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Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg; April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011) was an American actor whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both December Bride (1954–1959) and Pete and Gladys (1960–1962); Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet (1967–1970); Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey (1972–1974); and his starring role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (1975–1983) and AfterMASH (1983–1985). Morgan also appeared as a supporting player in more than 100 films.

Early life
Morgan was born Harry Bratsberg in Detroit, the son of Hannah and Henry Bratsberg. His parents were of Swedish and Norwegian ancestry. In his interview with the Archive of American Television, Morgan spelled his Norwegian family surname as "Brasburg". Many sources, however, including some family records, list the spelling as "Bratsburg". According to one source, when Morgan's father Henry registered at junior high school, "the registrar spelled it Brasburg instead of Bratsberg. Bashful Henry did not demur."

Morgan was raised in Muskegon, Michigan, and graduated from Muskegon High School in 1933, where he achieved distinction as a statewide debating champion. He originally aspired to a J.D. degree, but began acting while a junior at the University of Chicago in 1935.

Career
He began acting on stage under his birth name, in 1937, joining the Group Theatre in New York City formed by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg in 1931. He appeared in the original production of the Clifford Odets play Golden Boy, followed by a host of successful Broadway roles alongside such other Group members as Lee J. Cobb, Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Sanford Meisner, and Karl Malden. Morgan also did summer stock at the Pine Brook Country Club located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut.

Film work
Morgan made his screen debut (originally using the name "Henry Morgan") in the 1942 movie To the Shores of Tripoli. His screen name later became "Henry 'Harry' Morgan" and eventually Harry Morgan, to avoid confusion with the popular humorist of the same name.

In the same year, Morgan appeared in the movie Orchestra Wives as a young man pushing his way to the front of a ballroom crowd with his date to hear Glenn Miller's band play. A few years later, still credited as Henry Morgan, he was cast in the role of pianist Chummy MacGregor in the 1954 biopic The Glenn Miller Story.

Morgan continued to play a number of significant roles on the big screen in such films as The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) with Henry Fonda, Wing and a Prayer (1944), A Bell for Adano (1945), State Fair (1945), Dragonwyck (1946) with Walter Huston, The Gangster (1947), The Big Clock (1948) with Charles Laughton, The Well (1951), High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, Torch Song (1953) with Joan Crawford, and several films in the 1950s for director Anthony Mann starring James Stewart, including Bend of the River (1952), Thunder Bay (1953), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), The Far Country (1955), and Strategic Air Command (1955). In his later film career, he appeared in Inherit the Wind (1960) with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, How the West Was Won (1962) (as Ulysses S. Grant) with John Wayne, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965) with Peter Ustinov, Frankie and Johnny (1966) with Elvis Presley and Donna Douglas, The Flim-Flam Man (1967) with George C. Scott, Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) with James Garner, Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) also with James Garner, Snowball Express (1972) with Keenan Wynn, The Shootist (1976) with John Wayne and Lauren Bacall, The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) with Robert Conrad, and as Captain Gannon in the theatrical film version of Dragnet (1987) with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks.

Radio and television
Morgan hosted the NBC radio series Mystery in the Air starring Peter Lorre in 1947. On CBS, he played Pete Porter in Pete and Gladys (1960–1962), with Cara Williams as wife Gladys. Pete and Gladys was a spin-off of December Bride (1954–1959), starring Spring Byington, a show in which Morgan had a popular recurring role. In 1950, Morgan appeared as an obtrusive, alcohol-addled hotel clerk in the Dragnet radio episode "The Big Boys".

Dragnet
After Pete and Gladys ended production, Morgan guest-starred in the role of Al Everett in the 1962 episode "Like My Own Brother" on Gene Kelly's ABC drama series, Going My Way, loosely based on the 1944 Bing Crosby film of the same name. That same year, he played the mobster Bugs Moran in an episode of ABC's The Untouchables, with Robert Stack. In 1963, he was cast as Sheriff Ernie Backwater on Richard Boone's Have Gun – Will Travel Western series on CBS, then worked as a regular cast member on the 1963–64 anthology series The Richard Boone Show.

In the 1964–1965 season, Morgan co-starred as Seldom Jackson in the 26-week NBC comedy/drama Kentucky Jones, starring Dennis Weaver, formerly of Gunsmoke.

Morgan is even more widely recognized as Officer Bill Gannon, Joe Friday's partner in the revived version of Dragnet (1967–1970).

Morgan had also appeared with Dragnet star Jack Webb in three film noir movies, Dark City (1950), Appointment with Danger (1951) and Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), and was an early regular member of Jack Webb's stock company of actors on the original Dragnet radio show. Morgan later worked on two other shows for Webb: 1971's The D.A. and the 1972–1974 Western series, Hec Ramsey. Morgan also appeared in four episodes of Gunsmoke ("The Witness" – aired 11/23/1970, "Milligan" - aired 11/6/72, "The Wiving" - aired 10/14/1974 and "Brides and Grooms", sequel to The Wiving - aired 2/10/1975).

Morgan appeared in the role of Inspector Richard Queen, uncle of Ellery Queen in the 1971 television film Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You.

M*A*S*H

Morgan's first appearance on M*A*S*H was in the show's third season (1974–1975), when he played the mentally unbalanced Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele in "The General Flipped at Dawn", which first aired on September 10, 1974.

The following season, Morgan joined the cast of M*A*S*H as Colonel Sherman T. Potter. A fan of the sitcom, Morgan replaced McLean Stevenson, who left the show at the end of the previous season. Unlike Stevenson's character Henry Blake, Potter was a career Army officer who was a firm yet good-humored, caring father figure to those under his command.

In 1980, Morgan won an Emmy Award for his performance on M*A*S*H. When asked if he was a better actor after working with the show's talented cast, Morgan responded, "I don't know about that, but it's made me a better human being." After the end of the series, Morgan reprised the Potter role in a short-lived spinoff series, AfterMASH.

Morgan also appeared in several Disney movies throughout the decade, including The Barefoot Executive, Snowball Express, Charley and the Angel, The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Cat from Outer Space (opposite McLean Stevenson) and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.

Later years
In 1986, he co-starred with Hal Linden in Blacke's Magic, a show about a magician who doubled as a detective solving unusual crimes. One season was made. Morgan's character, Leonard Blacke, was a semiretired con artist.

In 1987, Morgan reprised his Bill Gannon character, now a captain, for a supporting role in another film version of Dragnet, a parody and homage to the original series written by and starring Dan Aykroyd and costarring Tom Hanks and Christopher Plummer.

In 1987–1988, Morgan starred in the one-season situation comedy series You Can't Take It with You as family patriarch Martin Vanderhof.

In the 1990s, Morgan starred alongside Walter Matthau in a series of television movies for CBS as Stoddard Bell, a judge who is an acquaintance/nemesis/partner of Matthau's Harmon Cobb, an attorney (The Incident; An Incident in Baltimore, and Incident in a Small Town). He also lent his voice to an episode of The Simpsons from season seven, where he once again played Bill Gannon; in the episode "Mother Simpson", Gannon and Joe Friday (voiced by Harry Shearer) are FBI agents trying to track down Homer's mother, who is a fugitive from justice.

Morgan also had a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun as Professor Suter, a colleague of Dick Solomon's. Morgan directed episodes for several TV series, including two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, two episodes of Hec Ramsey, and one episode of Adam-12. Morgan had a guest role on The Jeff Foxworthy Show as Raymond and a guest role on Grace Under Fire as Jean's pot-smoking boyfriend.

In 2006, Morgan was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Personal life
Morgan's first marriage was to Eileen Detchon from 1940 until her death in 1985. During Morgan's time on M*A*S*H, a photograph of Detchon regularly appeared on the desk of his character. A drawing of a horse, seen on the wall behind Potter's desk, was drawn by Morgan's grandson, Jeremy Morgan. In addition, Eileen was the name of the wife of Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet. Morgan had four sons with his first wife: Christopher, Charles, Paul, and Daniel (who died in 1989).

He then married Barbara Bushman Quine (granddaughter of silent film star Francis X. Bushman) on December 17, 1986. The marriage lasted until his death. In July 1996, he was arrested on domestic battery charges for striking his wife Barbara which caused her to be admitted to the hospital. The case was later dismissed.

Morgan had two siblings, Marguerite and Arnold (both deceased).

Morgan was close friends with bandleader Glenn Miller, whom he met while filming Orchestra Wives in 1942, until Miller's disappearance two years later. Morgan was later cast in the 1954 movie about his friend, The Glenn Miller Story, playing Chummy MacGregor.

Death
Morgan died in his sleep on December 7, 2011, at the age of 96. His son, Charles, said he recently had been treated for pneumonia. His body was cremated and his remains were given to his family.

Following Morgan's death, Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Hunnicutt opposite Morgan in M*A*S*H, released a statement:

"He was a wonderful man, a fabulous actor and a dear and close friend since the first day we worked together. As Alan [Alda] said, he did not have an unadorable bone in his body. He was a treasure as a person, an imp at times, and always a true professional. He had worked with the greats and never saw himself as one of them. But he was. He was the rock everyone depended on and yet he could cut up like a kid when the situation warranted it. He was the apotheosis, the finest example of what people call a 'character actor'. What he brought to the work made everyone better. He made those who are thought of as 'stars' shine even more brightly. The love and admiration we all felt for him were returned tenfold in many, many ways. And the greatest and most selfless tribute to the experience we enjoyed was paid by Harry at the press conference when our show ended. He remarked that someone had asked him if working on M*A*S*H had made him a better actor. He responded by saying, 'I don't know about that, but it made me a better human being.' It's hard to imagine a better one."

