{{Infobox country
| native_name            =
| conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Nepal
| common_name            = Nepal
| status                 =
| life_span              = 1768–2008
| government_type        = Unitary absolute monarchy
 under military dictatorship
 under a hereditary military dictatorship
Unitary authoritarian Panchayat absolute monarchyUnitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
 under a provisional government
| year_start             = 1768
| year_end               = 2008
| event_start            = Unification under Prithivi Narayan Shah
| date_start             = 25 September
| event_end              = Republic
| date_end               = 28 May
| event1                 = Thapa premiers
| date_event1            = 1806–1837 and1843–1845
| event2                 = Pande premiers
| date_event2            = 1799–1804 and1837–1840
| event3                 = Rana regime
| date_event3            = 1846–1951
| event4                 = Panchayat system
| date_event4            = 1960–1990
| p1                     = Gorkha Kingdom1768:Gorkha Kingdom
| p2                     = Malla (Kathmandu Valley)1769:Malla Dynasty
| p3                     = Chaubisi Rajya1770s—1780s:Chaubisi Rajya| flag_p4                = Kirati flag.png
| p4                     = Kirat Region1774:Kirat Kingdom
| flag_p5                = Flag of Sikkim (1967-1975).svg
| p5                     = Kingdom of Sikkim1776:Kingdom of Sikkim
| p6                     = Baise rajya1780s:Baise Rajya
| p7                     = Doti Kingdom1791:Doti Kingdom
| flag_p8                = Flag of the Kumaon Kingdom.svg
| p8                     = Kumaon Kingdom
| flag_p9                = Flag of the Princely State of Tehri Garhwal.svg
| p9                     = Garhwal Kingdom 1804:Garhwal Kingdom
| s1                     = Garhwal Kingdom1816:Princely State of Tehri Garhwal
| flag_s1                = Flag of the Princely State of Tehri Garhwal.svg
| flag_s2                = Flag of Sikkim (1967-1975).svg
| s2                     = Kingdom of Sikkim
| flag_s3                =
| flag_s4                = Flag of Nepal.svg
| s4                     = Nepal2008:Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
| image_map              = Gorkha Empire 1805.jpg
| image_map_caption      = Territory of the Kingdom of Nepal in 1808
| image_map2             = Nepal rel location map.svg
| image_map2_caption     = Territory of the Kingdom of Nepal in 2008
| image_flag2            = Flag of Nepal (1743–1962).svg
| flag_alt2              = Pre-1962 Flag of Nepal
| image_flag             = Flag of Nepal.svg
| flag_alt               = Flag of Nepal
| flag_width             = 85px
| flag_border            = no
| flag_type              = Top: Flag (1962–2008)Bottom: Flag (pre-1962)
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Nepal (1962–2008).svg
| symbol_type            = Coat of arms(1962–2008)
| coa_size               = 100px
| national_motto         = Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi (Sanskrit)Mother and Motherland are greater than heaven
| national_anthem        = 1962–2006:"Shriman Gambhir" (Nepali: श्रीमान् गम्भीर)()2007–2008:"Sayaun Thunga Phulka" (Nepali" सयौँ थुँगा फूलका)()
| capital                = Kathmandu
| common_languages       = Nepali (official)
| religion               = Hinduism (official)
| currency               =
| title_leader           = Mahārājādhirāja
| leader1                = Prithvi Shah
| year_leader1           = 1768–1775 (first)
| leader2                = Gyanendra Shah
| year_leader2           = 2001–2008 (last)
| deputy1                = Damodar Pande
| year_deputy1           = 1799–1804 (first)
| deputy2                = Girija Prasad Koirala
| year_deputy2           = 2006–2008 (last)
| title_deputy           = Prime Minister
| legislature            =
| upper_house            = Senate(1959–1960)National Assembly(1990–2002)
| lower_house            = House of Representatives(1959–1960; 1990–2002)
| stat_year1             =
| stat_area1             =
| stat_pop1              =
| today                  = NepalIndiaChinaBangladesh
| footnotes              =
| demonym                = NepaleseNepali
| area_km2               =
| area_rank              =
| GDP_PPP                =
| GDP_PPP_year           =
| HDI                    =
| HDI_year               =
| flag2_border           = no
| event5                 = Constitutional monarchy
| date_event5            = 1990–2008
| coordinates            =
| largest_city           = Kathmandu
}}

The Kingdom of Nepal () was a Hindu kingdom in South Asia, formed in 1768 by the expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom, which lasted until 2008 when the kingdom became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. It was also known as the Gorkha Empire (), or sometimes Asal Hindustan' (, ). Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha monarch  who claimed to be of Khas Thakuri origin, it existed for 240 years until the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008. During this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdom's existence.

After the invasion of Tibet and plundering of Digarcha by Nepali forces under Prince Regent Bahadur Shah in 1792, the Dalai Lama and Chinese Ambans reported to the Chinese administration for military support. The Chinese and Tibetan forces under Fuk'anggan attacked Nepal but went for negotiations after failure at Nuwakot. Mulkaji Damodar Pande, who was the most influential among the four Kajis, was appointed after the removal of Bahadur Shah.  Chief Kaji (Mulkaji) Kirtiman Singh Basnyat, tried to protect king Girvan Yuddha Shah and keep former king, Rana Bahadur Shah away from Nepal. However, on 4 March 1804, the former king came back and took over as Mukhtiyar (premier) and Damodar Pande was then beheaded in Thankot. The 1806 Bhandarkhal massacre instigated upon the death of Rana Bahadur Shah, set forth the rise of the authoritative Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa, who became the de facto ruler of Nepal from 1806 to 1837. During the early nineteenth century, however, the expansion of the East India Company's rule in India led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816), which resulted in Nepal's defeat. Under the Treaty of Sugauli, the kingdom retained its internal independence, but in exchange for territorial concessions, marking the Mechi and Sharda rivers as the boundary of Nepalese territories. The territory of the kingdom before the Sugauli treaty is sometimes nascently referred to as Greater Nepal. In the political scenario, the death of Mukhtiyar Mathbar Singh Thapa ended the Thapa hegemony and set the stage for the Kot massacre. This resulted in the ascendancy of the Rana dynasty of Khas (Chhetri) and made the office of the Prime Minister of Nepal hereditary in their family for the next century, from 1843 to 1951. Beginning with Jung Bahadur, the first Rana ruler, the Rana dynasty reduced the Shah monarch to a figurehead role. The Rana rule was marked by tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation and religious persecution.

In July 1950, the newly independent Republic of India signed a friendship treaty in which both nations agreed to respect the other's sovereignty as well as continue to have an open border. In November of the same year, India played an important role in supporting King Tribhuvan, whom the Rana leader Mohan Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana had attempted to depose and replace with his infant grandson who would later become King Gyanendra. With Indian support for a new government consisting largely of the Nepali Congress, King Tribhuvan ended the Rana regime in 1951.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to implement reforms and adopt a constitution during the 1960s and 1970s. An economic crisis at the end of the 1980s led to a popular movement that brought about parliamentary elections and the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in 1990. The 1990s saw the beginning of the Nepalese Civil War (1996–2006), a conflict between government forces and the insurgent forces of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The situation of the Nepalese monarchy was further destabilised by the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre.

As a result of the massacre, King Gyanendra returned to the throne. His imposition of direct rule in 2005 provoked a protest movement unifying the Maoist insurgency and pro-democracy activists. He was eventually forced to restore the House of Representatives, which in 2007 adopted an interim constitution greatly restricting the powers of the Nepalese monarchy. Following an election held the next year, the Nepalese Constituent Assembly formally abolished the kingdom in its first session on 28 May 2008, declaring the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in its place.

Until the abolition of the monarchy, Nepal was the world's only country to have Hinduism as its state religion; since becoming a republic, the country is now formally a secular state.

History

18th century
Origins

The country was expanded from the one of the Chaubise principality called the Gorkha Kingdom. In Nepal, the warrior people are not referred to as 'Gurkhas', they are called 'Gorkhalis', meaning the 'inhabitants of Gorkha.' Their famed battle cry is "Jai Kali, Jai Gorakhnath, Jai Manakamana".

The etymology of the geographical name 'Gorkha' is indeed related to the Hindu mendicant-saint Gorakhnath. In the village of Gorkha, there is a temple dedicated to Gorakhnath as well as another dedicated to Gorakhkali, a corresponding female deity. The Nepali geographical encyclopedia 'Mechi dekhi Mahakali' (From Mechi to Mahakali) published in B.S. 2013 (1974–75 AD) by the authoritarian Panchayat government to mark the coronation of King Birendra Shah agrees with the association of the name of the place with the saint but does not add any further detail. The facts regarding when the temples were built and the place named after the saint are lost in the sweeping winds of time. We may guess that these developments took place in the early part of the second millennium of the Common Era following the rise of the Nath sect. In fact, the pilgrimage circuit of the sect across the northern Indian sub-continent also spans a major part of Nepal including the Kathmandu Valley. The Newars of Medieval Nepal have a couple of important temples and festivals dedicated to the major Nath teachers. Immediately before the rule of Gorkha by the Shahs, Gorkha was inhabited by both Aryan and Mongoloid ethnic groups and ruled by the Khadkas, who were probably of Magar origin. Dravya Shah defeated the Khadkas in 1559 AD and commenced Shah rule over the principality. Prithvi Narayan Shah belonged to the ninth generation of the Shahs in Gorkha. He took the reins of power in 1742 AD.

Expansion

King Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small principality of Gorkha, initially drafted the Gorkhali Army. The Chief of the Gorkhali Army were drawn from Chhetri noble families of Gorkha such as Pande family, Basnyat family and Thapa dynasty before the rule of the Rana dynasty. However, the first civilian army chief was Kaji Kalu Pande who had significant role in the campaign of Nepal. He was considered as an army head due to the undertaking of duties and responsibilities of the army but not by the formalization of the title.

