title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: After a high school career in which he was named Minnesota Mr. Basketball, he attended the University of Minnesota, where he was named to two first-team All Conference teams and set many team records that still stand today. He was selected third overall in the 1980 NBA draft by the Celtics, and spent his first six seasons as a valuable bench player, backing up forwards Cedric Maxwell and Larry Bird, being twice named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year, awarded each season to the league's best bench player. After Maxwell was traded prior to the 1985–1986 season, McHale became a starter alongside Bird and center Robert Parish, where the three formed what is often considered the best front-court trio in NBA history. He won three NBA championships with the Celtics in 1981, 1984 and 1986. Having already played in an NBA All-Star game as a bench player, after moving to starter he played in an additional six All-Star games, and was named all-NBA Defensive team six total times. After injuries forced his retirement following the 1992–1993 season, he was later named to both the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale began working for the Minnesota Timberwolves immediately following his retirement in 1993 (until 2009) and at different times, as a TV analyst, general manager, and a head coach. He was the head coach of the Houston Rockets from 2011–15 until being fired following a 4–7 start to the 2015–16 season. McHale currently works as an on-air analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports' popular NBA on TNT studio show.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale was born to Paul Austin McHale and Josephine Patricia Starcevic in Hibbing, Minnesota. In his senior season at Hibbing High School, he was named Minnesota Mr. Basketball in 1976 and led his team to a runner-up finish in the AA Minnesota State Championship game.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) McHale played basketball at the power forward position for the University of Minnesota (the Golden Gophers) from 1976 to 1980, with career averages of 15.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: He was named All-Big Ten in 1979 and 1980 and still ranks second in school history in career points (1704) and rebounds (950).


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In 1995, to coincide with the University of Minnesota basketball's 100th anniversary, he was selected as the top player in the history of University of Minnesota men's basketball.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale is famous for an encounter with Chuck Foreman in the Gopher locker room. Foreman, a famous Minnesota Viking at the time, was congratulating the Gophers on a hard-fought victory. As Foreman was shaking all the players' hands, when he arrived at the then-unknown power forward, McHale displayed his comic wit: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Foreman. What do you do for a living?"


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Entering the 1980 NBA draft, the Celtics held the number one overall pick, but in a pre-draft trade, considered by many to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Celtics president Red Auerbach dealt the pick and an additional first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and the Warriors' first-round pick, the third overall, which the Celtics used to draft McHale.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale's stay in Boston got off to a rocky start as he held out for a large contract, even threatening to play in Italy, before signing a three-year deal with the Celtics. Backing up Cedric Maxwell at forward, McHale made an immediate impact and was named to the NBA's All-Rookie First Team in his rookie season. Boston finished McHale's rookie season with a league-leading record of 62–20.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In the playoffs, the Celtics swept the Chicago Bulls in the first round. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics faced a 3–1 deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers; but Boston won the last three games of the series, including Game 6 on Philadelphia's home court. McHale helped save the Game 6 win by rejecting an Andrew Toney shot and corralling the rebound with 16 seconds left to protect the Celtics' one-point lead. In the NBA Finals, Boston defeated the Houston Rockets in six games to capture the team's 14th championship.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The Celtics failed to advance to the NBA Finals the next two seasons. Philadelphia exacted a measure of revenge in the 1982 Eastern Conference Final, beating Boston at home in the seventh game. In the 1983 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Celtics were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks. This embarrassing defeat led to the firing of head coach Bill Fitch and a temporarily unhappy McHale.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Following the 1982–83 season, McHale's contract with the Celtics expired, and the New York Knicks signed him to a contract offer sheet. Auerbach retaliated by signing three of New York's top free-agent players to offer sheets. The Knicks elected to re-sign their players and give up their pursuit of McHale. McHale eventually re-signed with Boston, his $1 million per season contract making him the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale won the first of his consecutive NBA Sixth Man Awards as Boston won a league-best 62 games in the 1983–84 season. With the hiring of new head coach, former Celtic KC Jones and the acquisition of Phoenix Suns guard Dennis Johnson, Boston seemed primed to make yet another run at a 15th championship.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: After surviving a seven-game semifinal battle with the Knicks, the Celtics avenged the previous season's playoff loss to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in a highly anticipated matchup.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In Game 4 of the finals, with the Celtics trailing in both the game and the series, McHale delivered a hard foul to Kurt Rambis as the Lakers' forward raced to the basket. The physical play touched off a bench-clearing scuffle. Boston came back to win the game in overtime and tie the series at two games apiece. They eventually prevailed in seven games to win the franchise's 15th championship.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale continued to come off the bench during the first half of the 1984–1985 season, but moved into a starting role in February 1985 after Cedric Maxwell suffered a knee injury. On March 3 versus the Detroit Pistons McHale enjoyed his greatest scoring night, setting the Celtics' single-game scoring record with 56 points. Two nights later McHale scored 42 points against the Knicks, the only other time in his career he topped 40 points in a game. The 98 points in consecutive games is still a Celtics' record. Nine days after McHale had scored 56 points, Larry Bird established a new Celtics' single-game scoring mark by pouring in 60 points versus the Atlanta Hawks.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Boston captured its second straight Eastern Conference title but was upended in the NBA Finals in six games by the rival Lakers. McHale led the Celtics in scoring (26.0) and rebounding (10.7) versus the Lakers, including an impressive outing in the series's sixth game, scoring 32 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in defeat.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The 1985–1986 edition of the Boston Celtics won the franchise's 16th NBA championship and is considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The Celtics acquired former NBA Most Valuable Player Bill Walton in a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers in September 1985, and added the 6 ft 11 in (211 cm) center to its already-formidable frontline. Boston sent Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers to complete the trade, clearing the way for McHale to move into a full-time starting role. McHale averaged better than 20 points per game for the first time in his career (21.3) and finished 13th in the NBA Most Valuable Player voting.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: He joined starters Bird, Parish, Johnson and Danny Ainge as the Celtics steamrolled the NBA with a league-best 67–15 record. The team set a then-NBA record by finishing with an 82–18 win–loss record (including playoffs), breaking the record of 81 victories by the 1971–72 Lakers.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Boston also set the NBA mark for most home victories in one season, finishing 50–1 (including playoffs) in 48 games in the Boston Garden and three games in Hartford, Connecticut. The Portland Trail Blazers were the only team to beat Boston at home, winning 121–103 in Boston Garden on December 6, 1985. The Celtics did not lose again at home until more than a year later, when the Lakers beat them 117–110 on December 12, 1986.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Boston won 41 of its first 50 games, including two victories over the Lakers. In a rout of the Clippers on December 30, 1985, McHale set his single-game high in rebounds with 18 (a mark he tied against the Pistons in 1989).


