text:
Tony Boselli

Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American former football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football for the USC Trojans, earning three first-team All-American selections. Boselli was the first player drafted by the Jaguars, who selected him second overall in the 1995 NFL draft.

During his tenure in Jacksonville, Boselli established himself as one of the franchise's most productive and popular players. He was named to five Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pros while appearing in two AFC Championship Games. In 2002, he was the first selection in the 2002 NFL expansion draft by the Houston Texans, but retired without playing for them due to injuries. His accomplishments with Jacksonville led to him becoming the first inductee of the Jaguars Hall of Fame, which he was named to in 2006. Boselli was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022, making him the first Jaguars player inducted to the latter.

College career
Boselli accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Southern California, where he played for the Trojans from 1991 to 1994. He was a first-team All-Pac-10 selection and a first-team All-American in 1992, 1993 and 1994. In 1994, he also won the Morris Trophy. While he was an undergraduate, he was initiated as a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Boselli was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014.

Professional career
Boselli was selected as the second pick of the 1995 NFL draft, the first-ever draft pick of the new Jacksonville Jaguars franchise. As a result of his professional success and local popularity, Jacksonville-area McDonald's restaurants offered the "Boselli Burger" in his honor for a period of time.

He was selected by the Houston Texans in the 2002 expansion draft. He spent the entire season on injured reserve and retired following the conclusion of the season. Boselli has blamed the end of his career on mistakes made during a surgery on his left shoulder.

As a sign of his success in Jacksonville, on October 8, 2006, he was the first player inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars (the team's Hall of Fame) and signed a symbolic one-day contract allowing him to retire officially as a Jaguar. Boselli was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on February 10, 2022, becoming the first Jaguars player to receive the honor.

Life after football
Boselli participated in numerous business ventures during and after his professional football career. Along with former teammates Mark Brunell and Bryan Schwartz, he invested in seven Mattress Firm bedding stores in Jacksonville. By the time Boselli left for Texas in 2002, he had sold his interest in the company. Boselli and Brunell own all Whataburger franchise locations in the Jacksonville area. He also works as the offensive line coach at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, on the same coaching staff as Brunell.

Boselli is also a founding partner in IF Marketing with friends and former teammates Jeff Novak and Will Furrer. The marketing and advertising firm, with offices in Georgetown, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida, was originally called Intra Focus marketing & advertising.

Personal life
Since 2005, Boselli has lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida with his wife, Angi and their five children, Andrew, Adam, Ashli, Alexis, and Ansli. Boselli has lost a significant amount of weight and now participates in triathlons.

Boselli's son Andrew received an athletic scholarship to attend Florida State University, and played for the Florida State Seminoles football team. While Adam played tight end collegiately for Florida Atlantic

Sports broadcasting
In 2007, Boselli was hired as a color commentator on regional NFL telecasts for Fox, teaming with Ron Pitts. In his rookie season as a televised commentator, Boselli drew praise as one of the best in the business. From 2009-2012, he worked as a game analyst and sideline reporter for Westwood One's coverage of the NFL. Beginning in 2013, he joined the Jacksonville Jaguars radio play by play team.

Boselli was a former co-host on 1010 XL with Dan Hicken and Jeff Prosser each morning from 6-10 am on Sports Final Radio. He still appears part-time as a call-in guest.

Boselli was interviewed for an episode of NFL's Greatest Games which aired on ESPN2.

Charity
Boselli and his wife created the Boselli Foundation in 1995 in Jacksonville to work with at-risk youth, and help them to cultivate high self-esteem and to succeed at home, at school, and at play. Beginning in 2007, he has spent substantial time working on projects with the foundation. He overcame opposition from local politicians when the Boselli Foundation proposed renovating and reopening a closed community center.

title: Tony Boselli


text:
Siyi (disambiguation)

 * Siyi (四邑, 'Four Counties'), is a region in southern Guangdong province, China

Siyi may also refer to:
 * Siyi dialect, a branch of Yue Chinese language
 * Siyi, or Four Barbarians, a historical term for non-Chinese peoples
 * Siyi, or Four arts, the four accomplishments of the ancient Chinese scholar-gentleman

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

title: Siyi (disambiguation)


text:
Sam Mills

Samuel Davis Mills Jr. (June 3, 1959 – April 18, 2005) was an American professional football player who was a linebacker for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. He also played for three seasons for the Philadelphia / Baltimore Stars of the United States Football League (USFL), where he won two championships in 1984 and 1985. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022.

Early life
Sam Mills was born in Neptune City, New Jersey. While growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, he loved to tag along with his older brother and play pickup football games with the bigger boys. Mills attended high school at Long Branch High School, where he was a standout football player and wrestler. In 1976 and 1977, he won District Championships at Long Branch as a wrestler. Long Branch High School honors him to this day by hanging his high school jersey and his NFL jersey in the school gym. Although considered a great athlete in high school, Mills' 5'9" frame did not interest college scouts.

Montclair State University
Mills attended college at Montclair State College (now known as Montclair State University) and made the football squad as a walk-on. He played for Montclair State from 1977-1980 where he is the all-time leader in career tackles with 501, tackles in a season (142), and tackles in a game (22). He was a three-time NJAC First Team All-Star and was named the New Jersey Collegiate Writers Defensive Player of the Year for three straight seasons (1978–1980).

Cleveland Browns and Toronto Argonauts
Mills signed with the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 1981 but was released after the conclusion of preseason. He wore number 41, one of the two times he didn't wear number 51, the other being with the Stars. In 1982, Mills signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League but was released before the season.

Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars
Fred Hill, who coached Mills at Montclair State, said that many pro scouts loved his tape, but when they heard he was only 5'9", they lost interest. Conventional wisdom at the time held that middle linebackers had to be at least six feet tall to see over opposing offensive linemen and scan the field. In the same way it was after high school, Mills' lack of height held him back. After college, his Pop Warner Football coach Thomas Bevacqui Jr. was able to get Mills invited to the Cleveland Browns training camp after meeting with Browns coach Sam Rutigliano. Bevacqui told Rutigliano that Mills was the best linebacker that he had ever seen play the game. While Rutigliano admired Mills, he didn't think he had the size to play in the NFL and cut him from the team. Mills then tried out with the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts but did not make the team. He found a job teaching photography and assisting the football coach at East Orange (N.J.) High School.

