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History of the Panama Canal

The idea of the Panama Canal dates back to 1513, when Vasco Núñez de Balboa first crossed the Isthmus of Panama. This narrow land bridge between North and South America was a fine location to dig a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The earliest European colonists recognized this, and several proposals for the construction of a canal were made.

By the late nineteenth century, technological advances and commercial pressure allowed construction to begin in earnest. Noted canal engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps led the initial attempt by France to build a sea-level canal. Beset by cost overruns due to the severe underestimation of the difficulties in excavating the rugged terrain, heavy personnel losses to tropical diseases, and political corruption in France surrounding the financing of the massive project, the canal was only partly completed.

Interest in a U.S.-led canal effort picked up as soon as France abandoned the project. Initially, the Panama site was politically unfavorable in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, including the taint of the failed French effort and the unfriendly attitude of the Colombian government (at the time, the owner of the land) towards the U.S. continuing the project. The U.S. first sought to construct a canal through Nicaragua instead.

French engineer and financier Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla played a key role in changing American attitudes. Bunau-Varilla had a large stake in the failed French canal company and stood to profit on his investment only if the Panama Canal was completed. His extensive lobbying of American lawmakers, coupled with his support of a nascent independence movement among the Panamanian people, led to a revolution in Panama and to the negotiation of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, thus simultaneously securing independence for Panama and an opportunity for the U.S. to lead a renewed effort to construct the canal. Colombia's response to the Panamanian independence movement was tempered by an American military presence; this is often cited as a classic example of the era of gunboat diplomacy. The leaders of the new government in breakaway Panama felt they had no choice but to accept the canal treaty. Had the U.S. withdrawn its warships, the Colombian army would have returned to Panama and executed the members of the new government. "The notion that Roosevelt would abandon Panama at this point, that he would leave the junta to the vengeance of Colombia, that he would now suddenly turn around and treat with Bogota, was not simply without foundation, but ridiculous to anyone the least familiar with the man or the prevailing temper in Washington. Nothing of the kind was ever even remotely contemplated at the White House or the State Department."

The Americans' success hinged on two factors. First was converting the original French sea-level plan (which required extremely large excavations) to a more realistic lock-controlled canal. The second was controlling the diseases which had decimated workers and management alike under the original French attempt. The Americans' chief engineer John Frank Stevens (the second Chief Engineer of the American-led project after John Finlay Wallace resigned out of frustration with the bureaucracy in 1905) built much of the infrastructure necessary for later construction; slow progress on the canal itself led to his replacement by George Washington Goethals. Goethals oversaw the bulk of the excavation of the canal, including appointing Major David du Bose Gaillard to oversee the most daunting project, the Culebra Cut through the roughest terrain on the route. Almost as important as the engineering advances were the healthcare advances made during the construction, led by William C. Gorgas, an expert in controlling tropical diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. Gorgas was one of the first to recognize the role of mosquitoes in the spread of these diseases and, by focusing on controlling the mosquitoes, greatly improved worker conditions.

On 7 January 1914, the French crane boat Alexandre La Valley became the first to traverse the entire length of the canal, and on 1 April 1914 the construction was officially completed with the hand-over of the project from the construction company to the Panama Canal Zone government. The outbreak of World War I caused the cancellation of any official "grand opening" celebration, but the canal officially opened to commercial traffic on 15 August 1914 with the transit of the SS Ancon.

During World War II, the canal proved vital to American military strategy, allowing ships to transfer easily between the Atlantic and Pacific. Politically, the canal remained a territory of the United States until 1977, when the Torrijos–Carter Treaties began the process of transferring territorial control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama, a process which was finally completed on 31 December 1999.

The Panama Canal continues to be a viable commercial venture and a vital link in world shipping, and is periodically upgraded. A Panama Canal expansion project started construction in 2007 and began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new locks allow the transit of larger Post-Panamax and New Panamax ships, which have greater cargo capacity than the original locks could accommodate.

French project
The idea of a canal across Central America was revived during the early 19th century. In 1819, the Spanish government authorized the construction of a canal and the creation of a company to build it.

Although the project stalled for some time, a number of surveys were made between 1850 and 1875. They indicated that the two most-favorable routes were across Panama (then part of Colombia) and Nicaragua, with a third route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico another option. The Nicaraguan route was surveyed.

Conception
After the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal, the French government believed that an apparently similar project to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans could be carried out with little difficulty. In 1876 an international company, La Société internationale du Canal interocéanique, was created to undertake its construction; two years later, it obtained a concession from the Colombian government (since Panama was a Colombian province) to dig a canal across the isthmus. On March 20, 1878, the Société Civile obtained an exclusive 15 years concession from the Colombian government to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama, which at the time was a Department of Colombia; the waterway that would revert to the Colombian government after 99 years without compensation.

Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was in charge of the Suez Canal construction, headed the project. His enthusiastic leadership and his reputation as the man who had built the Suez Canal persuaded speculators and ordinary citizens to invest nearly $400 million in the project.

However, despite his previous success, Lesseps was not an engineer. The construction of the Suez Canal, essentially a ditch dug through a flat, sandy desert, presented few challenges. Although Central America's mountainous spine has a low point in Panama, it is still 110 m above sea level at its lowest crossing point. The sea-level canal proposed by de Lesseps would require a great deal of excavation through a variety of unstable rock, rather than Suez's sand.

Less-obvious barriers were the rivers crossing the canal, particularly the Chagres, which flows strongly during the rainy season. Since the water would be a hazard to shipping if it drained into the canal, a sea-level canal would require the river's diversion.

The most serious problem was tropical diseases, particularly malaria and yellow fever, whose methods of transmission were unknown at the time. The legs of hospital beds were placed in cans of water to keep insects from crawling up them, but the stagnant water was an ideal breeding place for mosquitoes (carriers of the diseases).

In May 1879, the Congrès International d'Etudes du Canal Interocéanique (International Congress for Study of an Interoceanic Canal), led by Lesseps, convened in Paris. Among the 136 delegates of 26 countries, 42 were engineers and made technical proposals before the congress. The others were speculators, politicians, and friends of Lesseps, for whom the purpose of this congress was only to launch fundraising by legitimizing Lesseps' own decision, based on the Lucien Bonaparte-Wyse and Armand Réclus plan, through a so-called international scientific approval, since he was convinced that a sea-level canal, dug through the mountainous spine of Central America, could be completed at least as easily as the Suez Canal.

In reality, only 19 engineers approved the chosen plan, and only one of those had actually visited Central America. While the Americans abstained because of their own plan through Nicaragua, the five delegates from the French Society of Engineers all refused. Among them were Gustave Eiffel and Adolphe Godin de Lépinay, the general-secretary of the Société de Géographie, who was the only one to propose a lake-and-locks project. Designer in particular of the large-gauge canal between Bordeaux and Narbonne, the road between Sétif and Bougie, and of the railway lines connecting Philippeville to Constantine, Algeria, Algiers to Constantine, and Athens to Piraeus, he also supervised the construction of a rail link between Veracruz and Córdoba, Mexico, losing two-thirds of his workers to tropical disease.

Godin de Lépinay's plan was to build a dam across the Chagres River in Gatún, near the Atlantic, and another on the Rio Grande, near the Pacific, to create an artificial lake accessed by locks. Digging less and avoiding unsanitary work and the danger of flooding was his priority, with an estimated lower cost of $100,000,000 and 50,000 lives saved, as mentioned in the motivation for his negative review of Lesseps' plan. The bankruptcy of the Lesseps project is described clearly, without ambiguity. It will be technical and financial, as Godin de Lépinay had planned. Unfortunately, his plan received no serious attention. Had it been adopted, the Panama Canal might well have been completed by the French instead of by the United States.

Following the congress, the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, in charge of the construction, whose president was Lesseps, acquired the Wyse Concession from the Société Civile.

The engineering congress estimated the Lesseps project's cost at $214 million; on February 14, 1880, an engineering commission revised the estimate to $168.6 million. Lesseps further reduced this estimate twice, with no apparent justification: on February 20 to $131.6 million and on March 1 to $120 million. The congress estimated seven or eight years as the time required to complete the canal; Lesseps reduced this estimate to six years (the Suez Canal had required ten).

The proposed sea-level canal would have a uniform depth of 9 m, a bottom width of 22 m and a width at water level of about 27.5 m; the excavation estimate was 120000000 m3. A dam was proposed at Gamboa to control flooding of the Chagres River, with channels to drain water away from the canal. However, the Gamboa dam was later found impracticable and the Chagres River problem was left unsolved.

Construction
Construction of the canal began on January 1, 1881, with digging at Culebra beginning on January 22. A large labor force was assembled, numbering about 40,000 in 1888 (nine-tenths of whom were afro-Caribbean workers from the West Indies). Although the project attracted good, well-paid French engineers, retaining them was difficult due to disease. The death toll from 1881 to 1889 was estimated at over 22,000, of whom as many as 5,000 were French citizens.

