title: Jimmy Havoc

text: After competing in the Square Go match in early 2017, Havoc returned at Shug's Hoose Party 4, appearing from inside a coffin to attack Mikey Whiplash, and announce the first ever King Of Insanity match at Fear & Loathing X. Battling Mikey Whiplash, Chris Renfrew & Stevie Boy on the Road To Fear & Loathing Tour, Havoc would be unsuccessful in the King Of Insanity match, losing to Stevie Boy.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: Havoc would not be seen again in ICW until 1 April 2018, when he returned to The Garage to face Mikey Whiplash in a Death Match for the chance to challenge for the ICW World Heavyweight Championship, with Mikey gaining the victory by delivering a Zombie Maker to Havoc through a sheet of glass. Havoc then teamed with Mark Haskins in late 2018, defeating the Kings Of Catch, and gaining a spot in a 6 team Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Fear & Loathing XI.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: Havoc debuted for Progress Wrestling on the Chapter Two event in May 2012 and went on to lose six matches without registering a victory, though became very popular with the Progress fans as an underdog babyface. In November 2013, at Chapter Nine, Havoc attacked promoter Jim Smallman, and aligned himself with the London Riots, turning heel in the process. Havoc would then use an open contract given to him by Smallman to defeat Progress Champion Mark Andrews (who had just wrestled both Paul Robinson and Rampage Brown in consecutive matches) to become champion and pick up his first victory in Progress.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: In his first title defense at Chapter Eleven, Havoc defeated Zack Sabre Jr. with the help of his newest associate, Progress trainee "The Omega" Isaac Zercher. Havoc was joined at Chapter Thirteen by Paul Robinson, and the group later christened themselves "Regression" as a play on the name of the company and to symbolize their hatred of Progress Wrestling. The group lost its first members at Chapter Fifteen, as the four members of the group (not including Zercher) took on Progress Tag Team Champions Eddie Dennis and Mark Andrews, Will Ospreay and Noam Dar in a "titles vs careers" match. Ospreay pinned James Davis of the London Riots, meaning that the Riots were gone from Progress. Havoc eventually lost the title at Chapter Twenty to Ospreay in a no disqualification match, with his 609-day reign equaling that of all previous champions combined. At Chapter Twenty-One, Havoc and Robinson were placed in a number one contenders no disqualification match against each other. The two engaged in a bloody contest with Robinson emerging victorious, seemingly signalling the end of Regression. After the match, a beaten and bloody Havoc was helped to his feet by Smallman, his longtime nemesis, and left the Electric Ballroom to a thunderous standing ovation from a respectful crowd.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 25 September 2016, over a year since he was last seen in the promotion, Havoc returned to Progress at Chapter Thirty-Six during the main event for the Progress Championship involving Marty Scurll, Tommy End and Mark Haskins. Havoc would cost Scurll the title whilst saving Smallman from an attack from the then-champion, turning face again in the process. After attacking Scurll again at Chapter 37, Havoc was part of a triple-threat match for the Progress Championship at Chapter 38, facing both Scurll and then-champion Haskins, who retained the title.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: At Chapter 39, he defeated Scurll by DQ, thus advancing to a 7-way elimination match for the vacant Progress championship making to the final two but lost to Pete Dunne after Tyler Bate attacked him. At Chapter 40 Havoc defeat Scurll in a No Disqualification match, ending their feud and becoming the number one contender to the Progress World Championship.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On Progress's final show of 2016, Havoc faced his old rival Will Ospreay in a winning effort, after the match Havoc apologized to Ospreay for his past actions and ask to join him and fight British Strong Style. Ospreay initially accepted, but then brutally attacked Havoc alongside Paul Robinson, turning heel and restarting their feud.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: At Chapter 43, Havoc defeated Pete Dunne in a championship match by disqualification after Trent Seven interfered. After the match Dunne and Seven continued attacking Havoc until Mark Haskins and Flash Morgan Webster rescued Havoc, leading to a six-man tag match at Chapter 44, where Haskins, Webster, and Havoc defeated British Strong Style, when Havoc pinned Dunne, thus winning another championship match.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: Havoc got his opportunity at Chapter 45 but was defeated by Dunne after Ospreay's interference, leading to a Fans Bring The Weapons match at chapter 46. During the match, Ospreay challenged Havoc to put their Progress contracts at stake, Havoc defeated Ospreay, thus expelling him from Progress and ending the feud.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: In May, Havoc entered the Super Strong Style 16 tournament, but was eliminated in the first round by the eventual winner, Travis Banks. Havoc then started to team with Mark Haskins, but they were defeated by The Origin (Zack Gibson & Nathan Cruz) at Chapter 50 and by British Strong Style(Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) in a match for the Progress Tag Team Championships at Chapter 53, after the latter match Havoc confronted Haskins about being distracted during the match, when Dunne took Haskins' wife hostage, and started a brawl thus turning heel once again. At Chapter 54 they were forced to team again against rivals Pete Dunne and Travis Banks in a losing effort, when Havoc walked out on Haskins. This led to Haskins challenging Havoc to a Deathmatch at Chapter 55, where Havoc was victorious. In the following chapter, Jimmy joined with Haskins and his wife to form a new faction by attacking a defenseless Jack Sexsmith who was then saved by David Starr. At Chapter 57, Havoc and Haskins defeated Sexsmith and Matt Riddle.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: At Chapter 63, Havoc and Haskins defeated the Grizzled Young Veterans to win the Progress Tag Team Titles. At Chapter 64, Havoc & Haskins lost the tag titles back to Grizzled Young Veterans. After failed to regain the championships at Chapter 65, Havoc and Haskins would ally with Morgan Webster, starting a victory streak in six man tag team matches. Havoc would start a losing streak in Death matches losing against Joey Janela at Chapter 68, Spike Trivet at Chapter 71 and against Drew Parker on Chapter 73. He would finally defeat Ricky Shane Page in an ECW rules match at the first night of the Coust to Coast tour on the USA. On the four night of the tour, Havoc unsiccesfully challenged Walter for the Progress World Championship. Havoc was challenged by his former rival Will Ospreay, who had recently returned to the promotion, to a 2 out of 3 falls No Disqualification match at Chapter 75, Ospreay would win the match 2-1 after the special guest referee Paul Robinson interfered and attacked Havoc. This led to a match at Chapter 76: Hello Wembley!, where Havoc defeated Paul Robinson in a No Disqualification match. At Chapter 77, Havoc was defeated by his tag team partner Mark Haskins in a triple threat match that also included Chris Brookes to become the number one contender for the Progress World Championship, during the match he was attacked and taken out by Drew Parker. This led to a match between the two at Chapter 79, however, before the match could start Havoc was attacked by Spike Trivet who was joined by Drew Parker, William Eaver and Chuck Mambo, thus starting a new faction called Do Not Resuscitate.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 18 April 2019 it was announced by Progress Wrestling that Havoc would be wrestling his final match for the company on 6 May 2019, day 3 of that year's Super Strong Style 16 tournament. Havoc subsequently lost to Paul Robinson. He returned to PROGRESS Chapter 100: Unboxing Live IV - A New Hope where he defeated David Starr in a deathmatch.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: In February 2016, Havoc entered Total Nonstop Action Wrestling saying he had "unfinished business" with Decay's valet Rosemary, Decay would later confront Havoc, with the ensuing beat down leading to Havoc taking on Abyss in a losing effort in a "no disqualification match" on 1 March episode of "Impact Wrestling". On 4 March, Havoc teamed with Big Damo for TNA's One Night Only: Joker's Wild pay-per-view losing to Drew Galloway and Mike Bennett. Havoc also unsuccessfully competed for the TNA King of the Mountain Championship in a King of the Mountain match against champion Eric Young, Bram, Big Damo and Will Ospreay on the edition of 8 March of "Impact Wrestling".


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: Havoc moved to What Culture Pro Wrestling after his stint in CZW, Havoc faced Primate to crown the inaugural WCPW Hardcore Champion. On 11 February 2017, it was announced he, along with other wrestlers, would make his What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) debut in the Pro Wrestling World Cup 2017, participating in the English Qualifier that will take place on 21 March 2017.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: At WCPW Refuse To Lose, after War Machine retained the WCPW Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks, Primate came out to get his Hardcore Championship back from ringside. War Machine didn't let him get his belt back. Havoc came out and announced that on Loaded, Havoc and Primate would face War Machine for the WCPW Tag Team Championships, which Havoc and Primate won. At #WeAreDefiant Havoc faced Primate for the new Defiant Hardcore Championship in a losing effort. On the second episode of Defiant, Havoc and Primate defeated BT Gunn and Joe Coffey to retain the Defiant Tag Team Championships.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On the edition of 9 February 2018 of Defiant's YouTube show, Havoc defeated his tag team partner to win the Hardcore Championship.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On edition of 9 March 2018 of Defiant' YouTube show Havoc turned on his tag team partner Primate and would voluntarily take the pin allowing Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) to capture the tag team titles. However, Mark Haskins would attack them afterwards with Havoc joining him. Havoc would then announce to the crowd that he and Haskins are now a team. On 19 March, at Lights Out, Havoc and Haskins would participate in a triple threat for the tag titles, but would lose after mysteriously Primate's ape mask was thrown into the ring causing a distraction and allowing Aussie Open to capitalize and retain the titles. On 26 March, at Road to No Regrets, in a rematch they would beat Aussie Open and the team of Joe Coffey and BT Gunn to capture the tag titles. Haskins & Havoc eventually lost the tag titles back to Aussie Open. Some time after losing the tag titles, Havoc and Haskins turned face and entered into a rivalry with the Anti-Fun Police.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: At Unstoppable, Havoc was set to defend the Hardcore Title against No Fun Dunne, but had to vacate the title due to an injury.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: It was announced via Twitter in February 2017, that Havoc would be the first British wrestler to compete in CZW's Tournament of Death. He defeated Conor Claxton in the finals to win the tournament. Havoc then faced Jimmy Jacobs on 9 December at CZW Cage of Death 19. in a losing effort.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: Jimmy Havoc wrestled for Major League Wrestling starting in December 2017 until October 2018. He competed in no-rules match against Sami Callihan in October. Callihan put Havoc in a body bag and hit him with a piledriver to finish the match. Following the loss, he disappeared from the promotion. In early 2019 vignettes begun airing hyping his return. In early March, it was announced that he would be wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Champion Tom Lawlor for the championship, at MLW Rise of the Renegades in a street fight. On 4 April 2019 the match took place, when Havoc lost. He later joined Promociones Dorado and began being promoted by Salina de la Renta and also started feuding with Mance Warner.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 5 February 2019, Jimmy Havoc announced that he had officially signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He debuted at Double or Nothing as a part of the pre-show battle royale for an AEW World Championship opportunity. He lasted until the final four, before being eliminated by Luchasaurus. At Fyter Fest, he lost a 4-Way match against Jungle Boy, Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Hangman Page, with Page emerging victorious. At Fight For The Fallen, Havoc lost a six-man tag team match with Darby Allin and Joey Janela against the team of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears. At All Out, Jimmy Havoc defeated Darby Allin and Joey Janela in a Cracker Barrel Clash Three Way match, pinning Janela with an Acid Rainmaker through a barrel. After that, he worked in Dynamite but mostly in YouTube's program Dark.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 9 November 2019, it was reported that Havoc had an altercation with Excalibur at Tony Schiavone's birthday party, which was being held at Jimmy's Famous Seafood in Baltimore. Tony Khan commented on the fight between the two during the media scrum for AEW Full Gear, claiming that "I wouldn’t call it a fight, I’ve seen a lot worse in the world of football, both in England and the NFL "—" I’ve seen a lot worse, and I saw a lot worse tonight. They scrapped around and it was cool yesterday."