Battle of Nuwakot

The first battle by Gorkhali forces united under King Prithvi Narayan Shah was the Battle of Nuwakot. The first army commander was Kaji Kalu Pande of the Pande noble family of Gorkha. Pande put up tactics to attack Nuwakot, a strategic fort of Malla king of Kathmandu, from multiple sides by surprise. On 26 September 1744, Pande with a contingent of soldiers climbed from the northern side of Nuwakot city at Mahamandal. He led the surprise attack with a Gorkhali war cry of "Jai Kali, Jai Gorakhnath, Jai Manakamana". The panicked soldiers of Nuwakot under commander Shankha Mani tried to defend but lost after their commander was killed by the 13-year-old Prince Dal Mardan Shah, brother of the king. The second contingent of Gorkhali forces led by Chautariya Mahoddam Kirti Shah (also a brother of the king) passed Dharampani and faced strong tussle but ultimately won over the defenders. The third part of the forces, led by the king himself, advanced to the fort of Nuwakotgadhi after the capture of Mahamandal. The soldiers panicked by death of their commander fled to Belkot from the Nuwakot fort and Nuwakot was annexed by Gorkha.

Battle of Kirtipur

Despite his initial resentment that the valley kings were well prepared and the Gorkhalis were not, Kaji Kalu Pande agreed for a battle against the kingdom of Kirtipur in the Kathmandu valley on being insisted by the king. The Gorkhalis had set up a base in Naikap to mount their assaults on Kirtipur. They were armed with swords, bows and arrows and muskets. The two forces fought on the plain of Tyangla Phant in the northwest of Kirtipur. Surapratap Shah, the king's brother, lost his right eye to an arrow while scaling the city wall. The Gorkhali commander Kaji Kalu Pande was surrounded and killed, and the Gorkhali king himself narrowly escaped with his life into the surrounding hills disguised as a saint. Page 227. In 1767, King Prithvi Narayan Shah sent his army to attack Kirtipur for a third time under the command of Surapratap. In response, the three kings of the valley joined forces and sent their troops to the relief of Kirtipur, but they could not dislodge the Gorkhalis from their positions. A noble of Lalitpur named Danuvanta crossed over to Shah's side and treacherously let the Gorkhalis into the town.

Annexation of Makwanpur & Hariharpur
King Digbardhan Sen and his minister Kanak Singh Baniya had already sent their families to safer grounds before the encirclement of their fortress. The Gorkhalis launched an attack on 21 August 1762. The battle lasted for eight hours. King Digbardhan and Kanak Singh escaped to Hariharpurgadhi. Makawanpur was thus annexed by the Gorkhali forces.

After occupying the Makawanpurgadhi fort, the Gorkhali forces started planning for an attack on Hariharpurgadhi, a strategic fort on a mountain ridge of the Mahabharat range south of Kathmandu. It controlled the route to the Kathmandu valley. At the dusk of 4 October 1762, the Gorkhalis launched an attack. The soldiers at Hariharpurgadhi fought valiantly against the Gorkhali forces but were ultimately forced to vacate the Gadhi (fort) after midnight. About 500 soldiers of Hariharpur died in the battle. Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal extended his help to kings of Kathmandu valley with his forces to attack the Gorkhali forces. On 20 January 1763, Gorkhali commander Vamsharaj Pande won the battle against Mir Qasim. Similarly, Captain Kinloch of British East India Company also extended his support by sending contingents against Gorkhalis. King Prithvi Narayan sent Kaji Vamsharaj Pande, Naahar Singh Basnyat, Jeeva Shah, Ram Krishna Kunwar and others to defeat the forces of Gurgin Khan at Makwanpur.

Conquest of Kathmandu valley and Declaration of Kingdom of Nepal
The victory in the Battle of Kirtipur climaxed Shah's two-decade-long effort to take possession of the wealthy Kathmandu valley. After the fall of Kirtipur, Shah took over the cities of Kathmandu and Lalitpur in 1768 and Bhaktapur in 1769, completing his conquest of the valley. In a letter to Ram Krishna Kunwar, King Prithvi Narayan Shah expressed his unhappiness at the death of Kaji Kalu Pande in Kirtipur and thought it was impossible to conquer Kathmandu valley after the death of Kalu Pande. After the annexation of Kathmandu valley, King Prithvi Narayan Shah praised in his letter about the valour and wisdom shown by Kunwar in the annexation of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur (collectively known as Nepal valley at the time). Vamsharaj Pande, Kalu Pande's eldest son, was the commander of the Gorkhali forces who led the attack during the Battle of Bhaktapur on 14 April 1769.

Conquest of the Kirata

King Prithvi Narayan Shah had deployed Sardar Ram Krishna Kunwar to the invasion of Kirata regional areas comprising; Pallo Kirant (Limbuwan), Wallo Kirant and Majh Kirant (Khambuwan). On B.S. 1829 Bhadra 13 (i.e. 29 August 1772), Kunwar crossed the Dudhkoshi river to invade King Karna Sen of the Majh Kirant (Khambuwan) and Saptari region with fellow commander Abhiman Singh Basnyat. He then crossed the Arun river to reach Chainpur (Limbuwan), where he later achieved victory over the Kiratas. King Prithvi Narayan Shah bestowed 22 pairs of Shirpau (special headgear) in appreciation to Ram Krishna Kunwar after his victory over the Kirata region.

 Political conflicts
In 1775, the King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who expanded the Gorkha Kingdom into the Kingdom of Nepal, died in Nuwakot. Swarup Singh Karki, a shrewd Gorkhali courtier from a Chhetri family of eastern Nepal, marched with an army to Nuwakot to confine Prince Bahadur Shah who was then mourning the death of his father. He confined Bahadur Shah and Dal Mardan Shah with the consent from newly reigning King Pratap Singh Shah who was considered to have no distinction of right and wrong. In the annual Pajani (renewal) of that year, Swarup Singh was promoted to the position of Kaji along with Abhiman Singh Basnyat, Amar Singh Thapa and Parashuram Thapa. In Falgun 1832 B.S., he succeeded in exiling Bahadur Shah, Dal Mardan Shah and Guru Gajraj Mishra on three heinous charges. The reign of Pratap Singh Shah was characterized by the constant rivalry between Swarup Singh and Vamsharaj Pande. The document dated B.S. 1833 Bhadra 3 Roj 6 (i.e. Friday, 2 August 1776), shows that he had carried the title of Dewan along with Vamsharaj Pande. King Pratap Singh Shah died on 22 November 1777 with his infant son Rana Bahadur Shah succeeding as the King of Nepal. Sarbajit Rana Magar was made a Kaji along with Balbhadra Shah and Vamsharaj Pande while Daljit Shah was chosen as Chief Chautariya. Historian Dilli Raman Regmi asserts that Sarbajit was chosen as Mulkaji (equivalent to Prime Minister), while historian Rishikesh Shah asserts that Sarbajit was the head of the Nepalese government only for a short period in 1778. Afterwards, rivalry arose between Prince Bahadur Shah and Queen Rajendra Laxmi. Sarbajit led the followers of the Queen opposed to Sriharsh Pant who led the followers of Bahadur Shah. The group of Bharadars (officers) led by Sarbajit badmouthed Rajendra Laxmi against Bahadur Shah. Rajendra Laxmi succeeded in the confinement of Bahadur Shah with the help of her new minister Sarbajit. Guru Gajraj Mishra came to the rescue of Bahadur Shah on a condition that Bahadur Shah should leave the country. Also, his rival Sriharsh Pant was branded outcast and expelled instead of being executed as execution was prohibited for Brahmins.

Prince Bahadur Shah confined his sister-in-law Queen Rajendra Laxmi on the charge of having illicit relation with Sarbajit on 31 August 1778. Subsequently, Sarbajit was executed inside the palace by Bahadur Shah with the help of male servants of the royal palace. Historian Bhadra Ratna Bajracharya asserts that it was actually Chautariya Daljit Shah who led the opposing group against Sarbajit Rana and Rajendra Laxmi. The letter dated B.S. 1835 Bhadra 11 Roj 4 (1778) to Narayan Malla and Vrajabasi Pande asserts the death of Sarbajit under misconduct and the appointment of Bahadur Shah as regent. The death of Sarbajit Rana Magar is considered to have marked the initiation of court conspiracies and massacres in the newly unified Kingdom of Nepal. Historian Baburam Acharya points that the sanctions against Queen Rajendra Laxmi under moral misconduct was a mistake of Bahadur Shah. Similarly, the murder of Sarbajit was condemned by many historians as an act of injustice.

Vamsharaj Pande, once Dewan of Nepal and son of the popular commander Kalu Pande, was beheaded on the allegations of conspiring with Queen Rajendra Laxmi. In a special tribunal meeting at Bhandarkhal garden east of Kathmandu Durbar, Swaroop Singh held Vamsharaj liable for letting the King of Parbat, Kirtibam Malla, run away in the battle a year ago. He had a fiery conversation with Vamsharaj before Vamsharaj was declared guilty and was subsequently executed by beheading on the tribunal. Historian Rishikesh Shah and Ganga Karmacharya claim that he was executed in March 1785, whereas Bhadra Ratna Bajracharya and Tulsi Ram Vaidya claim that he was executed on 21 April 1785. On 2 July 1785, Swaroop Singh's opponent Prince Regent Bahadur Shah was arrested, but on the eleventh day of imprisonment, on 13 July, Singh's only supporter Queen Rajendra Laxmi died. Then onwards, Bahadur Shah took over the regency of his nephew King Rana Bahadur Shah and as one of his first orders as the regent, he ordered Swaroop Singh, who was then in Pokhara, to be beheaded there on the charges of treason. Singh had gone to Kaski to join Daljit Shah's military campaign of Kaski fearing retaliation of the old courtiers due to his conspiracy against Vamsharaj. He was executed on B.S. 1842 Shrawan 24.

