On 3 May 1994, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) ordered China Airlines to modify the flight control computers following Airbus's notice of the modification. On 7 May 1994, the CAA ordered China Airlines to provide supplementary training and a re-evaluation of proficiency to all A300-600R pilots.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: Following the crash, China Airlines decided to withdraw its flight CI140 on this route and changed it to CI150 after the crash. China Airlines now operates this route with the Airbus A330-300 aircraft and the A300 has since been retired.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: On 26 April 2014, 300 mourners gathered in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, for a memorial to the crash on the 20th anniversary of the crash.


title: China Airlines Flight 140

text: The crash was featured in the ninth episode of season 18 of "Mayday" (Air Crash Investigations). The episode is titled "Deadly Go-Around".


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Fighters also host a select number of regional home games in cities across Hokkaidō, including Hakodate, Asahikawa, Kushiro, and Obihiro. The team's name comes from its parent organization, Nippon Ham, a major Japanese food-processing company.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: Founded in 1946, the Fighters called Tokyo home for 58 years, as co-tenants of the Tokyo Dome & Korakuen Stadium with the Central League's Yomiuri Giants near the end of their tenure in the capital city. The franchise has won three Japan Series titles, in 1962, 2006, and, most recently, 2016.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: In 1946, Saburo Yokozawa, manager of the Tokyo Senators in 1936–1937 (and later a prominent umpire), looked to revive the franchise and soon founded the new Senators. He assembled a team of ready and able players like Hiroshi Oshita, Shigeya Iijima and Giichiro Shiraki, but as a newly formed team the Senators faced strict fiscal management and resorted to using hand-me-down uniforms from the Hankyu Railway's pre-war team (who would eventually become the modern-day Orix Buffaloes). Former Japanese statesman Kinkazu Saionji, grandson of the influential Kinmochi Saionji, became the team's owner, and Noboru Oride, borrowing heavily from a Ginza cabaret proprietor, became the team's sponsor. Eventually, trapped by a lack of funds, Yokozawa was forced to resign as the team's manager.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: For a time, the team was even mockingly nicknamed "Seito" (Bluestockings) after a Japanese feminist magazine of the same name. As the Yomiuri Giants' pet name was "Kyojin", baseball personality Soutaro Suzuki thought that other teams should also have pet names like the Giants, and names such as the Osaka Tigers' alias "Mouko" (fierce tiger), the Senators' "Seito" and the Pacific's "Taihei" (tranquility) began to be used by the press. However, the other teams rejected the use of these pet names, so they were not fully adopted.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: On January 7, 1947, the team was sold to the Tokyu Corporation. The Tokyu baseball club was inaugurated into the league, and the team's name became the Tokyu Flyers. At that time Tokyu dominated the Japanese transportation sector, owning several other railway companies, although it was faced with troubles and the possibility of a breakup. Tokyu purchased the team to act as a banner of solidarity for the swelling company, and managing director Hiroshi Okawa assumed ownership of the club. The newly born Flyers, with Hiroshi Oshita becoming one of the most popular players in the league, began to attract many fans, but the team's administration still went into a deficit.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: With the formation of the National Baseball League drawing nearer, in 1948 the not-yet-affiliated Daiei club, which had played a few exhibition games against the Otsuka Athletics, joined with Tokyu to create the Kyuei Flyers ("Kyuei" being a portmanteau of the two companies' names). However, Daiei decided to purchase a separate team, the Kinsei Stars, and after only one year the Flyers reverted to their former name.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: During the off-season of 1949, the Flyers joined the Pacific League after the former league split. In September 1953, the team completed a new ballpark—Komazawa Stadium—along one of Tokyu's train lines in Setagaya, Tokyo, moving from Bunkyo ward's Korakuen Stadium. The Flyers' wild play on the field eventually earned them the nickname, "Komazawa's hooligans."


