Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.

It was first launched in October 2010 with Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 8 succeeded it in 2012, replacing the Windows CE-based kernel of Windows Phone 7 with the Windows NT kernel used by the PC versions of Windows (and, in particular, a large amount of internal components from Windows 8). Due to these changes, the OS was incompatible with all existing Windows Phone 7 devices, although it still supported apps originally developed for Windows Phone 7. In 2014, Microsoft released the Windows Phone 8.1 update, which introduced the Cortana virtual assistant, and Windows Runtime platform support to create cross-platform apps between Windows PCs and Windows Phone.

In 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile, which promoted increased integration and unification with its PC counterpart, including the ability to connect devices to an external display or docking station to display a PC-like interface. Although Microsoft dropped the Windows Phone brand at this time in order to focus more on synergies with Windows 10 for PCs, it was still a continuation of the Windows Phone line from a technical standpoint, and updates were issued for selected Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

While Microsoft's investments in the platform were headlined by a major partnership with Nokia (whose Lumia series of smartphones, including the Lumia 520 in particular, would represent the majority of Windows Phone devices sold by 2013) and Microsoft's eventual acquisition of the company's mobile device business for just over US$7 billion (which included Nokia's then-CEO Stephen Elop joining Microsoft to lead its in-house mobile division), the duopoly of Android and iPhone remained the dominant platforms for smartphones, and interest in Windows Phone from app developers began to diminish by mid-decade. Microsoft laid off the Microsoft Mobile staff in 2016, after having taken a write-off of $7.6 billion on the acquired Nokia hardware assets, while market share sank to 1% that year. Microsoft began to prioritize software development and integrations with Android and iOS instead, and ceased active development of Windows 10 Mobile in 2017.

History

Development
Work on a major Windows Mobile update may have begun as early as 2004 under the codename "Photon", but work moved slowly and the project was ultimately cancelled. In 2008, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started work on a new mobile operating system. The product was to be released in 2009 as Windows Phone, but several delays prompted Microsoft to develop Windows Mobile 6.5 as an interim release.

Following this, Windows Phone was developed quickly. One result was that the new OS would not be compatible with Windows Mobile applications. Larry Lieberman, senior product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Developer Experience, told eWeek: "If we'd had more time and resources, we may have been able to do something in terms of backward compatibility." Lieberman said that Microsoft was attempting to look at the mobile phone market in a new way, with the end user in mind as well as the enterprise network. Terry Myerson, corporate VP of Windows Phone engineering, said, "With the move to capacitive touch screens, away from the stylus, and the moves to some of the hardware choices we made for the Windows Phone 7 experience, we had to break application compatibility with Windows Mobile 6.5."

From the beginning of Windows Phone until at least 2015, Joe Belfiore was the head of development and the face of the platform's initiatives.

Partnership with Nokia

On February 11, 2011, at a press event in London, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced a partnership between their companies in which Windows Phone would become the primary smartphone operating-system for Nokia, replacing Symbian. The event focused largely on setting up "a new global mobile ecosystem", suggesting competition with Android and iOS with the words "It is now a three horse race". Elop stated the reason for choosing Windows Phone over Android, saying: "the single most important word is 'differentiation'. Entering the Android environment late, we knew we would have a hard time differentiating." While Nokia would have had more long-term creative control with Android (note that MeeGo as used by Nokia resembles Android more than it does Windows Phone 7 as both Android and MeeGo are based on the Linux kernel), Elop enjoyed familiarity with his past company where he had been a top executive.

The pair announced integration of Microsoft services with Nokia's own services; specifically:

Bing would power search across Nokia devices
integration of Nokia Maps with Bing Maps
integration of Nokia's Ovi store with the Windows Phone Store

The partnership involves "funds changing hands for royalties, marketing and ad-revenue sharing", which Microsoft later announced as "measured in billions of dollars". Jo Harlow, whom Elop tapped to run Nokia's smartphone business, rearranged her team to match the structure led by Microsoft's VP of Windows Phone, Terry Myerson. Myerson was quoted as saying, "I can trust her with what she tells me. She uses that same direct and genuine communication to motivate her team."

The first Nokia Lumia Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, were announced in October 2011 at Nokia World 2011.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2012 Nokia announced the Lumia 900, featuring a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 1.4 GHz processor and 16 GB of storage. The Lumia 900 was one of the first Windows Phones to support LTE and was released on AT&T on April 8, 2012. An international version launched in Q2 2012, with a UK launch on May 11, 2012. The Lumia 610 was the first Nokia Windows Phone to run the Tango Variant (Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh) and was aimed at emerging markets.

On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced a deal to acquire Nokia's mobile phone division outright, retaining former CEO Stephen Elop as the head of Microsoft's devices operation. The merger was completed after regulatory approval in all major markets in April 2014. As a result, Nokia's hardware division became a subsidiary of Microsoft operating under the name Microsoft Mobile.

In February 2014, Nokia released the Nokia X series of smartphones (later discontinued) using a version of Android forked from the Android Open Source Project. The operating system was modified; Google's software was not included in favour of competing applications and services from Microsoft and Nokia, and with a user interface highly modified to resemble Windows Phone.

Versions

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on February 15, 2010, and released publicly on November 8, 2010 in the United States.

In 2011, Microsoft released Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. The update included a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 that supports the same web standards and graphical capability as the desktop version, multi-tasking of third-party apps, Twitter integration for the People Hub, and Windows Live SkyDrive access. A minor update released in 2012 known as "Tango", along with other bug fixes, lowered the hardware requirements to allow for devices with 800 MHz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM to run Windows Phone.

Windows Phone 7 devices can not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 due to hardware limitations. Windows Phone 7.8 was released as a stopgap update in 2013 to include some of the user interface features from Windows Phone 8.

Windows Phone 8

On October 29, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Phone 8, a new generation of the operating system. Windows Phone 8 replaced its previously Windows CE-based architecture with one based on the Windows NT kernel with many components shared with Windows 8.

Windows Phone 8.1

Windows Phone 8.1 was announced on April 2, 2014, after being released in preview form to developers on April 10, 2014. New features added include a notification center, support for the Internet Explorer 11 web browser, with tab syncing among Windows 8.1 devices, separate volume controls, and the option to skin and add a third column of live tiles to the Start Screen. Starting with this release, Microsoft dropped the requirement that all Windows Phone OEMs include a camera button and physical buttons for back, Start, and Search.

Windows Phone 8.1 introduced Cortana, a voice assistant similar to Siri and Google Now. Cortana replaced the previous Bing search feature, and was released as a beta in the United States in the first half of 2014, before expanding to other countries in early 2015.

Windows 10 Mobile

Windows 10 Mobile was announced on January 21, 2015, as a mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets running on ARM architecture. Its primary focus is unification with Windows 10, its PC counterpart, in software and services; in accordance with this strategy, the Windows Phone name has been phased out in favor of branding the platform as an edition of Windows 10, although it is still a continuation of Windows Phone, and most Windows Phone 8.1 devices can be upgraded to the platform.

