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James Bartleman

James Karl Bartleman (24 December 1939 – 14 August 2023) was a Canadian diplomat and author who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002 to 2007.

Bartleman was a son of Percy Scott Bartleman and Maureen Florence Bartleman (Simcoe). He grew up in the Muskoka town of Port Carling, and he was a member of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation. In 1963, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in History from the University of Western Ontario, where he was initiated as a member of Phi Delta Theta.

From 2007 to 2012, Bartleman was the Chancellor of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto.

Foreign service career
Prior to taking on the role of lieutenant governor, Bartleman had a distinguished career of more than 35 years in the Canadian foreign service. In 1967, he began his diplomatic career in what was then known as the Department of External Affairs (now Global Affairs Canada). In 1972, he was given the task of opening Canada's first diplomatic mission in the newly independent People's Republic of Bangladesh. Bartleman also served in a diplomatic posting in Colombia. He was then made Canada's ambassador to Cuba (Havana) from 1981 to 1983. Upon his return from Cuba, he was appointed director of security and intelligence for the Department of External Affairs. After this, Bartleman served as High Commissioner to Cyprus and Ambassador to Israel (Tel Aviv) simultaneously from 1986 to 1990. From that dual posting, he moved to the post of Canadian Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, from 1990 to 1994. He was then moved from NATO to positions as High Commissioner to South Africa (Pretoria) in 1998-1999 and to Australia (Canberra) in 1999–2000. Finally, he was transferred back to Europe to serve as ambassador to the European Union in Brussels from 2000 to 2002.

Bartleman was director of security and intelligence for the Department of External Affairs at the time of the Air India Bombing. On 3 May 2007, he testified at the Air India Inquiry that he had presented an intelligence document to the RCMP warning of a possible attack days prior to the bombing. Bob Rae, who had been tasked with advising deputy PM Anne McLellan, later admitted that he never bothered to interview Bartleman, the former head of intelligence for Foreign Affairs Canada.

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Bartleman was sworn in as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario on 7 March 2002. He was Ontario's 41st Vice-regal representative (27th since confederation, 41st since the establishment of the post in 1792).

As is traditional to a vice-regal appointment, Bartleman used his position to spearhead three initiatives that he personally identified with and considered important. During his mandate as Lieutenant Governor, he sought to:
 * 1) Reduce the stigma of mental illness;
 * 2) Fight racism and discrimination;
 * 3) Promote literacy among First Nations children.

To these ends, he initiated the Lieutenant Governor's Book Program in 2004. He has collected over 1.2 million books, donated from all corners of the province from both institutions and individuals, to stock school libraries in First Nations communities, particularly in Northern Ontario. In 2005, to further promote literacy and bridge building, Bartleman initiated a program to pair up Native and non-Native schools in Ontario and Nunavut, and set-up summer camps for literacy development in five northern First Nations communities.

Personal life and death
Bartleman was related to honorary Chief of the Mnjikaning Indians John Bigwin, on his mother's side.

James Bartleman died on 14 August 2023, at the age of 83.

Unlike most vice-regal funerals, which are public, Bartleman's funeral will be private but flags will fly at half mast.

Writing
Bartleman published several works of non-fiction, both before and during his viceregal term. These included the childhood memoirs Out of Muskoka (2002) and Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka (2007), and the professional career memoirs On Six Continents (2004) and Rollercoaster: My Hectic Years as Jean Chrétien's Diplomatic Advisor (2005).

Following the end of his viceregal term, Bartleman has also published a trilogy of social justice novels, As Long as the Rivers Flow (2011), The Redemption of Oscar Wolf (2013) and Exceptional Circumstances (2015). As Long as the Rivers Flow was a finalist for the 2013 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature.

Orders and awards

 * Bartleman was awarded the National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now the Indspire Award) for public service in 1999
 * On 1 June 2002, as Lieutenant-Governor, he received the Order of Ontario and became the Order's Chancellor
 * On 1 June 2002, he was invested as a Knight of Justice in the Order of St. John
 * In 2002, he received the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
 * On 25 January 2008, he received the Rotary Youth Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Rotary Club of Toronto West
 * In 2011, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to his country, notably as lieutenant governor, and as a champion of mental health, literacy and poverty reduction."
 * In 2012, he received the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
 * The Dr. Hugh Lefave Award
 * The Courage to Come Back Award
 * The Deloitte Hero Inspiration Award
 * The Jane Chamberlin Award for his efforts to reduce the stigma of mental illness
 * The Phi Delta Kappa Educator of the Year Award
 * The DAREarts Cultural Award in recognition of the Lieutenant Governor's Book Program

Honorary degrees
Bartleman was awarded many honorary degrees for his service, including the following:

Honorific eponyms

 * Awards
 * Ontario: James Bartleman Aboriginal Youth Creative Writing Awards

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Chris Pérez

Christopher Gilbert Pérez (born August 14, 1969) is an American guitarist, best known as lead guitarist for the Tejano band Selena y Los Dinos. He married the frontwoman of the group, Selena, on April 2, 1992. Pérez grew up in San Antonio, Texas as one of two children of Gilbert Pérez and Carmen Medina. In 1986, he began his tenure by joining Shelly Lares' band. By the late 1980s, Pérez was respected among Tejano musicians for his guitar skills. This caught A.B. Quintanilla's attention; at the time, A.B. was seeking another guitarist for the band he produced, Selena y Los Dinos. Between one and two years after Pérez joined the band, he and Selena began a personal relationship.

Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, forced them to end their relationship because he felt Pérez's image might damage Selena's career. They ignored his threats that he would disband the group, and continued their relationship. Abraham fired Pérez from the band, forbidding Selena to go with him. Pérez wed Selena in 1992. On March 31, 1995, Selena was shot and killed by her former friend and former manager of her boutiques, Yolanda Saldívar. Selena's murder greatly devastated Pérez, who began abusing drugs and alcohol.

Pérez formed the Chris Pérez Band and began writing songs for their debut album. They signed with Hollywood Records and released their first album, Resurrection, which won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. The band disbanded after their second album, Una Noche Mas (2002), was released. Pérez continued in the music business and often played with A.B.'s groups, the Kumbia Kings and the Kumbia All Starz. He left both groups and formed another band (the Chris Pérez Project, which included American singer Angel Ferrer) in 2010. In 2012, Pérez wrote a book about his relationship with Selena, entitled To Selena, with Love.

Early life
Christopher Pérez was born on August 14, 1969, in San Antonio, Texas to Gilbert Pérez, a computer programmer, and Carmen Medina. He is of Mexican-American ancestry. Perez's parents divorced in 1974, when he was four years old. His mother remarried in 1978.

Pérez learned to play the French horn in middle school and joined his school's concert band with his mother's support. He decided to teach himself to play electric guitar despite his mother's disapproval due to the negative stereotypes associated with the rock-and-roll world. Pérez's favorite musicians were Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Kiss, the Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden. He also grew to admire Ricky Martin during the 1990s. Many of his guitar solos are inspired by Carlos Santana.

Pérez wanted to run away to Los Angeles, California to start a rock band when he was seventeen. At the time, he shared an apartment with his father and worked at a library. Pérez was asked by Tony Lares to join his cousin Shelly Lares' band in 1986. Lares told Pérez that Shelly performed Tejano music—a mixture of traditional Mexican folk music, polkas and country music sung in Spanish or English. Pérez disliked Tejano music and wrote in To Selena, With Love that he joined Shelly's band with "foot-dragging resistance" because this job paid more than working at the library. He became Shelly's musical director after Tony left the group, and co-wrote three songs for Shelly's debut album in 1989. His guitar playing received a positive reception from the band and its fans. Around this time, he also formed a rock band with two friends and planned to leave Shelly's band.

1989–1995: Selena y Los Dinos
Roger Garcia, lead guitarist for Selena y Los Dinos, married and left the music business in 1989. The group's bassist, A.B. Quintanilla III, had heard good things about Pérez from other Tejano groups. He and other band members went to watch Pérez rehearse with Shelly. Quintanilla invited Chris to one of Selena's performances, and asked if he was interested in playing with Selena y Los Dinos. Pérez accepted, basing his decision on Los Dinos's sound, which was more "hip and sophisticated" than other Tejano bands, and he hoped to learn more about musical arrangement from A.B., whose work he admired.

Pérez auditioned for the group's manager, A.B.'s father Abraham Quintanilla, Jr. Abraham initially disliked Pérez's rocker image and insisted that he change his appearance for the band. The elder Quintanilla feared that allowing Pérez in the group might affect his daughter Selena's "perfect image" and ruin her career. A.B. convinced his father to accept Pérez, and encouraged Pérez to explore different musical genres and mold their sounds to his own tastes. He and A.B became close friends occasionally collaborated on writing songs for Selena's next recording. Pérez, like Selena, knew little Spanish, and lead keyboardist Ricky Vela tutored him.

Relationship with Selena
In 1989 Pérez and A.B. wrote Selena's Coca-Cola commercial jingle. After the company accepted the lyrics and Selena filmed the commercial, A.B. treated the band to a vacation in Acapulco, Mexico. During the trip Pérez realized he was attracted to Selena although he had a girlfriend in San Antonio. Pérez thought it best for both of them if he tried to distance himself from her, but found it difficult and decided to try building a relationship with her. They expressed their feelings for each other at a Pizza Hut restaurant, and shortly afterwards became a couple. They hid their relationship from her father out of fear that Abraham would try to break them up. This stressed Selena, who did not want to hide her feelings.

