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Brian Williams (sportscaster)

Brian James Williams (born July 18, 1946) is a Canadian sportscaster who is best known for his coverage of the Olympic Games.

Early life
Williams' father was a physician. His father's work caused the Williams family to relocate to such places as Invermere, British Columbia; New Haven, Connecticut; Edmonton, Alberta; Hamilton, Ontario (where he graduated from Westdale Secondary School); Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan (where he graduated from Aquinas College with a B.A. in history & political science in 1969). After graduating, he spent a year as a teacher at a Grand Rapids school.

Broadcasting career
Williams began his involvement in broadcasting when he applied for a part-time job at his college's classical station WXTO which was located in the tower of the Aquinas College's Administration Building. Williams also was the first to travel with the Aquinas College "Tommies" Basketball team announcing the "Tommies" basketball games via a one-man telephone connection. Williams' college goal was to go back to Canada and become a sports journalist.

Williams was long associated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's sports coverage since joining the network in 1974, after radio employment at Toronto's CFRB and CHUM.

CBC
Williams served as the studio host for the CBC's coverage of the CFL, Formula 1 and horse racing and was the play-by-play announcer for the network's coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays. He was the principal studio anchor for CBC's Olympic Games coverage for the 1984 Winter, 1984 Summer, 1988 Winter, 1988 Summer, 1992 Winter, 1996 Summer, 1998 Winter, 2000 Summer, 2002 Winter, 2004 Summer and 2006 Winter Olympics. Williams also covered the 2002 FIFA World Cup for CBC.

Williams also worked with Peter Mansbridge during 2000 Today, CBC's coverage of the millennium.

CTV and TSN
On June 5, 2006, Williams announced plans to move in December 2006 to rival CTV, and its sports network TSN. However, on June 8, 2006, the CBC fired Williams, thereby causing him to join CTV/TSN effective immediately as on-site host of TSN's Canadian Football League coverage. (This position should not be confused with the "studio host" position that remains held by Rod Smith.)

Williams was chosen to head the CTV broadcasting team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. On February 22, 2010, while providing coverage of the Winter Olympics, Williams did a skit with Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News, at CTV's Olympic set. Some in the media dubbed this the new "Battle of the Brians," as NBC's Williams compared his own modest set to CTV's expensive Olympic studio.

Williams anchored CTV's coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He criticized the International Olympic Committee for not properly honouring the Israeli delegates who were slain during the 1972 Summer Olympics.

He continues to appear, as of 2019, as a contributor to CFL on TSN, as host of TSN's coverage of the Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, and as host of figure skating coverage on both networks and also contributes content to TSN Radio.

He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Radio
Until 2019, Williams co-hosted Don Cherry's Grapeline on Sportsnet Radio, along with Don Cherry, for thirty-five years, first on CFRB radio in Toronto, and then as a syndicated show on Sportsnet.

Retirement
Brian Williams announced his retirement from broadcasting on 2 December 2021 after a 50-year career.

Quirks
His unique voice and quirks such as frequently announcing the time, sometimes in several different time zones at once, has made him one of Canada's most distinctive broadcasters. He is a frequent subject of parody on Canadian comedy shows such as Royal Canadian Air Farce.

Honours
In 2011, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to sports broadcasting, notably that of amateur sports, and for his community involvement".

In 2022, he was awarded the Order of Sport, marking his induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Commonwealth honours

 * Commonwealth honours

 * He received his Order of Canada Insignia during an Investiture at Rideau Hall from Governor General David Johnston on 25 May 2012.

Scholastic

 * Honorary degrees

Multimedia

 * CBC archives - Williams hosting the opening of SkyDome in Toronto.
 * Grapeline archives - Williams co-hosts Grapeline with Don Cherry.

Websites

 * TSN profile
 * Speakers' Spotlight: Brian Williams
 * CTV PR: "Going For Gold. Brian Williams To Join CTV, TSN"
 * TSN PR (June 9): "Brian Williams Makes CTV/TSN Debut June 16 During CFL Season Opener"
 * Canadian Communications Foundation profile

title: Brian Williams (sportscaster)


text:
Brian Williams (disambiguation)

Brian Williams (born 1959) is an American journalist.

Brian Williams may also refer to:

American football

 * Brian Williams (center) (born 1966), American football center
 * Brian Williams (linebacker) (born 1972), American football linebacker
 * Brian Williams (cornerback) (born 1979), American football cornerback

Other sports

 * Brian Williams (Australian footballer) (1936–2010), Australian rules footballer
 * Brian Williams (sportscaster) (born 1946), Canadian sportscaster
 * Brian Williams (footballer, born 1955), English footballer
 * Brian Williams (footballer, born 1961), Trinidadian football coach and football player
 * Brian Williams (rugby union) (1962–2007), Welsh rugby player
 * Brian Williams (basketball) or Bison Dele (1969–2002), American basketball player
 * Brian Williams (baseball) (born 1969), American baseball pitcher

Other people

 * Brian Williams (director), Irish-born London-based designer turned creative advertising director
 * Brian Williams (illustrator) (1956–2010), illustrator of the later Lone Wolf gamebooks
 * Brian Williams (Missouri politician), member of the Missouri Senate
 * Brian Williams (Ohio politician) (born 1942), former member of the US state of Ohio's House of Representatives
 * Brian Williams (surgeon) (born 1969), American surgeon
 * Lustmord (Brian Williams), experimental musician
 * Brian Glyn Williams, professor of Islamic history
 * Brian Williams (bishop), Argentine Anglican bishop