Windows 10 Mobile emphasized software using the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which allowed apps to be designed for use across multiple Windows 10-based product families with nearly identical code, functionality, and adaptations for available input methods. When connected to an external display, devices could also render a stripped-down desktop interface similar to Windows on PCs, with support for keyboard and mouse input. Windows 10 Mobile featured Skype message integration, updated Office Mobile apps, notification syncing with other Windows 10 devices, support for the Microsoft Edge web browser, and other user interface improvements. Microsoft developed a middleware known as Windows Bridge to allow iOS Objective-C and Android C++ or Java software to be ported to run on Windows 10 Mobile with limited changes to code.

With the diminishing interest and application development for the platform, Microsoft discontinued active development of Windows 10 Mobile in 2017, and the platform was declared end of life on January 14, 2020.

Features

User interface
Windows Phone features a user interface based on Microsoft's "Metro" design language, and was inspired by the user interface in the Zune HD. The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles", which have been the inspiration for the Windows 8 live tiles. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a tile could display a live update of the weather. Since Windows Phone 8, live tiles can also be resized to either a small, medium, or large appearance.

Several features of Windows Phone are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live, and Twitter. For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device's camera and the user's Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the hub, users can directly comment and 'like' on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Xbox Music and Video, Xbox Live Games, Windows Phone Store, and Microsoft Office.

Windows Phone uses multi-touch technology. The default Windows Phone user interface has a dark theme that prolongs battery life on OLED screens as fully black pixels do not emit light. Alternatively, users may choose a light theme in their phone's settings menu. The user may also choose from several accent colors. User interface elements such as links, buttons and tiles are shown in the user's chosen accent color. Third-party applications can be automatically themed with these colors. Windows Phone 8.1 introduces transparent tiles and a customizable background image for the Start screen. The image is visible through the transparent area of the tiles and features a parallax effect when scrolling which gives an illusion of depth. If the user does not pick a background image the tiles render with the accent color of the theme.

Text input
Users input text by using an on-screen virtual keyboard, which has a dedicated key for inserting emoticons, and features spell checking and word prediction. App developers (both inhouse and ISV) may specify different versions of the virtual keyboard in order to limit users to certain character sets, such as numeric characters alone. Users may change a word after it has been typed by tapping the word, which will invoke a list of similar words. Pressing and holding certain keys will reveal similar characters. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode. Phones may also be made with a hardware keyboard for text input. Users can also add accents to letters by holding on an individual letter. Windows Phone 8.1 introduces a new method of typing by swiping through the keyboard without lifting the finger, in a manner similar to Swype and SwiftKey.

Web browser

Internet Explorer on Windows Phone allows the user to maintain a list of favorite web pages and tiles linking to web pages on the Start screen. The browser supports up to 6 tabs, which can all load in parallel. Other features include multi-touch gestures, smooth zoom in/out animations, the ability to save pictures that are on web pages, share web pages via email, and support for inline search which allows the user to search for a word or phrase in a web page by typing it. Tabs are synced with Windows 8.1 devices using Internet Explorer 11.

Contacts
Contacts are organized via the "People hub", and can be manually entered into contacts or imported from Facebook, Windows Live Contacts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Outlook. A "What's New" section shows a user's Facebook news feed and a "Pictures" section show pictures from those social networks, while a "Me" section within the "People" hub shows a user's own social network status and wall and allows them to view social network updates. Contacts can also be pinned to the Start Screen. The contact's "Live Tile" displays their social network status and profile picture on the homescreen. Clicking on a contact's tile or accessing their card within the "People" hub will reveal their recent social network activity as well as the rest of their contact information.

If a contact has information stored on multiple networks, users can link the two separate contact accounts, allowing the information to be viewed and accessed from a single card. As of Windows Phone 7.5, contacts can also be sorted into "Groups". Here, information from each of the contacts is combined into a single page which can be accessed directly from the Hub or pinned to the Start screen.

Email

Windows Phone supports Outlook.com, Exchange, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail natively and supports many other services via the POP and IMAP protocols. Updates added support for more services such as iCloud and IBM Notes Traveler. Contacts and calendars may be synced from these services as well. Users can also search through their email by searching in the subject, body, senders, and receivers. Emails are shown with threads, and multiple email inboxes can be combined into a single view (a feature commonly referred to as "combined inbox") or can viewed separately.

Multimedia

Xbox Music and Xbox Video are built-in multimedia hubs providing entertainment and synchronization capabilities between PC, Windows Phone, and other Microsoft products. The two hubs were previously combined until standalone apps were released in late 2013, shortly before Windows Phone 8.1 debuted. The hubs allow users to access music, videos, and podcasts stored on the device, and links directly to the "Xbox Music Store" to buy or rent music and the "Xbox Video Store" to purchase movies and TV episodes. Xbox Music also allows the user to stream music with an Xbox Music Pass. When browsing the music by a particular artist, users are able to view artist biographies and photos. The Xbox Music hub also integrates with many other apps that provide video and music services, including, but not limited to, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Vevo. This hub also includes Smart DJ which compiles a playlist of songs stored on the phone similar to the song or artist selected.

The Pictures hub displays the user's Facebook and OneDrive photo albums, as well as photos taken with the phone's built-in camera. Users can also upload photos to social networks, comment on photos uploaded by other people, and tag photos posted to social networks. Multi-touch gestures permit zooming in and out of photos.

An official file manager app called Files, which is available for download from the Windows Phone Store, enables users to move and rearrange documents, videos, music and other files within their device's hard drive or to an external SD card.

Media support
Windows Phone supports WAV, MP3, WMA, AMR, AAC/MP4/M4A/M4B and 3GP/3G2 standards. The video file formats supported on WP include WMV, AVI, MP4/M4V, 3GP/3G2 and MOV (QuickTime) standards. These supported audio and video formats would be dependent on the codecs contained inside them. It has also been previously reported that the DivX and Xvid codecs within the AVI file format are also playable on WP devices.

Note that Windows Phone does not support DRM protected media files that are obtained from services other than Xbox Music Pass.

The image file formats that are supported include JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF and Bitmap (BMP).

Users can also add custom ringtones which are less than 1MB in size and less than 40 seconds long. DLNA streaming and stereoscopic 3D are also supported.

Games

The "Games hub" provides access to games on a phone along with Xbox Live functionality, including the ability for a user to interact with their avatar, view and edit their profile, see their achievements and view leaderboards, and send messages to friends on Xbox Live. The hub also features an area for managing invitations and turn notifications in turn-based multiplayer games. Games are downloaded from Windows Phone Store.

Search

Bing is the default search engine on Windows Phone handsets because its functions are deeply integrated in the OS (which also include the utilization of its map service for location-based searches and queries). However, Microsoft has stated that other search engine applications can be used.

In the area of location-based searches, Bing Maps (which is powered by Nokia's location services) provides turn-by-turn navigation service to Windows Phone users, and Local Scout shows interest points such as attractions and restaurants in the nearby area. On Nokia devices, Nokia's Here Maps is preinstalled in place of Bing Maps.

Furthermore, Bing Audio allows the user to match a song with its name, and Bing Vision allows the user to scan barcodes, QR codes, and other types of tags.

Cortana

Every Windows Phone has either a dedicated physical Search button or an on-screen Search button, which was previously reserved for a Bing Search app, but has been replaced on Windows Phone 8.1 devices and later in the United Kingdom and United States by Cortana, a digital personal assistant which can also double as an app for basic searches.