Tibetan conflict

After the death of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Shah dynasty began to expand their kingdom into what is present-day North India. Between 1788 and 1791, Nepal invaded Tibet and robbed Tashi Lhunpo Monastery of Shigatse. Tibet sought Chinese help and the Qianlong Emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty appointed Fuk'anggan commander-in-chief of the Tibetan campaign. Heavy damages were inflicted on both sides. The Nepali forces retreated step by step back to Nuwakot to stretch Sino-Tibetan forces uncomfortably. Chinese launched an uphill attack during the daylight and failed to succeed due to a strong counterattack with khukuri at Nuwakot. The Chinese army suffered a major setback when they tried to cross a monsoon-flooded Betrawati, close to the Gorkhali palace in Nuwakot. A stalemate ensued when Fuk'anggan was keen to protect his troops and wanted to negotiate at Nuwakot. The treaty was favouring more to Chinese side where Nepal had to send tributes to the Chinese emperor.

19th century

Dominance of Damodar Pande

Damodar Pande was appointed as one of the four Kajis by King Rana Bahadur Shah after the removal of Chautariya Bahadur Shah in 1794. Pande was the most influential and dominant amongst the court factions in spite of the post of Mulkaji being held by Kirtiman Singh Basnyat. Pandes were the most dominant noble family. Later due to the continuous irrational behaviour of King Rana Bahadur Shah, a situation of civil war arose where Damodar was the main opposition to the King. He was forced to flee to the British-controlled city of Varanasi in May 1800 after the military parted with influential Kaji Damodar Pande. After Queen Rajrajeshwari finally managed to assume the regency on 17 December 1802, later in February she appointed Damodar Pande as the Mulkaji.

After Rana Bahadur's reinstatement to power, he ordered Damodar Pande, along with his two eldest sons, who were completely innocent, to be executed on 13 March 1804; similarly, some members of his faction were tortured and executed without any due trial, while many others managed to escape to India. Among those who managed to escape to India were Damodar Pande's sons Karbir Pande and Rana Jang Pande. After Damodar Pande's execution, Ranajit Pande who was his paternal cousin, was appointed Mulkaji along with Bhimsen Thapa as second Kaji, Sher Bahadur Shah as Mul Chautariya and Ranganath Paudel as Raj Guru (Royal Preceptor).

Thapa Regime

Thapa courtiers, who were Kshatriya, rose to power when the King Rana Bahadur Shah was murdered by his half brother Sher Bahadur Shah in 1806. Bhimsen Thapa (1775–1839), the leading Thapa Kaji, taking opportunity of the occasion massacred nearly 55 military and civil officers and catapulting the Thapas into the power. He took the title of Mukhtiyar succeeding Rana Bahadur as the chief authority and his niece Queen Tripurasundari as Queen Regent of junior King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah.

Anglo-Gurkha War

Rivalry between Nepal and the East India Company—over the princely states bordering Nepal and India—eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–16). The Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816, ceding large parts of the Nepali territories of the Terai and Sikkim, which accounted to nearly one-third of the country, to the British in exchange for Nepalese autonomy. As the territories were not restored to Nepal by the British when freedom was granted to the people of British India, most of these lands later became a part of the Republic of India. Sikkim remained independent until annexed into India in 1975 when it becomes the 22nd state of the Republic of India. However, in 1860 the British returned the authority over some of Nepal's land in the Terai back to Nepal (known as Naya Muluk, new country) as an act of gratitude for supporting Britain during various Indian uprisings, such as the Sepoy mutiny.

Rana Regime

Factionalism among the royal family led to a period of instability after the war. In 1846, Queen Rajya Lakshmi Devi plotted to overthrow Jang Bahadur Rana, a fast-rising military leader who was presenting a threat to her power. The plot was uncovered and the queen had several hundred princes and chieftains executed after an armed clash between military personnel and administrators loyal to the queen. This came to be known as the Kot Massacre. However, Jung Bahadur emerged victorious eventually and founded the Rana dynasty; the monarch was made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful and hereditary, held by the Ranas.

 Third Nepalese Tibet War

Jung Bahadur Rana sent forces under his brothers Bam Bahadur Kunwar and Dhir Shamsher Rana to attack Tibet again to achieve complete victory. His forces succeeded in defeating Tibetan forces on two sides. The Tibetan team arrived in January 1856 to sign a treaty. After a month, the Treaty of Thapathali was signed which was more favourable to Nepal.

20th century

 Nepal and the British
The Rana regime, a tightly centralized autocracy, pursued a policy of isolating Nepal from external influences. This policy helped Nepal maintain its national independence during the British colonial era, but it also impeded the country's economic development and modernisation. The Ranas were staunchly pro-British and assisted the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and later in both World Wars. At the same time, despite Chinese claims, the British supported Nepalese independence at the beginning of the twentieth century.

In December 1923, Britain and Nepal formally signed a treaty of perpetual peace and friendship superseding the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 and upgrading the British resident in Kathmandu to an envoy. Slavery was abolished in Nepal in 1924.

Democratic reform

Popular dissatisfaction against the family rule of the Ranas had started emerging from among the few educated people, who had studied in various Indian schools and colleges, and also from within the Ranas, many of whom were marginalised within the ruling Rana hierarchy. Many of these Nepalese in exile had actively taken part in the Indian Independence struggle and wanted to liberate Nepal as well from the internal autocratic Rana occupation. The political parties such as the Praja Parishad and Nepali Congress were already formed in exile by leaders such as B.P. Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh, Subarna Shamsher Rana, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala and many other patriotic-minded Nepalis who urged the military and popular political movement in Nepal to overthrow the autocratic Rana Regime. Among the prominent martyrs to die for the cause, executed at the hands of the Ranas, were Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Shukraraj Shastri, Gangalal Shrestha and Dasharath Chand. This turmoil culminated in King Tribhuvan, a direct descendant of Prithvi Narayan Shah, fleeing from his 'palace prison' in 1950, to the newly independent India, touching off an armed revolt against the Rana administration. This eventually ended in the return of the Shah family to power and the appointment of a non-Rana as prime minister. A period of the quasi-constitutional rule followed, during which the monarch, assisted by the leaders of fledgling political parties, governed the country. During the 1950s, efforts were made to frame a constitution for Nepal that would establish a representative form of government, based on a British model.

In early 1959, Tribhuvan's son King Mahendra issued a new constitution, and the first democratic elections for a national assembly were held. The Nepali Congress, a moderate socialist group, gained a substantial victory in the election. Its leader, B.P. Koirala, formed a government and served as prime minister. After a period of power wrangling between the king and the elected government, Mahendra dissolved the democratic experiment in 1960.

King Mahendra's new constitution

Declaring the contemporary parliament a failure, King Mahendra in 1960 dismissed the Koirala government, declared that a "partyless" Panchayat system would govern Nepal, and promulgated another new constitution on 16 December 1962.

Subsequently, the Prime Minister, members of parliament and hundreds of democratic activists were arrested. In fact, this trend of the arrest of political activists and democratic supporters continued for the entire 30-year period of the partyless Panchayat system under King Mahendra and then his son, King Birendra.

The new constitution established a "partyless" system of panchayats (councils), which King Mahendra considered to be a democratic form of government, closer to Nepalese traditions. As a pyramidal structure, progressing from village assemblies to a Rastriya Panchayat (National Parliament), the panchayat system constitutionalised the absolute power of the monarchy and kept the King as head of state with sole authority over all governmental institutions, including the cabinet (council of ministers) and the parliament. One-state-one-language became the national policy, and all other languages suffered at the cost of the official language, Nepali, which was the king's language.

King Mahendra was succeeded by his 27-year-old son, King Birendra, in 1972. Amid student demonstrations and anti-regime activities in 1979, King Birendra called for a national referendum to decide on the nature of Nepal's government: either the continuation of the panchayat system with democratic reforms or the establishment of a multiparty system. The referendum was held in May 1980, and the Panchayat system won a narrow victory. The king carried out the promised reforms, including a selection of the prime minister by the Rashtriya Panchayat.

End of Panchayat system
There was resentment against the authoritarian regime and the curbs on the freedom of the political parties. There was a widespread feeling of the palace being non-representative of the masses, especially when the Marich Man Singh government faced political scandals on charges of misappropriation of funds allotted for the victims of the earthquake in August 1998 or when it reshuffled the cabinet instead of investigating the deaths of the people in a stampede in the national sports complex in a hailstorm. Also, the souring of the India-Nepal trade relations affected the popularity of the Singh government.

In April 1987, Nepal had introduced the work permit for Indian workers in three of its districts, and in early 1989, Nepal provided 40% duty concession to Chinese goods and later withdrew duty concessions from Indian goods in such a manner that the Chinese goods became cheaper than the Indian goods. This led to the souring of relations which were already strained over the purchase of Chinese arms by Nepal in 1988. India refused to renew two separate Treaties of Trade and Transit and insisted on a single treaty dealing with the two issues, which was not acceptable to Nepal. A deadlock ensued and the Treaties of Trade and Transit expired on 23 March 1989. The brunt of the closure of the trade and transit points was mainly faced by the lower classes in Nepal due to the restricted supply of consumer goods and petroleum products such as petrol, aviation fuel and kerosene. The industries suffered because of their dependence on India for resources, trade and transit. The Government of Nepal tried to deal with the situation by depending on foreign aid from the US, UK, Australia and China. However, the government's strategy to manage the crisis could not satisfy those people who desired negotiations with India rather than dependence on foreign aid as a solution.