However, Rutigliano still liked what he had seen of Mills in camp. He called an old friend, Carl Peterson, general manager of the Philadelphia Stars of the United States Football League, and suggested that he give Mills a look. Mills made his reputation at the Stars' first training camp; as Peterson recalled years later, "he just lit it up." He quickly became known as the "Field Mouse" for his devastating speed; as Peterson put it, "he was a mouse running around a field of elephants, but the elephants wanted nothing to do with him."

In his three years with the Stars (who moved to Baltimore in 1985), Mills became one of the anchors of the Stars' feared "Doghouse Defense," During that time (wearing #54), he became known around the league for both his tenacity on the field and his leadership off it. Mills led the Stars to two USFL championships, was named to three All-USFL teams and is a member of the USFL’s All-Time Team. He has been described as arguably the best defensive player (along with Reggie White) in the short history of the league.

New Orleans Saints
After the Stars won the 1985 USFL title, their head coach Jim Mora was signed on to coach the New Orleans Saints, and Mills followed his mentor. During his tenure with the Saints which began in 1986, Mills was an anchor of the defense. He was a member of the vaunted "Dome Patrol," the stellar linebacking corps that led a ferocious Saints defense in the early 1990s. Mills earned four Pro Bowl appearances with the Saints in 1987, 1988, 1991, and 1992. Mora, who coached 15 seasons in the NFL, called Mills "The best player I ever coached."

Carolina Panthers
Mills became a free agent at the end of the 1994 NFL season. The expansion Carolina Panthers offered him a two-year, $2.8 million deal. While New Orleans matched the offer, Mills was displeased that the Saints did not make an offer until the Panthers forced their hand, and opted to sign with the Panthers.

Mills became a veteran leader for the young team, the only player to start every game during the Panthers' first three seasons. In a 1995 game against the New York Jets, Mills stepped in front of a Bubby Brister shovel pass and took it 36 yards for a touchdown, sealing the Panthers' first win in franchise history. His career rebirth gave him a fifth Pro Bowl appearance in 1996 at the age of 37 which, at the time, made him the oldest defender to be invited to a Pro Bowl. He retired after the following season.

Post-playing career
Mills played 12 seasons in the NFL and recorded 1,319 tackles, 20.5 sacks, 11 interceptions and four touchdowns while starting 173 of 181 games. Mills was named to the NFL All-Pro team three times, in 1991, 1992, and 1996. He was elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (2001), the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame (2002), the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey (2003) and the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame (1998). After retiring from play, Mills was inducted into the Carolina Panthers Hall of Honor (1998). He became a defensive coaching assistant for the Panthers in 1998, before being promoted to linebackers coach in 1999.

Cancer and death
In August 2003, Mills was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Though he was told he had only a few months to live, he was treated with chemotherapy and radiation and continued to coach. He was an inspirational force in the Panthers’ post-season run to Super Bowl XXXVIII. His plea to "keep pounding" in an emotional speech before the Panthers' victory over the Dallas Cowboys later became the name of a fund to sponsor cancer research programs and an official team slogan. He continued to coach the team until his death from cancer complications on April 18, 2005.

Legacy
Mills' jersey number 51 was retired by the Panthers at the start of the 2005 NFL season, making it the first number the franchise retired. Mills was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009, with his son Sam Mills III accepting the award on his father's behalf. Sam Mills III was the defensive line coach for the Washington Commanders.

The speech inspired the Carolina Panthers and Nike, when awarded the contract for NFL jerseys starting in the 2012 NFL season, to feature "Keep Pounding" sewn on the inside collars of Panthers jerseys for the 2012 NFL season, in honor of the elder Mills. Before the start of every home game, the Panthers have an honorary drummer bang a "Keep Pounding" drum. Though Carolina was not the designated home team for Super Bowl 50, the tradition remained a part of the game, with the drummer being Panther fan and Charlotte native Stephen Curry, the star point guard for the four-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Mills was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022.

title: Sam Mills


text:
Roy Acuff

Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music", Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. In 1952, Hank Williams told Ralph Gleason, "He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. You booked him and you didn't worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God."

Acuff began his music career in the 1930s and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff and Fred Rose founded Acuff-Rose Music, the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company, which signed such artists as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers. In 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life
Acuff was born on September 15, 1903 in Maynardville, Tennessee, to Ida Florence (née Carr) and Simon E. Neill Acuff, the third of their five children. Acuff was of English ancestry, and his ancestors came to North America during the colonial era, settling in the mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas. The Acuffs were a fairly prominent family in Union County. Roy's paternal grandfather, Coram Acuff, had been a Tennessee state senator, and his maternal grandfather was a local physician. Roy's father was an accomplished fiddler and a Baptist preacher, his mother was proficient on the piano, and during Roy's early years the Acuff house was a popular place for local gatherings. At such gatherings, Roy would often amuse people by balancing farm tools on his chin. He also learned to play the harmonica and jaw harp at an early age.

In 1919, the Acuff family relocated to Fountain City (now a suburb of Knoxville), a few miles south of Maynardville. Roy attended Central High School, where he sang in the school chapel's choir and performed in "every play they had." His primary passion, however, was athletics. He was a three-sport standout at Central, and after graduating in 1925, was offered a scholarship to Carson-Newman University, but turned it down. He played with several small baseball clubs around Knoxville, worked at odd jobs, and occasionally boxed.

In 1929, Acuff tried out for the Knoxville Smokies, a minor-league baseball team then affiliated with the New York Giants. A series of collapses in spring training following a sunstroke, however, ended his baseball career. The effects left him ill for several years, and he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1930. "I couldn't stand any sunshine at all," he later recalled. While recovering, Acuff began to hone his fiddle skills, often playing on the family's front porch after the sun went down. His father gave him several records of regionally renowned fiddlers, such as Fiddlin' John Carson and Gid Tanner, which were important influences on his early style.