Films

 * To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) as Mouthy
 * The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942) as Ebenezer Burling
 * The Omaha Trail (1942) as Henchman Nat
 * Orchestra Wives (1942) as Cully Anderson
 * Crash Dive (1943) as Brownie
 * The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) as Art Croft
 * Happy Land (1943) as Anton 'Tony' Cavrek
 * The Eve of St. Mark (1944) as Private Shevlin
 * Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944) as Thomas J. 'Smoke' Reardon
 * Wing and a Prayer (1944) as Ensign Malcolm Brainard
 * Gentle Annie (1944) as Cottonwood Goss
 * A Bell for Adano (1945) as Captain N. Purvis
 * State Fair (1945) as Barker
 * From This Day Forward (1946) as Hank Beesley
 * Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946) as Joe Patillo
 * Dragonwyck (1946) as Klaas Bleecker
 * Somewhere in the Night (1946) as Bath Attendant (uncredited)
 * It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946) as Gus Rivers
 * Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946) as Jervis (uncredited)
 * The Gangster (1947) as Shorty
 * The Big Clock (1948) as Bill Womack
 * All My Sons (1948) as Frank Lubey
 * Race Street (1948) as Hal Towers
 * The Saxon Charm (1948) as Hermy
 * Moonrise (1948) as Billy Scripture
 * Yellow Sky (1948) as Half Pint
 * Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) as Britton
 * The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949) as Hoodlum (uncredited)
 * Madame Bovary (1949) as Hyppolite
 * Strange Bargain (1949) as Lieutenant Richard Webb
 * Red Light (1949) as Rocky
 * Holiday Affair (1949) as Police Lieutenant
 * Hello Out There (1949) as The Young Gambler
 * Outside the Wall (1950) as Garth
 * The Showdown (1950) as Rod Main
 * Dark City (1950) as Soldier
 * Belle Le Grand (1951) as Abel Stone
 * When I Grow Up (1951) as Father Reed (modern)
 * Appointment with Danger (1951) as George Soderquist
 * The Highwayman (1951) as Tim
 * The Well (1951) as Claude Packard
 * The Blue Veil (1951) as Charles Hall
 * Boots Malone (1952) as Quarter Horse Henry
 * Scandal Sheet (1952) as Biddle
 * Bend of the River (1952) as Shorty
 * My Six Convicts (1952) as Dawson
 * High Noon (1952) as Sam Fuller
 * What Price Glory? (1952) as Sergeant Moran (uncredited)
 * Big Jim McLain (1952) as Narrator (voice, uncredited)
 * Apache War Smoke (1952) as Ed Cotten
 * Toughest Man in Arizona (1952) as Verne Kimber
 * Stop, You're Killing Me (1952) as Innocence
 * Thunder Bay (1953) as Rawlings
 * Arena (1953) as Lew Hutchins
 * Champ for a Day (1953) as Al Muntz
 * Torch Song (1953) as Joe Denner
 * The Glenn Miller Story (1954) as Chummy
 * Prisoner of War (1954) as Major O.D. Hale
 * The Forty-Niners (1954) as Alf Billings
 * About Mrs. Leslie (1954) as Fred Blue
 * The Far Country (1954) as Ketchum
 * Strategic Air Command (1955) as Sergeant Bible (flight engineer)
 * Not as a Stranger (1955) as Oley
 * Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) (uncredited)
 * The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) as Felix, Barkeep
 * Backlash (1956) as Tony Welker
 * Operation Teahouse (1956) as Himself
 * UFO (1956) as "Red Dog 1" (voice)
 * Star in the Dust (1956) as Lew Hogan
 * The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) as Sergeant Gregovich
 * Under Fire (1957) as Sergeant Joseph C. Dusak
 * It Started with a Kiss (1959) as Charles Meriden
 * The Mountain Road (1960) as Sergeant 'Mike' Michaelson
 * Inherit the Wind (1960) as Judge Mel Coffey
 * Cimarron (1960) as Jesse Rickey
 * How the West Was Won (1962) as General Ulysses S. Grant
 * John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965) as Secretary of State Deems Sarajevo
 * Frankie and Johnny (1966) as Cully
 * What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) as Major Pott
 * The Flim-Flam Man (1967) as Sheriff Slade
 * Star Spangled Salesman (1968) as TV Cop
 * Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) as Olly Perkins
 * Viva Max! (1969) as Chief of Police Sylvester
 * The Barefoot Executive (1971) as E.J. Crampton
 * Support Your Local Gunfighter! (1971) as Taylor
 * Scandalous John (1971) as Sheriff Pippin
 * Snowball Express (1972) as Jesse McCord
 * Charley and the Angel (1973) as The Angel formerly Roy Zerney
 * The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) as Homer McCoy
 * The Shootist (1976) as Marshall Thibido
 * Maneaters Are Loose! (1978) as Toby Waites
 * The Cat from Outer Space (1978) as General Stilton
 * The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979) as Major T.P. Gaskill
 * The Wild Wild West Revisited (TV, 1979) as Robert T. Malone
 * More Wild Wild West (TV, 1980) as Robert T. Malone
 * Scout's Honor (TV, 1980) as Mr. Briggs
 * The Flight of Dragons (1982) as Carolinus (voice)
 * Sparkling Cyanide (TV, 1983) as Captain Kemp
 * Dragnet (1987) as Captain Gannon
 * 14 Going on 30 (TV, 1988) as Uncle Herb
 * The Incident (TV, 1990) as Judge Bell
 * Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (TV, 1992) as Judge Bell
 * Incident in a Small Town (TV, 1994) as Judge Bell
 * Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996)
 * Family Plan (1997) as Sol Rubins
 * Crosswalk (1999) as Dr. Chandler

TV

 * Have Gun Will Travel (1958) A Snare for Murder as Fred Braus; American Primitive (1963) as Sheriff Ernie Backwater
 * Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959) (Season 5 Episode 6 (159): "Anniversary Gift") as Hermie Jenkins
 * The Untouchables (1962) Episode 100 Double Cross as George Bugs Moran
 * Pete and Gladys (1960–1962)
 * Dragnet (1967–1970) (98 episodes) as Officer Bill Gannon
 * M*A*S*H (1975-1983) (180 episodes) as Colonel Sherman T. Potter
 * The Bastard (TV miniseries, 1978) as Captain Caleb
 * The Love Boat (1978)
 * Backstairs at the White House (TV miniseries, 1979) as President Harry S. Truman
 * AfterMASH (1983-1984)
 * Murder, She Wrote (1987) Season 3, Episode 21 "The Days Dwindle Down" as Retired Lieutenant Richard Webb
 * You Can't Take It with You (1987–1988) as Martin Vanderhof
 * The Simpsons (1995) Episode 136 "Mother Simpson" as Bill Gannon
 * 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996) as Professor Suter

title: Harry Morgan


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 14

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 * 1779 – American Revolutionary War: A militia of Patriots decisively defeated and scattered a Loyalist militia that was on its way to British-controlled Augusta, Georgia.
 * 1804 – Serb chieftains elected Đorđe Petrović as their leader and began an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
 * 1852 – The Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, was founded in London.
 * 1914 – The animated film Gertie the Dinosaur was released, later greatly influencing future animators such as the Fleischer brothers and Walt Disney.
 * 1919 – The Battle of Bereza Kartuska, the first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War, took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.
 * 1938 – The Singapore Naval Base, the cornerstone of the Singapore strategy, a British naval defence policy, was opened.
 * 1943 – World War II: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
 * 1961 – Lawrencium, the radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first synthesized at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
 * 1979 – Adolph Dubs, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped by unknown agents and killed during a gun battle between Afghan police and the perpetrators.
 * 1981 - 48 people died when a fire broke out during a Valentine's Day dance at a Dublin nightclub.
 * 1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, a novel considered to be blasphemous by some Muslims.
 * 1992 – Sri Temasek (pictured), the official residence of the prime minister of Singapore, was declared a national monument.
 * 2005 – The video-sharing web site YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees.
 * 2008 – A gunman opened fire into a crowded lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, killing five people and injuring twenty-one others.

 * Born/died this day: | Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson |d|1229| Domenico Ferrabosco |b|1513| John Wilkins |b|1614|William Blackstone |d|1780| Margaret E. Knight |b|1838| Anna Howard Shaw |b|1847| George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. |b|1859| Katherine Stinson |b|1891| Hazel McCallion |b|1921| William E. Holmes |d|1931| Keiji Nishioka|b|1933|Adnan Saidi |d|1942| Pam McConnell |b|1946| Val James |b|1957| Annalisa Buffa |b|1973| Franjo Mihalić |d|2015

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


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 15

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 * 1113 – Pope Paschal II issued the papal bull Pie postulatio voluntatis, formally recognising the establishment of the Knights Hospitaller.
 * 1493 – Christopher Columbus wrote a letter widely distributed upon his return to Portugal that announced the results of his first voyage to the Americas.
 * 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The invasion of Ceylon ended with Johan van Angelbeek, the Batavian governor of the island, surrendering Colombo to British forces.
 * 1823 – James McBrien made the first official discovery of gold in Australia at Fish River in New South Wales.
 * 1898 – The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 people and precipitating the Spanish–American War.
 * 1900 – Second Boer War: British cavalry led by John French defeated Boer forces to end a 124-day siege of Kimberley in present-day South Africa.
 * 1907 – Japan and the United States signed a gentleman's agreement whereby the former would not permit further emigration to the U.S., while the latter would not limit Japanese immigration.
 * 1915 – Sepoys of Indian Muslim background mutinied against their British officers in Singapore.
 * 1942 – Second World War: Japanese forces led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita captured Singapore with the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
 * 1961 – All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport.
 * 1965 – Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag, replacing the Canadian Red Ensign.
 * 1976 – The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, was adopted by a national referendum.
 * 1995 – Kevin Mitnick, the most wanted computer hacker at the time in the U.S., was arrested and charged with computer fraud and wire fraud.
 * 1996 – A Long March 3B rocket carrying the communications satellite Intelsat 708 crashed immediately after launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, destroying a nearby town and killing an unknown number of inhabitants.
 * 2003 – In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions around the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests against the impending invasion of Iraq.
 * 2010 – Two passenger trains collided in Halle, Belgium, when one driver failed to stop at a red signal, resulting in 19 deaths and 171 injuries.
 * 2013 – A meteor exploded (video featured) over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, producing a shock wave that injured about 1,500 people.
 * Born/died: | Oswiu |d|670| Ibn Tabataba |d|815| William Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk |d|1382| Charles-André van Loo |b|1705| Domingo Faustino Sarmiento |b|1811| Charles Lewis Tiffany |b|1812| V. A. Urechia |b|1834| Sophie Bryant |b|1850| Irena Sendler |b|1910| Willy Vandersteen |b|1913| Norman C. Deno |b|1921| Esther Takei Nishio |b|1925|Chin Kung|b|1925| Roger B. Chaffee |b|1935 |