Suzette ended up reporting the relationship to Abraham, who took Pérez off the bus and informed him that it was over. The couple continued their relationship secretly despite Abraham's disapproval. Selena took hope from the fact that her mother Marcella approved of their courtship, until one day when Abraham stopped the tour bus and went to the back where Pérez and Selena were sitting. He shouted that their relationship was over and Selena screamed back at him. Pérez tried to calm them both down, but joined in the argument after Abraham insulted him by calling him a "cancer in my family." Finally Abraham threatened to disband the group if they did not break up. Intimidated, Selena and Pérez backed off. Abraham fired him from the band and prevented Selena from running off with him, leaving Selena both extremely devastated and heartbroken.

After Pérez was fired from the band, he moved back in with his father and began playing music wherever he could. He wrote that "free of that nerve-racking situation with her father and the other members of Los Dinos, I started enjoying my life again." Selena, however, suffered from their separation and the two tried to keep in touch while she was touring. On the morning of April 2, 1992, Selena pounded on his hotel-room door. She forced her way in and began to cry, saying she could not go on without him. Selena wanted to get married that day, but Pérez argued it was not the right thing to do at the moment. Selena insisted her father would never accept their relationship, and would not attend any wedding they planned. Pérez agreed and they eloped in Nueces County, Texas.

Selena was sure her father would leave them alone if they were married, and they could be together openly. They planned to keep the elopement a secret until she found the right moment to reveal her marriage, but the media announced their elopement over the radio within hours of the marriage ceremony. Selena's family tried to track her down. Abraham did not take the news well, and alienated himself for a time. Selena and Pérez moved into an apartment in Corpus Christi until Abraham approached them, apologized, accepted the marriage and Pérez back into the band.

Pérez became a fully accepted member of the Quintanilla family after the marriage, and Abraham asked Pérez to write songs for a rock band he was managing after he opened a recording studio, Q-Productions, in late 1993. That collaboration resulted in a posthumous recording for Selena when the lead vocalist for that rock group, Nando "Guerro" Dominguez, went to Selena's house to begin a recording. Pérez was ending the recording session several hours later when Selena asked to record Dominguez's demo. Her version of the song was unreleased until 2004, when it was added to her posthumous compilation album Momentos Intimos as "Puede Ser". A.B. wrote "Ya No", the last recording for Selena's studio album Amor Prohibido (1994). He wanted to turn it into a rock song and asked for Pérez's assistance.

1995–1998: After Selena, remarriage and fatherhood
In spring 1995, Abraham found out that Yolanda Saldívar, who managed Selena's boutiques and fan club, was embezzling money. They held a meeting in early March, with Saldívar denying she had anything to do with fiscal discrepancies in checks that were found written in her name. Selena tried to repair her friendship with Saldívar despite her father's warnings. On March 30, 1995, Selena and Pérez met with Saldívar at a motel to recover missing financial papers for tax purposes. When Selena and Pérez arrived home she found that Saldivar did not give her the correct documents. She phoned Saldívar, who tried to convince Selena to return to her motel room alone. Pérez insisted that it was too late, and he did not want Selena driving alone at night. Selena then agreed to meet with Saldivar the next morning.

On March 31, Selena woke up early to meet Saldívar at the motel where she was staying. She met with Saldívar, who delayed the transfer of papers with a story about having been raped in Mexico. Selena took Saldívar to a local hospital, where doctors found no evidence of rape. When they returned to the motel room, Selena ended their four-year working relationship. As Selena turned to leave, Saldívar reached into her purse, pulled out a Taurus Model 85 .38 caliber revolver, pointed it at Selena and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered Selena's right shoulder blade from the back, piercing a major artery running from her heart and exiting from just below her right collarbone. She ran to the motel lobby and collapsed to the floor. As the motel employees gathered round, she named Saldívar as her assailant. Selena was transferred to a nearby hospital, where doctors found the damage irreparable. She was pronounced dead within the hour.

Pérez could not eat for two days after his wife's murder. In his book he says that when he could not sleep he began abusing alcohol and other drugs, and went into seclusion. Family members noticed he was rapidly losing weight. Chris felt guilty for not protecting Selena from Saldívar.

In 1996, he moved out of his Corpus Christi house and back in with his father in San Antonio. John Garza introduced him to Venessa Villanueva, and after getting to know each other they became a couple in 1998. In 2001, Pérez married Villanueva and they had two children, a boy Noah and a girl Cassie.

Although it was rumored that Villanueva did not want to divorce, and wanted to try and work things out in their relationship, the couple finally decided their relationship was irreconcilable. They filed for divorce in 2008. Despite getting married again and having 2 children, Pérez has since remained in touch with the Quintanillas following Selena's death.

1999–2010: Chris Pérez Band, Kumbia Kings and Kumbia All Starz
Pérez's friend, John Garza moved in with him six months after Selena's death. They began writing music, which Pérez found healing. In 1998 he formed a rock band with Garza, Rudy Martinez (former member of La Mafia) on bass, former Selena y Los Dinos keyboardist Joe Ojeda and Jesse Esquivel on drums. The band's name (the Chris Pérez Band) was chosen by Garza, Martinez, Ojeda and Esquivel. Chris preferred the name Cinco Souls, but the other band members wanted to utilize his "reluctant celebrity." The band was signed to Hollywood Records, and went to A&M Studios (now Henson Studios) in Los Angeles to begin recording their debut album. Pérez wrote the song "Best I Can" to explore his feelings about losing Selena and his struggle to continue without her. The song was not planned for the album, for fear that listeners would think he included the track for commercial reasons, but Hollywood Records and the band convinced him to include it on the album after hearing the demo.

"Another Day" (about devotion to Selena) was included on the album. Ojeda wrote "Solo Tu", a romantic ballad which Pérez changed into a rock song. Resurrection was released on May 18, 1999, and won the 2000 Grammy Award for Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album. The record company released two promotional singles (one English and one Spanish: the title track and the ballad "Por Que Tu Fuiste") to radio stations with intent to appeal to both audiences. The Los Angeles Times wrote that the album was "upbeat and danceable, the lyrics speak almost uniformly of loss, anger, violence and abandonment". The Chris Pérez Band was the opening act for Mexican band Mana. In March 2000, Pérez began preparing for his second studio album; On April 16, the band released its second and final album, Una Noche Más, before breaking up. Pérez joined his brother-in-law A.B.'s band, the Kumbia All Starz, in 2006 and left it in 2010 to form his own band. On April 7, 2005, Los Dinos reunited at the Selena ¡VIVE! tribute concert.

2010–present: The Chris Pérez Project, To Selena, With Love, Blue Mariachi Productions
In 2010, Pérez formed a new group (the Chris Pérez Project) with Puerto Rican singer Angel Ferrer, releasing "Todo es Diferente".

In March 2012 Pérez published To Selena, With Love, which described their relationship and struggles. He had been reluctant to write the book, saying that fans asked him to write it. He did not seek the approval of the Quintanilla family to write To Selena, With Love and did not disclose the project in fear of their reaction. He approached Abraham after the book was finished. Abraham approved of it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Pérez said writing To Selena, With Love helped him "move forward". The book was praised by critics and fans. To Selena, With Love dispelled the rumor that Selena was pregnant when she died (which had appeared in media reports after her death).

In November 2016, Pérez announced that a made-for-television miniseries would be made from his book. This prompted Abraham to file a lawsuit against him since it violated an estate properties agreement originally signed between him and the family two months after Selena's death in 1995. The lawsuit also sparked a bitter dispute between the family and Pérez, who in September 2020, went on Instagram and publicly accused the Quintanilla family of erasing his legacy with Selena. Suzette posted a rebuttal shortly thereafter and Perez later apologized. The case was settled in September 2021.

In August 2021 Pérez's label Blue Mariachi Productions signed its first act, ZEUS. El Mero Necio alias Carlton Zeus.

In December 2021, the 1997 biopic Selena was inducted into the National Film Registry on the film's 25th anniversary. Pérez recognized the occasion by posting a statement and photo of a white rose.

Personality and musical influences
According to The Dallas Morning News, Hollywood.com, Justice for Selena, They Died Too Young and Selena: Como La Flor, Pérez is a shy person. He was the antithesis of Abraham Quintanilla's "clean-cut, nice kids" in his early career as a guitarist for Selena y Los Dinos, a rebellious rocker and a "long-haired tough guy". In an interview with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, he admitted discomfort at being an entertainer. Until the release of his book, he had kept quiet about his personal life and shied away from media attention. Carlos Valdez, the District Attorney who prosecuted Yolanda Saldívar, described Pérez as "shy and uncomfortable when in the spotlight", and this was echoed by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. His inability to talk about himself when interviewed was also discussed in Valdez' book. Valdez said the music business was not work for Pérez, who enjoyed being a guitarist and called it his "reason for [his] existence". Valdez considers him "honest, sincere, and someone who could be trusted and believed [in]."