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 15 April 2020, Havoc began teaming with Kip Sabian after he delivered a DDT to Orange Cassidy on the floor during Sabian's match against Chuck Taylor. They made their tag team debut losing to Best Friends in a no disqualifications tag team match on the 29 April 2020 edition of Dynamite. They would subsequently call themselves The SuperBad Squad. They defeated SoCal Uncensored's Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky in a number one contender's match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship on 2 May. They faced the champions Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page on 3 June for the titles in a losing effort.


title: Jimmy Havoc

text: On 19 June, it was announced that Havoc would attend counseling and rehabilitation after allegations were made that Havoc committed rape, abusive behavior, and assault. The allegations were made during the Speaking Out movement. AEW stated his employment status would be evaluated following the completion of treatment. Havoc was released after finishing treatment.


title: Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope

text: Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, (7 January 1883 – 12 June 1963) was a senior officer of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He was widely known by his initials, "ABC".


text: Cunningham was born in Rathmines in the south side of Dublin on 7 January 1883. After starting his schooling in Dublin and Edinburgh, he enrolled at Stubbington House School, at the age of ten. He entered the Royal Navy in 1897 as a naval cadet in the officers' training ship "Britannia", passing out in 1898. He commanded a destroyer during the First World War and through most of the interwar period. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and two Bars, for his performance during this time, specifically for his actions in the Dardanelles and in the Baltics.


text: In the Second World War, as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, Cunningham led British naval forces to victory in several critical Mediterranean naval battles. These included the attack on Taranto in 1940, the first completely all-aircraft naval attack in history, and the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941. Cunningham controlled the defence of the Mediterranean supply lines through Alexandria, Gibraltar, and the key chokepoint of Malta. He also directed naval support for the various major Allied landings in the Western Mediterranean littoral. In autumn 1943, with the incumbent, Sir Dudley Pound, dying, Cunningham was promoted to First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Royal Navy, a position he held until his retirement in 1946. He was ennobled as Baron Cunningham of Hyndhope in 1945 and made Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope the following year. After his retirement, Cunningham enjoyed several ceremonial positions, including Lord High Steward at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He died on 12 June 1963, aged 80.


text: Cunningham was born at Rathmines, County Dublin, on 7 January 1883, the third of five children born to Professor Daniel John Cunningham and Elizabeth Cumming Browne, both born in Scotland. General Sir Alan Cunningham was his younger brother. His parents were described as having a "strong intellectual and clerical tradition," both grandfathers having been in the clergy. His father was a Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College Dublin, whilst his mother stayed at home. Elizabeth Browne, with the aid of servants and governesses, oversaw much of his upbringing; as a result he reportedly had a "warm and close" relationship with her.


text: After a short introduction to schooling in Dublin he was sent to Edinburgh Academy, where he stayed with his aunts Doodles and Connie May. At the age of ten he received a telegram from his father asking "would you like to go into the Navy?" At the time, the family had no maritime connections, and Cunningham only had a vague interest in the sea. Nevertheless, he replied "Yes, I should like to be an Admiral". He was then sent to a Naval Preparatory School, Stubbington House, which specialised in sending pupils through the entrance examinations. Cunningham passed the exams, showing particular strength in mathematics.


text: Along with 64 other boys Cunningham joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aboard the training ship "Britannia" at Dartmouth on 15 January 1897. One of his classmates was future Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville. Cunningham was known for his lack of enthusiasm for field sports, although he did enjoy golf and spent most of his spare time "messing around in boats". He said in his memoirs that by the end of his course he was "anxious to seek adventure at sea". Although he committed numerous minor misdemeanours, he still obtained a "very good" for conduct. He passed out tenth in April 1898, with first class marks for mathematics and seamanship.


text: His first service was as a midshipman on in 1899, serving at the Cape of Good Hope Station when the Second Boer War began. By February 1900, he had transferred into the Naval Brigade as he believed "this promised opportunities for bravery and distinction in action." Cunningham then saw action at Pretoria and Diamond Hill as part of the Naval Brigade. He then went back to sea, as midshipman in in December 1901. The following November he joined the protected cruiser . Beginning in 1902, Cunningham took sub-lieutenant courses at Portsmouth and Greenwich; he served as sub-lieutenant on the battleship , in the Mediterranean, for six months in 1903. In September 1903, he was transferred to to serve as second-in-command. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1904, and served on several vessels during the next four years. In 1908, he was awarded his first command, HM Torpedo Boat No. 14.


text: Cunningham was a highly decorated officer during the First World War, receiving the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and two bars. In 1911 he was given command of the destroyer , which he commanded throughout the war. In 1914, "Scorpion" was involved in the shadowing of the German battlecruiser and cruiser "Goeben" and "Breslau". This operation was intended to find and destroy the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" but the German warships evaded the British fleet, and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople. Their arrival contributed to the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers in November 1914. Though a bloodless "battle", the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications—in the words of Winston Churchill, they brought "more slaughter, more misery and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."


text: Cunningham stayed on in the Mediterranean and in 1915 "Scorpion" was involved in the attack on the Dardanelles. For his performance, Cunningham was rewarded with promotion to commander in July 1915. He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order, gazetted in March 1916. Cunningham spent much of 1916 on routine patrols. In late 1916, he was engaged in convoy protection, a duty he regarded as mundane. He had no contact with German U-boats during this time, on which he commented; "The immunity of my convoys was probably due to sheer luck". Convinced that the Mediterranean held few offensive possibilities he requested to sail for home. "Scorpion" paid off on 21 January 1918. In his seven years as captain of the "Scorpion", Cunningham had developed a reputation for first class seamanship. He was transferred by Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes to , part of Keyes' Dover Patrol, in April 1918. For his actions with the Dover Patrol, he was awarded a bar to his DSO the following year.


text: Cunningham saw much action in the interwar years. In 1919, he commanded the S-class destroyer , on duty in the Baltic. The Communists, the White Russians, several varieties of Latvian nationalists and the Germans were trying to control Latvia; the British Government had recognised Latvia's independence after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was on this voyage that Cunningham first met Admiral Walter Cowan. Cunningham was impressed by Cowan's methods, specifically his navigation of the potentially dangerous seas, with thick fog and minefields threatening the fleet. Throughout several potentially problematic encounters with German forces trying to undermine the Latvian independence movement, Cunningham exhibited "good self control and judgement". Cowan was quoted as saying "Commander Cunningham has on one occasion after another acted with unfailing promptitude and decision, and has proved himself an Officer of exceptional valour and unerring resolution."


text: He was promoted to the rank of captain, effective 31 December 1919. For his actions in the Baltic, Cunningham was awarded a second bar to his DSO, gazetted in March 1920. His first appointment as a Captain was President of the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control in Heligoland. On his return from the Baltic in 1922, he was appointed captain of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla. Further commands were to follow; the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in 1923, and the destroyer base, , at Port Edgar in the Firth of Forth, from 1924 to 1926. Cunningham renewed his association with Vice Admiral Cowan between 1926 and 1928, when Cunningham was flag captain and chief staff officer to Cowan while serving on the North America and West Indies Squadron, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, with shore headquarters at Admiralty House in Pembroke. In his memoirs Cunningham made clear the "high regard" in which he held Cowan, and the many lessons he learned from him during their two periods of service together. The late 1920s found Cunningham back in the UK participating in courses at the Army's Senior Officers' School at Sheerness, as well as at the Imperial Defence College. While Cunningham was at the Imperial Defence College, in 1929, he married Nona Byatt (daughter of Horace Byatt, MA; the couple had no children). After a year at the College, Cunningham was given command of his first big ship; the battleship . Eighteen months later, he was appointed commodore of , the Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham.


text: In September 1932, Cunningham was promoted to flag rank, and aide-de-camp to the King. He was appointed Rear Admiral (Destroyers) in the Mediterranean in December 1933 and was made a Companion of the Bath in 1934. Having hoisted his flag in the light cruiser , Cunningham used his time to practice fleet handling for which he was to receive much praise in the Second World War. There were also fleet exercises in the Atlantic Ocean in which he learnt the skills and values of night actions that he would also use to great effect in years to come.


text: On his promotion to vice admiral in July 1936, due to the interwar naval policy, further active employment seemed remote. However, a year later due to the illness of Sir Geoffrey Blake, Cunningham assumed the combined appointment of commander of the Battlecruiser Squadron and second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, with as his flagship. After his long service in small ships, Cunningham considered his accommodation aboard "Hood" to be almost palatial, even surpassing his previous big ship experience on "Rodney".