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: An extremely durable player through the first five seasons of his career, McHale missed 14 games in early 1986 due to an injured Achilles tendon in his left ankle, but was healthy in time for the playoffs. Boston rolled through the Eastern Conference, winning 11 of 12 games versus Chicago, Atlanta and Milwaukee.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: For the second time in five years, the Celtics faced Houston in the NBA Finals, and Boston won the championship in six games. McHale averaged 25.8 points per game in the finals to lead all scorers.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: By his seventh pro season, McHale had rehearsed and refined his low-post moves and had become one of the NBA's most dominant offensive forces, out-leaping, out-spinning and outmaneuvering defender after defender in his "torture chamber". McHale was never better than in the 1986–1987 season, setting career highs in scoring (26.1) and rebounding (9.9). He also became the first player in NBA history to shoot 60 percent or better from the field (60.4%) and 80 percent or better from the free-throw line (83.6%) in the same season. McHale was named to the All-NBA First Team, was named the NBA's best defensive player by the league's coaches, and finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player voting behind Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and teammate Larry Bird.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In nine games from February 23 through March 13, 1987, McHale averaged 30.7 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 71.7 percent from the floor. During this stretch, McHale scored his season-high in points, 38 versus the Pistons on March 1.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In a win at Chicago on March 27, McHale broke the navicular bone in his right foot. He ignored doctors' advice that the injury could be career-threatening and continued to play. In the playoffs, a hobbled McHale averaged 39 minutes per game and connected on 58 percent of his shots as Boston again won the Eastern Conference title. Boston swept the Bulls in the first round for the second straight year and survived two epic but bruising seven-game series with the Bucks and Pistons. The battered and fatigued Celtics - with not only McHale, but also Parish (two sprained ankles), Ainge (leg injury) and Walton (broken foot) playing hurt - then lost to the Lakers in six games in the 1987 NBA Finals.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Off-season surgery on his injured right foot and ankle forced McHale to sit out the first month of the 1987–1988 season. He scored 22 points in 22 minutes of play in his return to the Celtics on December 1, 1987, versus Atlanta.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Teammate Danny Ainge once called McHale "The Black Hole of the low post", joking that when the basketball was passed inside to McHale it disappeared because he rarely passed it back out to the perimeter. But in a win over the Dallas Mavericks on April 3, 1988, McHale played the role of passer, distributing a career-high 10 assists.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The Celtics won 57 games and made their fifth straight appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. McHale shot 60% from the field and averaged a career playoff-high 25.4 points per game as Boston defeated the Knicks in four games and the Hawks in a seven-game semi-final series. He averaged 26.8 points per game and shot 56.3% from the field, including a game-tying three-point shot in overtime of game two, but Boston fell to the Detroit Pistons in six games in the conference final. Head coach K. C. Jones retired at season's end, and the Celtics of the Bird-McHale-Parish era would never again advance past the conference semi-finals.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Injuries limited Bird to six games in 1988–89 and the Celtics slipped to 42–40. New head coach Jimmy Rodgers coaxed the team into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's eighth and final seed behind the play of McHale, Parish and second-year guard Reggie Lewis.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The Celtics - without the injured Bird - faced the Pistons in the playoffs for the third straight year. Detroit held McHale to 19 points per game and less than 50 percent shooting from the field. The Pistons swept the Celtics en route to their first NBA championship.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The 1989–90 season marked the last time McHale was healthy enough to play in all 82 regular-season games for the Celtics, but the season was one of discontent for Boston. Second-year point guard Brian Shaw left the team to play in Europe after a salary dispute. Bird returned to the court following his various injuries but was criticized by teammates, including McHale, for taking too many shots and trying to dominate games on his own.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Rodgers moved McHale back into his old "sixth man" role for the majority of the regular season, with Ed Pinckney taking McHale's spot in the starting lineup; McHale's scoring slipped back into the teens coming off the bench. With the Celtics 34–25, Rodgers decided to put McHale into the starting lineup once again. McHale averaged 24.2 points and 9 rebounds down the stretch as the Celtics went 18–5 and finished one game behind Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale became the first player in 20 years to finish in the NBA's top ten in field goal percentage (seventh) and free throw percentage (fifth) in the same season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Boston took the first two games of its first-round playoff series with the Knicks, including a record-setting 157–128 score in Game 2. The Knicks fought back and won the last three games of the series. Head coach Jimmy Rodgers was fired following the playoff disappointment.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale contemplated retirement in the off-season after having another surgery performed on his right ankle, but came back for the 1990–91 season. Boston paired young backcourt players Lewis, Dee Brown, Kevin Gamble and Brian Shaw—back from his year in Europe—with Bird, McHale and Parish and hired Chris Ford, a longtime assistant coach and member of the Celtics' 1981 championship team, to be the team's head coach.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Boston jumped out to a 29–5 record, but were soon slowed by injuries to McHale (ankle) and Bird (back). McHale missed 14 regular-season games and Bird missed 22, as the Celtics limped to a 27–21 record over the last three months of the season. The team's 56–26 record was still good enough to win the division title. Boston defeated the Indiana Pacers in five games in a first-round playoff matchup. Detroit defeated Boston for the third time in four years, this time in a six-game semi-final series.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale played in a career-low 56 games and Bird played in just 45 in 1991–92 season. Boston struggled for most of the regular season but got hot as the playoffs approached, winning 15 of its last 16 games and finishing with 51 wins and a tie for first place in the division with the New York Knicks. Boston had the tie-breaker to give them another Atlantic Division crown; their record was the third-best in the Eastern Conference.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The Celtics swept the Pacers in the first round but were defeated in seven games in the conference semi-finals by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bird retired from the NBA three months later.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The 1992–93 season was McHale's last in the NBA. McHale played in 71 games, but he was severely hampered by leg and back injuries. He averaged 10.7 points per game and shot less than 50 percent from the floor (45.9%) for the only time in his career. McHale briefly feuded with coach and best friend Chris Ford over his lack of playing time near the end of his final season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets the Celtics were stunned by the loss of Lewis, their leading scorer, who collapsed on the court during Game 1 and was diagnosed with what eventually proved to be a fatal heart condition. McHale performed brilliantly in the series. He averaged 19.6 points per game and shot 58 percent from the field—including a reminiscent performance of 30 points and 10 rebounds in Game 2—but Boston fell to the Hornets in four games.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale announced his retirement while talking with reporters at the scorer's table after the Game 4 loss in Charlotte.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale was a part of what many consider the league's best-ever frontline with small forward Larry Bird and center Robert Parish. The trio of Hall of Famers became known as the "Big Three" and led the Celtics to five NBA Finals appearances and three NBA championships, in 1981, 1984 and 1986. For the first five years of his career McHale primarily came off the bench for the Celtics, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1984 and 1985.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Possessing a wide variety of offensive moves close to the basket the agile, long-armed McHale played in seven National Basketball Association All-Star Games between 1984 and 1991. McHale's finest season came in 1986–87 when he was named to the All-NBA First Team as a forward. He led the NBA in field goal percentage in the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons, shooting 60.4 percent each season. Also a standout defensive player, McHale was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First or Second Team six times. He twice blocked nine shots in a game, the most ever by a Boston Celtics player (blocked shots did not become an official NBA statistic until the 1973-74 season).


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Fellow NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said of McHale, "Kevin McHale's the best player I played against because he was unstoppable offensively, and he gave me nightmares on defense."


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In 971 regular season games McHale averaged 17.9 points and 7.3 rebounds and in 169 post-season games averaged 18.8 points and 7.4 rebounds.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: At the end of the 2007–2008 season McHale ranked tenth in NBA history in career field goal percentage (55.4%), and he is among the Celtics' career leaders in several categories, including games played, points scored and rebounding.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale's number 32 jersey was retired by the Celtics on January 30, 1994, during a halftime ceremony at the Boston Garden.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: He was chosen one of the NBA's 50 greatest players and was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In 1992, McHale was elected to the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame. He was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In 2021, McHale was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Upon his retirement as an NBA player, McHale joined the Minnesota Timberwolves as a television analyst and "special assistant". In the summer of 1994, new Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor promoted him to Assistant General Manager, although he continued to broadcast Timberwolves games as well. In 1995, he was promoted to Vice President of Basketball Operations (i.e., General Manager); one of his first acts was hiring former University of Minnesota teammate Flip Saunders as head coach of the Timberwolves.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: The next season, McHale decided to select high school forward Kevin Garnett with the fifth overall pick of the 1995 NBA draft. Though Garnett developed into one of the NBA's best players, the Timberwolves advanced past the first round of the playoffs only once in Garnett's 12 seasons with the team.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: It was also during McHale's reign that the Timberwolves were punished by the NBA for making a secret deal with free-agent forward Joe Smith to circumvent the league's salary cap rules. Before the 1998–99 season, Smith secretly agreed to sign three, one-year contracts with the Timberwolves for salary amounts that were much less than what any other NBA teams would have reasonably offered him. In return, Smith received a promise that the Timberwolves would give him a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract before the 2001–02 season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: In 2000, after word of the agreement leaked, NBA commissioner David Stern voided Smith's final one-year contract with the Timberwolves, making Smith a free agent. Stern also stripped three of the Timberwolves' next five first-round draft picks from the team, and fined the team $3.5 million. Smith signed with the Detroit Pistons for one season, but returned to Minnesota before the 2001–2002 season as a free agent.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: On February 12, 2005, the Timberwolves fired Saunders and McHale took over as head coach for the rest of the 2004–05 season. He compiled a 19–12 record, but had no interest in continuing as head coach at the time. Dwane Casey was hired as the new head coach in the off-season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: With Minnesota sitting at .500 midway through the 2006–07 season, McHale fired Casey on January 23, 2007. Timberwolves' assistant coach Randy Wittman was tapped to succeed Casey. Despite missing the playoffs, on April 19, 2007, the Timberwolves announced that McHale and Wittman would return for the 2007–08 season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Prior to the 2007 NBA draft, McHale reportedly tried to work out a trade with Boston Celtics General Manager (and former Celtics teammate) Danny Ainge to trade franchise star Kevin Garnett (frequently named, at the time, the best active player to have never won an NBA championship) to Boston, in exchange for a draft pick and multiple players. Garnett's agent told the Timberwolves and the Celtics that his client had no interest in playing for Boston. (Although Boston had a legitimate star in Paul Pierce, and some solid young players, the team was coming off a 24-win season, and Garnett was not interested in going from one mediocre team to another.) The potential trade was scuttled, for the time being. However, in late June the Celtics swung a draft-day deal with the Seattle SuperSonics to acquire sharpshooter and seven-time All-Star Ray Allen. So in late July 2007, when the Timberwolves and the Celtics once again discussed a deal involving Garnett, the prospect of playing alongside both Pierce and Allen caused Garnett to ease his stance on being dealt to Boston; on July 31 he was sent to the Celtics for five players and two first-round draft picks, and the Celtics instantly became viewed as contenders. The very next season, Garnett would go on to help the Celtics win the NBA championship, was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and finished third in the voting for the regular-season version of the league's Most Valuable Player award. (Although one of McHale's key acquisitions in the trade - promising power-forward Al Jefferson - would come very close to matching Garnett's statistics from the previous year, and Ryan Gomes (another player acquired in the trade) performed well, the rebuilding team won 10 fewer games its first season without Garnett.) The Timberwolves eventually fired McHale by the end of the 2008–09 season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: On December 8, 2008, the Timberwolves fired Wittman. He had compiled a 38–105 record since taking over for Casey. The Timberwolves announced that McHale would step down as VP of Basketball Operations and once again take over the head coaching job, this time more permanently; the Timberwolves' owner Glen Taylor at the time indicated that he was not seeking to replace McHale as head coach. On June 17, 2009, however, it was announced that McHale would not return as the Timberwolves' head coach for the 2009–2010 season, and he was later replaced by Kurt Rambis, whom McHale infamously clotheslined in Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: On June 1, 2011, McHale was named head coach of the Houston Rockets, replacing Rick Adelman. On December 24, 2014, McHale signed a three-year contract extension to remain head coach of the Rockets. He led the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals in 2015. However, he was fired on November 18, 2015, after four consecutive losses and a 4–7 start to the 2015–16 season.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale is one of six members of the 1985–86 Celtics' championship team to have served as an NBA head coach (Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson, Sam Vincent and Rick Carlisle are the others).


