title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels was also the featured voice in "HardBall III", a popular computer baseball game for PC. He was also featured, along with John Madden, in the "Madden NFL" series from "Madden NFL 2003" to "Madden NFL 09".


title: Al Michaels

text: Michaels also appeared in two episodes of "Arliss", portraying the older cousin of sports agent Arliss Michaels.


title: Nassar (actor)

text: M. Nassar (born 5 March 1958) is an Indian actor, director, producer, dubbing artist, singer and politician who mainly works in the Tamil and Telugu film industries he has also worked in few Malayalam, English and Hindi films. He is the incumbent president of the Nadigar Sangam.


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Nassar was born on 5 March 1958 to Mehaboob Basha and Mumtaz in Tamil Nadu, India. He studied in St. Joseph's Higher Secondary School (Chengalpattu). He moved to Madras (now Chennai) after school, where he finished his pre-university at Madras Christian College. At Madras Christian College, he was an active member of the Dramatic Society. Later for a brief time, he worked in the Indian Air Force. He trained in two acting schools: the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce's Film Institute and the Tamil Nadu Institute for Film and Television Technology.


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Nassar made his acting debut in K. Balachander's "Kalyana Agathigal" (1985) portraying a secondary supporting role, before moving on to play villainous roles in S. P. Muthuraman's "Velaikaran" (1987) and "Vanna Kanavugal" (1987). He played the protagonist in Yuhi Sethu's "Kavithai Paada Neramillai" (1987), though his breakthrough role came through his performance as a police officer in Mani Ratnam's "Nayakan" (1987). He subsequently became a regular in Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan's ventures, appearing in pivotal character roles in "Roja" (1992), "Thevar Magan" (1992)," Ghazal"(1993),"""Bombay" (1995), "Kuruthipunal" (1995) and "Iruvar" (1997).


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Nassar made his directorial debut with "Avatharam" (1995), a film based on the backdrop of a folk art troupe. Starring Revathi as his co-star, Nassar stated that the idea had come to him as a result of his childhood memories of watching theru koothu being performed on the streets alongside his father. The film won critical acclaim, but failed to become a commercially successful venture. Soon afterwards, he made "Devathai" (1997), stating he remembered a story he had first heard as a child, which became the "creative seed for this film" about reincarnation. He stated that his immediate busy schedule had subsequently cost him a role in Aamir Khan's "Lagaan" (2001). He subsequently continued to work in films in the late 1990s, portraying a blind musician in Rajiv Menon's "Minsara Kanavu" (1997), a political leader in Mani Ratnam's "Iruvar" (1997) and as the father of a pair of separated twins in S. Shankar's "Jeans" (1998).


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Some of the films that he has acted in Telugu include "Chanti" (1992), "Seshu" (2002), "Bhageeratha" (2005), "Athadu" (2005), "Pokiri" (2006), "Golimaar" (2010), "Shakthi" (2011), "Dookudu" (2011), "Businessman" (2012) and among others.


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Besides South Indian language films, he has acted in Hindi language films like "Chachi 420" (1997), "Phir Milenge" (2004), "Nishabd" (2007), "Rowdy Rathore" (2012), "Saala Khadoos" (2016) and "Serious Men" (2020) among others.


title: Nassar (actor)

text: Nassar is married to producer turned politician Kameela and they have three sons. The eldest, Abdul Asan Faizal, was initially reported to be making his acting debut in a film to be produced by T. Siva, but eventually did not do so. In 2014, he was involved in a serious road accident but recovered after being critically injured. Their second son, Luthfudeen, made his acting debut in A. L. Vijay's "Saivam" (2014) portraying the grandson of the character played by Nassar. Their third son Abi Hassan is also an actor and featured in Nassar's "Sun Sun Thatha" (2012) as well as Rajesh Selva's 2019 action thriller "Kadaram Kondan".