text: He retained command until September 1938, when he was appointed to the Admiralty as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, although he did not actually take up this post until December 1938. He accepted this shore job with reluctance since he loathed administration, but the Board of Admiralty's high regard of him was evident. For six months during an illness of Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, the then First Sea Lord, he deputised for Backhouse on the Committee of Imperial Defence and on the Admiralty Board. In 1939 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), becoming known as Sir Andrew Cunningham.


text: Cunningham described the command of the Mediterranean Fleet as "The finest command the Royal Navy has to offer" and he remarked in his memoirs that "I probably knew the Mediterranean as well as any Naval Officer of my generation". Cunningham was made Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, hoisting his flag in on 6 June 1939, one day after arriving in Alexandria on 5 June 1939. As Commander-in-Chief, Cunningham's main concern was for the safety of convoys heading for Egypt and Malta. These convoys were highly significant in that they were desperately needed to keep Malta, a small British colony and naval base, in the war. Malta was a strategic strongpoint and Cunningham fully appreciated this. Cunningham believed that the main threat to British Sea Power in the Mediterranean would come from the Italian Fleet. As such Cunningham had his fleet at a heightened state of readiness, so that when Italy did choose to enter into hostilities the British Fleet would be ready.


text: In his role as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, Cunningham had to negotiate with the French Admiral René-Émile Godfroy for the demilitarisation and internment of the Force X, the French squadron at Alexandria, in June 1940, following the Fall of France. Churchill had ordered Cunningham to prevent the French warships from leaving port, and to ensure that French warships did not pass into enemy hands. Stationed at the time at Alexandria, Cunningham entered into delicate negotiations with Godfroy to ensure his fleet, which consisted of the battleship "Lorraine", four cruisers, three destroyers and a submarine, posed no threat. The Admiralty ordered Cunningham to complete the negotiations on 3 July. Just as an agreement seemed imminent Godfroy heard of the British action against the French at Mers el Kebir and, for a while, Cunningham feared a battle between French and British warships in the confines of Alexandria harbour. The deadline was overrun but negotiations ended well, after Cunningham put them on a more personal level and had the British ships appeal to their French opposite numbers. Cunningham's negotiations succeeded and the French emptied their fuel bunkers and removed the firing mechanisms from their guns. Cunningham in turn promised to repatriate the ships' crews.


text: Although the threat from the French Fleet had been neutralised, Cunningham was still aware of the threat posed by the Italian Fleet to British North African operations, based in Egypt. Although the Royal Navy had won in several actions in the Mediterranean, considerably upsetting the balance of power, the Italians who were following the theory of a fleet in being had left their ships in harbour. This made the threat of a sortie against the British Fleet a serious problem. At the time the harbour at Taranto contained six battleships (five of them battle-worthy), seven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers. The Admiralty, concerned with the potential for an attack, had drawn up Operation "Judgement"; a surprise attack on Taranto Harbour. To carry out the attack, the Admiralty sent the new aircraft carrier , commanded by Lumley Lyster, to join in Cunningham's fleet.


text: The attack started at 21:00, 11 November 1940, when the first of two waves of Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from "Illustrious", followed by the second wave an hour later. The attack was a great success: the Italian fleet lost half its strength in one night. The "fleet-in-being" diminished in importance and the threat to the Royal Navy's control of the Mediterranean had been considerably reduced. Cunningham said of the victory: "Taranto, and the night of 11–12 November 1940, should be remembered for ever as having shown once and for all that in the Fleet Air Arm the Navy has its most devastating weapon." The Royal Navy had launched the first all-aircraft naval attack in history, flying a small number of aircraft from an aircraft carrier. This, and other aspects of the raid, were important facts in the planning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941: the Japanese planning staff were thought to have studied it intensively.


text: Cunningham's official reaction at the time was memorably terse. After landing the last of the attacking aircraft, "Illustrious" signalled "Operation Judgement executed". After seeing aerial reconnaissance photographs the next day which showed several Italian ships sunk or out of action, Cunningham replied with the two-letter code group which signified, "Manoeuvre well executed".


text: At the end of March 1941, Hitler wanted the convoys supplying the British Expeditionary force in Greece stopped, and the Italian Navy was the only force able to attempt this. Cunningham stated in his biography: "I myself was inclined to think that the Italians would not try anything. I bet Commander Power, the Staff Officer, Operations, the sum of ten shillings that we would see nothing of the enemy."


text: Under pressure from Germany, the Italian Fleet planned to launch an attack on the British Fleet on 28 March 1941. The Italian commander, Admiral Angelo Iachino, intended to carry out a surprise attack on the British Cruiser Squadron in the area (commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Pridham-Wippell), executing a pincer movement with the battleship "Vittorio Veneto". Cunningham though, was aware of Italian naval activity through intercepts of Italian Enigma messages. Although Italian intentions were unclear, Cunningham's staff believed an attack upon British troop convoys was likely and orders were issued to spoil the enemy plan and, if possible, intercept their fleet. Cunningham wished, however, to disguise his own activity and arranged for a game of golf and a fictitious evening gathering to mislead enemy agents (he was, in fact, overheard by the local Japanese Consul).


text: After sunset, he boarded HMS "Warspite" and left Alexandria. Cunningham, realising that an air attack could weaken the Italians, ordered an attack by the 's Albacore torpedo-bombers. A hit on the "Vittorio Veneto" slowed her temporarily and Iachino, realising his fleet was vulnerable without air cover, ordered his forces to retire. Cunningham gave the order to pursue the Italian Fleet.


text: An air attack from the "Formidable" had disabled the cruiser , and Iachino, unaware of Cunningham's pursuing battlefleet, ordered a squadron of cruisers and destroyers to return and protect the "Pola". Cunningham, meanwhile, was joining up with Pridham-Wippell's cruiser squadron. Throughout the day several chases and sorties occurred with no overall victor. None of the Italian ships were equipped for night fighting, and when night fell, they made to return to Taranto. The British battlefleet equipped with radar detected the Italians shortly after 22:00. In a pivotal moment in naval warfare during the Second World War, the battleships , and "Warspite" opened fire on two Italian cruisers at only 3,800 yards (3.5 km), destroying them in only five minutes.


text: Although the "Vittorio Veneto" escaped from the battle by returning to Taranto, there were many accolades given to Cunningham for continuing the pursuit at night, against the advice of his staff. After the previous defeat at Taranto, the defeat at Cape Matapan dealt another strategic blow to the Italian Navy. Five ships—three heavy cruisers and two destroyers—were sunk, and around 2,400 Italian sailors were killed, missing or captured. The British lost only three aircrew when one torpedo bomber was shot down. Cunningham had lost his bet with Commander Power but he had won a strategic victory in the war in the Mediterranean. The defeats at Taranto and Cape Matapan meant that the Italian Navy did not intervene in the heavily contested evacuations of Greece and Crete, later in 1941. It also ensured that, for the remainder of the war, the Regia Marina conceded the Eastern Mediterranean to the Allied Fleet, and did not leave port for the remainder of the war.


text: On the morning of 20 May 1941, Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete, under the code-name "Unternehmen Merkur" (Operation Mercury). Despite initial heavy casualties, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell to the Germans and enabled them to fly in heavy reinforcements and overwhelm the Allied forces.


text: After a week of heavy fighting, British commanders decided that the situation was hopeless and ordered a withdrawal from Sfakia. During the next four nights, 16,000 troops were evacuated to Egypt by ships (including of Battle of the River Plate fame). A smaller number of ships were to withdraw troops on a separate mission from Heraklion, but these ships were attacked en route by Luftwaffe dive bombers. Without air cover, Cunningham's ships suffered serious losses. Cunningham was determined, though, that the "navy must not let the army down", and when army generals feared he would lose too many ships, Cunningham said,


text: The "never say die" attitude of Cunningham and the men under his command meant that of 22,000 men on Crete, 16,500 were rescued but at the loss of three cruisers and six destroyers. Fifteen other major warships were damaged.


text: Cunningham became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), "in recognition of the recent successful combined operations in the Middle East", in March 1941 and was created a baronet, of Bishop's Waltham in the County of Southampton, in July 1942. From late 1942 to early 1943, he served under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who made him Naval Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. In this role Cunningham commanded the large fleet that covered the Anglo-American landings in North Africa (Operation Torch). General Eisenhower said of him in his diary:


text: On 21 January 1943, Cunningham was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. February 1943 saw him return to his post as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. Three months later, when Axis forces in North Africa were on the verge of surrender, he ordered that none should be allowed to escape. Entirely in keeping with his fiery character he signalled the fleet "Sink, burn and destroy: Let nothing pass". He oversaw the naval forces used in the joint Anglo-American amphibious invasions of Sicily, during Operation Husky, Operation Baytown and Operation Avalanche. On the morning of 11 September 1943, Cunningham was present at Malta when the Italian Fleet surrendered. Cunningham informed the Admiralty with a telegram; "Be pleased to inform their Lordships that the Italian battle fleet now lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta."


text: In October 1943, Cunningham became First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, after the death of Sir Dudley Pound. This promotion meant that he had to relinquish his coveted post of Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, recommending his namesake Admiral John H. D. Cunningham as his successor. In the position of First Sea Lord, and as a member of the Chiefs of Staff committee, Cunningham was responsible for the overall strategic direction of the navy for the remainder of the war. He attended the major conferences at Cairo, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, at which the Allies discussed future strategy, including the invasion of Normandy and the deployment of a British fleet to the Pacific Ocean.


text: While the port of Antwerp was vital for the Allies after D-Day, Admirals Cunningham and Ramsay warned SHAEF and Montgomery that the port was of no use while the Germans held the approaches. But Montgomery postponed the Battle of the Scheldt, and the delay in opening the port was a grave blow to the Allied build-up before winter approached.


text: In January 1945 Cunningham was appointed a Knight of the Thistle and raised to the peerage as Baron Cunningham of Hyndhope, of Kirkhope in the County of Selkirk. He was entitled to retire at the end of the war in 1945 but he resolved to pilot the Navy through the transition to peace before retiring. With the election of Clement Attlee as British Prime Minister in 1945, and the implementation of his Post-war consensus, there was a large reduction in the Defence Budget. The extensive reorganisation was a challenge for Cunningham. "We very soon came to realise how much easier it was to make war than to reorganise for peace." Due to pressures on the budget from all three services, the Navy embarked on a reduction programme that was larger than Cunningham had envisaged.