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: Immediately upon retiring, McHale became the color analyst for Minnesota Timberwolves games for two seasons, from 1993 to 1995. McHale began working for TNT and NBA TV as an on-air, floor-side analyst during the 2009–2010 regular season. He occasionally appeared on the "NBA on TNT" in-studio show, and even broadcast a few regular season and playoff games for the cable station. During the 2016 NBA Playoffs, McHale served as a guest analyst for the "NBA on TNT"s coverage. On October 10, 2016, he signed a multi-year agreement to return to Turner Sports.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale was also a part of the studio team for NBA TV's Fan Night broadcasts on Tuesday nights during the season (along with Ernie Johnson, Chris Webber and Greg Anthony since the 2016–17 season). McHale also called games for the station during the 2010 Las Vegas Summer League.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: On June 30, 1982, McHale married his wife Lynn. They had five children: Kristyn, Michael, Joseph, Alexandra and Thomas. On November 24, 2012, Alexandra died at age 23, after being hospitalized for lupus for 14 days.


title: Kevin McHale (basketball)

text: McHale guest-starred as himself in two episodes of the TV series "Cheers": "Cheers Fouls Out" (season 9, episode 2) in 1990 and "Where Have All the Floorboards Gone" (season 10, episode 8) in 1991. The latter episode also featured Lynn McHale.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Charles William Ingram (born 6 August 1963) is an English novelist and former British Army major who gained notoriety for his appearance on the ITV television game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". In episodes recorded in September 2001, Ingram correctly answered fifteen questions to win the show's maximum prize of £1 million, becoming the third recorded contestant to ever do so. However he was denied the winnings due to suspicion of cheating.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Following a lengthy trial at Southwark Crown Court, Ingram was convicted on a single count of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception. He was subsequently convicted of an unrelated offence involving insurance fraud in 2003 and ordered to resign his commission as a major by the Army Board.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Charles Ingram was born on 6 August 1963 in Shardlow, Derbyshire, the son of retired RAF wing commander John Ingram and his wife, theatre set designer Susan Ingram. His father's Wellington bomber, operating with 103 Squadron from RAF Elsham Wolds, had been shot down in late September 1941; he was taken as a prisoner of war while two of his crew were killed.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Ingram's parents divorced when he was young and he spent most of his education years boarding privately at Oswestry School in Oswestry, Shropshire. There he was a member of the Combined Cadet Force and completed the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. He went on to obtain a BSc in civil engineering from Kingston University.


title: Charles Ingram

text: In 1987, Ingram trained for the British Army at Sandhurst and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1990 and major in 1996. In 1999, Ingram was sent to Banja Luka in Bosnia for six months on United Nations peacekeeping duties. He graduated from Cranfield University with a master's degree in corporate management in August 2000. He was ordered by the Army Board via letter to resign his commission on 20 August 2003 and to give up his rank of major. It is widely disputed whether or not he was dishonourably discharged.


title: Charles Ingram

text: On 9 September 2001, Ingram became a contestant on the ITV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", following his wife Diana and her brother Adrian Pollock, each of whom had won £32,000 as contestants on the show. To prepare, Ingram practised for about twenty minutes per day on a homemade "Fastest Finger First" machine. Ingram got into the "hot seat" but used two lifelines early, ending the day at £4,000 and with only the 50/50 lifeline remaining. The production team doubted he would proceed much further, but he ended up making it to the £1 million jackpot on the second day of recording.


title: Charles Ingram

text: On three questions, including the final two, Ingram initially favored a wrong answer only to eventually lock in the correct answer. His £32,000 question was "Who had a hit UK album with 'Born To Do It' released in 2000?" After using his 50/50, he was left with A1, which he had already said he thought was correct, and Craig David, who he said he had never heard of. After nearly locking in A1 as his final answer, he backed off and said "Eighty percent of the time I'm wrong when I guess ... I’ll go Craig David." He then locked in Craig David as his final answer, which was correct. The penultimate question worth £500,000 was “Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city?" Ingram immediately said he thought it was Berlin, due to the name Baron Haussmann. However, he eventually locked in Paris as his final answer. This got Ingram to the million pound question, "A number one followed by one hundred zeros is known by what name?" He initially thought the answer was Nanomole and said he had never heard of Googol. However, "by process of elimination" he eventually decided on Googol, winning him the million pound jackpot.


title: Charles Ingram

text: By the time Ingram had finished his run, producers were suspicious enough that a search was performed on him. Ingram’s hair, clothing and shoes were searched, but nothing incriminating was found. After he left the set, the show's production company, Celador, were tipped off by the show's producers of the assumed irregularities occurring within the quiz and suspended the jackpot payout to investigate the matter. At the same time, the show's presenter, Chris Tarrant, overheard that the Ingrams had been arguing, despite Ingram's success, moments before Tarrant joined them in their dressing room for champagne; another member of the production team also noted a similar thought about the couple's behaviour. While reviewing the recording, the production team made a connection between Ingram's answers and coughs coming from one of the waiting contestants, lecturer Tecwen Whittock; in another instance, the coughing came from Ingram's wife while she was in the audience. Based on this evidence, all three were accused of cheating, and the matter was handed over to police to investigate further. Whittock and the Ingrams were eventually charged with "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception".


title: Charles Ingram

text: Following a trial at Southwark Crown Court lasting four weeks (including jury deliberation for three and a half days), the Ingrams and Whittock were convicted by a 10-1 verdict of their offences on 7 April 2003. Both of the Ingrams and Whittock were given prison sentences, suspended for two years—the Ingrams were sentenced to eighteen months; Whittock was sentenced to twelve months—and each fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs. Within two months of the verdict and sentence, the trial's judge ordered the Ingrams to pay additional defence costs, which left them repaying a total of £115,000.


title: Charles Ingram

text: On 19 August 2003, the Army Board ordered Ingram to resign his commission as a major after sixteen years of service, but stated that this would not affect his pension entitlements.


title: Charles Ingram

text: On 19 May 2004, the Court of Appeal denied Ingram leave to appeal against his conviction and upheld his sentence but agreed to quash his wife's fine and prosecution costs. On 5 October, the House of Lords denied Ingram leave to appeal against his fine and prosecution costs, and he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. On 20 October, the original trial judge reduced Ingram's defence costs order to £25,000 and Diana's defence costs order to £5,000. Ingram's defence costs were later further reduced to £5,000 on appeal.


title: Charles Ingram

text: In 2006, journalist Jon Ronson, who covered the case at the time for "The Guardian", wrote that he believed the Ingrams might be innocent. Ronson, who attended every day of the trial, had observed that when the word "cough" was mentioned, pensioners in the public gallery had coughed. Chess grandmaster James Plaskett, who had appeared in the Fastest Finger First round several times before winning £250,000 in January 2006, argued this was an example of coughs caused by unconscious triggers; Whittock or others had simply coughed involuntarily upon hearing the correct answer. Whittock was also accused of having coughed after Ingram mentioned an incorrect option to his penultimate question and swiftly following that up with a smothered "No". However, Plaskett, who had sat in that very same seat, argued that someone might have audibly said it in response to an incorrect option in the same way that other waiting contestants have been known to whisper "No".