Early music career
In 1932, Dr. Hauer's medicine show, which toured the southern Appalachian region, hired Acuff as one of its entertainers. Acuff began his career as a blackface performer. The purpose of the entertainers was to draw a large crowd to whom Hauer could sell patent medicines (of suspect quality) for various ailments. While on the medicine show circuit, Acuff met the legendary Appalachian banjoist Clarence Ashley, from whom he learned "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Greenback Dollar", both of which Acuff later recorded. As the medicine show lacked microphones, Acuff learned to sing loud enough to be heard above the din, a skill that later helped him stand out on early radio broadcasts.

In 1934, Acuff left the medicine show circuit and began playing at local shows with various musicians in the Knoxville area, where he had become a celebrity and fixture in local newspaper columns. That year, guitarist Jess Easterday and Hawaiian guitarist Clell Summey joined Acuff to form the Tennessee Crackerjacks, who performed regularly on the Knoxville radio stations WROL and WNOX (the band moved back and forth between stations as Acuff bickered with their managers about compensation). Within a year, the group had added bassist Red Jones and changed its name to the Crazy Tennesseans after being introduced as such by a WROL announcer named Alan Stout. Fans often remarked to Acuff how "clear" his voice was coming through over the radio, important in an era when singers were often drowned out by string-band cacophony. The popularity of Acuff's rendering of the song "The Great Speckled Bird" helped the group land a contract with American Record Corporation, (ARC) for which they recorded several dozen tracks (including the band's best-known track, "Wabash Cannonball") in 1936. Needing to complete a 20-song commitment, the band recorded two ribald tunes—including "When Lulu's Gone"—but released them under a pseudonym, the Bang Boys. The group split from ARC in 1937 over a separate contract dispute.

Grand Ole Opry
In 1938, the Crazy Tennesseans moved to Nashville to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. Although their first audition went poorly, the band's second audition impressed Opry founder George D. Hay and producer Harry Stone, and they offered the group a contract later that year. On Hay and Stone's suggestion, Acuff changed the group's name to the Smoky Mountain Boys, referring to the mountains near where his bandmates and he grew up. Shortly after the band joined the Opry, Clell Summey left the group and was replaced by Fiddle player Beecher (Pete) Kirby—best known by his stage name Bashful Brother Oswald—whom Acuff had met in a Knoxville bakery earlier that year. Acuff's powerful lead vocals and Kirby's dobro playing and high-pitched backing vocals gave the band its distinctive sound. By 1939, Jess Easterday had switched to bass to replace Red Jones, and Acuff had added guitarist Lonnie "Pap" Wilson and banjoist Rachel Veach to fill out the band's lineup. Within a year, Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys rivaled long-time Opry banjoist Uncle Dave Macon as the troupe's most popular act. In the same period, he was initiated to the Masonic Lodge of East Nashville No. 560.

In spring 1940, Acuff and his band traveled to Hollywood, where they appeared with Hay and Macon in the motion picture Grand Ole Opry. Acuff appeared in several subsequent B movies, including O, My Darling Clementine (1943), in which he played a singing sheriff; Night Train to Memphis (1946), the title of which comes from a song Acuff recorded in 1940; and Home in San Antone (1949), in which he starred with Lloyd Corrigan and William Frawley.

Acuff and his band also joined Macon and other Opry acts at various tent shows held throughout the Southeast in the early 1940s. The crowds at these shows were so large that roads leading into the venues were jammed with traffic for miles. Starting in 1939, Acuff hosted the Opry's Prince Albert segment. He left the show in 1946 after a dispute with management.

Acuff-Rose
In 1942, Acuff and songwriter Fred Rose (1897–1954) formed Acuff-Rose Music. Acuff originally sought the company to publish his own music, but soon realized that demand from other country artists existed, many of whom had been exploited by larger publishing firms. Due in large part to Rose's ASCAP connections and gifted ability as a talent scout, Acuff-Rose quickly became the most important publishing company in country music. In 1946, the company signed Hank Williams, and in 1950, published their first major hit, Patti Page's rendition of "Tennessee Waltz".

Political ambitions
In 1943, Acuff was initiated into the East Nashville Freemasonic Lodge in Tennessee, of which he would remain a lifelong member. Later that same year, Acuff invited Tennessee Governor Prentice Cooper to be the guest of honor at a gala held to mark the nationwide premiere of the Opry's Prince Albert show. Cooper rejected the offer, however, and lambasted Acuff and his "disgraceful" music for making Tennessee the "hillbilly capital of the United States." A Nashville journalist reported the governor's comments to Acuff and suggested Acuff run for governor himself. While Acuff initially did not take the suggestion seriously, he did accept the Republican Party nomination for governor in 1948.

Acuff's nomination caused great concern for E. H. Crump, the head of a Memphis Democratic Party political machine that had dominated Tennessee state politics for nearly a quarter-century. Crump was not worried so much about losing the governor's office—in spite of Acuff's name recognition—but did worry that Acuff would draw large crowds to Republican rallies and bolster other statewide candidates. While Acuff did relatively well and helped reinvigorate Tennessee's Republicans, his opponent, Gordon Browning, still won with 67% of the vote.

Later career
After leaving the Opry, Acuff spent several years touring the Western United States, although demand for his appearances dwindled with the lack of national exposure and the rise of musicians such as Ernest Tubb and Eddy Arnold, who were more popular with younger audiences. He eventually returned to the Opry, although by the 1960s, his record sales had dropped off considerably. After nearly losing his life in an automobile accident outside of Sparta, Tennessee, in 1965, Acuff pondered retiring, making only token appearances on the Opry stage and similar shows, and occasionally performing duos with long-time bandmate Bashful Brother Oswald.

In 1972, Acuff's career received a brief resurgence in the folk-revival movement after he appeared on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The appearance paved the way for one of the defining moments of Acuff's career, which came on the night of March 16, 1974, when the Opry officially moved from the Ryman Auditorium to the Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland. The first show at the new venue opened with a huge projection of a late-1930s image of Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys onto a large screen above the stage. A recording from one of the band's 1939 appearances was played over the sound system, with the iconic voice of George Hay introducing the band, followed by the band's performance of "Wabash Cannonball". That same night, Acuff showed President Richard Nixon, an honored guest at the event, how to yo-yo, and convinced the president to play several songs on the piano.