text: In October 1945 he was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh. He was made Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, of Kirkhope in the County of Selkirk, in the 1946 New Year Honours, and appointed to the Order of Merit in June of that year. At the end of May 1946, after overseeing the transition through to peacetime, Cunningham retired from his post as First Sea Lord. Cunningham retreated to the "little house in the country", 'Palace House', at Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire, which he and Lady Cunningham had acquired before the war. They both had a busy retirement. He attended the House of Lords irregularly and occasionally lent his name to press statements about the Royal Navy, particularly those relating to Admiral Dudley North, who had been relieved of his command of Gibraltar in 1940. Cunningham, and several of the surviving admirals of the fleet, set about securing justice for North, and they succeeded with a partial vindication in 1957. He also busied himself with various appointments; he was Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1950 and 1952, and in 1953 he acted as Lord High Steward—the most recent one to date—at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout this time Cunningham and his wife entertained family and friends, including his own great nephew, Jock Slater, in their extensive gardens. Cunningham died in London on 12 June 1963, and was buried at sea off Portsmouth. There were no children from his marriage and his titles consequently became extinct on his death.


text: A bust of Cunningham by Franta Belsky was unveiled in Trafalgar Square in London on 2 April 1967 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The April 2010 UK naval operation to ship British military personnel and air passengers stranded in continental Europe by the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption back to the UK was named Operation Cunningham after him.


title: Parallel World Pharmacy

text: In his life-long obsession to develop new medicines to help people, Kanji Yakutani, a Japanese medical researcher, dies from overwork. To his immense surprise, he finds himself reborn in another world with a medieval culture, in which proper medical treatments are an affordable privilege to the wealthy only. In his new life as Pharma de Médicis, he discovers that he has been granted a divine blessing from Panactheos, the God of Medicine. With his divine blessing and his retained knowledge of modern medicine, Pharma decides to revolutionize the other world's medical advancements and make proper treatments affordable for the common folk.


title: Parallel World Pharmacy

text: Yūshi Kojima, who is a pharmacist, joins the production of the manga adaptation as a "pharmacy supervisor".


title: Parallel World Pharmacy

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on July 15, 2021. The series is produced by Diomedéa and directed by Keizō Kusakawa, with Wataru Watari in charge of series' scripts, Mayuko Matsumoto designing the characters, and Tatsuya Kato and Satoshi Hōno composing the music. It aired from July 10 to September 25, 2022, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, Kansai TV, and BS NTV. The opening theme song is "Musō-teki Chronicle" by Kaori Ishihara, while the ending theme song is "Haku'u" by Little Black Dress. Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia, and has also began streaming an English dub starting on July 24, 2022. Muse Communication licensed the series in Taiwan, South and Southeast Asia


title: Roy Castle

text: Roy Castle (31 August 1932 – 2 September 1994) was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. In addition to being an accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could play many other instruments. Following a versatile career as a performer on stage, television and film, he became best known to British television viewers as the long-running presenter of the children's series "Record Breakers".


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle was born in Scholes, near Holmfirth, West Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a railwayman, he was a tap dancer from an early age and trained at Nora Bray's school of dance with Audrey Spencer who later ran a big dance school, and after leaving Holme Valley Grammar School (now Honley High School) he started his career as an entertainer in an amateur concert party. As a young performer in the 1950s, he lived in Cleveleys near Blackpool and appeared there at the local Queen's Theatre, turning professional in 1953 as a stooge for Jimmy Clitheroe and Jimmy James. By 1958, he was appearing at the Royal Variety Show. As a singer, he released one charting single in 1960, the Christmas song "Little White Berry".


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle guest-starred in an episode of the Morecambe and Wise series "Two of a Kind", which aired on 3 August 1963. He received billing twice for his guest appearances in both halves of the show. In 1965, Castle starred with Peter Cushing in the film "Dr. Who and the Daleks", the first of two cinematic spin-offs from the BBC television series. He played the role of Dr. Who's first male assistant, Ian Chesterton, and was cast to perform the role more comedically than it had been played by William Russell in the equivalent serial. He appeared in "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" as a jazz musician.


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle also appeared in "Carry On Up the Khyber" in 1968 and in the TV musical "Pickwick" for the BBC in 1969. In the 1990s, he appeared again in Pickwick, touring the country, starring alongside Sir Harry Secombe and the show was recorded again. Secombe had starred in the original West End production in 1963. In 1973, Castle teamed up with the comedy actor Ronnie Barker in an original one-off called "Another Fine Mess" (an episode from Barker's series "Seven of One"). Barker was one of Castle's best friends, and paid tribute to their work together shortly after Castle's death.


title: Roy Castle

text: Between 1967 and 1968, Castle co-starred with Jimmy Edwards in the London West End run of the comedy farce show "Big Bad Mouse" when Eric Sykes had to withdraw because of illness. The show was resident at the Shaftesbury Theatre and, being loosely scripted, it offered both Edwards and Castle the chance to freely ad-lib and generally break the fourth wall with the audience, Castle breaking into trumpet performances while Edwards walked into a front stall seat to read a newspaper, tap dancing and firing ping-pong balls into the stalls. He also once stood in for Bruce Forsyth hosting "The Generation Game" in 1975 while Forsyth was ill. He made many appearances on BBC television's long running variety show "The Good Old Days", making use of his multi instrumental and performing skills. In 1988, Castle presented and performed in the Anglia Television series "Marching as to War", which traced and re-enacted the early history of The Salvation Army.


title: Roy Castle

text: In 1972, he first presented "Record Breakers", a children's show, and he remained host for over 20 years. He recorded the theme song "Dedication" for the show himself, and usually performed it live over the closing credits. While presenting the show he broke nine world records himself, including


title: Roy Castle

text: He was a host of the show up until a few months before his death in 1994, alongside Norris and (until his death in 1975) Ross McWhirter, Fiona Kennedy and Cheryl Baker. From then on, hosting was taken over by Baker and former athlete Kriss Akabusi. It continued for 29 years until 2001, one of Britain's longest-running shows.


title: Roy Castle

text: Between 1958 and 1969, Castle recorded three LPs. One of these, "Songs for a Rainy Day" was recorded in 1966 for the Columbia label and was reissued in the UK on CD by EMI Gold, re-titled "Isn't This a Lovely Day" in 2005. The record features twelve songs with rain as the theme. British jazz players of the day Gordon Beck (piano), Jeff Clyne (bass), Leon Calvert (flugelhorn), Ike Isaacs (guitar), Ray Swinfield (flute) and Al Newman (saxophone) played on the record and it features jazz arrangements by Victor Graham covering a variety of styles such as big band, ("Pennies From Heaven", "Stormy Weather"), ballads ("February Brings The Rain", "Here's That Rainy Day", "Soon It's Gonna Rain") and bossa novas ("Everytime It Rains", "The Gentle Rain").


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle's recording career also included the spoken word. In 1978, for the Scripture Union Label, he recorded eight Bible parables, released on side 1 of the LP "Castle on Luke Street", (SU0806), from the 'Luke Street' books, by David Lewis. Side 2 was spoken by Kenneth Williams, Dora Bryan, Derek Nimmo, and Thora Hird, who narrated one story each.


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle married dancer Fiona Dickson on 29 July 1963. They had been introduced to each other by Eric Morecambe. Both Castle and his wife were committed Christians and they regularly attended the Baptist church near their home. They had four children. Their youngest son, Ben Castle (born 1973), is a jazz saxophonist who has played with a wide range of artists, including Jamie Cullum, Carleen Anderson, Beth Rowley, Marillion and Radiohead, and performed on film soundtracks.


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle was a football fan and supported Liverpool. Fewer than six months before his death, he attended the Liverpool–Everton derby match at Anfield on 13 March 1994 and stood on the Spion Kop terrace. He had also been in the crowd at Liverpool's FA Cup final victory over Sunderland in May 1992, shortly after he was first found to have cancer. At that time Ronnie Barker paid tribute to him, referring to their portrayal of characters that bore a strong resemblance to Laurel and Hardy in "Another Fine Mess".


title: Roy Castle

text: Castle was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 1992, and was told that his chances of recovery were slim and that it was unlikely that he would live for more than six months. He underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy and went into remission later that year. A non-smoker, he blamed his illness on passive smoking during his years of playing the trumpet in smoky jazz clubs. On 26 November 1993, Castle announced that his illness had returned, and underwent a second round of treatment. Over the spring and summer of 1994, in spite of his deteriorating health, he carried out the high-profile "Tour of Hope" to raise funds for the erection of the building that would become the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, which is the only British charity dedicated solely to defeating lung cancer.


title: Roy Castle

text: During and shortly after Castle's illness, many smoke-free restaurants and cafes were awarded the "Roy Castle Clean Air Award" to denote their adherence to a (then voluntary) smoke-free regime.


title: Roy Castle

text: His final contribution to "Record Breakers" was aired at the conclusion of the 1993 series, although the programme continued until 2001.


title: Roy Castle

text: He died at his home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire on the morning of 2 September 1994, two days after his 62nd birthday. A week before his death he was made a freeman of the City of Liverpool.


title: Roy Castle

text: His funeral service took place on 8 September 1994 in Amersham. Present at the funeral service along with his family were Sir Harry Secombe, Bruce Forsyth, Cliff Richard, and Sir John Mills. A memorial service at Liverpool Cathedral was held on 20 October 1994.


title: Roy Castle

text: His widow Fiona worked with the charity after her husband's death, and campaigned for the British smoking ban, which came into effect in Northern Ireland in 2004, Scotland in 2006, and England and Wales in 2007, banning smoking in virtually all enclosed public places.


title: Michael Maloney

text: Born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Maloney's first television appearance was as Peter Barkworth's teenage son in the 1979 drama series "Telford's Change".