Fictional characters

 * Brian Williams, father of fictional character Rory Williams in the television series Doctor Who
 * Smash Williams (Brian Williams), a fictional character in the television series Friday Night Lights

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

title: Brian Williams (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Brian Williams (disambiguation)

So why is the US Brian Williams sole owner of Brian Williams. We should be global. Mundilfari (talk) 04:18, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Where is Rory's dad from Doctor Who? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.76.253.30 (talk) 23:39, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
 * to the Other fields section.--Nevé–selbert 12:31, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Brian Williams (disambiguation)


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Gordie Tapp

Gordon Robert Tapp, (June 4, 1922 – December 18, 2016) was a Canadian entertainer, best known as a radio and television presenter, comedian and a CBS broadcaster. He was introduced to U.S. President Gerald Ford as the world's funniest storyteller.

Career
Tapp studied at the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts. He was the host for Main Street Jamboree, a radio program broadcast from Hamilton during the 1950s. Tapp later emceed the CBC television show Country Hoedown as well as The Performers, a series of shows featuring 'up and coming' young Canadian talent, which was recorded in major Canadian cities including Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.

He became a performer and writer for the CBS comedy-variety television show Hee Haw. Here he became an American TV star, becoming familiar as half of the stone-faced singing duo (with Archie Campbell) performing dozens of variations on "Pfft! You Were Gone" ("Where, Oh Where Are You Tonight?"). Tapp also played various recurring characters: hayseed Cousin Clem, pompous senator Samuel B. Sternwheeler, storekeeper Mr. Gordon, and Lavern Nagger, the forever put-upon husband of Ida Lee Nagger (Roni Stoneman).

Gordie Tapp was the special guest star on episode #54 of the popular weekly variety program The Bobby Vinton Show in October 1977. The program was produced in Toronto and aired across the United States and Canada. Gordie performed a duet of "That's Amore" with Vinton.

Tapp was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1998 for his work in helping raise funds for organizations such as the Canadian Muscular Dystrophy campaign and Easter Seals.

In 1999, he was awarded the Order of Ontario — the highest honour in the province of Ontario.

In his later life, Tapp was the commercial spokesperson for the Ultramatic adjustable bed.

Tapp died in Burlington, Ontario on December 18, 2016, at the age of 94; no cause was given.

title: Gordie Tapp


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Weiden an der March

Weiden an der March is a municipality in the district of Gänserndorf in Lower Austria, Austria.

Geography
Weiden an der March lies in the Weinviertel in Lower Austria. It lies near the river Morava (March), which forms the border with Slovakia. 19.63% of the municipality is forested.

On 1 January 1975 the former municipalities of Baumgarten an der March, Oberweiden and Zwerndorf were merged to form Weiden an der March.

Economy
There are 26 companies in Weiden, and 403 persons are employed. The employment rate in 2001 was 45.79%.

title: Weiden an der March


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User talk:Jmabel/Archive 7

Re:notenglish
Thanks for the reminder, sorry for the inconvenience. I assume I forgot to add the page to PNTIE. Best regards, Sietse 13:51, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Yeah, thanks from me also -- I kinda assumed (obviously for no good reason) that there was an automatically created list, like creates. -jpgordon {gab} 16:21, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

New list of articles with no interwikis
Hello. Thanks for your help on es:. I have asked Med to make a new list of articles with no interwikis. See http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:Youssefsan/zona_de_trabajo_2 (But I have not already wikified the list). See you --Youssef 18:24, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * PS: I have also a list for fr: if you are interrested. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Youssefsan/Liste_de_suivi --Youssef 19:00, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

linking to an image
thanks for the pointer on linking to an image. I realized as I was attempting it that it seemed non-standard, but also seems to be a reasonable feature to me--access to images relevant but secondary to the subject.

Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group
The original article at the Blackwell Group stated that it was free content, as long as the origin was mentioned. This means the copyright tag is, which is within the Wikipedia copyright restraints. This page is of great importance to all contributors working on botanical articles. Therefore the name is linked to the "Tree of Life". It may be a somewhat strange name, but every botanist knows what it is all about. JoJan 09:23, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * OK. What about moving to : Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group ? JoJan 09:33, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba
Hi, Jmabel, I've seen your contribution linking the spanish article on Francisco Hernández de Córdoba [which I will finish some of this weeks :( ] to the english and french wikis and viceversa. Provided that there were two homonymous conquistadors, and in the English version they were treated as the same person (setting a strange biography of a conquistador that founded Nicaragua several years after being injured to death while discovering Yucatan), and in the french version the same article is used for both, without a disambiguation format, I have changed both the english article (transforming it into a disambiguation page, as it is in es: ) and the links, linking disambiguation-to-disambiguation articles, at least for the moment. If somebody with better english than mine helps me, I can try to translate to english the articles that I`m writing in es: about Hernández & Hernández, and then the links will be more accurate.