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: On February 1, 1954, Tokyu entrusted the management of the Flyers to the Toei Company, of which Okawa had newly become president. Toei transferred control of the club to a subsidiary company, Toei Kogyo (industrial enterprise). The team's name was changed to the Toei Flyers, and its legal name consequently became the Toei Flyers Baseball Club. This name stuck for nineteen years.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: In 1961, when Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeru Mizuhara resigned from his position, Okawa attempted to woo him to join his team, bringing him to a bar in Kyoto and calling famous movie producer Koji Shundo to meet with them. Shundo, an old drinking buddy of Mizuhara's, convinced the four-time Japan Series champion manager to join the Flyers, and he solidified a strong relationship with Okawa and Toei Studios.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: Komazawa Stadium was to be torn down to make way for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, so in 1962 the Flyers moved their base of operations to Meiji Jingu Stadium in Shinjuku. (At that time, college baseball teams had priority at Meiji Jingu, so during weekends or other times when school games were being played the Flyers had to use Korakuen or another field for their games.) In the same year, two star aces, Masayuki Dobashi and Yukio Ozaki, blossomed under Mizuhara's coaching and the Flyers captured their first league championship. They would go on to defy odds in the Japan Series and defeat the Hanshin Tigers for their first Japan Series title. This championship would be their only one in the Toei era. The Kokutetsu Swallows jointly occupied Meiji Jingu with the Flyers the following season, and in 1964 the Flyers went back to their old home, Korakuen, also home of the Yomiuri Giants; both the Fighters and Giants would share a home for the next 39 years.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: The Flyers assembled a group of powerful sluggers over the next few years—among them: Isao Harimoto, Katsuo Osugi, Inchon Bek, and Shoichi Busujima—but on top of a declining movie industry and the "Black Mist" match-fixing scandal that rocked the professional baseball world in 1970 (after which Flyers ace Toshiaki Moriyasu was banned from the game for life), in 1971 Flyers owner Okawa died suddenly. Shigeru Okada, who did not view Okawa favorably, took over Toei after his death. Together with Noboru Goto, company president of Tokyu and loyal friend of Okada (and one who also thought unfavorably of Okawa), Okada let go of the unprofitable team.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: The team was sold to Akitaka Nishimura of the Nittaku Home real estate enterprise, a common acquaintance of Okada and Goto, on February 7, 1973. The team's name became the Nittaku Home Flyers. Nishimura, in an attempt to inject life back into the unpopular Pacific League, developed seven different uniforms for his team and experimented in every aspect of the team's operation, but the effort failed to produce results. Believing that the Pacific League's chances of survival were grim, Nishimura was on the verge of partnering with the Lotte Orions, who were eyeing a league reunification. When the deal fell through, Nishimura, tired of the baseball establishment, resigned from his leadership position and abandoned the Flyers.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: On November 19, 1973, meatpacking company Nippon Ham purchased the team. The club's name changed to the Nippon-Ham Fighters, its official name became the Nippon-Ham Baseball Corporation, Osamu Mihara became the team president and Futoshi Nakanishi its manager. After 27 years, the "Flyers" nickname was abandoned. The "Fighters" nickname was born from a public appeal by the team's management. A female high school student from Okayama prefecture submitted the winning name, giving the reasoning that "(former Fighters player) Katsuo Osugi has guts, so he's a fighter." Ironically, Osugi would be traded to the Yakult Swallows soon after the Fighters were rechristened.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: Over the four seasons between 1974 and 1977, the Fighters dwelled at the bottom of the Pacific League, but after improving to finishing in third place for three straight years between 1978 and 1980, manager Keiji Osawa finally led the Fighters to their second Pacific League pennant in 1981. With saves leader Yutaka Enatsu and starter Shigekuni Mashiba (who went 15–0 over the season) forming the heart of the pitching staff, the Fighters shined with offensive sluggers Tony Solaita, Junichi Kashiwabara, and Tommy Cruz. The team that year also featured various important players of smaller stature, like Makoto Shimada and Nobuhiro Takashiro. They would go on to play the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series, where the Fighters lost in six games.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: At the time, the franchise shared Korakuen Stadium with the Giants, so scheduling games throughout the season for both teams posed a problem. League schedulers tried to avoid putting the Fighters and the Giants at Korakuen on the same day, but when they both had home games scheduled, league officials made the implicit decision that the Giants would play during the day and the Fighters during the night. One novel aspect of the Fighters was that they attracted armies of grade-school boys to sit in the outfield stands on weekend games under a "Young Boys’ Fan Club" promotion, starting the first organized fan club in Japanese professional baseball.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: During the 1980s the Fighters hosted many of the Pacific League's leading pitchers, including Isamu Kida (led the P.L. with 22 wins in his rookie year in 1980; won MVP, Rookie of the Year the same year), Mikio Kudō (20 wins in 1982), Hiroshi Tsuno (recorded double-digit win totals in several years throughout the mid-eighties) and Yasumitsu Shibata (three-time All Star; recorded no-hitter in 1990). Yukihiro Nishizaki particularly stood out, recording 15 wins and an ERA under three in each of his first two years (though the Rookie of the Year title eluded him), racking up seven double-digit win seasons over the course of his eleven-year stay with the Fighters and gaining a considerable following from female fans due to his easy-going demeanor. In 1986 shortstop Yukio Tanaka joined the club; he remained with the team for 22 seasons, becoming known as "Mr. Fighters."


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: From 1988 until the move to Hokkaidō, the Fighters played their home games in Tokyo Dome, the stadium that replaced their longtime home Korakuen. After the Dome was finished, the pitching dominance of Yukihiro Nishizaki and Yasumitsu Shibata began to emerge. Keiji Osawa came out of retirement to manage the team for a third time in 1993, only to see his team sink to the bottom of the standings; he gained notoriety for kneeling to the fans at the end of that season, begging for their forgiveness. With the Fighters experiencing more managerial troubles in 1996, then-manager Toshiharu Ueda suddenly took a personal leave during a pennant race with the Orix BlueWave, eventually causing the Fighters to fade over the last month of the season. However, new life was born in Tokyo Dome in 1998. Hitters such as Nigel Wilson, Jerry Brooks, Yukio Tanaka, Atsushi Kataoka, Katsuhiro Nishiura and a young Michihiro Ogasawara formed what became known as the Big Bang lineup and subsequently shattered various batting records. They ran away with first place for the first half of the season, but a pitching collapse in the second half caused a fall of historical proportions. The Fighters would ultimately finish in second place to the Seibu Lions.


title: Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

text: Prior to the 2002 season, the idea of moving the Fighters to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaidō and Japan's fifth largest city, emerged. The Seibu Lions also had preliminary plans to move to the northern metropolis. Tokyo's Fighters fans voiced their opposition to the proposed relocation (though the franchise never drew as many fans as their co-habitual counterparts, the Giants, while playing in the capital), but it was eventually announced that the team would indeed call the Sapporo Dome its new home beginning in 2004. Aiming to build a grassroots relationship with its future fans, the team decided to change its name to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.