In the early 1980s, after the death of his wife, Mildred, Acuff, then in his 80s, moved into a small house on the Opryland grounds and continued performing daily on stage. He arrived early most days at the Opry before the shows and performed odd jobs, such as stocking soda in backstage refrigerators. He made a cameo appearance in the music video for Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley's 1984 parody hit song "Where's The Dress?" In 1988, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1991, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and given a lifetime achievement award by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the first country music act to receive the esteemed honor.

Death
Roy Acuff died at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville on November 23, 1992, of congestive heart failure at the age of 89. He is buried in the Hillcrest section (grave 6, lot 9) of Spring Hill Cemetery on Gallatin Road in Nashville.

Repertoire and legacy
Many of Acuff's songs show a strong Christian influence, most notably "Great Speckled Bird", "The Prodigal Son", and "Lord, Build Me a Cabin". Such songs were typically set to a traditional Anglo-Celtic melody, which is most apparent on "Great Speckled Bird" and the 1940 recording "The Precious Jewel". Acuff performed popular songs of the day, including Pee Wee King's "Tennessee Waltz" and Dorsey Dixon's "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray", the latter of which he appropriated and renamed "Wreck on the Highway". He also recorded a version of the Cajun fiddler Harry Choates's "Jole Blon". Traditional recordings included "Greenback Dollar", which he probably learned from Clarence Ashley while on the medicine-show circuit, and "Lonesome Old River Blues", which he recorded with the Smoky Mountain Boys in the 1940s. Acuff and the Crazy Tennesseans recorded "Wabash Cannonball"—another traditional song—in 1936, although Acuff did not provide the vocals on this early recording. The better-known version of the song with Acuff providing the vocals was recorded in 1947.

In 1979, Opryland opened the Roy Acuff Theatre, which was dedicated in Acuff's honor (it was demolished in 2011 after suffering extensive damage in the 2010 Tennessee floods). Dunbar Cave State Natural Area was established in 1973 from a recreational area the state had purchased from Mrs. McKay King. The cave was owned by Acuff from 1948 to 1963. Two museums have been named in Acuff's honor—the Roy Acuff Museum at Opryland (now closed) and the Roy Acuff Union Museum and Library in his hometown of Maynardville. Acuff has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1541 Vine Street. He is pictured with other country singers at the new Smoky Mountain Opera in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

title: Roy Acuff


text:
Mike Bullard (comedian)

Michael Bullard (born June 12, 1957) is a Canadian stand-up comic and broadcaster. He is the former host of the late-night talk shows Open Mike with Mike Bullard on CTV and The Mike Bullard Show on Global and of the midday radio show, Beyond the Mic with Mike Bullard on CFRB.

Family and early life
Bullard was born in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. His father was in retail and his mother was a housewife.

His younger brother is US-based comedian, television writer, host, and producer Pat Bullard and his older half-brother is Downchild Blues Band lead singer Chuck Jackson.

When Bullard was 6, his family moved from Don Mills, Ontario to Galt (now Cambridge, Ontario), later moving to Mississauga.

Stand-up comedy
A resident of Mississauga since he was 14 years old, Bullard worked briefly as a police officer with Peel Regional Police in his youth, but resigned when he was not permitted to moonlight in comedy clubs. He then returned to Bell Canada, where he had worked previously, and eventually was promoted to associate director of corporate investigation, while also working part-time as a stand-up comic. His promotion occurred after his manager saw him perform as an emcee at the Just for Laughs festival, leading him to conclude that if Bullard could handle a crowd he could also handle corporate investigations.

Bullard has a long-time association with the Yuk Yuk's chain of comedy clubs, as both an emcee and headliner, since first appearing at the Toronto club in July 1988. He continues to perform at Yuk Yuk's venues across Ontario to the present day.

Television
His stand-up career led him to becoming the host of Open Mike with Mike Bullard in 1997. The late-night talk variety show is considered the first successful Canadian attempt at the genre. The show aired nightly for six seasons on The Comedy Network and the CTV Television Network and won two Gemini Awards during its run. At its peak, Open Mike had higher Canadian ratings than The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman. After leaving CTV when his contract expired in 2003, Bullard accused executives at his old network of not supporting the show and of being "dysfunctional", resulting in countercharges of "bitterness" against Bullard who was described as having "burned his bridges" with CTV and the Comedy Network.

In 2003, Bullard was hired away by Global with a multi-year deal to host The Mike Bullard Show in the same timeslot, with much of the same staff and sketches as Open Mike. However, the new show was cancelled on March 12, 2004, after 13 weeks due to poor ratings against The Daily Show with Jon Stewart which CTV aired against Bullard's new show.

Radio
Following his television show's cancellation, Bullard resumed his career as a stand-up comic playing in comedy clubs such as Yuk Yuk's, released a comedy CD, did commercials for a weight loss clinic, and made a cameo appearance at the Gemini Awards taking part in a skit in which he played a corpse protesting "I'm not dead yet!" while paramedics removed him from the stage. In October 2006, Bullard launched an uncensored morning satellite radio show on XM Canada's Laugh Attack channel; the program was cancelled after five months.

Bullard returned to TV to host HouseCapades, a real estate series depicting the lighter side of selling one's home, in 2006. In August 2009, Bullard became the host of The Mike Bullard Show on Talk820 Radio (CHAM-AM) in Hamilton, Ontario, however his evening show was cancelled when CHAM switched to a country music format in July 2010.

From 2010 to 2016, Bullard hosted Beyond the Mic with Mike Bullard weekdays at noon on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto.

He returned to broadcasting in October 2018 on Sauga 960 AM in Mississauga as host with Lawrence Morganstern of the afternoon drive time show, The Getaway. The show ceased production in late January 2019.

From 2019 to 2020, Bullard hosted a podcast, You Too with Mike Bullard.

Humanitarian work in Ukraine
In November 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bullard went to Ukraine to volunteer with humanitarian organizations and document the impact of the crisis on civilians, remaining there until February 2023.

Bullard says he is haunted by one incident in Dnipro that he witnessed shortly after arriving, where Russian military hit an apartment block with missiles. While workers were digging through the rubble, two search dogs pinpointed one spot. After he and rescuers kept digging, the bodies of two children were pulled out from underneath the pieces of building.

