title: Yvonne Craig

text: Craig played a Navy nurse with exotic Arabian dance skills in an episode of "McHale's Navy" ("Pumpkin Takes Over") and in an episode of "The Big Valley" with Lee Majors and Barbara Stanwyck; both aired in 1965. That same year, she appeared in an episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." ("The Brain-Killer Affair"), where she helps solve the mystery of a brain-endangering poison. The following year, she came back as an U.N.C.L.E. employee in a theatrical film, "One Spy Too Many" expanded from the episode "The Alexander the Greater Affair". In an episode of "The Wild Wild West" ("The Night of the Grand Emir") in 1966, she played an assassin who performs an exotic Arabian dance. In a 1968 episode of "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" ("Haunted Honeymoon"), she played Gladys Zimmerman, a bride-to-be who was stranded overnight at Gull Cottage.


title: Yvonne Craig

text: From September 1967 until March 1968, Craig appeared in her highest-profile role as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon for the third and final season of the 1960s ABC TV series "Batman". As Batgirl, she wore a purple and yellow outfit and rode a "purple motorcycle with white lace trim", whereas her alter ego Barbara Gordon was the librarian daughter of Commissioner Gordon. "The New York Times" praised her for "add[ing] a scrappy girl-power element" to a TV series it described as "campy".


title: Yvonne Craig

text: Craig reprised her Batgirl role in a 1974 public service announcement (PSA) for equal pay for women sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. In the PSA, Batman and Robin were tied to a post amid the threat of a ticking time bomb, but Batgirl refused to release them because she was paid less than Robin, in violation of the Federal Equal Pay Law. The PSA was written and directed by Sidney Galanty, and narrated by William Dozier, who had narrated the "Batman" TV series. Dick Gautier played Batman this time, because Adam West was, at the time, trying to distance himself from that role.


title: Yvonne Craig

text: Craig reportedly felt some connection to the character, and was sad that Barbara Gordon was shot and paralyzed by the Joker in the graphic novel "" (1988).


title: Yvonne Craig

text: After "Batman", Craig continued to act sporadically in movies and television. She appeared in guest roles in "It Takes a Thief", "The Mod Squad", "Mannix", and "Emergency!". Craig also appeared on "" as Marta, a green-skinned Orion slave girl in the episode "" (1969). From 1969 to 1972, she appeared in four episodes of the comedy series "Love, American Style". In a 1970 episode of "Land of the Giants" ("Wild Journey"), she played one-half of a humanoid, time-observing duo (alongside Bruce Dern), who chase two of the Earth castaways (the series stars Gary Conway and Don Marshall) into the past, ultimately forcing them to relive the flight that sent them to the giants' planet. In 1973, she appeared in a first-season episode of "Kojak" ("Dark Sunday"), and in 1977, she made a guest appearance in "The Six Million Dollar Man" ("The Infiltrators").


title: Yvonne Craig

text: When her Hollywood career ended, she ventured into private business. She was briefly a co-producer of industrial shows, before starting a new career as a real estate broker. From 2009 to 2011, she voiced Grandma on the animated children's series "Olivia". Craig published an autobiography called "From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond" (2000). She appeared in the documentary film "Ballets Russes" (2005).


title: Yvonne Craig

text: She was also a philanthropist and advocate for workers unions, free mammograms, and equal pay for women.


title: Yvonne Craig

text: Craig died at age 78 at her home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 2015, from breast cancer that had spread to her liver.


title: The Spectator

text: The Spectator is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.


title: The Spectator

text: It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper, via Press Holdings. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture. It is politically conservative. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film and TV reviews.


title: The Spectator

text: Editorship of "The Spectator" has often been a step on the ladder to high office in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Past editors include Boris Johnson (1999–2005) and other former cabinet members Ian Gilmour (1954–1959), Iain Macleod (1963–1965), and Nigel Lawson (1966–1970). Since 2009, the magazine's editor has been journalist Fraser Nelson.


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator Australia" offers 12 pages on Australian politics and affairs as well as the full UK magazine and has a website that reprints most articles and has an opinion column. This Australian edition has been printed and published simultaneously since 2008. "Spectator US" was launched as a website in early 2018. A monthly US print version debuted in October 2019.


title: The Spectator

text: In 2020, "The Spectator" became both the longest-lived current affairs magazine in history and the first magazine ever to publish 10,000 issues.


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator"s founder, Scottish reformer Robert Stephen Rintoul, former editor of the "Dundee Advertiser" and the London-based "Atlas", launched the paper on 6 July 1828. Rintoul consciously revived the title from the celebrated, if short-lived, daily publication by Addison & Steele. As he had long been determined "to edit a perfect newspaper", Rintoul initially insisted on "absolute power" over content, commencing a long-lasting tradition of the paper's editor and proprietor being one and the same person. Although he wrote little himself, "every line and word passed through the alembic of his brain."


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator"s political outlook in its first thirty years reflected Rintoul's liberal-radical agenda. Despite its political stance it was widely regarded and respected for its non-partisanship, in both its political and cultural criticism.


title: The Spectator

text: Rintoul initially advertised his new title as a "family paper", the euphemistic term for a journal free from strong political rhetoric. However, events soon compelled him to confess that it was no longer possible to be "a mere Spectator". Two years into its existence, "The Spectator" came out strongly for wide-reaching parliamentary reform: it produced supplements detailing vested interests in the Commons and Lords, coined the well-known phrase "The Bill, the whole Bill and nothing but the Bill", and helped drive through the Great Reform Act of 1832. Virulently anti-Tory in its politics, "The Spectator" strongly objected to the appointment of the Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister, condemning him as "a Field Marshal whose political career proves him to be utterly destitute of political principle – whose military career affords ample evidence of his stern and remorseless temperament.".


title: The Spectator

text: The paper spent its first century at premises on Wellington Street (now Lancaster Place). However, despite its robust criticism of the Conservative leader Robert Peel for several years, "The Spectator" rallied behind him when he split the Tory party by successfully repealing the Corn Laws. Rintoul's fundamental principles were freedom of the individual, freedom of the press and freedom of trade, of religious tolerance and freedom from blind political adherence.


title: The Spectator

text: The magazine was vocal in its opposition to the First Opium War (1839–1842), commenting: "all the alleged aims of the expedition against China are vague, illimitable, and incapable of explanation, save only that of making the Chinese pay the opium-smugglers." and "There does not appear to be much glory gained in a contest so unequal that hundreds are killed on one side and none on the other. What honour is there in going to shoot men, certain that they cannot hurt you? The cause of the war, be it remembered, is as disreputable as the strength of the parties is unequal. The war is undertaken in support of a co-partnery of opium-smugglers, in which the Anglo-Indian Government may be considered as the principal partner."


title: The Spectator

text: In 1853, "The Spectator"s lead book reviewer George Brimley published an anonymous and unfavourable notice of Charles Dickens's "Bleak House", typical of the paper's enduring contempt for him as a "popular" writer "amusing the idle hours of the greatest number of readers; not, we may hope, without improvement to their hearts, but certainly without profoundly affecting their intellects or deeply stirring their emotions."


title: The Spectator

text: Rintoul died in April 1858, having sold the magazine two months earlier. The circulation had already been falling, under particular pressure from its new rival, "The Saturday Review". Its new owner, the 27-year-old John Addyes Scott, kept the purchase quiet, but Rintoul's death made explicit the change of guard. His tenure was unremarkable, and subscribers continued to fall. By the end of the year Scott sought his escape, selling the title for £4200 in December 1858 to two British-based Americans, James McHenry and Benjamin Moran. While McHenry was a businessman, Moran was an Assistant Secretary to the American ambassador, George M. Dallas; they saw their purchase as a means to influence British opinion on American affairs. The editor was Thornton Hunt, a friend of Moran who had also worked for Rintoul. Hunt was also nominally the purchaser, having been given the necessary monies in an attempt by McHenry and Moran to disguise the American ownership.


title: The Spectator

text: Circulation declined with this loss of independence and inspirational leadership, as the views of James Buchanan, then President of the United States, came to the fore. Within weeks, the editorial line followed Buchanan's pronouncements in being "neither pro-slavery nor pro-abolitionist. To unsympathetic observers Buchanan's policy seemed to apportion blame for the impasse on the slavery question equally on pro-slavery and abolitionist factions – and rather than work out a solution, simply to argue that a solution would take time. The Spectator now would publicly support that 'policy.'". This set it at odds with most of the British press but gained it the sympathy of expatriate Americans in the country.


title: The Spectator

text: Richard Fulton notes that from then until 1861, "the "Spectator"s commentary on American affairs read like a Buchanan administration propaganda sheet." and that this represented a "volte-face". Under Hunt's tenure, "The Spectator" may even have been steered by financial support from the court of Napoleon III.


title: The Spectator

text: The need to promote the Buchanan position in Britain had been reduced as British papers such as "The Times" and "The Saturday Review" turned in his favour, fearing the potential effects of a split in the Union. As Abraham Lincoln was set to succeed the vacillating Buchanan after the 1860 United States presidential election, the owners decided to stop pumping money into a loss-making publication: as Moran confided to his diary, "it don't pay, never did since Hunt became its owner." On 19 January 1861, "The Spectator" was sold to a journalist, Meredith Townsend, for the marked-down sum of £2000.


title: The Spectator

text: Though not yet thirty, Townsend had spent the previous decade as an editor in India, and was prepared to restore to the paper an independent voice in a fast-changing world. From the outset, Townsend took up an anti-Buchanan, anti-slavery position, arguing that his unwillingness to act decisively had been a weakness and a contributor to the problems apparent in the US. He soon went into partnership with Richard Holt Hutton, the editor of The Economist, whose primary interests were literature and theology. Hutton's close friend William Gladstone later called him "the first critic of the nineteenth century". Townsend's writing in "The Spectator" confirmed him as one of the finest journalists of his day, and he has since been called "the greatest leader writer ever to appear in the English Press."