By 1885 it had become clear to many that a sea-level canal was impractical, and an elevated canal with locks was preferable; de Lesseps resisted, and a lock canal plan was not adopted until October 1887. By this time increasing mortality rates, as well as financial and engineering problems coupled with frequent floods and mudslides, indicated that the project was in serious trouble. Work continued under the new plan until May 15, 1889, when the company went bankrupt and the project was suspended. After eight years the canal was about two-fifths completed, and about $234.8 million had been spent.

The company's collapse was a scandal in France, and the antisemitic Edouard Drumont exploited the role of two Jewish speculators in the affair. One hundred and four legislators were found to have been involved in the corruption, and Jean Jaurès was commissioned by the French parliament to conduct an inquiry which was completed in 1893.

New Panama Canal Company
It soon became clear that the only way to recoup expenses for the stockholders was to continue the project. A new concession was obtained from Colombia, and in 1894 the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama was created to finish the canal. To comply with the terms of the contract, work began immediately on the Culebra excavation while a team of engineers began a comprehensive study of the project. They eventually settled on a plan for a two-level, lock-based canal.

The new effort never gained traction, mainly because of US speculation that a canal through Nicaragua would render one through Panama useless. The most men employed on the new project was 3,600 (in 1896), primarily to comply with the terms of the concession and to maintain the existing excavation and equipment in saleable condition. The company had already begun looking for a buyer, with an asking price of $109 million.

In the US, a congressional Isthmian Canal Commission was established in 1899 to examine possibilities for a Central American canal and recommend a route. In November 1901, the commission reported that a US canal should be built through Nicaragua unless the French were willing to sell their holdings for $40 million. The recommendation became law on June 28, 1902, and the New Panama Canal Company was compelled to sell at that price.

Results
Although the French effort was effectively doomed to failure from the beginning due to disease and a lack of understanding of the engineering difficulties, it was not entirely futile. The old and new companies excavated 59747638 m3 of material, of which 14255890 m3 was taken from the Culebra Cut. The old company dredged a channel from Panama Bay to the port at Balboa, and the channel dredged on the Atlantic side (known as the French canal) was useful for bringing in sand and stone for the locks and spillway concrete at Gatún.

Detailed surveys and studies (particularly those carried out by the new canal company) and machinery, including railroad equipment and vehicles, aided the later American effort. The French lowered the summit of the Culebra Cut along the canal route by 5 m, from 64 to 59 m. An estimated 22713396 m3 of excavation, valued at about $25.4 million, and equipment and surveys valued at about $17.4 million were usable by the Americans.

Nicaraguan canal
The 1848 discovery of gold in California and the rush of would-be miners stimulated US interest in building a canal between the oceans. In 1887, a United States Army Corps of Engineers regiment surveyed canal possibilities in Nicaragua. Two years later, the Maritime Canal Company was asked to begin a canal in the area and chose Nicaragua. The company lost money in the panic of 1893, and its work in Nicaragua ceased. In 1897 and 1899, the United States Congress charged a canal commission with researching possible construction; Nicaragua was chosen as the location both times.

Although the Nicaraguan canal proposal was made redundant by the American takeover of the French Panama Canal project, increases in shipping volume and ship sizes have revived interest in the project. A canal across Nicaragua accommodating post-Panamax ships or a rail link carrying containers between ports on either coast have been proposed.

United States
Theodore Roosevelt believed that a US-controlled canal across Central America was a vital strategic interest of the country. This idea gained wide circulation after the destruction of the USS Maine in Cuba on February 15, 1898. Reversing a Walker Commission decision in favor of a Nicaraguan canal, Roosevelt encouraged the acquisition of the French Panama Canal effort. George S. Morison was the only commission member who argued for the Panama location. The purchase of the French-held land for $40 million was authorized by the June 28, 1902 Spooner Act. Since Panama was then part of Colombia, Roosevelt began negotiating with that country to obtain the necessary rights. In early 1903 the Hay–Herrán Treaty was signed by both nations, but the Senate of Colombia failed to ratify the treaty.

Roosevelt implied to Panamanian rebels that if they revolted, the US Navy would assist their fight for independence. Panama declared its independence on November 3, 1903, and the USS Nashville impeded Colombian interference. The victorious Panamanians gave the United States control of the Panama Canal Zone on February 23, 1904, for $10 million in accordance with the November 18, 1903 Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty.

Takeover
The United States took control of the French property connected to the canal on May 4, 1904, when Lieutenant Mark Brooke of the United States Army was presented with the keys during a small ceremony. The new Panama Canal Zone Control was overseen by the Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC) during construction.

The first step taken by the US government was to place all the canal workers under the new administration. The operation was maintained at minimum strength to comply with the canal concession and keep the machinery in working order. The US inherited a small workforce and an assortment of buildings, infrastructure and equipment, much of which had been neglected for fifteen years in the humid jungle environment. There were no facilities in place for a large workforce, and the infrastructure was crumbling.

Cataloguing assets was a large job; it took many weeks to card-index available equipment. About 2,150 buildings had been acquired, many of which were uninhabitable; housing was an early problem, and the Panama Railway was in a state of decay. However, much equipment (such as locomotives, dredges and other floating equipment) was still serviceable.

Although chief engineer John Findley Wallace was pressured to resume construction, red tape from Washington stifled his efforts to obtain heavy equipment and caused friction between Wallace and the ICC. He and chief sanitary officer William C. Gorgas were frustrated by delay, and Wallace resigned in 1905. He was replaced by John Frank Stevens, who arrived on July 26, 1905. Stevens quickly realized that serious investment in infrastructure was necessary and determined to upgrade the railway, improve sanitation in Panama City and Colón, renovate the old French buildings and build hundreds of new ones for housing. He then began the difficult task of recruiting the large labor force required for construction. Stevens' approach was to press ahead first and obtain approval later. He improved drilling and dirt-removal equipment at the Culebra Cut for greater efficiency, revising the inadequate provisions in place for soil disposal.

No decision had been made about whether the canal should be a lock or a sea-level one; the ongoing excavation would be useful in either case. In late 1905, President Roosevelt sent a team of engineers to Panama to investigate the relative merits of both types in cost and time. Although the engineers voted eight to five in favor of a sea-level canal, Stevens and the ICC opposed the plan; Stevens' report to Roosevelt was instrumental in convincing the president of the merits of a lock canal and Congress concurred. In November 1906 Roosevelt visited Panama to inspect the canal's progress, the first trip outside the United States by a sitting president.

Whether contract employees or government workers would build the canal was controversial. Bids for the canal's construction were opened in January 1907, and Knoxville, Tennessee-based contractor William J. Oliver was the low bidder. Stevens disliked Oliver, and vehemently opposed his choice. Although Roosevelt initially favored the use of a contractor, he eventually decided that army engineers should carry out the work and appointed Major George Washington Goethals as chief engineer (under Stevens' direction) in February 1907. Stevens, frustrated by government inaction and the army involvement, resigned and was replaced by Goethals.

Workforce
The US relied on a stratified workforce to build the canal. High-level engineering jobs, clerical positions, skilled labor and jobs in supporting industries were generally reserved for Americans, with manual labor primarily by cheap immigrant labor. These jobs were initially filled by Europeans, primarily from Spain, Italy and Greece, many of whom were radical and militant due to political turmoil in Europe. The US then decided to recruit primarily from the British and French West Indies, and these workers provided most of the manual labor on the canal.

Living conditions
The Canal Zone originally had minimal facilities for entertainment and relaxation for the canal workers apart from saloons; as a result, alcohol abuse was a great problem. The inhospitable conditions resulted in many American workers returning home each year.

A program of improvements was implemented. Clubhouses were built, managed by the YMCA, with billiard, assembly and reading rooms, bowling alleys, darkrooms for camera clubs, gymnastic equipment, ice cream parlors, soda fountains and a circulating library. Member dues were ten dollars a year, with the remaining upkeep (about $7,000 at the larger clubhouses) paid by the ICC. The commission built baseball fields and arranged rail transportation to games; a competitive league soon developed. Semi-monthly Saturday-night dances were held at the Hotel Tivoli, which had a spacious ballroom.

These measures influenced life in the Canal Zone; alcohol abuse fell, with saloon business declining by 60 percent. The number of workers leaving the project each year dropped significantly.

US construction
The work done thus far was preparation, rather than construction. By the time Goethals took over, the construction infrastructure had been created or overhauled and expanded from the French effort and he was soon able to begin construction in earnest.

Goethals divided the project into three divisions: Atlantic, Central and Pacific. The Atlantic Division, under Major William L. Sibert, was responsible for construction of the breakwater at the entrance to Limon Bay, the Gatún locks and their 5.6 km approach channel, and the Gatun Dam. The Pacific Division (under Sydney B. Williamson, the only civilian division head) was responsible for the Pacific entrance to the canal, including a 4.8 km breakwater in Panama Bay, the approach channel, and the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks and their associated dams. The Central Division, under Major David du Bose Gaillard, was responsible for everything in between. It had arguably the project's greatest challenge: excavating the Culebra Cut (known as the Gaillard Cut from 1915 to 2000), which involved cutting 8 mi across the continental divide down to 12 m above sea level.

By August 1907, 765,000 m3 per month was being excavated; this set a record for the rainy season; soon afterwards this doubled, before increasing again. At the peak of production, 2,300,000 m3 was being excavated per month (the equivalent amount of spoil from the Channel Tunnel every 3½ months).