Taking advantage of the uneasiness amongst some people against the government and the strained India-Nepal relations, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the left-wing parties blamed the government for perpetuating the crisis and not taking any serious measures to solve it. In December 1989, the NC tried to utilize B.P. Koirala's anniversary by launching a people's awareness program. The left-wing alliance known as the United Left Front (ULF) extended its support to the NC in its campaign for a party system. On 18–19 January 1990, the NC held a conference in which leaders from various countries and members of the foreign Press were invited. Leaders from India attended the conference; Germany, Japan, Spain, Finland supported the movement; and the Embassies of the US and West Germany were present on the occasion. Inspired by the international support and the democratic movements occurring throughout the world after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989, the NC and the ULF launched a mass movement on 18 February to end the Panchayat regime and the installation of an interim government represented by various parties and people.

On 6 April the Marich Man Singh government was dismissed and Lokendra Bahadur Chand became the Prime Minister on the same day. However, the agitating mob was not satisfied with the change of government as they were not against the Singh government per se but against the party-less system. On 16 April the Chand government was also dismissed and a Royal Proclamation was issued the next day which dissolved the National Panchayat, the Panchayat policy and the evaluation committee and the class organizations. Instead, the proclamation declared "functioning of the political parties" and maintained that "all political parties will always keep the national interest uppermost in organizing themselves according to their political ideology."
During this protest many civilians were killed: after the end of the Panchayat rule they were seen as 'undeclared martyrs'. One of those martyrs is Ram Chandra Hamal, a member of the Nepali Congress and killed during his imprisonment.

1990 People's Movement

People in rural areas had expected that their interests would be better represented after the adoption of parliamentary democracy in 1990. The Nepali Congress with the support of "Alliance of leftist parties" decided to launch a decisive agitational movement, Jana Andolan, which forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament. In May 1991, Nepal held its first parliamentary elections in nearly 50 years. The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats and formed the first elected government in 32 years.

Civil strife
In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiraling prices as a result of the implementation of changes in the policy of the new Congress government, the radical left stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up by the various groups. A general strike was called for 6 April.

Violent incidents began to occur on the evening before the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violence erupted outside Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on 6 April, clashes between strike activists and police, outside a police station in Pulchok (Patan), left two activists dead.

Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital Kathmandu was attacked by police forces. As a result, riots broke out and the Nepal Telecommunications building was set on fire; police opened fire at the crowd, killing several persons. The Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 persons, including several onlookers, had been killed in police firing.

When promised land reforms failed to appear, people in some districts started to organize to enact their own land reform and to gain some power over their lives in the face of usurious landlords. However, this movement was repressed by the Nepali government, in Operation Romeo and Operation Kilo Sera II, which took the lives of many of the leading activists of the struggle. As a result, many witnesses to this repression became radicalised.

Nepalese Civil War

In February 1996, one of the Maoist parties started a bid to replace the parliamentary monarchy with a people's new democratic republic, through a Maoist revolutionary strategy known as the people's war, which led to the Nepalese Civil War. Led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal (better known by his nom de guerre "Prachanda"), the insurgency began in five districts in Nepal: Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Gorkha, and Sindhuli. The Maoists declared the existence of a provisional "people's government" at the district level in several locations.

21st century

Palace massacre

On 1 June 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra allegedly went on a shooting-spree, assassinating 9 members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, before shooting himself. Due to his survival, he temporarily became king before dying of his wounds, after which Prince Gyanendra (Birendra's brother) inherited the throne, according to tradition. The massacre shattered the aura of mythology that still surrounded the Royal Family, exposing their far too human intrigues.

Meanwhile, the Maoist rebellion escalated, and in October 2002 the king temporarily deposed the government and took complete control of it. A week later he reappointed another government, but the country was still unstable because of the civil war with the Maoists, the various clamouring political factions, the king's attempts to take more control of the government, and worries about the competence of Gyanendra's son and heir, Prince Paras.

Suspension of responsible government
In the face of unstable governments and a Maoist siege on the Kathmandu Valley in August 2004, popular support for the monarchy began to wane. On 1 February 2005, Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and took to exercising his executive powers without ministerial advice, declaring a "state of emergency" to quash the Maoist movement. Politicians were placed under house arrest, phone and internet lines were cut, and freedom of the press was severely curtailed.

2006 democracy movement

The king's new regime made little progress in his stated aim of suppressing the insurgents. The European Union described the municipal elections of February 2006 as "a backward step for democracy", as the major parties boycotted the election and the army forced some candidates to run for office. In April 2006 strikes and street protests in Kathmandu forced the king to reinstate the parliament. A seven-party coalition resumed control of the government and stripped the king of most of his powers. As of 15 January 2007, a unicameral legislature under an interim constitution governed Nepal.

Abolition of the monarchy
The Constituent Assembly came to fruition on 24 December 2007 when it was announced that the monarchy would be abolished in 2008 after the Constituent Assembly elections; and on 28 May 2008, Nepal was declared a Federal Democratic Republic.

Zones, districts, and regions

Nepal was divided into 14 zones and 75 districts, grouped into 5 development regions. Each district was headed by a fixed chief district officer responsible for maintaining law and order and coordinating the work of field agencies of the various government ministries. The 14 zones were:

Government and politics

Until 1990, Nepal was an absolute monarchy running under the executive control of the king. Faced with a people's movement against the absolute monarchy, King Birendra, in 1990, agreed to large-scale political reforms by creating a parliamentary monarchy with the king as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of the government.

Nepal's legislature was bicameral consisting of a House of Representatives and a National Council. The House of Representatives consists of 205 members directly elected by the people. The National Council had sixty members, ten nominated by the king, thirty-five elected by the House of Representatives and the remaining fifteen elected by an electoral college made up of chairs of villages and towns. The legislature had a five-year term but was dissolvable by the king before its term could end. All Nepali citizens 18 years and older became eligible to vote.

The executive comprised the King and the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet). The leader of the coalition or party securing the maximum seats in an election was appointed as the Prime Minister. The Cabinet was appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Governments in Nepal have tended to be highly unstable; no government has survived for more than two years since 1991, either through internal collapse or parliamentary dissolution by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister according to the constitution.

The movement in April 2006 brought about a change in the nation. The autocratic King was forced to give up power. The dissolved House of Representatives was restored. The House of Representatives formed a government that had successful peace talks with the Maoist Rebels. An interim constitution was promulgated and an interim House of Representatives was formed with Maoist members. The number of seats was also increased to 330. The peace process in Nepal made a giant leap in April 2007, when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) joined the interim government of Nepal.

Notes

 References
 Citations

 Sources

 Further reading
 Garzilli, Enrica, "A Sanskrit Letter Written by Sylvain Lévi in 1923 to Hemarāja Śarmā Along With Some Hitherto Unknown Biographical Notes (Cultural Nationalism and Internationalism in the First Half of the 21st Cent.: Famous Indologists Write to the Raj Guru of Nepal – no. 1), in Commemorative Volume for 30 Years of the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project. Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, XII (2001), Kathmandu, ed. by A. Wezler in collaboration with H. Haffner, A. Michaels, B. Kölver, M. R. Pant and D. Jackson, pp. 115–149.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Strage a palazzo, movimento dei Maoisti e crisi di governabilità in Nepal", in Asia Major 2002, pp. 143–160.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Il nuovo Stato del Nepal: il difficile cammino dalla monarchia assoluta alla democrazia", in Asia Major 2005–2006, pp. 229–251.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Il Nepal da monarchia a stato federale", in Asia Major 2008, pp. 163–181.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "La fine dell'isolamento del Nepal, la costruzione della sua identità politica e delle sue alleanze regionali" in ISPI: Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionali, CVII (Nov. 2008), pp. 1–7;
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Le elezioni dell'Assemblea Costituente e i primi mesi di governo della Repubblica Democratica Federale del Nepal", in Asia Maior 2010, pp. 115–126.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Nepal, la difficile costruzione della nazione: un paese senza Costituzione e un parlamento senza primo ministro", in Asia Maior 2011, pp. 161–171.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "The Interplay between Gender, Religion and Politics, and the New Violence against Women in Nepal", in J. Dragsbæk Schmidt and T. Roedel Berg (eds.), Gender, Social Change and the Media: Perspective from Nepal, University of Aalborg and Rawat Publications, Aalborg-Jaipur: 2012, pp. 27–91.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Nepal, stallo politico e lentezze nella realizzazione del processo di pace e di riconciliazione", in Asia Maior 2012, pp. 213–222.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "A Sanskrit Letter Written by Sylvain Lévy in 1925 to Hemarāja Śarmā along with Some Hitherto Unknown Biographical Notes (Cultural Nationalism and Internationalism in the First Half of the 20th Century – Famous Indologists write to the Raj Guru of Nepal – No. 2)", in History of Indological Studies. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference Vol. 11.2, ed. by K. Karttunen, P. Koskikallio and A. Parpola, Motilal Banarsidass and University of Helsinki, Delhi 2015, pp. 17–53.
 Garzilli, Enrica, "Nepal 2013–2014: Breaking the Political Impasse", in Asia Maior 2014, pp. 87–98.
 Wright, Daniel, History of Nepal''. New Delhi-Madras, Asian Educational Services, 1990

Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Former kingdoms
Kingdom of Nepal
.
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Kingdom of Nepal
Empires and kingdoms of Nepal
Military dictatorships

Kingdom of Nepal


The Blue Ridge Limited was one of six daily American  named passenger trains operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) during the late 1930s between Washington, D. C. and Chicago, Illinois, via Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Inaugurated in 1934, the once high-status train was discontinued in 1949.

History
In 1934, the B&O's eastbound train number 16 was named the Blue Ridge Limited and in 1937 its westbound counterpart, train 15 was also named the Blue Ridge Limited.