title: The Spectator

text: The two men remained co-proprietors and joint editors for 25 years, taking a strong stand on some of the most controversial issues of their day. They supported the Union against the Confederacy in the American Civil War, an unpopular position which, at the time, did serious damage to the paper's circulation, reduced to some 1,000 readers. In time, the paper regained readers when the victory of the North validated its principled stance. They also launched an all-out assault on Benjamin Disraeli, accusing him in a series of leaders of jettisoning ethics for politics by ignoring the atrocities committed against Bulgarian civilians by the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s.


title: The Spectator

text: In 1886, "The Spectator" parted company with William Ewart Gladstone when he declared his support for Irish Home Rule. Committed to defending the Union ahead of the Liberal Party line, Townsend and Hutton aligned themselves with the Liberal Unionist wing. As a result, H.H. Asquith (the future Prime Minister), who had served as a leader-writer for ten years, left his post. Townsend was succeeded by a young journalist named John St Loe Strachey, who would remain associated with the paper for the next 40 years. When Hutton died in 1897, Strachey became co-owner with Townsend; by the end of the year Strachey was made sole editor and proprietor. As chief leader-writer, general manager, literary critic and all things beside, Strachey embodied the spirit of "The Spectator" until the 1920s. Among his various schems were the establishment of a Spectator Experimental Company, to show that new soldiers could be trained up to excellence in six months, the running of a Cheap Cottage Exhibition, which laid the foundations for Letchworth Garden City, and the impassioned defence of Free Trade against Joseph Chamberlain's protectionist 'Tariff Reform' programme.


title: The Spectator

text: Within two years he had doubled the paper's circulation, which peaked at 23,000. In the early decades of the twentieth century it was heralded as "the most influential of all the London weeklies". The First World War put the paper and its editor under great strain: after the conflict it seemed to be behind the times, and circulation began to fall away. Even the introduction of signed articles, overturning the paper's fixed policy of anonymity for its first century, did little to help. After years of illness, Strachey decided at the end of 1924 to sell his controlling interest in the paper to his recently appointed business manager, Sir Evelyn Wrench. Though he gained a second wind as a novelist, Strachey died two years later in 1928.


title: The Spectator

text: For his first year as proprietor, John Evelyn Wrench appointed John (Jack) Atkins his editor, who had worked on the paper for the last two decades, acting as editor during Strachey's recurrent bouts of illness. But the relationship did not work: as Atkins lamented to his long-standing friend, Winston Churchill, Wrench 'continually wants to interfere and he is very ignorant'. Wrench duly took over the editorship in 1926, successfully channeling the enthusiasm of Strachey. His global connections helped secure interviews with Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi and Benito Mussolini. Perhaps his most remembered achievement as editor of "The Spectator" was the campaign to ease unemployment in the mining town of Aberdare, one of the worst hit by the crisis of 1928, when joblessness reached 40% in South Wales. Within three months, the paper's appeal for the town's relief raised over £12,000 (the equivalent of about £500,000 today). A statuette of an Aberdare miner, presented in gratitude to "The Spectator", still sits in the editor's office, bearing the inscription: "From the Townsfolk of Aberdare in Grateful Recognition: 'The Greatest of These is Love'".


title: The Spectator

text: Wrench retired as editor in 1932 (though he remained the magazine's proprietor), appointing the political editor Wilson Harris his successor. Under Harris "The Spectator" became increasingly outspoken on developing international politics in the 1930s, in particular on the rise of fascism. Beneath a reader's letter referring to the Nazi Party as "peaceful, orderly and kindly", Harris printed the following reply:


title: The Spectator

text: No facts in recent history are established more incontestably ... than the numerous cases of murder, assault, and various forms of intimidation for which the National Socialist Party in Germany has been responsible ... The organized economic boycott of the Jews is the climax. "The Spectator" has consistently shown itself a friend of Germany, but it is a friend of freedom first. Resort to violence is not condoned by styling it revolution.


title: The Spectator

text: Harris, however, broadly supported Neville Chamberlain's European policy of appeasement. He praised the Munich agreement, explaining later that he believed "even the most desperate attempt to save the peace was worthwhile". Harris abandoned the newspaper's support for appeasement after the Kristallnacht pogrom, which Harris wrote "obliterated the word appeasement." When the conflict broke, the team abandoned their Gower Street office for Harmondsworth, but within a few days decided to return to London: the basement caught fire from shrapnel, and the printers were bombed, but the paper continued to appear each week. Although the Second World War required "The Spectator" to downgrade its size and paper quality, its readership doubled during the conflict, exceeding 50,000.


title: The Spectator

text: From 1945 to 1950, Harris served as MP for Cambridge: although he stood as an independent, this was the first formal overlap between "The Spectator" and the House of Commons. In February 1947, when a fuel shortage suspended the publication of weekly magazines, "The Spectator" appeared in an abridged form over two successive Thursdays on page 2 of the Daily Mail.


title: The Spectator

text: In 1954, Wrench and his co-owner Angus Watson sold "The Spectator" to the barrister Ian Gilmour, who restored the "Spectator" tradition of simultaneously acting as editor. Having a libertarian and pro-European outlook, he "enlivened the paper and injected a new element of irreverence, fun and controversy". He was critical of both Anthony Eden's and Harold Macmillan's governments, and while supporting the Conservatives was also friendly to the Hugh Gaitskell wing of the Labour Party.


title: The Spectator

text: Gilmour lent "The Spectator"s voice to the campaign to end capital punishment in Britain, writing an incensed leader attacking the hanging of Ruth Ellis in 1955, in which he claimed "Hanging has become the national sport", and that the home secretary Gwilym Lloyd George, for not reprieving the sentence, "has now been responsible for the hanging of two women over the past eight months".


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator" opposed Britain's involvement in the Suez crisis in 1956, strongly criticising the government's handling of the debacle. The paper went on to oppose Macmillan's government's re-election in 1959, complaining: "The continued Conservative pretence that Suez was a good, a noble, a wise venture has been too much to stomach ... the Government is taking its stand on a solid principle: 'Never admit a mistake.'"


title: The Spectator

text: The paper says that it was influential in campaigning for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. It gave vocal support to the proposals of the Wolfenden Committee in 1957, condemning the "utterly irrational and illogical" old laws on homosexuality: "Not only is the law unjust in conception, it is almost inevitably unjust in practice".


title: The Spectator

text: In March the same year, Jenny Nicholson, a frequent contributor, wrote a piece on the Italian Socialist Party congress in Venice, which mentioned three Labour Party politicians (Aneurin Bevan, Richard Crossman and Morgan Phillips) "who puzzled the Italians by filling themselves like tanks with whisky and coffee " All three sued for libel, the case went to trial and "The Spectator" was forced to make a large payment in damages and costs, a sum well over the equivalent of £150,000 today. It has since emerged that "all three plaintiffs, to a greater or lesser degree, perjured themselves in court".


title: The Spectator

text: Gilmour gave up the editorship in 1959, in part to abet his chance of selection as a Conservative MP. He appointed his deputy Brian Inglis, who introduced to the magazine a fresh spirit of political satire. In 1959—much to the embarrassment of Gilmour (who remained the owner)—"The Spectator" advised either voting for the Liberal Party or tactically abstaining. Despite a marked increase in sales, Gilmour felt that "The Spectator" was losing its political edge, so replaced him in 1962 with Iain Hamilton. Hamilton successfully balanced a keener focus on current affairs with some more raucous contributions: the young team behind Private Eye were commissioned to write a mock eight-page "Child's Guide to Modern Culture". Much to the shock of Hamilton and the "Spectator" staff, Gilmour replaced Hamilton in 1963 with Iain Macleod, the Conservative MP who had resigned from the cabinet on the controversial appointment of Sir Alec Douglas-Home to succeed Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister. A widely circulated letter, signed by "Spectator" journalists and board members, berated Gilmour for mistreating an admired editor and appointing an active politician who could jeopardise the independence of the magazine: "We believe strongly that "The Spectator", with its long and honourable history of independent opinion, should not be tossed about at the whim of the proprietor or lose its independence by identification with a narrow political faction."


title: The Spectator

text: Two months into his post, in January 1964, Macleod intensified the shock by revealing the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Conservative party. In a long article entitled "The Tory Leadership", ostensibly a review of a new book ("The Fight for the Tory Leadership") by Randolph Churchill, Macleod laid out his version of events in great detail.


title: The Spectator

text: In disclosing, from the horse's mouth, the mysterious circumstances of Douglas-Home's appointment, the article caused an immediate sensation. Churchill's book was all but obliterated by the review, which said that "four fifths" of it "could have been compiled by anyone with a pair of scissors, a pot of paste and a built-in prejudice against Mr Butler and Sir William Haley". That week's edition, bearing the headline "Iain Macleod, What Happened", sold a record number of copies.


title: The Spectator

text: The "Tory Leadership" article prompted a furious response from many "Spectator" readers and caused Macleod, for a time, to be shunned by political colleagues. He eventually regained his party's favour, however, and rejoined the shadow cabinet in the same year. On his appointment as Shadow Chancellor in 1965, he stepped down as editor on the last day of the year, to be replaced by Nigel Lawson.


title: The Spectator

text: Sometimes called "The Great Procrastinator" because of his tendency to leave writing leaders until the last minute, Lawson had been City editor for "The Sunday Telegraph" and Alec Douglas-Home's personal assistant during the 1964 general election.


title: The Spectator

text: Largely due to Lawson, in 1966 "The Spectator" opposed America's increasing military commitment in Vietnam. In a signed article he estimated "the risks involved in an American withdrawal from Vietnam are less than the risks in escalating a bloody and brutal war".


title: The Spectator

text: In 1967, Ian Gilmour, who by then had joined parliament and was already finding the proprietorship a hindrance in political life, sold "The Spectator" to Harry Creighton for £75,000. In 1970, Creighton replaced Lawson as editor (there had been growing resentment between the two men) with George Gale.


title: The Spectator

text: Gale shared Creighton's political outlook, in particular his strong opposition to the Common Market, and much of the next five years was spent attacking the pro-EEC prime minister Edward Heath, treating his eventual defeat by Margaret Thatcher with undisguised delight.