Cortana allows users to do tasks such as set calendar reminders and alarms, and recognizes a user's natural voice, and can be used to answer questions (like current weather conditions, sports scores, and biographies). The app also keeps a "Notebook" to learn a user's behavior over time and tailor reminders for them. Users can edit the "Notebook" to keep information from Cortana or reveal more about themselves.

Office suite

All Windows Phones come preinstalled with Microsoft Office Mobile, which provides interoperability between Windows Phone and the desktop version of Microsoft Office. Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile apps are accessible through a single "Office Hub", and allow most Microsoft Office file formats to be viewed and edited directly on a Windows Phone device. The "Office Hub" can access files from OneDrive and Office 365, as well as files which are stored locally on the device's hard drive. Although they are not preinstalled in Windows Phone's "Office Hub", OneNote Mobile, Lync Mobile, and OneDrive for Business can be downloaded separately as standalone applications from the Windows Phone Store.

Multitasking
Multitasking in Windows Phone is invoked through long pressing the "back" arrow, which is present on all Windows Phones. Windows Phone 7 uses a card-based task switcher, whereas later versions of Windows Phone utilize true background multitasking.

Sync

Windows Phone 7

Zune Software manages the contents on Windows Phone 7 devices and Windows Phone can wirelessly sync with Zune Software.

Later versions

Syncing content between Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 and Windows PCs or Macs is provided through the Windows Phone App, which is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It is the official successor to Zune software only for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1, and allows users to transfer content such as music, videos, and documents.

Users also have the ability to use a "Tap and Send" feature that allows for file transfer between Windows phones, and NFC-compatible devices through NFC.

Updates

Software updates are delivered to Windows Phone users via Microsoft Update, as is the case with other Windows operating systems. Microsoft initially had the intention to directly update any phone running Windows Phone instead of relying on OEMs or wireless carriers, but on January 6, 2012, Microsoft changed their policy to let carriers decide if an update will be delivered.

While Windows Phone 7 users were required to attach their phones to a PC to install updates, starting with Windows Phone 8, all updates are done via over-the-air downloads. Since Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has also begun releasing minor updates that add features to a current OS release throughout the year. These updates were first labeled "General Distribution releases" (or GDRs), but were later rebranded simply as "Updates".

All third-party applications can be updated automatically from the Windows Phone Store.

Advertising platform
Microsoft has also launched an advertising platform for the Windows Phone platform. Microsoft's General Manager for Strategy and Business Development, Kostas Mallios, said that Windows Phone will be an "ad-serving machine", pushing advertising and brand-related content to the user. The platform will feature advertising tiles near applications and toast notifications, which will bring updating advertising notifications. Mallios said that Windows Phone will be able to "preserve the brand experience by going directly from the web site right to the application", and that Windows Phone "enables advertisers to connect with consumers over time". Mallios continued: "you're now able to push information as an advertiser, and stay in touch with your customer. It's a dynamic relationship that is created and provides for an ongoing dialog with the consumer."

Bluetooth
Windows Phone supports the following Bluetooth profiles:

 Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP 1.2)
 Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP 1.3)
 Hands Free Profile (HFP 1.5)
 Headset Profile (HSP 1.1)
 Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP 1.1)
 Bluetooth File Transfer (OBEX) (from Windows Phone 7.8)

Windows Phone BTF support is available from Windows Phone 7.8, but is limited to the transferring of pictures, music and videos via a 'Bluetooth Share' app.

Feature additions
Microsoft keeps a site where people can submit and vote on features they would like to see added to Windows Phone.

Store

The Windows Phone Store was used to digitally distribute music, video content, podcasts, and third-party applications to Windows Phone handsets. The store was accessible using the Zune Software client or the Windows Phone Store hub on devices (though videos were not downloadable through the store hub and must be downloaded and synced through the Zune software). The Store was managed by Microsoft, which included an approval process. As of March 2012, the Windows Phone Store was available in 54 countries.

Music and videos
Xbox Music offered approximately 50 million songs up to 320 kbit/s in DRM-free MP3 format from the big four music groups (EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group), as well as smaller music labels. Xbox Video offered HD movies from Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, and other studios and plus television shows from popular television networks.

Microsoft offered the Xbox Music Pass music subscription service, which allowed subscribers to download an unlimited number of songs for as long as their subscription was active and play them on current Microsoft devices.

Applications and games

Development
Third-party applications and games for Windows Phone can be based on XNA, a Windows Phone-specific version of Silverlight, the GUI-based Windows Phone App Studio, or the Windows Runtime, which allows developers to develop an app for both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store simultaneously. App developers can develop apps using C# / Visual Basic.NET (.NET), C++ (CX) or HTML5/JavaScript.

For Windows Phone apps to be designed and tested within Visual Studio or Visual Studio Express, Microsoft offers Windows Phone Developer Tools, which run only on Windows Vista SP2 and later, as an extension Microsoft also offers Expression Blend for Windows Phone for free. On November 29, 2009, Microsoft announced the Release-to-web (RTW) version of its Visual Basic .NET Developer Tool, to aid development of Windows Phone apps in Visual Basic.

Later versions of Windows Phone support the running of managed code through a Common Language Runtime similar to that of the Windows operating system itself, as opposed to the .NET Compact Framework. This, along with support for native C and C++ libraries, allows some traditional Windows desktop programs to be easily ported to Windows Phone.

Submission
Registered Windows Phone and Xbox Live developers can submit and manage their third-party applications for the platforms through the App Hub web applications. The App Hub provides development tools and support for third-party application developers. The submitted applications undergo an approval process for verifications and validations to check if they qualify the applications standardization criteria set by Microsoft. The cost of the applications that are approved is up to the developer, but Microsoft will take 20% of the revenue (the other 80% goes to the developer). Microsoft will only pay developers once they reach a set sales figure, and will withhold 30% tax from non-US developers, unless they first register with the United States Government's Internal Revenue Service. Microsoft only pays developers from a list of thirty countries. A yearly fee is also payable for developers wishing to submit apps.

In order to get an application to appear in the Windows Phone Store, the application must be submitted to Microsoft for approval. Microsoft has outlined the content that it will not allow in the applications, which includes content that, among other things, advocates discrimination or hate, promotes usage of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, or includes sexually suggestive material.

Hardware

Windows Phone 7 devices were first produced by HTC, LG and Samsung. These hardware partners were later joined by Acer, Alcatel, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Nokia, and Chinese OEM ZTE.

Windows Phone 8 devices were being produced by HTC, Huawei, Nokia, and Samsung.

At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 devices would be manufactured by Celkon, Gionee, HTC, Huawei, JSR, Karbonn, LG, Lenovo, Longcheer, Micromax, Microsoft Mobile, Samsung, Xolo, and ZTE among others. Sony (under the Xperia or Vaio brand) had also stated its intention to produce Windows Phone devices in the near future. Yezz announced two smartphones in May, and at Computex 2014 BYD, Compal, Pegatron, Quanta and Wistron were also named as new Windows Phone OEMs.

In August 2014, Huawei said it was dropping support for Windows Phone due to low sales.

Reception

User interface
The Metro UI and overall interface of the OS were highly praised for their style, with ZDNet noting their originality and fresh, clean look. Engadget and ZDNet applauded the integration of Facebook into the People Hub as well as other built-in capabilities, such as Windows Live, etc. However, in version 8.1, the once tight Facebook and Twitter integration was removed, so updates from those social media sites had to be accessed via their respective apps.