With ridership dropping after World War II, the B&O discontinued the Blue Ridge Limited on February 20, 1949.

Schedule and equipment
In the early years, the Blue Ridge Limiteds consist was consistent with a first-class train, including reclining seats in coaches, a sleeper and a lounge with sleeping accommodations. A diner car, added in Pittsburgh, served breakfast and lunch to passengers going west.  It was steam-powered until well after World War II.

The westbound Blue Ridge Limited left Washington a few hours ahead of the Shenandoah but had a slower schedule due to the numerous head-end cars it carried. The eastbound Blue Ridge Limiteds schedule was revised in 1938 so that it began in Pittsburgh, instead of Chicago, thus reducing the number of Chicago-Washington trains.

A lounge car was added in 1945 between Washington and Akron to increase ridership, and in 1947 the lounge car was extended all the way to Chicago.

Stations

References

Named passenger trains of the United States
Passenger trains of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Night trains of the United States
Railway services introduced in 1934
Railway services discontinued in 1949

Blue Ridge Limited


Xuân Thủy is a commune (xã) in Lệ Thủy District, Quảng Bình Province, North Central Coast region of Vietnam. This commune is located on the left bank of the Kiến Giang River. The commune contains villages: Xuân Bồ, Tiền Thiệp, Hoàng Giang, Phan Xá, Xuân Lai, Mai Hạ. This commune borders the district capital, Kiến Giang township.

References

Communes of Quảng Bình province

Xuân Thủy, Quảng Bình


A marina  is a dock  with places for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo.  Most marinas are by the sea or on lakes, but there are some inland on canals and rivers. They only started in the twentieth century when boating for pleasure became popular. There are usually shops selling supplies for the boats.

Ports and harbours

Marina


Rombo syndrome is a very rare genetic disorder characterized mainly by atrophoderma vermiculatum of the face, multiple milia, telangiectases, acral erythema, peripheral vasodilation with cyanosis, and a propensity to develop basal cell carcinomas.

The lesions become visible in late childhood, began at ages 7 to 10 years and are most pronounced on the face. At that time a pronounced, somewhat cyanotic redness of the lips and hands was evident as well as moderate follicular atrophy of the skin on the cheeks. In adulthood, whitish-yellow, milia-like papules and telangiectatic vessels developed. The papules were present particularly on the cheeks and forehead, gradually becoming very conspicuous and dominating the clinical picture. Trichoepitheliomas were found in 1 case.

In adults, the eyelashes and eyebrows were either missing or irregularly distributed with defective and maldirected growth. Basal cell carcinomas were a frequent complication. The skin atrophy was referred to as vermiculate atrophoderma. Basal cell carcinomas may develop around the age of 35. Histological observations during the early stage include irregularly distributed and atrophic hair follicles, milia, dilated dermal vessels, lack of elastin or elastin in clumps. After light irradiation a tendency to increased repair activity was observed both in epidermis and in the dermal fibroblasts.
Histologic sections showed the dermis to be almost devoid of elastin in most areas with clumping of elastic material in other areas. The disorder had been transmitted through at least 4 generations with instances of male-to-male transmission.

See also
 Tricho–rhino–phalangeal syndrome
 List of cutaneous conditions
 List of cutaneous conditions associated with increased risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer
 List of cutaneous neoplasms associated with systemic syndromes

References

External links

Rare diseases
Syndromes
Genodermatoses
Genetic disorders with OMIM but no gene

Rombo syndrome


Patricia Anne "Pat" Smith (born January 29, 1943) is a former political figure in Saskatchewan, Canada. She represented Swift Current from 1982 to 1991 in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a Progressive Conservative.

She was born Patricia Anne Chalmers in Cabri, Saskatchewan, the daughter of Arthur W. Chalmers and Martha Shiels, and was educated in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. In 1960, she married Edward Harvey Smith. In 1980, Smith became the first female president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association. With her husband, she also managed Sam's General Trucking Ltd. She and Joan Duncan became the first female members of a Saskatchewan cabinet in 1982. Smith served as Minister of Social Services, as Minister of Education, as Minister of Energy and Mines, as Minister of Urban Affairs and as Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Recreation. She also served as deputy Premier for Saskatchewan. She resigned from cabinet for health reasons in 1990 and retired from politics the following year.

As of 2006, Smith was living in Swift Current.

References

1943 births
Living people
Women government ministers of Canada
Members of the Executive Council of Saskatchewan
Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan MLAs
Women MLAs in Saskatchewan
People from Swift Current

Patricia Anne Smith


Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show. It was created by Merv Griffin in 1975.  The program was first hosted by Chuck Woolery from 1975 until n 1981.  Pat Sajak has been hosting it since 1981. Susan Stafford was the co-host who turned the letters from 1975 until 1982.  She was replaced by Vanna White in 1982.  The program has been aired in syndication since 1983. The 39th season of the program premiered on September 13, 2021

Introduction
On the program, three people compete for prizes. The game combines the game of hangman with a prize wheel.

The wheel
There are 24 spaces on the wheel. When a person lands on a cash space, they may guess a consonant . If that letter is in the puzzle, it is shown and the person is credited the amount of money shown on the wheel for each time the letter is in the puzzle.  Rather than spinning the wheel, a person can buy a vowel for $250. The program uses A, E, I, O, and  U as the vowels in each puzzle. Only the person who solves the puzzle keeps any money and prizes that they earned each round.

The wheel has both money amounts and  special spaces. If a person lands on "Lose a Turn", their turn ends and the next person takes a turn. After landing on the "Free Spin" space, the person must guess a letter. If it is in the puzzle, they earn a free spin token and can take an extra turn. If a person lands on Bankrupt, their turn ends and they lose all of the money and special prizes that they have earned in the current round.  They do not lose any "Free Spin" tokens they have and may use a free spin at that time to take another turn. A "Wild Card" is used to guess another consonant for the same cash value that the wheel is on. There are two "1/2 Car"  tags  on the wheel. When a spin ends on one of these spaced, the person collects the tag. If they win a round with both tags, they win a new car. There is also a prize wedge and a Gift Tag. The prize wedge is a prize announced before the first round. To win it, a contestant has to land on the wedge, call a correct letter, and solve the puzzle. The Gift Tag is $1,000 credit from a company.  In the first three rounds, there is a special $1,000,000 wedge. If it is claimed and brought to the bonus round, the person can play for $1,000,000 in the bonus round. If a person lands on "Free Play", they can take an action without any risk. They can buy a vowel at no cost. If they call a letter that is not in the puzzle, they do not lose their turn. They can even try to solve the puzzle, and if they are wrong, they do not lose their turn.

The game
At the beginning of the show, there is a Toss-Up puzzle.  During this puzzle, one letter at a time is shown on the board. Any contestant may ring in to solve the puzzle before the last letter is revealed. An wrong answer means that person can not play for the rest of that round. After the puzzle is solved, a second Toss-Up is used to determines who starts the next round of the game.

In round two, two mystery wedges are added to the wheel. One hides $10,000 and the other hides a Bankrupt. When a person lands on a mystery wedge, they guess a letter. The person may take $1,000 for each time the letter is in the puzzle or chose to turn over the wedge. If the $10,000 is user the wedge, $10,000 is added to their amount for that turn. If the Bankrupt is under the wedge, the lose everything they have earned that round and their turn ends.  If one wedge has already been turned over, the other acts as a regular $1,000 space.

Round three is the Prize Puzzle round. The person who solves the puzzle wins a prize. An Express wedge is added to the wheel in the third round. If a person lands on this wedge and guesses a correct letter, they can continue playing the game normally or choose to play for $1,000 per letter without spinning. If a contestant chooses to play for $1,000 per letter without spinning and calls a wrong letter, or takes too long to call a letter, it is treated as a Bankrupt.

Starting in Season 37, a "Triple Toss-Up" was added to the game. During this, there are three consecutive puzzles in the same category.  The third puzzle determines who starts the next round

. When time runs short, a bell sounds. Starting in Season 39, the person in control spins the wheel.  Remaining consonants are worth $1,000 plus the value on the wheel in front of the left-most person. Each person take a turn guessing a letter. A vowel may be called at no cost. Then, the person has three seconds to solve the puzzle.

Bonus round
The person with the most cash at the end of the game plays the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, another toss-up puzzle is played to chose who plays the bonus round. The person who wins the game gets to pick from one of three categories for the bonus round. They spins the bonus wheel to chose what prize they are playing for. This wheel has 24 prizes, just like the main wheel.  The category is then announced and a bonus puzzle is revealed. The person is given the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. They then chose three more consonants and a vowel. If a contestant has a Wild Card in the bonus round, a fourth consonant is called. Once all the chosen letters have been shown, they have 10 seconds to solve the puzzle. If the puzzle is solved, they win the prize that they landed on. If they cannot solve the puzzle, the board shows the correct answer. The host then shows the prize in the envelope regardless of the result. Prizes include amounts ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 in $5,000 amounts and a top prize of $100,000. If the Million Dollar Wedge is bought to the bonus round, the $100,000 envelope is replaced with a $1,000,000 one. Prior to season 35, a car and $5,000 cash was also on the prize wheel.

References

Other websites

Television game shows
First run syndicated television programs
English-language television programs
1975 television series debuts

Wheel of Fortune (US game show)


Sons of the Prophet is a play by Stephen Karam. It is a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family and was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Productions
Sons of the Prophet premiered in a production by Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in April and May 2011.

Sons of the Prophet opened Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre on October 20, 2011 (after previews from September 28) and closed on January 1, 2012. This play was commissioned by the Roundabout Theatre Company. The play was directed by Peter DuBois and starred Charles Socarides (Timothy), Yusef Bulos (Bill), Lizbeth MacKay (Mrs. McAndrew), Dee Nelson (Dr. Manor), Jonathan Louis Dent (Vin), Santino Fontana (Joseph), Chris Perfetti (Charles) and Joanna Gleason (Gloria).