title: The Spectator

text: Gale's almost obsessive opposition to the EEC and antagonistic attitude towards Heath began to lose the magazine readers. In 1973 Creighton took over the editorship himself, but was, if possible, even less successful in stemming the losses. Circulation fell from 36,000 in 1966 to below 13,000. As one journalist who joined "The Spectator" at that time said: "It gave the impression, an entirely accurate one, of a publication surviving on a shoestring". George Gale later remarked that Creighton had only wanted the job to get into "Who’s Who".


title: The Spectator

text: In 1975 Creighton sold "The Spectator" to Henry Keswick, again for £75,000 (Creighton sold the 99 Gower Street premises separately, so the magazine moved to 56 Doughty Street). Keswick was chairman of the Jardine Matheson multinational corporation. He was drawn to the paper partly because he harboured political aspirations (the paper's perk as a useful stepping stone to Westminster was, by now, well established), but also because his father had been a friend of Peter Fleming, its well-known columnist (under the name "Strix").


title: The Spectator

text: Keswick gave the job of editor to "the only journalist he knew", Alexander Chancellor, an old family friend and his mother's godson, with whom he had been at Eton and Cambridge. Before then, Chancellor had worked at Reuters news agency and had been a scriptwriter and reporter for ITN. In spite of his relative inexperience, he was to become known as "one of the best editors in the history of "The Spectator"".


title: The Spectator

text: Chancellor's editorship of the paper relied principally on a return to earlier values. He adopted a new format and a more traditional weekly style, with the front page displaying five cover lines above the leader. Most significantly, he recognised the need "to bring together a number of talented writers and, with the minimal of editorial interference, let them write". To this end he persuaded Auberon Waugh (who had been sacked by Nigel Lawson) to return from the "New Statesman", and enticed Richard West and Jeffrey Bernard from the same magazine. Another columnist recruited by Chancellor was Taki Theodoracopulos whose column ‘High Life’ was then printed beside Bernard's ‘Low Life’. Taki's column, frequently criticised for its content by the press, remains in the paper.


title: The Spectator

text: In September 1978, a 96-page issue was released to mark "The Spectator"s 150th anniversary. William Rees-Mogg congratulated the paper in a "Times"s leading article, praising it in particular for its important part in "the movement away from collectivism".


title: The Spectator

text: Chancellor was replaced by the 27-year-old Charles Moore in February 1984, after the magazine's then owner, Algy Cluff, had become concerned that "The Spectator" was "lacking in political weight" and considered Chancellor to be "commercially irresponsible".


title: The Spectator

text: Moore had been a leader writer at "The Daily Telegraph" before Chancellor recruited him to "The Spectator" as political commentator. Under Moore, the paper became more political than it had been under Chancellor. The new editor adopted an approach that was, in general, pro-Margaret Thatcher, while showing no restraint in opposing her on certain issues. The paper called the Anglo-Irish Agreement "a fraudulent prospectus" in 1985, came out against the Single European Act, and, in 1989, criticised the handover of Hong Kong to China. Moore wrote that, if Britain failed to allow the city's UK passport holders right of abode in Britain, "we shall have to confess that, for the first time in our history, we have forced Britons to be slaves."


title: The Spectator

text: Moore also introduced several new contributors, including a restaurant column by Nigella Lawson (the former editor's daughter), and a humorous column by Craig Brown. When Taki was briefly imprisoned for cocaine possession Moore refused to accept his resignation, explaining publicly: "We expect our High Life columnist to be high some of the time."


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator" changed hands again in 1985, by which time it was facing financial meltdown, having an accumulated an overdraft of over £300,000. Cluff had reached the conclusion that the paper "would be best secured in the hands of a publishing group", and sold it to Australian company John Fairfax Ltd, which promptly paid off the overdraft. With the support of its new proprietor, the paper was able to widen its readership through subscription drives and advertising, reaching a circulation of 30,000 in 1986, exceeding the circulation of the "New Statesman" for the first time. The magazine was again sold in 1988, after an uncertain period during which several candidates, including Rupert Murdoch, attempted to buy the magazine. Moore wrote to Murdoch, saying: "Most of our contributors and many of our readers would be horrified at the idea of your buying "The Spectator". They believe you are autocratic and that you have a bad effect on journalism of quality – they cite "The Times" as the chief example." "The Spectator" was bought by the Telegraph Group.


title: The Spectator

text: Moore resigned the editorship in 1990 to become deputy editor of "The Daily Telegraph". He was replaced by his own deputy editor, Dominic Lawson—the former editor's son.


title: The Spectator

text: Shortly after becoming editor, Lawson became responsible for the resignation of a cabinet minister when he interviewed the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Nicholas Ridley. During the interview, Ridley described the proposed Economic and Monetary Union as "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe", and seemed to draw comparisons between the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, and Adolf Hitler. The interview appeared in the issue of 14 July 1990, the cover of which showed a cartoon by Nicholas Garland that showed Ridley painting a crude comb-over and a Hitler moustache onto a poster of Kohl. Ridley resigned from Thatcher's government immediately.


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator" caused controversy in 1994 when it printed an article entitled "Kings of the Deal" on a claimed Jewish influence in Hollywood, written by William Cash, who at the time was based in Los Angeles and working mainly for "The Daily Telegraph". "The Telegraph" had considered the article too risky to publish, but Lawson thought Cash's idea was as old as Hollywood itself and that Lawson's being Jewish would mitigate adverse reactions to publication. There was, however, considerable controversy. Although owner Conrad Black did not personally rebuke Lawson, Max Hastings, then editor of "The Daily Telegraph", wrote with regard to Black, who also owned "The Jerusalem Post" at the time, "It was one of the few moments in my time with Conrad when I saw him look seriously rattled: 'You don't understand, Max. My entire interests in the United States and internationally could be seriously damaged by this'."


title: The Spectator

text: The article was defended by some conservatives. John Derbyshire, who says he has "complicated and sometimes self-contradictory feelings about Jews", wrote on National Review Online regarding what he saw as the Jewish overreaction to the article that "It was a display of arrogance, cruelty, ignorance, stupidity, and sheer bad manners by rich and powerful people towards a harmless, helpless young writer, and the Jews who whipped up this preposterous storm should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves".


title: The Spectator

text: Lawson left in 1995 to become editor of "The Sunday Telegraph", and was replaced by a deputy editor of the same newspaper, Frank Johnson. After the 1997 election, Johnson averted a decline in "The Spectator" sales by recruiting "New Labour contributors", and shifting the magazine's direction slightly away from politics. In 1996 the magazine's Christmas issue featured an interview with The Spice Girls, in which the band members gave their "Euro-sceptic and generally anti-labour" views on politics. Shortly before her death Diana, Princess of Wales, was depicted on the magazine's cover as the figurehead of Mohamed Al-Fayed's boat, The Jonikal.


title: The Spectator

text: Before joining "The Spectator" as editor, Boris Johnson had worked for "The Times", the Wolverhampton "Express & Star", and "The Daily Telegraph". He had also briefly been political commentator for "The Spectator" under Dominic Lawson, but Frank Johnson replaced him with Bruce Anderson in 1995. Succeeding Frank Johnson in 1999, Johnson increased "Spectator" subscriptions to a record 70,000 per year, and has been described as a "colourful editor".


title: The Spectator

text: In the 2001 general election, Johnson was elected MP for Henley, and by 2004 had been made vice-chairman of the Conservative party, with a place in Michael Howard's shadow cabinet. In 2003 he explained his editorial policy for "The Spectator" would "always be roughly speaking in favour of getting rid of Saddam, sticking up for Israel, free-market economics, expanding choice" and that the magazine was "not necessarily a Thatcherite Conservative or a neo-conservative magazine, even though in our editorial coverage we tend to follow roughly the conclusions of those lines of arguments".


title: The Spectator

text: In February 2003, Johnson was the subject of a Scotland Yard inquiry relating to a column by Taki Theodoracopulos titled "Thoughts on Thuggery" targeting barrister Peter Herbert, a black man. Following the column's publication, Herbert had received over 40 racist emails, mostly from the United States, some of which contained death threats. Johnson called the column "a terrible thing" which "should never have gone in."


title: The Spectator

text: In October 2004, a "Spectator" editorial suggested that the death of the hostage Kenneth Bigley was being over-sentimentalised by the people of Liverpool, accusing them of indulging in a "vicarious victimhood" and of possessing a "deeply unattractive psyche".’ Simon Heffer had written the leader but, as editor, Johnson took full responsibility for it. Michael Howard subsequently ordered him to visit Liverpool on a "penitential pilgrimage".


title: The Spectator

text: At this time the paper began jokingly to be referred to as the 'Sextator', owing to the number of sex scandals connected with the magazine during his editorship. These included an affair between columnist Rod Liddle and the magazine's receptionist, and Johnson's own affair with another columnist, Petronella Wyatt. Johnson at first denied the relationship, dismissing the allegations as "an inverted pyramid of piffle", but was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet in November 2004 when they turned out to be true. In the same year David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, resigned from the government after it emerged he had been having an affair with the publisher of "The Spectator", Kimberly Quinn, and had fast-tracked her nanny's visa application.


title: The Spectator

text: In 2005, circulation was as high as 60,000 by the time Johnson left to be the Shadow Minister for Higher Education. On the announcement of his departure, Andrew Neil, chairman of "The Spectator" paid tribute to his editorship, however, Neil later rebuked Johnson having delegated most of his responsibilities to an assistant, in a Channel 4 "Dispatches" episode "Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?".


title: The Spectator

text: During Johnson's editorship, Mary Wakefield began working at the magazine: she is now the magazine's commissioning editor and is married to Johnson's former political advisor Dominic Cummings.


title: The Spectator

text: D’Ancona had been Deputy Editor at "The Sunday Telegraph", and before that an assistant editor at "The Times". During his four years as editor of "The Spectator", he made several editorial and structural changes to the magazine, "not all of which were universally popular with readers".


title: The Spectator

text: He ended the traditional summary of the week's events, "Portrait of the Week", and, in 2006, launched a new lifestyle section entitled "You Earned It". He removed Peter Oborne as political editor, and appointed Fraser Nelson in his place. He decided not to appoint a new media columnist to succeed Stephen Glover, explaining, "I do not think "The Spectator" needs a media columnist. Our pages are precious and I do not think the internal wranglings of our trade are high on the list of "Spectator" readers’ priorities."


title: The Spectator

text: Perhaps the magazine's most important innovation under d’Ancona was the Coffee House blog, led by Peter Hoskin and James Forsyth, launched in May 2007.


title: The Spectator

text: In 2007 "The Spectator" moved its offices from Doughty Street, which had been its home for 32 years, to 22 Old Queen Street in Westminster.