Market share

Windows Phone 7 (2010–2012)
For the first months, market specialists were optimistic about its adoption, with IDC forecasting that Windows Phone would surpass the iPhone by 2015.

According to Gartner, there were 1.6 million devices running Microsoft OS sold to customers in Q1 2011 worldwide. 1.7 million smartphones using a Microsoft mobile OS were sold in Q2 2011, for a 1.6% market share. In Q3 2011, Microsoft's worldwide market share dropped slightly to 1.5%. In Q4 2011 market share increased to 1.9%, and it stayed at 1.9% for Q1 2012. Reports for Q2, Q3 and Q4 of year 2011 include both Windows Phone and small part of Windows Mobile marketshare under the same "Microsoft mobile OS" banner, and do not make the distinction of separating the marketshare values of the two. According to Nielsen, Windows Phone had a 1.7% market share in Q1 2012, and then dropped back to 1.3% in Q2 2012.

Windows Phone 8 (2012–2015)
After the release of Windows Phone 8, Gartner reported that Windows Phone's market share jumped to 3% in Q4 2012, a 124% increase over the same time period in 2011.

In mid-2012, IDC had suggested that Windows Phone might surpass the faltering BlackBerry platform and potentially even Apple iOS because of Nokia's dominance in emerging markets like Asia, Latin America, and Africa, as the iPhone was considered too expensive for most of these regions and BlackBerry OS was possibly going to feature a similar fate as Symbian. IDC's projections were partially correct, as in Q1 2013 Windows Phone shipments surpassed BlackBerry shipment volume for the first time. IDC had to slash the Windows Phone predictions once again, to 7 percent of total market in 2018, because of the slow growth.

As of the third quarter of 2013, Gartner reported that Windows Phone holds a worldwide market share of 3.6%, up 123% from the same period in 2012 and outpacing Android's rate of growth. According to Kantar's October 2013 report, Windows Phone accounted for 10.2% of all smartphone sales in Europe and 4.8% of all sales in the United States. Some analysts have attributed this spike in sales to both Windows Phone 8 and Nokia's successful push to market low and mid-range Windows Phones like the Lumia 520 and Lumia 620 to a younger audience. Gartner reported that Windows Phone market share finished 2013 at 3.2%, which while down from the third quarter of 2013 was still a 46.7% improvement from the same period in 2012.

IDC reported that Windows Phone market share, having peaked in 2013 at 3.4%, had dropped to 2.5% by the second quarter of 2014.

In August 2017, the New York Police Department ordered Apple iPhone products to replace its deployment of 36,000 Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL Windows Phone devices, partly citing Microsoft's end of support for Windows Phone 8.1 on July 11, 2017, and its minuscule market share.

Developer interest
Microsoft's developer initiative programs and marketing have gained attention from application developers. As of Q3 2013, an average of 21% of mobile developers use the Windows Phone platform, with another 35% stating they are interested in adopting it. Some reports have indicated that developers may be less interested in developing for Windows Phone because of the lower ad revenue when compared to competing platforms. The main criticism of Windows Phone was the lack of applications when compared to iOS and Android. This also affected Microsoft's largest partner in the platform, Nokia, whose vice president showed his frustration at the lack of apps for the platform.

A few developers refused to develop apps while preventing third-party alternatives. A well-known example was Snapchat, which announced a crackdown on third-party apps for its service and its users in November 2014. Microsoft was forced to remove third-party Snapchat apps (including the popular 6snap) from the Windows Phone Store a month later, while Snapchat never developed an official app for those users. A petition from users requesting an official Snapchat app reached 43,000 signatures in 2015. In addition, Google twice blocked Microsoft's own YouTube app for violating its terms of service, objecting to the app's ability to download videos and prevent ads. The app returned in October 2013 but stripped of many features.

By 2014, Windows Phone was losing share and relevance; between 2014 and 2015, it was reported that developers were backing out of the platform and retiring apps because of the low market share. Many high-profile apps were discontinued by 2015 such as American Airlines, NBC, Pinterest and others. In addition, Microsoft itself retired some of its own first-party apps.

See also
 Comparison of mobile operating systems
 Microsoft Surface

Notes

References

External links

 Official website (Archive)

Mobile phones introduced in 2010
Products and services discontinued in 2020
Discontinued Microsoft products
Smartphone operating systems
Microsoft franchises
Cloud clients
Mobile operating systems
ARM operating systems
C (programming language) software
C++ software
Discontinued Microsoft operating systems
Discontinued versions of Microsoft Windows
Defunct consumer brands

Windows Phone


The Angel, Islington, is a historic landmark and a series of buildings that have stood on the corner of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road in Islington, London, England. The land originally belonged to the Clerkenwell Priory and has had various properties built on it since the 16th century. An inn on the site was called the "Angel Inn" by 1614, and the crossing became generally known as "the Angel".  The site was bisected by the New Road, which opened in 1756, and properties on the site have been rebuilt several times up to the 20th century. The corner site gave its name to Angel tube station, opened in 1901, and the surrounding Angel area of London.

The current structure was completed in 1903 and was known as the Angel Hotel. The building was acquired by J. Lyons and Co. in 1921 and was used as a restaurant. In 1935 it was chosen as a property for the British version of Monopoly.  The building was sold to the London County Council in 1959 to be demolished as part of plans for road improvement works that did not take place. It was returned to private ownership, renovated from 1979 and reopened in 1982 as the Angel Corner House. It is currently used as offices and a branch of the Co-operative Bank, and is a grade II listed building. In 1998 a new pub called the Angel, operated by pub chain J D Wetherspoon, opened at an adjacent premises. This was later sold and renamed The Junction, to be run independently.

History

Early history
In the early 16th century, a building in this area of London on the Great North Road was known as the Sheepcote. It was named after lands belonging to St John's Priory. The building was being used as an inn by the end of the 16th century and was known as the Angel by 1614. The inn took its name from the Angel of the Annunciation which appeared on the sign.

The Angel Inn became a useful stop when travelling to the City of London, as the rural area outside it was considered dangerous, with travellers having armed escorts from Wood's Close to Islington. Despite its name, and common association with Islington, the grounds of the inn and all of the western edge of Islington High Street were in neighbouring Clerkenwell.

17th–18th century

By 1630, the inn was owned by William Riplingham, officer of the Great Wardrobe. Riplingham built an extension of the courtyard ranges on the site of the Angel Inn around 1638, for which he was fined due to breaking building regulations. These ranges survived up to the early 19th century. By 1677, the Angel was owned by James Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton, and occupied by Edward Fawcett, who ran the inn until his death in 1696. The premises accommodated livestock traders destined for Smithfield Market as well as long-distance travellers.

In the early 18th century, the Angel was the largest coaching house in a row of several along Islington High Street. Robert Bartholomew took over ownership of the inn in 1744 and was succeeded by his son, Christopher around 1766, who continued to run it until the end of the century. The inn was the subject of William Hogarth's 1747 drawing, The Stage-Coach, Or The Country Inn Yard, which depicted busy coaching inn trade and traffic. In his book The Inns and Taverns of Old London published in 1909, Henry C. Shelley said "The Angel dates back to before 1665... In the seventeenth century and later, as old pictures testify, the inn presented the usual features of a large old country hostelry."