Culebra Cut

One of the greatest barriers to a canal was the continental divide, which originally rose to 110 m above sea level at its highest point. The effort to cut through this barrier of rock was one of the greatest challenges faced by the project.

Goethals arrived at the canal with Major David du Bose Gaillard of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Gaillard was placed in charge of the canal's Central Division, which stretched from the Pedro Miguel locks to the Gatun Dam, and dedicated himself to getting the Culebra Cut (as it was then known) excavated.

The scale of the work was massive. 6 thousand men worked in the cut, drilling holes in which a total of 27000 t of dynamite were placed to break up the rock (which was then removed by as many as 160 trains per day). Landslides were frequent, due to the oxidation and weakening of the rock's underlying iron strata. Although the scale of the job and the frequent, unpredictable slides generated chaos, Gaillard provided quiet, clear-sighted leadership.

On May 26, 1913, Bucyrus steam shovels made a passage through the Culebra Cut at the level of the canal bottom. The French effort had reduced the summit to 59 m over a relatively narrow width; the Americans had lowered this to  12 m above sea level over a greater width, and had excavated over 76000000 m3 of material. About 23000000 m3 of this material was in addition to the planned excavation, due to landslides. Dry excavation ended on September 10, 1913; a January slide had added 1500000 m3 of earth, but it was decided that this loose material would be removed by dredging when the cut was flooded.

Dams
Two artificial lakes are key parts of the canal: Gatun and Miraflores Lakes. Four dams were constructed to create them. Two small dams at Miraflores impound Miraflores Lake, and a dam at Pedro Miguel encloses the south end of the Culebra Cut (essentially an arm of Lake Gatun). The Gatun Dam is the main dam blocking the original course of the Chagres River, creating Gatun Lake.

The Miraflores dams are an 825 m earth dam connecting the Miraflores Locks in the west and a 150 m concrete spillway dam east of the locks. The concrete dam has eight floodgates, similar to those on the Gatun spillway. The earthen, 430 m Pedro Miguel dam extends from a hill in the west to the lock. Its face is protected by rock riprap at the water level. The largest and most challenging of the dams is the Gatun Dam. This earthen dam, 640 m thick at the base and 2300 m long along the top, was the largest of its kind in the world when the canal opened.

Locks

The original lock canal plan called for a two-step set of locks at Sosa Hill and a long Sosa Lake extending to Pedro Miguel. In late 1907, it was decided to move the Sosa Hill locks further inland to Miraflores, mostly because the new site provided a more stable construction foundation. The resulting small lake Miraflores became a fresh water supply for Panama City.

Building the locks began with the first concrete laid at Gatun on August 24, 1909. The Gatun locks are built into a cutting into a hill bordering the lake, requiring the excavation of 3800000 m3 of material (mostly rock). The locks were made of 1564400 m3 of concrete, with an extensive system of electric railways and aerial lifts transporting concrete to the lock-construction sites.

The Pacific-side locks were finished first: the single flight at Pedro Miguel in 1911, and Miraflores in May 1913. The seagoing tugboat Gatun, an Atlantic-entrance tug used to haul barges, traversed the Gatun locks on September 26, 1913. The trip was successful, although the valves were controlled manually; the central control board was not yet ready.

Opening
On October 10, 1913, the dike at Gamboa which had kept the Culebra Cut isolated from Gatun Lake was demolished; the detonation was made telegraphically by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington. On January 7, 1914, the Alexandre La Valley, an old French crane boat, became the first ship to make a complete transit of the Panama Canal under its own steam after working its way across during the final stages of construction.

As construction wound down, the canal team began to disperse. Thousands of workers were laid off, and entire towns were disassembled or demolished. Chief sanitary officer William C. Gorgas, who left to fight pneumonia in the South African gold mines, became surgeon general of the Army. On April 1, 1914, the Isthmian Canal Commission disbanded, and the zone was governed by a Canal Zone Governor; the first governor was George Washington Goethals.

Although a large celebration was planned for the canal's opening, the outbreak of World War I forced the cancellation of the main festivities and it became a modest local affair. The Panama Railway steamship SS Ancon (1901), piloted by Captain John A. Constantine (the canal's first pilot), made the first official transit on August 15, 1914. With no international dignitaries in attendance, Goethals followed the Ancon progress by railroad.

Summary
The canal was a technological marvel and an important strategic and economic asset to the US. It changed world shipping patterns, removing the need for ships to navigate the Drake Passage and Cape Horn. The canal saves a total of about 7800 mi on a sea trip from New York to San Francisco.

The anticipated military significance of the canal was proven during World War II, when the canal helped restore the devastated United States Pacific Fleet. Some of the largest ships the United States had to send through the canal were aircraft carriers, particularly Essex class; they were so large that although the locks could accommodate them, the lampposts along the canal had to be removed.

The Panama Canal cost the United States about $375 million, including $10 million paid to Panama and $40 million paid to the French company. Although it was the most expensive construction project in US history to that time, it cost about $23 million less than the 1907 estimate despite landslides and an increase in the canal's width. An additional $12 million was spent on fortifications.

A total of over 75,000 people worked on the project; at the peak of construction, there were 40,000 workers. According to hospital records, 5,609 workers died from disease and accidents during the American construction era.

A total of 182610550 m3 of material was excavated in the American effort, including the approach channels at the canal ends. Adding the work by the French, the total excavation was about 204900000 m3 (over 25 times the volume excavated in the Channel Tunnel project).

Of the three presidents whose terms spanned the construction period, Theodore Roosevelt is most associated with the canal and Woodrow Wilson presided over its opening. However, William Howard Taft may have given the canal its greatest impetus for the longest time. Taft visited Panama five times as Roosevelt's secretary of war and twice as president. He hired John Stevens and later recommended Goethals as Stevens' replacement. Taft became president in 1909, when the canal was half finished, and was in office for most of the remainder of the work. However, Goethals later wrote: "The real builder of the Panama Canal was Theodore Roosevelt".

The following words by Roosevelt are displayed in the rotunda of the canal's administration building in Balboa:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

David du Bose Gaillard died of a brain tumor in Baltimore on December 5, 1913, at age 54. Promoted to colonel only a month earlier, Gaillard never saw the opening of the canal whose creation he directed. The Culebra Cut (as it was originally known) was renamed the Gaillard Cut on April 27, 1915, in his honor. A plaque commemorating Gaillard's work stood over the cut for many years; in 1998 it was moved to the administration building, near a memorial to Goethals.

Third-lane plans
In the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the United States purchased the Virgin Islands in 1917 in part to defend the Panama Canal. As the situation in Europe and Asia deteriorated during the late 1930s, the US again became concerned about its ability to move warships between the oceans. The largest US battleships already had problems with the canal locks, and there were concerns that the locks could be incapacitated by bombing. These concerns were validated by several US naval exercises, which showed that the canal's defenses were inadequate.

These concerns led Congress to pass a resolution on May 1, 1936, authorizing a study of improving the canal's defenses against attack and expanding its capacity to handle large vessels. A special engineering section was created on July 3, 1937, to carry out the study. The section reported to Congress on February 24, 1939, recommending work to protect the existing locks and the construction of a new set of locks capable of carrying larger vessels than the existing locks could accommodate. On August 11, Congress authorized the work.

Three new locks were planned, at Gatún, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, parallel to the existing locks with new approach channels. The new locks would add a traffic lane to the canal, with each chamber 1200 ft long, 140 ft wide and 45 ft deep. They would be 1/2 mi east of the existing Gatún locks and 1/4 mi west of the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.

The first excavations for the new approach channels at Miraflores began on July 1, 1940, following the passage by Congress of an appropriations bill on June 24, 1940. The first dry excavation at Gatún began on February 19, 1941. Considerable material was excavated before the project was abandoned, and the unused approach channels can still be seen paralleling the original channels at Gatún and Miraflores.

In 2006, the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (the Panama Canal Authority, or ACP) proposed a plan creating a third lane of locks using part of the abandoned 1940s approach canals. Following a referendum, work began in 2007 and the expanded canal began commercial operations on June 26, 2016. After a two-year delay, the new locks allow the transit of Neopanamax ships (which have a greater cargo capacity than the original locks can handle). The first ship to cross the canal through the third set of locks was a Panamax container ship, the Chinese-owned Cosco Shipping Panama. The cost of the expansion was estimated at $5.25 billion.

Transfer to Panama
After construction, the canal and the Canal Zone surrounding it were administered by the United States. On September 7, 1977, US President Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaty setting in motion the process of transferring control of the canal to Panama. The treaty became effective on October 2, 1979, providing for a 20-year period in which Panama would have increasing responsibility for canal operations before complete US withdrawal on December 31, 1999. Since then, the canal has been administered by the Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad de Canal de Panama, or ACP).

The transfer of the canal came under heavy attack from conservatives, especially the American Conservative Union, the Conservative Caucus, the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, Citizens for the Republic, the American Security Council, the Young Republicans, the National Conservative Political Action Committee, the Council for National Defense, Young Americans for Freedom, the Council for Inter-American Security, and the Campus Republican Action Organization. The treaty narrowly passed with the required 2/3 vote in the Senate. Though Panamanians welcomed the return of sovereignty over the Panama Canal, many people at the time also expressed fears of the possible negative economic repercussions.