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator Australia" was launched in October 2008. Apparently printed in Australia at the same time as, and with almost all the content of, the parent edition it finds its own cover illustrations and its first dozen pages are Australian. Circulation reached a weekly average of 10,389 in January to December 2020.


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator"s current editor is Fraser Nelson, who replaced d'Ancona in August 2009. In 2010 he unveiled a slight redesign of the paper, shrinking the cover illustration slightly, shifting the cover lines, in general, to the bottom, and spreading the contents section over a double-page. Playing down the changes, Nelson described the new look as "a tidy-up ... rather like restoring an old painting."


title: The Spectator

text: An article in November 2011 by Rod Liddle on the trial of two men eventually convicted for the murder of Stephen Lawrence led to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deciding to prosecute the magazine for breaching reporting restrictions. The magazine chose not to contest the case, and the publisher Spectator 1828 Ltd pleaded guilty at the court hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on 7 June 2012. The magazine was fined £3,000, with £2,000 compensation awarded to Stephen Lawrence's parents and £625 costs. According to Nelson, readers' most common reaction to the columnist was "don't tone down Rod", but "our non-readers don't like" him.


title: The Spectator

text: In June 2013, The Spectator Archive was launched, containing 1.5 million pages from 180 years of published articles.


title: The Spectator

text: In July 2013, the magazine ran a column by Taki Theodoracopulos defending the far-right Greek political party Golden Dawn, which drew criticism. In May 2018, Theodoracopulos published a column defending the Wehrmacht.


title: The Spectator

text: In August 2015, "The Spectator" received media attention and criticism after publishing an article by Charles Moore regarding the 2015 Labour Party leadership election titled "Have Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall got the looks for a leadership contest?", in which he wrote "there is an understanding that no leader – especially, despite the age of equality, a woman – can look grotesque on television and win a general election" and discussed the looks of the two female candidates in detail. The article was condemned by Liz Kendall; First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon; Candidate for Labour nomination for Mayor of London and former Minister and MP Tessa Jowell; along with several journalists and MPs from various parties.


title: The Spectator

text: In 2018, Nelson and deputy editor Freddy Gray launched a digital-only version of The Spectator USA. The monthly print magazine The Spectator US Edition and website spectator.us was launched with the Inaugural Edition in October 2019 and the publication surpassed 10,000 subscribers in 2020.


title: The Spectator

text: For the October 2020 issue, the title was changed to The Spectator Est. 1828 with the website remaining the same. For the June 2021 issue, the name changed again to The Spectator World, and the website also changed to spectatorworld.com.


title: The Spectator

text: The Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for outstanding travel writing offers £2,000 every year.<ref name="spectator/Tan/prize-open"></ref> The first winner, was Hilary Mantel, in 1987.<ref name="spectator/hamra-prize"></ref><ref name="spectator/tag/prize"></ref>


title: The Spectator

text: "The Spectator" is politically conservative. The magazine has historically been liberal in outlook: over the course of its first century it supported the Radical wing of the Whigs, the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Unionists, who eventually merged with the Conservatives. In 1957, the magazine was nicknamed "the Bugger's Bugle" by "The Sunday Express" following a sustained campaign to decriminalise homosexuality.


title: The Spectator

text: Ahead of the 2019 general election, the leading article in the magazine argued that illegal migrants living in the UK should be offered British citizenship. As with its sister publication "The Daily Telegraph", "The Spectator" is generally Atlanticist and Eurosceptic in outlook, favouring close ties with the United States rather than with the European Union, and tends to be supportive of Israel. It also opposes Scottish independence.


title: The Spectator

text: The magazine has popularised or coined the phrases "The Establishment" (1955), "nanny state" (1965), "pseud" (1960s), "young fogey" (1984), and "virtue signalling" (2015).


title: Mehndi

text: Mehndi () is a form of body art and temporary skin decoration from the Indian subcontinent usually drawn on hands or legs. They are decorative designs that are created on a person's body, using a paste, created from the powdered dry leaves of the henna plant ("Lawsonia inermis"). It is a popular form of body art in South Asia including countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and resembles similar traditions of henna as body art found in North Africa, East Africa and the Middle East. In the West, mehndi is commonly known as henna tattoo. Henna has been used as a dye for the skin since ancient times.


title: Mehndi

text: There are many variations and designs. Women usually apply mehndi designs to their hands and feet, though some, including cancer patients and women with alopecia occasionally decorate their scalps. The standard color of henna is brown, but other design colors such as white, red, black and gold are sometimes used.


title: Mehndi

text: "Mehndi" in Indian tradition is typically applied during Hindu weddings and festivals like Karva Chauth, Vat Purnima, Diwali, Bhai Dooj, Navraatri, Durga Pooja and Teej. Muslims in South Asia also apply mehndi during Muslim weddings as well as festivals such as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.


title: Mehndi

text: In Hindu and Sikh festivals, women often have henna applied to their hands, feet and sometimes the backs of their shoulders. Conversely, men usually have it applied on their arms, legs, back, and chest. For women, it is usually drawn on their palms, backs of their hands and on feet, where the design will be clearest due to contrast with the lighter skin on these surfaces, which naturally contains less of the pigment melanin.


title: Mehndi

text: Likely due to the desire for a "tattoo-black" appearance, some people add the synthetic dye p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) to henna to give it a black colour. PPD may cause moderate to severe allergic reactions when applied to skin.


title: Mehndi

text: The origin of "mehndi" is from the Sanskrit word "mendhika," which refers to a plant that releases a red dye. According to "A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English" Mehndi also refers to "the marriage-feast on the occasion of the bride's hands and feet being stained with henna."


title: Mehndi

text: The use of mehndi has its origins in the ancient Middle East and Indian Subcontinent where it was used in civilizations such as Babylon and Ancient Egypt. It was prevalent in fourth century in India, which is evident from cave art in the Deccan, specifically in the Ajanta Caves.


title: Mehndi

text: Mehndi is a ceremonial art form common in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and occasionally Afghanistan. It is typically applied during weddings - for Sikh, Muslim and Hindu brides. In Rajasthan, the grooms are given designs that are often as elaborate as those for brides. In Assam, apart from marriage, it is broadly used by unmarried women during Rongali bihu.


title: Mehndi

text: Mehndi paste is usually applied to the skin using a plastic cone, a paintbrush or a stick. After about 15–20 minutes, the mud will dry and begin to crack, and during this time, a mixture of lemon juice and white sugar can be applied over the henna design to remoisten the henna mud so that the henna will stain darker. The painted area is then wrapped with tissue, plastic, or medical tape to lock in body heat, creating a more intense colour on the skin. The wrap (not a traditional method), is worn for two to six hours, or sometimes overnight, and then removed. When first removed, the henna design is pale to dark orange in colour and gradually darkens through oxidation, over the course of 24 to 72 hours. The final color is reddish brown and can last anywhere from one to three weeks depending on the quality and type of henna paste applied, as well as where it was applied on the body (thicker skin stains darker and longer than thin skin). Moisturizing with natural oils, such as olive, sesame seed, or coconut, will also help extend the lifetime of the stain. Skin exfoliation, salt water and chlorine in swimming pools can cause the henna tattoo to fade.


title: Mehndi

text: The mehndi, a dye produced from a mehndi plant, would be delivered by the groom's relatives on a silver tray containing two burning candles. Before the application of the henna, the guests would throw coins over the bride's head as a symbol of fertility. Then, the bride's soon to be mother-in-law would then bring out a piece of silk cloth as a gift to the bride. The bride would then walk along the unrolled piece of silk cloth in the direction of her future mother-in-law and kiss her hand.


title: Mehndi

text: Once this is done, fruits, nuts, and pastries would be brought out and songs would be sung in hopes of making the bride cry. This was done because it was thought that the bride's crying would bring good luck. The bride would then sit on a cushion while her mother-in-law placed a gold coin in her hand as another sign of good luck. Once the bride was given the gold coin, the henna would be applied.


title: Mehndi

text: The person who applied the henna was always someone who was already known to be happily married; that person would apply the henna onto the bride's palms, fingers, and toes. The henna was made from dried henna leaves, and the process of application took a long time. For this reason, it was suggested that it be applied between thirty-two and forty-eight hours before the wedding so that it may have enough time to stain the skin. In addition to the bride, most women at the mehndi ceremony also apply the henna to their hands for aesthetics.


title: Mehndi

text: This pattern is drawn on the palm. Generally it starts from one corner of the wrist and ends at finger tip on the opposite corner. Vine, lace, flowers are the main elements of this pattern.