Leila Cobo of Billboard magazine believed his musical styles included contemporary cumbia music, reminiscent of music produced by A.B., R&B, rap and funk music. Chuck Taylor, a Billboard editor, called The Chris Pérez Project debut album a "lot of classic rock elements". David Cazares of the Sun Sentinel called Pérez' debut album "average rock" music. The San Antonio Express-News said that Resurrection was a fusion of "pop rock grooves and Tejano soul". Pérez is known for tapping into Latin genres, such as cumbia and Latin rock.

In the 1997 biopic-film, Selena, Pérez was portrayed by Jon Seda while actor Jesse Posey portrayed him in Selena: The Series.

Discography

 * Selena y Los Dinos
 * Ven Conmigo (1990)
 * Entre a Mi Mundo (1992)
 * Selena Live! (1993)
 * Amor Prohibido (1994)
 * Dreaming of You (1995)

 * Chris Pérez Band
 * Resurrection (1999)
 * Una Noche Más (2002)

 * Kumbia Kings
 * Amor, Familia y Respeto (1999)
 * Shhh! (2001)
 * All Mixed Up: Los Remixes (2002)
 * 4 (2003)
 * Los Remixes 2.0 (2004)
 * Fuego (2004)
 * Kumbia Kings Live (2006)

 * Kumbia All Starz
 * Ayer Fue Kumbia Kings, Hoy Es Kumbia All Starz (2006)
 * Planeta Kumbia (2008)
 * La Vida de un Genio (2010)

Published works

 * To Selena, With Love (2012)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Chris Pérez


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User:Burkhold

 * User:Burkhold/MyBookMarks
 * User:Burkhold/MyInterests

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USS Wahoo

Five submarines of the United States Navy have been named USS Wahoo, named after the fish, may refer to:

 * USS Wahoo (SS-238), a Gato-class submarine, commanded by "Mush" Morton, which became famous during World War II
 * USS Wahoo (SS-516), a Tench-class submarine, was assigned the name, but was canceled before her keel was laid down
 * USS Wahoo (SS-518), also a Tench-class submarine, was laid down, but she was cancelled before being launched
 * USS Wahoo (SS-565), a Tang-class submarine, which served during the Cold War
 * USS Wahoo (SSN-806), a planned Virginia-class submarine

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Hal Jackman

Henry Newton Rowell "Hal" Jackman (born June 10, 1932) is a Canadian billionaire businessman who served as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1991 to 1997. He is the son of former Member of Parliament Harry Jackman and philanthropist Mary Rowell Jackman. His mother was the daughter of another former Member of Parliament, Newton Rowell. His sister, Nancy Ruth, is a philanthropist who was appointed to the Senate in 2005.

Life and career
Jackman was educated at Pickering College, the University of Toronto Schools, Upper Canada College (where he was a member of Jackson's House), the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and the London School of Economics.

He was the chairman of the board of National Trust Company and The Empire Life Insurance Company, businesses primarily owned and controlled by his family. In 1964, he married Maruja Trinidad Duncan.

Jackman was the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Toronto riding of Rosedale, which had been previously held by his father, in the 1963, 1965 and 1974 Canadian federal elections. He lost on all three occasions to Liberal Donald Stovel Macdonald.

Jackman was a longtime fundraiser for the Progressive Conservatives, and he became a supporter of the Canadian Alliance when it was formed prior to the 2000 election. He was also an advocate of the Unite the Right movement, which resulted in the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Viceregal appointment
Jackman was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn in 1991, on the advice of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and he became a Member of the Order of Canada the same year. He focused on support for the arts, history and national unity during his time in office.

He served as Lieutenant Governor until 1997 and was then appointed to the Order of Ontario in 1998. He was promoted to Officer in the Order of Canada in the year 2000.

Other distinctions
Jackman did not serve in the military, but he received the Canadian Forces' Decoration in recognition of his service as an honorary colonel of the Governor General's Horse Guards, a Toronto militia unit.

He was named chancellor of the University of Toronto in 1997. Following his retirement from that post, he was elected as the fourth Visitor of Massey College.

title: Hal Jackman


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User:Burkhold/MyBookMarks

 * Editing Help

title: User:Burkhold/MyBookMarks


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User talk:Burkhold

Hi - when you do pages like my bookmarks you need to make sure that they are in the user space not the main encyclopedia space. I've corrected them for you. Secretlondon 18:27, Nov 14, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks secret ... ur on the ball, that happened pretty quick. This is a most impressive project!

Thanks!

Hello there Burkhold, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you ever need editing help visit How does one edit a page or how to format them visit our manual of style. Experiment at Sandbox. If you need pointers on how we title pages visit Naming conventions. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Secretlondon 19:21, Nov 14, 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Burkhold


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John Black Aird

John Black Aird (May 5, 1923 – May 6, 1995) was a Canadian lawyer, corporate director, and political figure. He served in the Senate of Canada from 1964 to 1974, and he was Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1980 to 1985.

Life and career
Aird was born in Toronto, Ontario, and was the grandson of Sir John Aird, a prominent Canadian banker. He was educated at Upper Canada College, Trinity College and Osgoode Hall Law School. Aird was a Brother at the Toronto Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi.

During World War II, Aird served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. In July 1944, he married Lucille “Jane” Housser.

Aird practised law in Toronto and headed his own firm, Aird & Berlis, in 1974. He also served as a director of several corporations. In 1958, he was appointed to the board of directors of Callaghan Mining. He later was chairman of the board of Algoma Central Railway.

From 1964 to 1974, he was a Liberal party Senator. In 1971, he served as chairman of the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defence. From 1977 to 1985, he was Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

Aird was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, and he served as 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1980 to 1985. The main focus of his mandate was Ontarians with disabilities. He wrote a book, Loyalty in a Changing World, about the contemporary function of the Lieutenant Governor.

He was Lieutenant Governor when, 22 days into the 33rd Parliament of Ontario, Premier Frank Miller resigned following his Progressive Conservative government's defeat due to a motion of no confidence. The defeat occurred after an accord had been reached between David Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's New Democratic Party to allow Petersen to form a minority government for two years with NDP support, despite the fact that the Liberals had slightly fewer seats than the Tories. Some media outlets, such as the conservative Toronto Sun, compared the matter to the King-Byng Affair and accused Aird of partisanship for asking Peterson to form a government rather than dissolving the legislature and calling a new election.

Honours
In 1983 Algoma Central launched a ship named the John B. Aird. Aird had previously been chairman of the board of Algoma Central Railway.

After his term as Lieutenant Governor, Aird became Chancellor of the University of Toronto, his alma mater. He was made an Honorary Senior Fellow of Renison University College in 1985. He also served as Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Aird was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 1987, and he was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1992. He died in Toronto in 1995.

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Black Friday (shopping)

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week").

"Black Friday" has evolved in meaning and impact over the years, initially referring to calamitous days, with a notable early instance being Black Friday (1869) in the US. This financial crisis saw a dramatic plunge in gold prices, affecting investors. The term was later used in American retail, starting ambiguously in the 1950s. Initially associated with workforce absenteeism post-Thanksgiving, it was reinterpreted by Philadelphia police to describe the shopping-induced congestion. Attempts at rebranding to "Big Friday" failed, and the term "Black Friday" solidified by the 1980s, referring to the pivotal point where retailers purportedly shifted from loss ("in the red") to profit ("in the black"). This day marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, with promotional sales aiming to draw large crowds. Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States and retailers prioritize it and Cyber Monday as highly profitable holiday shopping days.

The concept has since globalized, with countries around the world adopting "Black Friday" sales to mimic the U.S. phenomenon, adjusting local customs or creating similar events. The advent of online shopping and events like "Cyber Monday" have expanded the traditional one-day shopping frenzy into a broader holiday shopping season, diluting the singular focus of Black Friday, and expanding its economic impact.

Etymology
For centuries, the adjective "black" has been applied to days upon which calamities occurred. Many events have been described as "Black Friday", although the most significant such event in American history was the Panic of 1869, which occurred when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk took advantage of their connections with the Grant Administration in an attempt to corner the gold market. When President Grant learned of this manipulation, he ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop by 18%. Fortunes were made and lost in a single day, and the president's own brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was ruined.

The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to the day after Thanksgiving occurred in the journal, Factory Management and Maintenance, for November 1951, and again in 1952. Here it referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to have a four-day weekend. However, this use does not appear to have caught on. Around the same time, the terms "Black Friday" and "Black Saturday" came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season. In 1961, the city and merchants of Philadelphia attempted to improve conditions, and a public relations expert recommended rebranding the days "Big Friday" and "Big Saturday", but these terms were quickly forgotten.

The use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia. Although it soon became more widespread, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1985 that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.

As the phrase gained national attention in the early 1980s, merchants objecting to the use of a derisive term to refer to one of the most important shopping days of the year suggested an alternative derivation: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this was recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer be "in the red", instead of taking in the year's profits. The earliest known published reference to this explanation occurs in The Philadelphia Inquirer for November 28, 1981.

Since the early 21st century, there have been attempts by U.S.-based retailers to introduce a retail "Black Friday" to other countries around the world. Retailers outside the US have attempted to promote the day to remain competitive with US-based online retailers.

In more recent decades, global retailers have adopted the term and date to market their own holiday sales.