The building of the New Road in 1756 bisected the Angel Inn site and the stable buildings were cut off on the southern side. The inn was on the northern side, on the corner of what is now the junction of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road, while the stables were now on what is St John Street, adjacent to the New Inn, which had been established in 1744. The Angel benefited from the extra traffic brought by the New Road, and in addition to accommodation provided a number of assembly rooms for public meetings. The author and political activist Thomas Paine is believed to have begun writing Rights of Man at the Angel in 1790, and there is a monument on Islington High Street commemorating this.

19th century
By the start of the 19th century, fields south of the Angel were being built on, resulting in all land towards the City of London being urban. The Angel was rebuilt during 1819 and 1820 to become a post house and meeting place for various London businesses. The redevelopment was directed by Charles Smith, and subsequently let to James Smith. The size of the inn was reduced and adjacent plots were sold off, allowing development of houses and shops, though the inn's grounds remained substantial. It was now advertised as the "Angel Inn Tavern and Hotel for Gentlemen and Families", and the front of the tavern faced the New Road.

By the 1850s, the Angel was reported to be in decline. The New Road was renamed Pentonville Road in 1857, and the inn's management successfully put shop fronts on the road around 1870, along with extensive refurbishments. In 1880, the Angel was refurbished internally for William Henry and Richard Baker, later to become large-scale pub owners. In 1883 the stables were sold to the London Street Tramways and the main building was sold to the brewers Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. in 1896.

Construction of a new building in pale terracotta stone with a corner cupola was started in 1899 by the architects Frederick James Eedle and Sydney Herbert Meyers. The brewers proclaimed the new building to be "the widest-known hostelry in the world", and work was completed in 1903. A panel on a second floor balcony still bears this opening date. The parish of Clerkenwell became the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury in 1900 and when the City and South London Railway opened a new tube station in the area in 1901 it was named Angel.

20th–21st century

The pub ceased trading in 1921 and the building was sold to restaurateurs J. Lyons and Co. It was adapted as the flagship site of the business, though it was not technically a standard Lyons Corners House. The restaurant remained popular, and could accommodate up to 300 people, as did Lyons Corner Houses across London throughout the 1920s and 30s, but fell out of favour as fast food began to become popular in the 1950s.

In 1959 The Angel was closed and sold to the London County Council as part of a plan to demolish it to make way for a new road scheme at the Angel intersection. It was used temporarily by the City University. Finsbury merged with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington in 1965 and ownership of the site passed to the Greater London Council. The proposals for demolition of the site along with road changes were opposed by Homes before Roads and the Islington Society. Plans to alter the intersection and create a layout similar to that at Old Street roundabout were abandoned and the building was saved from demolition.

The Greater London Council sold the building to the New River Company, with the property becoming part of the London Merchant Securities portfolio. The building was renovated between 1979 and 1982 by McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd with architects Elsom Pack & Roberts converting the building for office use and renaming it Angel Corner House. The ground floor is now a branch of The Co-operative Bank, and the ORC International market research agency occupies the upper floors. The building is now privately owned by Hamilton Investment Properties.

The building, along with this section of Islington High Street has been part of the Angel conservation area since 1981 and The Corner House has been a listed building since 1991 and is Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The council describe this as "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance". Local planning regulations stipulate that new development in the area must not be taller than the dome on the Angel Corner House.

Related developments

On 27 October 1998, a J D Wetherspoon pub named The Angel opened at 3 Islington High Street, adjacent to the former pub building. It stands on the part of the original Angel Inn site that was redeveloped as shops in 1820. In 2022, the pub was scheduled to be put on the market as part of a general programme for Wetherspoon pubs across the country. The pub was later sold and renamed The Junction.

Ten Four Pentonville Road is a redevelopment of Angel Mews. It is located at the site of the original Angel Inn's stables. The Hilton London Angel Islington Hotel is named after the pub. It is located on Upper Street to the north of the original Angel.

Cultural references
"The Angel Islington" is a property in the British version of Monopoly. In the game it is the third-cheapest property on the board, reflecting the downmarket state of Islington through most of the 20th century until its gentrification in the 1980s. Victor Watson, of British manufacturers John Waddington Ltd, and his secretary, Marjory Philips, decided to include the property on the board whilst taking tea at the cafe. This account of events appears on a plaque displayed in the bank within the building; the inscription says it is the "only site on the board named after a building". It is part of the light blue group with Pentonville Road and Euston Road. In the game, a house at the Angel costs £50; by the turn of the 21st century a house on Islington High Street fetched around £600,000.

In 1827, James Pollard painted The Royal Mail Coaches for the North Leaving the Angel, Islington, currently on display in the Tate Gallery. The Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist contains a reference to the Angel, where "London began in earnest". Neil Gaiman's fantasy television series Neverwhere has a character named Angel Islington, after the inn. "The Angel, Islington" is the opening track on singer/songwriter Frank Turner's album Positive Songs for Negative People.

References

Citations

Sources

External links

 The Angel, Islington - Darkest London

Grade II listed pubs in London
History of the London Borough of Islington
Pubs in the London Borough of Islington
Islington

The Angel, Islington


Bishakha Datta is a film maker, activist and a former journalist. She is the co-founder and executive director of Point of View, based in Mumbai, a non-profit working in the area of gender, sexuality and women's rights. She also serves on the board of nonprofit organizations including Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action and the Wikimedia Foundation (2010–2014), where she was the first Indian to serve on the board of trustees.

Life and works
In 1998, Datta edited And Who Will Make the Chapatis?, an overview of the all-women political panchayats formed in Maharashtra, India. In 2003, her documentary In the Flesh: three lives in prostitution was released.

References

External links

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Indian women filmmakers
Indian filmmakers
Indian feminists
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members
Indian Wikimedians
Indian documentary filmmakers
Indian women journalists
Indian women activists
20th-century Indian journalists
20th-century Indian women writers
Journalists from Maharashtra
Women writers from Maharashtra
Activists from Maharashtra
Women documentary filmmakers

Bishakha Datta


A fraudulent conveyance or fraudulent transfer is an attempt to avoid debt by transferring money to another person or company. It is generally treated as a civil cause of action that arises in debtor/creditor relations, typically brought by creditors or by bankruptcy trustees against insolvent debtors, but in some jurisdictions there is potential for criminal prosecution.

Overview

A transfer will be fraudulent if made with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud any creditor. Thus, if a transfer is made with the specific intent to avoid satisfying a specific liability, then actual intent is present. However, when a debtor prefers to pay one creditor instead of another, that is not a fraudulent transfer.

There are two types of fraudulent transfer—actual fraud and constructive fraud. Actual fraud typically involves a debtor who as part of an asset protection scheme donates his assets, usually to an "insider", and leaves himself nothing to pay his creditors. Constructive fraud does not relate to fraudulent intent, but rather to the underlying economics of the transaction, if it took place for less than reasonably equivalent value at a time when the debtor was in a distressed financial condition. It is important to note that the actual distinction between the two different types of fraud is what the intentions of the debtor were. For example, where the debtor has simply been more generous than they should have or, in business transactions, the business should have ceased trading earlier to preserve capital (see generally, wrongful trading). In a successful lawsuit, the plaintiff is entitled to recover the property transferred or its value from the transferee who has received a gift of the debtor's assets. Subsequent transferees may also be targeted, although they generally have stronger defenses than immediate transferees.