title: Mehndi

text: Mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols used in various spiritual traditions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shintoism. Various configurations of Mandala are drawn on the center of palm in this mehndi pattern.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The Bodhi Tree ("tree of awakening"), also called the Bodhi Fig Tree or Bo Tree, is a large sacred fig tree ("Ficus religiosa") located in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha, is said to have attained enlightenment or "Bodhi" circa 500 BCE under it. In religious iconography, the Bodhi Tree is recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves, which are usually prominently displayed.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The proper term "Bodhi Tree" is also applied to existing sacred fig ("Ficus religiosa") trees, also known as bodhi trees. The foremost example of an existing tree is the Mahabodhi Tree growing at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, which is often cited as a direct descendant of the original tree. This tree, planted around 250 BCE, is a frequent destination for pilgrims, being the most important of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: Other holy bodhi trees with great significance in the history of Buddhism are the Anandabodhi Tree at Jetavana in Sravasti in North India and the Sri Maha Bodhi Tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Both are also believed to have been propagated from the original Bodhi Tree.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The Forest Research Institute of India assists in the upkeep of the tree since 2007. Cloning has been considered in 2008. Its sacred leaves can also be bought by pilgrims as mementos. Religious offerings, which would draw insects, were shifted to some distance from the tree.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple is called the Sri Maha Bodhi. Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment ("bodhi") while meditating underneath a "Ficus religiosa". According to Buddhist texts, the Buddha meditated without moving from his seat for seven weeks (49 days) under this tree. A shrine called Animisalocana cetiya, was later erected on the spot where he sat.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The spot was used as a shrine even in the lifetime of the Buddha. Emperor Ashoka the Great was most diligent in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, and held a festival every year in its honour in the month of Kattika. His queen, Tissarakkhā, was jealous of the Tree, and three years after she became queen (i.e., in the nineteenth year of Asoka's reign), she cursed the tree to be killed by means of mandu thorns. The tree, however, grew again, and a great monastery was attached to the Bodhimanda called the Bodhimanda Vihara. Among those present at the foundation Kattika the Mahā Thūpa are mentioned thirty thousand monks from the Bodhimanda Vihara, led by Cittagutta.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The tree was again cut down by King Pushyamitra Shunga in the 2nd century BC, and by King Shashanka in 600 AD. In the 7th century AD, Chinese traveler Xuanzang wrote of the tree in detail.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: In 1862 British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham wrote of the site as the first entry in the first volume of the Archaeological Survey of India:


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The celebrated Bodhi tree still exists, but is very much decayed; one large stem, with three branches to the westward, is still green, but the other branches are barkless and rotten. The green branch perhaps belongs to some younger tree, as there are numerous stems of apparently different trees clustered together. The tree must have been renewed frequently, as the present Pipal is standing on a terrace at least 30 feet above the level of the surrounding country. It was in full vigour in 1811, when seen by Dr. Buchanan (Hamilton), who describes it as in all probability not exceeding 100 years of age.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: However, the tree decayed further and in 1876 the remaining tree was destroyed in a storm. In 1881, Cunningham planted a new Bodhi tree on the same site.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: It is said that in the ancient Buddhist texts in order that people might make their offerings in the name of the Buddha when he was away on pilgrimage, the Buddha sanctioned the planting of a seed from the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya in front of the gateway of Jetavana Monastery near Sravasti. For this purpose Moggallana took a fruit from the tree as it dropped from its stalk before it reached the ground. It was planted in a golden jar by Anathapindika with great pomp and ceremony. A sapling immediately sprouted forth, fifty cubits high, and in order to consecrate it, the Buddha spent one night under it, rapt in meditation. This tree, because it was planted under the direction of Ananda, came to be known as the Ananda Bodhi.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: King Asoka's daughter, Sanghamitta, brought a piece of the tree with her to Sri Lanka where it is continuously growing to this day in the island's ancient capital, Anuradhapura.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: This Bodhi tree was originally named Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. According to the Mahavamsa, the Sri Maha Bodhi in Sri Lanka was planted in 288 BC, making it the oldest verified specimen of any angiosperm. In this year (the twelfth year of King Asoka's reign) the right branch of the Bodhi tree was brought by Sanghamittā to Anurādhapura and placed by Devānāmpiyatissa his left foot in the Mahāmeghavana. The Buddha, on his death bed, had resolved five things, one being that the branch which should be taken to Ceylon should detach itself. From Gayā, the branch was taken to Pātaliputta, thence to Tāmalittī, where it was placed in a ship and taken to Jambukola, across the sea; finally it arrived at Anuradhapura, staying on the way at Tivakka. Those who assisted the king at the ceremony of the planting of the Tree were the nobles of Kājaragāma and of Candanagāma and of Tivakka.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is also known to be the most sacred Bodhi tree. This came upon the Buddhists who performed rites and rituals near the Bodhi tree. The Bodhi tree was known to cause rain and heal the ill. When an individual became ill, one of his or her relatives would visit the Bodhi tree to water it seven times for seven days and to vow on behalf of the sick for a speedy recovery.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: In 1913, Anagarika Dharmapala took a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi to Hawaii, where he presented it to his benefactor, Mary Foster, who had funded much Buddhist missionary work. She planted it in the grounds of her house in Honolulu, by the Nuʻuanu stream. On her death, she left her house and its grounds to the people of Honolulu, and it became the Foster Botanical Garden.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: In 1950, Jinarajadasa took three saplings of the Sri Maha Bodhi to plant two saplings in Chennai, one was planted near the Buddha temple at the Theosophical Society another at the riverside of Adyar Estuary. The third was planted near a meditation center in Sri Lanka.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: In 2012, Brahmanda Pratap Barua, Ripon, Dhaka, Bangladesh, took a sapling of Bodhi tree from Buddha Gaya, Maha Bodhi to Thousand Oaks, California, where he presented it to his benefactor, Anagarika Glenn Hughes, who had funded much Buddhist work and teaches Buddhism in the USA. He and his students received the sapling with a great thanks, later they planted the sapling in the ground in a nearby park.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: In 1989, the government of India presented Nihon-ji with a sapling from the Bodhi Tree as a gesture of world peace.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: This Bodhi Tree was planted at Deekshabhoomi from three branches of the Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan brought these branches from Sri Lanka as a memorial of Buddha's enlightenment. This sight is holy to Navayana Buddhism as this is the place where Dr. B. R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with 600,000 followers on 14 October 1956, Dhammachakra Pravartan Din.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: The sapling of the Sacred Bodhi tree from Anuradhapura Sri Lanka was planted on 15 May 2011, at Wisdom Park 14 Broadway Avenue, New Manila, Quezon City, Philippines by D. M. Jayaratne, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and Mariano S. Yupitun, the founder of Universal Wisdom Foundation Inc.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: According to the Mahavamsa, branches from the Bodhi trees of all the Buddhas born during this kalpa were planted in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on the spot where the sacred Bodhi tree stands today in Anurādhapura. The branch of Kakusandha's tree was brought by Rucānandā, Konagamana's by Kantakānandā (or Kanakadattā), and Kassapa's by Sudhammā.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: On 8 December, Bodhi Day celebrates Buddha's enlightenment underneath the Bodhi Tree. Those who follow the Dharma greet each other by saying, "Budu saranai!" which translates to "may the peace of the Buddha be yours." It is also generally seen as a religious holiday, much like Christmas in the Christian west, in which special meals are served, especially cookies shaped like hearts (referencing the heart-shaped leaves of the Bodhi) and a meal of kheer, the Buddha's first meal ending his six-year asceticism.


title: Bodhi Tree

text: Bodhi Puja, meaning "the veneration of Bodhi-tree" is the ritual to worship the Bodhi tree and the deity residing on it (Pali: rukkhadevata; Sanskrit; vrikshadevata). It is done by giving various offerings such as food, water, milk, lamps, incense, etc. and chanting the verses of glory of Bodhi tree in Pali. The most common verse is:""Ime ete mahabodhi lokanathena pujita"