“They looked to be about maybe seven and five, and one of them had pyjamas on. They were both dead,” Bullard told the Toronto Star. “I cried myself to sleep every night for a week.”

In another incident, he said, he helped clean out a house hit by ordnance that killed a man in his twenties. The pillow was bloodstained and had pieces of brain stuck to it. The man’s widow and mother-in-law moved back in after they finished.

Bullard decided to return to Canada, due to the high cost of medical care in Ukraine, after surviving an accident in which a car he was riding in was hit by a bus.

Legal issues
Bell Media, which owns CFRB, severed ties with Bullard on October 5, 2016, after he was charged with criminal harassment of his ex-girlfriend, Cynthia Mulligan. In 2017 and 2018, he was charged with several counts of allegedly breaching bail conditions and additional charges of obstructing justice for allegedly trying to get Mulligan to have the initial charges dropped.

On October 30, 2018, the Toronto Star published a "correction" retracting an earlier report that Bullard had been spotted at Mulligan's home in violation of a court order that he stay away from her. The newspaper's correction stated "In fact,... the charges do not state that he was at her home and those allegations were not raised in any subsequent court proceedings. The criminal harassment charge against Bullard was dismissed at the preliminary inquiry on June 1, 2018." On June 8, 2018, Bullard pleaded guilty to one count of harassing communication for making harassing phone calls to Mulligan and two counts of violating his bail conditions by contacting her through a third party. He was given a conditional discharge, put on six months of probation and was required to attend a domestic violence program. His criminal harassment and obstruction of justice charges had been dropped earlier in the month after the judge ruled there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

Bullard launched a legal action for defamation in August 2018 against Chatelaine magazine, one of its writers, and its publisher, Rogers Media, asking for $6 million in damages after it published an interview with Cynthia Mulligan. The suit alleged the article incorrectly claimed that Bullard had been found guilty of "stalking / criminal harassment" and had resulted in Bullard being subjected "to ridicule, hatred, and contempt" and caused damage to his professional and personal reputations by implying that he is "unfit for employment and/or intimate relationships".

On May 20, 2020, Bullard's lawsuit was dismissed by the court following a motion by the defence that the lawsuit violated Ontario's anti-SLAPP legislation. Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael McKelvey ruled: "What is clear in this case is that the damage to Mr. Bullard's career and reputation occurred well prior to and independent of the publication of the Chatelaine article. What is also clear is that the comments of his victim are views one could honestly hold based on the proven facts, and form part of a public dialogue on a matter of significant public interest."

According to a 2023 Toronto Star profile, Bullard is unrepentant when talking about the case, speaking in a tense and stern tone "sometimes drifting into anger" with Bullard asserting he was treated unfairly by the media, public and the prosecutors. Bullard says the case has affected his career causing him to slide from public view, though he still works regularly as a stand-up comic at Yuk Yuk's.

Awards
Mike Bullard has won two Gemini Awards for Open Mike With Mike Bullard, Best Talk Information Series in 1999 and Best Music Variety Program Series in 2001. The show also won the 2000 Hugo Award (Gold Medal) for Best Talk Show at the Chicago International Television Festival. Bullard was voted one of the top 10 Funniest Canadians in a nationwide poll by TV Guide in 2002.

In 2013, he received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his volunteer work, including supporting charities such as the Trillium Health Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and emceeing many charitable fundraisers.

title: Mike Bullard (comedian)


text:
Benjamin Hawkins

Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754 – June 6, 1816 ) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite. Appointed by George Washington in 1796 as one of three commissioners to the Creeks, in 1801 President Jefferson named him "principal agent for Indian affairs south of the Ohio [River]", and was principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians.

Hawkins established the Creek Agency and his plantation near present-day Roberta, Georgia, in what became Crawford County. He learned the Muscogee language, and had a Creek woman, Lavinia Downs, as common-law wife, who, in the Creek's matrilineal society, provided an entry into that world. He had seven children with her, although he resisted Creek pressure to marry her until near the end of his life. He wrote extensively about the Creek and other Southeast tribes: the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw. He eventually built a large complex using African slave labor, including mills, and raised a considerable quantity of cattle and hogs.

Early life and education
Benjamin Hawkins was born to Philemon Hawkins and Delia (Martin) Hawkins on August 15, 1754, the third of four sons. The family owned a slave plantation in what was then Granville County, North Carolina, but is now Warren County. He attended the county schools, then at the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University). He was "apt at multiple languages", a linguistic competence that would later enable him to learn Indian languages. When the College (which he never graduated from) temporarily closed due to the outbreak of war, Hawkins was commissioned a Colonel and served for several years on George Washington's staff as his main interpreter of French.

Career
Hawkins was released from federal service late in 1777, as Washington learned to rely on Lafayette for dealing with the French. He returned home, where he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1778. He served there until 1779, and again in 1784. The North Carolina General Assembly sent him to the Continental Congress as their delegate from 1781 to 1783, and again in 1787.

In 1789, Hawkins was a delegate to the Fayetteville Convention that ratified the United States Constitution. He was elected to the first U.S. Senate, where he served from 1789 to 1795. Although the Senate did not have organized political parties at the time, Hawkins' views aligned with different groups. Early in his Senate career, he was counted in the ranks of those senators viewed as pro-Administration, but by the third congress, he generally sided with senators of the Republican or Anti-Administration Party.

U.S. Indian agent
In 1785, Hawkins had served as a representative for the Congress in negotiations over land with the Creek Indians of the Southeast. He was generally successful, and convinced the tribe to lessen their raids for several years, although he could not conclude a formal treaty. The Creek wanted to deal with the 'head man'. They finally signed the Treaty of New York (1790) after Hawkins convinced George Washington to become involved.

In 1786, Hawkins and fellow Indian agents Andrew Pickens and Joseph Martin concluded a treaty with the Choctaw nation at Seneca Old Town, also known as Hopewell, the plantation of Andrew Pickens, near Clemson, South Carolina. They set out the boundaries for the Choctaw lands as well as provisions for relations between the tribe and the U.S. government.