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Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 17

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 * 1621 – Myles Standish was elected the first commander of the militia of Plymouth Colony.
 * 1815 – The United States ratifies the Treaty of Ghent – signed in late 1814 – formally ending the War of 1812.
 * 1838 – Zulu impis massacred about 532 Voortrekkers, Khoekhoe, and Basuto near present-day Weenen, South Africa.
 * 1894 – Rudolf Diesel's first working diesel engine ran for one minute.
 * 1913 – The Armory Show, the first large modern-art exhibition in the United States, opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.
 * 1944 – World War II: The U.S. Navy began Operation Hailstone, a massive naval air and surface attack against the Japanese naval and air base at Chuuk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands.
 * 1959 – Vanguard 2 (model pictured), the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution.
 * 1978 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a bombing of a restaurant near Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing twelve people and injuring thirty others.

 * Born/died this day: | Al-Tabari |d|923| Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria |d|1371| Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles |d|1680|  Mary Carson Breckinridge |b|1881| Wally Pipp |b|1893|  Margot Heuman  |b|1928|  Karen O'Connor |b|1958| Harisu|b|1975| Nestor Chylak |d|1982| Ed Sheeran |b|1991| Amber Merritt |b|1993


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Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 18

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 * 1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg took place between Novgorodian and Pskovian forces against the Livonian Order and its allies, ending with Russian forces retreating from Danish Estonia.
 * 1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, a Spanish fleet intercepted an Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of forty-four vessels escorted by six men-of-war, destroying or capturing twenty ships.
 * 1766 – Enslaved Malagasy captives on the Dutch East India Company slave ship Meermin began a mutiny that led to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
 * 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: A British expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa landed in Elmina in present-day Ghana.
 * 1873 – Vasil Levski, a national hero of Bulgaria, was executed in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities for his efforts to establish an independent Bulgarian republic.
 * 1878 – Competition between two American merchants in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, turned into a range war when a member of one faction was murdered by the other.
 * 1943 – Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, delivered a speech calling for a "total war" to motivate the German people as the tide of World War II turned against Germany.

 * 1943 – The core members of the White Rose, an anti-Nazi resistance group, were arrested by the Gestapo.
 * 1946 – President Harry S. Truman signed the Rescission Act, annulling benefits payable to Filipino troops who fought for the U.S. during World War II.
 * 1977 – NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (both pictured).
 * 2001 – American FBI agent Robert Hanssen (pictured) was arrested for having spied for the KGB and GRU over a 22-year period.
 * 2001 – Inter-ethnic violence between the Dayak and the Madurese broke out in Sampit, Indonesia, ultimately causing more than 500 deaths and the displacement of 100,000 Madurese from their homes.
 * 2010 – In a coup d'état, military rebels attacked the presidential palace in Niamey, Niger, and replaced President Mamadou Tandja with a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy.
 * 2010 – WikiLeaks published the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by Chelsea Manning.
 * 2013 – Eight gunmen stole US$50,000,000 worth of diamonds from a Swiss-bound aircraft at Brussels Airport.
 * 2019 – Seven members of Parliament in the United Kingdom resigned from the Labour Party to form a new political party called The Independent Group.
 * Born/died this day: | Michelangelo |d|1564| Michelangelo Cerquozzi |b|1602| Francesco Redi |b|1626| William Phips |d|1695| Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici |d|1743| Joseph Marie Terray |d|1778| Kristijonas Donelaitis |d|1780| George Henschel |b|1850| Ho Yuen Hoe |b|1908| Swraj Paul, Baron Paul |b|1931| Toni Morrison |b|1931| Bobby Robson |b|1933|  Sergo Ordzhonikidze |d|1937| Bidzina Ivanishvili |b|1956


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Shire of Central Goldfields

Shire of Central Goldfields is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of 1533 km2 and, in August 2021 had a population of 13,483.

It includes the towns of Bealiba, Carisbrook, Dunolly, Maryborough and Talbot. It was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the City of Maryborough, most of the Shire of Tullaroop, and parts of the Shire of Bet Bet and Shire of Talbot and Clunes.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Central Goldfields Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Maryborough. It also has a service centre located in Talbot. The Shire is named after the region having historically been a major goldfields region in central Victoria.

Current composition
The council is composed of four wards and seven councillors, with four councillors elected to represent the Maryborough Ward and one councillor per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards.

In August 2017 the elected council members of the Central Goldfields Shire were removed from office by the Victorian Government. This removal was facilitated due to financial mismanagement. Three administrators were then appointed by Natalie Hutchins the then Local Government Minister to replace the council until the 2020 local government elections. The three administrators are: Noel Harvey OAM, The Hon Hugh Delahunty, and Karen Douglas.

Councillors elected at the 2020 election are:

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Maryborough Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Maryborough, and its service centre in Talbot.

Townships and localities
In the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 13,483, up from 12,995 in the 2016 census.

^ - Territory divided with another LGA * - Not noted in 2016 Census # - Not noted in 2021 Census

title: Shire of Central Goldfields


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 19

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 * 1600 – Huaynaputina, a stratovolcano in present-day Peru, produced the largest recorded volcanic explosion in South America.
 * 1910 – Old Trafford, a football stadium in Greater Manchester, England, hosted its inaugural match, between Manchester United and Liverpool.
 * 1937 – Italian forces began a brutal crackdown on Ethiopians following an attempted assassination of Rodolfo Graziani, the viceroy of Italian East Africa, in Addis Ababa.
 * 1942 – A book-burning was held and politicians were arrested in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as part of a simulated Nazi invasion.
 * 1942 – Second World War: In the largest attack mounted by a foreign power against Australia, more than 240 Japanese aircraft bombed the city of Darwin (pictured).
 * 1954 – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency planted a cache of Soviet-made weapons on a beach in Nicaragua, as part of an effort to portray Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz as a Soviet puppet.
 * 1963 – Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, a non-fiction book credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States, was first published.
 * 1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.
 * 1986 – The first module of the Soviet space station Mir was launched, establishing the first long-term research station in space.
 * 2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine in Nueva Rosita, Mexico, trapped and killed 65 miners.
 * 2011 – Items from the Belitung shipwreck, the largest single collection of Tang-dynasty artefacts found in one location, were first exhibited in Singapore.
 * 2012 – Mexican drug war: Forty-four inmates died in a prison riot in Apodaca, Mexico, between members of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
 * Born/died this day: | Thomas Arundel |d|1414| Dorothe Engelbretsdatter |d|1716| Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras |d|1790|  Émilie Gamelin |b|1800| Lydia Thompson |b|1838| Mary Dilys Glynne |b|1895| Tim Shadbolt |b|1947|


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 20

Images
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Eligible

 * 1816 – Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome to jeers from the audience.
 * 1835 – An earthquake registering approximately 8.5 Mw devastated Concepción, Chile, and triggered a tsunami that destroyed neighbouring Talcahuano.
 * 1846 – Polish insurgents in the Free City of Kraków led an uprising attempting to incite a fight for national independence that was put down by the Austrian Empire nine days later.
 * 1864 – American Civil War: The Union Army suffered a one-in-three casualty rate at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida.
 * 1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, today the largest art museum in the United States with a collection of more than two million works, opened in New York.
 * 1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that states had the authority to order compulsory vaccination.
 * 1931 – Paraguayan anarchists briefly seized the city of Encarnación as part of a larger plan to initiate a social revolution in the country.
 * 1943 – The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms, among the most widely distributed paintings ever produced, in support of U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.
 * 1943 – A fissure opened in a cornfield in the Mexican state of Michoacán and continued to erupt for nine years, forming the cinder cone Parícutin.
 * 1965 – The NASA spacecraft Ranger 8 spacecraft transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing as planned in Mare Tranquillitatis.
 * 1988 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast voted to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
 * 1992 – Appearing on the talk show Larry King Live, U.S. industrialist Ross Perot announced that he would begin a presidential campaign if "ordinary people" wanted him to run for office.
 * 2009 – The Tamil Tigers attempted to crash two aircraft laden with C-4 in suicide attacks on Colombo, Sri Lanka, but the planes were shot down before they reached their targets.
 * 2010 – Severe flooding and mudslides on the island of Madeira, Portugal, killed 51 people.
 * Born/died this day: | Laura Bassi |d|1778| Judith Montefiore |b|1784| Hod Stuart |b|1879| P. G. T. Beauregard |d|1893| Ivan Albright |b|1897| Ansel Adams |b|1902|Johnny Checketts |b|1912| Forbes Burnham |b|1923| Maria Goeppert Mayer |d|1972| Jiah Khan |b|1988| Audrey Munson |d|1996