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The Jaguar XJ is a series of full-size luxury cars produced by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars (becoming Jaguar Land Rover in 2013) from 1968 to 2019. It was produced across five basic platform generations (debuting in 1968, 1986, 1994, 2003 and 2009) with various updated derivatives of each. From 1970 it was Jaguar's flagship four door model. The original model was the last Jaguar saloon to have had the input of Sir William Lyons, the company's founder, and the model has been featured in countless media and high-profile appearances.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The first-generation of the XJ was produced for a total period of 24 years, with two major facelifts in 1973 and 1979.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The XJ6, using the 2.8-litre () and 4.2-litre () straight-six cylinder versions of Jaguar's renowned XK engine, replaced most of Jaguar's saloons – which, in the 1960s, had expanded to four separate ranges. Apart from the engines, the front and rear suspensions carried over from previous models as well: the widest version of Jaguar's IRS unit from the Mark X, and the subframe-mounted independent front suspension first seen in the 1955 Mark 1, with new anti-dive geometry.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: An upmarket version was marketed under the Daimler brand as the Daimler Sovereign, continuing the name from the Daimler version of the Jaguar 420.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The car was introduced in September 1968. Power-assisted steering and leather upholstery were standard on the 2.8 L De Luxe and 4.2 L models. Air conditioning was offered as an optional extra on the 4.2 L Daimler versions, which were launched in October 1969 in a series of television advertisements featuring Sir William. In these advertisements, he referred to the car as "the finest Jaguar ever". An unusual feature inherited from the Mark X and S-Type saloons was the twin fuel tanks, positioned on each side of the boot, and filled using two separately lockable filler caps: one on the top of each wing above the rear wheel arches. Preliminary reviews of the car were favourable, noting the effective brakes and good ride quality.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In March 1970 it was announced that the Borg-Warner Model 8 automatic transmission, which the XJ6 had featured since 1968, would be replaced on the 4.2-litre XJ6 with the Borg-Warner Model 12. The new transmission had three different forward positions accessed via the selector lever, which effectively enabled performance oriented drivers to hold lower ratios at higher revs to achieve better acceleration. "Greatly improved shift quality" was also claimed for the new system.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Around this time other, minor changes were made as well, such as moving the rear reflectors from beside to below the rear lights; on the interior the chrome gauge bezels were replaced with black ones, to cut down on distracting reflections.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In 1972, the option of a long-wheelbase version, providing a 4-inch increase in leg room for passengers on the rear seats, became available.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: A high performance version called the XJ12 was announced in July 1972, featuring a simplified grille treatment, and powered by a Jaguar's 5.3 L V12 engine coupled to the Borg-Warner Model 12 transmission. At the time it was the only mass-produced 12-cylinder, four-door car in the world and, with a top speed of "around" , it was the "fastest full four-seater available in the world". Although it had been the manufacturer's intention from launch that the XJ would use the 12-cylinder engine its installation was nonetheless a tight fit, and providing adequate cooling had been a challenge for Jaguar's engineers. Bonnet louvres such as those fitted on the 12-cylinder E Type were rejected and instead the XJ12 featured a complex "cross-flow" radiator divided into two separated horizontal sections supported with coolant feeder tanks at each end. The engine fan was geared to rotate at 1¼ times the speed of the engine, subject to a limiter which cut in at a fan speed of 1,700 rpm. The fuel system incorporated a relief valve that returned fuel to the tank when pressure in the lines to the carburettors exceeded 1.5 psi, to reduce the risk of vapour locks occurring at the high operating temperatures, while the car's battery had its own thermostatically-controlled cooling fan.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: 3,228 Series 1 XJ12s were built. A badge-engineered version, the Daimler Double-Six, was introduced in 1972, reviving the Daimler model name of 1926–1938.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The XJ line received a facelift in Autumn 1973 for the 1974 model year, thereafter known as the "Series II"; retrospectively the earlier cars were referred to as the "Series I". The 4.2 L XJ6 straight-6 engine (most popular in the United Kingdom) and the 5.3 L V12 XJ12 were continued with an addition of a 3.4 L () version of the XK engine available from 1975. The Series II and Series II coupé were the last Jaguar models with direct input by Sir William Lyons before his retirement.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Initially the Series II was offered with two wheelbases, but at the 1974 London Motor Show Jaguar announced the withdrawal of the standard wheelbase version: subsequent saloons all featured the extra 4 inches (10 cm) of passenger cabin length hitherto featured only on the long-wheelbase model. By this time, the first customer deliveries of the two-door coupe, which retained the shorter standard-wheelbase (and which had already been formally launched more than a year earlier) were only months away.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Series II cars are visually differentiated from their predecessors by raised front bumpers to meet US crash safety regulations, which necessitated a smaller grille, complemented by a discreet additional inlet directly below the bumper. The interior received a substantial update, including simplified heating and A/C systems to address criticisms of the complex and not very effective Series I systems.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In April 1975 the North American models got a slightly revised set of front bumpers which had rubber over-riders covering the full length of the bumper with embedded turn signals at each end, and the Zenith-Stromberg carburettors of the V12-powered cars were replaced by Bosch-Lucas electronic fuel injection. In 1978 the carburetors were similarly replaced with EFI in the 4.2 L 6-cylinder XJ6L.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In May 1977 it was announced that the automatic transmission used behind the 12-cylinder engine would be changed to General Motors' three-speed "Turbo-Hydramatic 400" transmission, in place of the British-built Borg-Warner used hitherto.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The 1978 UK model range included the Jaguar XJ 3.4, XJ 4.2, XJ 5.3, Daimler Sovereign 4.2, Double-Six 5.3, Daimler Vanden Plas 4.2 and Double-Six Vanden Plas 5.3.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In New Zealand, knock-down kits of the Series II were assembled locally by the New Zealand Motor Corporation (NZMC) at their Nelson plant. In the last year of production in New Zealand (1978), a special 'SuperJag' (XJ6-SLE) model was produced which featured half leather, half dralon wide pleat seats, vinyl roof, chrome steel wheels and air conditioning as standard. New Zealand produced models featured speedometers in km/h, and the black vinyl mats sewn onto the carpets in the front footwells featured the British Leyland 'L' logo.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Though worldwide production of the Series II ended in 1979, a number were produced in Cape Town, South Africa until 1981.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: A 9,378 car production run of two-door XJ coupés with a pillarless hardtop body called the XJ-C was built between 1975 and 1978. The car was originally shown at the London Motor Show in October 1973, but it subsequently became clear that it was not ready for production, and the economic troubles unfolding in the western world at that time seemed to have reduced any sense of urgency about producing and selling the cars: it was reported that problems with window sealing delayed production. XJ coupés finally started to emerge from Jaguar show-rooms some two years later. The coupé was based on the short-wheelbase version of the XJ. The coupé's elongated doors were made out of a lengthened standard XJ front door (the weld seams are clearly visible under the interior panels where two front door shells were grafted together with a single outer skin). A few XJ-C cars were modified by Lynx Cars and Avon into a convertible body style with a retractable canvas top, but this was not a factory product. Lynx conversions (16 in total) did benefit from powered tops. Both six and twelve-cylinder models were offered, 6,505 of the former and 1,873 of the latter were made. Even with the delay, these cars suffered from water leaks and wind noise. The delayed introduction, the labour-intensive work required by the modified saloon body, the higher price than the four-door car, and the early demise promulgated by the new XJ-S, all ensured a small production run.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: All coupés came with a vinyl roof as standard. Since the coupé lacked B-pillars, the roof flexed enough that the paint used by Jaguar at the time would develop cracks. More modern paints do not suffer such problems, so when coupés are repainted it is advisable to remove the vinyl. Today many XJ-Cs thus no longer have their vinyl roof, which also minimises the threat of roof rust. Some owners also modified their XJ-C by changing to Series III bumpers. This lifted the front indicators from under the bumper and provided built in rear fog lights.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: A small number of Daimler versions of the XJ-C were made. One prototype of the Daimler Vanden Plas XJ-C was also made, however this version never went into production.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The car was significantly facelifted again in April 1979, known as the "Series III", incorporating a subtle exterior redesign by Pininfarina. Changes from the Series II included thicker and more incorporated rubber bumpers with decorative chrome only on the top edge, flush door handles, one-piece front door glass without a separate quarter light, a grille with only vertical vanes, reverse lights moved from the boot plinth to the larger rear light clusters, and a revised roofline with narrower door frames and increased glass area. The option of a sunroof and cruise control were also offered for the first time.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The 5.3 L V12, 4.2 L and 3.4 L straight-six engines carried over from the Series II, with minor changes. The larger six-cylinder and V12 models incorporated Bosch fuel injection (made under licence by Lucas) while the smaller six-cylinder remained carburetted. The smaller six-cylinder engine was never offered in the US, and the V12 was no longer offered there after 1980.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The 1979 UK model range included the Jaguar XJ6 3.4 & 4.2, XJ12 5.3, Daimler Sovereign 4.2 & Double-Six 5.3 and Daimler Vanden Plas 4.2 & Double-Six Vanden Plas 5.3.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In 1981 the cylinder heads of the V12 engine were replaced by the new "Fireball" high-compression design by Swiss racing driver Michael May, and were badged from this time onwards to 1985 as "HE" (High Efficiency) models.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In late 1981 the Daimler Sovereign and Double Six models received a minor interior upgrade for the 1982 model year with features similar to Vanden Plas models. Also for the 1982 model year, a top spec "Jaguar" Vanden Plas model was introduced in the US market.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In late 1982 the interior of all Series III models underwent a minor update for the 1983 model year. A trip computer appeared for the first time and was fitted as standard on V12 models. A new and much sought-after alloy wheel featuring numerous distinctive circular holes was also introduced, commonly known as the "pepperpot" wheel. Pirelli tyres were also fitted as standard equipment.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: For the 1984 model year the Sovereign name was transferred from the Daimler marque to a new top-specification Jaguar model, the "Jaguar Sovereign". A base Jaguar XJ12 was no longer available, with the V12 engine only being offered as a Jaguar Sovereign HE or Daimler Double Six. The Vanden Plas name was also dropped at the time in the UK market, due to Jaguar being split from British Leyland and privatised; the name was used on top-of-the-range Rover-branded cars. Daimler models became the Daimler 4.2 and Double Six and were the most luxurious XJ Series III models, being fully optioned with Vanden Plas spec interiors. The Vanden Plas trademark was retained by Jaguar in North America, and top-of-the-line XJs were still sold there with the Vanden Plas name.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The 1984 UK model range included the Jaguar XJ6 3.4 & 4.2, Sovereign 4.2 & 5.3, Daimler 4.2 & Double Six 5.3.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Production of the six-cylinder Series III XJs continued until early 1987, after which it was replaced by the all-new XJ40, while production of 12-cylinder Series III XJs continued until 1992. The last 100 cars built were numbered and sold in Canada as part of a special series commemorating the end of production. These 100 cars featured the option of having a brass plaque located in the cabin. It was the original purchaser's option to have this plaque, which also gave a number to the car (such as No. 5 of 100, etc.), fitted to the glove box, to the console woodwork or not fitted at all. This brass plaque initiative did not come from Jaguar in Coventry: it was a local effort by Jaguar Canada staff and the brass plaques were engraved locally.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: 132,952 Series III cars were built, 10,500 with the V12 engine. In total between 1968 and 1992 approximately 318,000 XJ6 and XJ12 cars were produced.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The second generation of the XJ was produced for a total of 17 years with the arrival of the XJ40 in 1987 with its X300 and X308 derivatives being introduced later.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The intended replacement for the Series XJ models was code-named XJ40, and development on the all-new car began in the early 1970s (with small scale models being built as early as 1972). The project suffered a number of delays due to problems at parent company British Leyland and events such as the


title: Jaguar XJ

text: 1973 oil crisis. The XJ40 was finally unveiled on 8 October 1986 at the British International Motor Show.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: With the XJ40, Jaguar began to place more emphasis on build quality as well as simplification of the XJ's build process. With 25% fewer body panel pressings required versus the outgoing model, the new process also saved weight, increased the stiffness of the chassis, and reduced cabin noise.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The new platform came with significantly different styling, which was more squared-off and angular than the outgoing Series III. Individual round headlamps were replaced with rectangular units on the higher-specification cars, and all models came with only a single, wide-sweeping windshield wiper. The interior received several modernisations such as the switch to a digital instrument cluster (although this was eventually discontinued for the 1990 model year in favour of analogue instruments.)


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The six-cylinder XJ40s are powered by the AJ6 inline-six engine, which replaced the XK6 unit used in earlier XJs. The new unit featured a four-valve, twin overhead cam design. In 1993, one year before XJ40 production ended, the V12-powered XJ12 and Daimler Double Six models were reintroduced.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The X300, introduced in October 1994 at the Paris Motor Show, was stylistically intended to evoke the image of the more curvaceous Series XJ models. The front of the car was redesigned significantly to return to four individual round headlamps that provided definition to the sculptured bonnet. Mechanically, it was similar to the XJ40 that it replaced.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Six-cylinder X300 models are powered by the AJ16 inline-six engine, which is a further enhancement of the AJ6 engine that uses an electronic distributorless ignition system. The V12 remained available until the end of the X300 production in 1997 (although it ended one year earlier in the United States market due to problems meeting OBD-II-related emissions requirements.)


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Jaguar first introduced the supercharged XJR model in the X300's production run; the first supercharged road car manufactured by the company.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Design of the X300 was directly affected by the Ford Motor Company's ownership of Jaguar (between 1990 and 2007). According to "Automotive News", this was evident in general "product development processes", more than the use of Ford components. However, the X300's traction control system was obtained from the Ford Mondeo and it also featured a Nippondenso air conditioner purchased through Ford channels. In a Car and Driver's comparison test, it was stated that the X300 Jaguar XJ is less roomy than the E39 BMW 5 Series and W210 Mercedes-Benz E-Class despite being longer dimensionally.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: With the introduction of the X308 generation in 1997 came a switch from the XJ6 and XJ12 nomenclature to XJ8, reflecting the fact that the X308 cars were powered by a new V8 engine.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The exterior styling of the X308 is similar to the X300 with minor refinements. The biggest change in the appearance was the switch to a stylistically rounded design for all of the exterior lights, indicators and interior trim and fittings, including information displays and switches. The interior was also updated to eliminate the rectangular instrument binnacle which had gone largely unchanged since the original XJ40; instead, three large gauges were set into recesses in the walnut-faced dashboard in front of the driver similar in design to the recently launched Jaguar XK (X100).