It's a pity having known about you just today, because last week (until Friday) I was living... in Seattle! (due to the Teradata Partners Conference, at the Convention Center)... I've lost the opportunity of an international wikimeeting, to speak, maybe, about spanish conquistadores. Vivero 23:00, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have said where I live: In Spain. I'm also Vivero in the es:wikipedia. Have you visited this map in the es:, showing the location of the wikipedians? I think it´s a good idea for other wikis, and for recalling the utopia of a frointerless world.

Concerning the translation, I prefer to finish the article before, and to try the translation myself, kindly asking for your corrections. You´re absolutely right when you say that translations must be done from the foreing language to the mother tongue. Even more: the main requisite of a good translator is to be a good writer in his own language, no matter if is not very fluent in the translated tongue. But... I want to improve my English, making mistakes! Vivero 22:13, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Category links
Oh, so that's how you do them. Didn't see my mistake until I saw your edit. Thanks for fixing them for me! Alarm 07:43, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

User:Style has deliberately broken the 3 revert rule
On the 1982 Lebanon War page; could you possibly assist? Jayjg 20:42, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Please do whatever you think is reasonable and appropriate. Jayjg 20:51, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * I think someone who makes wholesale edits on a page, and then says there is no point in discussing them because they are facts, and finally deliberately reverts 4 times, should probably be dealt with a little more severealy than "let's discuss this on the Talk: page". Jayjg 21:04, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * You're right. His history of doing this before made me un-optimistic.  Oh well, thanks for providing the voice of reason, that's what I was looking for anyway, so I'm glad I dropped by. Jayjg 21:20, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

translation backlog from fr: to en:
I could probably work on the Arabic alphabet page. Maybe as soon as next week.

@alex

The Joan Jett mystery
User:Everyking is puzzled by the inclusion of Joan Jett on CSB. See the bottom of my talk page - Xed 14:46, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

ILO
I saw your comments on the ILO article. Since I have some knowledge of the subject and listed it on WP:Bias with the intention to expand the article, I decided to fix the ambiguity myself, adding some of the things I wanted to add at the same time. But I'd appreciate if you take a look and check if it works as it now stands. I think some sentences could be a bit smoother, but I couldn't really find better solutions. I'd be grateful for any help. Alarm 20:07, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The Dancing Wu Li Masters
So I'm not the only one who remembers The Dancing Wu Li Masters. LOL! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. SWAdair | Talk 09:01, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

re: SEO
I keep an eye on SEO, because many people try to add suspicious or blatantly commercial links. The link I reverted was fairly suspicious.

Wikipedia rules applied :

 * Wikipedia is not a web directory.
 * No advertising.

Kim Bruning 00:32, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Lots of google adsense on that page, don't you think? Kim Bruning 01:13, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Yeah, hmm, well, good point with IMDB, but like, they're well entrenched and all. Do we really want to encourage linking to sites like that, unless they're a unique resource? Kim Bruning 09:17, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

If only...
When he makes good edits, they are indeed good. That's why I've really tried to work with him, as opposed to the various other anti-Israel editors on these articles, who have nothing of value to add (or in one case are simply there to troll). I really wish we had Zero0000 back; even though he and I often disagreed, at least he actually knew something about the history of the region and conflict (as opposed to those who just read some anti-Israel website polemics, or an anti-Israel polemical book by Fisk, and imagine that they now know "THE TRUTH" (tm)), and he also knew what NPOV was. Jayjg 02:12, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

editing Dacia, Romania, Transylvania articles
hi Jmabel, about your request that I should make clear comments on my edits and disscussing them first: The information I added is not controversial, on the contrary, i indicated historical documents in wich terms like Getae, Dacorum Getarum and Dagae appear: Herodotus, Strabo, Plutarh, Jordanes, De Bello Gallico, Roman Notitia Dignitatum, Tabula Peutingeriana, external links, etc.

i will sustain my NPOV to anybody that would open a discussion thread on my edits. criztu

Chilean coup of 1973
I noticed your edit summary comment of how "weird" the anon IP is acting. I think I can explain. He simply reverts articles I edit, often regardless of the nature of the edit (sometimes a mere spelling correction or capitalization change). He vandalized my user page a few times too (see its page history if you're interested) and I requested arbitration for an injunction, a request which has sat around for some time. Very Verily 23:10, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

esTotW
Since you put your name down as a spanish to english traslator, i thought you might be interested in the new Spanish translation of the week collaboration project. This weeks collaboration is Género chico.

paz y amor, The bellman 05:12, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Holocaust Denial
In addition to the Jew article, please note that Alberuni is inserting the identical Holocaust Denial material into Nazi concentration camps and Extermination camp. Jayjg 06:24, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

You really dropped the ball on with your comments about Aberuni. Writing about Holocaust deniers isn't Holocaust denial.- Xed 07:41, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What is it with everybody today?
Jmabel, I had absolutely no intention to imply that your actions resemble in any way HistoryBuffEr's. I don't even know what actions you took or did not take. If I somehow managed to unwittingly hint so, I'm sorry. Gadykozma 19:54, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * You might be interested in voting on this suggested policy. Gadykozma 20:50, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi, jmabel
I'm the one interested in the Basque issue as I'm Basque myself. As I've seen you direct, de facto at least, the Ethnic Groups Wikiproject, I would like to contribute in what I can. Feel free to visit my talk page with any comments. (By the way, you have even a Basque Club in Seattle to contrast.) Idiazabal 11:37, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
I appreciate your efforts in trying to remain neutral and bring some calm and sanity to the current wars over the Israeli-Palestinian articles. Jayjg 20:56, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