History
Thanksgiving's relationship to Christmas shopping led to controversy in the 1930s. Retail stores would have liked to have a longer shopping season, but no store wanted to break with tradition and be the one to start advertising before Thanksgiving. For this reason, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a presidential proclamation proclaiming Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday, meaning in some years one week earlier, in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. Most people adopted the President's change, which was later reinforced by an act of Congress, but many continued to celebrate Thanksgiving on the traditional date.

In 2015, Amazon.com was the first to offer "Black Friday in July" deals on what they called "Prime Day", promising better deals than on Black Friday. Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals.

Analyst Marshal Cohen of The NPD Group claimed in 2020 that Black Friday is declining in favor of online shopping, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process. The pandemic also resulted in holiday deals being offered over a longer period of time, even as early as October. Fewer people shopped in person on Black Friday 2020, and most business took place online. Market research company Numerator said sellers of clothing, tools and other items considered nonessential during lockdowns were not promoted as heavily because lower production meant less available to sell. Adobe Analytics reported that online sales reached $9 billion in 2020, 22% more than the previous year. Foot traffic to stores fell 48% in 2020 from last year, according to RetailNext, while Sensormatic Solutions reported a 52% decrease.

"Black Thursday"

For many years, retailers pushed opening times on Black Friday earlier and earlier, eventually reaching midnight, before opening on the evening of Thanksgiving. Kmart opened its stores on Thanksgiving as early as 1991, and was open on Thanksgiving Day for many years. In 2009, Kmart manager Freddy Moss opened at 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving in order to allow shoppers to avoid Black Friday traffic and return home in time for dinner with their families. Two years later, a number of retailers began opening at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., on what became derisively known as "Black Thursday". In subsequent years, other stores followed this trend, opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving, or remaining open all day, beginning in the early morning hours. Some retail and media sources have used the terms "Gray Thursday" or "Brown Thursday" instead.

The 2014 "Black Thursday" sales were generally a failure, as overall sales for the holiday week-end fell 11% compared to the previous year despite heavy traffic at the stores on Thanksgiving night. In response, a number of retailers decided to go back to closing on Thanksgiving for 2015, and Walmart, although its holding firm opening on the holiday and holding its sale, also pledged to offer the same deals online for those who wished to stay home.

Retailers have received pushback from some consumers over opening on Thanksgiving Day. Shopper opposition to stores opening on Thursday includes the perceived over-commercialization of Thanksgiving, retail workers not being able to spend time with their loved ones on the holiday, and Thursday doorbuster sales forcing consumers to sacrifice enjoying Thanksgiving evening with their families in order to avoid missing out on highly sought-after items which might not be available again prior to Christmas.

Most retailers abandoned efforts to hold doorbuster sales on Thanksgiving in 2020; large crowds had been forbidden under most circumstances since March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, major retailers such as Walmart and Target had already reduced their hours and dropped 24/7 operations in response to the pandemic, and several retailers known for opening on the holiday (particularly Kmart, which has typically been open regular hours) have rapidly declined. According to Adobe Analytics, online shopping set a record on Thanksgiving 2020 with $5.1 billion in total spending, 21.5% higher than in 2019. Most major retailers again closed on Thanksgiving in 2021, with Target stating that its decision would be permanent; the small minority of retail chains remaining open on the holiday that year were limited mainly to pharmacies, dollar stores and grocery stores, retail categories that traditionally do not hold doorbusters.

Nigeria
Black Friday deals were first introduced in 2014 in Nigeria.

South Africa
In South Africa black Friday was introduced in 2014.

India
The holiday shopping season in India has traditionally been aligned around the "festive period" of major festivals usually falling around October or November, such as Diwali. Similar to U.S.-style shopping events such as Black Friday, online retailers adopted the practice of holding multi-day promotions during this period, such as Amazon's "Great Indian Festival" and Flipkart's "Big Billion Days". India's Independence Day (August 15) had also recently attracted similar events.

Nonetheless, the concept of Black Friday has also been imported into the subcontinent via international retailers–a move that influenced some Indian retailers to also adopt the promotion.

Iran
Like other countries in West Asia, black Friday is very popular.

Lebanon
Lebanon was exposed to black Friday around 2014.

Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, black Friday started when a local e-commerce platform noon.com created Yellow Friday Sale which is now an annual event.

United Arab Emirates
U.A.E. Black Friday started as White Friday campaign in 2014. In 2018 local e-commerce platform noon.com created Yellow Friday in the U.A.E.. The Yellow Friday Sale is now an annual event in U.A.E., falling around the same time as Black Friday globally.

Belgium
Black Friday in Belgium is seriously marketed by retailers since 2016. Especially online shops have broke sales records during the last edition of Black Friday, which provides a base for further growth of popularity of Black Friday in Belgium. After 2016, Black Friday in Belgium has grown strongly. The participating shops have increased to over seventy during the Black Friday period of 2017. During Black Friday 2018, a total of 119 participating stores were measured in Belgium.

Denmark
In Denmark, Black Friday is widely practiced.

Finland
Black Friday sale is very popular.

France
French businesses are slowly introducing the Black Friday custom into the market. Discounts of up to 85% were given by retailing giants such as Apple and Amazon in 2014. French electronics retailers such as FNAC and Auchan advertised deals online, while Darty also took part in this once-a-year monster sale. Retailers favored the very American term "Black Friday" to "Vendredi noir" in their advertisements. In 2016, because of the terror attacks in Paris in November the year before, some retailers used the name "Jour XXL" (XXL day) instead of Black Friday. An alternative was brought up by some online businesses in 2018, called "French Days", which goal is to replicate Black Friday during spring season (starting around the first day of May).

On November 20, 2020, the French government finalized an agreement with e-commerce businesses like Amazon and supermarket chains to postpone Black Friday promotions by a week. Discounted shopping promotions were to begin on December 4 instead, after physical stores shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic were allowed to reopen.

Germany
In Germany, "Black Friday" retailer advertisements refer to "Black Week" and "Black Shopping" in English with sales lasting an entire week (excluding Sundays when most retail stores are closed). During this sales period, stores keep their normal working hours. Although goods are offered at reduced prices, the prices are not cut significantly more than normal weekly price reductions. Apple was the first company to run a special Black Friday campaign for the German market in 2006. Apple never used the name Black Friday in Germany, but promotes only a "one-day shopping event". In the first years, mostly internet retailers have used the event as an occasion to attract new customers with discounts, but bricks and mortar stores have already begun to adapt.

Greece
Black Friday sale was popularized in 2016.

Ireland
Black Friday was introduced in 2014.

Italy
2014 marked the introduction of black Friday in Italy.

Latvia
In 2017, Black Friday became widely popular in Latvia. There was even a Black week and Black week-end sales in shopping centres.

Lichtenstein
In Liechtenstein, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors. Over its first 24-hour run on November 28, 2013, more than 1.2 million people visited the site, making it the single largest online shopping event in German-speaking countries.

Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Black Friday was seriously introduced in 2015. Some years before, there were already a number of large and small retailers that used Black Friday in their marketing. However, with a total of 35 participating stores, 2015 can be considered the year in which Black Friday started in the Netherlands due to a more widespread support of large retailers. The popularity of Black Friday has grown rapidly in the Netherlands. The number of participating stores has increased to over 125 during the Black Friday period of 2017. For the 2018 edition, 166 shops joined the largest black Friday platform in the Netherlands.

Norway
In Norway, Black Friday started as a publicity stunt campaign back in 2010 to increase the sales to the shopping mall Norwegian Outlet. Since the introduction, it has been promoted every year in a larger and growing market all over the country.

Poland
There has been growing interest for Black Friday in Poland as well.

Romania
The concept was imported in Romania by eMAG and Flanco in 2011 and became bigger each year. The two reported the biggest Black Friday sales in 2014. eMAG sold products worth some 37 million euros while Flanco's sales totaled 22 million euros. Hundreds of retailers announced their participation in the 2015 campaign.

In 2015, 11 million Romanians say they have heard about Black Friday which is 73% of the 15 million people target segment. 6.7 million plan on buying something on biggest shopping event of the year in Romania.

In Romania, Black Friday is two weeks before the US Black Friday.

Spain
In 2015, Spain joined with some small retailers. The celebration became more famous year by year, until the big retailers grew.

Sweden
In Sweden, black Friday is widely practiced.

Switzerland
In 2015, Swiss retailer Manor was the first to launch a special Black Friday promotion. The year after, most Swiss retailers launched special offers during the Black Friday Week. It is estimated that customers spent around 400 million Swiss francs on Black Friday in 2018. In recent years, Singles Day got more and more important in Switzerland. This shopping day could replace Black Friday as the most important shopping day in Switzerland in 2019.

Ukraine
In 2016, Black Friday was introduced in Ukraine.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the term "Black Friday" originated within the Police and NHS to refer to the Friday before Christmas. It is the day when emergency services activate contingency plans to cope with the increase in workload due to many people going out drinking on the last Friday before Christmas. Contingencies can include setting up mobile field hospitals near City Centre nightspots. The term has then been adopted outside those services to refer to the evening and night of the Friday immediately before Christmas, and would now be considered a mainstream term and not simply as jargon of the emergency services.