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The major mechanical change was the replacement of both the inline-six and V12 engines with new eight-cylinder "AJ-V8" in either a displacement of 3.2 L or 4.0 L, with the 4.0 L also available in supercharged form in the XJR (A sport oriented model). No manual transmission was available, and all X308 models were supplied with a five-speed automatic gearbox.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In 2003, Jaguar introduced the re-engineered and newly designed third generation of the XJ, continuing with the XJ8 model designation. Designated internally as the X350, it has an all-aluminium body and chassis, a new V8 engine, as well as greater interior and luggage spaces. It was the first Jaguar XJ to be completely designed under Ford ownership and utilises electronics and computer-controlled systems sourced through existing partner suppliers or directly produced by Ford.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The V8 engine was offered in larger 3.5 and 4.2-litre displacements as well in a supercharged variation. A 3.0-litre V6 engine was also offered, (neither the V6 petrol nor diesel engines were available in US markets). A new six-speed automatic gearbox was fitted which was lighter and offered better economy with lock-up on all gears and a larger spread of ratios.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Air suspension was fitted at the front and rear, providing adaptive damping as well as rear self leveling— with computer-controlled ride height and suspension mode. Dynamic stability control as well as traction control were standard. Radar based adaptive cruise control was offered.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Two-zone climate control was also standard, with four-zone available on long-wheelbase models. An optional touch screen interface controlled default settings, satellite navigation, the Alpine audio system, and bluetooth telephone. "Jaguar Voice" offered voice control of many functions.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: A facelifted version of the X350 was launched at the end of February 2007 with a revised lower grille, prominent faux side air vents, small bootlid spoiler and revised seating.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In July 2009, the redesigned XJ was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery in London, with Jay Leno and Elle Macpherson unveiling the new car. The unveiling was broadcast live on the Jaguar website.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: In keeping with Ian Callum's new design direction for Jaguar, the XJ has an all-new exterior design and a break from the XJ Series mould carried over on all previous generations. It is a longer, wider car that is much bigger than its predecessor. The front has clear links with the XF executive car, although with slimmer, sleeker lights and a larger, squarer grille add a more aggressive appearance. The rear is the contentious part, an unusual design element for a Jaguar automobile. The upright, swooping taillights, nicknamed "cat's claws", and black roof panels at each side of the rear screen, which aim to hide the XJ's width, are the most striking aspects. There is also a standard full-length sunroof, that extends all the way back with just a single body-coloured roof panel that the designer refers as bridges on yachts.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The new XJ features an innovative, all-LCD dashboard and console displays. The dashboard can be configured to display various virtual dials in addition to the obligatory speedometer. The console display presents different views to the driver and passenger, including control of a sophisticated video and audio system.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Like several of its predecessors, the X351 is available in both standard and long-wheelbase form, as well as many special editions. Engines are modern units already seen in other JLR products: the 5.0-litre petrol V8 either normally aspirated or supercharged, or a 3.0-litre diesel twin-turbocharged V6 that is predicted to account for most of the sales. For 2013, a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 was introduced to the line-up, primarily as an alternative to the diesel unit for improved fuel economy.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The X351 received a minor facelift in 2014, primarily upgrading the suspension and rear seat facilities on the long wheelbase versions, but also introducing small cosmetic changes across the range, and making stop-start technology standard on all engines.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The X351 received another facelift in 2015, adding LED headlights, J-Blade rear taillights, and adding several new driver assistance and safety features such as lane assist, adaptive cruise control with a new feature known as "Queue assist", reverse traffic direction, closing vehicle sensing, a 360 degree camera system, and semi-automated parking features.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: The X351 is one of the cars used by the British royal family and an armoured version was used for transporting three former UK Prime Ministers namely David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. The Prime Ministerial Car, aside from having classified security measures, has armoured under plates and engine plates.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: On 5 July 2019, Jaguar Land Rover confirmed that they intended to build an all-electric XJ luxury saloon car, at their Castle Bromwich plant. The car was expected to be launched in 2020. First official images of new generation's taillights were shown.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: On 15 February 2021 Jaguar Land Rover announced that the All Electric XJ project had been shelved - as it was no longer part of the company’s current vision. JLR said: "Following a thorough technology review against the exponential change in the automotive industry, we concluded that the planned XJ replacement does not fit with our vision for a reimaged Jaguar brand.


title: Jaguar XJ

text: Just prior to World War II, Jaguar, known then as SS Cars, started using a numbering system beginning with the letter X for internal projects. X meaning experimental, XB for military chassis projects and XF to XK for engines. This numbering system has never been consistent and there appear to be many omissions and duplications.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Alexandra Virina Scott (born 14 October 1984) is an English sports presenter, pundit, and former professional footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal in the FA WSL. She made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: At club level, Scott has had three separate spells with Arsenal, punctuated with a season at Birmingham City in 2004–05 and three years in the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) with Boston Breakers. She scored the winning goal for Arsenal in the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup Final.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In 2019, Scott was inducted to the English Football Hall of Fame. , Scott is a pundit for BBC Sport and Sky Sports and was featured during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. She also covers the English Premier League.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Alexandra Virina Scott was born on 14 October 1984 in Poplar, East London, to a British mother with Northern Irish, English and Lithuanian-Jewish heritage and a Jamaican father. During the filming of the BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" in 2021, she discovered that her maternal great-grandfather was a Jewish person who opposed fascism in East London, and that her 4× great-grandfather, a black man, owned 26 slaves.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott attended Langdon Park School which has been granted Sports College status. Scott and fellow past pupil rapper Dizzee Rascal both represented Great Britain (in their own fields) at the 2012 London Olympics.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In 2022, Scott revealed in her autobiography that she had been a victim of domestic abuse from her father during her childhood; she pledged that all proceeds from her book would go to help women affected by similar abuse.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott signed on with Arsenal in 1992, at the age of eight. After breaking into the first team as a striker or right winger, she was later converted to full-back. Scott remained with Arsenal until the 2004–05 season, after which she moved to Birmingham City. With the addition of Scott, the club finished fourth in the FA Women's Premier League National Division. However, due to Birmingham's financial difficulties, she returned to Arsenal for the 2005–06 season.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Upon rejoining Arsenal, Scott helped the club to a domestic double of the FA Women's Premier League and FA Women's Cup. She was also a key figure in Arsenal's historic "Quadruple" season in which they won all of their trophy competitions, including the 2006–07 UEFA Women's Cup. Arsenal were the first ever British side to win the competition, with Scott scoring the only goal in the two-legged tie with Umeå IK. She appeared in 22 Premier League games, scoring two goals. In all competitions, she made 40 appearances and scored four goals.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: The 2007–08 season saw Scott appear in 21 games, scoring once. In all competitions, she made 35 appearances, scoring three goals. In the 2008–09 season, Scott scored once in 13 games. In all competitions, she made 24 appearances, adding two goals.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Upon the creation of a new women's league in the United States, Women's Professional Soccer, it was announced on 25 September 2008 that her WPS playing rights had been assigned to Chicago Red Stars, whose head coach was former Arsenal assistant Emma Hayes. Her rights were traded on 15 January 2009 to Boston Breakers and it was announced on 6 February 2009 that she would be leaving Arsenal to join up with her new team.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In the inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Scott played in 17 games for the Breakers. She scored one goal and added one assist. In 2010, Scott featured in 21 games and registered two assists. She started 14 of her 15 matches in 2011. In December 2011, Scott returned to Arsenal on loan for the duration of a three-match pre-season tour of Japan.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: When the WPS collapsed ahead of the 2012 campaign, Scott returned for a third spell at Arsenal. She was joined by Boston teammate Kelly Smith. Scott was named captain for the 2014–15 season. She did not take part in the 2015 Continental Cup final where Arsenal Ladies beat Notts County to the Cup. In the following season, Scott helped take Arsenal to the final of the 2016 FA Cup against Chelsea, which the Gunners won 1–0. Scott played her last game on 12 May 2018 against Manchester City Women which Arsenal won 2–1.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott competed at the U19 and U21 levels for England, including at the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Canada.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott made her full debut against the Netherlands on 18 September 2004. She played in the 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship, as well as the 2007, 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women's World Cups. She won silver at the 2009 UEFA Women's Euros and bronze at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In November 2014, Scott headed powerfully past her own goalkeeper to give Germany the lead in England's crushing 3–0 defeat at Wembley Stadium.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: On 2 September 2017, Scott retired from international football. On the date of retirement, she ended up as the second most capped England player with 140 appearances.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In June 2012, Scott was named in the 18-player Great Britain squad for the 2012 London Olympics, where the British team finished 5th.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott began her media career while still playing football, appearing on programmes such as "Soccer AM" with other minor roles at BBC Sport, BT Sport, and Sky Sports. In 2016 she appeared in Bear Grylls' ITV show, "", which she won.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Following her retirement in 2017, Scott turned her focus full-time to television broadcasting, co-presenting on "Match of the Day Kickabout". She became well known to a wider audience when she covered the 2018 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first female football pundit at a World Cup for the BBC. After the tournament, she continued to provide insight on the Premier League, and in August 2018 became the first female pundit on Sky Sports, joining the "Super Sunday" team. She covered the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup for the BBC. In August 2019, Scott was announced as the new co-host of Sky Sports' "Goals on Sunday" alongside Chris Kamara.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Since 2020, Scott has been a regular presenter on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. Scott is also a frequent guest presenter on "The One Show".