B. Goldwater Redirect
Yeah, my mistake. Was the redirect process simplified lately? I seem to remember that one had to put a redirect on one page, and then go put it on the page to be redirected to, and then revert, and then the redirect holds. Now all we have to do is one redirect? Makes things simpler, boy howdy. Sorry if I messed up any flow. --Neschek 03:05, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Yup, I know about the supergroovy single-step redirect now. Thanks much for putting me straight. --Neschek 15:37, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Chile coup
Very impressive work digesting that slew of new content. I found the prospect quite daunting when considering it myself. Very Verily 08:38, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

List formatting
Your efforts on the List of heteronyms formatting was appreciated, but unless you have compelling reasons for adding that formatting I think it would be better if you reverted it. Here's why:

I considered bolding the first word, as it would indeed look better. But the table formatting is onerous enough for contributors to deal with, and doing the &ndash; bit clearly pushes it over the top, in my view. Remember, we're trying to encourage successful contributions that I (or others) don't have to clean up later. My experience with my redundancy list suggests that something complicated will simply not be done uniformly--doing the table bit is risky enough, but impossibly messy without it. Thanks --NathanHawking 01:09, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

 * I agree that bolding looks better. Perhaps having the bold around the subject is not overly onerous. However, I'm going to put a brief InUse on the page and see if table lines solve that problem without requiring users to mess with bolding. It may just make it more ugly. Check in later and see what you think.

 * Too, an en dash correctly does not have spaces around it. It's optional for an mdash. You can leave such things the way the original writer preferred. In this case, it saves a bit of space and looks cleaner, in my view, to set off the pronunciation with a single DASH- like that, followed by a space. Not that contributors would notice that subtlety, but it was deliberate and I'd like to restore it.
 * --NathanHawking 01:44, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

 * The dash is a small issue, probably too small to be "correct" or "incorrect" in any significant sense. Half the contributors will probaly do that differently whichever way it is.

 * More important is the bolding and italicizing and ndash specifying. That truly clutters the picture--I agree that it looks immensely better, and knew that when I posted the list. But the trade-off was some reduced readability for much simpler entry. The table lines solve that, I think, allowing simplest possible entries and enhanced readability. Have a look. --NathanHawking 02:13, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

I may have overwritten your last contribution
Joe, I may have overwritten your last contribution on List of heteronyms by reverting to the one of yours just before it. Poccil took it upon himself to change our tentative pronunciation stuff to the very difficult X-SAMPA, almost unusable for an easy-to-make and easy-to-read list. Jeeze, Louise. No way. I am nearly finished with a simple guide to pronunciation. Should be done by morning.

Anyhow, sorry for the overwrite--don't revert, please--just copy your addition and paste in a new edit. Thanks. --NathanHawking 07:24, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

 * Followup. Hang onto your new contributions to the list for a day, please. I put a 24 hour InUse flag on the page. I should have a simple pronunciation guide essentially completed by then, which should encourage some uniformity, even if only by those of us dedicated to cleaning up casual entries. Please have a look at the guide when I post it, check for idiosyncrasies, etc. --NathanHawking 07:55, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

 * Oops... yeh, yer *talk* page. Sorry. --NathanHawking 07:57, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

Good link
Good link to the heteronyms, Joe. I'll check out his approach to pronunciation--mine is pretty simple as well. --NathanHawking 10:19, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC) (I see this signed me as an anonymous use--logged me off for the third time in 30 minutes. So I'm back to actually sign this.)

Thanks on New Skin
Thanks for making New Skin for the Old Ceremony a worthwhile article. Thankyou again. Tolo 10:50, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)

Collaboration of the week
Could you consider voting for Partisans (Yugoslvia) as a collaboration project? AndyL 17:20, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jmabel/Archive 7


text:
1996 Manchester bombing

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 15 June 1996. The IRA detonated a 1500 kg lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War. It targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused significant damage, estimated by insurers at GB£700million (equivalent to £ in ), a sum surpassed only by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, also by the IRA.

At the time, England was hosting the Euro '96 football championships and a Russia vs. Germany match was scheduled to take place in Manchester the following day. The IRA sent telephoned warnings about 90 minutes before the bomb detonated. At least 75,000 people were evacuated from the region, but the bomb squad were unable to defuse the bomb in time. More than 200 people were injured, but there were no fatalities despite the strength of the bomb, which has been largely credited to the rapid response of emergency services in evacuating the city centre.

Although Manchester had been targeted by the IRA before, it had not been subjected to an attack on this scale. In February 1996, the IRA had ended its seventeen-month ceasefire with a large truck bomb attack on London's Canary Wharf financial district, though the 3,300-pound bomb of Manchester was three times the size of the Canary Wharf bomb. The Manchester bombing was condemned by the British and Irish Governments and US President Bill Clinton. Five days after the blast, the IRA issued a statement from Dublin in which it claimed responsibility but regretted causing injury to civilians.