title: Michael Maloney

text: He made his West End debut in 1979 in "Can you Hear me at The Back", by Brian Clark, followed immediately by "Taking Steps" by Alan Ayckbourn. After playing Toby Gashe in "The Bell", by Iris Murdoch, Maloney joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 playing Ferdinand in "The Tempest". After the RSC, he went on to play in "The Perfectionist" at Hampstead, the title role of Peer Gynt for Cambridge Theatre Company, "The London Cuckolds" at the Lyric Hammersmith, "Two Planks and a Passion" by Anthony Minghella, directed by Danny Boyle at Greenwich and "Built on Sand" at the Royal Court. Maloney went on to appear in many films and television series, including "What if Its Raining", by Anthony Minghella, for Channel 4. He became a familiar face after playing the Dauphin in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film adaptation of "Henry V". In the early 1990s, he played Prince Hal in "Henry IV Parts 1 and 2", Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" for the RSC and Hamlet on a national tour starting at Greenwich. He appeared on television in "Mr Wakefield's Crusade", on film as Mark in "Truly, Madly, Deeply", and in 1994 he took the lead in the BBC adaptation of "Love on a Branch Line". He appeared in both the 1990 and 1996 film versions of "Hamlet", as Rosencrantz and Laertes respectively, and in several other Shakespeare screen adaptations, including the lead role in "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Kenneth Branagh. In addition to his TV appearances, he starred as Jason Fields in the film "American Reel" in 1999. 2002 saw him play Brian Albumen, personal aide to Rik Mayall's Adonis Cnut character in the Gran and Marks penned TV sitcom "Believe Nothing". In 2003, he appeared as the Belgian Prosper Profond in "". In the theatre he played Hamlet again for Yukio Ninagawa on tour and at the Barbican. He played Cassius in the 2005 miniseries "Empire," John Major in 2009's "Margaret" and Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel in the 2009 film "The Young Victoria".


title: Michael Maloney

text: He is active in radio drama on BBC Radio 4, playing the Dean in both series of "High Table, Lower Orders" and Giles the gossip columnist in "His Master's Voice". He has made a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series "Baldi". He has also appeared in a Bollywood films Kisna, and "I See You", playing the detective inspector.


title: Michael Maloney

text: In 2010, he appeared in long-running drama "Casualty" as consultant Howard Fairfax, and in series 4 of the political satire series "The Thick of It", he played Matthew Hodge, part of the Goolding Inquiry. In 2013, he portrayed Sir Henry Stafford, third husband of Lady Margaret Beaufort, in the BBC TV series "The White Queen". In 2016, he appeared in the ITV/Netflix series "Paranoid". He was also in the second series of "Utopia" for Channel 4 and played Edward Heath in series 3 of "The Crown". He most recently has a cameo role in "Belfast", directed by Kenneth Branagh, and played the role of Vanya, in "Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike", by Christopher Durang, directed by Walter Bobbie, at the Charing Cross Theatre.


title: Michael Maloney

text: He has also lent his voice to various video game characters, including The Lost Soul in the 2013 video game "", Avallac'h in the 2015 video game "", and Doloran in the 2018 video game "".


title: Michael Maloney

text: In 2002, Maloney married Italian-American model and photographer Kim Andreolli; Maloney and Andreolli had one child, a daughter, before divorcing.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is an adventure video game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is a story-based game, taking place in a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared. It is considered a spiritual successor to "Dear Esther", also by The Chinese Room. It was released for the PlayStation 4 on 11 August 2015. It was released for Windows on 14 April 2016.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: In "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", the player explores a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared. The player can interact with floating lights throughout the world, most of which can reveal parts of the story. The player can interact with objects such as doors, radios, phones, fences, and power switches.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: The game takes place in 1984 in a fictional Shropshire village named Yaughton. The player's objective is to explore and try to discover how and why everyone in the village has disappeared. Mysterious floating orbs of light swim around the air and lead the player to scenes made up of other human-shaped lights, which re-enact various previously occurring events. Following the orbs' evidence from scene-to-scene across the valley, as well as finding telephones and radios that replay conversations, recordings, and broadcasts, eventually provide all of the puzzle pieces to the game's main event, the "rapture".


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: There are five areas in the game, each of which revolve around a different character, with the main protagonists being Dr Katherine "Kate" Collins and her husband, Stephen Appleton, both scientists at the observatory. During their work, Kate and Stephen encounter a strange pattern of lights in the night sky which they believe is an unknown form of life. They observe the pattern infecting and sometimes killing other lifeforms such as birds and cows, before spreading to humans. Kate concludes that the pattern is attempting to communicate with humans, ignorant to the harm that it is causing them. She locks herself in the observatory and spends the vast majority of the story attempting to communicate with it. During this time, Stephen becomes convinced that the pattern is a deadly threat capable of destroying the human race.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: Most of the valley's inhabitants begin to succumb to symptoms of unexplained hemorrhaging; pressure in the brain that is normally consistent with a brain tumor, as the doctor notes in a left-behind recording. Other people disappear, leaving behind a room full of odd specks of light and the lingering scent of unidentifiable ash. Convinced that this is connected to the pattern and that it will spread beyond the village if not contained, Stephen urges the local government to quarantine the area, blocking the roads and cutting the telephone lines. The locals are told that it is due to an outbreak of Spanish flu, though many are skeptical of this and become even more so when the corpses of the dead begin to disappear into thin air.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: As the town's population rapidly dwindles, Stephen realizes that the quarantine has failed and that the 'pattern', or 'It' as it is often referred to, has learned to adapt. He believes that it has learned to travel not just through direct human contact, but through the telephone lines, radio waves, and television sets. In light of this, he desperately insists to the local government that they must gas the valley.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: In the penultimate chapter of the game, the player is led to a bunker where Stephen waited out the nerve gas bombings with the intention of killing himself once he ensured that every other infected person in the valley is dead. When he is unable to reach anyone at all outside the valley via telephone, he realizes that he has failed and that the pattern has spread, presumably to the entire planet. The pattern comes for him and he confronts It. He tells It that he has decided to set fire to himself, having doused himself in petrol to prevent being taken by It. Moments before he igniting the fuel, an image of Kate appears in the pattern of the light. Stephen stands in awe, reaching out to her. The scene fades out as Stephen's lighter slips out of his hand and hits the ground, igniting the petrol.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: In the final part of the game the player is transported to the inside of the observatory's locked entrance gate. The player makes their way up the hill to the top-most observatory and upon entering, sees the human light shape of Kate inside in the darkness, making the last of the recordings heard. She states that she is the last one left, and it is revealed that she did achieve communication with It. Kate explains that when she told the pattern that what it did to everyone in the valley - the people, the birds, the insects, the cows - was wrong; It countered that it was not wrong, because now everyone that wanted to be together was together, and that everyone had found their counterpart and was no longer alone. Kate explains how she finally understands and says that she has accepted her fate, and that she and 'the pattern' will soon join the others. She states that humanity can finally 'slip away, unafraid.' Kate turns and appears to reach out to the pattern coming down from above as it reaches out to meet her, her last words being her belief that the pattern was her own counterpart.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: During the development of "Dear Esther", the team wanted to introduce interactive elements. When this proved to be impractical, the concept of "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" was born. The developers were inspired by "the very British apocalyptic sci-fi of the 60s and 70", like John Christopher's "The Death of Grass" and Charles Eric Maine's "The Tide Went Out".


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: The team made the decision to partner with Sony as they felt they could not raise enough money for the project through crowdfunding sources or through sales of alpha versions. A Windows version of the game was released on 14 April 2016. The game's soundtrack composed by Jessica Curry was published by Sony Classical as a 28-track album in the UK.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" received positive reviews, receiving an aggregated score of 78/100 on Metacritic based on 81 reviews.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: GamesRadar called the game "brave, [...] challenging, and [...] essential", while IGN talked about "a beautiful, heart-breaking journey into the end of the world". "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" was featured on several "Best games of the year" lists, such as Kirk Hamilton's from Kotaku, Alexa Ray Corriea's from GameSpot or Kill Screen's "Best Videogames of 2015" list.


title: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

text: Some reviewers criticized what was perceived as too little interactivity from the player. Jim Sterling, while analysing games often derided as "walking simulators", said that "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" is a model of what not to do in this genre, such as by not shifting the tone of the game as it progresses, and by making the back-story more interesting than the game itself. They unfavorably compared it to "Gone Home" and "The Stanley Parable". Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of "The Escapist" called it the 4th blandest game of 2015, saying that it deserves the title of "walking simulator", and for how little it did to evolve the interactive story genre, comparing it unfavorably to "The Stanley Parable" as well.


title: Teo Briones

text: Mateo Justis Briones (born January 11, 2005) is an English child actor. He recently portrayed the role of Junior Wheeler in "Chucky", a television continuation of the "Child's Play" film franchise.


title: Teo Briones

text: Briones was born in Oxford, England, on January 11, 2005, while his parents were on tour. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of 3. His father is Filipino actor/singer Jon Jon Briones and his mother is Swedish and Irish actress/talent agent Megan Briones. His older sister is actress/singer Isa Briones.


title: Teo Briones

text: Briones began acting and modeling at age five with his first credited film role being Alex Cabrera in the 2010 TV movie "Cutthroat". He appeared in the Disney XD TV show "Kickin' It" in a 2011 episode as a young Jack. He appeared on "Parks and Recreation" in 2012 as Joey. In 2013, he appeared in an episode of the TV show "Pretty Little Liars" as Malcolm Cutler. Briones played the role of Casey in the 2017 film "Wind River" which starred Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, Then he appeared again on "Ratched" on September 18 of 2020 which starred Sarah Paulson and Finn Wittrock. Briones played the role of Junior Wheeler in the first season of the TV series "Chucky".


title: Kofun period

text: The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend heavily on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. The word "kofun" is Japanese for the type of burial mound dating from this era.


title: Kofun period

text: It was a period of cultural import. Continuing from the Yayoi period, the Kofun period is characterized by influence from China and the Korean Peninsula; archaeologists consider it a shared culture across the southern Korean Peninsula, Kyūshū and Honshū. On the other hand, the most prosperous keyhole-shaped burial mounds in Japan during this period were approximately 5,000 in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century in the Yayoi period to the 7th century in the Asuka period, and many of them had huge tombs, but in the southern Korean Peninsula there were only 13 from the 5th century to the 6th century, and the tombs were small. Wall decorations and Japanese-style armor, which are characteristic of older Japanese burial mounds, were excavated from 5th century burial mounds in the southern Korean Peninsula. This shows that Japan and the southern Korean Peninsula influenced each other.