title: Charles Ingram

text: In court, Ingram claimed the videotape of his appearance on "Millionaire" was "unrepresentative of what I heard", and he continues to assert that it was "unfairly manipulated". A video recording, with coughing amplified relative to other sounds, including Ingram's and Tarrant's voices, was prepared by Celador's editors (Editworks) for the prosecution and "for the benefit of the jury" during the trial (and later for viewers in television broadcasts). Ingram claims that he neither "listened for, encouraged, nor noticed any coughing". The prosecution alleged that, of the 192 coughs recorded during his second-night performance, 32 were recorded from the ten Fastest Finger First contestants, and that 19 of the 32 coughs heard on the video tape were "significant". The prosecution asserted that these "significant" coughs were by Whittock when the correct answer had been spoken. During the trial, Tarrant also denied hearing any coughing throughout the episode, claiming he was too busy to notice.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Larry Whitehurst, another contestant who had appeared on the show as a Fastest Finger First contestant on four occasions, was adamant that he had known the answers to Ingram's questions. He told the court that he had been able to detect a pattern of coughing, and that he was entirely convinced that coughing had helped Ingram.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Whittock claims to have suffered a persistent cough for his entire life, insisted that he had a genuine cough caused by a combination of hay fever and a dust allergy, and that it was only coincidence that his throat problem coincided with the right answers. During the trial, however, the jury heard evidence that once Whittock himself earned the right to sit in the hot seat, his throat problems disappeared. Whittock later testified that he drank several glasses of water before he went in front of the cameras. Whittock also insisted that he had not known the answers to three of the questions he allegedly helped with. However, the police found the answer to the twelfth question, regarding the artist who painted "The Ambassadors", in a hand-written general knowledge book at Whittock's home.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Davies, the floor manager on "Millionaire", said that as soon as the coughing came to his notice during the recording he decided to find out who was responsible. "The loudest coughing was coming from Tecwen in seat number three", he said. "He was talking to the person to his left when I was observing him, and then he turned towards the set and the hot seat to cough." Whittock remarked during the trial that "you do not cough into someone's face".


title: Charles Ingram

text: During the trial, Whittock portrayed himself as a "serial quiz show loser" because he had been eliminated in round one of Channel 4's "Fifteen to One", had also failed on ITV's "The People Versus" and had been able to win only an atlas on his appearance on ITV's "Sale of the Century". He had also done poorly on Beat the Bong, although he did reach the semi-final stage of the BBC radio quiz show "Brain of Britain".


title: Charles Ingram

text: Following his appearance on "Millionaire", Ingram has appeared on various other television shows, including Channel 4's "The Games", the BBC's "The Weakest Link", and Channel 4's "Wife Swap", featuring alongside his wife in the latter two.


title: Charles Ingram

text: On "The Weakest Link", Anne Robinson jokingly referred to the "dashing young major with a throat infection", regarding his "Millionaire" appearance. A question was also posed concerning, "In classical music what 'C' is the act of throat clearing which members of the audience are asked to try to avoid?", the answer being "coughing".


title: Charles Ingram

text: Ingram also narrowly lost to Paul Daniels on the short-lived Channel 5 game show "19 Keys" in November 2003.


title: Charles Ingram

text: In late 2003, Ingram and his wife were charged with further fraud offences. On 28 October, Ingram was found guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, and of a second charge of deception, having attempted to claim on an insurance policy after an alleged burglary at his home. Ingram had failed to tell Direct Line Insurance about claims he had made in the three years before he took out the policy in July 2001. The court was told that Ingram had been a "habitual claimant" with Norwich Union after suffering "unfortunate" losses of private possessions.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Christopher Parker, prosecuting, said Ingram switched insurers to Zurich Insurance Group in 1997, after Norwich Union reduced a burglary claim from £19,000 to £9,000, and in 2000 switched again to Direct Line. "He has been ineluctably dishonest," Parker said. "He went to Direct Line and didn't make a disclosure about his claims history, because he knew he wouldn't have been insured. It might not have started off as the most monstrous piece of villainy but these things tend to snowball and it all came to a sticky end when he claimed for £30,000." Staff at Direct Line were already "suspicious" about Ingram's £30,000 burglary claim but decided to investigate only after reading newspaper coverage about his questionable win on "Millionaire".


title: Charles Ingram

text: Ingram was given a conditional discharge on the charge of fraudulently claiming £30,000 on insurance. The judge told Ingram he took into account "the punishment [Ingram had] brought upon [himself] and [his] dire financial state" and rejected an alternative option of community service after Ingram told a probation officer he feared other criminals would bully him.


title: Charles Ingram

text: A book covering the case, "Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major", by Bob Woffinden and James Plaskett, was published in January 2015.


title: Charles Ingram

text: "Quiz", a play written by James Graham that re-examines the events and subsequent conviction of the Ingrams and Whittock, opened at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, on 3 November 2017, running until 9 December 2017. The play transferred to the West End, playing at the Noël Coward Theatre from 31 March 2018 to 16 June 2018. In 2019, Graham adapted his play into a serial drama for ITV that was broadcast in April 2020 in three parts. Ingram was portrayed in the series by Matthew Macfadyen. The series also aired on AMC and BBC America in the United States in June 2020 and on RTÉ One in Ireland in February 2021.


title: Charles Ingram

text: Ingram met his wife, Diana, while she was training to be a teacher at Barry College in Wales. The two became engaged during his first posting with the Royal Engineers in Germany. They were married in November 1989 and have three children.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007 and the 47th secretary of state of Ohio from 1983 to 1991. He started his political career in 1975 as an Ohio state representative.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown defeated two-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine in the 2006 U.S. Senate election and was reelected in 2012, defeating state treasurer Josh Mandel, and in 2018, defeating U.S. representative Jim Renacci. In the Senate, he was chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms and the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, and is also a member of the Committee on Finance, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and Select Committee on Ethics. At the start of the 114th Congress in January 2015, Brown became the ranking Democratic member on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In January 2021, Brown became chair of the committee and initiated an inquiry into the implosion of Archegos Capital Management, an investment firm that was accused of fraud and insider trading and lost billions of dollars.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown became the state's senior U.S. senator after the retirement of George Voinovich in 2011. Since then, Brown has been the only Democratic statewide elected official in Ohio, although some statewide-elected Ohio Supreme Court justices are members of the Democratic Party but elected in nonpartisan races.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Emily (née Campbell) and Charles Gailey Brown, M.D. He has Scottish, Irish, German, and English ancestry, and was named after his maternal grandfather. Brown's brother Charlie served as Attorney General of West Virginia from 1985 to 1989. Brown became an Eagle Scout in 1967, and his badge was presented by John Glenn. In 1970, he graduated from Mansfield Senior High School.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 1974, Brown received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University. While at Yale, he lived in Davenport College, and he campaigned for George McGovern during the 1972 presidential election. He went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in education and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Ohio State University at Columbus in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He taught at the Mansfield branch campus of the Ohio State University from 1979 to 1981.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: During his senior year in college, Brown was recruited by a local Democratic leader to run for Ohio's state house. Brown served as a state representative in Ohio from 1974 to 1982. At the time of his election to the Ohio House, he was the youngest person elected to that body. In 1982 Brown ran for Ohio Secretary of State to succeed Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr. He won a four-way Democratic primary that included Dennis Kucinich, then defeated Republican Virgil Brown in the general election. In 1986 Brown was reelected, defeating Vincent C. Campanella. As Secretary of State, Brown focused on voter registration outreach. In 1990 he lost reelection in a heated campaign against Republican Bob Taft, the great-grandson of President William Howard Taft. This is the only time Brown has lost an election.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 1992, Brown moved from Mansfield to Lorain, Ohio, and won a heavily contested Democratic primary for the open seat for Ohio's 13th district, in the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, after eight-term incumbent Don Pease announced his retirement. The Democratic-leaning district gave him an easy win over the little-known Republican Margaret R. Mueller. He was reelected six times.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: The Democrats lost their long-held House majority in the 1994 elections, and stayed in the minority for the remainder of Brown's tenure. As ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, Brown successfully advocated for increased funding to fight tuberculosis.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2005, Brown led the Democratic effort to block the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). For many months, Brown worked as whip on the issue, securing Democratic "nay" votes and seeking Republican allies. After several delays, the House of Representatives finally voted on CAFTA after midnight on July 28, 2005, passing it by one vote.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown opposed an amendment to Ohio's constitution that banned same-sex marriage. He was also one of the few U.S. Representatives to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown was the ranking minority member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee. He also served on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. While serving on the House International Relations Committee, he was also a member of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In August 2005 Brown announced he would not run for the United States Senate seat held by two-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine, but in October he reconsidered his decision. His announcement came shortly after Democrat Paul Hackett stated that he would soon announce his candidacy. On February 13, 2006, Hackett withdrew from the race, all but ensuring that Brown would win the Democratic nomination. In the May 2 primary Brown won 78.05% of the Democratic vote. His opponent, Merrill Samuel Keiser Jr., received 21.95%.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In April 2006, Brown, along with John Conyers, brought an action against George W. Bush and others, alleging violations of the Constitution in the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The case, "Conyers v. Bush", was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown ran for reelection in 2012, facing opponent Josh Mandel, who in 2010 had defeated the incumbent state treasurer by 14 points. Mandel raised $2.3 million in the second quarter of 2011 alone, to Brown's $1.5 million. Early on Brown enjoyed a steady lead in the polls. Mandel won the March Republican primary with 63% of the vote.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: "The Washington Post" reported that no candidate running for reelection (save Barack Obama) faced more opposition from outside groups in 2012 than Brown did. As of April 2012 over $5.1 million had been spent on television ads opposing him, according to data provided by a Senate Democratic campaign operative. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent $2.7 million. 60 Plus Association, a conservative group that opposes health care reform, spent another $1.4 million. Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee also spent heavily in the race. In May 2012 Brown campaigned with West Wing actor Martin Sheen.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: On November 6, 2012, Brown held his seat, winning 50.7% of the vote to Mandel's 44.7%. Independent candidate Scott Rupert received 4.6% of the vote.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2018 Brown was reelected to a third Senate term, defeating Republican U.S. Representative Jim Renacci by 6.8 points.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: A staunch critic of free trade who has taken progressive stances on financial issues, Brown has said that the Democratic Party should place stronger emphasis on progressive populism.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In March 2018, Brown was appointed co-chair of the newly formed Joint Multiemployer Pension Solvency Committee.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: On March 11, 2020, the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Brown proposed a bill that would let workers immediately receive paid sick days, allowing them to stay home and self-quarantine if feeling sick or in the event of any public health emergency. He noted it could slow infection spread to coworkers and criticized Republicans for blocking the proposal, although he said he believed the House would pass similar legislation.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: After President Donald Trump was impeached for the first time in December 2019, Brown voted to remove him from office. During the January 2020 impeachment trial, Brown said he was fine with Republicans bringing witnesses to testify so long as they allowed testimony from witnesses such as John Bolton.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In January 2020, Brown called on his Senate colleagues to approve legislation that would improve the EPA's regulation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In February 2020, Brown and other Democrats in the house voted to block two pieces of anti-abortion legislation: the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The same month, Brown introduced the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act to the Senate.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: One of Bernie Sanders's closest allies in the U.S. Senate, Brown nevertheless endorsed Hillary Clinton and campaigned for her in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Ohio. He was vetted as a potential vice-presidential running mate for Clinton. The choice came down to Brown and Tim Kaine, who was ultimately selected. Brown had the distinct disadvantage that had Clinton won, Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich would have chosen Brown's replacement in the Senate, whereas Kaine's replacement would be chosen by Democrat and Clinton ally Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In May 2017 "Washington Monthly" suggested that Brown could unite the establishment and progressive wings of the Democratic Party as a presidential candidate in 2020. On November 12, 2018, Cleveland.com reported that Brown was "seriously" considering a presidential run,