Although concerns existed in the US and the shipping industry about the canal after the transfer, Panama has exercised good stewardship. On October 22, 2006, Panamanian citizens approved a referendum to expand the canal.

Former US Ambassador to Panama Linda Ellen Watt, who served from 2002 to 2005, said that the canal operation in Panamanian hands has been "outstanding". "The international shipping community is quite pleased", Watt added.

Contemporary magazines

 * Includes c. 1905 construction photos.

title: History of the Panama Canal


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User:Marskell/Legal Status of Animals

The legal status of animals is generally as a form of property throughout the world. A human being’s legal duties toward animals are essentially derived from duties toward their owners. If not qualified under particular categories of law, such as endangered species acts, animals may be bought and sold, bequeathed, and sued for. Typically also, livestock may be raised and slaughtered for subsequent sale as food items, though this practice is usually circumscribed by humane slaughter laws. There is also a strong normative cultural (and sometimes religious) component to which animals, if any, may be bred for slaughter.

In most western jurisdictions, law has evolved to allow animals certain protections that override property concerns. A pet owner, for instance, is subject to animal cruelty laws as much with their own pet as with that of another.

Animals by type
Wild animals. Typically in western common law, no one owns wild animals in their natural habitat. Capture and possession form the basis of a property claim, though many jurisdictions circumscribe or prohibit the keeping of wild animals. Many wild animals are regularly hunted for food, sport or trade; this too generally comes with restrictions in the form of poaching laws. Wild animals which are dangerous or a nuisance, particularly in rural areas, are regularly killed in practice, though this may in some instances be illegal (based as much on weapons laws as much as animal rights per se).

Pets or companion animals.

Livestock

History
The status of animals as property is in keeping with much historical western thinking on the subject of animals generally. Aristotle’s “chain of being” and the Judeo-Christian notion of human “dominion” were particularly decisive in shaping western attitudes.

The ancillary status of animals relative to human beings reflected both a general philosophical attitude as well as the economic impact the loss of an animal might have on its owner. As early as the Code of Hammurabi the importance of livestock is apparent: the theft of cattle or sheep, an ass, a pig or a goat, required a thirty-fold fine if the animal belonged to the court and a ten-fold fine if it belonged to an ordinary free man; failing this, the thief could be put to death.

Medieval English kings, who were rather cash poor, used deer, boar and other animals as food, barter items, gifts and general symbols of prestige. Poaching was thus severely punished; at least technically offenders could be tortured and disfigured though in practice they faced fines, imprisonment or exile. For the poor of the town the relatively inexpensive pig was a main food and the animal was common enough to become a nuisance animal: stray pigs could be killed and their owner charged for the return of the dead animal. Peasants, meanwhile, would often sleep with their animals to avoid their wandering away or being stolen.

Horse theft has at times been punishable by death in the United States.

In the nineteenth century, organizations dedicated to the protection of animals began to form—particularly in Britain—and laws were widely passed to protect animals from cruelty. The underpinnings of this movement was animal welfare : that is, the animals themselves were not granted legal status but rather human beings were expected to abide by a minimum level of consideration and humaneness. Not until the twentieth century would the notion that animals should have rights exclusive of their relationship to people begin to emerge. http://www.imom.org/voices/laws.htm

Animal cruelty laws
In the United States animal cruelty laws are dealt with at the state level and their is some variance. The essential point for most of these laws is to render malicious injury or killing illegal, and often as a felony. Generally, neglect is also included and reasonable expectation to provide veterinary and other care is mandatory.

In a few jurisdictions, notably, Massachusetts and New York, agents of humane societies and associations may be appointed as special officers to enforce statutes outlawing animal cruelty, see the Massachusetts statute and the New York statute. Brute Force: Animal Police and the Challenge of Cruelty by Arnold Arluke is an ethnographic study of these special humane law enforcement officers.

Guardianship
Recent American court cases have sought to define pet owners as "guardians" and to provide them restitution in the case of injury, loss, or death of a pet beyond the animal’s property value.

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

title: User:Marskell/Legal Status of Animals


text:
Talk:The Modern Parents

Untitled
The modern parents existed, I swear to God. They occupied the flat below me in Crystal Palace, London, with one son. He was fortyish, balding, beard, fierce glasses. She was a scrubbed blonde, quite attractive with a beautiful voice.

I had a shared flat and I was the landord. He hated me for that. He would find ways of complaining about things in my flat but always got his wife to deliver the reprimand.

A few times I attempted to fight back. I had a Nigerian girl sharer at that time who was devoid of political correctness and had no black attitude. When it was her turn to Hoover the common staircase, I would shout loudly in a South African accent "Get on with your work, you Kaffir Bitch!" "Yess'm, Master" she'd say. Mister down stairs looked as if he would have an apopletic fit. After the girl and I would fall about laughing.

Another time we had a tiff (I can't remember what it was about now) and she said I was a male chauvenist pig. Now I had heard the term but never believed it was used in real life. I couldn't help it: I just collapsed with laughter.

Yet when Missus was alone and not under his influence she was a nice person. She apologised for the chauvenist pig remark: "God", she said "did I really say that?" If it wasn't for her, I think it would all got more serious than it did.

Richard Ahearn Los Angeles — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.181.216 (talk • contribs) 15:31, 9 October 2005

Guin
The article says "Guinevere (who is, despite the name, a boy)" - are you certain Guin is meant to be a boy?? 217.155.116.125 10:28, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Yep, he's always referred to as "he" or "you boys" when he's with his brother Tarquin. And he looks like and dresses as a little boy. I think the idea is that he was given a girl's name because the Modern Parents wanted to show they do not believe in gender roles, or something like that.

-I remember the episode Guinevere was born, and indeed it is a case that the Malcom and Cressida liked the name Guinevere and decided that that the baby being a boy should be no reason they shouldn't use the name in this age of "gender neutrality". 62.49.146.107 15:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

John Fardell
The man's a genius! Chris Henniker 18:44, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

To the people who wrote this
Huge ups! I had no idea there was such a backstory, thanks for bringing it together... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richdrich (talk • contribs) 08:12, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm with Tarquin on this one. (Chris Henniker (talk) 16:27, 27 August 2009 (UTC))

title: Talk:The Modern Parents


text:
User talk:Anna4president

Welcome to Wikipedia!
Hello, welcome to Wikipedia!

I noticed nobody had said hi yet... Hi!

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If, for some reason, you are unable to fix a problem yourself, feel free to ask someone else to do it. Wikipedia has a vibrant community of contributors who have a wide range of skills and specialties, and many of them would be glad to help. As well as the wiki community pages there are IRC Channels, where you are more than welcome to ask for assistance.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on my talk page. Thanks and happy editing, Alf melmac 15:31, 9 October 2005 (UTC).

Image:Sexymama.jpg
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Image copyright problem with Image:Jaredletohepie.jpg
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Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or ask them at the Image legality questions page. Thank you. Abu Badali 13:47, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Anna4president


text:
Eta Piscium

Eta Piscium (η Piscium, abbreviated Eta Psc, η Psc) is a binary star and the brightest star in the constellation of Pisces, with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.6. Based upon a measured annual parallax shift of 9.33 mas as seen from Earth, it is located roughly 350 light-years distant from the Sun in the thin disk population of the Milky Way.

The two components are designated Eta Piscium A (formally named Alpherg, the traditional name of the system) and B.

Nomenclature
η Piscium (Latinised to Eta Piscium) is the system's Bayer designation. The designations of the two constituents as Eta Piscium A and B derive from the convention used by the Washington Multiplicity Catalog (WMC) for multiple star systems, and adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The system bore the traditional names Al Pherg (in this context meaning the emptying) and Kullat Nunu. At the time that the sun at the March Equinox entered into Pisces having lay in Aries, the system was in the first ecliptic constellation of the Neo-Babylonians, Kullat Nūnu − 'Nūnu' being Babylonian for fish and 'Kullat' referring to either the bucket or the cord that binds the fish. In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple systems. It approved the name Alpherg for the component Eta Piscium A on 1 June 2018 (for its official List).

In Chinese, 右更 (Yòu Gèng), meaning Official in Charge of the Pasturing, refers to an asterism consisting of Eta Piscium, Rho Piscium, Pi Piscium, Omicron Piscium and 104 Piscium. Consequently, the Chinese name for Eta Piscium itself is 右更二 (Yòu Gèng èr, the Second Star of Official in Charge of the Pasturing.)

Properties
At its present distance, the visual magnitude of the system is diminished by an extinction factor of $13.6$ due to interstellar dust.

This system's binary nature was discovered in 1878 by an amateur astronomer, S. W. Burnham. It has an orbital period of roughly 850 years, a semimajor axis of 1.2 arc seconds, and an eccentricity of 0.47.