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: From September 2019 Scott was a contestant on the 17th series of "Strictly Come Dancing", paired with professional dancer Neil Jones. The couple were eliminated in week 11, coming fifth.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott has spoken out repeatedly about the sexist abuse she frequently receives on social media because of her role as a football pundit.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In May 2021, Scott was announced as the new presenter of "Football Focus", after Dan Walker's decision to step down. In July 2021, Scott was announced as the host of a new BBC daytime quiz show, "The Tournament", which began airing in November. That same month (July), Scott was announced as a commentator for the EA Sports game "FIFA 22". She was a main presenter for the BBC's coverage of the 2020 Olympic Games alongside Clare Balding.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott participated in the ancestry research programme "Who Do You Think You Are?", which aired from October 2021 onwards.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Shortly after 7 European national football associations announced that they were asking their captains not to wear the pro-LGBTQ+ OneLove armband at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, due to a threat of sporting sanctions from FIFA, Scott wore the armband while reporting on the England vs Iran match on 21 November.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: In 2011, Scott founded the Alex Scott Academy in partnership with Kingston College and Puma, for female footballers aged 16–19 years. This represented the first such academy in the UK and was intended to highlight the growth of the women's game. Scott also wrote a weekly women's football column in the "Morning Star" newspaper.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to football, she invited her mother, grandmother and niece to her investiture at Buckingham Palace and surprised her family with afternoon tea at the Ritz.


title: Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)

text: Scott and former partner, and teammate, Kelly Smith shared a house in Hertfordshire. The pair were teammates in America while both played for the Boston Breakers. Both returned to England to play for Arsenal together in 2012, after the collapse of their American league. In her 2022 memoir "How (Not) To Be Strong", Scott confirmed that she and Smith were a couple from 2005 to 2013. While she says she fell “madly and deeply in love” with Smith, Scott has not explicitly labelled her sexuality and has said she has been in relationships with both men and women.


title: Chainsaw

text: A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, cutting firebreaks in wildland fire suppression, and harvesting of firewood. Chainsaws with specially designed bar-and-chain combinations have been developed as tools for use in chainsaw art and chainsaw mills. Specialized chainsaws are used for cutting concrete during construction developments. Chainsaws are sometimes used for cutting ice; for example, ice sculpture and winter swimming in Finland.


title: Chainsaw

text: The origin of chain saws in surgery is debated. A "flexible saw", consisting of a fine serrated link chain held between two wooden handles, was pioneered in the late 18th century (c. 1783–1785) by two Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, for symphysiotomy and excision of diseased bone, respectively. It was illustrated in the second edition of Aitken's "Principles of Midwifery, or Puerperal Medicine" (1785) in the context of a pelviotomy. In 1806, Jeffray published "Cases of the Excision of Carious Joints", which collected a paper previously published by H. Park in 1782 and a translation of an 1803 paper by French physician P. F. Moreau, with additional observations by Park and Jeffray. In it, Jeffray reported having conceived the idea of a saw "with joints like the chain of a watch" independently very soon after Park's original 1782 publication, but that he was not able to have it produced until 1790, after which it was used in the anatomy lab and occasionally lent out to surgeons. Park and Moreau described successful excision of diseased joints, particularly the knee and elbow, and Jeffray explained that the chain saw would allow a smaller wound and protect the adjacent muscles, nerves, and veins. While symphysiotomy had too many complications for most obstetricians, Jeffray's ideas about the excision of the ends of bones became more accepted, especially after the widespread adoption of anaesthetics. For much of the 19th century the chain saw was a useful surgical instrument, but it was superseded in 1894 by the Gigli twisted-wire saw, which was substantially cheaper to manufacture, and gave a quicker, narrower cut, without risk of breaking and being entrapped in the bone.


title: Chainsaw

text: A precursor of the chainsaw familiar today in the timber industry was another medical instrument developed around 1830, by German orthopaedist Bernhard Heine. This instrument, the osteotome, had links of a chain carrying small cutting teeth with the edges set at an angle; the chain was moved around a guiding blade by turning the handle of a sprocket wheel. As the name implies, this was used to cut bone.


title: Chainsaw

text: One of the earliest patents for an "endless chain saw" comprising a chain of links carrying saw teeth was granted to Frederick L. Magaw of Flatlands, New York in 1883, apparently for the purpose of producing boards by stretching the chain between grooved drums. A later patent incorporating a guide frame was granted to Samuel J. Bens of San Francisco on January 17, 1905, his intent being to fell giant redwoods. The first portable chainsaw was developed and patented in 1918 by Canadian millwright James Shand. After he allowed his rights to lapse in 1930, his invention was further developed by what became the German company Festo in 1933. The company, now operating as Festool, produces portable power tools. Other important contributors to the modern chainsaw are Joseph Buford Cox and Andreas Stihl; the latter patented and developed an electric chainsaw for use on bucking sites in 1926 and a gasoline-powered chainsaw in 1929, and founded a company to mass-produce them. In 1927, Emil Lerp, the founder of Dolmar, developed the world's first gasoline-powered chainsaw and mass-produced them.


title: Chainsaw

text: World War II interrupted the supply of German chain saws to North America, so new manufacturers sprang up, including Industrial Engineering Ltd (IEL) in 1939, the forerunner of Pioneer Saws Ltd and part of Outboard Marine Corporation, the oldest manufacturer of chainsaws in North America.


title: Chainsaw

text: In 1944, Claude Poulan was supervising German prisoners cutting pulpwood in East Texas. Poulan utilized an old truck fender and fashioned it into a curved piece utilized to guide the chain. The "bow guide" now allowed the chainsaw to be utilized by a single operator.


title: Chainsaw

text: McCulloch in North America started to produce chainsaws in 1948. The early models were heavy, two-person devices with long bars. Often, chainsaws were so heavy that they had wheels like dragsaws. Other outfits used driven lines from a wheeled power unit to drive the cutting bar.


title: Chainsaw

text: After World War II, improvements in aluminum and engine design lightened chainsaws to the point where one person could carry them. In some areas, the chainsaw and skidder crews have been replaced by the feller buncher and harvester.


title: Chainsaw

text: Chainsaws have almost entirely replaced simple man-powered saws in forestry. They are made in many sizes, from small electric saws intended for home and garden use, to large "lumberjack" saws. Members of military engineer units are trained to use chainsaws, as are firefighters to fight forest fires and to ventilate structure fires.


title: Chainsaw

text: The first electric chainsaw was invented by Stihl in 1926. Corded chainsaws became available for sale to the public from the 1960s onwards, but these were never as successful commercially as the older gas-powered type due to limited range, dependency upon the presence of an electrical socket, plus the health and safety risk of the blade's proximity to the cable.


title: Chainsaw

text: For most of the early 21st century petrol driven chainsaws remained the most common type, but they faced competition from cordless lithium battery powered chainsaws from the late 2010s onwards. Although most cordless chainsaws are small and suitable only for hedge trimming and tree surgery, Husqvarna and Stihl began manufacturing full size chainsaws for cutting logs during the early 2020s. Battery powered chainsaws should eventually see increased market share in California due to state restrictions planned to take effect in 2024 on gas powered gardening equipment.


title: Chainsaw

text: Chainsaw engines are traditionally either a two-stroke gasoline (petrol) internal combustion engine (usually with a cylinder volume of 30 to 120 cm) or an electric motor driven by a battery or electric power cord. In a petrol chainsaw, fuel is generally supplied to the engine by a carburetor at the intake.


title: Chainsaw

text: To allow use in any orientation, modern gas chainsaws use a diaphragm carburetor, which draws fuel from the tank using the alternating pressure differential within the crankcase. Early engines used carburetors with gravity fed float chambers, which caused the engine to stall when tilted. The carburetor may need to be adjusted to maintain an appropriate idle speed and air-fuel ratio, such as when moving to a higher/lower altitude or as the air filter clogs. Carburetors are adjusted either by the operator or, in some saws, automatically by an electronic control unit.


title: Chainsaw

text: To prevent vibration induced injury and reduce user fatigue, saws generally have an anti-vibration system to physically decouple the handles from the engine and bar. This is achieved by constructing the saw in two pieces, connected by springs or rubber in the same way an automobile suspension isolates the chassis from the wheels and road. In cold weather, carburetor icing can occur, so many saws have a vent between the cylinders and carburetor which may be opened to allow hot air to pass. Cold temperature can also contribute to vibration-induced injury, and some saws have a small alternator connected to resistive heating elements in the handles and/or carburetor.


title: Chainsaw

text: The centrifugal clutch expands with increasing speed, engaging a drum. On this drum sits either a fixed sprocket or an exchangeable one. The clutch has three jobs: When the engine runs idle (typically 2500-2700 rpm) the chain does not move. When the clutch is engaged and the chain stops in the wood for another reason, it protects the engine. Most importantly, it protects the operator in case of a kickback. Here, the chain brake stops the drum, and the clutch releases immediately.


title: Chainsaw

text: A guide bar, typically an elongated bar with a round end of wear-resistant alloy steel typically 40 to 90 cm (16 to 36 in) in length, is used. An edge slot guides the cutting chain. Specialized, loop-style bars, called bow bars, were also used at one time for bucking logs and clearing brush, although they are now rarely encountered due to increased hazards of operation.


title: Chainsaw

text: The lower part of the chain runs in the gauge. Here, the lubrication oil is pulled by the chain to the nose. This is basically the thickness of the drive links.


title: Chainsaw

text: The end of the saw power head has two oil holes, one on each side. These holes must match with the outlet of the oil pump. The pump sends the oil through the hole in the lower part of the gauge.


title: Chainsaw

text: Through this hole, grease is pumped, typically each tank filling to keep the nose sprocket well lubricated.


title: Chainsaw

text: Here, one or two bolts from the saw run through. The clutch cover is put on top of the bar and it is secured through these bolts. The number of bolts is determined by the size of the saw.