Several buildings were damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished, while many more were closed for months for structural repairs. Most of the rebuilding work was completed by the end of 1999, at a cost of £1.2 billion, although redevelopment continued until 2005. The perpetrators have not been caught, and although Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had suggested it was unlikely that anyone will be charged in connection with the bombing, a suspect was arrested on 8 September 2022. The bombing has, however, been viewed by some as a "catalyst" for Manchester's mass regeneration, turning it into a modern "powerhouse" city with above-national average economic growth in the 20 years following the bombing.

Background
From 1970, the Provisional Irish Republican Army was carrying out an armed campaign with the ultimate objective of bringing about a united Ireland. As well as attacking military and political targets, it also bombed infrastructure and commercial targets in Northern Ireland and England. It believed that by damaging the economy and causing severe disruption, it could pressure the British government to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland. Manchester had been the target of earlier IRA bombs. As part of the IRA's sabotage campaign in 1939-40 multiple bombings took place in Manchester and other English cities. In 1973 and 1974, firebombs damaged city centre businesses for which one man was later imprisoned. In April 1974, a bomb exploded at Manchester Magistrates' Court, injuring twelve. In 1975, IRA bomb factories were found in Greater Manchester, and five men were imprisoned for planning attacks in North West England. On 3 December 1992, the IRA detonated two small bombs in Manchester city centre, forcing police to evacuate thousands of shoppers. More than 60 were hurt by shattered glass and the blasts cost an estimated £10 million in damage and business losses.

The Downing Street Declaration of 1993 allowed Sinn Féin, a political party associated with the IRA, to participate in all-party peace negotiations on condition that the IRA called a ceasefire. The IRA called a ceasefire on 31 August 1994. John Major's government, dependent on Ulster Unionist Party votes, then began insisting that the IRA must fully disarm before there could be any all-party negotiations. The IRA saw this as a demand for total surrender and believed the British were unwilling to hold negotiations. It ended its ceasefire on 9 February 1996 when it detonated a powerful truck bomb in Canary Wharf, one of the two financial districts of London. The blast killed two people and caused an estimated £150 million worth of damage. The IRA then planted five other devices in London within the space of 10 weeks.

The IRA planned to carry out a similar bombing in Manchester. The city may have been chosen because it was one of the host cities of the Euro '96 football tournament, attended by visitors and media organisations from all over Europe, guaranteeing the IRA what Margaret Thatcher called the "oxygen of publicity". A Russia vs Germany match was to take place at Old Trafford in Manchester a day after the bombing. The year before, Manchester had also won its bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, at the time the biggest multi-sport event ever to be staged in Britain.

On 10 June 1996, multi-party negotiations began in Belfast. Sinn Féin had been elected to take part but were barred because the IRA had not resumed its ceasefire or agreed to disarm.

Details of the bombing
The IRA's South Armagh Brigade was tasked with planning and carrying out the attack. It had also been responsible for the Canary Wharf bombing in February, and the Bishopsgate bombing in 1993. Its members mixed the explosives in the Republic of Ireland and shipped them by freight from Dublin to England. In London, the bomb was assembled and loaded into the back of a red and white Ford Cargo van. On 14 June it was driven north towards Manchester, accompanied by a burgundy Ford Granada which served as a "scout car".

Discovery

At about 9:20 am on Saturday 15 June 1996, the Ford van was parked on Corporation Street, outside the Marks & Spencer store, near the Arndale Centre. After setting the bomb's timer, two men—wearing hooded jackets, baseball caps and sunglasses—left the vehicle and walked to Cathedral Street, where a third man picked them up in a Ford Granada car, which was later abandoned in Preston. The truck had been parked on double yellow lines with its hazard lights flashing. Within three minutes a traffic warden had issued the vehicle with a parking ticket and called for its removal. At about 9:40 am, Granada Studios on Quay Street received a telephone call claiming that there was a bomb at the corner of Corporation Street and Cannon Street and that it would explode in one hour. The caller had an Irish accent and gave an IRA codeword so that police would know the threat was genuine. Four other telephoned warnings were sent to television/radio stations, newspapers, and a hospital.

The first policeman to arrive on the scene noticed wires running from the van's dashboard through a hole into the back and reported that he had found the bomb. Forensic experts later estimated that the bomb weighed 1,500–1,600 kg (3,300–3,500 lb) and was a mixture of semtex, a military-grade plastic explosive, and ammonium nitrate fertiliser, a cheap and easily obtainable explosive used extensively by the IRA. Components of what may have been a tremble trigger were also found later, designed to detonate the bomb if it was tampered with.

Evacuation
At 10:00 am, there were an estimated 75,000–80,000 people shopping and working in the vicinity. An evacuation of the area was undertaken by police officers from Bootle Street police station, supplemented by officers drafted into Manchester to control the football crowds. The police were helped by security guards from local shops.

One group worked to move people away from the bomb while another, assisted by firefighters and security guards, established a continuously expanding cordon around the area to prevent entry. By 11:10 am the cordon was at the greatest extent that available manpower would permit, about a quarter of a mile (400 m) from the truck and 1.5 mi in circumference.