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The ICC Champions Trophy is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council. The 2013 tournament was intended to be the final edition of the Champions Trophy, but it was extended to 2017 due to its widespread popularity. In 2018, the ICC decided to replace the tournament with the World Twenty20 championship to be held every two years, and no Champions Trophy was contested in 2021. However, as part of the 2021 Future Tour Programme, the event was reinstated for the 2025 cycle onwards. In November 2021, the ICC confirmed the tournament would next take place in 2025 in Pakistan, with India hosting the tournament in 2029.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: It was inaugurated as the ICC KnockOut Tournament in 1998 and has been played approximately every four years since. Its name was changed to the Champions Trophy in 2002.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The ICC conceived the idea of the Champions Trophy – a short cricket tournament to raise funds for the development of the game in non-test playing countries, with the first tournaments being held in Bangladesh and Kenya. Due to its massive commercial success, the tournament has been held in nations like India and England as a revenue generator for the ICC, and the number of teams has been reduced to eight. The tournament, later dubbed as the mini-World Cup as it involved all of the full members of the ICC, was planned as a knock-out tournament so that it was short and did not reduce the value and importance of the World Cup. However, from 2002, the tournament has had a round-robin format, followed by a few knockout games but the tournament still takes places over a short period of time – about two weeks.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The number of teams competing has varied over the years; originally all the ICC's full members took part, and from 2000 to 2004 associate members were also involved. Since 2009, the tournament has only involved the eight highest-ranked teams in the ICC ODI Rankings as of six months prior to the beginning of the tournament. The tournament has been held in 7 countries since its inception, with England hosting it thrice.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: A total of thirteen teams competed in the eight editions of the tournament, with eight competing in the last edition in 2017. ICC Champions Trophy was scrapped keeping in line with ICC's goal of having only one pinnacle tournament for each of the three formats of international cricket. Australia and India have won the tournament twice each (India's 2002 win was shared with Sri Lanka due to the final being washed out twice), while South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka (shared with India), West Indies and Pakistan have won it once each. No non-full member team has ever crossed the first round of the Champions Trophy.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Up to 2006 the Champions Trophy was held every two years. The tournament had been scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2008 but was moved to South Africa in 2009 due to security reasons. From then on it has been held every four years like the World Cup. The Champions Trophy differs from the World Cup in a number of ways. The matches in the Champions Trophy are held over a period of around two and a half weeks, while the World Cup can last for over a month. The number of teams in the Champions Trophy are less than the World Cup, with the latest edition of the World Cup having 10 teams whereas the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy had 8 teams.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: For 2002 and 2004, twelve teams played a round-robin tournament in four pools of three, with the top team in each pool moving forward to the semi-final. A team would play only four games (two in the pool, semi-final and final) to win the tournament. The format used in the Knock Out tournaments differed from the formats used in the Champions Trophy. The competition was a straight knock out, with no pools and the loser in each game being eliminated. Only eight games were played in 1998, and 10 games in 2000.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Since 2006, eight teams have played in two pools of four in a round-robin format, with the top two teams in each pool playing in the semi-finals. Losing a single match potentially means elimination from the tournament. A total of 15 matches are played in the present format of the tournament, with the tournament lasting about two and a half weeks.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Thirteen nations have qualified for the Champions Trophy at least once. Seven teams have competed in every finals tournament. Seven different nations have won the title. South Africa won the inaugural tournament, India and Australia have each won twice, while New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan have each won once. Australia (2006, 2009) is the only nation to have won consecutive titles. Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and England are the only Test playing nations not to win the Champions Trophy. England has reached the final twice, but lost both times (2004, 2013), Bangladesh reached the semi-finals in 2017, while Zimbabwe has never got past the first round. The highest rank secured by a non-Test playing nation is the 9th rank achieved by Kenya in 2000.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Sri Lanka was the first and only host to win the tournament, in 2002, but they were declared co-champions with India as the final was twice washed out. England is the only other host to have made the final. It has achieved this twice – in 2004 and 2013. Bangladesh is the only host who did not take part in the tournament while hosting it, in 1998. Kenya in 2000, India in 2006, and South Africa in 2009 have been the only host teams that were eliminated in the first round.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Comprehensive results for all teams participating in all tournaments for the ICC Champions Trophy is given below. For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The table below provides an overview of the performances of teams over past ICC Champions Trophy. Teams are sorted by best performance, then by appearances, total number of wins, total number of games, and alphabetical order respectively.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: All of the matches in the 1998 tournament were played in Bangladesh at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka. The tournament was won by South Africa who beat West Indies in the final. Philo Wallace of West Indies was the leading run scorer in the tournament of scoring 221 runs.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: All of the matches in the 2000 tournament were played at Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi, Kenya. All the test playing nations participated in the tournament along with the finals, involving Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and England. The tournament was won by New Zealand who beat India in the final. Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly (348) was the leading run scorer in this tournament. Venkatesh Prasad (8) was the leading wicket taker. This was the first ICC event won by New Zealand. It was also their only ICC trophy till 2021.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The 2002 ICC Champions Trophy was held in Sri Lanka, and included the 10 ICC Test playing nations including the newly appointed full member Bangladesh, Kenya (ODI status) and the 2001 ICC Trophy winners Netherlands. The final between India and Sri Lanka was washed out due to rain twice to leave no result. First, Sri Lanka played 50 overs and then India played two overs before the rain caused interruption. The next day, Sri Lanka again played 50 overs and India played eight overs. In the end India and Sri Lanka were declared joint winners. The teams played 110 overs, but there was no result. Virender Sehwag (271) had the highest number of runs in the tournament and Muralitharan (10) had the highest number of wickets.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: ICC CT 2004 was held in England and the nations competing included the ten ICC Test nations, Kenya (ODI status), and – making their One Day International debut – the United States who qualified by winning the recent 2004 ICC Six Nations Challenge. The competition was more like a knockout series where teams losing even one game at the group stage were out of the tournament. The 12 teams were divided into 4 groups and the table topper from each group played semi finals. ENG defeated AUS in the 1st semi-final to make their 4th appearance in final of an ICC event. PAK lost to WI in the second semi final, which was a low scoring game. In the final game the WI team under Lara's leadership won a tense match with the help of wicket keeper C Browne and tailender Ian Bradshaw.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The 2006 ICC Champions Trophy was held in India with the final on 5 November 2006. A new format was used. Eight teams were competing in the group phase: the top six teams in the ICC ODI Championship on 1 April 2006, plus two teams chosen from the other four Test-playing teams Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, chosen from a pre-tournament round robin qualifying round. West Indies and Sri Lanka qualified ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The eight teams were then split into two groups of four in a round robin competition. While Australia and West Indies qualified from Group A, South Africa and New Zealand qualified from Group B for the semifinals. Australia and West Indies reached the final defeating New Zealand and South Africa, respectively. In the final, Australia beat West Indies by 8 wickets to win the trophy for the first time. The venues for the tournament were Mohali, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mumbai.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: On 24 August 2008 it was announced that the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan has been postponed to October 2009 as several countries were reluctant to visit Pakistan for security reasons. However, due to the crowded international schedule around that date, and concerns about whether the security situation would have changed by that time, there was widespread scepticism whether it would actually take place in 2009.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: On 16 March 2009, an announcement was made that the ICC has recommended that the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy be moved from Pakistan to South Africa.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: On 2 April 2009, Cricket South Africa confirmed that it would host the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy from 24 September to 5 October. The Board accepted recommendations from the ICC that Liberty Life Wanderers (Johannesburg) and Supersport Park (Centurion) be the host venues. The details of SA's hosting of the Champions Trophy were ironed out at a meeting between CSA's CEO Gerald Majola and ICC general manager – Commercial, Campbell Jamieson. Majola confirmed that the six warm-up games will be played at Benoni's Willowmoore Park, and Senwes Park in Potchefstroom.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Australia beat England by 9 wickets in the 1st semi-final, and New Zealand beat Pakistan by 5 wickets in the 2nd semi-final, to set up a final that saw Australia beat New Zealand by 6 wickets, in 45.2 overs.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: England and Wales hosted the 2013 Champions Trophy. England became the only country to host the Champions Trophy twice. Australia failed to win a single game in their group, and were knocked out along with New Zealand in Group A. Pakistan lost all three games in Group B and were knocked out along with West Indies. England and Sri Lanka from Group A, and India and South Africa from Group B, made it to the semi-finals.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: India and England won their respective games against Sri Lanka and South Africa comprehensively and the final between the two took place on 23 June 2013. India beat England by 5 runs at Edgbaston, winning their second title, although their first title, in 2002, was shared with Sri Lanka due to the final being washed out. Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged man of the match and he also received the "Golden Ball" for taking the most wickets in the tournament. Shikhar Dhawan received the "Golden Bat" for scoring the most runs in the series and was also adjudged the Man of the Series for his consistent outstanding performances. MS Dhoni became the first captain in history to win all three major ICC trophies – World Cup in 2011, World T20 in 2007 and this edition of the Champions Trophy.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: In the lead-up to the 2013 tournament, the ICC announced that the 2013 Champions Trophy was to be the last, with its place in the cricketing calendar to be taken by a new ICC World Test Championship. However, in January 2014, that decision was reversed, due to the massive success of the 2013 edition, with the ICC confirming that the 2017 Champions Trophy tournament would take place and the proposed Test Championship was cancelled. England and Wales hosted the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. England became the only country to host the Champions Trophy thrice, and England and Wales became the only countries to host the ICC Champions Trophy consecutively, also hosting the 2013 edition. Bangladesh replaced the West Indies, who finished outside the top eight in ninth position, in the ICC ODI Team Rankings on the cut-off date. Bangladesh returned to the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time since 2006, and, for the first time, the West Indies failed to qualify.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Security around the tournament was increased following the Ariana Grande concert attack in Manchester, just before the start of the competition. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that they would review security concerns. The 15 games played in the tournament were held across three venues – The Oval in London, Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham and Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. India did not announce their squad by the 25 April deadline due to what it described as "operational" reasons, although this was widely seen as a protest by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in an ongoing disagreement with the ICC over finance and governance. After interference from senior officials, the Indian squad was finally named on 8 May 2017. Pakistan's Shoaib Malik played in his sixth consecutive Champions Trophy.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Rain and poor weather affected 5 of the 15 matches played in the tournament. The top two teams in the ICC ODI Rankings at the time (South Africa and Australia) were knocked out in the group stage, with Australia not winning a single game out of their three. 2015 World Cup finalists New Zealand were also knocked out in the group stage, also not winning a single game. Thus, England and Bangladesh from Group A, and India and Pakistan from Group B qualified for the semi-finals. Pakistan beat England comfortably in the first semi-final, winning by 8 wickets with almost 13 overs to spare to make their first final ever in the Champions Trophy. India beat Bangladesh in the second semi-final, also winning comfortably by 9 wickets, in what was Bangladesh's first semi-final in an ICC tournament.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan took each other on in the final of a tournament for the first time since 2007, with the final taking place at The Oval in London. It was India's fourth appearance and Pakistan's maiden appearance in a Champions Trophy final. Pakistan beat India comfortably by 180 runs, outclassing them across all three departments-batting, bowling and fielding. Pakistan, the lowest-ranked team in the competition, won their first Champions Trophy title and became the seventh nation to win it. Fakhar Zaman of Pakistan received the Man of the Match award for scoring 114. Shikhar Dhawan of India received the "Golden Bat" award for scoring 338 runs while Hasan Ali of Pakistan received the "Golden Ball" award for taking 13 wickets; he was also adjudged the Man of the Series for his outstanding contribution towards Pakistan's first ICC ODI tournament title since 1992.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: The prize money for the 2017 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy was increased by half a million dollars from 2013 to a total of $4.5 million. The winning team got a cheque of $2.2 million and the runner-up got $1.1 million. The other two semifinalists earned $450,000 each. Teams finishing third in each group took home $90,000 each, while the teams finishing last in each group got $60,000 each.


title: ICC Champions Trophy

text: In the lead-up to the 2017 tournament, the ICC had proposed starting an ODI League in 2019, which will most likely lead to the Champions Trophy getting scrapped. Following the 2017 Champions Trophy, David Richardson (the ICC CEO) stated that the future status of the Champions Trophy was undecided, with both a possible Test league and an additional World T20 putting additional pressure of fixtures. In December 2017, the ICC's Future Tours Programme listed the 2021 edition taking place in India. However, in April 2018, the ICC announced that the tournament was scrapped, with the possibility of a T20 World Cup tournament replacing it. 2021 ICC T20 World Cup was originally due to be hosted in India, however, it was moved to UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Ratt

text: Ratt is an American glam metal band formed in San Diego, California, in the 1970s, that had significant commercial success in the 1980s, with their albums having been certified as gold, platinum, and multi-platinum by the RIAA. The group is best known for their hit singles "Round and Round" and "Lay It Down", both of which charted in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Other songs such as "Wanted Man", "You're in Love", "Dance", and "Way Cool Jr." also charted on the Hot 100.