title: Chainsaw

text: Usually, each segment in a chain (which is constructed from riveted metal sections similar to a bicycle chain, but without rollers) features small, sharp, cutting teeth. Each tooth takes the form of a folded tab of chromium-plated steel with a sharp angular or curved corner and two beveled cutting edges, one on the top plate and one on the side plate. Left-handed and right-handed teeth are alternated in the chain. Chains are made in varying pitch and gauge; the pitch of a chain is defined as half of the length spanned by any three consecutive rivets (e.g., 8 mm, 0.325 inch), while the gauge is the thickness of the drive link where it fits into the guide bar (e.g., 1.5 mm, 0.05 inch). The conventional "full complement" chain has one tooth for every two drive links. "Full skip" chain has one tooth for every three drive links. Built into each tooth is a depth gauge or "raker", which rides ahead of the tooth and limits the depth of cut, typically to around 0.5 mm (0.025"). Depth gauges are critical to safe chain operation. If left too high, they cause very slow cutting; if filed too low, the chain becomes more prone to kick back. Low depth gauges also cause the saw to vibrate excessively. Vibration is uncomfortable for the operator and is detrimental to the saw.


title: Chainsaw

text: The tension of the cutting chain is adjusted so that it neither binds on nor comes loose from the guide bar. The tensioner for doing so is either operated by turning a screw or a manual wheel. The tensioner is either in a lateral position underneath the exhaust or integrated into the clutch cover.


title: Chainsaw

text: Lateral tensioners have the advantage that the clutch cover is easier to mount, but the disadvantage that it is more difficult to reach nearby the bar. Tensioners through the clutch cover are easier to operate, but the clutch cover is more difficult to attach.


title: Chainsaw

text: When turning the screw, a hook in a bar hole moves the bar either out (tensioning) or in, making the chain lose. Tension is right when it can be moved easily by hand and not hanging loose from the bar. When tensioning, hold the bar nose up and pull the bar nuts tight. Otherwise, the chain might derail.


title: Chainsaw

text: The underside of each link features a small, metal finger called a "drive link", which locates the chain on the bar, helps to carry lubricating oil around the bar, and engages with the engine's drive sprocket inside the body of the saw. The engine drives the chain around the track by a centrifugal clutch, engaging the chain as engine speed increases under power, but allowing it to stop as the engine speed slows to idle speed.


title: Chainsaw

text: Consistent improvement to overall chainsaw design, including adding safety features, have taken place over the years. These include chain-brake systems, better chain design, and lighter, more ergonomic saws, including fatigue-reducing antivibration systems.


title: Chainsaw

text: As chainsaw carving has become more popular, manufacturers are making special short, narrow-tipped bars (called "quarter-tipped" "nickel-tipped", or "dime-tipped" bars, based on the size of their tips). Some chainsaws are built specifically for carving applications. Echo sponsors a carving series.


title: Chainsaw

text: Two-stroke chainsaws require about 2–5% of oil in the fuel to lubricate the engine, while the motor in electrical chain-saws is normally lubricated for life. Most modern gasoline-operated saws today require a fuel mix of 2% (1:50). Gasoline that contains ethanol can result in problems for the equipment because ethanol dissolves plastic, rubber, and other material. This leads to problems, especially on older equipment. A workaround for this problem is to run fresh fuel only and run the saw dry at the end of the work.


title: Chainsaw

text: Separate chain oil or bar oil is used for the lubrication of the bar and chain on all types of chainsaws. The chain oil is depleted quickly because it tends to be thrown off by chain centrifugal force, and it is soaked up by sawdust. On two-stroke chainsaws, the chain oil reservoir is usually filled up at the same time as refueling. The reservoir is normally large enough to provide sufficient chain oil between refueling. Lack of chain oil, or using an oil of incorrect viscosity, is a common source of damage to chainsaws, and tends to lead to rapid wear of the bar, or the chain seizing or coming off the bar. In addition to being quite thick, chain oil is particularly sticky (due to "tackifier" additives) to reduce the amount thrown off the chain. Although motor oil is a common emergency substitute, it is lost even faster, so leaves the chain under-lubricated.


title: Chainsaw

text: The oil is pumped from a small pump to a hole in the bar. From there, the lower ends of each chain drive link take a portion of the oil into the gauge towards the bar nose. The pump outlet and bar hole must be aligned. Since the bar is moving out and inwards depending on the chain length, the oil outlet on the saw side has a banana-style long shape.


title: Chainsaw

text: Chains must be kept sharp to perform well. They become blunt rapidly if they touch soil, metal, or stones. When blunt, they tend to produce powdery sawdust, rather than the longer, clean shavings characteristic of a sharp chain; a sharp saw also needs very little force from the operator to push it into the cut. Specially-hardened chains (made with tungsten carbide) are used for applications where the soil is likely to contaminate the cut, such as for cutting through roots.


title: Chainsaw

text: A clear sign of a blunt chain is the vibrations of the saw. A sharp chain pulls itself into the wood without pressing on the saw.


title: Chainsaw

text: Since the air intake filter tends to clog up with sawdust, it must be cleaned from time to time but is not a problem during normal operation.


title: Chainsaw

text: Despite safety features and protective clothing, injuries can still arise from chainsaw use, from the large forces involved in the work, from the fast-moving, sharp chain, or the vibration and noise of the machinery.


title: Chainsaw

text: A common accident arises from "kickback" when a chain tooth at the tip of the guide bar catches on wood without cutting through it. This throws the bar (with its moving chain) in an upward arc toward the operator, which can cause serious injury or even death.


title: Chainsaw

text: Another dangerous situation occurs when heavy timber begins to fall or shift before a cut is complete. The chainsaw operator may be trapped or crushed. Similarly, timber falling in an unplanned direction may harm the operator or other workers, or an operator working at a height may fall or be injured by falling timber.


title: Chainsaw

text: Like other hand-held machinery, the operation of chainsaws can cause vibration white finger, tinnitus, or industrial deafness. These symptoms were very common before vibration dampening using rubber or steel spring was introduced. Heated handles are additional help. Newer, lighter, and easier to wield cordless electric chainsaws use brushless motors, which further decrease noise and vibration compared to traditional petroleum-powered models.


title: Chainsaw

text: The risks associated with chainsaw use mean that protective clothing such as chainsaw boots, chaps, and hearing protectors are normally worn while operating them, and many jurisdictions require that operators be certified or licensed to work with chainsaws. Injury can also result if the chain breaks during operation due to poor maintenance or attempting to cut inappropriate materials.


title: Chainsaw

text: Gasoline-powered chainsaws expose operators to harmful carbon monoxide gas, especially indoors or in partially enclosed outdoor areas.


title: Chainsaw

text: Drop starting, or turning on a chainsaw by dropping it with one hand while pulling the starting cord with the other, is a safety violation in most states in the U.S. Keeping both hands on the saw for stability is essential for safe chainsaw use.


title: Chainsaw

text: Safe and effective chainsaw and crosscut use on federally administered public lands within the United States has been codified since 2016 in the "Final Directive for National Saw Program" issued by the United States Forest Service, which specifies the training, testing, and certification process for employees and unpaid volunteers who operate chainsaws within public lands.


title: Chainsaw

text: Chainsaw training is designed to provide working technical knowledge and skills to safely operate the equipment.


title: Chainsaw

text: When fastened into a special guide frame, a chainsaw can be used as a portable sawmill to cut bulk wood into planks or boards. Such usage is called a chainsaw mill or Alaskan sawmill.


title: Chainsaw

text: Special chainsaws can cut concrete, brick, and natural stone. These use similar chains to ordinary chainsaws, but with cutting edges embedded with diamond grit. They may use gasoline or hydraulic power, and the chain is lubricated with water, because of high friction and to remove stone dust. The machine is used in construction, for example, in cutting deep, square holes in walls or floors, in stone sculpture for removing large chunks of stone during pre-carving, by fire departments for gaining access to buildings, and in restoration of buildings and monuments for removing parts with minimal damage to the surrounding structure. More recently, concrete chainsaws with electric motors of 230 volts have also been developed.