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 21

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 * 1437 – King James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth in a failed coup by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl.
 * 1828 – The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.
 * 1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor (pictured) became the first woman to receive a doctorate from a dental college.
 * 1919 – Bavarian socialist Kurt Eisner, who had organized the German Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy and established Bavaria as a republic, was assassinated.
 * 1929 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.
 * 1958 – British artist Gerald Holtom unveiled a logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament that later became internationally recognised as the peace sign.
 * Born/died: | Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi |d|1543| Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick |d|1590| Raimondo Montecuccoli |b|1609| Baruch Spinoza |d|1677| Elizabeth Willing Powel |b|1743| Goscombe John |b|1860| Mirra Alfassa |b|1878| Mary Edwards Walker |d|1919| Thelma Estrin |b|1924| Nina Simone |b|1933| Howard Florey |d|1968| Helen Hooven Santmyer |d|1986| Jeanne Martin Cissé |d|2017


text:
Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 22

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Eligible

 * 1316 – The Catalan forces of Ferdinand of Majorca defeated troops loyal to Princess Matilda of Hainaut at the Battle of Picotin on the Peloponnese peninsula in modern-day Greece.
 * 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking the rear of a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Toulon, France.
 * 1909 – The sixteen United States Navy battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut (BB-18) (pictured), completed a circumnavigation of the globe.
 * 1980 – At the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, the United States ice hockey team defeated the Soviet team in an unlikely victory that became known as the Miracle on Ice.
 * 1983 – The play Moose Murders opened and closed on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, becoming the standard of "awfulness" against which all Broadway failures are judged.
 * 1997 – Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the existence of Dolly, a female sheep who was the first mammal to have successfully been cloned from an adult cell.
 * 2006 – Seven men staged the largest cash robbery in Britain at a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom.
 * 2011 – An earthquake registering 6.3 ML struck Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people and causing around NZ$40 billion in damage.
 * 2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people marched in protest in Manama against the deaths of seven people killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
 * 2012 – A train failed to apply its brakes and crashed through a buffer stop at Once railway station in Buenos Aires, resulting in 51 deaths and more than 700 injuries.
 * Born/died: | García Sánchez I of Pamplona |d|970| Charles-Nicolas Cochin |b|1715| Alexis Bachelot |b|1796| Sarah Fuller Flower Adams |b|1805| August Bebel |b|1840| Anna Kingsford |d|1888| Elizabeth Sumner |d|1911| Ted Kennedy |b|1932| Saufatu Sopoanga |b|1952| Felix Frankfurter |d|1965| Drew Barrymore |b|1975| Adrian Boult |d|1983 | Chuck Jones |d|2002


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Shire of Campaspe

The Shire of Campaspe is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northern part of the state. It covers an area of 4519 km2 and in August 2021 had a population of 38,735.

It includes the towns of Girgarre, Echuca, Kyabram, Rochester, Tongala and Rushworth. It was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the City of Echuca, Shire of Deakin, Shire of Rochester, Shire of Waranga, Town of Kyabram and part of the Shire of Rodney.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Campaspe Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Echuca, it also has service centres located in Kyabram, Rochester, Rushworth and Tongala. The Shire is named after the Campaspe River, a major geographical feature that meanders through the LGA.

Current composition
The council is composed of five wards and nine councillors, with three councillors per ward elected to represent each of the Echuca and Kyabram-Deakin wards, and one councillor per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards.

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Echuca Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Echuca, and its service centres in Kyabram, Rochester, Rushworth and Tongala.

Sister cities

 * 🇯🇵 Shiroi, Chiba, Japan
 * Lequidoe, Aileu Municipality, East Timor
 * 🇨🇳 Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province, China

Townships and localities
In the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 38,735, up from 37,061 in the 2016 census.

^ - Territory divided with another LGA * - Not noted in 2016 Census # - Not noted in 2021 Census

title: Shire of Campaspe


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Shire of Colac Otway

The Shire of Colac Otway is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of 3438 km2 and in June 2018 had a population of 21,503. It includes the towns of Apollo Bay, Beeac, Beech Forest, Birregurra, Colac, Cressy, Forrest, Johanna, Kennett River, Lavers Hill, Warrion and Wye River. It came into existence on 23 September 1994 through the amalgamation of the local government areas of City of Colac, Shire of Colac, part of the Shire of Otway and part of the Shire of Heytesbury.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Colac Otway Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Colac, it also has a service centre located in Apollo Bay. The Shire is named after the combination of the names for the former City of Colac, and Shires of Colac and Otway, from which the majority of the LGA was formed. The name Colac is used for both the main urban settlement and the lake, Lake Colac, which are located in the north-centre of the LGA. Colac is also the most populous urban centre in the LGA with a population of almost 12,000. The name Otways is used for the major geographical features located in the south of the LGA, which are The Otways and Cape Otway. Cape Otway was originally named by Lieutenant James Grant who was the commander of the vessel, the Lady Nelson. He named it after Captain William Otway who was one of the commissioners of the Transport Board, on 7 December 1800.

History
The Colac district is the traditional land for the Gulidjan people and was known as “Kolak” or “Kolakgnat” which means ‘belonging to sand’. The Gulidjan people are of the Easter Maar Nation.

The earliest European settlers arrived in the district in the 1830s and settled around Lake Colac.

Current composition
The council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality. In order of election in 2020, they are:

Former Wards (1996–2008)

 * Colac – had three councillors
 * Murray – had one councillor
 * Otway – had one councillor
 * Warrion – had one councillor

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Colac Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Colac, and its service centre in Apollo Bay.

Townships and localities
The 2021 census, the shire had a population of 22,423 up from 20,972 in the 2016 census

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

title: Shire of Colac Otway


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Talk:Christian (disambiguation)

Clarification
I have moved the following here. I have never heard of this absurd claim before:

Note: The term Christian was originally a derogatory statement made by those of either Roman decent or popular Roman influence (See: Roman Conquest) during the early A.D. periods between the Birth of Christ and the eventual fall of Rome at the hands of the Germanics. Consequently, many educated followers of Jesus Christ refuse to associate themselves with this label; more times than one, they'll simply refer to themselves as Followers of Jesus or a Follower of The Way.

Likewise, the way the paragraph was written reveals a great deal of ignorance regarding the history of Christianity in the Empire. The "persecution period" did NOT last all the way up to the "fall of rome".

Please give a reputable citation to the effect that "Christian" was a derogatory term.

 * That's what we were taught in Sunday school, and there are tons and tons and tons of citations online detailing that effect. A simple google search found many from various official Catholic and other religious websites confirms this.  - John

--

I'm the original writer of that paragraph - I suppose I didn't cite enough information about all of that. My apologies.

The Greek plural is Christianoi, the suffix is a diminutive, hence "little Christs". If you wanted to use a Germanic suffix, "Christlings" might have a similar sense. Whether or not this is derogatory is open to debate.

However, the most common reason for a Chrisitan preferring to identify themselves by some other term is that since there is a great breadth of opinion, and very subtle shades of opinion, among Christians on what is necessary to be Christian, some avoid the phrase "I am a Christian" because it could mean a great number of things, some of which were certainly not intended, to the hearer.

is this article kinda stubbish or what?
I looked at Jew and Muslim recently. Jew is real comprehensive and Muslim is quite good. 'Christian' has essentially nothing. Does anyone find this weird?? I'm gonna look at christianity but wow. still. If anyone knows anyone who might wann help hook this article up, please pass the word along. it needs it. I'm not qualified. Kzzl

Disambiguation
One thing that's really lacking here are the other definitions for "Christian" -- my dictionary lists several after the "professing belief in Christ" part, including Manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus, Relating to or characteristic of Christianity or its adherents, Showing a loving concern for others, and Humane. I think there needs to be more about the term "Christian" as its used in the more general sense, as in a "Christian thing to do", which certainly doesn't require the person doing the "Christian" thing to be a practicing Christian or, for that matter, even believe in God. (JKA)

I think we should move this to Christian (disambiguation), redirect this page to Christianity and add a link to the former disambig page on top of the latter. The Christianity meaning is the primary one, and the links seem to indicate that as well. --Joy [shallot]   17:29, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I agree. How many links are there to the given name Christian? --Henrygb 16:58, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I agree, but on the other hand, why don't we have an article for "Christian" like there are for Muslim and Jew for example? Those religions have their own pages, as well - Islam and Judaism. Change the content of this page and add an disambiguation page to the names list... plus that would allow us to move the "Christianity today" section from the Christianity page to this one, helping that article with its length problems. Spangineer 21:53, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC)

User:Netoholic made the change to move out the disambiguation to a separate page... but the page is a sub-stub, really, and we don't want that for such a popular subject. When someone writes something substantial, it can exist separately, but until then, I'll redirect it to Christianity and add the semi-disambig note. --Joy [shallot]   14:13, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I really think that's a poor decision. It may be a sub-stub, but right now I am working on fixing all the links to Christian.  Links referring to Christian (noun form) people are linking there, while other Christian (adjective form) are being sent straight to Christianity.  Please don't confuse things by reverting that.  We all agree this separate article should exist, so now we just need to put down some text.  We don't just redirect "until someone writes something substantial". If you redirect, then the page won't get written, and people cannot find Christian (disambiguation). -- Netoholic @ 16:48, 2004 Dec 29 (UTC)

 * The page won't get written by us wishing for it, and yes, people will find the disambig page, because I linked it from the top of Christianity. You can go around changing links to point to the right place without having the substub instead of the redirect. --Joy [shallot]   20:33, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

kthxbai. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Editzor (talk • contribs) 21:43, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

Disambiguation, November 2008
Someone has proposed moving Christian (word) to Christian, thus removing the disambiguation page from this title. See Talk:Christian (word). Incoming links to this page need disambiguation; there are thousands. You can help. --Una Smith (talk) 20:42, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Christian (disambiguation)


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Shire of Corangamite

The Shire of Corangamite is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of 4408 km2 and in June 2018 had a population of 16,140. It includes the towns of Camperdown, Terang, Cobden, Timboon, Port Campbell and Skipton. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the Town of Camperdown, Shire of Hampden, Shire of Heytesbury, and parts of the Shire of Otway, Shire of Mortlake and Shire of Warrnambool.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Corangamite Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Camperdown. The Shire is named after the major geographical feature in the region, Lake Corangamite, which is located on the eastern boundary of the LGA.