Although fraudulent transfer law originally evolved in the context of a relatively simple agrarian economy, it is now widely used to challenge complex modern financial transactions such as leveraged buyouts.

Fraudulent transfer liability will often turn on the financial condition of the debtor at a particular point in the past. This analysis has historically required "dueling" expert testimony from both plaintiffs and defendants, which often led to an expensive process and inconsistent and unpredictable results. Courts and scholars have recently developed market-based approaches to try to make this analysis simpler, more consistent across cases, and more predictable.

Badges of fraud

Evidence of actual intent is rarely available to a creditor for it would require proof of someone's inner thoughts. Because of that, creditors often have to rely on circumstantial evidence of fraud. To prove actual intent, the courts have developed "badges of fraud", which, while not conclusive, are considered by the courts as circumstantial evidence of fraud:

becoming insolvent because of the transfer;
lack or inadequacy of consideration;
family or insider relationship among parties;
the retention of possession, benefits or use of property in question;
the existence of the threat of litigation;
the financial situation of the debtor at the time of transfer or after transfer;
the existence or a cumulative effect of a series of transactions after the onset of debtor's financial difficulties;
the general chronology of events;
secrecy of the transaction in question; and
deviation from the usual method or course of business.

Individual jurisdictions

Australia
Under Australian law, if a transaction is entered into by a company which subsequently goes into liquidation, and the transaction was entered into by the company for the purpose of defeating, delaying or interfering with the rights of creditors during the 10 years prior to the relation back day, the courts may set it aside. The relation-back day is defined as either the day upon which the application for the company's winding-up was filed, or the date of the commencement of liquidation.

Canada

Canadian provinces have jurisdiction over property and civil rights, which includes conveyances of property. Many provinces have statutes prohibiting fraudulent conveyances. They also prohibit the granting of fraudulent preferences, which purport to give certain creditors priority over other creditors in bankruptcy. However,  bona fide purchasers for value without notice are generally not liable for the actions of the fraudulent conveyer.

United Kingdom

Fraudulent Conveyances Act 1571 (repealed by the Law of Property Act 1925)
Insolvency Act 1986 section 423

United States
In Anglo-American law, the doctrine of Fraudulent Conveyance traces its origins back to Twyne's Case, in which an English farmer attempted to defraud his creditors by selling his sheep to a man named Twyne, while remaining in possession of the sheep, marking and shearing them.  In the United States, fraudulent conveyances or transfers are governed by two sets of laws that are generally consistent. The first is the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act ("UFTA") that has been adopted by all but a handful of the states. The second is found in the Federal Bankruptcy Code.

The UFTA and the Bankruptcy Code both provide that a transfer made by a debtor is fraudulent as to a creditor if the debtor made the transfer with the "actual intention to hinder, delay or defraud" any creditor of the debtor.

There are two kinds of fraudulent transfer. The archetypal example is the intentional fraudulent transfer. This is a transfer of property made by a debtor with intent to defraud, hinder, or delay his or her creditors. The second is a constructive fraudulent transfer. Generally, this occurs when a debtor transfers property without receiving "reasonably equivalent value" in exchange for the transfer if the debtor is insolvent at the time of the transfer or becomes insolvent or is left with unreasonably small capital to continue in business as a result of the transfer. Unlike the intentional fraudulent transfer, no intention to defraud is necessary.

The Bankruptcy Code authorizes a bankruptcy trustee to recover the property transferred fraudulently for the benefit of all of the creditors of the debtor if the transfer took place within the relevant time frame. The transfer may also be recovered by a bankruptcy trustee under the UFTA too, if the state in which the transfer took place has adopted it and the transfer took place within its relevant time period. Creditors may also pursue remedies under the UFTA without the necessity of a bankruptcy.

Because this second type of transfer does not necessarily involve any actual wrongdoing, it is a common trap into which honest, but unwary debtors fall when filing a bankruptcy petition without an attorney. Particularly devastating and not uncommon is the situation in which an adult child takes title to the parents' home as a self-help probate measure (in order to avoid any confusion about who owns the home when the parents die and to avoid losing the home to a perceived threat from the state). Later, when the parents file a bankruptcy petition without recognizing the problem, they are unable to exempt the home from administration by the trustee. Unless they are able to pay the trustee an amount equal to the greater of the equity in the home or the sum of their debts (either directly to the Chapter 7 trustee or in payments to a Chapter 13 trustee), the trustee will sell their home to pay the creditors. In many cases, the parents would have been able to exempt the home and carry it safely through a bankruptcy if they had retained title or had recovered title before filing.

Even good faith purchasers of property who are the recipients of fraudulent transfers are only partially protected by the law in the U.S. Under the Bankruptcy Code, they get to keep the transfer to the extent of the value they gave for it, which means that they may lose much of the benefit of their bargain, even though they have no knowledge that the transfer to them is fraudulent.

Often fraudulent transfers occur in connection with leveraged buyouts (LBOs), where the management/owners of a failing corporation will cause the corporation to borrow on its assets and use the loan proceeds to purchase the management/owner's stock at highly inflated prices. The creditors of the corporation will then often have little or no unencumbered assets left upon which to collect their debts. LBOs can be either intentional or constructive fraudulent transfers, or both, depending on how obviously the corporation is financially impaired when the transaction is completed.

Although not all LBOs are fraudulent transfers, a red flag is raised when, after an LBO, the company then cannot pay its creditors.

Fraudulent transfer liability will often turn on the financial condition of the debtor at a particular point in the past. This analysis has historically required "dueling" expert testimony from both plaintiffs and defendants, which often led to an expensive process and inconsistent and unpredictable results. U.S. courts and scholars have recently developed market-based approaches to try to streamline the analysis of constructive fraud, and judges are increasingly focusing on these market based measures.

Switzerland

Under Swiss law, creditors who hold a certificate of unpaid debts against the debtor, or creditors in a bankruptcy, may file suit against third parties that have benefited from unfair preferences or fraudulent transfers by the debtor prior to a seizure of assets or a bankruptcy.

South Korea
Fraudulent conveyance or also known as action revocatoire or Pauline action (채권자취소권) is a right to preserve the debtor's property for all creditors by canceling an action by the debtor which reduces the debtor's property with a knowledge that the action harms the rights of the creditor. To exercise this right, the creditor must have a right against the debtor that is monetary and not unique and personal in nature. For instance, the right to demand to clear of the land of the building or the right to delivery the land involves land and unique and therefore not subject to Pauline action (Supreme Court of South Korea, February 10, 1995, 94da2534).

See also
Bayou Hedge Fund Group
Fraudulent Conveyances Act 1571
Bernard Madoff
UK insolvency law
Tunneling fraud

Notes

Bankruptcy
Corporate finance
Fraud
Personal finance
Property law
Commercial crimes

Fraudulent conveyance


Andrew Crowther Hurley (1926–1988) was a quantum chemist and mathematician who was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1972.

He was a student of the University of Melbourne  and obtained First Class Honours B Sc in Theoretical Physics and theory of Statistics. He received his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1947 and his Bachelor of Science in 1948.

He received his Master of Arts degree in March 1949 for his thesis 'Finite Rotation Groups and Crystal Classes in Four Dimensions', receiving First Class Honours and first place.