In 1789, conditions among the Creeks seemed to indicate an urgency for his return to the Creek country. Accordingly, he left Tennessee early in September for Fort Wilkinson on the Oconee River in Georgia. The next few months were spent with the Creeks. January 1, 1789, was set as the date for the assembling of the commissioners for running the Creek line in conformity to the treaties at New York and Coleraine. Hawkins had some difficulty in persuading the Creeks to agree to the running of the line, as many of the younger warriors were opposed. On February 16 Hawkins reported to Secretary of War, James McHenry that the line had been run from the Tugalo River over Currahee Mountain to the main south branch of the Oconee River. Though about sixteen families of Georgians were found on the Creek lands in the area known as Wofford's Settlement, McHenry was told "...I am happy in being able to assure you that there was no diversity of opinion among us, and that the line was closed in perfect harmony. " This line became known as the Hawkins Line.

In 1796, Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as General Superintendent of Indian Affairs, dealing with all tribes south of the Ohio River. As principal agent to the Creek tribe, Hawkins soon moved to present-day Crawford County in Georgia where he established his home and the Creek Agency. He studied the language and was adopted by the Creek. He wrote extensively about them and the other southeast tribes.

Georgia
Hawkins' plans for the Indians was a "civilization plan", by which he meant adopting the European-American lifestyle, raising crops and animals on farms. He began to teach European-American agricultural practices to the Creek, and started a farm at his and Lavinia's home on the Flint River. He brought his enslaved Black workers from North Carolina, and eventually purchased others. He hired other workers to assist them in clearing several hundred acres for his plantation. They built a sawmill, gristmill, and a trading post for the agency. Hawkins expanded his operation to include more than 1,000 head of cattle and a large number of hogs, and raised "immense crops" of corn and other provisions. For years, he met with chiefs on his porch and discussed matters there. His personal hard work and open-handed generosity won him such respect that reports say that he never lost an animal to Indian raiders. He became a respected and trusted man among the community, and bore the title as “The Beloved Man of the Four Nations.” Cherokee women told Hawkins "that, of the several Indian agents who visited them, he was the first who thought it worth while to examine into the situation of the women".

He contributed to the 19 years of peace between settlers and the tribe, the longest such period during European-American settlement. When in 1806 the government built a fort at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, to protect expanding settlements just east of modern Macon, Georgia, the government named it Fort Benjamin Hawkins in his honor.

Hawkins saw much of his work to preserve peace destroyed in 1812. A group of Creek rebels, known as Red Sticks, were working to revive traditional ways and halt encroachment by European Americans. The ensuing civil war among the Creeks coincided with the War of 1812.

During the Creek War of 1813-1814, Hawkins organized "friendly" Creek Indians under the command of chief William McIntosh to aid Georgia and Tennessee militias in their forays against the traditionalist Red Sticks. General Andrew Jackson led the defeat of the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, in present-day Alabama. Hawkins was unable to attend negotiations of the Treaty of Fort Jackson in August 1814, which required the Creeks to cede most of their territory and give up their way of life. Hawkins later organized "friendly" Creek warriors to oppose a British force on the Apalachicola River that threatened to rally the scattered Red Sticks and reignite the war on the Georgia frontier. After the British withdrew in 1815, Hawkins was organizing another force when he died of a sudden illness on June 6, 1816.

Hawkins tried more than once to resign his post and return from the Georgia frontier, but no President would accept his resignation. (Dale Cox says that President Monroe accepted his resignation, but Hawkins died before Monroe became President.) He remained Superintendent until his death. Near the end of his life, he formally married Lavinia Downs in a European-American ceremony, making their children legitimate in United States society. They already belonged to Downs' clan among the Creek, who had a matrilineal kinship system. The children gained status from their mother's clan and people, and their mother's eldest brother was usually more important in their lives than their biological father.

Benjamin Hawkins was buried at the Creek Agency near the Flint River and Roberta, Georgia. He was succeeded as Indian agent by David Mitchell, former Governor of Georgia.

Fort Hawkins was built overlooking the ancient site since designated as the Ocmulgee National Monument. Revealing 17,000 years of human habitation, it is a National Historic Landmark and has been sacred for centuries to the Creek. It has massive earthwork mounds built nearly 1,000 years ago as expressions of the religious and political world of the Mississippian culture, the ancestors to the Creek.

Hawkins and slavery
Hawkins' plantation was farmed by enslaved labor, but beyond that his unhappy record on slavery has been overlooked. He transformed the Creek Agency and Fort Hawkins into holding stations for fugitive slaves, and paid Indians $50 for every fugitive delivered there. (He expected to be reimbursed by their owners.) Captured Blacks that did not have an owner, he told the Creeks to keep; i.e., he encouraged slavery among the Creeks.

It was Hawkins who first used the term negro fort to refer to the British Post on the Apalachicola River, at that time in Spanish Florida. Hawkins started the call for its capture or destruction.

Personal life
He married Susan Lavinia Downs, who some believe was a Creek Indian woman (the Creeks wanted him to take a Creek wife), whereas other evidence indicates that she was a white woman. They had a total of six daughters: Georgia, Muscogee, Cherokee, Carolina, Virginia, and Jeffersonia, and one son, James Madison Hawkins. In 1812, thinking he was on his death bed, Hawkins remarried his wife Susan Lavinia Downs to make sure their children were legitimate in U.S. society. Jeffersonia was born after this marriage.

Hawkins was close to his nephew William Hawkins, whom he made a co-executor of his estate along with his wife; he bequeathed to William a share of his estate, reputed to be quite large. This bequest became a source of contention among his heirs, especially as he had not altered his will to include his youngest daughter Jeffersonia.

Archival material

 * The Georgia Historical Society has three boxes of Hawkins material, some of which has been published.

Legacy and honors

 * Hawkinsville, Georgia is named in his honor.
 * Hawkins County in Tennessee bears his name.
 * He is the namesake of the Benjamin Hawkins Boy Scout Camp near Byron, Georgia.
 * The archeological site of the original Fort Benjamin Hawkins is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and it is within the Fort Hill Historic District of Macon, Georgia, also listed on the NRHP.
 * Hawkins was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.