title: Sherrod Brown

text: After winning his third Senate term in the 2018 election, Brown was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and began exploring a run in January 2019. On March 7, 2019, he announced that he would not run for president. and on March 9, 2019, Brown said he would not run for president and would remain a senator. He also said he has no interest in being vice president.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In the 2011 "National Journal" annual rankings, Brown tied with eight other members for the title of the most liberal member of Congress. According to "FiveThirtyEight", Brown voted with President Donald Trump's position on Congressional issues 25.8% of the time.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In a 2017 issue of "Dissent", Michael Kazin introduced an interview with Brown by praising him as "a politician ahead of his time" and "perhaps the most class-conscious Democrat in Washington." Brown told Kazin that many Ohioans think "people on the coasts look down on them" and blamed this notion on Fox News and "The Wall Street Journal".


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In April 2019, Brown was one of seven senators led by Debbie Stabenow and Joni Ernst to sign a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urging the Agriculture Department to implement conservation measures in the 2018 Farm Bill "through a department-wide National Water Quality Initiative, which would build off the existing initiative housed at the Natural Resource Conservation Service."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In March 2019, Brown was one of six senators to sign a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it "use its rulemaking authority, along with other tools, in order to combat the scourge of non-compete clauses rigging our economy against workers" and saying that non-compete clauses "harm employees by limiting their ability to find alternate work, which leaves them with little leverage to bargain for better wages or working conditions with their immediate employer." The senators' letter added that the FTC had the responsibility of protecting both consumers and workers and needed to "act decisively" to address their concerns over "serious anti-competitive harms from the proliferation of non-competes in the economy."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown opposed the Iraq War and voted against the Iraq Resolution as a House Representative. He voted against the $87 billion war budgetary supplement. He also voted for redeploying US troops out of Iraq by March 2008. Brown voted for the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008, which appropriated $250 billion for ongoing military operations and domestic programs.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In December 2010, Brown voted for the ratification of New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years, and providing for a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2012, Brown co-sponsored a resolution to "oppose any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat." In 2015, he co-sponsored an amendment to the budget that was unanimously approved by the Senate and that would reimpose sanctions on Iran if Iran violated the terms of the interim or final agreement by advancing its nuclear program.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown was a co-sponsor of reaffirmations of the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances in regards to United States-Taiwan relations. Weeks after the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign and Umbrella Movement broke out, demanding genuine universal suffrage among other goals, Brown (the chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China), co-chair Chris Smith, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin, Marco Rubio, Roger Wicker, Dianne Feinstein, and Jeff Merkley, and U.S. Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Dan Lipinski and Frank Wolf introduced the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would update the United States–Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 and U.S. commitment to democratic development in Hong Kong.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In September 2016, in advance of UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Brown signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel. In February 2019, Brown voted against a controversial Israel Anti-Boycott Act initiated by Republicans that would allow states to prohibit government agencies from contracting with organizations involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In June 2017, Brown criticized U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen, saying, "It's becoming increasingly clear that Saudi Arabia has been deliberately targeting civilian targets. And that's absolutely unacceptable". In July 2017, he voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which placed sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea. In May 2018, Brown, Bob Menendez and Mark Warner wrote to the inspectors general of the State Department, Treasury Department and Intelligence Community, to allege that the Trump administration had failed to fully comply with the provisions of the CAATSA and request investigations into that. In October 2018, Brown condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In May 2018, Brown was one of 12 senators to sign a letter to Trump urging him not to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on the grounds that "Iran could either remain in the agreement and seek to isolate the United States from our closest partners, or resume its nuclear activities" if the U.S. pulled out and that both possibilities "would be detrimental to our national security interests." In August 2018, Brown and 16 other members of Congress urged the U.S. to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in western China's Xinjiang region.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In November 2018, Brown joined Senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States. They wrote: "In American news outlets, Beijing has used financial ties to suppress negative information about the CCP. In the past four years, multiple media outlets with direct or indirect financial ties to China allegedly decided not to publish stories on wealth and corruption in the CCP. In one case, an editor resigned due to mounting self-censorship in the outlet's China coverage. Beijing has also sought to use relationships with American academic institutions and student groups to shape public discourse."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In January 2019, after Juan Guaidó declared himself interim President of Venezuela, Brown said that the United States should "work with our allies and use economic, political and diplomatic leverage to help bring about free and fair elections, limit escalating tension, and ensure the safety of Americans on the ground", and called the Trump administration's suggestions of military intervention "reckless and irresponsible".