title: Chainsaw

text: Because the material to be cut is not fibrous, much less kickback occurs. So, the most-used method of cutting is plunge-cutting, by pushing the tip of the blade into the material. With this method, square cuts as small as the blade width can be achieved. Pushback can occur if a block shifts when nearly cut through and pinches the blade, but overall, the machine is less dangerous than a wood-cutting chainsaw.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994 by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destruction of a man from the beginning of his misanthropic "downward spiral" to his suicidal breaking point. The album was a commercial success and established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s music scene, with its sound being widely imitated, and the band receiving media attention and multiple honors.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Band frontman Trent Reznor had moved to 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, the site of the murder of actress Sharon Tate by members of the Manson Family in 1969; it was transformed into a studio for recording the "Broken" EP (1992) and subsequently "The Downward Spiral" with collaborations from other musicians. The album features elements of industrial rock, techno, metal and ambient soundscapes, in contrast to the band's synth-pop-influenced debut album "Pretty Hate Machine" (1989). Reznor was strongly influenced by David Bowie's "Low" and Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for their themes of introspection and dissociation, and their focus on texture and space.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "The Downward Spiral" has been regarded by music critics and audiences as one of the most important albums of the 1990s, and was praised for its abrasive and eclectic nature and dark themes, although it was sensationalized by social conservatives for some of its lyrics. The album spawned two lead singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", in addition to the promotional singles "Piggy" and "Hurt". The lead singles were accompanied by music videos, with the former shot twice and the latter being heavily censored. A remix album titled "Further Down the Spiral" was released in 1995.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor conceived of "The Downward Spiral" after Nine Inch Nails' run in the lineup of the Lollapalooza festival tour, feeling increasingly alienated and disinterested. The band's concerts were known for their radical onstage dynamic in which members acted aggressively, injured themselves, destroyed instruments and polluted stages. Reznor had begun to feud with TVT Records, resulting in him cofounding Nothing Records with his former manager John Malm, Jr. as a subsidiary of Interscope. Simultaneously, he began fleshing out the concept for "The Downward Spiral", focusing on the life and death of a misanthropic man who rebels against humanity, and kills God before attempting suicide. Reznor frequently struggled with drug addiction and depression, and the themes of the album gradually allegorized his living situation. His peers at some point recommended him the antidepressant Prozac, but he declined to be medicated.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor wanted the album's sound to diverge from the abrasion of "Broken", emphasizing mood, texture, restraint and subtlety, although he was unsure about its musical direction. The album's production was decided on to aim for "full range" sound, and he focused on texture and space, avoiding conventional usage of guitars or synthesizers with a recognizable sound palette. Subsequently, he mainly worked with a Macintosh computer, using music editor programs on the computer to analyze and invert frequencies in tracks as a form of sound design.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor searched for and moved to 10050 Cielo Drive in 1992 for recording "Broken" and "The Downward Spiral", a decision made against his initial choice to record the album in New Orleans. 10050 Cielo Drive is referred to as the "Tate House" since Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969; Reznor named the studio "Le Pig" after the message that was scrawled on the front door with Tate's blood by her murderers, and stayed there with Malm for 18 months. He called his first night in 10050 Cielo Drive "terrifying" because he already knew it and read books related to the incident. Reznor chose the Tate house to calibrate his engineering skills and the band bought a large console and two Studer machines as resources, a move that he believed was cheaper than renting.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor collaborated with former Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins, progressive rock guitarist Adrian Belew, and Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna. Belew's first visit to the studio involved playing the guitar parts in "Mr. Self-Destruct", and he was told to play freely, think on reacting to melodies, concentrate on rhythm, and use noise. This approach improved Reznor's confidence in the instrument: he found it to be more expressive than the keyboard due to the interface. Belew praised Reznor for his "command of technology," and commented that the music of Nine Inch Nails made innovations "that are in [his] realm." Vrenna and Perkins played drum parts recorded live in the studio; the tracks were rendered into looped samples. Reznor took a similar approach to recording guitar parts: he would tape 20- to 25-minute-long sessions of himself playing guitars on a hard disc recorder with the Studio Vision sequencer.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor frequently sampled excerpts from his guitar session tracks and processed them to sporadic and expressive points to convey the album's themes, also doing the same with drum parts. Digidesign's TurboSynth and Zoom 9030 effects unit were used extensively to process guitar tracks, often in conjunction with a Marshall JMP-1 preamp; Zoom 9030 was also used to distort vocals. Acoustic drums in various settings, as well as Roland's TR-808 and R-70 drum machines were sampled through multiple Akai S1000s and a Kurzweil K2000. Additionally, Vrenna had compiled various movie samples on Digital Audio Tapes for Reznor to sample, which were gradually identified by fans in the decades following the album's release. Other equipments and software Reznor used for recording the album include Oberheim OB-Mx, Minimoog, Prophet VS keyboard, Eventide H3000 Harmonizer, Pro Tools and various Jackson and Gibson guitars.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: In December 1993, Reznor was confronted by Patti Tate, who asked if he was exploiting Sharon Tate's death in the house. Reznor responded that he was interested in the house as her death happened there. He later made a statement about this encounter during a 1997 interview with "Rolling Stone":


title: The Downward Spiral

text: British producer and engineer Flood, known for engineering and producing U2 and Depeche Mode albums, was employed as co-producer on "The Downward Spiral"; it became his last collaboration with Nine Inch Nails due to creative differences. For instance, a "very dangerously self-destructive" yet humorous short song written for the album, "Just Do It", was not included in the final version, criticized by Flood who said that Reznor had "gone too far." Reznor completed the last song written for the album, "Big Man with a Gun", in late 1993. After the album's recording, Reznor moved out and the house was demolished shortly thereafter. "The Downward Spiral" entered its mixing and mastering processes, done at Record Plant Studios and A&M Studios with Alan Moulder, who subsequently took on more extensive production duties for future album releases.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Numerous layers of metaphors are present throughout "The Downward Spiral", leaving it open to wide interpretation. The album relays nihilism and is defined by a prominent theme of self-abuse and self-control. It is a semi-autobiographical concept album, in which the overarching plot follows the protagonist's descent into madness in his own inner solipsistic world through a metaphorical "downward spiral", dealing with religion, dehumanization, violence, disease, society, drugs, sex, and finally, suicide. Reznor described the concept as consisting of "someone who sheds everything around them to a potential nothingness, but through career, religion, relationship, belief and so on." Media journalists like "The New York Times" writer Jon Pareles noted the album's theme of angst had already been used by grunge bands like Nirvana, and that Nine Inch Nails' depiction was more generalized.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Using elements of genres such as techno, dance, electronic, heavy metal, and hard rock, "The Downward Spiral" is considered industrial rock, industrial, alternative rock and industrial metal. Reznor regularly uses noise and distortion in his song arrangements that do not follow verse–chorus form, and incorporates dissonance with chromatic melody or harmony (or both). The treatment of metal guitars in "Broken" is carried over to "The Downward Spiral", which includes innovative techniques such as expanded song structures and unconventional time signatures. The album features a wide range of textures and moods to illustrate the mental progress of the central protagonist. Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern from beginning to end, frequently moving from whispers to screams. These techniques are all used in the song "Hurt", which features a highly dissonant tritone played on guitar during the verses, a B5#11, emphasized when Reznor sings the eleventh note on the word "I" every time the B/E# dyad is played.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "Mr. Self Destruct", a song about a powerful person, follows a build-up sampled from the 1971 film "THX 1138" with an "industrial roar" and is accompanied by an audio loop of a pinion rotating. "The Becoming" expresses the state of being dead and the protagonist's transformation into a non-human organism. "Closer" concludes with a chromatic piano motif: The melody is introduced during the second verse of "Piggy" on organ, then reappears in power chords at drop D tuning throughout the chorus of "Heresy", and recurs for the final time on "The Downward Spiral". The album was chiefly inspired by David Bowie's "Low", an experimental rock album which Reznor related to on songwriting, mood, and structures, as well as progressive rock group Pink Floyd's "The Wall", a concept album featuring themes of abuse, isolation, and mental instability.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "Committere", an installation featuring artwork and sketches for "The Downward Spiral", "Closer" and "March of the Pigs" by Russell Mills was displayed at the Glasgow School of Art. Mills explained the ideas and materials that made up the painting (titled "Wound") that was used for the album's cover art:


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "March of the Pigs" and "Closer" were released as singles; two other songs, "Hurt" and "Piggy", were issued to radio without a commercial single release. "March of the Pigs" has an unusual meter, alternating three bars of 7/8 time with one of 8/8. The song's music video was directed by Peter Christopherson and was shot twice; the first version scrapped due to Reznor's involvement, and the released second version being a live performance.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "Closer" features a heavily modified bass drum sample from the Iggy Pop song "Nightclubbing" from his album "The Idiot". Lyrically, it is a meditation on self-hatred and obsession, but to Reznor's dismay, the song was widely misinterpreted as a lust anthem due to its chorus, which included the line "I wanna fuck you like an animal". The music video for "Closer" was directed by Mark Romanek and received frequent rotation on MTV, though the network heavily censored the original version, which they perceived to be too graphic. The video shows events in a laboratory dealing with religion, sexuality, animal cruelty, politics, and terror; controversial imagery included a nude bald woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, a pig's head spinning on a machine, a diagram of a vulva, Reznor wearing an S&M mask while swinging in shackles, and of him wearing a ball gag. A radio edit that partially censored the song's explicit lyrics also received extensive airtime. The video has since been made part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "Piggy" uses "nothing can stop me now", a line that recurs in "Ruiner" and "Big Man with a Gun". The frantic drumming on the song's outro is Reznor's only attempt at performing drums on the record, and one of the few "live" drum performances on the album. He had stated that the recording was from him testing the microphone setup in studio, but he liked the sound too much not to include it. It was released as a promotional single in December 1994 and reached the Top 20 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The Nine Inch Nails live band embarked on the Self Destruct tour in support of "The Downward Spiral". Chris Vrenna and James Woolley performed drums and keyboards respectively, Robin Finck replaced Richard Patrick on guitar and bassist Danny Lohner was added to the line-up. The stage set-up consisted of dirty curtains which would be pulled down and up for visuals shown during songs such as "Hurt". The back of the stage was littered with darker and standing lights, along with very few actual ones. The tour debuted the band's grungy and messy image in which they would come out in ragged clothes slathered in corn starch. The concerts were violent and chaotic, with band members often injuring themselves. They would frequently destroy their instruments at the end of concerts, attack each other, and stage-dive into the crowd.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The tour included a set at Woodstock '94 broadcast on pay-per-view and seen in as many as 24 million homes. The band being covered in mud was a result of pre-concert backstage play, contrary to the belief that it was an attention-grabbing ploy, thus making it difficult for Reznor to navigate the stage: Reznor pushed Lohner into the mud pit as the concert began and saw mud from his hair entering his eyes while performing. Nine Inch Nails was widely proclaimed to have "stolen the show" from its popular contemporaries, mostly classic rock bands, and its fan base expanded. The band received considerable mainstream success thereafter, performing with significantly higher production values and the addition of various theatrical visual elements. Its performance of "Happiness in Slavery" from the Woodstock concert earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1995. "Entertainment Weekly" commented about the band's Woodstock '94 performance: "Reznor unstrings rock to its horrifying, melodramatic core—an experience as draining as it is exhilarating". Despite this acclaim, Reznor attributed his dislike of the concert to its technical difficulties.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The main leg of the tour featured Marilyn Manson as the supporting act, who featured bassist Jeordie White (then playing under the pseudonym "Twiggy Ramirez"); White later played bass with Nine Inch Nails from 2005 to 2007. After another tour leg supporting the remix album "Further Down the Spiral", Nine Inch Nails contributed to the Alternative Nation Festival in Australia and subsequently embarked on the Dissonance Tour, which included 26 separate performances with co-headliner David Bowie on his Outside Tour. Nine Inch Nails was the opening act for the tour, and its set transitioned into Bowie's set with joint performances of both bands' songs. However, the crowds reportedly did not respond positively to the pairing due to their creative differences. Despite this, in a 2012 "Rolling Stone" readers' poll, the tour (pairing Nine Inch Nails with Bowie) was named one of the top 10 opening acts in rock history.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The tour concluded with "Nights of Nothing", a three-night showcase of performances from Nothing Records bands Marilyn Manson, Prick, Meat Beat Manifesto, and Pop Will Eat Itself, which ended with an 80-minute set from Nine Inch Nails. "Kerrang!" described the Nine Inch Nails set during the Nights of Nothing showcase as "tight, brash and dramatic", but was disappointed at the lack of new material. On the second of the three nights, Richard Patrick was briefly reunited with the band and contributed guitar to a performance of "Head Like a Hole". After the Self Destruct tour, Chris Vrenna, member of the live band since 1988 and frequent contributor to Nine Inch Nails studio recordings, left the act permanently to pursue a career in producing and to form Tweaker.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "The Downward Spiral"s release date was delayed at various times to slow down Reznor's intended pace of the album's recording. The first delay caused the process of setting up Le Pig to take longer than he expected, and its release was postponed again as he was educating himself different ways to write songs that did not resemble those on "Broken" and "Pretty Hate Machine". He considered delivering the album to Interscope in early 1993, only to experience a writer's block as he was unable to produce any satisfactory material. Interscope grew impatient and concerned with this progress, but Reznor was not forced by their demands of expediency despite crediting the label for giving him creative freedom. He told rock music producer Rick Rubin that his motivation for creating the album was to get it finished, thus Rubin responded that Reznor might not do so until he makes music that is allowed to be heard. Reznor realized that he was in the most fortunate situation he imagined when the album was recorded with a normal budget, "cool" equipment, and a studio to work at.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Released on March 8, 1994, to instant success, "The Downward Spiral" debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200, selling nearly 119,000 copies in its first week. On October 28, 1998, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album quadruple platinum, and by December 2011, it had sold 3.7 million copies in the United States. The album peaked at number nine on the UK Albums Chart, and on July 22, 2013, it was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments in excess of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It reached number 13 on the Canadian "RPM" albums chart and received a triple platinum certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for shipping 200,000 copies in Canada. A group of early listeners of the album viewed it as "commercial suicide", but Reznor did not make it for profit as his goal was to slightly broaden Nine Inch Nails' scope. Reznor felt that the finished product he delivered to Interscope was complete and faithful to his vision and thought its commercial potential was limited, but after its release he was surprised by the success and received questions about a follow-up single with a music video to be shown on MTV. The album has since sold over four million copies worldwide.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Many music critics and audiences praised "The Downward Spiral" for its abrasive, eclectic nature and dark themes and commented on the concept of a destruction of a man. "The New York Times" writer Jon Pareles' review of the album found the music to be highly abrasive. Pareles asserted that unlike other electro-industrial groups like Ministry and Nitzer Ebb, "Reznor writes full-fledged tunes" with stronger use of melodies than riffs. He noticed criticisms of Nine Inch Nails from industrial purists for popularizing the genre and the album's transgression. "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau gave it an "honorable mention" in his capsule review column and summed the record up as, "musically, Hieronymus Bosch as postindustrial atheist; lyrically, Transformers as kiddie porn." Jonathan Gold, writing for "Rolling Stone", likened the album to cyberpunk fiction. "Entertainment Weekly" reviewer Tom Sinclair commented: "Reznor's pet topics (sex, power, S&M, hatred, transcendence) are all here, wrapped in hooks that hit your psyche with the force of a blowtorch."


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "The Downward Spiral" has been listed on several publications' best album lists. In 2003, the album was ranked number 200 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, then was re-ranked 201 in a 2012 revised list. The "Rolling Stone" staff wrote: "Holing up in the one-time home of Manson-family victim Sharon Tate, Trent Reznor made an overpowering meditation on NIN's central theme: control." It moved up to 122 on the magazine's revised list in 2020. The album was placed 10th on "Spin"s "125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years" list; the "Spin" staff quoted Ann Powers' review that appreciated its bleak, aggressive style. It was ranked number 488 in the book "The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time" by heavy metal music critic Martin Popoff. In 2001, "Q" named "The Downward Spiral" as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time"; in 2010, the album was ranked number 102 on their "250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime (1986–2011)" list. "The Downward Spiral" was featured in Robert Dimery's book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In May 2014, "Loudwire" placed "The Downward Spiral" at number two on its "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994" list. In July 2014, "Guitar World" placed "The Downward Spiral" at number 43 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The immediate success of "The Downward Spiral" established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s. The band's image and musical style became so recognizable that a Gatorade commercial featured a remix of "Down in It" without their involvement. Reznor felt uncomfortable with the media hype and success the band earned, received false reports of his death, depression, and was falsely reported to have had a relationship with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and was depicted as a sex icon due to his visual appearance. Nine Inch Nails received several honors, including Grammy Award nominations for Best Alternative Performance for "The Downward Spiral" and Best Rock Song for "Hurt". After the release of "The Downward Spiral", many bands such as Gravity Kills, Stabbing Westward, Filter, and Mötley Crüe made albums that imitated the sound of Nine Inch Nails.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Reznor interpreted "The Downward Spiral" as an extension of himself that "became the truth fulfilling itself," as he experienced personal and social issues presented in the album after its release. He had already struggled with social anxiety disorder and depression and started his abuse of narcotics including cocaine while he went on an alcohol binge. Around this time, his studio perfectionism, struggles with addiction, and bouts of writer's block prolonged the production of "The Fragile", and Reznor completed rehabilitation from drugs in 2001.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: One year after "The Downward Spiral"’s release, the band released an accompanying remix album titled "Further Down the Spiral". It features contributions from Coil with Danny Hyde, J. G. Thirlwell, electronic musician Aphex Twin, producer Rick Rubin, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. The album peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" 200 and received mixed reviews. "Recoiled", a remix EP of "Gave Up", "Closer", "The Downward Spiral", and "Eraser" by Coil, was released on February 24, 2014, via British record label Cold Spring.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Retrospective reviews regard "The Downward Spiral" as one of the most important albums of the 1990s and Reznor's greatest work. The 2004 edition of "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide" gave the album five out of five stars and called it "a powerful statement, and one of the landmark albums of the Nineties." Writing for "Entertainment Weekly", Kyle Anderson remembered watching the music video of "Closer" on MTV as an adolescent and expressed that the album changed his perception of popular music from that of songs heard on the radio to albums with cover art. "Stereogum"s Tom Breihan remains favorable toward the album since it is "the one that most fully inhabits" Nine Inch Nails' characteristics and influenced youth culture, with teenagers wearing ripped fish nets on their arms. The album was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 162nd most acclaimed album, based on appearances in critics' all-time lists.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: "The Downward Spiral"s emphasis on transgressive themes drew criticism from American social conservatives. Senator Bob Dole, then the head of the Republican Party, sharply denounced Time Warner, the former owner of Interscope's former parent company Warner Music Group, after a meeting between Michael J. Fuchs (head of WMG), William Bennett, and C. Delores Tucker. During the meeting, Tucker and Bennett demanded that Fuchs recite lyrics from "Big Man with a Gun". Interscope had previously been blamed for releasing gangsta rap albums by rappers such as Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg that were deemed objectionable. Reznor called Tucker (who erroneously referred to Nine Inch Nails as a gangsta rap act) "such a fucking idiot", and claimed that the song was actually a satire of the gangsta rap genre as a whole and was originally about madness. Reznor conceded "The Downward Spiral" could be "harmful, through implying and subliminally suggesting things", whereas hardcore hip hop could be "cartoonish". Robert Bork also repeatedly referenced "Big Man with a Gun" in his book "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" as evidence of a cultural decline. The book also incorrectly states that it is a rap song.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: Before the Columbine High School massacre, perpetrator Dylan Klebold referenced lyrics from Nine Inch Nails songs multiple times in his journal. Klebold heavily identified with the protagonist of "The Downward Spiral" as a symbol of his own depression. On May 4, 1999, a hearing on the marketing and distribution practices of violent content to minors by the television, music, film, and video game industries was conducted before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The committee heard testimony from cultural observers, professors, and mental health professionals, that included conservative William Bennett and the Archbishop of Denver, Reverend Charles J. Chaput. Participants criticized the album, Nine Inch Nails' label-mate Marilyn Manson, and the 1999 film "The Matrix" for their alleged contribution to the environment that made incidents like Columbine possible. The committee requested that the Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice investigate the entertainment industry's marketing practices to minors.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: In 2009, Apple rejected a proposal for a Nine Inch Nails iPhone software application, citing objectionable content in the title track. Days later, Apple reversed the decision, but refused to explain its reasoning.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: To mark the album's tenth anniversary, "The Downward Spiral" was re-released on November 23, 2004, in high-resolution SACD and DualDisc formats. Disc one of the album's deluxe edition re-release is nearly identical to the original version; track anomalies such as sounds from previous tracks creeping up on start of tracks are fixed, and it includes a stereo and multi-channel SACD layer. The second bonus disc is a collection of remixes and B-sides and also includes a stereo SACD layer in addition to the Redbook CD layer. The last three tracks on the bonus disc are previously unreleased demo recordings from the original album.