The play was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play,  the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play, 2011-12.

Plot
Brothers Joseph Douaihy (29 years old) and Charles Douaihy (18 years old), who live in a run-down area of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, are left alone after their father dies of a heart attack two weeks after a car accident. That accident was caused by a prank by the local football star, Vin, who is sent to a juvenile detention center as punishment.

Their family has emigrated from Lebanon and is distantly related to Kahlil Gibran. The brothers are forced to not only take care of themselves but care for their aging uncle, Bill. Joseph, who has mysterious pains, goes to work for Gloria, a book-packager, to get health insurance. Gloria tries to convince Joseph to write a book about his family, thinking this will return her to success in the publishing world. Joseph, who is gay, starts a romance with a reporter.

The play uses the device of projections with "a title inspired by the chapter headings in Gibran's The Prophet."

Critical response
The Variety reviewer (in reviewing the Huntington production) wrote that the play was "wonderfully acted and sensitively helmed production .... Karam demonstrates an original comic voice for young characters, but here he expands generationally."

The New York Times reviewer (of the Off-Broadway production ) wrote that the play is "...absolutely wonderful new comedy-drama ... Written with insight and compassion, not to mention biting wit, it shines a clarifying light into some of life's darker passages, exploring how people endure the unendurable, and not only survive but also move forward through their blighted lives with sustaining measures of hope, love and good humor. The question of why we suffer is unanswerable, but how we suffer defines our character and shapes our lives more than we care to acknowledge."

References

External links

Off-Broadway plays
2011 plays
Plays by Stephen Karam
LGBT-related plays
Plays set in Pennsylvania
Lebanese-American culture
Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Sons of the Prophet


Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is a type of size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), that separates high molecular weight or colloidal analytes on the basis of size or diameter, typically in organic solvents. The technique is often used for the analysis of polymers. As a technique, SEC was first developed in 1955 by Lathe and Ruthven. The term gel permeation chromatography can be traced back to J.C. Moore of the Dow Chemical Company who investigated the technique in 1964. The proprietary column technology was licensed to Waters Corporation, who subsequently commercialized this technology in 1964. GPC systems and consumables are now also available from a number of manufacturers. It is often necessary to separate polymers, both to analyze them as well as to purify the desired product.

When characterizing polymers, it is important to consider their size distribution and dispersity (Đ) as well their molecular weight. Polymers can be characterized by a variety of definitions for molecular weight including the number average molecular weight (Mn), the weight average molecular weight (Mw) (see molar mass distribution), the size average molecular weight (Mz), or the viscosity molecular weight (Mv). GPC allows for the determination of Đ as well as Mv and, based on other data, the Mn, Mw, and Mz can be determined.

How it works

GPC is a type of chromatography in which analytes are separated, based on their size or hydrodynamic volume (radius of gyration). This differs from other chromatographic techniques, which depend upon chemical or physical interactions between the mobile and stationary phases to separate analytes. Separation occurs via the use of porous gel beads packed inside a column (see stationary phase (chemistry)). The principle of separation relies on the differential exclusion or inclusion of the macromolecules by the porous gel stationary phase. Larger molecules are excluded from entering the pores and elute earlier, while smaller molecules can enter the pores, thus staying longer inside the column. The entire process takes place without any interaction of the analytes with the surface of the stationary phase.   The smaller analytes relative to the pore sizes can permeate these pores and spend more time inside the gel particles, increasing their retention time. Conversely, larger analytes relative to the pores sizes spend little if any time inside the column, hence they elute sooner. Each type of column has a range of molecular weights that can be separated, according to their pores sizes.  If an analyte is too large relative to the column's pores, it will not be retained at all and will be totally excluded; conversely, if the analyte is small relative to the pores sizes, it will be totally permeating. Analytes that are totally excluded, elute with the free volume outside around the particles (Vo), the total exclusion limit, while analytes that are completely delayed, elute with  the solvent, marking the total permeation volume of the column, including also the solvent held inside the pores (Vi). The total volume can be considered by the following equation, where Vg is the volume of the polymer gel and Vt is the total volume:
As can be inferred, there is a limited range of molecular weights that can be separated by each column, therefore the size of the pores for the packing should be chosen according to the range of molecular weight of analytes to be separated. For polymer separations the pore sizes should be on the order of the polymers being analyzed. If a sample has a broad molecular weight range it may be necessary to use several GPC columns with varying pores volumes in tandem to resolve the sample fully.

Application

GPC is often used to determine the relative molecular weight of polymer samples as well as the distribution of molecular weights. What GPC truly measures is the molecular volume and shape function as defined by the intrinsic viscosity. If comparable standards are used, this relative data can be used to determine molecular weights within ± 5% accuracy. Polystyrene standards with dispersities of less than 1.2 are typically used to calibrate the GPC. Unfortunately, polystyrene tends to be a very linear polymer and therefore as a standard it is only useful to compare it to other polymers that are known to be linear and of relatively the same size.

Material and methods

Instrumentation

Gel permeation chromatography is conducted almost exclusively in chromatography systems. The experimental design is not much different from other techniques of High Performance liquid chromatography. Samples are dissolved in an appropriate solvent, in the case of GPC these tend to be organic solvents and after filtering the solution it is injected onto a column. The separation of multi-component mixture takes place in the column. The constant supply of fresh eluent to the column is accomplished by the use of a pump. Since most analytes are not visible to the naked eye a detector is needed. Often multiple detectors are used to gain additional information about the polymer sample. The availability of a detector makes the fractionation convenient and accurate.

Gel
Gels are used as stationary phase for GPC. The pore size of a gel must be carefully controlled in order to be able to apply the gel to a given separation. Other desirable properties of the gel forming agent are the absence of ionizing groups and, in a given solvent, low affinity for the substances to be separated. Commercial gels like PLgel & Styragel (cross-linked polystyrene-divinylbenzene), LH-20 (hydroxypropylated Sephadex), Bio-Gel (cross-linked polyacrylamide), HW-20 & HW-40 (hydroxylated methacrylic polymer), agarose gel and are often used based on different separation requirements.

Column
The column used for GPC is filled with a microporous packing material. The column is filled with the gel. Since the total penetration volume is the maximum volume permeated by the analytes, and there is no retention on the surface of the stationary phase, the total column volume is usually large, relatively to the sample volume.

Eluent
The eluent (mobile phase) should be the appropriate solvent to dissolve the polymer, should not interfere with the response of the polymer analyzed, and should wet the packing surface and make it inert to interactions with the polymers. The most common eluents for polymers that dissolve at room temperature GPC are tetrahydrofuran (THF), o-dichlorobenzene and trichlorobenzene at 130–150 °C for crystalline polyalkynes and hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP)  for crystalline condensation polymers such as polyamides and polyesters.

Pump
There are two types of pumps available for uniform delivery of relatively small liquid volumes for GPC: piston or peristaltic pumps. The delivery of a constant flow, free of fluctuations is especially important to the precision of the GPC analysis, as the flow-rate is used for the calibration of the molecular weight, or diameter.

Detector
In GPC, the concentration by weight of polymer in the eluting solvent may be monitored continuously with a detector. There are many detector types available and they can be divided into two main categories. The first is concentration sensitive detectors which includes UV-VIS absorption, differential refractometer (DRI) or refractive index (RI) detectors, infrared (IR) absorption and density detectors. The second category is molecular weight sensitive detectors, which include low angle light scattering detectors (LALLS) and multi angle light scattering (MALLS). The resulting chromatogram is therefore a weight distribution of the polymer as a function of retention volume. The most sensitive detector is the differential UV photometer and the most common detector is the differential refractometer (DRI). When characterizing copolymer, it is necessary to have two detectors in series. For accurate determinations of copolymer composition at least two of those detectors should be concentration detectors. The determination of most copolymer compositions is done using UV and RI detectors, although other combinations can be used.

Data analysis

Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) has become the most widely used technique for analyzing polymer samples in order to determine their molecular weights and weight distributions. Examples of GPC chromatograms of polystyrene samples with their molecular weights and dispersities are shown on the left.

  Benoit and co-workers proposed that the hydrodynamic volume, Vη, which is proportional to the product of [η] and M, where [η] is the intrinsic viscosity of the polymer in the SEC eluent, may be used as the universal calibration parameter. If the Mark–Houwink–Sakurada constants K and α are known (see Mark–Houwink equation), a plot of log [η]M versus elution volume (or elution time) for a particular solvent, column and instrument provides a universal calibration curve which can be used for any polymer in that solvent. By determining the retention volumes (or times) of monodisperse polymer standards (e.g. solutions of monodispersed polystyrene in THF), a calibration curve can be obtained by plotting the logarithm of the molecular weight versus the retention time or volume. Once the calibration curve is obtained, the gel permeation chromatogram of any other polymer can be obtained in the same solvent and the molecular weights (usually Mn and Mw) and the complete molecular weight distribution for the polymer can be determined. A typical calibration curve is shown to the right and the molecular weight from an unknown sample can be obtained from the calibration curve.