The primary, component A, is an evolved, magnitude 3.83 G-type giant star with a stellar classification of G7 IIIa. It has a weak magnetic field with a strength of $850.5$, and is a Gamma Cassiopeiae variable. The companion, component B, is a magnitude 7.51 star.

title: Eta Piscium


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Angel Arena

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Delete -- (drini's page| ☎ ) 21:02, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Angel Arena
Non-notable cruft, and judging from the edit history, plenty of vanity. — ceejayoz ★ 15:32, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nomination. Could be added as an external link in Warcraft III, but doesn't seem to deserve much more than that. — ceejayoz ★ 15:35, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom --Rogerd 12:08, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Don't Delete per nom — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.237.57.22 (talk • contribs) 3:40, 10 October 2005 (UTC) Please do not delete this... Since the official website has been taken down, a record is necessary.
 * Comment: But Wikipedia is not a webhost space provider -- (drini's page| ☎ ) 21:02, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
Talk:History of the Panama Canal

Note
I created this by splitting off from Panama Canal, because it was getting huge, and because it's an epic story in its own right. It still needs a fair bit of work, though; it's kind of patchy. I'll have a go, but all contributions of course welcome! — Johantheghost 15:32, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

The Workers
We really need to add something about the people who built the canal -- where they came from, how they were treated, etc. Particularly how they were paid based on skin colour. -- Johantheghost 11:43, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

To Your Health
You've anticipated me. I was just about to do something on the disease issues, the Fr effort predating the work of Finlay, Reed et al. on the mosquito vector. I don't know enough about it to judge how large deLépinay's locks would/might have been; I've N actually read McCullough. (I relied on the TV doc & a quick look at the book.) Guess I am a bit of a deL cheeleader, & maybe DM was, too; it sounded like he thought (& I, too) deL got it right. Timing, sometimes, is crucial. It's EZ to forget how interconnected things can be. Most histories will say the Fr project foundered on malaria & Gorgas cleaned it out, but omit the science needed before Gorgas knew to do it, forgetting we know, but they didn't.

Thinking of links, have you seen James Burke's Connections & The Day the Universe Changed? They're quite remarkable for showing how things you'd never expect tie together. (They've both been made into shows for Discovery; write & demand they rebroadcast!)

Let me also say, bravo. I first encountered the Nicaragua Canal in S. M. Stirling, & the Mex Canal in Heinlein, so it's terrific to see them treated seriously here. Trekphiler 13:16, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

 * See Talk:Panama Canal for response. — Johantheghost 12:37, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

GA Re-Review and In-line citations
Members of the WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. Currently this article does not include in-line citations. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. LuciferMorgan 02:43, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Stamp-ctc-panama-canal-opens.jpg
Image:Stamp-ctc-panama-canal-opens.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:35, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

GA Sweeps
This article has been reviewed as part of WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force in an effort to ensure all listed Good articles continue to meet the Good article criteria. In reviewing the article, I have found there are a great many issues that may need to be addressed. The first and most noticable of these problems is sourcing; most of the article is barely sourced at all, including a great many statistics that must be referenced. If someone takes responsibility for this problem and begins to fix it then I will work with them to deal with the citation issue and the other problems that beset this article, which include poor prose and incorrect formatting. I will check back and if progress is being made and issues are being addressed, then work can continue. If no one has come forward in the next seven days however, this article will be delisted (such a decision may be challenged through WP:GAR). If improved after it has been delisted, it may be nominated at WP:GAN. Feel free to drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions, and many thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this article thus far. Regards, Jackyd101 (talk) 20:10, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
 * No work in the last week, this has been delisted from GA.--Jackyd101 (talk) 14:44, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Panama Revolution
Not sure what is meant by no citations? The section was completly lacking in citations before I started, and I added about half a dozen. As to NPOV, I'm not really sure what the POV I insterted was? Lord Cornwallis (talk) 05:27, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
 * To document what we're talking about here: it's my reversion of your edits, represented by this diff.

 * Let's start with the first block of diffs, in the section dealing with the Nicaragua canal option. I have no objection to your changes here.

 * Next, the section dealing with the Panama revolution - again, not much to object to, except for a few misspellings (e.g. "beliving," "arangements." Also, you switch back and forth between British and American spellings - "favourable/favorable" in this same section.  Let's stick to American spellings; I don't have any particular prejudice against the British spellings, but since the article seems to have been created with American spellings, and the topic is an American achievement....  (And, yes, I know that some British spellings appear in the version as rolled-back by me; we can clean those up later.)

 * Just a side note on the "Panama Revolution" section: I would leave the wikilink to gunboat diplomacy in, somehow - this was certainly an instance of such.

 * Finally, the section on the American takeover: the points about Panamanians being unhappy with the ceremony and the deeper meaning of the phrase "make the dirt fly" need citations. Without them, they seem to give the passage an overtly anti-American slant.  (There is some existing text in the same section that suffers from the same problem; again, the needed citations should clean that up as well.)

 * Anyway: as you can see, my objections relate mainly to form, not content, and the extent of changes in such a short time. I think we can work this out fairly quickly and easily. Mark Shaw (talk) 14:42, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Some general article feedback
Just read this article for the first time - I think it's generally very solid.

I have two suggestions in case there is someone working on this with time to do it. There are two very important storylines in the construction of the canal which are either not mentioned or glossed over - two factors that turned the tide for the American effort to overcome the difficulties that threatened to make it impossible. First - and this is totally lacking - is the role of railroad technology. The achievement of carting away so much earth is mentioned in the article, but no mention of how it was done (it was an insurmountable task until the project was re-conceived as a rail project - the largest in history at the time). Second, the project was going nowhere until the mosquito problem was brought under control. The identification of mosquitoes as the source of malaria, and the superhuman efforts at mosquito eradication, was a key turning point and enabled the project to finally attract and retain the work force needed. The problems in recruiting are mentioned, and the death count - but no mention of how (save for a Health section that is empty but for a link). Reading this article, it sounds like the overcoming of drunkenness by build rec centers was a more important factor than controlling malaria, a key differentiator of the US approach. Kgdickey (talk) 15:40, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Lack of citation
The entire french conception section does not cite any sources.

Furthermore the following section begs an obvious question:

"His enthusiastic leadership, coupled with his reputation as the man who had brought the Suez project to a successful conclusion, persuaded speculators and ordinary citizens to invest in the scheme, ultimately to the level of almost $400 million"

Is the $400 million measured in its equivalent value in modern dollars or in the value of dollars in the period? National currency also is not specified, could be French or US dollars. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.107.130.68 (talk) 17:39, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

United States invasion of Panama in 1989
Can someone please add to canal history a good paragraph of United States invasion of Panama ? Thanks. 213.221.17.130 (talk) 08:11, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Panama Canal Company
"Panama Canal Company" redirects here yet it is not even specifically mentioned. It warrants an article itself as it owned assets associated with the canal beyond obvious operation of the canal itself. A 1952 diagram of its three divisions illustrates the scope. It at least needs some coverage within the "History" article. Palmeira (talk) 16:33, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Overlooks the completion of the locks for Panamax class
See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax

Needs updating to reflect the Panamax expansion is completed, e.g.,

With this expansion, the Panama Canal was intended to handle vessels with a length up to 1201 feet and cargo capacity up to 13,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU); previously it could handle vessels less than about 5,000 TEU. The New Panamax standard was sought in an attempt to accommodate ships of almost 120,000 DWT.

Additionally, should note that the engineering in the Panamax expansion is unproven at best. See, e.g.,

The New Panama Canal: A Risky Bet http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/22/world/americas/panama-canal.html

With expansion, Panama Canal makes a troubled bet on its future The Seattle Times-Jun 23, 2016 http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/with-expansion-panama-canal-makes-a-troubled-bet-on-its-future/

and many additional investigative news articles to the same effect. Ocdcntx (talk) 16:53, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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history from the Panama Canal Authority
See the updated history of the construction of the Panama Canal on the Panama Canal Authority website.

BTW, click here for articles that still have (presumably non-working) links to the old Panama Canal Authority website; click here for articles that have links to the re-organized Panama Canal Authority website. Fabrickator (talk) 06:30, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:History of the Panama Canal


text:
User:El T

At the moment my Wikipedia activities are most dedicated to replacing PNG-format graphs with Scalable Vector Graphics versions through the collaboration to convert graphs to SVG. Please join in!

title: User:El T


text:
Talk:Springfield Armory XD-9

This article should most definitely not be merged with the HS2000 article, as they are separate and somewhat distinct guns. If anything, the HS200 article should be combined into a new "Springfield XD" article. Jgw 15:34, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

This article should have its contents merged into Springfield_Armory_XD, as the XD-9 moniker refers specifically to the 9mm models.

I agree. All the Springfield XD pistols are the same except for their different calibers. In, fact all one needs to do to convert their pistol to different calibers is to buy a barrel in the new caliber and drop it into the firearm. This only works when going down in caliber, i.e. you can change a .40S&W XD into a .357Sig or 9mm XD but you can not convert the 9mm version. The magazines for the .40 S&W are the same as the ones for a .357Sig but for the 9mm conversion you would need to buy the 9mm magazines. However, all magazines will fit into any XD regardless of its original caliber showing that the lower grip and mechanism are identical between the calibers. I do not know if all the foregoing information applies to the new XD in .45GAP and I have only heard that it can not be converted at all. I can not speak about the HS2000 vs. XD issue as I know little of the differences between them if they exist but only wish this post to address the need to have the Springfield XD be a songle article with mention of the different calibers rather than have separate articles for each caliber.