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown voted in favor of the 2012 NDAA that sparked controversy over indefinite detention of US citizens.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In December 2015, Brown co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would restrict ISIS's financing by authorizing new sanctions on foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate financial transactions with ISIS. The bill called for tightening international passport regulations and additional screening of persons attempting to enter the U.S. on certain types of visas. The bill would also provide grants to local law enforcement agencies to train for active shooter situations and terrorist attacks and to conduct cyber-training to identify and track extremists such as the couple behind the 2015 San Bernardino attack. Brown also called for banning those on the no fly list from purchasing assault weapons.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown's opposition to the 2017 tax bill led to what was described as a "shouting match" with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who accused Brown of "spouting off" to the effect that the tax bill benefited the rich.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In March 2018, Vice President Mike Pence criticized Brown for his recent vote against the Republican tax bill (the TCJA). Brown had argued the bill overwhelmingly benefited wealthy individuals and corporations with a much smaller impact to the middle class.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2014, Brown introduced the Gold Star Fathers Act of 2014 (S. 2323; 113th Congress), a bill that would expand preferred eligibility for federal jobs to the fathers of certain permanently disabled or deceased veterans. He said that "when a service member is killed in action or permanently and totally disabled, the government should do its part to be there for grieving parents—no matter if they're fathers or mothers."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2015, Brown and Representative Tim Ryan introduced legislation that would give military veterans priority in scheduling classes in colleges, universities, and other post-secondary education programs.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2012, Brown co-sponsored the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, a bill that would prohibit the export of some electronics for environmental reasons. In 2018, his Water Resources Development Act was signed by Donald Trump to invest in "clean water infrastructure and build or update water and sewer systems."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown called the Republican legislature in Ohio "lunatics" for introducing a concealed carry bill that would allow individuals to carry guns into airplane terminals (before security), police buildings, private airplanes, and day care facilities.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, Brown participated in the Chris Murphy gun control filibuster. A few weeks later, Brown voted for the Feinstein Amendment, which would have barred any individual on the terrorist watchlist from buying a gun.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Brown supported Dianne Feinstein's effort to ban bump stocks.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In February 2013, conservative commentator George F. Will wrote in support of Brown's proposal to break up consolidated banks and finance industry conglomerates by restoring the Glass-Steagall Act.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2016, after the leak of the Panama Papers, Brown and Elizabeth Warren urged the Treasury Department to investigate whether U.S. individuals were involved in possible tax avoidance and misconduct associated with the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2009, Brown voted for the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. He cast the 60th and final vote upon returning to Washington, DC, after his mother's funeral service.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In the wake of the Flint water crisis, Brown introduced legislation that would force the federal government to step in when cities and states fail to warn residents about lead-contaminated drinking water and to give Ohio's school districts money to test it.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, voting for it in December 2009, and he voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2006, Brown co-sponsored the single-payer Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. He did not co-sponsor Senator Bernie Sanders's single-payer health plan, despite saying he has "always been supportive" of such a system. Brown said he was supporting his own plan, which would allow people 55 and older to buy into Medicare.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In January 2019, Brown was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amount needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis. It also increased the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax and ensured that miners affected by the 2018 coal company bankruptcies would not lose their health insurance.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In August 2019 Brown was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar requesting data from the Trump administration in order to help states and Congress understand the potential consequences of the Texas v. United States Affordable Care Act lawsuit, writing that an overhaul of the present health care system would form "an enormous hole in the pocketbooks of the people we serve as well as wreck state budgets".


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In September 2019, amid discussions to prevent a government shutdown, Brown was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to congressional leadership advocating the passage of legislation that would permanently fund health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners as "families in Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and New Mexico" would start to receive notifications of health care termination by the end of the following month.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In April 2019, Brown was one of 41 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that President Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development." The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown voted against prohibiting same-sex couples from adopting children in Washington D.C. He received a 100% score from the Human Rights Campaign in 2005–2006, indicating a pro-gay rights stance. On December 18, 2010, he voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In October 2018, Brown was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reverse the rolling back of a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQ diplomats who had unions that were not recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the world have seen LGBTQ individuals "subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local authorities" and that refusing to let LGBTQ diplomats bring their partners to the US would be equivalent of upholding "the discriminatory policies of many countries around the world."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2015, Brown introduced the Charter School Accountability Act of 2015, which would seek to curb "fraud, abuse, waste, mismanagement and misconduct" in charter schools.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown praised West Virginia teachers who held a nine-day strike in early 2018, saying: "When this society fails to pay its teachers a living wage, it's pretty shameful. Those teachers engaged the public to put pressure on a Republican legislature that historically underfunds education and they got the legislature to finally do the right thing. So I was proud of those teachers for standing up." He also praised other recent activist demonstrations, such as the gun violence protests by Parkland High School students in Florida and the Women's March after President Trump's inauguration, saying: "That's what makes our country great — when people stand up and push back when they're mistreated."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In July 2019, following reports that the Trump administration intended to cease protecting spouses, parents and children of active-duty service members from deportation, Brown was one of 22 senators led by Tammy Duckworth to sign a letter arguing that the protection gave service members the ability "to fight for the United States overseas and not worry that their spouse, children, or parents will be deported while they are away" and that its termination would both cause service members personal hardship and negatively affect their combat performance.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In February 2017, Brown and 30 other senators signed a letter to Kaléo Pharmaceuticals in response to an increase of the opioid-overdose-reversing device Evzio's price from $690 in 2014 to $4,500. They requested the detailed price structure for Evzio, the number of devices Kaléo Pharmaceuticals set aside for donation, and the totality of federal reimbursements Evzio received in the previous year.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In June 2019, Brown was one of ten senators to cosponsor the Safe Freight Act, a bill that would require freight trains to have one or more certified conductors and a certified engineer on board who can collaborate on how to protect the train and people living near the tracks. The legislation was meant to correct a Federal Railroad Administration rollback of a proposed rule intended to establish safety standards.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown has criticized free trade with China and other countries. In a 2006 "Washington Post" article, Brown argued against free trade on the grounds that labor activism was responsible for the growth of the U.S. middle class, and that the U.S. economy is harmed by trade relations with countries that lack the kind of labor regulations that have resulted from that activism.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2011, the "Columbus Dispatch" noted that Brown "loves to rail against international trade agreements." Brown's book "Myths of Free Trade" argues that "an unregulated global economy is a threat to all of us." In the book he recommends measures that would allow for emergency tariffs, protect Buy America laws, including those that give preference to minority and women-owned businesses, and hold foreign producers to American labor and environmental standards. Brown was the co-author and sponsor of a bill that would officially declare China a currency manipulator and require the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on Chinese imports.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In May 2016, Brown called for tariffs to be imposed on imports from China and praised Hillary Clinton's plan to enforce rules and trade laws and triple the enforcement budgets at the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In January 2018, Brown expressed support for President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on washing machine imports. He supported his first trade agreement in 2019, after never having previously supported one while in Congress. He voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement because he said it would send Ohioan jobs to Mexico, but supported a new trade agreement for United States, Mexico and Canada after a "step toward a pro-worker trade policy, but it's not a perfect agreement."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2012, Brown wrote a letter to the United States Department of Defense requesting that it comply with a rule requiring members of the military to wear clothes made in the U.S.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In a 2016 CNN interview, Brown criticized Trump for making "a lot of money apparently by outsourcing jobs to China."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown was married to Larke Recchie from 1979 to 1987, and they had two children. During their divorce proceedings, Recchie obtained a restraining order against Brown to keep him from harassing or annoying her and from "doing bodily harm". In a supporting affidavit, she said she was "in fear for the safety and well-being of myself and our children due to [Brown's] physical violence and abusive nature" and that Brown had "intimidated, pushed, shoved and bullied" her on several occasions. Years later, Recchie walked back her claims of physical violence against Brown.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Recchie and "Cleveland Plain Dealer" columnist Connie Schultz later became friends and filmed an ad together for Brown's 2006 Senate campaign. Recchie hosted a fund-raising event for Brown's 2012 reelection campaign against Republican Josh Mandel and issued a statement saying, "I understand that in campaigns you often have to go after your opponent, but Josh Mandel should know better than to go after our family. I ask that he immediately put a stop to this kind of politics. I was proud to support Sherrod in 2006 and I'm proud to support him again this time around against Josh Mandel. Josh Mandel should immediately stop this kind of dirty campaigning."


title: Sherrod Brown

text: In 2004, Brown married Schultz. She resigned from her job in 2011, because being a politician's spouse presented a conflict of interest. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005. She is also the author of "Life Happens" (2007) and "...and His Lovely Wife" (2008), in which she describes her experiences as the spouse of a U.S. Senate candidate. He has two stepchildren from this marriage.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: Brown's daughter Elizabeth is president pro tempore of the Columbus City Council. He has five grandchildren. He is Lutheran.