Explosion
The bomb squad arrived from their Liverpool base at 10:46 am and attempted to defuse the bomb using a remote-controlled device, but they were unable to defuse the bomb, resulting in the timer expiring and functioning the device. The bomb exploded at 11:17 am, causing an estimated £700 million (£ as of ) of damage and affecting a third of the city centre's retail space. The Marks & Spencer's and the sky bridge connecting it to the Arndale Centre were destroyed, along with neighbouring buildings. It was the largest peacetime bomb ever detonated in Great Britain, and the blast created a mushroom cloud which rose 300 metres (1,000 feet) from the ground. The explosion could be heard up to 15 mi away and left a crater 15 metres wide. Glass and masonry were thrown into the air, and behind the police cordon – up to 1/2 mi away, people were showered by falling debris. There were no fatalities, but 212 people were injured. A search of the area for casualties involved a brief confusion when mannequins blasted out of shop windows were mistaken for bodies. Hospitals across Greater Manchester were made ready to receive those injured in the blast. The police commandeered a Metrolink tram to take 50 of the casualties to North Manchester General Hospital, which treated 79 in total; a further 80 were cared for at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and many others were treated in the streets by ambulance crews assisted by doctors and nurses who happened to be in the city centre that morning.

Reaction
The bombing was condemned by British Prime Minister John Major and his government, by the opposition, and by individual members of parliament (MPs) as a "sickening", "callous" and "barbaric" terrorist attack. Early on, Major stated that, "This explosion looks like the work of the IRA. It is the work of a few fanatics and ... causes absolute revulsion in Ireland as it does here". Sinn Féin was criticised by Taoiseach John Bruton for being "struck mute" on the attack in the immediate aftermath. Bruton described the bombing as "a slap in the face to people who've been trying, against perhaps their better instincts, to give Sinn Féin a chance to show that they could persuade the IRA to reinstate the ceasefire". The President of the United States, Bill Clinton, stated he was "deeply outraged by the bomb explosion" and joined Bruton and Major in "utterly condemning this brutal and cowardly act of terrorism". Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, stated that he was "shocked and saddened" by the bombing. He insisted that his party was committed to achieving a peace settlement and argued "it is sheer folly to return to the old agenda of excluding Sinn Féin and seeking to isolate republicans". On 20 June 1996, the IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing, and stated that it "sincerely regretted" causing injury to civilians. The IRA statement continued: "The British Government has spent the last 22 months since August '94 trying to force the surrender of IRA weapons and the defeat of the republican struggle. We are still prepared to enhance the democratic peace process ... but if there is to be a lasting peace ... then the British Government must put the democratic rights of all of the people of Ireland before its own party political self interest."

The bombing came five days after the beginning of the peace talks in Belfast, and represented the IRA's opposition to talks which excluded republicans. The attack was part of a political strategy by the IRA to be included in negotiations on the IRA's own terms. According to historian Richard English: "What they were doing with their return to bombings like the Manchester bomb was saying, 'We can still return to war if we want to. We can still put off a huge bomb in your cities and devastate them and therefore you have to deal with us.

In an effort to allay fears that Manchester's considerable Irish community might be subjected to reprisal attacks, Councillors Richard Leese and Martin Pagel – leader and deputy leader of Manchester City Council respectively – made a public visit to the Irish World Heritage Centre in Cheetham Hill. There were ultimately only a few incidents, the most serious of which occurred on the evening of the bombing, when a gang of ten men rampaged through an Irish-themed bar in the centre of Middleton, shouting the Ulster loyalist slogan "No surrender" and smashing furniture and windows. Seven days after the bombing, Manchester Council held a 'family fun day' in front of the Town Hall in Albert Square to encourage shoppers and visitors back into the city centre, the first of a "series of events and entertainments". The Euro '96 football match between Russia and Germany at Old Trafford went ahead as planned the day following the bombing, after the stadium had been heavily guarded overnight and carefully searched; the game, which Germany won 3–0, was watched by a capacity crowd of 50,700.

Investigation

In an effort to trace the route of the Ford van, police examined CCTV footage from every major road and motorway taken in England within two days of the bombing. Footage revealed that the van was driven south along the M1 motorway into London on the Friday afternoon before the attack. It was seen again heading north along the motorway at 7:40 pm, accompanied by the Ford Granada. Detectives surmised that the van had been loaded with explosives in London and that the Granada was intended to be the getaway vehicle. The van was last recorded travelling east along the M62 motorway towards Manchester at 8:31 am on the morning of the explosion.

Police in Manchester were aware that their Metropolitan Police colleagues in London were investigating a suspected IRA unit based in the capital, and wondered whether the London unit was responsible for the Manchester bombing. On 15 July, Metropolitan police arrested six men suspected of IRA membership: Donal Gannon, John Crawley, Gerard Hanratty, Robert Morrow, Patrick Martin, and Francis Rafferty. Each was tried and convicted of "conspiracy to cause explosions at National Grid electricity stations", and sentenced to 35 years in jail. Police in Manchester meanwhile worked to establish if the men were also responsible for the Manchester bomb.

Their investigation was led by Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Mutch of the GMP. The van's last registered owner told police that he had sold it to a dealer in Peterborough, who had in turn sold the van on to a man calling himself Tom Fox, two weeks before the bombing. After the purchase price was delivered in cash by a taxi driver, the dealer was instructed to take the van to a nearby lorry park, and leave it there with the keys and documents hidden inside.