I concur that this article should be merged with Springfield_Armory_XD. This particular article contains nothing that is not already covered by the more broad XD article. It should NOT be merged with the HS2000 article, as even though the civilian XD is based on the military HS2000, they are unique models that deserve separate references. Military or police weapons which are not available to the general public should be listed separately to avoid confusion regarding magazine capacity, modes of fire, or other features not available to the public at large. Kob zilla 02:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Springfield Armory XD-9


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MC Futech

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. Sjakkalle (Check!)  08:14, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

MC Futech
Gives an amazing 1 Google - which says coming soon! May just be nn. Advertising  Dl yo ns 493   Ta lk   15:34, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nomination. — ceejayoz ★ 15:47, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom --Rogerd 12:08, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
Hikari danio

The Hikari danio is a new species of danio recently discovered in Burma, and first exported in 2002/2003. It is still awaiting a scientific name, and is temporarily referred to as Danio sp. "Hikari". It has blue and yellow varieties with the yellow being male and the blue female. It appears to be closely related to Danio kerri. It may be a subspecies of this fish, but this does not seem to be the case.

 * Maximum length: 2 in (5 cm)
 * Colors: Blue, silver, yellow
 * Temperature preference: 20-25 °C
 * pH preference: 6 to 7
 * Hardness preference: Soft to medium
 * Salinity preference: Low to medium
 * Compatibility: Good but fast, like most danios
 * Lifespan: Typically two to three years
 * Ease of keeping: Moderate
 * Ease of breeding: Moderate to hard

title: Hikari danio


text: User:Red-Blue-White

title: User:Red-Blue-White


text:
Talk:Shepton High School

Untitled
Don't mess with Texas! Joaquin Murietta 15:37, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Shepton High School


text:
Talk:The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Well Tarrytown is right next to Sleepy Hollow, isn't it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.117.0.34 (talk) 21:19, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Brain That Wouldn't Die


text:
Charles Clay (surgeon)

Charles Clay (27 December 1801 – 18 September 1893) was an English surgeon, called the "Father of Ovariotomy".

Life
Clay was born in Bredbury, near Stockport, Cheshire, and died in Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, Lancashire.

He began his medical education as a pupil of Kinder Wood in Manchester (where he used to attend John Dalton's lectures on chemistry), and in 1821 went to Edinburgh to continue his studies there. Qualifying in 1823, he began a general practice in Ashton-under-Lyne, where he also taught chemistry at the Mechanics Institute. At this point he was a pledged teetotaller and supporter of the temperance movement. In 1839 he removed to Manchester to practise as an operative and consulting surgeon. It was there that, in 1842, he first performed the operation of ovariotomy with which his name is associated. On this occasion it was perfectly successful, and when in 1865 he published an analysis of the cases he was able to show a mortality only slightly above 30%.

Clay was an opponent of vivisection.

Ovariotomy
Although his merits in this matter have sometimes been denied, his claim to the title Father of Ovariotomy is now generally conceded, and it is admitted that he deserves the credit not only of having shown how that operation could be made a success, but also of having played an important part in the advance of abdominal surgery for which the 19th century was conspicuous. A number of manuscripts previously owned by Clay are held by Special Collections at the University of Manchester and include a record of some of the ovariotomy (oophorectomy) operations he performed between 1855 and 1869.

Geology, archaeology, numismatics
In spite of the claims of a heavy practice, Clay found time for the pursuit of geology and archaeology. Among the books of which he was the author were a volume of Geological Sketches of Manchester (1839) and a History of the Currency of the Isle of Man (1849), and his collections included over a thousand editions of the Old and New Testaments and a remarkably complete series of the silver and copper coins of the United States.

title: Charles Clay (surgeon)


text:
Talk:Allahabad (disambiguation)

Untitled

 * Allahabad division and Allahabad sub-division indicate tweo different administrative entities. Accordingly, I have corrected the description of Allhabad division. --Bhadani 15:40, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Allahabad (disambiguation)


text:
Donna Laframboise

Donna Laframboise is a Canadian investigative journalist, writer, and photographer. She has published critical reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its reports for the United Nations.

Background
Laframboise has worked as a freelance photographer and journalist. She describes herself as a libertarian feminist, and earned a bachelors degree in women's studies at the University of Toronto in 1989. Laframboise has written articles and editorials for Canada's National Post, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and others. In 1992, she asked for reconsideration of the guilty verdict for Guy Paul Morin, who had been wrongly convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. Renewed DNA testing led to overturning of this verdict in 1995. From 1993 to 2001, Laframbroise served on the board of directors of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

In 1997, Laframbroise published The Princess at the Window: A New Gender Morality, a book critical of many aspects of contemporary feminism. Gender studies scholar Joan Sangster went so far to call Laframboise an "anti-feminist", and dismissed her "frontal attack" on abuse accusations against Grandview Training School for Girls staff in the 1990s.

Publications on the global warming controversy
Laframboise is an outspoken critic of the scientific assessment of global warming published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2010, she commented on the outcome of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy enquiries, echoing the complaints of others such as the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

In 2010, Laframboise organized a "citizen audit" of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, to determine how many of the report's sources were peer-reviewed. The audit claims that 21 of the report's 44 chapters used fewer than 60% peer-reviewed sources, with the other sources being non-peer-reviewed material, commonly called "grey literature". The IPCC has clear guidelines allowing the use of non peer-reviewed grey literature where appropriate, subject to evaluation by the IPCC authors. An IPCC spokesman has stated that such sources include government statistics or reports from industry associations, and said "We do not believe that it is appropriate to keep out such material from the process."

In 2011, she published a book about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert. She promotes her perspective on Global warming on her noconsensus.org blog. Laframboise claims that the IPCC's appeal to authority doesn't live up to its own promises, and this book has received some critical attention.

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
In 2013, Laframboise received leaked drafts of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report WG II section on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, and commented on them on her blog. She wrote that NGOs like the World Wide Fund for Nature, Conservation International and Germanwatch had provided comments based on grey literature, to push a political agenda. IPCC Spokesman Jonathan Lynn commented that the data leak broke a confidentiality agreement which did not have legal force. Authors of the report also included industry representatives such as the insurer Munich Re and the oil company ExxonMobil.

Writing

 * The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert (2011). ISBN 9781466453487
 * Into the Dustbin: Rajendra Pachauri, the Climate Report & the Nobel Peace Prize. Amazon CreateSpace Publishing, 2013. ISBN 1492292400

title: Donna Laframboise


text:
Medallion Shield

The Medallion Shield is an annual rugby union competition involving schools affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The competition is open to all schools within Ulster, but only schools from within Northern Ireland currently enter, with no entries from schools situated in the three Ulster counties within the Republic of Ireland.

The competition has been contested continuously since its inception in 1910 and, in that time, fourteen different schools have secured at least a shared win of the shield. Teams entering the Medallion Shield are composed of boys who are under 15 years of age at the start of the school year. Entry in 2012-13 stood at 38 schools.

Royal Belfast Academical Institution have won the most titles, having 37 Won Outright titles and 3 shared. The 2024 competition resulted in a final between Sullivan Upper and Royal Belfast Academical Institution with RBAI winning 36–10.RBAI have now won the competition 37 times outright and shared it 3 times.

Foundation and growth
It was reported in 1909 that discussions had taken place between Belfast Royal Academy, Campbell College, Methodist College and Royal Belfast Academical Institution about setting up a rugby junior competition for pupils with an age qualification given as under fifteen years of age on 1 November. The success of the Leinster Schools Junior Cup which had started that year had prompted these discussions. Henry McIntosh, the Headmaster of Methodist College and respected rugby coach, was the main driving force behind the idea.

In 1910 Methodist College and Royal Belfast Academical Institution proceeded with the competition and for the first five years only these two schools competed. The third school to join was Royal School Dungannon in 1915. Bangor Grammar School entered for the first time in 1916, with Ballymena Academy and Coleraine Academical Institution following in 1917.

In 1977 the organising committee of Belfast Royal Academy, Methodist College Belfast, Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Royal School Dungannon ceded control of the competition to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union.

Trophy
Initially without a trophy, a medal was presented to the winning captain at the conclusion of the second final in 1911. The original Medallion Shield was presented by the Governors of Methodist College with the medal mounted on the shield. When the original shield was filled with the names of winners, the Governors also provided a replacement shield. The original shield is on exhibit and can be viewed at the Methodist College Heritage Centre.

Venue of finals
All finals since 1973 had been played at Ravenhill. In 2014 the final was staged at the Queen's University Arena because of the ongoing development work at Ravenhill. Prior to 1973, the most commonly used venues were the North of Ireland grounds on the Ormeau Road in Belfast and the former Royal Belfast Academical Institution grounds at Orangefield, Belfast.

Future international players
Over the years a selection of players who went on to win international caps appeared in the Medallion Shield final. One future international appeared in the first ever final in 1910 with James B O'Neill a member of the victorious Methodist College team. He would win one cap for Ireland in 1920.