title: Ratt

text: The band's classic lineup consisted of Stephen Pearcy on lead vocals, Robbin Crosby on lead and rhythm guitar, Warren DeMartini on lead and rhythm guitar, Juan Croucier on bass guitar, and Bobby Blotzer on drums.


title: Ratt

text: Along with one of their peers Mötley Crüe, Ratt has been recognized as instrumental in the formation of the early 1980s Los Angeles metal scene. The band has continued to tour and record following extended hiatuses and with various lineup changes, releasing their final studio album, "Infestation", in 2010.


title: Ratt

text: The origins of Ratt date back to 1973 in Hollywood, with a band called Firedome, founded by singer Stephen Pearcy with a few friends. In 1974, the band broke up, with Pearcy forming Crystal Pystal. The name Crystal Pystal evolved into Mickey Ratt at some point in 1976.


title: Ratt

text: Guitarist Robbin Crosby in those same years had been a member of the bands Metropolis with Tommy Asakawa and Parramore McCarty, Xcalibur, Phenomenon, Secret Service and Mac Meda with Asakawa.


title: Ratt

text: Mickey Ratt went through various lineup changes. Members included guitarists Jake E. Lee, Chris Hager, and Bob DeLellis, bassists Matt Thorr, Tim Garcia, and Dave Jellison, and drummers John Turner, and Bob Eisenberg. The various Mickey Ratt lineups released several demos compilations and a live concert recording on Pearcy's indie record label Top Fuel Records.


title: Ratt

text: In 1980, to increase their chances of landing a recording contract with a major label, the band recorded a single called "Dr. Rock" / "Drivin' on E", which was given to fans at their early Los Angeles club shows.


title: Ratt

text: In 1981, the band's name was shortened to Ratt. Crosby played with the band later in the year. Guitarist Warren DeMartini, recommended by Lee, joined the band in January 1982. Bassist Gene Hunter (from Jake E. Lee's Teaser) and drummer Khurt Maier (who played drums on the early "Tell the World" written by Pearcy was their first recording that was featured on the compilation "Metal Massacre I") temporarily played in Ratt before the arrival of Bobby Blotzer (ex-Vic Vergeat) and Juan Croucier (previously with Dokken, and musically active since 1973). DeMartini was only 18 years old when he was called up to Los Angeles to join Ratt. At the time he was attending college in San Diego and was reluctant to drop out to join a band that had, so far, had only limited success. Marq Torien briefly replaced DeMartini, though he returned in time for the recording of their first EP, later in 1982.


title: Ratt

text: In July 1983, Ratt signed with the production company Time Coast Music. The company was run by the band's then-manager, Marshall Berle. Time Coast had previously issued records by Spirit and The Alley Cats.


title: Ratt

text: Released in 1983, the band's self-titled EP sold over 100,000 records. The band grew in popularity on the Hollywood, L.A. club circuit, selling out multiple shows on weekends. Stephen Pearcy and Robbin Crosby co-wrote the band's first single, "You Think You're Tough", which found its way onto local radio stations KLOS and KMET. The album cover featured guitarist Robbin Crosby's girlfriend at the time, Tawny Kitaen, who would later on appear on Whitesnake's music videos.


title: Ratt

text: The self-titled independent EP was well-received, and the band was signed by Atlantic Records. Ratt immediately started writing and recording their first full-length album. "Out of the Cellar" was released in March 1984 and was praised by both fans and critics. Pearcy's raspy yet bluesy vocals were noted for melding with the pyrotechnic guitar playing of twin leads Crosby and DeMartini, combining the then-prevalent Van Halen and Aerosmith-influenced bravado elements with the then-novel muted, staccato guitar-picking style of Judas Priest. Tawny Kitaen, who was previously in a relationship with Crosby, agreed to appear on the cover of their debut full-length album. She also appeared in their video for "Back for More" and on their EP from the previous year.


title: Ratt

text: The album scored much radio and MTV play with songs like "Round and Round" (which peaked at No. 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and again in 2020 on the Billboard Rock Digital Sales Chart, peaking at #18 on June 4, 2020), "Wanted Man", "Back for More", and "Lack of Communication". The video for "Round and Round" was notable for its guest appearance by Marshall Berle's uncle, Milton Berle, in his Uncle Miltie drag character. "Out of the Cellar" became a commercial success, going platinum three times over in the United States and making Ratt stars at home and abroad. The album release was capped off by a successful world tour that saw the band sell out stadiums and arenas worldwide. "Out of the Cellar" is widely regarded as the band's best work and a definitive moment in 1980s heavy metal, while "Round and Round" scored at No. 61 on VH1's "Greatest Hard Rock Songs Show".


title: Ratt

text: It peaked at No. 7 (which is the same peak position that "Out of the Cellar" attained). The album met with mostly positive reactions from fans and critics. AllMusic has called it "another batch of solid pop-metal tunes". It contained favorites "You're in Love" (No. 99 Hot 100) and "Lay It Down" (which made No. 40 on the Hot 100) that assured the band a presence on radio and MTV. Footage from the band's performances at Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, Louisiana and the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi were featured in the video to "You're In Love". DeMartini and Crosby's impressive guitar solos and Pearcy's sexual lyrics helped to further define the Ratt sound. Although it did not achieve the sales figures or the status of their debut, "Invasion of Your Privacy" nonetheless was certified double platinum (selling over two million copies only in the U.S.). The band toured extensively in the United States and Japan, playing a total of 112 shows. In August 1985, the band played on the Monsters of Rock festival in Castle Donington, England.


title: Ratt

text: The model on "Invasion"s cover is "Playboy" Playmate Marianne Gravatte, who also made an appearance in the "Lay It Down" music video. Using a female model on an album cover later became a trend copied by many glam metal bands of the 1980s, including Great White and Slaughter. "Invasion of Your Privacy" was displayed by Parents Music Resource Center at a congressional hearing dealing with parental advisory labels.


title: Ratt

text: A couple of months after the album release, the band released a home video entitled "". The video featured the music videos from the "Ratt" EP, "Out of the Cellar" and "Invasion of Your Privacy". The video was the first commercially available video to achieve gold sales status in the USA; it eventually reached platinum.


title: Ratt

text: Ratt's next release was "Dancing Undercover" on August 9, 1986. The album was a relative disappointment with most music critics at the time of its release, as it took on a heavier sound than the ones in the previous albums. From a commercial standpoint however, the album kept Ratt's string of consecutive platinum albums alive, managing to sell over a million copies in the United States. Popular tracks generated by the album included "Dance" and "Slip of the Lip".


title: Ratt

text: In an effort to be taken more seriously, Ratt broke from the tradition of featuring a woman on the cover. Instead, they opted for gritty black-and-white portraits of each of the five band members. Likewise, the album does not contain a single power ballad amongst its ten tracks and even features experimental forays into thrashier and heavier sounds. The song that reflected this shift most strikingly was "Body Talk", which was featured on the soundtrack for the 1986 Eddie Murphy film "The Golden Child". The more straight-ahead style of the album led many fans to believe that Ratt was headed in a direction akin to the thrash style promulgated by such bands as Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer. However, the slightly experimental undertones of the album were replaced with a bluesier sound throughout the band's next three releases.


title: Ratt

text: Through 1987, Ratt embarked on a U.S. tour with newcomers Poison and played in Europe as a part of the Monsters Of Rock Tour. Their tour with Poison was one of the highest-grossing tours of 1987.


title: Ratt

text: "Reach for the Sky" was released in November 1988. Although the album achieved platinum sales status and reached No. 17 on Billboard's album charts, it was widely panned by critics. After this album, the band parted ways with long-time producer Beau Hill. "Reach for the Sky" nevertheless contained the popular tracks "Way Cool Jr." and "I Want a Woman", which received MTV airplay, and as of 2021, it is the band's last album to be certified at least platinum. Ratt spent much of 1989 on a world tour in promotion of "Reach for the Sky", with support from Great White, Warrant, Kix and Britny Fox.


title: Ratt

text: The surreal, Dali-esque album cover featured a statue wearing night vision goggles, a human hand emerging from a bundle of twine, a World War II fighter plane, and a wicker chair. The band has remained mother as to what the album cover is supposed to symbolize so as to facilitate the diverse interpretations of their fans. Early pressings of the album cover revealed the breast part of the statue as requested by lead singer Stephen Pearcy. According to Pearcy, he wanted to use that version of the cover, but the other band members feared that this cover would keep the record out of certain music stores.


title: Ratt

text: Ratt's fifth album, "Detonator", was released in August 1990. Sir Arthur Payson took over as producer for the band following "Reach for the Sky". The album garnered mixed reactions. Critics claimed it lacked the live-sounding energy of the band's earlier work, while some stated that the band was maturing and striving to expand their sound. "Detonator" featured "Givin' Yourself Away" and "Lovin' You's a Dirty Job". The band co-wrote most of the album's songs with Desmond Child while Jon Bon Jovi appeared as a guest background vocalist on "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose".


title: Ratt

text: During the seven shows of the Japanese leg of the 'Detonator' tour in February 1991, Crosby's substance abuse caused his playing to become increasingly inconsistent onstage. During one particular show, after the band performed two songs using non-standard tuning, Crosby did not properly switch out guitars with his guitar technician; as a result, he was not in tune with the band for the next two songs. The last show of the band's Japanese tour, in Osaka, turned out to be Crosby's last with Ratt. When the band returned to the United States, Crosby checked again into a rehab facility and Ratt continued on with Michael Schenker, formerly of Scorpions, UFO, Michael Schenker Group, and McAuley Schenker Group.


title: Ratt

text: In February 1992, Pearcy exited the group to form a new band called Arcade. He moved on to Vicious Delite in 1995 and the industrial-tinged Vertex in 1996.


title: Ratt

text: Robbin Crosby started Secret Service, which included bassist Krys Baratto (from Samantha 7, Juice 13, The Oddfathers). In 1993, Crosby performed on Rumbledog's self-titled debut album. In 1994, Crosby was diagnosed with HIV, which later developed into AIDS.