Traditionally, Boxing Day had been considered the biggest shopping day of the year in the UK. In the 2010s, several American-owned retailers such as Amazon UK and the Walmart-owned chain Asda, began to hold U.S.-style Black Friday promotions; in 2014, more British retailers began to adopt the concept, including Argos, John Lewis, and Very. That year, police forces were called to shops across Britain to deal with crowd control issues, assaults, threatening customers, and traffic issues. In response to incidents at branches of Tesco, Greater Manchester Police's deputy chief constable Ian Hopkins said shoppers had behaved in an "appalling" fashion, and criticized shops for not making adequate security arrangements to ensure the safety of customers." Following these incidents, some retailers began to discontinue or heavily modify their promotions, with Asda stating that it would not hold all of its sales across a single day.

In 2016, total spending on online retail sites on Black Friday was £1.23 billion, a 2.2% year-over-year increase over 2015. In 2017, UK retail sales in November grew faster than in December for the first time.

In Welsh, Black Friday is known as 'Dydd Gwener y Gwario Gwirion' (Silly Spending Friday).

Canada
The large population centers on Lake Ontario and the Lower Mainland in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the United States, and as Black Friday became more popular in the U.S., Canadians often flocked over the border because of their lower prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals of their own to discourage shoppers from leaving Canada.

The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, as Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border.

Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable holiday was Boxing Day in terms of retailer impact and consumerism.

Mexico
In Mexico, Black Friday was the inspiration for the government and retailing industry to create an annual week-end of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning "the good weekend" in Spanish. El Buen Fin has been in existence since 2011 and takes place on November in the week-end prior to the Monday in which the Mexican Revolution holiday is pushed from its original date of November 20, as a result of the measure taken by the government of pushing certain holidays to the Monday of their week in order to avoid the workers and students to make a "larger" week-end (for example, not attending in a Friday after a Thursday holiday, thus making a four-day week-end). On this week-end, major retailers extend their store hours and offer special promotions, including extended credit terms and price promotions.

United States
Black Friday is not an official holiday in the United States, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees. It is sometimes observed in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off. Along with the following regular week-end, this makes Black Friday weekend a four-day weekend, which is said to increase the number of potential shoppers.

The SouthPark neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the most trafficked area of the United States on Black Friday.

Black Friday is a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas, it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday week-end. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales including limited amounts of "doorbuster" items to entice traffic.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6a.m., but in the late 2000s many opened at 4a.m.–5a.m. The early 2010s have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in order to maintain an edge or to simply keep up with the competition. In 2010, Toys "R" Us began their Black Friday sales at 10p.m. on Thanksgiving and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers, like Sears, Express, MK, Victoria's Secret, Zumiez, Tillys, American Eagle Outfitters, Nike, Jordan, Puma, Aéropostale, and Kmart, began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning and ran them through as late as 11p.m. Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2a.m. Saturday morning. In 2011, several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8p.m. on Thanksgiving, prompting calls for a walkout among some workers. In 2014, stores such as JCPenney, Best Buy, and Radio Shack opened at 6a.m. on Thanksgiving while stores such as Target, Walmart, Belk, and Sears opened at 7p.m. on Thanksgiving. Three states – Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts – prohibit large supermarkets, big box stores, and department stores from opening on Thanksgiving, in what has been referred to as a legacy of blue laws. A bill to allow stores to open on Thanksgiving was the subject of a public hearing on July 8, 2017.

Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following week-end. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.

The news media usually give heavy play to reports of Black Friday shopping and their implications for the commercial success of the Christmas shopping season, but the relationship between Black Friday sales and retail sales for the full holiday season is quite weak and may even be negative. In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession. 50.9 billion dollars was spent during the four-day Black Friday week-end, down 11% from the previous year. However, the U.S. economy was not in a recession. Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or week-end.

On April 23, 2014, ".blackfriday" joined a growing list of ICANN top-level domains (such as – traditionally – .com, .net, and .org).

In 2015, Neil Stern of McMillan Doolittle said, "Black Friday is quickly losing its meaning on many fronts," because many stores opened on Thanksgiving, and a lot of sales started even earlier than that. Online shopping also made the day less important. A Gallup poll in 2012 has shown that only 18% of American adults planned to shop during Black Friday.

In 2020, an article in Ad Age magazine stated that "an American capitalist tradition ... has been on the wane for years as online shopping rises in popularity" but the COVID-19 pandemic, "which has dramatically altered shopping patterns, has seemingly dealt a fatal blow."

By 2021, spending during the holiday season was expected to continue to increase, but Black Friday was no longer a single day. It was instead an opportunity for retailers to offer deals during the season as online shopping continued to change consumer behavior. COVID-19 had increased the changes in buyer and retailer moves toward online transactions. Supply chain disruptions caused consumers to buy earlier when they could find items.

Australia
In Australia, the term is controversial, as prior to its popularisation as a shopping day, it referred not to shopping at all, but to the devastating Black Friday bushfires that occurred in Victoria 1938–39. It was not until the 2010s that it was heavily promoted as a shopping day in Australia by in-store and online retailers, despite backlash and confusion by consumers. In 2011, Online Shopping USA hosted an event on Twitter. Twitter users had to use the hashtag #osublackfriday, which allowed them to follow along and tweet their favourite deals and discounts from stores. In 2013, Apple extended its Black Friday deals to Australia. Purchasing online gave customers free shipping and free iTunes gift cards with every purchase. The deals were promoted on its website, reading "Official Apple Store – One day Apple shopping event Friday, November 29". Australia Post's ShopMate parcel-forwarding service allows Australian customers to purchase products with "Black Friday" deals from the US and get them shipped to Australia. ShopMate ran from 2014-2022. It closed in February 2022 amid controversy about shipping costs. In addition to this service, numerous stores in the country run Black Friday promotions in-store and online throughout the country.

New Zealand
Black Friday started picking up in New Zealand around 2013. In 2015, major retailers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman offered Black Friday sales, and by 2018 were joined by Farmers, JB Hi-Fi, Briscoes and Rebel Sport. Paymark, which processes around 75% of New Zealand's electronic transactions, recorded $219 million NZD (US$151 million) of transactions on Black Friday 2017, up over 10% from the previous year.

Bolivia
2014 marked the introduction in Bolivia.

Brazil
Black Friday has been increasingly adopted by stores in Brazil since 2010, although not without its share of inflated prices and other scams, especially in its earlier years, earning the nickname "Black Fraude" (Black Fraud) or also "Black Furadei", which comes from the slang word "furada", meaning a "jam" or tough situation, usually involving money. It is also common to hear Brazilian people say that prices on Brazilian Black Friday are "half of the double".

Colombia
Black Friday was introduced in 2014.

Costa Rica
Black Friday is known as Viernes Negro in Costa Rica.

Panama
In Panama, Black Friday was first celebrated in 2012, as a move by the government to attract local tourism to the country's capital city. During its first year, it was believed to have attracted an inflow of about 35,000 regional tourists according to the government's immigration census.

Violence
Despite frequent attempts to control the crowds of shoppers, minor injuries are common among the crowds, usually as a result of being pushed or thrown to the ground in small crowd crushes. While most injuries remain minor, serious injuries and even deliberate violence have taken place on some Black Fridays.

2008
In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 05:00 opening of the local Walmart. When the doors were opened, the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and 34-year-old employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim's fate, expressing refusal to halt their charge when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 21:00 the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital. The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, "We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving."

On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at a Toys 'R' Us in Palm Desert, California.

2010
During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a Toys 'R' Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object. A Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter. An Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by arguing with other Wal-Mart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the store, but refused.

A man was arrested at a Florida Wal-Mart on drug and weapons charges after other shoppers waiting in line for the store to open noticed he was carrying a handgun and reported it to the police. He was discovered to also be carrying two knives and a pepper spray grenade. A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Mart crowd crush.

2011
On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Walmart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to a reported 20 people who had been waiting hours for the store to open. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360. A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account stated: "The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people 'in order to get an advantage,' according to the police. In an incident outside a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 a.m. A 61-year-old pharmacist collapsed and was left for dead by shoppers while being trampled in the crush. He died soon after from his injuries.

2012
On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, Florida, during a dispute over a parking space.

2013
On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint. In Romeoville, Illinois, a police officer shot a suspected shoplifter driving a car that was dragging a fellow officer at a Kohl's department store. The suspect and the dragged officer were treated for shoulder injuries. Three people were arrested. In another situation, a 29-year-old shopper was arrested in a Walmart in New Jersey after arguing with a store manager about a TV and attacking an officer. He was charged with disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest.

2014
In 2014, three buyers were arrested after a group of five people started fighting at a Kohl's store in Tustin, California. Two female victims were found with facial lacerations, and one of them was taken to hospital with minor injuries, while the other was released on scene. According to officials, three other females were suspects for the assault and were taken into custody. Two people were arrested after a brawl on Black Friday at a northwest side mall in Indianapolis. In Los Angeles, two women were fighting at a Walmart in Norwalk, California, over a Barbie doll on Thanksgiving night.

2015
Several people fighting at a mall in Florence, Kentucky, allegedly over a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. This year was called "The worst Black Friday brawls in history" at that time due to the heavy use of smartphones that could instantly capture video.