It came into existence on 23 September 1994 through the amalgamation of the local government areas of Camperdown Town, Hampden Shire (part), Heytesbury Shire (part), Mortlake Shire (part), Otway Shire (part) & Warrnambool Shire (part).

Current composition
The council is composed of five wards and seven councillors, with three councillors elected to represent the Central Ward and one councillor per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards.

Administration and governance
The Council meets at the Killara Centre in Camperdown while its main Council offices are located at 181 Manifold Street.

Townships and localities
In the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 16,115, compared to 16,051 in the 2016 census.

^ - Territory divided with another LGA * - Not noted in 2016 Census # - Not noted in 2021 Census

title: Shire of Corangamite


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Shire of Delatite

The Shire of Delatite was a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the north-east part of the state. It covered an area of 6218 km2 and, at the, had a population of 21,553. It included the towns of Benalla and Mansfield, and was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the City of Benalla, Shire of Benalla, the then Shire of Mansfield and part of the Shire of Violet Town. In 2002 the shire was split into the Rural City of Benalla and Shire of Mansfield. This process has been cited as an example of successful de-amalgamation by residents of other councils who are unhappy with the forced mergers that affected almost all Victorian local government areas in 1994.

The Delatite Shire Council had its seat of local government and administrative centre in Benalla, with a service centre located in Mansfield. The Shire was named after the county of Delatite, most of which was included in the shire.

title: Shire of Delatite


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Piedmontese language

Piedmontese (autonym: piemontèis or lenga piemontèisa; piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian dialect. It is linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy (with Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian and Romagnol), which would make it part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan. It is spoken in the core of Piedmont, in northwestern Liguria (near Savona), and in Lombardy (some municipalities in the westernmost part of Lomellina near Pavia).

It has some support from the Piedmont regional government but is considered a dialect rather than a separate language by the Italian central government.

Due to the Italian diaspora Piedmontese has spread in the Argentinian Pampas, where many immigrants from Piedmont settled. The Piedmontese language is also spoken in some states of Brazil, along with the Venetian language.

Literature
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, when it was extremely close to Occitan, dating from the 12th century, a document devoted to the education of the Knights Templar stationed in Piedmont.

During the Renaissance, the oldest Piedmontese literary work of secular character, are the works of Zan Zòrs Alion, poet of the duchy of Montferrat, the most famous work being the opera Jocunda.

In the 1500s and 1600s, there were several pastoral comedies with parts in Piedmontese.

In the Baroque period, El Cont Piolèt, a comedy by Giovan Battista Tan-na d'Entraive was published.

Literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, other languages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless, literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced: it includes poetry, theatre pieces, novels, and scientific work.

History
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, when it was extremely close to Occitan.

Current status
In 2004, Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmont's regional language by the regional parliament, although the Italian government has not yet recognised it as such. In theory, it is now supposed to be taught to children in school, but this is happening only to a limited extent.

The last decade has seen the publication of learning materials for schoolchildren, as well as general-public magazines. Courses for people already outside the education system have also been developed. In spite of these advances, the current state of Piedmontese is quite grave, as over the last 150 years the number of people with a written active knowledge of the language has shrunk to about 2% of native speakers, according to a recent survey. On the other hand, the same survey showed Piedmontese is still spoken by over half the population, alongside Italian. Authoritative sources confirm this result, putting the figure between 2 million (Assimil, IRES Piemonte and 3 million speakers (Ethnologue ) out of a population of 4.2 million people. Efforts to make it one of the official languages of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful.

Regional variants
Piedmontese is divided into three major groups

 * Western which include the dialects of Turin and Cuneo.
 * Eastern which in turn is divided into south-eastern (Astigiano, Roero, Monregalese, High Montferrat, Langarolo, Alessandrino) and north-eastern (Low Montferrat, Biellese, Vercellese, Valsesiano).
 * Canavese, spoken in the Canavese region in north-western Piedmont.

The variants can be detected in the variation of the accent and variation of words. It is sometimes difficult to understand a person that speaks a different Piedmontese from the one you are used to, as the words or accents are not the same.

Eastern and western group
The Eastern Piedmontese group is more phonologically evolved than its western counterpart.

The words that in the west end with jt, jd or t in the east end with [dʒ] e/o [tʃ] for example the westerns, , and (milk, all and old) in the east are ,  and.

A typical eastern features is as allophone of : in word end, at the end of infinitive time of the verb, like in to read and to be (western,  vs. eastern , ) and at words feminine plural gender. Although this development is shared partially (in the case of the infinitive time) also by most of the western dialects, including the Turin one, that is the most spoken dialect of western piedmontese (and also of the whole piedmontese language).

A morphological variation that sharply divides east and west is the indicative imperfect conjugation of irregular verbs. In the east, the suffix ava/iva is used, while in the west asìa/isìa is used. The groups are also distinguished by differing conjugation of the present simple of the irregular verbs: dé, andé, sté (to give, to go, to stay).

Consonants
/v/ is realized as labio-velar [ w] between /a/ and /u/ and as [ w] or [ f] when in word-final position.

Vowels
Allophones of // are [] in stressed syllables and as when in unstressed position and at end of the word.

Phonological process

 * Apocope, i.e., dropping of all of the unstressed vowels at word end, except /a/, which is usually centralized to [ɐ].
 * Syncope i.e., weakening or dropping of unstressed pro-tonic and post-tonic vowels: /me'luŋ/ > /mə'luŋ/ > /m'luŋ/,  same happens in French, and other Gallo-Romance languages. In some cases, prothesis of [ə] or [ɐ] is also present to make some consonant clusters easier to pronounce (ex. novod, "nephew", [nʊˈvud] > [nvud] > [ɐnˈvud],   this feature is also present in Emilian.
 * Nasalization of vowels in front of /n/, as in Western Romance, and then shift of nasalization from the vowel to /n/ with development of the /ŋn/ cluster, and subsequent dropping of [n] (/'buna/> /'bũna/> /'buŋna/ > /'buŋa/).
 * Development of vowels /ø/ and /y/ from [ɔ] and [uː] of Latin, respectively.
 * Consonantal degemination: SERRARE > saré.
 * Latin groups of occlusives [kt] and [gd] become [jd]-, as in Gallo-Romance: NOCTEM > neuit [nøi̯d]; LACTEM > làit [lɑi̯d]. Some dialects have reached the more advanced stage, with palatalization of [i̯d] to [d͡ʒ] (for example Vercelli dialect [nød͡ʒ] and [lad͡ʒ]), as happens in Spanish, Occitan, and Brazilian Portuguese.
 * Palatization of [kl] and [gl] : Latin CLARUS > ciàr [tʃɑi̯r], "light", GLANDIA > gianda [ˈdʒɑŋdɐ] "nut".
 * The Latin unvoiced occlusive /p/, /t/, /k/, are voiced (becoming /b/, /d/, /g/), and then lenited and usually drop: FORMICAM > formìa; APRILEM > avril, CATHÉDRA > careja.
 * Latin /k/-/g/ before front vowels, became post-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, then /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ due to typical Western Romance assibilation, later /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ became fricatives: /s/ and /z/: CINERE > sënner; CENTUM > sent; GINGIVA > zanziva.

Alphabet
Piedmontese is written with a modified Latin alphabet. The letters, along with their IPA equivalent, are shown in the table below.

Certain digraphs are used to regularly represent specific sounds as shown below.

All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written. Grave accent marks stress (except for o which is marked by an acute to distinguish it from ò) and breaks diphthongs, so ua and uà are, but ùa is pronounced separately,.

Characteristics
Some of the characteristics of the Piedmontese language are:

 * 1) The presence of clitic so-called verbal pronouns for subjects, which give a Piedmontese verbal complex the following form: (subject) + verbal pronoun + verb, as in (mi) i von 'I go'. Verbal pronouns are absent only in the imperative form.
 * 2) The bound form of verbal pronouns, which can be connected to dative and locative particles (a-i é 'there is', i-j diso 'I say to him').
 * 3) The interrogative form, which adds an enclitic interrogative particle at the end of the verbal form (Veus-to…? 'Do you want to...?'])
 * 4) The absence of ordinal numerals higher than 'sixth', so that 'seventh' is col che a fà set 'the one which makes seven'.
 * 5) The existence of three affirmative interjections (that is, three ways to say yes): si, sè (from Latin sic est, as in Italian);  é (from Latin est, as in Portuguese); òj (from Latin hoc est, as in Occitan, or maybe hoc illud, as in Franco-Provençal, French and Old Catalan and Occitan).
 * 6) The absence of the voiceless postalveolar fricative  (like the sh in English sheep), for which an alveolar S sound (as in English sun) is usually substituted.
 * 7) The existence of an S-C combination pronounced [stʃ].
 * 8) The existence of a velar nasal [ŋ] (like the ng in English going), which usually precedes a vowel, as in lun-a 'moon'.
 * 9) The existence of the third Piedmontese vowel Ë, which is very short (close to the vowel in English sir).
 * 10) The absence of the phonological contrast that exists in Italian between short (single) and long (double) consonants, for example, Italian fata 'fairy' and fatta 'done (F)'.
 * 11) The existence of a prosthetic Ë sound when consonantal clusters arise that are not permitted by the phonological system. So 'seven stars' is pronounced set ëstèile (cf. stèile 'stars').

Piedmontese has a number of varieties that may vary from its basic koiné to quite a large extent. Variation includes not only departures from the literary grammar, but also a wide variety in dictionary entries, as different regions maintain words of Frankish or Lombard origin, as well as differences in native Romance terminology. Words imported from various languages are also present, while more recent imports tend to come from France and from Italian.

Judeo-Piedmontese
A variety of Piedmontese was Judeo-Piedmontese, a dialect spoken by the Piedmontese Jews until the Second World War, when most were killed during the Holocaust. Some survivors knew the language but as of 2015, the language had gone extinct. It had many loanwards from Provencal, Spanish and Hebrew. It kept many conservative features that Piedmontese abandoned over time. The language never became as large in terms of words as larger Jewish languages like Yiddish, and it never developed a standardized writing system.