title: Kofun period

text: According to the "Nihon Shoki", Buddhism and the Chinese writing system were introduced near the end of the period from Baekje. The Kofun period recorded Japan's earliest political centralization, when the Yamato clan rose to power in southwestern Japan, established the Imperial House, and helped control trade routes across the region.


title: Kofun period

text: Kofun (from Middle Chinese "kú" 古 "ancient" + "bjun" 墳 "burial mound") are burial mounds built for members of the ruling class from the 3rd to the 7th centuries in Japan, and the Kofun period takes its name from the distinctive earthen mounds. The mounds contained large stone burial chambers, and some are surrounded by moats.


title: Kofun period

text: Kofun have four basic shapes: round and square are the most common, followed by 'scallop-shell' and 'keyhole.' The keyhole tomb is a distinct style found only in Japan, with a square front and round back. Kofun range in size from several meters to over 400 meters long, and unglazed pottery figures ("Haniwa") were often buried under a kofun's circumference.


title: Kofun period

text: The oldest Japanese kofun is reportedly Hokenoyama Kofun in Sakurai, Nara, which dates to the late 3rd century. In the Makimuku district of Sakurai, later keyhole kofuns (Hashihaka Kofun, Shibuya Mukaiyama Kofun) were built during the early 4th century. The keyhole kofun spread from Yamato to Kawachi—with giant kofun, such as Daisenryō Kofun—and then throughout the country during the 5th century. Keyhole kofun disappeared later in the 6th century, probably because of the drastic reformation of the Yamato court; "Nihon Shoki" records the introduction of Buddhism at this time. The last two great kofun are the Imashirozuka kofun in Osaka (currently believed by scholars to be the tomb of Emperor Keitai) and the Iwatoyama kofun in Fukuoka, recorded in "Fudoki of Chikugo" as the tomb of Iwai (political archrival of Emperor Keitai). Kofun burial mounds on the island of Tanegashima and two very old Shinto shrines on the island of Yakushima suggest that these islands were the southern boundary of the Yamato state; it extended north to Tainai in the present-day Niigata Prefecture, where excavated mounds have been associated with a person closely linked to the Yamato kingdom.


title: Kofun period

text: Yamato rule is usually believed to have begun about 250 AD, and it is generally agreed that Yamato rulers had keyhole-kofun culture and hegemony in Yamato until the 4th century. Autonomy of local powers remained throughout the period, particularly in Kibi (the present-day Okayama Prefecture), Izumo (current Shimane Prefecture), Koshi (current Fukui and Niigata Prefecture), Kenu (northern Kantō), Chikushi (northern Kyūshū), and Hi (central Kyūshū). During the 6th century, the Yamato clans began to dominate the southern half of Japan. According to the "Book of Song", Yamato relationships with China probably began in the late 4th century.


title: Kofun period

text: The Yamato polity, which emerged by the late 5th century, was distinguished by powerful clans (豪族, "gōzoku"). Each clan was headed by a patriarch (氏上, "Uji-no-kami"), who performed sacred rituals to the clan's "kami" (objects of worship) to ensure its long-term welfare. Clan members were the aristocracy, and the royal line which controlled the Yamato court was at its zenith. Clan leaders were awarded "kabane", inherited titles denoting rank and political standing which replaced family names.


title: Kofun period

text: The Kofun period is called the Yamato period by some Western scholars, since this local chieftainship became the imperial dynasty at the end of the period. However, the Yamato clan ruled just one polity among others during the Kofun era. Japanese archaeologists emphasise that other regional chieftainships (such as Kibi) were in close contention for dominance in the first half of the Kofun period; Kibi's Tsukuriyama Kofun is Japan's fourth-largest.


title: Kofun period

text: The Yamato court exercised power over clans in Kyūshū and Honshū, bestowing titles (some hereditary) on clan chieftains. The Yamato name became synonymous with Japan as Yamato rulers suppressed other clans and acquired agricultural land. Based on Chinese models (including the adoption of the Chinese written language), they began to develop a central administration and an imperial court attended by subordinate clan chieftains with no permanent capital. Powerful clans were the Soga, Katsuragi, and clans in the Yamato and Bizen Provinces and the clans in the Izumo Province. The Ōtomo and Mononobe clans were military leaders, and the Nakatomi and clans handled rituals. The Soga clan provided the government's chief minister, the Ōtomo and Mononobe clans provided secondary ministers, and provincial leaders were called "kuni no miyatsuko". Craftsmen were organized into guilds.


title: Kofun period

text: In addition to archaeological findings indicating a local monarchy in Kibi Province as an important rival, the legend of the 4th-century Prince Yamato Takeru alludes to the borders of the Yamato and battlegrounds in the region; a frontier was near the later Izumo Province (eastern present-day Shimane Prefecture). Another frontier, in Kyūshū, was apparently north of present-day Kumamoto Prefecture. According to the legend, there was an eastern land in Honshū "whose people disobeyed the imperial court" and against whom Yamato Takeru was sent to fight. It is unclear if the rival country was near the Yamato nucleus or further away. Kai Province is mentioned as a location where prince Yamato Takeru traveled on his military expedition.


title: Kofun period

text: The period's northern frontier was explained in "Kojiki" as the legend of Shido Shōgun's (四道将軍, "Shōguns to four ways") expedition. One of four "shōguns", Ōbiko set out northward to Koshi and his son Take Nunakawawake left for the eastern states. The father moved east from northern Koshi, and the son moved north; they met at Aizu, in present-day western Fukushima Prefecture. Although the legend is probably not factual, Aizu is near southern Tōhoku (the northern extent of late-4th-century keyhole-kofun culture).


title: Kofun period

text: During the Kofun period, an aristocratic society with militaristic rulers developed. The period was a critical stage in Japan's evolution into a cohesive, recognized state. The society was most developed in the Kinai region and the eastern Setouchi region. Japan's rulers petitioned the Chinese court for confirmation of royal titles.


title: Kofun period

text: While the rulers' title was officially "King", they called themselves ""Ōkimi"" (大王, "Great King") during this period. Inscriptions on two swords (the Inariyama and Eta Funayama Swords) read "Amenoshita Shiroshimesu" (治天下; "ruling Heaven and Earth") and "Ōkimi", indicating that the rulers invoked the Mandate of Heaven. The title "Amenoshita Shiroshimesu Ōkimi" was used until the 7th century, when it was replaced by "Tennō".


title: Kofun period

text: Many of the clans and local chieftains who made up the Yamato polity claimed descent from the imperial family or "kami". Archaeological evidence for the clans is found on the Inariyama Sword, on which the bearer recorded the names of his ancestors to claim descent from "Ōbiko" (大彦, recorded in the "Nihon Shoki" as a son of Emperor Kōgen). A number of clans claimed origin in China or the Korean Peninsula.


title: Kofun period

text: During the 5th century, the Katsuragi clan (葛城氏, descended from the legendary grandson of Emperor Kōgen) was the most prominent power in the court and intermarried with the imperial family. After the clan declined, late in the century, it was replaced by the Ōtomo clan. When Emperor Buretsu died with no apparent heir, Ōtomo no Kanamura recommended Emperor Keitai (a distant imperial relative in Koshi Province) as the new monarch. Kanamura resigned due to the failure of his diplomatic policies, and the court was controlled by the Mononobe and Soga clans at the beginning of the Asuka period.


title: Kofun period

text: "Toraijin" refers to people who immigrated to Japan from abroad via the Ryukyu Islands or the Korean Peninsula. They introduced numerous, significant aspects of Chinese culture to Japan such as Chinese writing system and Buddhism from India. Valuing their knowledge and culture, the Yamato government gave preferential treatment to "toraijin". According to the 815 book, "Shinsen Shōjiroku", 317 of 1,182 clans in the Kinai region of Honshū were considered to have foreign ancestry. 163 were from China, 104 from Baekje ("Paekche" in the older romanization), 41 from Goguryeo, 6 from Silla, and 3 from Gaya. They may have immigrated to Japan between 356 and 645.


title: Kofun period

text: According to the "Shinsen Shōjiroku" (used as a directory of aristocrats), Chinese immigrants had considerable influence. The Yamato imperial court edited the directory in 815, listing 163 Chinese clans.


title: Kofun period

text: According to "Nihon Shoki", the Hata clan (descendants of Qin Shi Huang) arrived in Yamato in 403 (the fourteenth year of Ōjin) as the vanguard of 120 provinces. According to the "Shinsen Shōjiroku", the Hata clan were dispersed throughout a number of provinces during the reign of Emperor Nintoku and forced to practice sericulture and silk manufacturing for the court. When the finance ministry was set up in the Yamato court, Hata no Otsuchichi became chief of several departments (伴造; "") and was appointed Ministry of the Treasury (大蔵省; "Okura no jo"); the heads of the family were apparently financial officials of the court.


title: Kofun period

text: In 409 (the twentieth year of Ōjin), Achi no omi (阿知使主)—ancestor of the , which was also composed of Chinese immigrants—arrived with immigrants from 17 districts. According to the "Shinsen Shōjiroku", Achi received permission to establish the province of Imaki. The Kawachi-no-Fumi clan, descendants of Gaozu of Han, introduced elements of Chinese writing to the Yamato court.


title: Kofun period

text: Some of the many Korean immigrants who settled in Japan beginning in the 4th century were the progenitors of Japanese clans. According to "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki", the oldest record of a Silla immigrant is Amenohiboko: a legendary prince of Silla who settled in Japan at the era of Emperor Suinin, possibly during the 3rd or 4th centuries.


title: Kofun period

text: Baekje and Silla sent their princes as hostages to the Yamato court in exchange for military support. King Muryeong of Baekje was born in Kyushu (筑紫) of Japan as the child of a hostage in 462, and left a son in Japan who was an ancestor of the minor-noble clan. According to the , Yamato no Fubito's relative (Takano no Niigasa) was a 10th-generation descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje who was chosen as a concubine for Emperor Kōnin and was the mother of Emperor Kanmu. In 2001, Emperor Akihito confirmed his ancient royal Korean heritage through Emperor Kanmu.