title: Sherrod Brown

text: On May 18, 2014, Brown was awarded an honorary doctor of public service degree from Otterbein University. Along with his wife, Brown delivered a keynote address at the undergraduate commencement.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Mediterranean. It is high. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. These macaques, as well as a labyrinthine network of tunnels, attract many tourists each year.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Rock of Gibraltar, one of the two traditional Pillars of Hercules, was known to the Romans as "Mons Calpe", the other pillar being "Mons Abila", either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa on the African side of the Strait. According to ancient myths fostered by the Greeks and the Phoenicians, and later perpetuated by the Romans, the two points marked the limit to the known world, although the Phoenicians had actually sailed beyond this point into the Atlantic, both northward and southward.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic promontory. The Main Ridge has a sharp crest with peaks over 400 m above sea level, formed by Early Jurassic limestones and dolomites. It is a deeply eroded and highly faulted limb of an overturned fold. The sedimentary strata composing the Rock of Gibraltar are overturned, with the oldest strata overlying the youngest strata. These strata are the Catalan Bay Shale Formation (youngest), Gibraltar Limestone, Little Bay Shale Formation (oldest), and Dockyard Shale Formation (age unknown). These strata are noticeably faulted and deformed.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: Predominantly of shale, the Catalan Bay Shale Formation also contains thick units composed of either brown calcareous sandstone, soft shaly sandstone interbedded with bluish-black limestone, and interlayered greenish-gray marls and dark gray cherts. The Catalan Bay Shale Formation contains unidentifiable echinoid spines and belemnite fragments and infrequent Early Jurassic (Middle Lias) ammonites.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Gibraltar limestone consists of greyish-white or pale-gray compact, and sometime finely crystalline, medium to thick bedded limestones and dolomites that locally contain chert seams. This formation comprises about three quarters of the Rock of Gibraltar. Geologists have found various poorly preserved and badly eroded and rolled marine fossils within it. The fossils found in the Gibraltar limestone include various brachiopods, corals, echinoid fragments, gastropods, pelecypods, and stromatolites. These fossils indicate an Early Jurassic age (Lower Lias) for the deposition of the Gibraltar limestone.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Little Bay and Dockyard shale formations form a very minor part of the Rock of Gibraltar. The Little Bay Shale Formation consists of dark bluish-gray, unfossiliferous shale, which is interbedded with thin layers of grit, mudstone, and limestone. It predates the Gibraltar limestone. The Dockyard Shale Formation is an undescribed variegated shale of unknown age that lies buried beneath the Gibraltar's dockyard and coastal protection structures.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: Although these geological formations were deposited during the early part of the Jurassic Period some 175-200million years ago, their current appearance is due to far more recent events of about 5 million years ago. When the African tectonic plate collided tightly with the Eurasian plate, the Mediterranean became a lake that, over the course of time, dried up during the Messinian salinity crisis. The Atlantic Ocean then broke through the Strait of Gibraltar, and the resultant flooding created the Mediterranean Sea. The Rock forms part of the Betic Cordillera, a mountain range that dominates southeastern Iberia.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: Today, the Rock of Gibraltar forms a peninsula jutting out into the Strait of Gibraltar from the southern coast of Spain. The promontory is linked to the continent by means of a sandy tombolo with a maximum elevation of . To the north, the Rock rises vertically from sea level up to at Rock Gun Battery. The Rock's highest point stands near the south end above the strait at O'Hara's Battery. The Rock's central peak, Signal Hill and the top station of the Gibraltar Cable Car, stands at an elevation of . The near-cliffs along the eastern side of the Rock drop down to a series of wind-blown sand slopes that date to the glaciations when sea levels were lower than today, and a sandy plain extended east from the base of the Rock. The western face, where the City of Gibraltar is located, is comparatively less steep.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: Calcite, the mineral that makes up limestone, dissolves slowly in rainwater. Over time, this process can form caves. For this reason the Rock of Gibraltar contains over 100 caves. St. Michael's Cave, located halfway up the western slope of the Rock, is the most prominent and is a popular tourist attraction.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: Fossils of Neanderthals have been found at several sites in Gibraltar. In 1848, a Neanderthal woman's skull was found at Forbes' Quarry, located on the north face of the Rock. However, its significance was not recognized until after the 1856 discovery of the type specimen in the Neander Valley. Excavations in Gorham's Cave, located near sea level on the eastern side of the Rock, found evidence it was used by Neanderthals, and plant and animal remains in the cave gave evidence of Neanderthals' highly varied diet.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Moorish Castle is a relic of Moorish rule over Gibraltar, which lasted for 710 years. It was built in the year A.D. 711, when the Berber chieftain Tariq ibn-Ziyad first landed on the rock that still bears his name. The 17th-century Muslim historian Al-Maqqari wrote that upon landing, Tariq burned his ships.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The principal building that remains is the Tower of Homage, a massive building of brick and very hard concrete called "tapia". The upper part of the tower housed the former occupants' living apartments and Moorish bath.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: A unique feature of the Rock is its system of underground passages, known as the Galleries or the Great Siege Tunnels.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The first of these was dug towards the end of the Great Siege of Gibraltar, which lasted from 1779 to 1783. General Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, who commanded the garrison throughout the siege, was anxious to bring flanking fire on the Spanish batteries in the plain below the North face of the Rock. On the suggestion of Sergeant-Major Henry Ince of the Royal Engineers, he had a tunnel bored from a point above Willis's Battery to communicate with the Notch, a natural projection from the North face. The plan was to mount a battery there. There was no intention at first of making embrasures in this tunnel, but an opening was found necessary for ventilation; as soon as it had been made a gun was mounted in it. By the end of the siege, the British had constructed six such embrasures, and mounted four guns.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Galleries, which tourists may visit, were a later development of the same idea and were finished in 1797. They consist of a whole system of halls, embrasures, and passages, of a total length of nearly . From them, one may see a series of unique views of the Bay of Gibraltar, the isthmus, and Spain.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: When World War II broke out in 1939, the authorities evacuated the civilian population to Morocco, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and Madeira so that the military could fortify Gibraltar against a possible German attack. By 1942 there were over 30,000 British soldiers, sailors, and airmen on the Rock. They expanded the tunnel system and made the Rock a keystone in the defence of shipping routes to the Mediterranean.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: In February 1997, it was revealed the British had a secret plan called Operation Tracer to conceal servicemen in tunnels beneath the Rock in case the Germans captured it. The team in the rock would have radio equipment with which to report enemy movements. A six-man team waited undercover at Gibraltar for two and a half years. The Germans never got close to capturing the rock and so the men were never sealed inside. The team was disbanded to resume civilian life when the war ended.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The motto of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and Gibraltar itself is "Nulli Expugnabilis Hosti" (Latin for "No Enemy Shall Expel Us").


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The flora and fauna of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve are of conservation interest and are protected by law. Within it is a range of animals and plants, but the highlights are the Barbary macaques (the famous "Rock apes"), the Barbary partridges, and flowers such as Gibraltar's own chickweed, thyme and the Gibraltar candytuft. The Barbary macaques may have originated from an escape of North African animals transported to Spain; it is also possible that the original Gibraltar macaques are a remnant of populations that are known to have spread throughout Southern Europe during the Pliocene, up to 5.5 million years ago. Some animals of the Rock have been reintroduced by the Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park who have three Barbary macaques.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Rock of Gibraltar, at the head of the Strait, is a prominent headland, which accumulates migrating birds during the passage periods. The vegetation on the Rock, unique in southern Iberia, provides a temporary home for many species of migratory birds that stop to rest and feed before continuing migration for their crossing over the sea and desert. In spring, they return to replenish before continuing their journeys to Western Europe, journeys which may take them as far as Greenland or Russia.


title: Rock of Gibraltar

text: The Rock has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International, because it is a migratory bottleneck, or choke point, for an estimated 250,000 raptors that cross the Strait annually, and because it supports breeding populations of Barbary partridges and lesser kestrels.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Chernobyl liquidators were the civil and military personnel who were called upon to deal with the consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union on the site of the event. The liquidators are widely credited with limiting both the immediate and long-term damage from the disaster.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Surviving liquidators are qualified for significant social benefits due to their veteran status. Many liquidators were praised as heroes by the Soviet Government and the press, while some struggled for years to have their participation officially recognized.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The colloquial term "liquidator" (, , , "likvidator") originates from the Soviet official definition "участник ликвидации последствий аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС" (uchastnik likvidatsii "posledstviy avarii na Chernobylʹskoy AES", literally "participant in liquidation of the Chernobyl NPP accident consequences") which was widely used to describe the liquidators' activities regarding their employment, healthcare, and retirement. This exact phrase is engraved on the Soviet medals and badges awarded to the liquidators.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Disaster management at Chernobyl included a diverse range of occupations, positions, and tasks, and in particular:


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: A small number of foreigners (mostly from the Western countries) volunteered to participate in international medicine- and science-related on-the-ground projects related to the relief operation. Technically, they may also qualify for liquidator status depending on their exact location and tasks at the time of participation.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: According to the WHO, 240,000 recovery workers were called upon in 1986 and 1987 alone. Altogether, special certificates were issued for 600,000 people recognizing them as liquidators.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Total recorded doses to individual workers in Chernobyl recovery operations during the period through 1990 ranged from less than 10 millisieverts (less than 1 rem) to more than 1 sievert (100 rems), due primarily to external radiation. The average dose is estimated to have been 120 millisieverts (12 rem) and 85% of the recorded doses were between 20 and 500 millisieverts (2 to 50 rems). There are large uncertainties in these individual doses; estimates of the size of the uncertainty range from 50% to a factor of five and dose records for military personnel are thought to be biased toward high values. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) estimates the total collective dose to the total of about 530,000 recovery operations workers as about 60,000 person-sieverts (6,000,000 person-rem).