Lexical comparison
Lexical comparison with other Romance languages and English:

title: Piedmontese language


text:
Lingo (programming language)

Lingo is a verbose object-oriented (OO) scripting language developed by John H. Thompson for use in Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director). Lingo is used to develop desktop application software, interactive kiosks, CD-ROMs and Adobe Shockwave content.

Lingo is the primary programming language on the Adobe Shockwave platform, which dominated the interactive multimedia product market during the 1990s. Various graphic adventure games were developed with Lingo during the 1990s, including The Journeyman Project, Total Distortion, Mia's Language Adventure, Mia's Science Adventure, and the Didi & Ditto series. Hundreds of free online video games were developed using Lingo, and published on websites such as Miniclip and Shockwave.com.

Lingo can be used to build user interfaces, to manipulate raster graphics, vector graphics and 3D computer graphics, and other data processing tasks. Lingo supports specialized syntax for image processing and 3D object manipulation. 3D meshes can also be created on the fly using Lingo.

History
Lingo was invented by John H. Thompson at MacroMind in 1989, and first released with Director 2.2. Jeff Tanner developed and tested Lingo for Director 2.2 and 3.0, created custom XObjects for various media device producers, language extension examples using XFactory including the XFactory application programming interface (API), and wrote the initial tutorials on how to use Lingo. Dave Shields tested and documented Object-based Lingo for Director 3.13 and 4.0. He ran build scripts to create weekly releases for testing, originated the Macromedia KnowledgeBase, created examples of how to write Lingo XTRA plug-ins in C++, and assembled the Golden Master disks of Macromedia Director that were shipped to the duplicator.

Lingo was quickly adopted by burgeoning multimedia community during the 1990s and the already popular Director product. Initially, about 90% of the users only used 10% of Lingo's features; primarily  by multimedia authors of tutorials and presentations. However, 10% of the users were game developers who took a wider interest in the other 90% of its abilities, including their own function extensions by creating their own XFactories/XObjects. The Journeyman Project is a prominent example of this.

Features
Lingo is embedded into Adobe Director, and can be added as scripts on objects or on the timeline. Lingo is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language, and supports Smalltalk-like verbose syntax, OO dot syntax, and inheritance.

Verbose syntax
When Lingo was created, a verbose syntax was designed to mimic spoken language, so it would be easy for new users. Users could write HyperTalk-like sentences such as: In go to statements, the "to" is optional, and unlike other programming languages, go statements reference frames in Director's Score, not specific code lines.

Lingo was also initially very robust by providing object generation through a notion called, which led to the language's extensibility through External Factories (XFactories) or XObjects. For Director 3.13 and later versions, extensibility occurred via a different type of plug-in called an XTRA, based upon the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM).

Dot syntax
Although it is still possible to use the verbose syntax, the current version of the language fully supports OO dot syntax, so that the code looks more like standard programming languages such as JavaScript or C++.

The equivalent in new scripting style would be: This format uses elements of the Director Object Model, introduced in Director MX 2004. The syntax in prior versions would be like:

Scripting
There are 4 types of Lingo scripts in Director, each with a specific purpose. Each type of script may be added to certain types of compatible objects.

 * Cast scripts work only with their member, not all events can be used with them.
 * Behavior scripts are attached to a sprite or inserted into a frame. Sprite behaviors are often used to give control of the sprite's properties and movement. Frame behaviors can be used to create a pause or delay within a certain frame in the score. Behaviors make it easy to program in an object-oriented way, as you can directly see the relationship between the programming and the item they are attached to. They can also control or interact with other sprites, making them a true object.
 * Movie scripts are not attached to sprites nor can they be instantiated as Objects. They are available throughout the program (movie) and are especially useful for holding global handlers and initializing global variables at the start or end of the movie.
 * Parent scripts are used to birth (create instances of) an object into a variable using the new command. These objects can control sprites and other media remotely, without being attached to any one sprite, may be used to control data or other non-displayed items, and are useful for recursion routines such as pathfinding. A Parent script can be used to create or destroy an object at any time, freeing them from the confines of the score that a Behavior is limited to.

Behavior and parent scripts encourage good object-oriented programming. Movie scripts are not as OOP-oriented. However, they can still be used to make black-box handlers, where other objects can input raw data and receive answers back, without knowing the inner workings of the box. Using the strengths and ease-of-use of Director's programming methodology, with the advantages of OOP makes for a powerful and fast programming environment.

Inheritance
Lingo supports object inheritance by a slightly idiosyncratic system: a script can have an  property which references another object (usually also a script, although other objects such as cast members can also be ancestors). Properties and methods of the ancestor are inherited by the parent. Behavior scripts are also a kind of ancestor of the sprites to which they are attached, since properties and methods of the behavior can be accessed by reference to the sprite itself. In this case, it is a kind of multiple inheritance, as one sprite may have several behaviors.

XObjects
Lingo 3.0 was also extensible through External Factories (XFactories) or XObjects (later replaced by Lingo Xtras), which provided programmatic extensions to Director. For example, controlling external media devices such as CD-ROM and Video tape players through Macintosh SerialPort. XObject API was openly available to developers and media device producers, which added to the popularity and versatility of Lingo. Macromind was very active in positioning the XObject API as standard for external media devices to collaborate through Lingo; and its interest as a standard achieved a lot of involvement from prominent and burgeoning media product companies through an ad hoc group called the Multimedia Association.

Xtras
Starting with Director version 4.0, Lingo was extensible through a new improved class of external plugin called Xtras. Xtras were developed in C++ using the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM). The standardization with COM helped attract developers to creating a market for such plug-ins.

Imaging Lingo
Imaging Lingo was introduced with Director 8.0, and allowed developers to write high-performance image manipulation commands using a simple syntax. There are some similarities to functions of image applications (like Photoshop), that make it easy to create dynamic, code-based visual effects. Image manipulation was also added into ActionScript 3.0 with the BitmapData class. As this included more sophisticated commands, Director was also updated to allow conversion between the BitmapData object and its own Image objects.

3D
Director 8.5 introduced a DirectX 3D engine that could be scripted with Lingo. Lingo was updated substantially to support the new 3D objects and now includes a full-featured set of 3D commands. An Xtra was also created to enable use of the Havok 3D Physics engine, and later the AGEIA PhysX engine, in Director 11.

Other languages
These other languages are perhaps not as well known as the Macromedia language. However, a legal anomaly remains in the UK that the trademark of the word 'Lingo' is held by Linn Smart Computing.

 * A language called Lingo was released for software development under Windows. This version was designed as a compilable high level programming language.
 * A programming language based on Smalltalk was developed for the Rekursiv processor developed by Linn Smart Computing in Scotland, UK. This language was named Lingo and is significant because its makers successfully obtained a trademark in the UK.
 * LINGO is also a programming language for solving linear, nonlinear and integer optimization problems, first developed in 1988 by LINDO Systems Inc. This language is still in production.

title: Lingo (programming language)


text:
Shire of East Gippsland

The Shire of East Gippsland is a local government area in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located in the eastern part of the state. It covers an area of 20940 km2 and as of the had a population of 48,715.

It includes the towns of Bairnsdale, Benambra, Bruthen, Buchan, Ensay, Lakes Entrance, Mallacoota, Metung, Omeo, Orbost, Paynesville, Swan Reach and Swifts Creek. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the City of Bairnsdale, Shire of Bairnsdale, Shire of Omeo, Shire of Orbost, Shire of Tambo and parts of the Shire of Rosedale.

The shire is governed and administered by the East Gippsland Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Bairnsdale. It also has service centres located in Lakes Entrance, Omeo and Orbost. The shire is named after the Gippsland region, in which the LGA occupies the eastern portion.

Current composition
The council is composed of nine councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality.

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Bairnsdale Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Bairnsdale, and its service centres in Lakes Entrance, Omeo and Orbost.

Townships and localities
The 2021 census, the shire had a population of 48,715 up from 45,040 in the 2016 census

^ - Territory divided with another LGA * - Not noted in 2016 Census # - Not noted in 2021 Census

title: Shire of East Gippsland


text:
Shire of Gannawarra

The Shire of Gannawarra is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northern part of the state. It covers an area of 3735 km2 and, in August 2021 had a population of 10,683.

It includes the towns of Cohuna, Kerang, Koondrook, Leitchville and Quambatook. It was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the Borough of Kerang and most parts of the Shire of Kerang and Shire of Cohuna.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Gannawarra Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Kerang, it also has a service centre located in Cohuna. The Shire is named after a small town, that is Gannawarra, located between Cohuna and Koondrook.

The northeastern border of the shire is the Murray River. The Loddon River flows through the shire, feeding into the Murray. The Gunbower State Forest is a significant source of River Red Gum timber, supplying a historic sawmill in Koondrook. Gunbower Island is the largest inland island in the local area. It is between the Murray River and the Gunbower Creek, an anabranch of the Murray.

The western part of the shire is predominantly used for cereal grain production. The north and east have significant dairying and milk processing. Tourists are attracted to the rivers (for fishing) and also the lakes (for bird watching and water sports).

Current composition
The council is composed of four wards and seven councillors, with three councillors elected to represent the Patchell Ward, two councillors elected to represent the Yarran Ward and one councillor per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards. The current council was elected in October 2020.

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Kerang Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Kerang, and its service centre in Cohuna.

Townships and localities
In the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 10,683, up from 10,549 in the 2016 census.

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

title: Shire of Gannawarra


text:
Shire of Glenelg

The Shire of Glenelg is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of 6219 km2 and in June 2018 had a population of 19,665. It includes the towns of Casterton, Heywood, Merino and Portland. Although a shire of the same name existed before the amalgamations of the mid-1990s, the current Shire was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the former Shire of Glenelg with the Shire of Heywood and City of Portland.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Glenelg Shire Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Portland, it also has service centres located in Casterton and Heywood. The Shire is named after the Glenelg River, a major geographical feature that meanders through the Shire.