2016
In 2016, 21-year-old Demond Cottman was shot and killed around 01:00 Friday morning outside a Macy's store in New Jersey. The shooter fired multiple shots, leaving an SUV covered in bullet holes, but the motives remain unclear. Cottman's 26-year-old brother was also injured. A shooting at the Wolfchase Galleria Mall in Memphis, Tennessee, left one man injured. Derrick Blackburn, 19, was later arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon.

In Vancouver, a shirtless man attacked several people using his belt as a whip. The incident occurred outside an Adidas store where a crowd was awaiting the release of a rare shoe.

2018
At the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., was shot and killed by a security guard after two people were wounded in a shooting. On Saturday, the police announced that the shooter was not Bradford, but claimed he was involved in the shooting.

2019
A fight led to a shooting in the food court of the Destiny USA mall in Syracuse, New York. The mall went into lockdown until shoppers and staff were released starting at about 8:00 p.m. with all shopping activity suspended. 21-year-old Kyree Truax was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree reckless endangerment for shooting the victim twice in the leg.

2023
Three people were stabbed during a fight between two groups at the Market Mall in Calgary. Four people were arrested. Hours later, three others were injured after a stabbing at CrossIron Mills, another mall in Calgary.

High traffic challenges for retailers
Some online stores invest a lot of money in promotional campaigns to generate more sales and drive traffic to their stores. However, they often forget about the high loads their sites are going to experience. According to Retail Gazette, "A number of major retailers' websites went down as they failed to cope with the surge in Black Friday traffic in 2017... This just highlights that some retailers have not taken the necessary steps to prepare for Black Friday. Failing to prepare for peak can cause poor performance, site downtime, and ultimately lost revenue for retailers". Such carelessness results in huge reputational damage. Moreover, the 2017 Veeam Availability Report in South Africa found that "Unplanned downtime costs organisations around the world an average of R270m annually, up from the R210m of the previous year".

Advertising tip sites
Some websites offer information about day-after-Thanksgiving specials up to a month in advance. The text listings of items and prices are usually accompanied by pictures of the actual ad circulars. These are either leaked by insiders or intentionally released by large retailers to give consumers insight and allow them time to plan.

In recent years, some retailers (including Walmart, Target, OfficeMax, Big Lots, and Staples) have claimed that the advertisements they send in advance of Black Friday and the prices included in those advertisements are copyrighted and are trade secrets. Some of these retailers have used the take-down system of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a means to remove the offending price listings.

The benefit of threatening Internet sites with a DMCA based lawsuit has proved tenuous at best. While some sites have complied with the requests, others have either ignored the threats or simply continued to post the information under the name of a similar-sounding fictional retailer. However, careful timing may mitigate the take-down notice. An Internet service provider in 2003 brought suit against Best Buy, Kohl's, and Target Corporation, arguing that the take-down notice provisions of the DMCA are unconstitutional. The court dismissed the case, ruling that only the third-party posters of the advertisements, and not the ISP itself, would have standing to sue the retailers.

Usage of Black Friday Advertising Tip sites and buying direct varies by state in the U.S., influenced in large part by differences in shipping costs and whether a state has a sales tax. However, in recent years, the convenience of online shopping has increased the number of cross-border shoppers seeking bargains from outside of the U.S., especially from Canada. Statistics Canada indicates that online cross-border shopping by Canadians has increased by about 300M a year since 2002. The complex nature of additional fees such as taxes, duties, and brokerage can make calculating the final cost of cross-border Black Friday deals difficult. Cross-border shopping solutions exist to mitigate the problem through estimation of the various cost involved.

In 2019, Adobe shopping data showed that around 39% of the shopping was done through smartphones. In 2022, 48% of online sales are made through smartphones, up from 44% in 2021. Meanwhile, consumers spent a record $9.12 billion shopping online during Black Friday this year.

Cyber Monday
The term Cyber Monday, a neologism invented in 2005 by the National Retail Federation's division Shop.org, refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday based on a trend that retailers began to recognize in 2003 and 2004. Retailers noticed that many consumers, who were too busy to shop over the Thanksgiving week-end or did not find what they were looking for, shopped for bargains online that Monday from home or work. In 2010, Hitwise reported:

"Thanksgiving weekend offered a strong start, especially as Black Friday sales continued to grow in popularity. For the 2nd consecutive year, Black Friday was the highest day for retail traffic during the holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The highest year-over-year increases in visits took place on Cyber Monday and Black Friday with a growth of 16% and 13%, respectively."

In 2013, Cyber Monday online sales grew by 18% over the previous year, hitting a record $1.73 billion, with an average order value of $128. In 2014, Cyber Monday was the busiest day of the year with sales exceeding $2 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% from the previous year.

Cyber Week
As reported in the Forbes "Entrepreneurs" column on December 3, 2013: "Cyber Monday, the online counterpart to Black Friday, has been gaining unprecedented popularity – to the point where Cyber Sales are continuing on throughout the week." Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor for CBS News, further advises: "If you want a real deal on Black Friday, stay away from the mall. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all part of Cyber Week..."

Retail sales impact
The National Retail Federation releases figures on the sales for each Thanksgiving week-end. The Federation's definition of "Black Friday week-end" includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projected spending for Sunday. The survey estimates number of shoppers, not number of people.

The length of the shopping season is not the same across all years: the date for Black Friday varies between November 23 and 29, while Christmas Eve is fixed at December 24.

title: Black Friday (shopping)


text:
Alcester

Alcester is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is 8 mi west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman Britain and is located at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow.

In the 2021 census, the population of the parish was 6,035, with 6,421 in the built-up area.

Etymology
The poet and antiquary John Leland wrote in his Itinerary (ca. 1538–43) that the name Alcester was derived from that of the River Alne. The suffix 'cester' is derived from the Old English word 'ceaster', which meant a Roman fort or town, and derived from the Latin 'castrum', from which the modern word 'castle' also derives.

History
Alcester was founded by the Romans in around AD 47 as a walled fort. The walled town, possibly named Alauna developed from the military camp. It was sited on Icknield Street, a Roman road that ran the length of Roman Britain from south-west England to south Yorkshire. The town was also just north of the Fosse Way, another important thoroughfare in Roman Britain. By the end of the 2nd century, Roman Alcester had developed into a bustling trading and market town: A small walled area in the centre of the town was surrounded by an extensive grid of roads serving a complex of workshops and their associated housing, which specialised in trades such as tanning, metal working and pottery manufacture. Some of the houses of Roman Alcester appear to have been well endowed, with features such as heating, painted plaster and mosaic floors. Along with most Romano-British towns, it appears to have gone into decline in the 4th century when the Romans began to leave Britain. Detailed archaeological work began in the 1920s.

In the Early Middle Ages, Alencestre had become an Anglo-Saxon market town in the Kingdom of Mercia. Alcester was also the site of Alcester Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1138 by Ralph le Boteler. Richard de Tutbury, the last abbot, resigned his office in 1467 and Alcester Abbey was absorbed into the neighbouring Evesham Abbey. By 1515 Alcester Abbey was in ruins as a result of the neglect of various abbots, and later during the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII it was largely demolished. The ruins were granted to the local Greville family, who used much of the stone to rebuild their family seat of Beauchamp Court.

Alcester competed in the competition for city status as part of the Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours.

Notable buildings
Today the town features architecture from the Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian eras and the 20th century. The oldest house appears to be The Old Malthouse at the corner of Church Street and Malt Mill Lane, which probably dates from about 1500.

St Nicholas's Church is a Grade II* listed building. Its clock is in an unusual position on the south-west corner of the 14th-century tower, to make it visible from the High Street. The church also houses the tomb of Fulke Greville, grandfather of poet and statesman Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke. The church's Georgian nave with Doric columns and plastered ceiling is believed to have been designed by Francis Smith of Warwick, supervisor of its rebuild by the Woodward brothers of Chipping Campden in 1729.

Alcester Town Hall was built between 1618 and 1641, and is a grade I listed building.

Transport
Alcester was previously served by Alcester railway station belonging to the Midland Railway (later part of the LMS Railway), on the Gloucester Loop Line, branching off the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway main line at Ashchurch, passing through Evesham, Alcester and Redditch and rejoining the main line at Barnt Green, near Bromsgrove. The loop was built to address the fact that the main line bypassed most of the towns it might otherwise have served, but it took three separate companies to complete, Alcester being on the Evesham and Redditch railway prior to absorption by the Midland.

In addition a branch line provided by the Alcester Railway Company (later part of the Great Western Railway) ran from Alcester to Bearley, thus giving access to Stratford-upon-Avon. This line, however, was an early casualty, closing in September 1939. The Midland loop was due to close between Ashchurch and Redditch in June 1963 but the poor condition of the track led to all trains between Evesham and Redditch being withdrawn in October 1962 and replaced by a bus service for the final eight months. Redditch to Barnt Green remains open on the electrified Birmingham suburban network.

Currently, Alcester is served by one regular bus route, the hourly Stagecoach Midlands-operated X19 between Redditch and Stratford-upon-Avon. The Diamond West Midlands-operated route 247 operates irregularly through Alcester between Redditch and Evesham.