Further examples of future international players include:

 * Arthur Coates Douglas played for Royal Belfast Academical Institution in the 1917 final, won 5 caps for Ireland.
 * Dick Milliken captained the Bangor Grammar School team to victory in 1966 appeared 14 times for Ireland and 4 British & Irish Lion appearances.
 * Niall Malone played for Methodist College Belfast in the 1986 final, won 3 caps for Ireland.
 * Jonny Bell played for Coleraine Academical Institution in the 1989 final, won 36 caps for Ireland.
 * David Irwin played for Royal Belfast Academical Institution in the 1974 final, and was capped 25 times for Ireland and toured with the British Lions in 1983.

Format
Until 2004 the Medallion Shield was competed for through an open draw, and since then a seeding system has been employed to determine the point at which a school enters the competition.

A Medallion Plate competition for first round losers was introduced in 1986.

The competition took on a new format in 2005 with further minor changes made since. Each team is assigned to a seeding group which determines the stage at which that team joins the competition. Each stage is run on a single tie knock-out basis, with replays for drawn games when necessary.

The structure since the 2009–10 season is as follows:

 * Stage 1. Weakest twelve teams enter for round 1. If necessary, a preliminary round will be played to establish these twelve teams. The six winners progress to round 2. The losers enter the Medallion Trophy together with the losers of the round 2 fixtures. The matches are determined by an open draw.
 * Stage 2. A further ten teams enter together with the six winners from round 1. The matches in round 2 are determined by an open draw. The eight winners progress to round 3. The eight losers join the six losers from round 1 and any preliminary round losers and compete for the Medallion Trophy.
 * Stage 3. A further eight teams enter together with the eight winners from round 2. The matches in round 3 are determined by an open draw. The eight winners progress to round 4. The eight losers contest for the Medallion Bowl.
 * Stage 4. The top eight seeded teams join the remaining eight winners from round 3. The matches in round 4 are determined by an open draw. The winners proceed to the quarter-finals, semi finals and final. The eight losers in round 4 play for the Medallion Plate.

Performance by school
(Table incomplete; two finalists missing - 1934, 1937)

† denotes a shared win

‡ Annadale Grammar School became Wellington College in a merger in 1990.

1980s

 * 1986 Ballymena Academy 15-0 Rainey Endowed School
 * 1987 Larne Grammar School 10-8 Coleraine Academical Institution
 * 1988 (???? v Belfast High School)
 * 1989 Royal School Dungannon 21-0 Sullivan Upper School

1990s

 * 1990 Campbell College 15-6 Coleraine Boys' Secondary School
 * 1991 Wallace High School 14-0 Antrim Grammar School
 * 1992 Ballyclare High School 7-6 Royal School Dungannon
 * 1993 Bangor Grammar School 13-8 Antrim Grammar School
 * 1994 Omagh Academy 10-5 Portadown College
 * 1995 Ballymena Academy 22-6 Foyle and Londonderry College
 * 1996 Rainey Endowed 15-0 Portadown College
 * 1997 Ballyclare High School 20-15 Foyle and Londonderry College
 * 1998 Royal Belfast Academical Institution 30-7 Larne Grammar School
 * 1999 Ballyclare High School 19-12 Larne Grammar School

2000s

 * 2000 Rainey Endowed School 13-6 Grosvenor Grammar School
 * 2001 Royal Belfast Academical Institution 22-7 Dalriada School
 * 2002 Campbell College 17-12 Portadown College
 * 2003 Ballyclare High School 20-17 Portora Royal School
 * 2004 Wallace High School 27-22 Coleraine Academical Institution
 * 2005 Campbell College 17-10 The Royal School, Armagh
 * 2006 Royal Belfast Academical Institution 28-5 Sullivan Upper School
 * 2007 The Royal School, Armagh 10-5 Ballymena Academy
 * 2008 Belfast Royal Academy 22-0 Foyle and Londonderry College
 * 2009 Wallace High School 37-22 Sullivan Upper School

2010s

 * 2010 Dromore High School 12-12 Limavady Grammar School Trophy shared
 * 2011 Methodist College Belfast 26-10 Ballymena Academy
 * 2012 Ballymena Academy 34-10 Dalriada School
 * 2013 Methodist College Belfast 63-3 Down High School
 * 2014 Coleraine Academical Institution 24-21 Banbridge Academy
 * 2015 Ballymena Academy 17-5 Down High School
 * 2016 Sullivan Upper School 12-10 Campbell College
 * 2017 Belfast Royal Academy 0-17 Sullivan Upper School
 * 2018 The Royal School, Armagh 25 - 0 Sullivan Upper School
 * 2019 Grosvenor Grammar School 8 - 7 Rainey Endowed School
 * 2020
 * 2022 Sullivan Upper School 22-12 Rainey Endowed School
 * 2023 Methodist College 22-5 Royal School Dungannon
 * 2024

Medallion Bowl
 2000s
 * 2005 Limavady Grammar 20 - 7 Foyle College
 * 2006 Omagh Academy 13-0 Rainey Endowed School
 * 2007 Omagh Academy 5-0 Bangor Grammar School
 * 2008 Banbridge Academy 17-8 Belfast High School
 * 2009 Dalriada School 19-17 Grosvenor Grammar School

2010s

 * 2010 Ballymena Academy 3-0 Sullivan Upper School
 * 2011 Rainey Endowed School 27-7 Grosvenor Grammar School
 * 2012 Carrickfergus Grammar School 14-7 Rainey Endowed School
 * 2013 Grosvenor Grammar School 17-10 Carrickfergus Grammar School
 * 2014 Bangor Grammar School 37-7 Belfast High School
 * 2015 Coleraine Academical Institution 7-3 Grosvenor Grammar School
 * 2016 Dalriada School 13-10 Bangor Grammar School
 * 2017 Enniskillen Royal Grammar School 31-3 Down High School
 * 2018
 * 2019 Omagh Academy 17-11 Down High School

2020s

 * 2020

 * 2022 Banbridge Academy 19-10 Limavady Grammar School
 * 2023 Antrim Grammar School 12-52 Coleraine Grammar School
 * 2024 Rainey Endowed School 22-21 Portadown College

Medallion Trophy

 * 2005 Portora Royal School 13-8 Belfast High School
 * 2006 Craigavon Senior High School 13-8 Friends School Lisburn
 * 2007 Lisneal College 22-17 Downshire School
 * 2008 Larne Grammar School 13-12 Downshire School
 * 2009 Limavady Grammar School 28-3 Downshire School

2010s

 * 2010 Foyle and Londonderry College 38-7 Dalriada School
 * 2011 Dalriada School 12-0 Foyle and Londonderry College
 * 2012 Wellington College Belfast 17-8 Grosvenor Grammar School
 * 2013 Lurgan College 8-0 Dalriada School
 * 2014 Larne Grammar School 3-3 Rainey Endowed School shared
 * 2015 Omagh Academy 22-0 Strabane Academy
 * 2016 Foyle and Londonderry College 16-12 Cambridge House
 * 2017 Ballyclare Secondary School 12-10 Grosvenor Grammar School
 * 2018
 * 2019 Enniskillen Royal Grammar School 15-5 Foyle College

2020s

 * 2020

 * 2022 Dromore High 24-12 Omagh Academy
 * 2023 Banbridge Academy 12-12 Enniskillen Royal Grammar School
 * 2024 Banbridge Academy 24-21 Belfast High School

title: Medallion Shield


text:
Peter Bayley (literary critic)

Peter Charles Bayley (25 January 1921 – 3 November 2015) was an English literary critic and academic. He was a fellow at University College, Oxford (1949–1972), the first Principal of Collingwood College, Durham (1972–1978), and Professor of English at the University of St Andrews (1978–1985).

Early life
Bayley was born on 25 January 1921. He was educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester, and University College, Oxford, where he was a Sidwick Exhibitioner (1940–41). He undertook war service during the Second World War (1941–46).

Academic career
He was subsequently a Junior Research Fellow (1947–49), then a Fellow and Praelector in English (1949–72), and Keeper of the College Buildings at University College. He was made an Emeritus Fellow of the college in 1985.

Bayley was the author of books on and Edmund Spenser, 19th century novelists, and John Milton.

The Times Literary Supplement wrote of his book on Spenser as being "a packed but lucidly written book which will be of permanent value to all students, and indeed readers, of Spenser". He also edited the University College Record for a number of years.

While a don at Oxford, Bayley oversaw the activities of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and the University College Players. He produced He Who Gets Slapped by Leonid Andreyev for the Univ Players in 1953. He was a Curator of the University Theatre and Chairman of the University Theatre Appeal Committee. Bayley was the tutor of the author V.S. Naipaul.

title: Peter Bayley (literary critic)


text:
HS2000

The HS2000 (Hrvatski Samokres, Croatian pistol) is a series of semi-automatic pistols. Polymer-framed and striker-fired, the series is manufactured by HS Produkt (formerly I.M. Metal) in Karlovac, Croatia. In Europe, the pistols are marketed as the HS and XDM series, while in the United States, the pistols are sold as the Springfield Armory XD and XD-M series, respectively. Other derivative variants sold by Springfield Armory, Inc., are unique to the American market.