At the 2001 Census, the population of the Shire was distributed in the following way: Portland: 49.7%, Casterton: 8.7%, Heywood: 6.3%, Dartmoor: 1.3%, Merino: 1.1%, Narrawong: 0.9% and Rural Balance: 32%.

Service industries, timber production, grazing and manufacturing are the Shire's main economic activities.

Traditional ownership
The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which Glenelg Shire sits are the Gunditjmara People who are represented by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.

Current composition
The council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality. The current councillors, in order of election at the 2020 election, are:

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Portland Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Portland, and its service centres in Casterton and Heywood.

Townships and localities
The 2021 census, the shire had a population of 20,152 up from 19,557 in the 2016 census

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

title: Shire of Glenelg


text:
Golden Plains Shire

The Golden Plains Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central-western part of the state. It covers an area of 2703 km2 and in June 2018, had a population of 23,120. It includes the towns of Bannockburn, Dereel, Gheringhap, Lethbridge, Linton, Berringa, Teesdale, Rokewood and Meredith.

The Shire was formed on 6 May 1994 by the amalgamation of the Shire of Bannockburn (the part remaining after part of it was amalgamated with several other councils to form the new City of Greater Geelong in May 1993), Shire of Leigh, part of the Shire of Grenville and part of the Shire of Buninyong. Upon its creation, it was known as the Southern Rural Shire, intended to exist temporarily until the Local Government Board drew up final council boundaries for the Ballarat region. However, a few months later it was decided to make the municipality permanent, and it was renamed to its current name on 1 October 1994.

The Shire is governed and administered by the Golden Plains Shire Council. Its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the Golden Plains Civic Centre in Bannockburn, and it also has a service centre located in Smythesdale.

Current composition
The council is composed of seven councillors elected to represent an unsubdivided municipality. The current councillors, in order of election at the 2022 election, are:

Administration and governance
The council meets on alternate months in the council chamber at the Golden Plains Civic Centre in Bannockburn, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities, and at the Linton Shire Hall. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Bannockburn, and its service centre in Smythesdale.

Townships and localities
In the 2021 census, the shire had a population of 24,985, up from 21,688 in the 2016 census.

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

title: Golden Plains Shire


text:
Astral Media

Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels and two conventional stations. In addition, Astral had a presence in out-of-home advertising.

In March 2012, Bell Media announced its intent to acquire Astral for $3.38 billion. Although an attempt to purchase the entirety of the company was blocked under competition law, the CRTC approved a revised offer on June 27, 2013, which saw various Astral specialty channels and radio stations divested to competitors. The sale was consummated on July 5, 2013. Astral was dissolved later the same year as a result of Bell Media completing its acquisition of the company. Bell Media assumed some of Astral's television functions and absorbed some of its premium television services.

Angreen Photo and Astral Photo
Astral Media's roots lie with Angreen Photo, a Canadian company founded in 1961. It was created when Montreal's Greenberg brothers, led by Harold Greenberg, founded it to operate the photography concession in Miracle Mart, a department store chain. Its acquisition in 1963 of Bellevue Pathé led to photography rights at the Montreal Expo 67 World's Fair, and it eventually grew into a 125-store chain, Astral Photo, the remnants of which are now owned by the Black's Photography chain. The company grew quickly into motion picture processing after acquiring the Pathé-Humphries motion picture lab in 1968 and Associated Screen News Industries of Montreal in 1969.

Astral Communications Limited
The company was constituted in 1973 under the name Astral Bellevue Pathé Limited. It eventually undertook videocassette duplication and video wholesaling. The company also produced or executive produced over 100 feature films, television programs and television miniseries. The films were released by American Cinema Releasing. The company had operated such subsidiaries as Astral Films, Astral Film Productions Ltd. and Astral Video, as well as in 1987, a development consortium that was led by Harold Greenberg with funding from the CBC called the Centre De Production De Montreal, which is set for open in 1989.

In 1983, the Greenbergs acquired complete control of two pay television networks, First Choice (now known as The Movie Network) and Premier Choix TVEC (now Super Écran), at which point Astral ceased to be directly involved in film and program production. The company would later expand its television operations by launching new specialty networks. In addition, it became involved with the home video and feature film market, lasting from the mid-1980s until at least 1996. In 1987, Astral Film Enterprises had teamed up with Management Company Entertainment Group to produce three feature films by 1988, with the first film slated to be in the co-production pact was Boris and Natasha, Boardwalk, and Villa Golitsyn, which were proposed in the three-picture pact, but the projects, aside from Boris and Natasha were never realized. In 1996, Astral Communications decided to sell all of the program development and distribution divisions to Coscient Group. In February 2000, Astral Communications changed its name to Astral Media, alongside Access Media.

Astral then expanded into radio, beginning with the 2000 acquisition of Radiomutuel, and the 2002 purchase of most of the radio assets of Telemedia, although those companies' joint AM radio network Radiomedia was ultimately sold to Corus Entertainment for competitive reasons. Radiomutuel also owned a controlling share of outdoor advertising firm Omni Outdoor (which eventually became the fully owned Astral Out-of-Home division), as well as several French-language specialty channels such as Canal Vie, Ztélé, Séries+, VRAK.TV, and 50% stakes in MusiquePlus and MusiMax (then co-owned with CHUM Limited).

On February 23, 2007, Astral Media announced that it had signed a letter of intent and had entered into exclusive negotiations regarding the acquisition of "substantially all of the assets" of Standard Radio. A formal agreement was later announced, with the proposed transaction being approved by the CRTC on September 28, and completed on October 29 of the same year. The transaction gave Astral Media a significant foothold in English-language radio.

In 2010, Astral Media relocated its headquarters to 1800 McGill College Avenue, in a skyscraper rechristened Maison Astral. In May 2010, the company unveiled a new logo featuring a multi-coloured "a" insignia (reflecting ideals of "collaboration" and "creativity"). At this time, the company began to trade as simply "Astral".

In the fall of 2011, Teletoon (co-owned with Corus Entertainment at the time) adopted a new logo to reflect Astral's 50th anniversary.

Acquisition by Bell Media
On March 16, 2012, Astral Media announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Bell Canada through its Bell Media division for $3.38 billion. Astral Media shareholders approved the acquisition of all of its issued and outstanding shares by Bell Media on May 24, 2012; the acquisition of Astral Media's issued and outstanding shares by Bell received approval by the Quebec Superior Court during a hearing on May 25, 2012.

The proposed sale faced opposition: a coalition of Cogeco, Vidéotron, and Eastlink argued that Bell's market share following the merger would harm consumer choice, and that Bell would raise carriage fees for Astral's channels (impacting smaller providers). During a CRTC's hearing, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation argued that Bell's proposal to use its mandatory tangible benefits to launch a French-language news channel (which would compete with its own Réseau de l'information) was "self-serving and unprecedented." In September 2012, the Competition Bureau stated that it was becoming "increasingly concerned" about the implications of the merger, and warned that it could oppose the deal even if it were to be approved by the CRTC.

On October 18, 2012, the CRTC announced that it had rejected BCE's proposal to acquire Astral Media. The commission cited that their combined market power could "threaten the availability of diverse programming for Canadians and endanger the ability of distribution undertakings to deliver programming at affordable rates and on reasonable terms on multiple platforms", and also stated that allowing the merger would have required the implementation of "extensive and intrusive safeguards" across the entire broadcasting industry. The CRTC also felt that Bell did not adequately demonstrate how having most of Canada's French-language media owned by two vertically integrated companies would improve competition, and how being bigger would allow it to compete against foreign services.

Second attempt
Following the rejection of the deal by the CRTC, Bell Canada CEO George A. Cope asserted that calling the merger dead was "premature", citing that the formal merger agreement between Bell and Astral did not expire until December 16, 2012, and either company could extend it to January 15, 2013. Bell attempted to ask the Cabinet to overturn the CRTC's decision, but was told that they did not have the ability to do so. Bell also reportedly considered going to the Federal Court of Appeal, or restructuring the deal to selectively sell Astral assets to competing companies. Rogers Media expressed interest in acquiring some of Astral's channels if such a sale were to occur. On November 16, 2012, Astral confirmed that it was in talks with Bell to negotiate a new offer, which would involve the sale of the majority of its English-language television channels to third parties.

On March 4, 2013, the Competition Bureau approved a new proposal by Bell to acquire Astral Media, which would involve the divestiture of certain television channels and radio stations owned by the combined company, and was subject to restrictions preventing Bell from imposing restrictive bundling requirements on any provider seeking to carry The Movie Network or Super Écran. The CRTC made the proposed takeover proposal public on March 6, 2013. Unlike the previous deal, which would have given Bell a 42% share of the English-language television market, the new deal gave Bell a total market share of 35.7%, and increased its French-language market share to 22% (in comparison to 8% before). On March 18, 2013, the Competition Bureau cleared a proposed deal to sell Astral's stakes in several channels to Corus Entertainment in preparation for regulatory approval.

In a speech to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television prior to the hearings, Bell Media's president Kevin Crull detailed plans to invest in French-language productions and maintain a distinct operation in Montreal devoted to its French-language outlets. Crull also praised the role of Québecor Média (despite the company being opposed to the merger) in using its own vertical integration strategy to help promote Francophone talent, and revealed his intention to try and emulate its "star system" in English Canada.

Hearings and approval
CRTC hearings on the new proposals began in May 2013. Asserting that it would have to sell or shut down the station without one, Bell organized a petition proposing an exception to the ownership cap that would allow it to maintain ownership of CKGM, under the condition that Bell maintain the TSN Radio format on the station and provide $245,000 in funding for local amateur sports and scholarships in sports journalism over a seven-year period. Commissioner Suzanne Lamarre commented that Bell could have sold another station instead, given most of the comments on Bell's petition only supported CKGM maintaining a sports radio format, and not Bell's purchase of Astral. In response, Bell's CEO George A. Cope commented that the company did not want to sell off profitable radio stations, and Astral CEO Jacques Parisien remarked that breaking up its Montreal cluster would affect their operation.