Current attractions
Alcester is also known for two nearby stately homes. To the north is Coughton Court, the family seat of the Throckmorton baronets as well as a National Trust property. To the south-west is Ragley Hall, the home of the Marquis of Hertford, whose gardens contain a children's adventure playground.

Kinwarton, which is just north of Alcester, contains a church of Anglo Saxon origin and a historic dovecote, Kinwarton Dovecote, which is also a National Trust property. Alcester is also a significant town on the 100-mile-long Heart of England Way long-distance trail. Recent developments, carried out by a multi-agency partnership, include 'Roman Alcester', a museum exhibiting locally found archaeological artifacts from the 1st to 4th century. 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of its opening.

Annual events
In early June, Alcester holds the Court Leet charity street market with a procession and competitions for best stall and best fancy dress. On the first Monday and Tuesday in October, Alcester holds an annual mop fair where amusement rides, side stalls and food booths line the High Street, Church Street and Henley Street. The mop fair has gradually decreased in size over a period of years, likely an external influence since the people of Alcester still flock to the streets during the two nights.

The Alcester and Forest of Arden Food Festival is held every May and October. The St Nicholas Night Fair is held on 6 December each year. The annual duck race takes place on the 2nd Saturday in July to raise funds for the summer bunting and Christmas lights.

Flooding
The River Alne and Arrow, which join on the outskirts of Alcester, have occasionally flooded and on a few occasions engulfed part of the town. The last occurrences were in 1956, 10 April 1998 (Maunday Thursday) and on 21 July 2007 when 200 homes were left uninhabitable. In response to the severe flooding of 2007 Alcester flood scheme completed an underground storage tank with a 3.25 million litre capacity in June 2011, costing just over £1 million. The scheme attracted funding from the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee's Local Levy with contributions from Warwickshire County Council, Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Alcester Town Council. The scheme included work on the two pumping stations located at Bleachfield Street and Gas House Lane.

Sports
Alcester Town F.C. has teams from Under-6 to Under-18 and senior players. The town has a rugby club, and also used to have a golf course which closed and became the home of the football club. Alcester is also home to Alcester & Ragley Park Cricket Club, situated in the grounds of Ragley Hall, the club has two Saturday teams who play in the Cotswold Hills League and two Sunday teams who play friendlies. There are also numerous junior teams (Up to U16), and a girls team. Alcester Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1892. The club continued until the outbreak of the Second World War. Alne Cricket Club (Great Alne) is a cricke club about 2 miles from Alcester centre that play in local competitions and have a summer fun week for children. Adults can also play in their "Adult Team".

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC CWR, Capital Mid-Counties, Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, Fresh (Coventry & Warwickshire), Heart West Midlands, Smooth West Midlands, Greatest Hits Radio Midlands and Stratford Community Radio, a community based station that broadcast from Stratford-upon-Avon.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Redditch Advertiser (formerly Alcester Chronicle).

Education
The town has three secondary schools; Alcester Grammar School, Alcester Academy, and St Benedict's Catholic High School.

Places of worship

 * St Nicholas Church
 * Our Lady & St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
 * Alcester Baptist Church
 * Alcester Methodist Church
 * Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses

Notable people

 * Howard Bennett, cricketer
 * John Bridges, English Civil War soldier and MP
 * Russell Brookes, rally driver
 * Gilbert Cox, cricketer
 * Bernard Cuzner, silversmith and product designer
 * Francis James Davies, First World War flying ace
 * Fulke Greville (1554–1628), born at Beauchamp's Court, Alcester
 * Frederick George Jackson, Arctic Explorer, rescuer of Fridtjof Nansen
 * Edward Scriven, portrait engraver
 * Nick Skelton, Olympic Gold Medallist
 * Francis Summers, cricketer
 * Richard Waldron, former President of New Hampshire Council
 * Tom Wilkes, footballer

Town twinning

 * 🇫🇷 Vallet, Loire-Atlantique, France.

title: Alcester


text:
Bishop's Castle

Bishop's Castle is a market town in the south west of Shropshire, England. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 1,893.

Bishop's Castle is 1.5 mi east of the Wales-England border, about 20 mi north-west of Ludlow and about 20 mi south-west of Shrewsbury. To the south is Clun and to the east is Church Stretton. The town is within an agricultural area and has also become known for its alternative community including artists, musicians, writers and craftspeople. The surrounding area is hillwalking country and Bishop's Castle is a "Walkers are Welcome Town", gaining the award in 2008. The long distance footpath the Shropshire Way runs through the town and Offa's Dyke is only a few miles to the west.

The ancient trackway of the Kerry Ridgeway, a prehistoric Bronze Age route, runs from the town. The BC Ring, a 60 mi challenging route around the town, was published in 2008. The town has two micro-breweries, including the Three Tuns, the UK's oldest brewery.

The castle
Documented history begins in Saxon times for Bishop's Castle when Edwin Shakehead, grateful for being miraculously cured of the palsy at Saint Ethelbert's tomb in Hereford Cathedral gave part of his lands to the incumbent Bishop of Hereford. A later Bishop of Hereford built a castle, originally a motte and bailey design, in 1087 to defend the church and village from the threat of the Welsh (its site ). The castle has been under attack several times, not always by Welsh raiders, most notably in 1263 when John Fitzalan, Lord of Arundel and feudal Lord of Oswestry and Clun, held it under siege in the course of a feud with the Bishop of Hereford and caused significant damage, estimated at 1,060 marks.

In the Early Middle Ages the castle and parish were situated partly in Wales and partly in England so territorial disputes literally 'came with the territory'.

In 1557 the castle was described as follows: "thirteen rooms covered with lead, a tower on the outer wall on the eastern side containing a stable, and two rooms covered with tiles. There were two other rooms called 'le new buyldinge' situated on the outer wall between the building over the gate and the tower called 'le prison tower'. There was also a dovecote, a garden, a forest and a park."

As peace came to the Welsh Marches Bishop's Castle became one of the notorious rotten boroughs, an electorally corrupt situation wherein the tiny borough elected two members of parliament from 1585.

In 1618 the castle started to deteriorate and in the 1700s the stone keep and surroundings were flattened to make a bowling green. (Some historians believe that the houses along Market Square and Castle Street were built upon the foundations of an outer wall due to the curvature of the houses).

In 1642, the Three Tuns Brewery was established on its current site, making it the oldest licensed brewery site in Britain. While some of the current building dates to the seventeenth century, the main building is a Victorian tower brewery erected about 1888.

In 1719 – the fifth year of the reign of George I and the year Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe – the Castle Hotel was constructed over the site of the old baille [the French word for an enclosed court] of the ancient castle. It was built on the orders of a local landowner, James Brydges (1673–1744), who in the year the hotel was completed was created Duke of Chandos. In an age of unabashed corruption, he acquired a number of lucrative sinecure offices and amassed such wealth that he was known as 'Princely Chandos'.

The 1st Duke of Chandos sold the Castle Hotel to John Walcot who in turn sold it to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey (1725–1774), known as 'Clive of India', who amassed such wealth during his time in that country that Horace Walpole writing from London to a country friend said: 'you will be frightened by the dearness of everything ... I expect that a pint of milk will soon not be sold under a diamond, and then nobody can keep a cow but my Lord Clive'. From Lord Clive the hotel descended to his son, Edward, and then to his grandson, who changed the family name to Herbert, his mother's maiden name. The older Edward became Earl of Powis on the death of his brother-in-law, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (of the previous creation of that title).

Local landowners, including Lord Clive expended large sums of cash buying votes, a common practice at the time in some areas to ensure a seat in Parliament. In 1726 one unsuccessful parliamentary candidate was subsequently able to prove that of the 52 people voting for his rival, the incumbent MP, 51 had received bribes and inducements. The Reform Act 1832 eradicated this practice and Bishop's Castle was disenfranchised.

All that is physically left of the castle today is a 10 m long, coursed stone wall on the west side of the castle site which is 2 m thick and 3 m high. It was overgrown with ivy and was recently renovated to keep it safe and stable. The Castle Hotel stands on the site of the castle itself and is largely built of stone salvaged from the original castle.

The town
The layout of the town in the present day shows that originally the town was made up of 46 burgage plots which were separated by a few small lanes which have developed to be Church Street, Union Street and Station Street.

In 1249 a Royal Charter for a weekly market and an annual fair was granted. They are both still very popular.

In the 17th century, Bishop's Castle Town Hall was constructed as a new administrative centre, a court and a prison. It was refurbished with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and was re-opened in June 2014.

The town was classified as a municipal borough in 1885. It lost this status in the 1960s, but still has a mayor and its regalia. It is now a "Quality Town Council".

Bishop's Castle was close to the epicentre of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake on 2 April 1990, which was felt throughout much of England and Wales.

The town is located close to the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Governance
From 1584 to 1832 it was its own parliamentary borough with two MPs. It was part of the Ludlow constituency from 1885 until its redesignation as South Shropshire in 2024 following constituency boundary changes.

Today the town forms a civil parish, with its own town council and mayor. The original Town Council website was one of the first in the UK to publish agendas and minutes (from late 2000).

An electoral ward of the same name exists in the Shropshire Council. This ward stretches north east to Ratlinghope and at the 2011 Census had a total population of 3,728.

Amenities
There are a variety of shops, local businesses and services ranging from clothes shops to the usual high street banks. The town is notable for a thriving selection of specialist retailers.