Advantages
As a separation technique, GPC has many advantages. First of all, it has a well-defined separation time due to the fact that there is a final elution volume for all unretained analytes. Additionally, GPC can provide narrow bands, although this aspect of GPC is more difficult for polymer samples that have broad ranges of molecular weights present. Finally, since the analytes do not interact chemically or physically with the column, there is a lower chance for analyte loss to occur. For investigating the properties of polymer samples in particular, GPC can be very advantageous. GPC provides a more convenient method of determining the molecular weights of polymers. In fact most samples can be thoroughly analyzed in an hour or less. Other methods used in the past were fractional extraction and fractional precipitation. As these processes were quite labor-intensive molecular weights and mass distributions typically were not analyzed. Therefore, GPC has allowed for the quick and relatively easy estimation of molecular weights and distribution for polymer samples

Disadvantages

There are disadvantages to GPC, however. First, there is a limited number of peaks that can be resolved within the short time scale of the GPC run. Also, as a technique GPC requires around at least a 10% difference in molecular weight for a reasonable resolution of peaks to occur. In regards to polymers, the molecular masses of most of the chains will be too close for the GPC separation to show anything more than broad peaks. Another disadvantage of GPC for polymers is that filtrations must be performed before using the instrument to prevent dust and other particulates from ruining the columns and interfering with the detectors. Although useful for protecting the instrument, there is the possibility of the pre-filtration of the sample removing higher molecular weight sample before it can be loaded on the column. Another possibility to overcome these issues is the separation by field-flow fractionation (FFF).

Orthogonal methods

Field-flow fractionation (FFF) can be considered as an alternative to GPC, especially when particles or high molar mass polymers cause clogging of the column, shear degradation is an issue or agglomeration takes place but cannot be made visible. FFF is separation in an open flow channel without having a static phase involved so no interactions occur. With one field-flow fractionation version, thermal field-flow fractionation, separation of polymers having the same size but different chemical compositions is possible.

References

Biochemical separation processes
Chromatography
Polymers
Polyolefins

ja:クロマトグラフィー#分子排斥クロマトグラフィー

Gel permeation chromatography


The Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers, or ALGAO, functions as a body to represent archaeologists working for local authorities and national parks in the United Kingdom.

ALGAO resulted from the merger of the Association of County Archaeological Officers (ACAO) and the Council of District Archaeological Officers (CDAO) in 1996.  These organisations, and consequently ALGAO, were centred on England and Wales.  This situation remained until ALGAO merged with the Association of Regional and Island Archaeologists (ARIA) in 2006, who until that point represented archaeologists performing similar duties in Scotland.

The organisations ALGAO:Cymru, ALGAO:Scotland, and ALGAO:England were formed to serve the constituent regions.

External links
Official site

Archaeological organizations
Archaeology of the United Kingdom
Local Government Archaeological Officers
Organizations established in 1996
1996 establishments in the United Kingdom


KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Hubbard Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to Minneapolis-licensed independent station KSTC-TV (channel 5.2) and radio stations KSTP (1500 AM), KSTP-FM (94.5), and KTMY (107.1 FM). The five outlets share studios on University Avenue, on the Saint Paul–Minneapolis border; KSTP-TV's transmitter is located at Telefarm Towers in Shoreview, Minnesota.

KSTP-TV operates two full-power satellite stations: KSAX (channel 42) in Alexandria (with transmitter near Westport), and KRWF (channel 43) in Redwood Falls (with transmitter near Vesta). KSTP-TV also serves as the default ABC affiliate for the Mankato market, as that area does not have an ABC affiliate of its own. The station's signal is also relayed in St. James, Minnesota, over translator K30FN-D, which also serves the Mankato market.

Nielsen Media Research treats KSTP-TV and its satellites as one station in local ratings books, using the identifier name KSTP+.

History

Founding
Stanley E. Hubbard, founder of KSTP radio, was one of broadcasting's foremost pioneers. In June 1939, he purchased one of the first television cameras available from RCA and began experimenting with television, but the television blackout brought on by World War II prevented any transmissions from being made. The first telecast by KSTP-TV reportedly occurred on December 7, 1947, when Jack Horner hosted a 25-minute program. On April 27, 1948, KSTP-TV signed on as the first commercial television station in Minnesota, although an experimental mechanical television station had been set up by WDGY station engineers more than a decade earlier. That station's license expired in 1938 as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was not interested in continuing mechanical TV broadcasts.

National affiliation
KSTP-TV was originally an NBC affiliate, as KSTP radio had been an affiliate of the NBC Red Network since 1928. Channel 5 claims to have been the NBC television network's first affiliate located west of the Mississippi River; however, this distinction is actually held by KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis, which signed on one year earlier. (Also, both the studios and the transmitter are located east of the river.) It was part of NBC's Midwest Network, a regional group of NBC affiliates that fed programming in the days before the coaxial cable link to New York City. In 1961, due to its status as an NBC affiliate, it was the first television station not owned by a network to broadcast all of its local programs in color.

1970s
In the mid-1970s, ABC—which had become the top-rated television network in the United States—began looking for stronger affiliates across the country. KMSP-TV (channel 9), the Twin Cities' ABC affiliate since 1961, had long struggled in the ratings. ABC had approached independent station WTCN-TV (channel 11, now KARE), CBS affiliate WCCO-TV (channel 4), and KSTP-TV to affiliate with the network. Channel 5 surprised the industry on August 29, 1978 by announcing its intention to sever ties with then third-place NBC after 30 years to join ABC. The affiliation switch occurred on March 5, 1979 and was ABC's biggest coup at the time; the NBC affiliation subsequently went to WTCN-TV that same day. One of the last prime time NBC programs to air on channel 5 was The Wonderful World of Disney; the first ABC program to air in general on the station was Good Morning America, as announced by then-news anchor Tom Ryther. Later on, the first prime time ABC program to air on the station was a first-run episode of the short-lived series, Salvage 1. "We want to go into the 1980s in a leadership position with a network which we think has the management, team and depth to be the best. That's ABC. We're just absolutely thrilled," said KSTP's Stanley S. Hubbard, son of station founder Stanley E. Hubbard.

2000s
In 2000, Hubbard Broadcasting purchased independent station KVBM-TV (channel 45; now KSTC), creating Minnesota's first commercial television station duopoly (though there is a longstanding public television duopoly: KTCA/KTCI).

Logo
KSTP-TV has used its "groovy 5" logo or variations on it since April 1969—it is the longest-used station logo in the Upper Midwest. By 1982, the design contained a white '5' on a red rounded edge square background. The number was italicized for a time in the mid-to-late 1980s. In the early 1990s, the logo endured a more dramatic makeover, with a gold colored '5' on a blue ABC-style disc (with either the call letters or the Eyewitness News name imprinted upon it), with the center colored in green. By the late 1990s, a brighter logo—still with a gold '5'—returned to the rectangular look, adding a black ABC logo. In the 2000s through mid-2010s, a white '5' was used on a red parallelogram, also featuring the ABC logo. On November 30, 2014, the logo was redesigned, and now features the "groovy 5" logo in blue with red lines circling the left part of the logo, with the ABC logo again. On March 22, 2021, the logo got its current redesign, putting a white 5 inside a red "app" shaped square with rounded corners (an updated version of the 1982–1986 logo), similar to the logo used in the 2000s. An updated graphics and music package debuted on the same day.

Broadcast center

KSTP-TV's studios and offices—also serving as the corporate offices of Hubbard Broadcasting and, from 1989 to 2002, the studios of sister operation All News Channel—are located at 3415 University Avenue, precisely on the Minneapolis–St. Paul boundary. The sidewalk in the adjacent photo of the building is on the city line. The principal production facilities, including the news studio, are on the Minneapolis side of the building. However, the station has a St. Paul mailing address (55114-2099) and telephone number (area code 651) because its business and advertising offices are on the St. Paul side. The large  freestanding transmitting tower, which was amongst the tallest in the country when completed in 1948, has one leg in each city, with the third leg precisely on the city line. This tower is primarily used as a studio transmitter link relaying the signals for both KSTP-TV and KSTP-FM to the Telefarm paired tower setup in Shoreview (shared with KSTP-FM, WCCO-TV, KARE, and WUCW), along with backup transmitter facilities in case of failure at Shoreview. The tower also houses the transmitter for KEC65, the NOAA Weather Radio station serving the Twin Cities area.

Programming
KSTP clears most ABC network programming. In the late 1970s, KSTP was the base for Country Day, a half-hour weekday agricultural news program that aired on a "network" of stations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Steve Edstrom was the main host. From 1982 to 1994, when nationally syndicated talk shows started ruling the daytime airwaves, KSTP ran a talk program of its own called Good Company, that was hosted by married couple Sharon Anderson and Steve Edelman. Both of them had appeared briefly in the movie Fargo as TV hosts, and continue to be recognized as area celebrities from time to time. Currently, Edelman runs Edelman Productions, a company that produces series for Food Network, HGTV, History and DIY Network, with his wife Anderson hosting a few of them. Edelman Productions is headquartered in California where both Edelman and Anderson now live, but it has offices both in California and Minnesota, where they produce their shows.

In 2007, KSTP decided to bring back an hour-long afternoon talk program similar to Good Company. Twin Cities Live, described as "a show about Minnesotans created by Minnesotans", began airing on April 21, 2008 and airs weekdays at 3:00 p.m. A public casting call at the Mall of America attracted a Burnsville, Minnesota native, John Hanson, who was selected from over 500 people. A few months later, former Milwaukee news anchor Rebekah Wood was hired as his partner. Wood was replaced by Elizabeth Ries on June 15, 2009. Ries and Hanson co-hosted together for over three years until Hanson received an offer to become the program director of KCSP in Kansas City. Hanson's last day on Twin Cities Live was December 21, 2012. Over the next four months, numerous television personalities served as guest co-hosts on TCL until the producers could find the best fit. KSTP weekend anchor Chris Egert was chosen to be Ries' new co-host on April 29, 2013. Egert and Ries co-hosted the show for nine months until Egert was promoted to weekday morning news anchor in February 2014. The station again had to go through a process of finding the next co-host, this time taking five months. On July 21, 2014, Steve Patterson was named the new co-host of TCL.  Ries is the current host of Twin Cities Live. On April 16, 2018, close to ten years after the program first hit the airwaves, Twin Cities Live was expanded to 90 minutes to include an extra half-hour at 4:00 p.m. called Twin Cities Live at Four, also hosted by Patterson and Ries. The extra half-hour replaced Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which was cancelled in May 2019) which was moved to 2:00 p.m. Patterson left Twin Cities Live in 2021.