In 1950 he moved to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for his PhD in theoretical physics under the supervision of Paul Dirac. After one term, he transferred to the Department of Theoretical Chemistry under the supervision of John Lennard-Jones, and also interacted with S. Francis Boys, George G. Hall and John Pople. He worked on Moffitt's method of atoms in molecules and
introduced the method of 'intra-atomic correlation correction' using the rather poor computational facilities available, which limited the calculations to small molecules.

In 1953 he joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Chemical Physics Section, and remained there until his death in 1988. He was an expert on group theory and its uses in quantum chemistry.

In 1963, he wrote a monograph on the 'Electronic Theory of Small Molecules' for the series 'Theoretical Chemistry' published by Academic Press.

References

1926 births
1988 deaths
Australian chemists
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Computational chemists
CSIRO people
Australian mathematicians
University of Melbourne alumni
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge

Andrew Crowther Hurley


The County Fair, also called The Country Fair in some reissues, is a short animated film distributed by Universal Pictures, in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. The cartoon shares a very similar title with Kounty Fair, another Oswald short released four years prior.

Plot
Oswald is walking merrily on the road, heading towards the county fair. On his way, the boy beagle is expelled out of the house by a disgruntled father. The father dog roughs up the boy beagle some more before returning indoors. Feeling sorry for his little friend, Oswald decides to take the little dog along.

At the fair, Oswald and the boy beagle disguise themselves as a single customer in an attempt to just pay for one ticket. Their cover is blown when they stumble, prompting the ticket seller to shoo them. Annoyed by that employee, the boy beagle assaults the ticket seller, eventually knocking the latter out of the ticket booth.

Going further into fair, the boy beagle wishes to board the roller coaster. When a guard demands for a ticket which he has none, the little dog decides to just harass the guard, momentarily knocking that worker using the spinning bars. Oswald, who tries to take him, would also be knocked down by those bars.

Oswald chases the boy beagle into the trousers of a hefty tourist. While the little dog is able to get out of the pants, the rabbit gets stuck. The boy beagle begins pelting Oswald in the head with some baseballs.

Oswald then pursues the boy beagle into a high striker which the little dog climbs up. Oswald strikes the lever with a mallet but the boy beagle is able to dodge the bell-hitting mechanism. Oswald strikes the lever once more but harder. The impact of the second hit was so powerful that the high striker collapses. The rabbit then captures the boy beagle in a way that the tiny canine cannot escape.

Returning to the house, Oswald hurls the boy beagle back inside. In no time the house starts to rattle violently, giving Oswald the notion that the little dog is getting battered more by the father. It then appears that the one getting the abuse is the father dog who runs away in terror. The angry boy beagle shows up holding a short 2x2 lumber. Frightened, Oswald runs as far as he could. The boy beagle tosses the lumber which lands on Oswald's head, putting the rabbit dazed on the ground.

References

External links
 The County Fair at the Big Cartoon Database

1934 films
1934 animated films
1930s American animated films
1930s animated short films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Walter Lantz
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons
Universal Pictures animated short films
Walter Lantz Productions shorts
Animated films about dogs
1930s English-language films

The County Fair (1934 film)


The Tabular Islamic calendar is a variation of the Islamic calendar. It has the same numbering of years and months, but the months are determined by rules rather than by observing the crescent moon directly. The tabular calendar was developed by early Muslim astronomers of the second hijra century (the 8th century of the Common Era). They wanted to be able to predict the positions of the moon, sun, and planets. It is now used by historians to convert an Islamic date into a Western calendar when no other information (like the day of the week) is available. Its calendar era is the Hijri year and its epoch (year 1) is the date of the Hijra (622 in the Common Era or Gregorian calendar).

Uses
It is used by some Muslims in everyday life, particularly in Ismaili and Shi'a communities, who believe that this calendar was developed by Ali. They believe that when Ali drew up this calendar, the previous events of the earlier prophets also fell into line with this calendar. It is their belief that all Fatimid Imams and their Da'is have followed this tradition.

Days and months
Each year has 12 months. The odd numbered months have 30 days and the even numbered months have 29 days, except in a leap year when the 12th and final month Dhu al-Hijjah has 30 days.

Islamic calendar

Tabular Islamic calendar


Ma Yanhong (; born March 21, 1964, in Beijing, China) (also reported in some media as July 5, 1963) is a retired Chinese Olympic athlete. She was the first Chinese gymnast, male or female, to win a gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships and the Olympic Games.

Biography
Ma began gymnastics at the Shichahai Sports School for Amateurs in her hometown of Beijing. The age at which she started training has been variously reported as six, eight and nine.

In 1978, her first year with the Chinese national team, Ma made her international debut at the Asian Games, where she shared in the team gold medal and won the uneven bars title. She repeated her success at the 1978 Shanghai Cup, again winning team and bars titles. Ma was a member of the 1979, 1981 and 1983 World Championships teams; she was the Chinese National Champion in 1982. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics uneven bars final, Ma was suffered from Appendicitis, though in great pain she insisted on finishing the competition. Finally Ma tied with American Julianne McNamara to win the gold medal on bars in that competition  and both of them scored a perfect 10.0 in the final.  This is the first Olympic gold medal ever for China in women's gymnastics.

Ma's best event was unquestionably the uneven bars; she placed first on this apparatus at the age of fifteen at the 1979 World Championships. Her bars routines were noted for their technical difficulty, virtuosity and originality. The dismount she pioneered, a hecht-front salto-full now known as the Ma, is valued as an "F," the second highest difficulty rating possible, in the current Code of Points. Ma was not only a bars specialist, however: she placed fourth in the all-around at the 1981 World Championships, sixth all-around at the 1984 Olympics, and often won silver or bronze medals on the floor exercise and balance beam in international meets.

After retiring from gymnastics, Ma pursued a University education and spent some time in the UK and the United States, coaching at clubs in California. She returned to China in 1994 and is now involved in business. She also owns a Japanese restaurant in Beijing and has worked as a commentator for various gymnastics competitions, including the 1999 World Championships in Tianjin. She is inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2008, and became the first Chinese women inductee of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Eponymous skill
Ma has one eponymous skill listed in the Code of Points.

Competitive history

References

External links

 Ma Yanhong at Gymn Forum

1964 births
Living people
Chinese female artistic gymnasts
Gymnasts at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Hui sportspeople
Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
Olympic gold medalists for China
Olympic bronze medalists for China
Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics
Gymnasts from Beijing
World champion gymnasts
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Asian Games medalists in gymnastics
Gymnasts at the 1978 Asian Games
Olympic gymnasts for China
Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Asian Games gold medalists for China
Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games

Ma Yanhong


Alpha is an unincorporated community in Grundy County, in the U.S. state of Missouri.

History
The town of Alpha, first called Lickskillet, came into existence circa 1850 when a store was opened by Samuel Dunham. At one point the town grew to a population of 200 and had a grocery store, two blacksmith shops, a dry goods store, two drug stores, a water-powered mill, a furniture factory, and four doctors.

In 1887, the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul Railroad Company established the town of Laredo on the west side of Medicine Creek, bypassing Alpha on the east side of the creek. This railway division point, midway between Kansas City and Ottumwa, Iowa, dictated that jobs and prosperity would come to Laredo instead of Alpha. This caused Alpha citizens and businesses to relocate to Laredo. Ultimately, the Alpha Post Office was closed in 1904.