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: According to Vyacheslav Grishin of the Chernobyl Union, the main organization of liquidators, "25,000 of the Russian liquidators are dead and 70,000 disabled, about the same in Ukraine, and 10,000 dead in Belarus and 25,000 disabled", which makes a total of 60,000 dead (10% of the 600,000 liquidators) and 165,000 disabled. Estimates of the number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously: the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest it could reach 4,000:


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Ivanov et al. (2001) studied nearly 66,000 liquidators from Russia, and found no increase in overall mortality from cancer or non-cancer causes. However, a statistically significant dose-related excess mortality risk was found for both cancer and heart disease.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: Rahu et al. (2006) studied some 10,000 liquidators from Latvia and Estonia and found no significant increase in overall cancer rate. Among specific cancer types, statistically significant increases in both thyroid and brain cancer were found, although the authors believe these may have been the result of better cancer screening among liquidators (for thyroid cancer) or a random result (for brain cancer) because of the very low overall incidence.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: While there is rough agreement that a total of either 31 or 54 people died from blast trauma or acute radiation syndrome (ARS) as a direct result of the disaster, there is considerable debate concerning the accurate number of deaths due to the disaster's long-term health effects, with estimates ranging from 4,000 (per the 2005 and 2006 conclusions of a joint consortium of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia), to no fewer than 93,000 (per the conflicting conclusions of various scientific, health, environmental, and survivors' organizations).


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe in 2006 was marked by a series of events and developments.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The liquidators held a rally in Kyiv to complain about deteriorated compensation and medical support. Similar rallies were held in many other cities of the former Soviet Union.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The liquidators who reside in Estonia (some 4,200 as reported in 2006, 3,140 as of 2011) may hope for the introduction of an Estonian law for their relief after the meeting of their representatives with the President of Estonia on April 26, 2006. It turns out that by Estonian laws, the state may provide help and relief only to citizens, who are "legal descendants" of the citizens of 1918–1940 Republic of Estonia. At the same time, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine do not provide any relief to the liquidators residing abroad. The problem is tied to the fact that Chernobyl veterans are classified under the "Estonian Persons Repressed by Occupying Powers Act". As of 2011 the issue has not yet been resolved.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The most highly exposed clean-up workers were significantly more symptomatic on the somatization and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom scales. The workers with the greatest exposure reported more impairment than the two less-exposed groups, especially on the PTSD measures. Consistent with the findings of The Chernobyl Forum (2006) and with findings from other disasters involving radiation, the results show that the accident had a deleterious effect on mental health.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: A number of military liquidators residing in Khabarovsk (Russia) were denied a certain compensation for loss of health on grounds that they were not salaried workers, but rather under military order. They have to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.


title: Chernobyl liquidators

text: The National Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine keeps a "Remembrance Book" (, "Kneeha Pahmyati") an open to the public online database of "liquidators" featuring personal pages with photo and brief structured information on their input. Data fields include "Radiation damage suffered", "Field of liquidation activity" and "Subsequent fate". The project started in 1997, containing over 5,000 entries as of February, 2013. The database is currently available in the Ukrainian language only.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: The Chechen–Russian conflict (, "Chechenskiy konflikt"; , "Noxçiyn-Örsiyn dov") was the centuries-long conflict, often armed, between the Russian (formerly Soviet) government and various Chechen forces. The recent phase of the conflict started after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and lasted until 2017.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: Formal hostilities in Chechen date back to 1785, though elements of the conflict can be traced back considerably further. The Russian Empire initially had little interest in the North Caucasus itself other than as a communication route to its ally the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (eastern Georgia) and its enemies, the Persian and Ottoman Empires, but growing tensions triggered by Russian activities in the region resulted in an uprising of Chechens against the Russian presence in 1785, followed by further clashes and the outbreak of the Caucasian War in 1817. Russia officially won against the Imamate in 1864 but only succeeded in defeating the Chechen forces in 1877.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: During the Russian Civil War, Chechens and other Caucasian nations lived in independence for a few years before being Sovietized in 1921. In 1944 on the grounds of dubious allegations of widespread collaboration with the advancing German forces, the Chechen nation as a collective were deported to Central Asia.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: The most recent conflict between the Chechen and the Russian government took place in the 1990s. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Chechens declared independence in 1991. By late 1994 the First Chechen War broke out and after two years of fighting the Russian forces withdrew from the region in December 1996. In 1999, the fighting restarted, resulting in yet another major armed conflict, culminating in a large number of casualties on both sides. There was vast destruction of the Chechen capital in the Battle of Grozny. The Russian military established control over Grozny in early February 2000, officially ending the war, with insurgency and hostilities continuing for several years. The end of the conflict was proclaimed in 2017, ending a decades-long struggle.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: The North Caucasus, a mountainous region that includes Chechnya, spans or lies close to important trade and communication routes between Russia and the Middle East, control of which have been fought over by various powers for millennia. Russia's entry into the region followed Tsar Ivan the Terrible's conquest of the Golden Horde's Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1556, initiating a long struggle for control of the North Caucasus routes with other contemporary powers including Persia, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: During the 16th century, the Russian Tsardom tried to win influence in the North Caucasus by allying themselves with local princes such as the Temryuk of Kabardia and Shikh-Murza Okotsky of Chechnya. Temryuk controlled the Northwest Caucasus and with Russia's help he managed to stave off Crimean incursions. Northeast Caucasus was largely controlled by Shamkhal princes, Avar khans and the powerful lord of Okotsk (a Chechen feudal entity) Prince Shikh whose influence reached all of Northeast Caucasus. These princes bought weapons and settled Russian Cossacks near the Terek river to strengthen their rule and influence. Prince Shikh Okotsky had in his army around 500 Cossacks combined with 1,000 Okocheni (the Chechens of Aukh), and often waged anti-Iranian and anti-Ottoman campaigns in Dagestan.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: Prince Shikh's politics gave the Russian Tsardom more influence in the Northeast Caucasus, several Russian forts were set up along the Terek river (among them the stronghold of Terki) and Cossack villages. Prior to this the Cossacks had almost no presence in Chechnya and Dagestan. These villages and forts caused Chechens to distrust Prince Shikh since forts were built on Chechen owned pastures. The Michkizi (lowland Chechens) and part of the Okoki (a Chechen tribe of Aukh) that were loyal to the Chechen Mullah Mayda joined the outcast Kumyk prince Sultan-Mut who for a very long time allied with the Chechens living south of the Terek-Sulak interfluve. Sultan-Mut was at first against the Russian policies in the Caucasus, he along with the Chechens, Kumyks and Avars fought Russian Cossacks and burned down Russian forts. The Russian Tsar countered this by sending military expeditions into Dagestan. Both of these expeditions resulted in Russian defeat and culminated in the Battle of the Karaman Field where a Dagestani-Chechen army under Sultan-Mut defeated the Russian army. These failed expeditions and battles by Russia led to the weakening of Prince Shikh and his assassination in 1596 by one of Sultan-Mut's brothers.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: Sultan-Mut continued to pursue an anti-Russian policy into the early 17th century and was known to sometimes live among the Chechens and with them raid the Russian Cossacks. However, this started to change as Sultan-Mut several times tried to join the Russians and asked for a citizenship. This switch of policy angered many Chechens and led to them distancing from Sultan-Mut. This caused a mistrust in Aukh between the people of Endirey (Chechen-Kumyk city controlled by the Sultan-Mut family and his Chechen Sala-Uzden allies) and the Aukh Chechens.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: In 1774, Russia gained control of Ossetia, and with it the strategically important Darial Pass, from the Ottomans. A few years later, in 1783, Russia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with Heraclius II of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, making the eastern Georgian kingdom—a Christian enclave surrounded by hostile Muslim states—a Russian protectorate. To fulfill her obligations under the treaty, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, began construction of the Georgian Military Road through the Darial Pass, along with a series of military forts to protect the route. These activities, however, antagonized the Chechens, who saw the forts both as an encroachment on the traditional territories of the mountaineers and as a potential threat.


title: Chechen–Russian conflict

text: Around this time, Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen imam, began preaching a purified version of Islam and encouraging the various mountain peoples of the North Caucasus to unite under the banner of Islam in order to protect themselves from further foreign encroachments. His activities were seen by the Russians as a threat to their own interests in the region, and in 1785, a force was sent to capture him. Failing to do so, it burned his unoccupied home village instead, but the force was ambushed by Mansur's followers on its return journey and annihilated, beginning the first Chechen–Russian war. The war lasted several years, with Mansur employing mostly guerilla tactics and the Russians conducting further punitive raids on Chechen villages, until Mansur's capture in 1791. Mansur died in captivity in 1794.