title: The Downward Spiral

text: The DualDisc edition of "The Downward Spiral" contains the same CD content on Side A as the Deluxe Edition, with a DVD-Audio layer on Side B. When played on DVD-Video players a Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel or Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix of "The Downward Spiral" can be selected, along with videos of "March of the Pigs", "Hurt" and an uncensored video of "Closer". There is also an interactive discography and an image gallery. High resolution 24-bit/48 kHz 5.1 Surround sound and stereo versions of "The Downward Spiral" can be played on a DVD-Audio player, allowing the user a similar high fidelity experience as the SACD layer of the Deluxe Edition. The DualDisc release does not contain the additional B-sides and demo tracks.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. The island was divided into three regions: Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, threw off Charles of Anjou's rule of the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the mainland part of the kingdom, which became a separate entity also styled "Kingdom of Sicily", although it is commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital. From 1282 to 1409 the island was ruled by the Spanish Crown of Aragon as an independent kingdom, then it was added permanently to the Crown.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: After 1302, the island kingdom was sometimes called the "Kingdom of Trinacria". In 1816, the island Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1861, the Two Sicilies were invaded and conquered by an Expedition Corps (Expedition of the Thousand) led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who later transferred them to the House of Savoy, to form, after a referendum, with the Kingdom of Sardinia itself (i.e. Savoy, Piedmont and Sardinia) and several northern city-states and duchies, the new Kingdom of Italy.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: By the 11th century, mainland southern Lombard and Byzantine powers were hiring Norman mercenaries, who were descendants of Vikings in Northern France; it was the Normans under Roger I who conquered Sicily, taking it away from the Amazigh Muslims. After taking Apulia and Calabria, Roger occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger I of Sicily and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely under Norman control by 1091.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: The Norman Kingdom was created on Christmas Day, 1130, by Roger II of Sicily, with the agreement of Pope Innocent II. Roger II united the lands he had inherited from his father, Roger I of Sicily. These areas included the Maltese Archipelago, which was conquered from the Arabs of the Emirates of Sicily; the Duchy of Apulia and the County of Sicily, which had belonged to his cousin William II, Duke of Apulia, until William's death in 1127; and the other Norman vassals. Roger declared his support for the Antipope Anacletus II, who enthroned him as King of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: In 1136, the rival of Anacletus, Pope Innocent II, convinced Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor to attack the Kingdom of Sicily with help from the Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus. Two main armies, one led by Lothair, the other by Duke of Bavaria Henry the Proud, invaded Sicily. On the river Tronto, William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and opened the gates of Termoli to him. This was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies were united at Bari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign. Roger offered to give Apulia as a fief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent. At the same period, the army of Lothair revolted.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, then gave Capua and Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Roger's enemies. Innocent protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal claims. Lothair turned north, but died while crossing the Alps on 4 December 1137. At the Second Council of the Lateran in April 1139, Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining a schismatic attitude. On 22 March 1139, at Galluccio, Roger's son Roger III, Duke of Apulia, ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope. On 25 March 1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with the Treaty of Mignano.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: Roger spent most of the decade, beginning with his coronation and ending with the Assizes of Ariano, enacting a series of laws with which Roger intended to centralise the government. He also fended off several invasions and quelled rebellions by his premier vassals: Grimoald of Bari, Robert II of Capua, Ranulf of Alife, Sergius VII of Naples and others.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: It was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then conquered the littoral of Ifriqiya from the Zirids, taking the unofficial title "King of Africa" and marking the foundation of the Norman Kingdom of Africa. At the same time, Roger's fleet also attacked the Byzantine Empire, making Sicily a leading maritime power in the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: Roger's son and successor was William I of Sicily, known as "William the Bad", though his nickname derived primarily from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who supported the baronial revolts which William suppressed. In the mid-1150s, William lost the majority of his African possessions to a series of revolts by local North African lords. Then, in 1160, the final Norman African stronghold of Mahdia was taken by Almohads. His reign ended in peace in 1166. His elder son Roger had been killed in previous revolts, and his son, William II, was a minor. Until the end of the boy's regency by his mother Margaret of Navarre in 1172, turmoil in the kingdom almost brought the ruling family down. The reign of William II is remembered as two decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good". However, he had no issue, which led to a succession crisis: his aunt Constance, the sole heir to the throne as the daughter of Roger II, was long confined in a monastery as a nun, with her marriage beyond consideration due to a prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily". Nevertheless, in 1184, she was betrothed to Henry, the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I and the future Emperor Henry VI. William named Constance and Henry the heirs to the throne and had the noblemen swear oath, but the officials did not want to be ruled by a German, so the death of William in 1189 led the kingdom to decline.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: With the support of the officials, Tancred of Lecce seized the throne. In the same year, he had to contend with the revolt of his distant cousin Roger of Andria, a former contender who supported Henry and Constance but was tricked to execution in 1190, as well as the invasion of Henry, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor since 1191, who invaded on behalf of his wife. Henry had to retreat after his attack failed, with Empress Constance captured and only released under the pressure of the Pope. Tancred died in 1194, and Constance and Henry prevailed: the kingdom fell in 1194 to the House of Hohenstaufen. William III of Sicily, the young son of Tancred, was deposed, and Henry and Constance were crowned as king and queen. Through Constance, the Hauteville blood was passed to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: In 1197, the accession of Frederick, a child who would also become Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1220, greatly affected the immediate future of Sicily. For a land so used to centralised royal authority, the king's young age caused a serious power vacuum. His uncle Philip of Swabia moved to secure Frederick's inheritance by appointing Markward von Anweiler, margrave of Ancona, regent in 1198. Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III had reasserted papal authority in Sicily, but recognised Frederick's rights. The pope was to see papal power decrease steadily over the next decade and was unsure about which side to back at many junctures.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: The Hohenstaufen's grip on power, however, was not secure. Walter III of Brienne had married the daughter of Tancred of Sicily. She was sister and heiress of the deposed King William III of Sicily. In 1201, William decided to claim the kingdom. In 1202, an army led by the chancellor Walter of Palearia and Dipold of Vohburg was defeated by Walter III of Brienne. Markward was killed, and Frederick fell under the control of William of Capparone, an ally of the Pisans. Dipold continued the war against Walter on the mainland until the claimant's death in 1205. Dipold finally wrested Frederick from Capparone in 1206 and gave him over to the guardianship of the chancellor, Walter of Palearia. Walter and Dipold then had a falling out, and the latter captured the royal palace, where he was besieged and captured by Walter in 1207. After a decade, the wars over the regency and the throne itself had ceased.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: The reform of the laws began with the Assizes of Ariano in 1140 by Roger II. Frederick continued the reformation with the Assizes of Capua (1220) and the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as "Liber Augustalis"), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time. The Constitutions of Melfi were created in order to establish a centralized state. For example, citizens were not allowed to carry weapons or wear armour in public unless they were under royal command. As a result, rebellions were reduced. The Constitutions made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolute monarchy, the first centralized state in Europe to emerge from feudalism; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the "Liber Augustalis" remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte, and in 1224, he founded the University of Naples, now called Università Federico II.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: Frederick had to beat off a papal invasion of Sicily in the War of the Keys (1228–1230). After his death, the kingdom was ruled by Conrad IV of Germany. The next legitimate heir was Conrad II, who was too young at the period to rule. Manfred of Sicily, the illegitimate son of Frederick, took power and ruled the kingdom for fifteen years while other Hohenstaufen heirs were ruling various areas in Germany. After long wars against the Papal States, the Kingdom managed to defend its possessions, but the Papacy declared the Kingdom escheated because of disloyalty of the Hohenstaufen. Under this pretext, he came to an agreement with Louis IX, King of France. Louis's brother, Charles of Anjou, would become king of Sicily. In exchange, Charles recognized the overlordship of the Pope in the Kingdom, paid a portion of the papal debt, and agreed to pay annual tribute to the Papal States. The Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily ended after the 1266 Angevin invasion and the death of Conradin, the last male heir of Hohenstaufen, in 1268.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. With the usurpation of the Sicilian throne from Conradin by Manfred of Sicily in 1258, the relationship between the Papacy and the Hohenstaufen had changed again. Instead of the boy Conradin, safely sequestered across the Alps, the Papacy now faced an able military leader who had greatly supported the Ghibelline cause at the battle of Montaperti in 1260. Accordingly, when negotiations broke down with Manfred in 1262, Pope Urban IV again took up the scheme of disseising the Hohenstaufen from the kingdom, and offered the crown to Charles of Anjou again. With Papal and Guelph support Charles descended into Italy and defeated Manfred at the battle of Benevento in 1266 and in 1268 Conradin at the battle of Taglicozzo.


title: Kingdom of Sicily

text: Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Crown of Aragon and the Byzantine Empire led to the successful insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers followed by the invitation and intervention by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing the old Kingdom of Sicily in two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories (the Mezzogiorno), contemporaneously called the Kingdom of Sicily but called the Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the house of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy "status quo". The division in the kingdom became permanent in 1372, with the Treaty of Villeneuve. Though the king of Spain was able to seize both crowns in the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.