References

 Laredo's First 100 Years, 1987, Published by the City of Laredo, Missouri.

Unincorporated communities in Grundy County, Missouri
Unincorporated communities in Missouri

Alpha, Missouri


Iya Abubakar (born 14 December 1934) is a Nigerian politician and mathematician who held multiple cabinet level appointments (Minister of Defence and Minister of Internal Affairs) during the Nigerian Second Republic, and Senator for  Adamawa North from May 1999 to May 2007.

Birth and academic career

Abubakar was born on 14 December 1934.
He was educated at Barewa College, University College Ibadan (later to become the University of Ibadan) and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge.
He worked as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in 1965–66, before being appointed as professor of mathematics at Ahmadu Bello University at the age of 28, in 1967.
He held this position until 1975, as well as a visiting professorship at the City University of New York from 1971 to 1972. In 1975, he was appointed the vice-chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, a position he held until 1978.
Abubakar was a director of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1972 to 1975.

Later career

After the regime of Lt-Gen. Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ handed power back to an elected government in 1979, Abubakar was appointed the Federal Minister of Defence, holding this office until 1982.
From 1993 to 2005, he was the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Ibadan.
In the late 1990s, he served as director of the National Mathematical Centre at Abuja and chaired both the National Manpower Commission of Nigeria and the non-governmental Africa International Foundation for Science and Technology.

Abubakar Iya was elected Senator for the Adamawa North constituency of Adamawa State, Nigeria at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, running on the People's Democratic Party (PDP) platform. He took office on 29 May 1999.
He was reelected in April 2003.
After taking his seat in the Senate in June 1999 he was appointed to committees on Public Accounts, Banking & Currency (chairman),  Commerce and Finance & Approprition.
Abubakar has also chaired the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation and the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.

Bibliography

References

Defence ministers of Nigeria
20th-century Nigerian mathematicians
University of Ibadan alumni
Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
University of Michigan faculty
Nigerian Muslims
1934 births
Living people
Peoples Democratic Party members of the Senate (Nigeria)
Barewa College alumni
20th-century Nigerian politicians
21st-century Nigerian politicians
Adamawa State politicians
People from Adamawa State
Academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University

Nigerian Fula people

Iya Abubakar


Adeline Jay Geo-Karis (March 29, 1918 – February 10, 2008) was a Republican politician and a member of the Illinois Senate for the 31st District, where she served for over 25 years. Prior to her election as Senator, she was in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979. Known simply as "Geo" to her constituents, she was a popular politician in Lake County, Illinois for many years. Known for her no-nonsense attitude and her ability to work across party lines, she also served for a time as Mayor of Zion.

Life
Born in Greece, Geo-Karis came to America at the age of four with her parents. She attended Northwestern University and the DePaul University College of Law. She rose to the rank Lt. Commander in the United States Naval Reserves before retiring with a top secret security clearance. She also served as a Justice of the Peace and later as an assistant state's attorney in Lake County.

Due to an inter-party feud which included Republican Susan Simpson challenging Geo-Karis after she had told her she wanted to stay on for one more term, Geo-Karis endorsed Democrat Michael Bond to replace her. Bond's election, in a historically Republican district, was one of the many Democratic victories in 2006 that gave the Democratic Party a super-majority in the State Senate. Geo-Karis finished her final term in the 94th General Assembly where she served as the Executive Appointments Co-Chairperson. She also served on the Senate Committee of the Whole and the Pensions & Investments committees. Geo-Karis was also an avid supporter of Saint Demitrios Greek Orthodox Church, and was a member there for over fifty years.

Death and legacy
She died on February 10, 2008, aged 89, of natural causes, at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview, Illinois. The Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park in Zion is named for her.

References

1918 births
2008 deaths
Women mayors of places in Illinois
Greek emigrants to the United States
Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives
Republican Party Illinois state senators
Mayors of places in Illinois
DePaul University College of Law alumni
Northwestern University alumni
Illinois lawyers
Female United States Navy officers
Military personnel from Illinois
Women state legislators in Illinois
People from Glenview, Illinois
People from Zion, Illinois
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
20th-century American lawyers
United States Navy reservists
21st-century American women

Adeline Geo-Karis


Harcharan Singh Brar  (21 January 1922 – 6 September 2009)  was an Indian politician belonging to the Punjab unit of Indian National Congress. He was the 13th Chief Minister of Punjab and held this position from 31 August 1995 to 21 November 1996. He succeeded the assassinated Chief Minister Beant Singh. At the time he was member of Punjab Vidhan Sabha from Muktsar Assembly Constituency.

Personal life
Harcharan Singh Brar, son of Sardar Balwant Singh Brar, was born on 21 January 1919 into a Brar Jat of Sarai Naga Royal Family, which lies along National Highway 16 between Sri Muktsar Sahib and Kot Kapura. He studied at Aitchison College and later graduated from Government College, Lahore. He married twice. His first wife was Jagir Kaur, daughter of Sardar Karnail Singh Sandhu of village Bhutter near Sadiq town in district Faridkot. He had one daughter from the first marriage, Charanjit Kaur, who he got married into the Rethgarhia family of Patiala. His second wife was Gurbinder Kaur, daughter of Jaswant Singh Kairon, who was the brother of Pratap Singh Kairon, sometime Chief Minister of Punjab. By his second marriage, H.S. Brar had two children, a son Kanwarjit Singh Brar and a daughter, Kanwaljit Kaur. Brar's only son, Kanwarjit Singh Brar (1949- 2012), was a politician and a two-term MLA from Muktsar.

Political career

Brar was a member of Punjab Vidhan Sabha five times: from Muktsar in 1960–62, re-elected in 1962-67 and 1992–97, Giddarbaha in 1967–72, Kotkapura in 1969–74. He served as the Governor of Odisha from February 1977 to September 1977, and Governor of Haryana from 24 September 1977 to 9 December 1979. He took over as Chief Minister of Punjab on 31 August 1995 after the assassination of the chief minister Beant Singh in a bomb blast outside the Punjab and Haryana Secretariat in Chandigarh. He is credited with the creation of Muktsar and Moga districts out of Faridkot district. He has also served as Minister of Irrigation and Power, and Minister of Health and Family Welfare.

Death
Brar died in Chandigarh on 6 September 2009 after a long illness at the age of 87 years.

References

1922 births
2009 deaths
Chief Ministers of Punjab, India
Governors of Haryana
Governors of Odisha
Punjabi people
Punjab, India MLAs 1992–1997
Chief ministers from Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress politicians from Odisha
Indian National Congress politicians from Punjab, India

Harcharan Singh Brar


Robert Haworth (1801 – 21 December 1875) was an English-born Australian politician.

He was born at Bury in Lancashire to Richard Haworth and Lizzie Burch. He married Alice Whittaker around 1822, with whom he had eight children; a second marriage on 7 October 1854 to Thirza Tapp Webber produced a further four children. He migrated to Australia around 1835. In 1860 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Illawarra, but he did not re-contest in 1864. Haworth died at Wollongong in 1875.

References

1801 births
1875 deaths
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
19th-century Australian politicians
People from Bury, Greater Manchester

Robert Haworth (politician)