Rogers called on the CRTC to require that Bell divest The Movie Network, claiming that Bell would make it harder and more expensive for competing service providers to access The Movie Network's content (especially on its own Anyplace TV and on-demand services) if Bell were to own the service. Bell disputed Rogers' claims, stating that the company already had a long-term deal to distribute The Movie Network on its cablesystems, and noted that Rogers had expressed interest in purchasing the service if it were to be divested. Bell indicated that it would not go ahead with the deal if it were forced by the CRTC to sell additional media outlets. Rogers also showed interest in making a "reasonable offer" to purchase CKGM as a complement to its recently acquired TV station CJNT-DT. Under Rogers ownership, CKGM would have kept its sports talk format, but as a Sportsnet Radio station instead of TSN Radio.

On June 27, 2013, the CRTC approved Bell's acquisition of Astral Media, which closed on July 5, 2013. The deal was subject to conditions, including the requirement for Bell to provide fair treatment to its competitors, to not impose "restrictive bundling practices" on Astral's premium movie channels, invest $246.9 million over the next seven years on Canadian-produced programming, and to maintain the operation and local programming levels of all of its television stations through 2017. The CRTC also approved Bell's proposed exemptions for maintaining ownership of CKGM.

Divestments
Following the approval of the new proposal by the Competition Bureau, Corus Entertainment reached a tentative deal to acquire 2 radio stations (CJOT, CKQB), along with Astral's stakes in Historia, Séries+, and the Teletoon networks from Bell for just over $400 million. Corus acquired the stakes in Historia and Séries+ from Shaw Media as well. On January 1, 2014, the acquisition was completed. In 2017, Corus attempted to sell Historia and Séries+ to Bell for $200 million, but the deal was blocked and rejected by the Competition Bureau for violations of conditions forbidding Bell from re-acquiring divested Astral properties for ten years.

Bell Media also divested Family, Disney Junior's English and French services, Disney XD, MusiMax, MusiquePlus, and 5 other radio stations in Toronto and Vancouver (CHBM-FM, CFXJ-FM, CKZZ-FM, CHHR-FM and CISL) at auction. These divested stations and channels were temporarily held in a blind trust by Pierre Boivin until the completion of their acquisitions.

On May 16, 2013, the Jim Pattison Group announced a deal to acquire three stations in Calgary and Winnipeg from Bell and Astral—CKCE-FM, CHIQ-FM, and CFQX, for an undisclosed amount. The deal expanded the Jim Pattison Group's operations in Calgary (where it was planning to launch a new station, CHPK-FM), and gave the company its first stations in Manitoba. On August 26, 2013, Newcap Radio announced its intent to acquire the five aforementioned Toronto and Vancouver stations. Eventually, Newcap was in turn acquired by Stingray Digital Group in 2018.

On November 28, 2013, DHX Media announced that it had reached a deal to acquire Family Channel and its sister networks for $170 million, the deal was completed in late July 2014. On December 4, 2013, Remstar, owners of the French television system V, announced that it would acquire MusiquePlus and MusiMax for an undisclosed amount.

Corporate governance
Members of the board of directors of Astral prior to the close of the Bell-Astral transaction were: Austin Beutel, Paul Bronfman, André Bureau (chairman), Jack Cockwell, George Cohon, Paul Godfrey, Stephen Greenberg, Ian Greenberg, Sidney Greenberg, Sidney Horn, Timothy Price, Phyllis Yaffe and Monique Jérôme-Forget.

Former assets
Any listing with a cross (†) character at the end indicates an asset which was not acquired by Bell Canada.

Alberta

 * Calgary - CIBK, CJAY, CKMX, CKCE-FM
 * Edmonton - CFBR, CFRN, CFMG

British Columbia

 * Dawson Creek - CJDC
 * Fort Nelson - CKRX
 * Fort St. John - CHRX, CKNL
 * Golden - CKGR
 * Invermere - CKIR
 * Kelowna - CHSU, CILK, CKFR
 * Kitimat - CKTK
 * Nelson - CKKC
 * Osoyoos - CJOR
 * Penticton - CJMG, CKOR
 * Prince Rupert - CHTK
 * Princeton - CIOR
 * Revelstoke - CKCR
 * Salmon Arm - CKXR
 * Summerland - CHOR
 * Terrace - CFTK, CJFW
 * Trail - CJAT
 * Vancouver - CKZZ †, CHHR †, CISL †
 * Vernon - CICF

Manitoba

 * Brandon - CKX, CKXA
 * Selkirk - CFQX †
 * Winnipeg - CHIQ-FM†, CKMM

New Brunswick

 * Bathurst - CKBC-FM
 * Fredericton - CFXY-FM, CIBX-FM, CKHJ
 * Grand Falls - CIKX-FM
 * Woodstock - CJCJ-FM

Nova Scotia

 * Truro - CKTO-FM, CKTY-FM

Ontario

 * Hamilton - CHAM, CKLH, CKOC
 * London - CIQM, CJBK, CJBX, CKSL
 * Ottawa - CJOT †, CKQB †
 * Pembroke - CHVR
 * St. Catharines - CHRE, CHTZ, CKTB
 * Toronto - CFRB, CHBM †, CKFM

Quebec

 * Montreal - CHOM, CJAD, CJFM

NRJ network

 * CHIK-FM 98.9, Quebec City
 * CIGB-FM 102.3, Trois-Rivières / Mauricie
 * CIKI-FM 98.7, Rimouski
 * CIMO-FM 106.1, Magog / Estrie
 * CJAB-FM 94.5, Saguenay
 * CJDM-FM 92.1, Drummondville
 * CJMM-FM 99.1, Rouyn-Noranda
 * CJMV-FM 102.7, Val-d'Or
 * CKMF-FM 94.3, Montreal
 * CKTF-FM 104.1, Gatineau / Outaouais

Rouge FM network

 * CFIX-FM 96.9, Saguenay
 * CFVM-FM 99.9, Amqui
 * CHEY-FM 94.7, Trois-Rivières / Mauricie
 * CHRD-FM 105.3, Drummondville
 * CIMF-FM 94.9, Gatineau / Outaouais
 * CITE-FM 107.3, Montreal
 * CITE-FM-1 102.7, Sherbrooke / Estrie
 * CITF-FM 107.5, Quebec City
 * CJOI-FM 102.9, Rimouski

Boom FM network

 * CFEI-FM 106.5, Saint-Hyacinthe
 * CFZZ-FM 104.1, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

Saskatchewan

 * Regina - CHBD

Over-the-air television stations

 * Dawson Creek - CJDC (now owned by Bell Media, reverted from CBC Television affiliation to CTV 2 affiliation in 2016)
 * Terrace - CFTK (now owned by Bell Media, reverted from CBC Television affiliation to CTV 2 affiliation in 2016)

Specialty & pay television (English)

 * Family - 2 multiplex channels (now owned by WildBrain)
 * Disney Junior (English) (renamed Family Jr. by owner DHX Media after DHX lost the rights to Disney Channel programming to Corus)
 * Disney XD (renamed Family Chrgd by owner DHX Media after DHX lost the rights to Disney Channel programming to Corus, but eventually rebranded to WildBrainTV on March 1, 2022, with no change in programming)
 * The Movie Network - 4 multiplex channels, including HBO Canada (now owned by Bell Media and renamed Crave as of November 1, 2018 )
 * MExcess - renamed TMN 2 in 2016 and later Crave 2 in 2018
 * MFun! - renamed TMN 3 in 2016 and later Crave 3 in 2018
 * MFest - ceased operations March 1, 2016
 * The Movie Network Encore - 2 multiplex channels (renamed Starz by new owner Bell Media in 2019)
 * Teletoon (now fully owned by Corus Entertainment as of January 1, 2014, rebranded to Cartoon Network on March 27, 2023)
 * Teletoon Retro (shut down on September 1, 2015, license and carriage subsumed by Cartoon Network)
 * Cartoon Network (ceased operating as a separately-licensed service on September 1, 2015, moving under Teletoon Retro's license thereafter, relaunched as Boomerang on March 27, 2023)

Specialty & pay television (French)

 * Canal D (now owned by Bell Media)
 * Upcoming spin-off channel focusing on justice and forensic programming in the form of documentaries, magazine series, dramas and reality television series (launched by Bell Media as Canal D/Investigation on December 12, 2013, following the Astral Media acquisition before renaming itself to just Investigation)
 * Canal Vie (now owned by Bell Media)
 * Cinépop (now owned by Bell Media)
 * Disney Junior (French) (renamed Télémagino by owner DHX Media after DHX lost the rights to Disney Channel programming to Corus)
 * Historia (now fully owned by Corus Entertainment as of January 1, 2014)
 * MusiMax (now owned by V Media Group, later became a general entertainment channel now known as Max)
 * MusiquePlus (now owned by V Media Group, and renamed Elle Fictions as of 2019)
 * Séries+ (now fully owned by Corus Entertainment as of January 1, 2014)
 * Super Écran - 4 multiplex channels (now owned by Bell Media)
 * Télétoon (now fully owned by Corus Entertainment as of January 1, 2014)
 * Télétoon Rétro (shut down on September 1, 2015, and replaced by Disney La Chaîne in its channel allotments under Corus ownership)
 * Vrak.TV (now owned by Bell Media and known as Vrak, ceased operations on October 1, 2023)
 * Ztélé (now owned by Bell Media and known as Z)

Pay-per-view television

 * Viewers Choice (50.1%, shut down on September 30, 2014, due to redundancy with Bell and Rogers PPV services, Vu! and Sportsnet PPV)

title: Astral Media