The title Twin Cities Live was first used from 1985 to 1991 for a short-lived morning talk show that debuted at a time when KSTP was trying to reinvent its news image. The other talk show that aired on KSTP-TV is Live with Kelly and Ryan, which was on KSTP for 33 years beginning in the late 1980s under prior hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin and ending in 2021, when it moved to KARE.

During the trial of Derek Chauvin, KSTP launched a digital subchannel showing the court feed without commentary.

News operation
KSTP-TV presently broadcasts 37 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces a political discussion show called At Issue, which is hosted by Tom Hauser, and Sports Wrap, a sports highlight program that airs on Sunday evenings at 10:45 p.m. and on special occasions, such as when KSTP airs ESPN Monday Night Football telecasts featuring the Minnesota Vikings, or the final game of the NBA Finals. The station formerly ran a Friday night edition of the program focusing on high school sports that aired from September through May. These segments were usually hosted by Rod Simons and Anne Hutchinson, but Simons was later fired by the station in 2008 and Hutchinson also was let go in December of that year. A week prior to Hutchinson's departure, High School Sports Wrap was canceled due to low revenues. For much of the time since the 1980s, KQRS-FM morning show host Tom Barnard has served as the station's voice-over announcer.

A longtime trademark of the station is the use of the letter "V" in Morse code (standing for 'victory') as a sonic identity, a hallmark of Stanley E. Hubbard's operation of the KSTP stations since World War II, when he held an interest in teaching Morse code to his listening audience.

For a time in the early 1990s, KSTP aired overnight news under the banner of Eyewitness News All Night, featuring half-hour local news blocks, alternating with blocks of content from the Hubbard-owned All News Channel (which originated from KSTP's facilities and utilized the station's on-air personalities).

The station ran advertisements in 2005 featuring Ed Asner (emulating Lou Grant).

Meteorologist Dave Dahl was hired in 1977, began doing on-air weather reporting in 1979, and was named chief meteorologist in 1986. Dahl denies global warming and states that the earth has been stable or cooling for the last two decades. Dave Dahl retired at the end of 2020.

Joe Schmit was a sports reporter and later sports director from 1985, until switching to news anchor in 2005; Schmit left the station in June 2006 to join Petters Media and Marketing Group. After the collapse of the company and the arrest and conviction of founder Tom Petters, Schmit returned to KSTP-TV on January 14, 2010.

On May 12, 2006, KSTP debuted a half-hour newscast at 4 p.m. On September 10, 2007, it was moved to 4:30 p.m., serving as a lead-in to the 5 p.m. newscast. For the first year, KSTP began to have news competition in that timeslot, when KARE debuted an online/television lifestyle program at 4 p.m. in May 2007. KSTP began broadcasting its newscasts in high-definition on June 14, 2009, the first Hubbard-owned station and also, the last major network station in the Twin Cities to do so (KMSP and WCCO had already transitioned their local newscasts to HD the previous month, on May 11 and 28, respectively). On August 30, 2010, KSTP expanded its weekday morning newscast a half-hour earlier, now running from 4:30 to 7 a.m.

Notable former on-air staff
Ron Magers – anchor (1974–1981; later at WMAQ-TV and then WLS-TV in Chicago; now retired)
Frank Somerville – anchor (later at KTVU)
Stan Turner – anchor (1968–1989; now retired)

Technical information

Subchannels
The digital signals of KSTP-TV and KSTC-TV each contain four subchannels, with KSTP hosting the ATSC 1.0 signal of CW affiliate WUCW (channel 23) through an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Through the use of virtual channels, KSTC-TV's subchannels are associated with channel 5.

Analog-to-digital conversion
KSTP-TV signed on its digital television signal in 1999. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 50 to channel 35. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5.

The station participated in the "Analog Nightlight" program until its analog transmitter was turned off for good on July 12, 2009.

Satellite stations and translators

Satellites
KSTP-TV operates two satellite stations northwest of the Twin Cities area. These two stations carry KSTP on their DT1 signal, KSTC on DT2, and MeTV on DT3, leaving the other three subchannel services exclusive to the Twin Cities.

KSAX's schedule was virtually identical to that of KSTP-TV, though it aired separate identifications and commercials. It also placed local inserts into KSTP's weeknight broadcasts. KRWF was a full-time repeater of KSAX. Expanding their operations in 1999, the stations hired their first meteorologist. This continued in 2004 with the launch of a half-hour high school sports highlight show. The stations have won numerous broadcast journalism awards from various broadcaster associations. On June 25, 2012, Hubbard Broadcasting shut down KSAX/KRWF's local operations, converting the two stations into full-time satellites of KSTP-TV outside of occasional local advertising and community calendar notices.

Translators

In addition, KSTP-TV's signal is further extended by way of twelve translators in central and southern Minnesota. Seven of them nominally repeat KSAX and are part of that station's license.

 Alexandria (translates KSAX)
 Alexandria (translates KSTC-TV)
 Bemidji (translates KSAX)
 Brainerd (translates KSAX)
 Frost (translates KSTP-TV)
 Frost (translates KSTC-TV)
 Jackson (translates KSTP-TV)
 Jackson (translates KSTC-TV)
 Olivia (translates KSTP-TV)
 Olivia (translates KSTC-TV)
 Park Rapids (translates KSAX)
 Redwood Falls (translates KSTP-TV)
 Redwood Falls (translates KSTC-TV)
 St. James1 (translates KSTP-TV)
 St. James1 (translates KSTC-TV)
 Wadena (translates KSAX)
 Walker (translates KSAX)
 Walker (translates KSTC-TV)
 Willmar (translates KSAX)

Carriage in Canada
On September 11, 2014, KSTP-TV filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regarding its carriage in Canada and simultaneous substitution (simsubbing), as well as notifying the CRTC of viewer complaints of problems with closed captioning and poorly-timed simsubbing on its cable feed in Canada. In particular, KSTP is stating it is authorized for broadcast by the FCC, and not the CRTC, and is concerned that it may not have the appropriate broadcast rights for viewing in Canada. Hubbard Broadcasting, the owners of KSTP-TV, also argued concerns about their video feed being modified for Canadian viewers via simsubbing, removal of its closed-captioning information (a Broadcast Act violation, if proven), not having its digital subchannels carried as well, and that this might be a potential Copyright Act of Canada violation for its programming to air in Canada. Similar to other American stations, KSTP has also asked for compensation for its carriage in Canada or to have its unauthorized coverage cease, as it was never asked for permission to be relayed on cable services in Canada. The CRTC ultimately ruled against KSTP-TV on September 16, 2014, regarding their request to be removed from the CRTC's list of stations eligible for carriage in Canada, a fear that was shared by Shaw Media (owners of Shaw Direct/Shaw Cable/CANCOM) and Thunder Bay MP Bruce Hyer. A secondary concern posed by Shaw Media was that KSTP-TV would try to ask for fee-for-carriage in a cross-border retransmission consent agreement, which does not currently exist under the Copyright Act of Canada, and as the CRTC explained, is outside the scope of the Broadcast Act of 1968 or its regulatory responsibilities.

See also
KAAL
WDIO-DT / WIRT-DT

References

External links

KSTP.com - KSTP-TV official website
45TV.com - KSTC-TV official website
KSTP-TV in 1960
KSTP-TV in 1962, from Broadcast News magazine.
KSTP at Twin Cities TV Source
 RabbitEars.info website - KSTP-TV
 RabbitEars.info website - KSAX
 RabbitEars.info website - KRWF

Hubbard Broadcasting
ABC network affiliates
Heroes & Icons affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1948
Television stations in Minneapolis–Saint Paul
1948 establishments in Minnesota
Minnesota Kicks

KSTP-TV


Stephen Gadd (born 1964 in Berkshire, South East England) is an English operatic baritone.

He graduated in Engineering from St. John's College, Cambridge and then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, under Patrick McGuigan. He was a finalist in Operalia, (Plácido Domingo's international singing competition), and among other numerous awards he won the 1990 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. He has performed the title role in Macbeth at the Glyndebourne Festival, and Conte Almaviva  in Le nozze di Figaro for the Salzburger Festspiele.

In 1998 he sang in the premiere of Clara by Hans Gefors at the Opéra-Comique in Paris (Lucio).

Selected discography
Mozart: Messe C-dur KV 317 »Krönungsmesse«; Exsultate, jubilate KV 165; Vesperae solennes de confessore -The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock (conductor). ARCHIV Produktion.
Vaughan Williams: Hodie; Fantasia on Christmas Carols -Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Guildford Choral Society, Hilary Davan Wetton (conductor). Naxos 8.570439.
Hamish MacCunn: Land of the Mountain & the Flood; The Lay of the Last Minstrel -BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor). Hyperion CDA66815.
Paul Hindemith: Cardillac -Paris National Opera Orchestra, Kent Nagano (conductor). Bel Air Classiques (DVD) No.23.
Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde -Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott (conductor). Tudor 7202.

References

Cummings, David (ed), International Who's who in Music and Musicians' Directory: Classical and Light Classical Music, Routledge, 2000, p. 217.
Kathleen Ferrier Award Winners
Norris, Geoffrey, "Ticciati: music that bristles" (review of Claire Rutter and Stephen Gadd joint recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall), The Daily Telegraph, April 30, 2008. Accessed 10 January 2009.
Hall, George, "Macbeth" (review of Stephen Gadd in Glyndebourne's production), The Stage, 15 October 2007. Accessed 10 January 2009.

External links
Stephen Gadd official web site

1964 births
Living people
English operatic baritones
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge

Stephen Gadd