History
The HS2000 traces its roots back to a service pistol known as the PHP (Prvi Hrvatski Pistolj, English: first Croatian pistol), which was first produced in Croatia by privately-owned industrial parts firm I. M. Metal in 1991. Designed by a team led by Marko Vuković, the PHP was considered to be a solid design, but early versions were plagued by quality issues, due in large part to the difficulties of manufacturing during the Yugoslav war. Vuković's team continued to tweak and improve the design over the next decade, releasing the HS95 (Hrvatski Samokres or Croatian Pistol) in 1995, and the HS2000 in 1999. At the beginning of 2001, following the success of the HS2000 pistols on the world market, the company changed its name to HS Produkt.

The HS2000 was adopted by the Croatian military and law enforcement as a standard issue sidearm. It was initially exported to the United States market by Intrac and distributed by HSAmerica, who sold the pistol in 9×19mm Parabellum (9mm) as the HS2000. In 2002, Springfield Armory, Inc., negotiated licensing rights to the United States market, using XD (eXtreme Duty) branding. In 2013, HS Produkt began (via a wholesale distributor) to offer updated variants, branded as XDM, in Europe. , HS Produkt lists both HS series and XDM series pistols on its website, corresponding to the XD and XD-M series, respectively, sold in the United States by Springfield Armory. Additional variants with a single-stack magazine (XD-S), an external hammer (XD-E), or generational updates (Mod.2) are unique to the American market.

Design
The HS2000 is a short recoil-operated, locked breech, striker fired semi-automatic pistol. Pistols in the series utilize a polymer frame with steel inserts, mounting rail and trigger-mounted safety. A cocked striker indicator protrudes from the rear of the slide when the striker is cocked. A loaded chamber indicator pivots up on top of the slide when a round is in the chamber being both visual and tactile. An ambidextrous magazine release is also standard. Take down of the pistol is through a lever on the left side of the frame that rotates up, allowing the slide to move forward off the frame. This is very similar to the mechanism of take down as seen in pistols manufactured by SIG Sauer. A trigger pull is necessary during field stripping of the HS2000.

The factory-standard trigger has a travel of 13 mm (0.5 in) and is rated at 25 N to 30 N. Most HS2000s have dual captive recoil springs; however, the XDM and Tactical 5 in models have non-captive springs. The recoil spring guide rod also acts as a standoff device, as the end of the rod protrudes from under the barrel and keeps the slide in battery when pressed against an object such as someones's chest in contact-distance self-defense situations. This prevents the slide from being moved back because the device pushes the surface area of objects away from the slide, thus increasing the chance that the gun will function normally.

After heat treatment the metal parts are finished with a proprietary nitriding process called Tenifer Plus+. This finish is characterized by extreme wear and corrosion resistance; it penetrates the metal, and treated parts have similar properties even below the surface to a certain depth. The Tenifer Plus+ process produces a matte gray-colored, non-glare surface with a 64 Rockwell C hardness rating and a 1,200–1,300 N/mm2 tensile strength. This finish makes the HS2000 particularly suitable for concealed carry, as the highly chloride-resistant finish allows the pistol to better endure the effects of perspiration.

The HS2000 has a grip safety that will not allow the pistol to fire without depressing a lever on the rear of the grip. This feature is present on some older pistols such as the M1911. Unlike the 1911, the grip safety on HS2000 series also locks the slide. The means without a proper grip on the gun to depress the grip safety, the slide cannot be cycled to load or clear the gun. In addition to a trigger safety, a drop safety prevents the striker from releasing if the gun is dropped or exposed to a significant impact. As of 2008, 4 in and 5 in XD Service models chambered in .45 ACP were available with an optional ambidextrous frame-mounted thumb safety.

The HS2000 is fed by staggered-column (otherwise known as "double-stack") detachable box magazines that are made of polished stainless steel with a polymer basepad. The empty weight of a standard-sized HS2000 box magazine is 80 g.

XDM
XDM pistols are polymer-framed with full steel inserts and a mounting rail, with a match grade barrel and trigger, and an ambidextrous magazine release. These barrels are manufactured to tighter tolerances and custom-fitted for better accuracy and to make the pistol "competition ready".

Featuring an "all terrain" grip pattern, contours in the grip were designed to maximize control. Serrations on the slide were modified for a better grasp. All XDM pistols come with grip and trigger safety mechanisms and a loaded chamber indicator at the top of the gun just behind the barrel. A traditional manual safety is an optional feature. The surface of the metal has undergone a Melonite treatment, a salt bath nitriding process which leaves a hard, corrosion-resistant surface. Disassembling the gun does not require pulling the trigger.

The XDM chambered in .45 ACP is offered in three different models with 3.8 in, 4.5 in, and 5.25 in inch barrels. Each of these models has a 13+1 capacity (13 rounds in the magazine, plus one round in the chamber), while the highest capacity for 9mm models is 19+1. The 3.8-inch model is also available with a compact magazine that holds nine rounds, which reduces grip length by 1 in for a more comfortable concealed carry option.

Variants
, the following models and chamberings are listed on the HS Produkt website:

† Manual safety optional

Noted length is for the barrel.

Users

 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Used by the armed forces.
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia: Standard sidearm of the Croatian Armed Forces and Croatian Police since 1999.
 * 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic: Used by the armed forces.
 * 🇫🇷 France: Used by the RATP.
 * Georgia: Standard Issue pistol of Georgian Police, also used by some Army Units.
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia: Used by the police and armed forces.
 * 🇮🇶 Iraq: Used by the Iraqi police.
 * North Macedonia: Used by the armed forces.
 * 🇲🇾 Malaysia: Used by the armed forces.
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand: Used by the armed forces.
 * 🇹🇳 Tunisia: 1,000 used by the armed forces and police.

Failed bids

 * 🇫🇷 France: The French Armed Forces in 2020 preferred the 5th-generation Glock 17 over the HS2000 and CZ P-10 offerings that also made it to the final selection phase to replace their MAC Mle 1950 and, to a lesser extent, their PAMAS G1 pistols.

title: HS2000


text:
Chelmsford Chieftains

The Chelmsford Chieftains are an Ice Hockey team based in Chelmsford, Essex that is currently playing in the NIHL South Division 1. Since the team was founded in 1987, the Chieftains have played their home games at the Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre.

Chelmsford's first ever game at the Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre was a challenge match against Peterborough Titans on Saturday 5 September 1987. The Chieftains won the game 11–4 in front of 300 spectators. Stuart Steeves (Chelmsford) scored the first ever goal at the venue at 2.07 in the first period.

After competing in the English Premier Ice Hockey League for eight seasons between 1998 and 2008 (having been absent from the league from 2000 until 2002), the Chelmsford Chieftains withdrew from the league at the end of the 2007/2008 season, and instead entered the English National Ice Hockey League. The hockey governing body in the UK, the EIHA, informed the club that they would be playing in Division 1 for the 2008/2009 season. However, at the league A.G.M., many of the clubs supported a motion to overturn the league's decision and the Chieftains were placed in Division 2. The Chieftains had already assembled a squad capable of playing in Division 1 and at such a late stage, the squad could not be rebuilt. The outcome was that the Chieftains started the season in a very strong position.

In the entire 2008/2009 season, the Chieftains allowed a single point, to the Invicta Mustangs at the start of the season. From then until the end of the season, the Chieftains won every game, with an average score of 8–2.

In 2009/10, they finished fourth in the league.

In the 2010/11 season, the Chieftains contended for top spot. Only in the final few weeks did the Wightlink Raiders cement their place at the top of the table. The Raiders had been the only side the Chieftains had failed to beat during the regular season.

At the conclusion of the 2010/11 season, Dean Birrell announced he would be moving to the role of Director of Coaching in Chelmsford, which would oversee the coaching of the Chieftains and Warriors. Taking his place would be MK Lightning forward Gary Clarke, who takes over in a player-coach role for the 2011-12 campaign.

Trophies
1989 Essex Cup 1990/91 Autumn Trophy 1992/93 British League Entry Playoffs 1996/97 Essex/Kent Cup 1996/97 Essex Cup 1999/00 English League Premier Division Playoffs 1999/00 Data Vision Millenium Cup 1999/00 English League Premier Division 2008/09 English National League South Division 2 2010/11 English National League South Division 1 Playoffs 2011/12 English National League South Division 1 Playoffs 2011/12 Essex Cup 2012/13 National Ice Hockey League South Division 1 2012/13 National Ice Hockey League South Division 1 Playoffs 2013/14 National Ice Hockey League South Division 1 2014/15 National Ice Hockey League South Division 1 2018/19 National Ice Hockey League South Division 2

Runners up in major competitions excluding league
1996/97 Playoff finalists 1997/98 Playoff finalists 1995/96 Autumn Trophy Finalists 2010/11 English National League South Division 1 2011/12 English National League South Division 1 2012/13 National Ice Hockey League South Cup 2012/13 South East Cup

2017/18 National Ice Hockey League South Division 2

Club roster 2022-23
(*) Denotes a Non-British Trained player (Import)

title: Chelmsford Chieftains