title: Kofun period

text: Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans wrote historical accounts primarily in Chinese characters, making original pronunciation difficult to trace. Although writing was largely unknown to the indigenous Japanese of the period, the literary skills of foreigners seem to have been increasingly appreciated by the Japanese elite. The Inariyama Sword, tentatively dated to 471 or 531, contains Chinese-character inscriptions in a style used in China at the time.


title: Kofun period

text: The cavalry wore armour, carried swords and other weapons, and used advanced military methods similar to those of Northeast Asia. Evidence of the advances is seen in , clay offerings placed in a ring on and around the tomb mounds of the ruling elite. The most important of these "haniwa" were found in southern Honshū (especially the Kinai region around Nara Prefecture) and northern Kyūshū. "Haniwa" grave offerings were sculpted as horses, chickens, birds, fans, fish, houses, weapons, shields, sunshades, pillows, and male and female humans. Another funerary piece, the , became symbolic of imperial power.


title: Kofun period

text: Much of the material culture of the Kofun period demonstrates that Japan was in close political and economic contact with continental Asia (especially with the southern dynasties of China) via the Korean Peninsula; bronze mirrors cast from the same mould have been found on both sides of the Tsushima Strait. Irrigation, sericulture, and weaving were brought to Japan by Chinese immigrants, who are mentioned in ancient Japanese histories; the Chinese Hata clan introduced sericulture and certain types of weaving.


title: Kofun period

text: The introduction of Buddhism in 538 marked the transition from the Kofun to the Asuka period, which coincided with the reunification of China under the Sui dynasty later in the century. Japan became deeply influenced by Chinese culture, adding a cultural context to the religious distinction between the periods.


title: Kofun period

text: According to the "Book of Sui", Silla and Baekje greatly valued relations with the Kofun-period Wa and the Korean kingdoms made diplomatic efforts to maintain their good standing with the Japanese. The "Book of Song" reported that a Chinese emperor appointed the five kings of Wa in 451 to supervise military Affairs of Wa, Silla, Imna, Gara, Jinhan and Mahan.


title: Kofun period

text: According to the "Nihon Shoki", Silla was conquered by the Japanese Empress-consort Jingū in the third century. However, due to lack of evidence, this story is considered to be mythological in nature. It reported that the prince of Silla came to Japan to serve the emperor of Japan, and lived in Tajima Province. Known as Amenohiboko, his descendant is Tajima Mori. According to "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki", Geunchogo of Baekje presented stallions, broodmares and trainers to the Japanese emperor during Emperor Ōjin's reign.


title: Kofun period

text: According to "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki", Baekje had also sent a scholar by the name of Wani during the reign of Emperor Ōjin. He is said to be the pioneer of the introduction of the Chinese writing system to Japan.


title: Kofun period

text: The "Samguk sagi" ("Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms") reported that Baekje and Silla sent their princes as hostages to the Yamato court in exchange for military support to continue their military campaigns; King Asin of Baekje sent his son (Jeonji) in 397, and King Silseong of Silla sent his son Misaheun in 402. Hogong, from Japan, helped to found Silla.


title: Kofun period

text: In mid 2021, The Nikkei published a new finding of the genetic makeup of modern Japanese and found much of Japanese make-up could be divided into two major groups, one being "Jomon" and the other being "Toraijin", a group of people who entered Japan following the Jomon people. Jun Ohashi, the lead researcher and professor at Tokyo University, explained that 50 people's genetic samples were collected from each prefecture from a total of 47.


title: Kofun period

text: The study explained that the Toraijin, who entered the Japanese archipelago from the southern Korean peninsula after the Yayoi people (who used the same route) were concentrated in a specific region of Japan contrary to popular belief. The researchers were intrigued that the genomes found in Kinki, Hokuriku and Shikoku regions were mostly made up of Toraijin while the rest were mostly composed of Jomon strands. Professor Ohashi said "In northern Kyushu, the population of migrants did not increase much even after landing, but rather the population expanded in areas such as Shikoku and Kinki."


title: Kofun period

text: Archaeological sites in Aichi Prefecture have revealed that Jomon people and Toraijin coexisted for a long time throughout the Yayoi period. The differences between prefectures that remain in the modern Japanese archipelago as seen in this analysis may reflect events that no one knows yet that occurred in the process of mixed races during the Yayoi period.


title: Kofun period

text: In late 2021, research from a study published in the journal Science Advances conducted by a team of Japanese and Irish researchers at Trinity College Dublin found that the people of Japan bore genetic signatures from three ancient populations rather than just two as previously thought. Researchers had been learning about the three ancient cultures of Japan as more artifacts showed up but knew relatively little about the genetic origins and impact of the transitional periods.


title: Kofun period

text: The first was Japan's indigenous culture of hunter-gatherers called the Jomon. These indigenous people had their own unique lifestyle and culture within Japan for thousands of years. The second cluster was a population of Northeast Asian origins, associated with the Yayoi period migration. This group is thought to have marked the arrival of paddy field rice cultivation which led to an agricultural revolution in the archipelago until the following period.


title: Kofun period

text: According to the research, modern Japanese possess approximately 13% and 16% genetic ancestry from the first two groups, respectively, while the remaining 71% come from the migrants of the Kofun period.


title: Kofun period

text: These migrants appear to have had genetic makeup similar to ancient people who lived along the Yellow River in China, mainly resembling the Han Chinese who make up most of China's population. According to Shigeki Nakagome, co-leader of the study, this migrant group was said to have brought cultural advances and centralized leadership to Japan. "Han are genetically close to ancient Chinese people from the Yellow River or West Liao River, as well as modern populations, including the Tujia, She and Miao," Nakagome said. "We think these immigrants came from somewhere around these regions."


title: Kofun period

text: Strong cultural and political affinity between Japan, Korea and China is also observable from several imports, including Chinese mirrors and coins, Korean raw materials for iron production, and Chinese characters inscribed on metal implements. Several lines of archaeological evidence support the introduction of new large settlements to Japan, most likely from the southern Korean peninsula, during the Yayoi-Kofun cultural transition which could reflect the general route taken by the Kofun people. However, a study that examines the genetic relationship between ancient Korea and the Kofun period is yet to be made.


title: Kofun period

text: The researchers noted that ancestral heterogeneity exists across Japan today, which is not fully captured by this standard reference set. They also stated that with the limited resources they had as only three Kofun skeletons were available for examination, there are still many more questions that need to be answered. "The Kofun individuals sequenced were not buried in keyhole-shaped mounds [reserved for high-ranking individuals], which implies that they were lower-ranking people," Nakagome said. "To see if this East Asian ancestry played a key role in the transition, we need to sequence people with a higher rank."


title: Kofun period

text: The study is known to be the most comprehensive analysis of the Japanese archipelago published to date. Daniel G. Bradley, co-leader the research project, said, "Our insights into the complex origins of modern-day Japanese once again shows the power of ancient genomics to uncover new information about human prehistory that could not be seen otherwise."


title: Kofun period

text: Takashi Gakuhari, a researcher conducting the experiment and a professor at Kanazawa University, explained in an interview with Ishikawa TV that mostly 40% of modern Japanese genetic ancestry was found to come from migrants that arrived during the Kofun period, somewhat contradicting the aforementioned study. However, he remained confident that the Kofun strand played a large factor in Japanese genetics today.


title: Kofun period

text: Following the publication, an interview with the research team by the Asahi Shimbun was conducted and the team explained that only three human remains of Kofun people excavated in Kanazawa City were used to study the genes of Kofun people and that it is necessary to study the genes of many other human remains in order to conclude the new theory.


title: Kofun period

text: Takashi Gakuhari said that this is the first study to provide evidence that the Japanese consist of three ancestral groups: Jomon, Yayoi, and Kofun. He also said he would like to continue to study the mysterious origin of the Japanese people by examining the genomes of other ancient burial sites.


title: Kofun period

text: Kenichi Shinoda, director of the National Museum of Nature and Science, added that the genetic information of the Yayoi people varies by region and time period with examples similar to that of modern Japanese people. In order to clarify the results, he said it is necessary to increase the number of human bones to be analyzed.


title: Kofun period

text: Under an agreement reached at the 2001 Japan-South Korea summit, Japanese and South Korean historians conducted joint historical research in two phases, including the relationship between Japan and the Korean Peninsula during the Kofun period. The point at issue was the "Mimana Nihon-fu" (任那日本府) which was said to be the governing institution Japan established in Korea at that time. After the controversy, Japanese and South Korean historians agreed that there were Japanese in the south of Korea and that the term "Mimana Nihon-fu" was not used at the time and should not be used as it was misleading. However, they could not agree on the position of the Japanese people in Korea at that time. The Japanese side claimed that the institutions established in Korea by the Japanese people were not under the control of Koreans, but were operated independently by the Japanese people and conducted diplomatic negotiations with the Gaya confederacy. On the other hand, the South Korean side claimed that the agency was the diplomatic office of Gaya, which employed the Japanese as bureaucrats of Gaya. The collaboration ended in 2010 with the publication of a final report describing the above. The full text of the minutes concerning the joint research is disclosed by the Japanese side.


title: Stadium MK

text: Stadium MK is a football ground in the Denbigh district of Bletchley in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Designed by Populous and opened in 2007, it is the home ground of EFL League One side Milton Keynes Dons and FA Women's National League South side Milton Keynes Dons Women. In 2022, the stadium hosted several matches during the UEFA Women's Euro 2022.


title: Stadium MK

text: , the stadium has two tiers which hold a capacity of 30,500. Should it be required, there is the option to increase the capacity of the stadium again to 45,000 with the addition of a third tier, hence the high roof. The design meets UEFA's Elite Stadium specifications and includes a Desso GrassMaster playing surface.


title: Stadium MK

text: The plans of the complex included an indoor arena, Arena MK (now known as The Marshall Arena), that was to be the home of the Milton Keynes Lions professional basketball team. However, the retail developments that would have provided enabling funding were deferred due to lack of financing, leaving the Lions without a home. Following the conclusion of the 2011–12 season, the Lions could not secure a venue within Milton Keynes, resulting in their relocation to London.