Further reading (most recent first)

 * Robbie Franklyn Ethridge, Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
 * Thomas Foster, editor. The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1810. 2003, University of Alabama Press, ISBN 0-8173-5040-3.
 * Florette Henri. The Southern Indians and Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1816. 1986, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-1968-3.
 * C. L. Grant, editor. Benjamin Hawkins: Letters, Journals and Writings. 2 volumes. 1980, Beehive Press, volume 1: ISBN 99921-1-543-2, volume 2: ISBN 99938-28-28-9.

title: Benjamin Hawkins


text:
Grover Whalen

Grover Aloysius Whalen (1886–1962) was a prominent politician, businessman, and public relations guru in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s.

Early years
Whalen was born on July 2, 1886, in New York City, the son of an Irish immigrant father and a French-Canadian mother. They named their son after President Grover Cleveland, who was married on the same day that their child was born. His father, Michael Whalen, was a successful trucking contractor and a Tammany Hall supporter.

Grover Whalen attended DeWitt Clinton High School and afterwards studied law. He then joined the staff of John Wanamaker's department store, with which he would long be associated. He married Anna Dolores Kelly in 1913.

Whalen ran his father's ash and garbage disposal business for a time before becoming involved in politics, working for the election of John F. Hylan as Mayor of New York.

Political appointments
After Hylan became Mayor in 1918, Whalen was appointed to be Commissioner of Plants and Structures. In this position he supervised the city's transportation system. He also served as Hylan's Commissioner of Purchase and took part in greeting ceremonies, including the welcome of General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, in 1919. In 1922, he proposed the creation of a radio station owned and operated by the city, a plan that came to fruition with the first broadcast of WNYC in 1924.

In 1924, Whalen left the Hylan administration to assist Rodman Wanamaker in the operation of the Wanamaker department stores, serving as general manager. Wanamaker named him Vice President of Operations for the American Trans-Oceanic Company, a new airline flying Curtiss seaplanes between New York and Florida.

Police Commissioner
In 1928, he returned to civic life when he was appointed by Mayor Jimmy Walker to the position of New York City Police Commissioner. He was known to be a ruthless enforcer of Prohibition laws. Whalen was famously quoted as saying, "There is plenty of law at the end of a nightstick."

Whalen came under fire for police handling of the International Unemployment Day demonstration on March 6, 1930, in New York City, in which an impromptu march of 35,000 or more demonstrators down Broadway to New York City Hall was set upon by 1,000 baton-wielding police.

The brutal scene was described by a reporter from the New York Times:

"Hundreds of policemen and detectives, swinging nightsticks, blackjacks, and bare fists, rushed into the crowd, hitting out at all with whom they came into contact, chasing many across the street and into adjacent thoroughfares and pushing hundreds off their feet. From all parts of the scene of battle came the screams of women and cries of men with bloody heads and faces."

Sharply criticized for the escalation of violence by the police, Whalen was forced to resign his post within two months.

Later career
He was later appointed by Fiorello La Guardia as Chairman of the Mayor's Committee on Receptions to Distinguished Guests, succeeding William Francis Deegan, and became a public celebrity easily recognized by his exquisitely groomed moustache and carnation boutonniere. In this capacity, in which he served until the early 1950s, he officially welcomed everyone from Charles Lindbergh to Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd to Douglas MacArthur to New York and became master of the ticker tape parade.

In 1933, Whelan received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." In 1935, he became president of the New York World Fair Corporation and put a familiar face on the 1939 New York World's Fair. He was on the cover of Time magazine on May 1, 1939.

Mr. New York
Whalen was known as the official greeter and organizer of many public events and celebrations taking place in New York during the first half of the 20th century. G.P. Putnam's Sons, the publisher of Whalen's autobiography, came up with Mr. New York as the title of his autobiography. The name naturally gave birth to a new nickname for Whalen, as his experiences working in the public and private sector gave him a representative personality of New York.

In the acknowledgements before beginning his autobiography, Whalen gives credit to the late Melville Minton, President of G.P. Putnam's Sons, for encouraging him to write a book about New York. During an interview with the New Yorker in November 1955, Whalen claims that Minton asked him to write a book about New York during the 1920s. The publishing company provided Whalen with a staff of researchers responsible for validating stories and facts incorporated into the autobiography. Ted Purdy, the man in charge of editing Whalen's writing, took the 800 pages penned by Whalen and condensed it into a 300-page collection of personal accounts. Purdy and his team also provided the Mr. New York title for the collection of stories written by Whalen.

The bulk of his writing describes planning and execution of receptions, ceremonies, and civic projects under his direction. He provides vivid imagery and background information regarding specific events such as ticker-tape parades for American heroes like Lindbergh after the completion of his flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927. Whalen also goes into great detail about the planning and intricacies behind the parades for returning World War II soldiers, most notably General Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1945. Although Whalen claims that he wrote extensively about those accounts because he thought his readers would find them most interesting, many accounts are a subtle way of documenting his accomplishments over the course of his career. Taking into account Minton's encouragement to write about the transformative societal change of New York during the first quarter of the twentieth century, had Minton been alive to read the published version of Whalen's autobiography, he might have been disappointed. For a man responsible for implementing much of New York City's policies working in the Mayor's office and later as NYPD police commissioner, Whalen offers a limited perspective into the implications of his professional career on the transformative social and cultural change happening within the city.

Furthermore, the autobiography ignores any corruption during his career in public service. Throughout his writings, he often refers to the advantages of political ambition under the wing of Tammany Hall. However, he never admits to any moral wrongdoing of the political machine. Also, after the stock market crashed in 1929, Frank Costello was recorded telling Lucky Luciano that he had to advance Whalen $30,000 to cover his margin calls on the market. A few seconds later he said, "What could I do? We own him." Although Whalen omits this in his autobiography, he was a somewhat corrupt public figure.

In the beginning and ending chapters of the autobiography, Whalen provides valuable insight on the many things he values and loves about his city. In the first few chapters, Whalen writes with a nostalgic pen recollecting memories of the family culture of the close-knit neighborhood he grew up in on the Lower East Side. Contrasted against his writing emphasizing efficiency and organization regarding later years, particularly when working for the Mayor's Office and as Police Commissioner, Whalen longs for his childhood days, when everyone in his neighborhood knew everyone by first name.