There are several public houses in the town, and two micro-breweries: the Six Bells Brewery painted yellow, and the Three Tuns Brewery. Additionally, the town sports a number of restaurants and bed and breakfasts, and a hotel, The Castle Hotel, built on the site of the outer bailey of the old bishop's castle. Other sights in the town include the House on Crutches Museum of country life, the Rail & Transport Museum, and the old cattle market in the centre of town.

Many properties are painted in various colourful hues of blue, pink, yellow and green which are reflected on the Wintles, a new neighbourhood of energy efficient eco-houses built by Living Villages.

Education
The town possesses a high school (Bishop's Castle Community College) which teaches 11- to 16-year-olds, around 450 students from the town and surrounding villages and towns. It also has a primary school and a Nursery.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the local relay transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Shropshire, Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire and Capital North West and Wales.

The town is served by the local newspapers, Ludlow Advertiser, County Times, and Shropshire Star.

Sport
Sports played by local clubs include:

Cricket
1st XI play in Division 2 of the Shropshire Cricket League, and the club play friendlies on Sundays, with regular youth coaching sessions (usually Monday evenings) and matches for school age children. Cricket was first recorded being played in 1841 on Love Lane, and the club was officially formed in 1896 at a meeting held in the Six Bells public house, and have played at the Manor Ground since 1946. The 1st XI equalled their highest ever finish of 4th in 2011 (previously achieved in 2009) with a record points total of 332. The club's social base is the Castle Hotel off Market Square.

Football
Bishops Castle Town play in the Montgomeryshire Amateur League and were Division 1 Champions in 2017–18, having previously played for 6 years in the Mercian Regional Football League Division One. Previously they played in Division 1 of the Montgomeryshire Amateur League, having gained promotion from Division 2 in the early 1990s, and having joined Division 2 in 1984–85. Before that they played in various leagues including the South Shropshire League and the West Shropshire Alliance. The club was formed in the 1880s. The club's social base after matches and for meetings is The Kings Head Public House in Church Street. The club play their Home matches at the Community College ground on Colebatch Road.

Rugby
Bishop's Castle and Onny Valley Rugby Club was formed in the late 1970s and spent the early years playing friendly games against teams from Mid-Wales and Shropshire, before joining the league structure in the early 1990s. Now they play in Midlands Division Fourth North.

Other sports

 * Women's Hockey
 * Squash
 * Tennis

Transport
Bishop's Castle has been on a main route for travellers since prehistoric times, although the town was bypassed in the 19th century by Thomas Telford's great road. The inns would have provided accommodation for travellers and have stabled their horses.

There is no main road running through the town, though the A488 runs north–south just to the east of the town, on its way from Shrewsbury, Pontesbury and Minsterley to Clun and Knighton. The B4385 runs around the town and connects with the A488.

Bishop's Castle had a railway, the Bishops Castle Railway, between 1865 and 1935. Originally it was meant to go from Craven Arms to Montgomery, but that speculation failed due to lack of finance. Sections of the old railway can still be seen today, including some of the embankments, bridges and stations. Today the nearest station is Broome on the Heart of Wales Line.

There is a limited daytime bus service 553 on Mondays to Saturdays between Bishop's Castle and Shrewsbury, operated by local independent operator Minsterley Motors.

Notable people

 * Oliver Mathews (c. 1520–c. 1618), Welsh apothecary and chronicler; married in Bishop's Castle, and lived at Snead
 * Richard Broughton (1542–1604), English judge and politician, of family owning Owlbury and Lower Broughton in town's parish
 * Hugh Broughton (1549 at Owlbury, Bishop's Castle – 1612), English Hebrew scholar and theologian
 * Richard Gifford (1725 in Bishop's Castle – 1807), English poet and clergyman
 * Sir Albert Howard (1873 in Bishop's Castle – 1947), an English botanist, an organic farming pioneer and a principal figure in the early organic movement
 * Robin Legge (1862 in Bishop's Castle – 1933), chief music critic of The Daily Telegraph, 1906–1931
 * Fuzz Townshend (born 1964), a British drummer, TV presenter, a motoring journalist and mechanic. He lives in Bishop's Castle
 * Matthew Green (born 1970), Liberal Democrat politician, lived in Bishop's Castle prior to his election as MP for Ludlow.
 * Peter Postlethwaite, (1946–2011) actor, lived near Bishop's Castle in the final years of his life.
 * John Kirkpatrick MBE (born 1947) folk musician

Sport

 * Richard More (1879 in Bishop's Castle – 1936), an English cricketer, played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Middlesex
 * James Sharples (1890 – 1969 in Bishop's Castle), an English cricketer who played for Glamorgan

title: Bishop's Castle


text:
Pauline Mills McGibbon

Pauline Mills McGibbon (21 October 1910 – 14 December 2001) served as the 22nd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1974 to 1980. In addition to being the first woman to occupy that position, she was also the first woman to serve as a viceregal representative in Canadian history.

Once described as 'Ontario’s Eve' for all her 'first woman' achievements, the Honourable Pauline McGibbon dedicated her life to the betterment of her community, province and nation. A 1976 article indicated 'She has a warm, smiling face wreathed by a grey braid, her trademark… She is almost apologetic for being ‘old-fashioned,' but, because of her upbringing, she says she rarely feels really dressed, without gloves'. Former Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson once commented that McGibbon 'was perceptive, incisive, amusing and self-deprecating'.

Early life
Pauline Emily Mills was born 20 October 1910 in Sarnia, Ontario. She was the only child of Alfred William and Ethel Selina Mills, her father being a textiles and goods merchant. After George Street, and Lochiel Street Schools, and Sarnia Collegiate, she studied at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern History.

In January 1935 Pauline married football star and her childhood sweetheart Donald Walker McGibbon,  both attending the university together. Don later became vice-president and treasurer of Imperial Oil Limited.

Career
A lifelong volunteer and supporter of the arts, McGibbon became president of the Dominion Drama Festival from 1957 to 1959. She volunteered for years including national president of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire from 1963 to 1965. She was the first woman to lead such organizations as the Canadian Conference of the Arts (1972).

McGibbon served as chancellor, and first female in those roles, of the universities of Toronto (1971–1974) and Guelph (1977–1983).

Appointed by prime minister Pierre Trudeau, McGibbon was installed as the first female Lieutenant Governor of Ontario on 17 January 1974, and thus became the first female governor in the country. (The first female Governor in the Commonwealth was Dame Hilda Bynoe, Governor of Grenada 1968–1974.) She held the office until 1980. A particular focus of her mandate was the arts in Ontario. This was her first salaried employment, due to the support of her husband which had enabled her to devote much time to voluntary work. Of her annual $35 000 salary, she gave back the money other than for $200 a month which at her husband's request went into a retirement savings plan.

Additional to her benevolent work, McGibbon was an active member of the business community, and served as director on companies in Canada such as IBM Canada Limited, Imasco, Mercedes-Benz, and George Weston Limited.

From 1980 McGibbon was a director of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. She also served as chairman, and their first female chair of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1980), and honorary colonel of 25 (Toronto) Service Battalion and No. 7 Cadet Corps of Saint Thomas.

During her life, McGibbon was also the governor of the Upper Canada College.

Later life
She and Don had no children.

By the end of her life, McGibbon had been the chairman, a board member, director, and/or president of at least fifteen arts associations, including the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the Toronto International Festival of Dance and Music, and the du Maurier Council for the Performing Arts.

After a lengthy illness, McGibbon died in Toronto on Friday, 14 December 2001, aged 91. She was buried in the family plot in the Lakeview Cemetery in Sarnia, Ontario.

Legacy
Established in 1981, the Pauline McGibbon Award, a monetary $7000 (2021) award, is given each year to a member of Ontario’s professional theatre community in the early stages of the member's career who has displayed a unique talent and a potential for excellence. The Ontario Arts Council manages the award.

Her name is also given to Pauline McGibbon Park, 180 North College Avenue, Sarnia.

Awards
McGibbon is the first woman to hold the presidency of the University of Toronto Alumni Association (1952–53). In November 1956, she received a life membership in Ontario provincial chapter, to which she had given continuous service since 1940. McGibbon was one of many people recognised by the Alumni as 1990 Arbor Award recipients for generosity and contribution to the experience of university members.

She received the medal of service of the Order of Canada in recognition of her contributions to worthy causes. She was made a Dame of the Order of Saint Lazarus. In 1957 McGibbon received the Canadian Drama Award for outstanding service to theatre in Canada.

She received the Civic Award of Merit from the City of Toronto, and in the same year an honorary doctor of laws degree from University of Alberta.

McGibbon was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada in December 1967, for her contribution to the theatre and education, and several volunteer organizations. After leaving Office, McGibbon was promoted to be a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1980, and was separately appointed to the Order of Ontario in December 1988.

In October 1975 as a lieutenant-governor, she was awarded an honorary law degree by the University of Toronto.

By March 1977, McGibbon held seven honorary degrees from Canadian universities, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a Dame of Grace of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Canadian Centennial Medal (1967), and the Award of Merit from the Canadian Public Relations Society. She had also been the first woman member of the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

title: Pauline Mills McGibbon