title: Stadium MK

text: In addition to association football, the stadium occasionally hosts rugby union. The first such occasion was in May 2008, when Saracens (who at the time groundshared with Watford at Vicarage Road) played Bristol at Stadium MK because Watford needed their ground for a Championship play-off. In 2011, Northampton Saints RFC used the ground for their Heineken Cup quarter and semi-final matches because their home ground is too small for major events. The stadium hosted three matches in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.


title: Stadium MK

text: The stadium also hosts music concerts, with artists including Take That, Rammstein, Rod Stewart, Olly Murs, My Chemical Romance and Imagine Dragons having performed there in recent years.


title: Stadium MK

text: From the first days of Milton Keynes as a new town, designated in 1967, the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (1967–1992) envisaged a stadium capable of accommodating a top-flight football team. What would become Stadium MK was first proposed in 2000 by the Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium or "Stadium MK", led by Pete Winkelman and his company Inter MK Group. This consortium proposed a large development in the southern Milton Keynes district of Denbigh North, including a 30,000-capacity football stadium, a Asda hypermarket, an IKEA store, a hotel, a conference centre, and a retail park. The plan to build a ground of this size was complicated by the fact that there was no professional football club in Milton Keynes and that the highest-ranked team in the town, Milton Keynes City—based in Wolverton in northern Milton Keynes, and formerly known as Mercedes-Benz F.C.—played in the then eighth-tier Spartan South Midlands League, four divisions below the Football League. The developers could not justify building such a stadium for a club of this small stature.


title: Stadium MK

text: Winkelman, an ex-CBS Records executive and music promoter, had moved to the Milton Keynes area from London in 1993. He attested to a vast untapped fanbase for football in Milton Keynes—a "football frenzy waiting to happen", he said. Critics of this claim pointed to the apparent lack of public interest in Milton Keynes City and the other local non-League clubs, and argued that Milton Keynes residents interested specifically in League football already had ample access with Luton Town, Northampton Town and Rushden & Diamonds all within . Winkelman was the only person in Milton Keynes publicly associated with the project; his financial supporters, later revealed to be Asda (a subsidiary of Walmart) and Ikea, were kept strictly anonymous.


title: Stadium MK

text: Opponents of such a move surmised that the stadium was a "Trojan Horse" included in the blueprint to bypass planning rules, and that although the consortium described the larger development as enabling the construction of the stadium, the reverse was the case—Winkelman's consortium, they claimed, had to have a professional team in place right away to justify the ground so the development could get planning permission. David Conn of "The Guardian" corroborated this assessment. "The whole project was indeed dependent on Asda and Ikea," Conn summarised in a 2012 article, after interviewing Winkelman. "Having seen the opportunity to build a stadium Milton Keynes lacked, and realised Asda did not have a store in the town, Winkelman acquired options to buy the land from its three owners, including the council. Asda would not have been granted planning permission for a huge out-of-town superstore unless it gave the council the benefit of building the stadium. A League club would move up, permission would be granted, then Winkelman would exercise the option to buy all the land, sell it to Asda and IKEA for very much more, and the difference would be used to build the stadium." Conn retrospectively described this as the "deal of a lifetime".


title: Stadium MK

text: Starting in 2000 the consortium offered this proposition to several Football League clubs, including Luton Town, Crystal Palace, Barnet, Queens Park Rangers, and Wimbledon F.C. Wimbledon F.C., who had groundshared at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park ground since 1991, adopted the Milton Keynes plan after the appointment of a new chairman, Charles Koppel, in January 2001. Koppel said that such action was necessary to prevent Wimbledon F.C.'s going out of business. He announced Wimbledon F.C.'s intent to move on 2 August 2001 with a letter to the Football League requesting approval, stating that Wimbledon had already signed an agreement to relocate and "subject to the necessary planning and regulatory consents being obtained" intended to be playing home games at a newly built stadium in Milton Keynes by the start of the 2003–04 season. The proposed move was opposed in most quarters; the League board unanimously rejected Wimbledon's proposed move in August 2001. Koppel appealed against this decision, leading to a Football Association (FA) arbitration hearing and subsequently the appointment of a three-man independent commission by the FA in May 2002 to make a final and binding verdict. The League and FA stated opposition but the commissioners ruled in favour, two to one.


title: Stadium MK

text: Wimbledon F.C. hoped to move to Milton Keynes immediately, but as the new ground was yet to be built an interim home in the town would have to be found first. The first proposal, to start the 2002–03 season at the National Hockey Stadium in central Milton Keynes, was abandoned because it did not meet Football League stadium criteria. While alternative temporary options were examined—Winkelman suggested converting the National Bowl music venue—Wimbledon F.C. started the season at Selhurst Park and set a target of playing in MK by Christmas 2002. A group of Wimbledon F.C. fans protested by setting up AFC Wimbledon, to which the vast majority of Wimbledon F.C. fans switched allegiance, in June 2002. A temporary stadium in Milton Keynes proved difficult to arrange and Wimbledon F.C. remained in south London at the end of the 2002–03 season. Koppel announced a plan to convert the National Hockey Stadium for football and play there from the start of the 2003–04 season until the new stadium was built.


title: Stadium MK

text: Wimbledon F.C. entered administration in June 2003. After the club missed a deadline to invest in renovations to the Hockey Stadium, confusion arose as to whether Wimbledon F.C. would move and where they would play if they did. The administrators arranged a return to Selhurst Park. With the move threatened and the club facing liquidation, Winkelman made "the life-defining decision", to quote Conn, "of taking it on himself". He secured funds from his consortium for the administrators to pay the players' wages, keep the club operating, and pay for the necessary renovations for the National Hockey Stadium to host League football.


title: Stadium MK

text: After hosting the first few home matches of the 2003–04 campaign at Selhurst Park, Wimbledon F.C. played their first match in Milton Keynes in September 2003. A company voluntary arrangement was put together in March 2004 under which Winkelman's consortium would take Wimbledon F.C. out of administration, reportedly using a holding company called MK Dons. The Football League threatened to expel the club if the takeover were not completed by 31 July. Winkelman's Inter MK Group brought Wimbledon F.C. out of administration in late June 2004 and concurrently announced changes to its name, badge and colours. The new name was Milton Keynes Dons F.C. (commonly shortened to MK Dons).


title: Stadium MK

text: Milton Keynes Dons continued to play at the National Hockey Stadium while the development including the new ground was constructed in Denbigh. Asda paid Inter MK £35 million for its section of the site, IKEA £24 million. Ground was broken on the stadium in February 2005. In December 2005 MK Dons set a target of playing at the new ground by January 2007; in February 2007 they revised their proposal to a 22,000-seater stadium ready in July of that year, with provision for expansion to 32,000 (it had originally been intended to seat 30,000). The new ground, Stadium mk, hosted its first match in July 2007. Four months later, on 29 November 2007, it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Stadium MK

text: Although attendances increased since leaving the National Hockey Stadium, the MK Dons average attendance of 10,550 during the 2008–09 League One season remained below half the ground capacity. The MK Dons average home attendance for the first part of the 2009–10 season was ranked 6th out of 24 teams in League One. The average attendance for the 2012–13 season was just 8,612; in the 2013–14 season it was 9,047; in the 2015–16 season it was 13,158.


title: Stadium MK

text: On 29 March 2014, the stadium saw Wolverhampton Wanderers take a record away attendance of 8,943 supporters in a League One fixture. The total attendance for the match was 20,516.


title: Stadium MK

text: The record attendance for a football match at Stadium MK was on 25 September 2019 when a crowd of 28,521 attended to see MK Dons lose 2–0 to Liverpool in the EFL Cup 3rd Round. This record attendance surpassed the one set on 31 January 2016 when a crowd of 28,127 attended Milton Keynes Dons' 5–1 defeat in the FA Cup fourth round by Chelsea., which beat the previous record of 26,969 who witnessed a shock historic 4–0 win over Manchester United in the second round on 26 August 2014. On 6 October 2015, Stadium MK hosted the Rugby World Cup match, Uruguay versus Fiji and this set the new record attendance to 30,043. On 4 February 2017 a record league attendance of 21,545 was set against Bolton Wanderers in Football League One.


title: Stadium MK

text: The football club's first stadium was the National Hockey Stadium, which was temporarily converted for football for the duration of the club's stay whilst Stadium MK was under construction. Their lease on this ground ended in May 2007.


title: Stadium MK

text: On 18 July 2007, the club's new 22,000 seater stadium hosted its first game, a restricted-entrance event against a young Chelsea XI. The stadium was officially opened on 29 November 2007 by the Queen. Milton Keynes Dons are the stadium's main tenant and most frequent user, with all the amenities built within the stadium (such as the club shop) designed for the club's benefit.


title: Stadium MK

text: It has hosted two England under-21 internationals. The first was a 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 3 match against Bulgaria's under-21s on 16 November 2007. The hosts beat the visitors 2–0 with Mark Noble scoring twice (on the tenth minute and the seventeenth minute) and James Milner scoring on the twenty sixth minute with 20,222 in attendance. The other was an international friendly against Azerbaijan's under 21s 31 March 2009. The hosts thrashed the visitors 7–0 with Kieran Gibbs scoring twice and single goals from Michael Mancienne, Craig Gardner and Jack Rodwell as well as own goals from Elcin Sadiqov and Elvin Mammadov with 12,020 in attendance.


title: Stadium MK

text: On 5 June 2010, the stadium hosted a full international friendly; Ghana beat Latvia 1–0 in their last warm-up before the World Cup in South Africa.


title: Stadium MK

text: In December 2009, The FA awarded 'Candidate Host City' status to Milton Keynes. Had England won the bid, Stadium MK would have hosted some games. For this to happen, the stadium capacity would have had to be increased to 44,000. However, on 2 December 2010, FIFA decided not to award the World Cup to England.


title: Stadium MK

text: In late 2014, it was reported that Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur were in negotiations with MK Dons over a temporary groundshare at Stadium MK for a season, during renovations at Spurs' White Hart Lane ground.