On checking records of telephone calls made to the dealer, the police found that some had been made from a mobile phone registered in Ireland, and on further checking the records of that phone it appeared that the calls were made from locations consistent with the known whereabouts of the Ford van. One call was to a known IRA member. The phone was last used at 9:23 am on the morning of the bombing, just three minutes after the bombers had parked their van in Corporation Street. On 27 June, the phone's registered owner reported that it had been stolen 17 days earlier, but the police felt they had gathered enough evidence to bring a prosecution against the six IRA men held in London.

At a meeting attended by the commander of Special Branch in Manchester, a GMP assistant chief constable and a "senior officer" from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), it was decided, for reasons never made public, not to present the findings of the investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for undertaking criminal prosecutions in England. The three may have felt that as the IRA suspects were already in police custody they were no longer a threat, or that to pursue the case against them may have jeopardised ongoing undercover operations. It was not until 1998 that the police finally sent their file to the CPS, who decided not to prosecute.

In September 2022, a man was arrested in connection with the bombing. According to GMP, the suspect was held at Birmingham Airport on 8 September on suspicion of terrorism offences and was interviewed by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing for the North West, before being released without charge.

Leak
Early in 1999, Steve Panter, chief crime reporter for the Manchester Evening News, leaked classified Special Branch documents naming those suspected of the bombing. The documents also revealed that the man suspected of organising the attack had visited Manchester shortly after the bombing and been under covert police surveillance as he toured the devastated city centre before returning to his home in South Armagh. Suspicion fell on Mutch as the source of the leaked documents after an analysis of mobile phone records placed both him and Panter at the same hotel in Skipton, North Yorkshire, about 40 mi from Manchester on the same evening.

On 21 April 1999, the Manchester Evening News named a man it described as "a prime suspect in the 1996 Manchester bomb plot". The newspaper reported that the file sent by GMP to the Crown Prosecution Service contained the sentence: "It is the opinion of the investigating officers of GMP that there is sufficient evidence to charge [him] with being a party in a conspiracy to cause explosions in the United Kingdom." The man denied any involvement. The Attorney General wrote in a letter to a local MP that the advice given to the CPS by an independent lawyer was that "there was not a case to answer on the evidence available ... a judge would stop the case": the Attorney General further wrote that the decision not to prosecute was not influenced by the government. The newspaper also identified the six men arrested in London on 15 July as having planned the attack. By July 2000, all six had been released under the terms of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

Up until September 2022, Panter and Mutch were the only people to have been arrested in connection with the bombing. Mutch was tried for "misconduct in a public office" during an 11-day trial held in January 2002 but was acquitted. During the trial, Panter was found in contempt of court for refusing to reveal his source, an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment without the right of appeal. GMP announced in 2006 that there was no realistic chance of convicting those responsible for the bombing.

Reconstruction
About twelve buildings in the immediate vicinity of the explosion were severely damaged. Overall, 530000 sqft of retail space and 610000 sqft of office space were put out of use. Insurers paid out £411 million (£ as of ) in damages for what was at the time one of the most expensive man-made disasters ever, and there was considerable under-insurance. Victims of the bombing received a total of £1,145,971 in compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; one individual received £146,524, the largest amount awarded as a result of this incident.

According to Home Office statistics, an estimated 400 businesses within half a mile (0.8 km) of the blast were affected, 40% of which did not recover. The heaviest damage was sustained by the three buildings nearest the bomb: Michael House, comprising a Marks & Spencer store and a six-storey office block; Longridge House, offices for Royal and Sun Alliance, an insurance company; and the Arndale Centre, a shopping mall. Michael House was deemed beyond economic repair and demolished. Marks & Spencer took the opportunity to acquire and demolish the adjacent Longridge House, using the enlarged site for the world's biggest branch of the store. The company's fortunes changed during construction, and Selfridges subsequently co-occupied the building; Marks & Spencer leased part of the Lewis's store in the interim. The frontage of the Arndale was badly damaged and was remodelled when this area of the city centre was redeveloped.

The glass domes of the Corn Exchange and the Royal Exchange were blown in. The landlord of the Corn Exchange invoked a force majeure condition in the lease to evict all tenants, and the building was converted into a shopping centre. The dome of the Royal Exchange shifted in the blast; its reconstruction took two and a half years and cost £32 million, paid for by the National Lottery.

The possibility of rebuilding parts of the city centre was raised within days of the bomb. On 26 June 1996, Michael Heseltine, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced an international competition for designs of the redevelopment of the bomb-affected area. Bids were received from 27 entrants, five of whom were invited to submit designs in a second round. It was announced on 5 November 1996 that the winning design was by a consortium headed by EDAW.

Subsequent redevelopment
Much of the 1960s redevelopment of Manchester's city centre was unpopular with residents. Market Street, near the explosion and at that time the second-busiest shopping street in the UK, was considered by some commentators a "fearful" place, to be "avoided like the plague". Until Margaret Thatcher's third consecutive election victory in 1987, the staunchly Labour-controlled Manchester Council believed that Manchester's regeneration should be funded solely by public money, despite the government's insistence on only funding schemes with a significant element of private investment. Graham Stringer, leader of Manchester City Council, later admitted that after the 1987 General Election result "there was no get out of jail card. We had gambled on Labour winning the General Election and we lost." Thatcher's victory effectively put paid to Manchester's "socialist experiment", and Stringer shortly afterwards wrote a letter of capitulation to Nicholas Ridley, then Secretary of State for the Environment, saying, "in a nutshell; OK, you win, we'd like to work together with you".