Also, in the last chapter he concludes by describing his fascination with New York, using the trajectory of his professional career as evidence of the proposed American dream: "New York means to me a place where anyone can still rise to the top, no matter how humble his beginnings." While it is true that Whalen was born to immigrant parents and eventually became a public figure, much of his success came from his connections with the Tammany Hall political machine. The accuracy behind his Mr. New York identity represents the promises of opportunity and success put forth in Whalen's autobiography but also the quietly corrupt culture neglected by Whalen in his autobiography.

Death and legacy
He died at the age of 75 on April 20, 1962.

He is mentioned in the Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg song Lydia the Tattooed Lady (Here is Grover Whalen, unveilin' the Trilon...), the Cole Porter song Let's Fly Away, and the Bobby Short song Sweet Bye and Bye as well as in the 1933 film The Prizefighter and the Lady, starring Myrna Loy and Max Baer. Grover Whalen is also mentioned in Once in a Lifetime, a play written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman in 1930. He is also mentioned in E.B. White's essay "The World of Tomorrow." In P.G. Wodehouse's 1940 novel Quick Service, the character J.B. Duff's false moustache is compared disparagingly to that of Grover Whalen. Johnny Mandel's 1955 jazz tune "Groover Wailin'" is a pun on Whalen's name. A character in Gregory Mcdonald's Flynn novels (published between 1976 and 1999) is Sgt. Richard Whalen, who is consistently addressed by the mischievous Flynn as "Grover". Whalen has no idea why Flynn does this, and finds it annoying.

Whalen titled his 1955 autobiography Mr. New York.

title: Grover Whalen


text:
International Union of Architects

The International Union of Architects (French: Union internationale des Architectes; UIA) is the only international non-governmental organization that represents the world's architects, now estimated to number some 3.2 million in all.

About
The UIA was founded on 28 June 1948 in Lausanne, Switzerland, following the merger of the Comité permanent international des Architectes and the Réunion International des Architectes. Its General Secretariat is located in Paris. The organisation is recognised as the only global architecture organisation by most United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, UNCHS, ESOSOC, UNIDO and the World Health Organization as well as the WTO. The current (2021-2023) president is José Luis Cortés from Mexico.

Through its Member Sections, the UIA is represented in over 100 countries and territories, geographically grouped into five regions:

 * Region I: Western Europe
 * Region II: Eastern Europe
 * Region III: The Americas
 * Region IV: Asia and Oceania
 * Region V: Africa

Governing bodies
The governing bodies of the UIA are:

 * The Assembly: the supreme body of the UIA composed of delegates from  UIA Member Sections in addition to Council members.
 * Council: between meetings of the Assembly, the Council is responsible for managing and directing the affairs of the Union. It is composed of 4 elected members from each of the UIA's five regions in addition to the Bureau members.
 * Bureau: composed of the President, the Immediate Past President, the Secretary General, the Treasurer, and a Vice-President from each Region

Presidents

 * Sir Patrick Abercrombie, United Kingdom (1948–1953)
 * Jean Tschumi, Switzerland (1953–1957)
 * Hector Mardones Restat, Chile (1957–1961)
 * Sir Robert Matthews, United Kingdom (1961–1965)
 * Eugene Beaudouin, France (1965–1969)
 * Ramon Corona Martin, Mexico (1969–1972)
 * Georgui Orlov, USSR (1972–1975)
 * Jai Rattan Bhalla, India (1975–1978)
 * Louis de Moll, USA (1978–1981)
 * Rafael De La Hoz, Spain (1981–1985)
 * Georgi Stoilov, Bulgaria (1985–1987)
 * Rod Hackney, United Kingdom (1987–1990)
 * Olufemi Majekodunmi, Nigeria (1990–1993)
 * Jaime Duro, Spain (1993–1996)
 * Sara Topelson, Mexico (1996–1999)
 * Vassilis Sgoutas, Greece (1999–2002)
 * Jaime Lerner, Brazil (2002–2005)
 * Gaetan Siew, Mauritius (2005–2008)
 * Louise Cox, Australia (2008–2011)
 * Albert Dubler, France (2011–2014)
 * Esa Mohamed, Malaysia (2014–2017)
 * Thomas Vonier, USA (2017–2021)
 * José Luis Cortés, Mexico (2021–2023)

Congresses
The UIA World Congresses are key events for professional and cultural exchange among all the world's architects, bringing together thousands of participants from around the globe. Each event focuses on a different architecture-related theme, developed by eminent personalities from the international architectural, planning and construction fields. Debates, exhibitions, tours and networking events make the UIA Congresses the perfect meeting place for experts, colleagues, friends, and students of architecture.

UIA Congresses are organised by a host UIA Member Section. Congress bids are submitted to the UIA General Assembly and selected by vote six years in advance of the event.

List of congresses from 1948 to 2026

World Capital of Architecture
On 23 November 2018, the UIA published a Memorandum of Understanding with UNESCO on the new joint label World Capital of Architecture. The title is awarded every three years, according to the rhythm of the UIA World Congresses. Since 2020, the world congress has always taken place in the respective world capital. There is a formal application process for this. The World Congress selects the World Capital for the year of the next World Congress from the shortlist of applications, the formal announcement being made by the Secretary General of UNESCO. In 2020 Rio de Janeiro was the world capital of architecture, 2023 Copenhagen and 2026 Barcelona. A program and a series of major events take place in the respective world capital throughout the calendar year.

UIA Gold Medal
Since 1984 the organisation also awards the UIA Gold Medal to honour an architect (or group of architects) having distinguished themselves through their work and professional practice by the quality of services rendered to man and society. Past recipients of the award were:

UIA Triennial Prizes
The UIA also awards the following five prizes:

 * The Patrick Abercrombie Prize for Urban Planning and Design
 * The Auguste Perret Prize for Technology in Architecture
 * The Jean Tschumi Prize for Architectural Writing & Critique
 * The Robert Matthew Prize for Sustainable & Humane Environments
 * The Vassilis Sgoutas Prize for Implemented Architecture Serving the Impoverished

International design competitions
The UIA manages international architecture competitions.
 * Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris
 * Indira Gandhi Centre, New Delhi
 * Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
 * National Museum of Seoul
 * Prado National Museum, Madrid (rehabilitation and extension)
 * Opera House, Sydney

title: International Union of Architects