title: Ratt

text: In 1996, the five classic era members of Ratt began discussing a reunion and a subsequent album. Ratt eventually moved forward with a lineup of Pearcy, DeMartini and Blotzer, along with new member Robbie Crane (formerly of Vince Neil's solo band and Pearcy's Vertex tour) on bass. When the band toured in 1997, they were a four-piece; Pearcy occasionally played guitar during this tour.


title: Ratt

text: The band issued a compilation album called "Collage" in July 1997, which consisted of B-sides, alternate recordings, and new versions of songs from the Mickey Ratt period. In 1998, Ratt secured a worldwide record deal with Sony. The self-titled "Ratt" album, released in July 1999, featured new material with a more conventional blues rock feel. The album's first single, "Over the Edge", did graze the Top 40 Mainstream Rock charts.


title: Ratt

text: In 1999, Ratt added Keri Kelli as a second guitarist. In January 2000, Pearcy left the group again and went on tour with his band Nitronic, which soon after became "Ratt Featuring Stephen Pearcy".


title: Ratt

text: In 2001, former guitarist Robbin Crosby publicly announced that he was HIV-positive. He died on June 6, 2002, from a heroin overdose. He was 42 years old.


title: Ratt

text: During the group's inactive years, present-day and former members continued to work on their own side projects.


title: Ratt

text: On December 1, 2006, the website "Metal Sludge" reported that Pearcy and Croucier would re-unite with Blotzer and DeMartini. On December 4, 2006, Jizzy Pearl announced on his message board that he was no longer a member of the band. On March 17, 2007, another website stated that Ratt would go on the 2007 tour with Poison and Great White. Later that month, Blabbermouth.net reported that Ratt would take part in the "Rocklahoma" festival on July 13–15, 2007 in Pryor, Oklahoma, with original singer Stephen Pearcy and without Juan Croucier, who decided not to participate in the reunion tour. Robbie Crane continued to play bass instead.


title: Ratt

text: The summer tour started June 13, 2007, at the Bi Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., and ended August 19, 2007, at the Coors Amphitheatre in Denver. The tour, which brought Poison and Ratt onstage together for the first time since 1999, visited amphitheaters, festivals and fairs in such cities as Boston, Detroit, New York, Atlantic City and Los Angeles.


title: Ratt

text: In August 2008, Sirius Satellite Radio's Hair Nation channel reported that former Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi had resigned as rhythm guitarist for Ratt and was rumored to be replaced by former Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo. Bobby Blotzer confirmed these rumors stating that Cavazo was set to replace Corabi and would make his debut with the band on August 27. His first show with Ratt was in Baton Rouge, LA.


title: Ratt

text: In April 2009 Loud & Proud/Roadrunner Records announced the signing of a worldwide deal with Ratt. Their new album, "Infestation", was released in April 2010. Infestation reached No. 30 on "Billboard"s Top 200 chart. A video was filmed for the album's first single, "Best of Me", and the band went on a world tour in support of the album.


title: Ratt

text: In a March 18, 2010, interview with "Metalholic Magazine", DeMartini said of the new album "Infestation": "It really exceeded our expectations. Conceptually we kinda wanted to revisit the period of "Out of the Cellar" and "Invasion of Your Privacy". We were sort of loosely trying to shoot for something that could fit between those two records. We were looking for more uptempo ideas and the double leads that Robbin Crosby and I started doing back in 1983."


title: Ratt

text: On October 26, 2010, Ratt announced that the band would be going on indefinite hiatus due to internal tensions.


title: Ratt

text: In January 2012, Pearcy said Ratt was in the process of writing material for a new album, planned to be released that summer. On March 22, bassist Robbie Crane announced his departure from Ratt to focus on Lynch Mob. In April 2012, rumors arose original bassist Juan Croucier would rejoin the band that summer; these rumors were confirmed when Croucier played with Ratt at the M3 festival on May 12.


title: Ratt

text: On April 24, 2014, Pearcy announced that he had left the band again, explaining he was "officially done with having anything to do with them due to the constant turmoil, unresolved business, personal attacks/threats in the public forum, and most of all, the disrespect to the fans."


title: Ratt

text: In June 2015, Blotzer formed a band called Bobby Blotzer's Ratt Experience. In August 2015, Croucier formed a touring band that played Ratt's deep cuts, with the band debuting in September. Within days, Blotzer criticized Croucier for using the band's logo, arguing trademark infringement.


title: Ratt

text: In September 2015, Blotzer took over control of WBS, a company he set up with DeMartini and Pearcy in 1997 to handle RATT business, over the objection of DeMartini and announced that he had "taken control" of Ratt and his Ratt Experience lineup was the real Ratt and would be embarking a tour in 2016 titled the American Made Re-Invasion Tour. Within days, DeMartini spoke out against Blotzer using the band name. but Blotzer claims he has the legal right to do so on his behalf. In October 2015, DeMartini sued Blotzer for allegedly falsely advertising his "tribute band" as the actual band. On November 5, 2015, the Los Angeles federal court rejected DeMartini's claim.


title: Ratt

text: Until early 2017, Blotzer toured using the name Ratt. The 2016 Re-Invasion tour took Ratt throughout North America. Their tour also took them to the UK, including Hard Rock Hell and London. During this time, Blotzer was using the company WBS to sue the band's original bassist, Juan Croucier, for trademark infringement. On November 8, 2016, that Court granted summary judgment against WBS and in favor of Croucier, finding that the trademark rights had never properly been transferred to WBS and thus were still held by the RATT Partnership under its 1985 partnership agreement. Blotzer had also used WBS to sue Pearcy for trademark infringement in a separate lawsuit, but that lawsuit also failed.


title: Ratt

text: On November 29, 2016, Pearcy, Croucier and DeMartini announced that they had expelled Blotzer from the Ratt Partnership and announced their own Back for More Tour.


title: Ratt

text: Despite adverse court decisions, Blotzer continued to tour as RATT with his band, claiming the right to do so because final judgment had not yet been entered in the cases.


title: Ratt

text: In June 2017, judgment was finally entered in the Croucier case, and Blotzer's WBS filed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In May 2018, the RATT Partnership filed suit against Blotzer and WBS for trademark infringement for continuing to perform as RATT after February 2016, when it was adjudicated that WBS had no rights in the RATT marks and Blotzer was expelled from the Partnership. In March 2019, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court judgment in favor of Croucier and sent the case back to the district court to determine whether WBS and its counsel should be liable for Croucier's attorneys' fees.


title: Ratt

text: On June 1, 2018, it was announced by vocalist Pearcy that Ratt would move forward with him and bassist Croucier. It was confirmed that DeMartini had departed from Ratt, with Cavazo and Degrasso following. On July 5, 2018, it was revealed that Pearcy and Croucier would be joined by Black 'N Blue drummer Pete Holmes and guitarists Jordan Ziff and Chris Sanders. In February 2020, guitarist Chris Sanders announced his departure from the band, along with announcing his retirement from the music industry.


title: Ratt

text: In March 2020, the band announced they would be embarking on the Big Rock Summer Tour starting in June, along with Tom Keifer, Skid Row, and Slaughter. On June 17, the tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after, it was announced that all Ratt shows in 2020 were rescheduled for 2021. On September 11, Pearcy announced that new music from the band would not be released until 2021.


title: Ratt

text: In January 2021, Pearcy expressed interest in making one final Ratt album with all the remaining original members. On June 26, Ratt announced the addition of guitarist Frankie Lindia of David Lee Roth's solo band, replacing Chris Sanders.


title: Ratt

text: In September 2022, Pearcy revealed that he would only want to continue Ratt with the remaining classic-era bandmates, but that "it's not gonna happen". He said reuniting with the members would be "all business pretty much", but that "there's no business in the Ratt camp". He also revealed he regretted touring as Ratt with only Croucier from the classic lineup and that he would be continuing to play Ratt songs with his solo band.


title: Military history of the United States during World War II

text: The military history of the United States during World War II covers the victorious Allied war against the Axis Powers, starting with the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and ending with the 2 September 1945 surrender of Japan. During the first two years of World War II, the United States had maintained formal neutrality which was made official in the Quarantine Speech which was delivered by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, while it was supplying Britain, the Soviet Union, and China with war materiel through the Lend-Lease Act which was signed into law on 11 March 1941, as well as deploying the US military to replace the British forces stationed in Iceland. Following the "Greer incident" Roosevelt publicly confirmed the "shoot on sight" order on 11 September 1941, effectively declaring naval war on Germany and Italy in the Battle of the Atlantic. In the Pacific Theater, there was unofficial early US combat activity such as the Flying Tigers.


text: During the war, some 16,112,566 Americans served in the United States Armed Forces, with 405,399 killed and 671,278 wounded. There were also 130,201 American prisoners of war, of whom 116,129 returned home after the war. Key civilian advisors to President Roosevelt included Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who mobilized the nation's industries and induction centers to supply the Army, commanded by General George Marshall and the Army Air Forces under General Hap Arnold. The Navy, led by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Admiral Ernest King, proved more autonomous. Overall priorities were set by Roosevelt and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired by William Leahy. The highest priority was the defeat of Germany in Europe, but first the war against Japan in the Pacific was more urgent after the sinking of the main battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor.


text: Admiral King put Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, based in Hawaii, in charge of the Pacific War against Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy had the advantage, taking the Philippines as well as British and Dutch possessions, and threatening Australia but in June 1942, its main carriers were sunk during the Battle of Midway, and the Americans seized the initiative. The Pacific War became one of island hopping, so as to move air bases closer and closer to Japan. The Army, based in Australia under General Douglas MacArthur, steadily advanced across New Guinea to the Philippines, with plans to invade the Japanese home islands in late 1945. With its merchant fleet sunk by American submarines, Japan ran short of aviation gasoline and fuel oil, as the US Navy in June 1944 captured islands within bombing range of the Japanese home islands. Strategic bombing directed by General Curtis Lemay destroyed all the major Japanese cities, as the US captured Okinawa after heavy losses in spring 1945. With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, and an invasion of the home islands imminent, Japan surrendered.