Efforts at improvement before the bombing had in some respects made matters worse, cutting off the area north of the Arndale Centre – the exterior of which was widely unloved – from the rest of the city centre. A large building nearby, now redeveloped as The Printworks and formerly occupied by the Daily Mirror newspaper, had been unoccupied since 1987. Many locals therefore considered that "the bomb was the best thing that ever happened to Manchester", as it cleared the way for redevelopment of the dysfunctional city centre, a view also expressed in 2007 by Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford North. The leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Manchester City Council, Simon Ashley, responded that "I take exception to his [Rooney's] comments about the IRA bomb. No one who was in the city on that day, who lost their jobs or was scared witless or injured by the blast, would say the bomb was the best thing to happen to Manchester". Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP for Manchester Gorton, stated that the bomb provided the opportunity for redeveloping Manchester city centre, although it was not fully exploited. "The bomb was obviously bad but from a redevelopment point of view, it was a lost opportunity. While the area around St Ann's Square and Deansgate is not disagreeable, if you compare it with Birmingham and its exciting development, we've got nothing to touch that in Manchester". Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council, has been quoted as saying "people say the bomb turned out to be a great thing for Manchester. That's rubbish." There was already substantial regeneration and redevelopment taking place in the city centre before the bombing, in support of the Manchester bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, its second Olympic bid. Tom Bloxham, chairman of property development group Urban Splash and of the Arts Council England (North West), agreed with Bernstein that the bomb attack was not the trigger for the large-scale redevelopment that has taken place in Manchester since the early 1990s: "For me the turning point for Manchester came before the bomb ... it was the second Olympic Games bid [in 1992] when we lost but the city suddenly had a realisation. There was a huge party in Castlefield and people grasped the idea that Manchester should no longer consider itself in competition with the likes of Barnsley and Stockport. It was now up against Barcelona, Los Angeles and Sydney and its aspirations increased accordingly."

Memorials and legacy
A pillar box that survived the blast, despite being yards from the explosion, now carries a small brass plaque recording the bombing. It was removed during construction and redevelopment work, and returned to its original spot when Corporation Street reopened. The plaque reads:

"This postbox remained standing almost undamaged on June 15th 1996 when this area was devastated by a bomb. The box was removed during the rebuilding of the city centre and was returned to its original site on November 22nd 1999"

A Thanksgiving service for the "Miracle of Manchester" was held at Manchester Cathedral on 24 July 2002, to coincide with the arrival of the Commonwealth Games baton, attended by Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh. At 11:17 am on 15 June 2006, a candle was lit at a memorial held at Manchester Cathedral to mark the tenth anniversary of the bombing.

In popular culture
"One Man's Fool", the closing track on Genesis' 1997 album Calling All Stations, was inspired by the bombing. Tony Banks stated in a SongFacts interview:

"I remember I wrote the song 'One Man's Fool', which was on the Calling All Stations album [1997]. If anybody hears it now, they would assume that that lyric was referring to the bombing of the Twin Towers, but it wasn't. It was written four years before, and yet it sounds like we were recalling that. I was actually writing about a bomb attack in Manchester, in England, which was done by the IRA at the time, and the idea that people carry out these attacks and did they really believe that, all the destruction, that it really is worth it? But, it still works, unfortunately, because we have this kind of terrorism still out there."

title: 1996 Manchester bombing


text: User talk:67.184.15.19

title: User talk:67.184.15.19


text:
Göran Wahlenberg

Georg (Göran) Wahlenberg (1 October 1780 – 22 March 1851) was a Swedish naturalist. He was born in Kroppa, Värmland County.

Wahlenberg matriculated at Uppsala University in 1792, received his doctorate in Medicine in 1806, was appointed botanices demonstrator in 1814, and professor of medicine and botany in 1829, succeeding Carl Peter Thunberg. He was the last holder of the undivided chair that in the previous century had been held by Linnaeus. After his death in 1851, the chair was divided into more delimited professorships, and botany became the main duty of the borgströmian professorship, at the time held by Elias Fries.

Wahlenberg made his main work in the field of plant geography and published, among other things the Flora lapponica (1812) and other works on the plant world of northernmost Sweden. He was among the first major scholars to contribute to the plant taxonomy and geography of the High Tatras in the Habsburg monarchy where he carried out research in 1813 (he also determined mountain elevations, but some were later disproved by Ludwig Greiner). Two of the highest mountain lakes in the Tatras, now in Slovakia, are named Upper Wahlenberg Tarn (Vyšné Wahlenbergovo pleso; elevation 2157 m) and Lower Wahlenberg Tarn (Nižné Wahlenbergovo pleso; 2053 m) in his memory.

Wahlenberg was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1808.

The flowering plant genus Wahlenbergia and the crustose lichen genus Wahlenbergiella are named after him, as was a species of wood-rush: Luzula wahlenbergii. He died in Uppsala.

title: Göran Wahlenberg