The British Aircraft Corporation was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd. Vickers-Armstrongs, the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with shareholdings of 20%, 40% and 40% respectively. BAC in turn acquired the share capital of their aviation interests and 70% of Hunting several months later, its head office was on the top floors of the 100 Pall Mall building in the City of Westminster, London. BAC was formed following a warning from government that it expected consolidation in the aircraft, guided weapons and engine industries; the government promised incentives for such a move, including the supersonic BAC TSR-2 strike aircraft contract, the maintenance of government research and development spending and the guarantee of aid in launching "promising new types of civil aircraft". The new corporation was jointly owned by English Electric and Bristol.

Internally it had two divisions – the Aircraft Division under Sir George Edwards and the Guided Weapons Division under Viscount Caldecote. The aircraft operations of the three parents were now subsidiaries of BAC. BAC had a controlling interest in Hunting Aircraft; the parents still had significant aviation interests outside BAC. English Electric had Napier & Son aero-engines, Bristol had 50% of Bristol Aerojet and Bristol Siddeley engines and smaller investments in Westland and Short Brothers & Harland; when BAC was formed, the Bristol Aeroplane Company was not included in the consolidation, but carved off by Sir George White whose family had founded the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in 1910. It remains operational today as Bristol Cars. Most of the BAC designs were taken over from the individual companies. BAC did not apply its new identity retrospectively, hence the VC10 remained the Vickers VC10. Instead the company applied its name to marketing initiatives, the VC10 advertising carried the name "Vickers-Armstrongs Limited, a member company of the British Aircraft Corporation".

The first model to bear the BAC name was the BAC One-Eleven, a Hunting Aircraft study, in 1961. Bristol had eschewed the subsonic airliner market and was working on the Bristol 223 supersonic transport, merged with similar efforts at Sud Aviation to create the Anglo-French Concorde venture; the first Concorde contracts were signed with Air France and BOAC in September 1972. In 1963, BAC acquired the autonomous guided weapons divisions of English Electric and Bristol to form a new subsidiary, British Aircraft Corporation; the company enjoyed some success, including development of the Rapier, Sea Skua and Sea Wolf missiles. BAC expanded this division to include electronics and space systems and, in 1966, started what was to become a fruitful relationship with Hughes Aircraft. Hughes awarded major contracts including sub-systems for Intelsat satellites; the cancellation of the TSR-2 in April 1965 was a major blow to the new company. After flying the prototype aircraft, political pressure forced development to cease and the remaining airframes and most supporting equipment and documentation to be destroyed.

Given the numerous government contract cancellations during the 1960s, the BAC 1–11, launched as a private venture saved the company. In May 1966, BAC and Breguet formed SEPECAT, a joint company to manage the Jaguar aircraft programme; the first of eight prototypes flew on 8 September 1968, service entry was achieved with the French Air Force in 1973, by which time Breguet had become part of Dassault Aviation. In 1966, Rolls-Royce acquired Bristol Aeroplane for its Bristol Siddeley aero-engine business, but declared it had no interest in the BAC shareholding. Despite this, Rolls-Royce still had not disposed of its BAC shareholding by 1971 when Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt; the 20% share was acquired from receivership by Vickers and GEC, who had acquired English Electric in 1968. In 1967, the British and German governments agreed to start development of the 300-seat Airbus A300. BAC argued against the proposal in favour of their BAC Three-Eleven project, intended as a large wide-bodied airliner like the Airbus A300, Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed TriStar.

Like the One-Eleven, it would have carried two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines, mounted near the tail. The British national airline BEA wanted to order the type, but government intervention prevented it in favour of the Airbus development. BAC was refused development funds and Hawker Siddeley was awarded the contract to build the Airbus wings. In the early 1960s, the Saudi Arabian government announced its intention to launch a massive defence acquisition programme involving the replacement of the country's fighter aircraft and the establishment of an advanced air defence and communications network. American companies seemed guaranteed to win the contract, due to the efforts of BAC, the Royal Saudi Air Force looked towards British aircraft and equipment to fulfill their needs. By 1964, BAC conducted demonstration flights of their Lightning in Riyadh and, in 1965, Saudi Arabia signed a letter of intent to purchase Lightning and Strikemaster aircraft as well as Thunderbird surface-to-air missiles.

The main contract was signed in 1966 for twenty-five Strikemasters. In 1973, the Saudi government signed an agreement with the British government which specified BAC as the contractor for all parts

Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American singer Bette Midler, featuring many of her best-known songs. The fourteen track compilation was released on Atlantic Records in 1993. While several greatest hits albums with Midler had been released in the UK, Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as The Best of Bette and The Best of Bette —two different compilations with the same title—and Just Hits, this was the first career overview to be released worldwide including the US and Canada, some twenty years after Midler recorded her first studio album for the Atlantic Records label; the album included one new recording, Midler's Emmy Award-winning rendition of "One for My Baby", sung to retiring talk show host Johnny Carson on the penultimate Tonight Show in May 1992. Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits peaked at #50 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 1993 and was three years certified platinum for one million copies sold in the US.

Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits was re-released in Europe and New Zealand in 1996 with a altered track list also including two of Midler's biggest hits which for some reason had been left off the 1993 edition. The 1996 edition included two versions of the US hit single "To Deserve You", taken from what became Midler's final studio album for Atlantic, 1995's Bette of Roses. "Hello in There" – 4:17 From 1972 album The Divine Miss M "Do You Want to Dance?" – 2:44 From 1972 album The Divine Miss M "From a Distance" – 4:37 From 1990 album Some People's Lives "Chapel of Love" – 2:53 From 1972 album The Divine Miss M "Only in Miami" – 3:57 From 1983 album No Frills "When a Man Loves a Woman" – 4:42 From 1980 album The Rose "The Rose" – 3:40 From 1980 album The Rose "Miss Otis Regrets" – 2:39 From 1990 album Some People's Lives "Shiver Me Timbers" – 4:42 From 1977 album Live at Last. Original studio version appears on 1976 album Songs for the New Depression "Wind Beneath My Wings" – 4:52 From 1988 album Beaches "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" – 2:19 Previously unavailable on album hit 45 version.

Original studio version appears on 1972 album The Divine Miss M "One for My Baby" – 4:06 Previously unreleased. Recorded and aired on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on May 21, 1992. "Friends" – 2:55 From 1972 album The Divine Miss M "In My Life" – 3:12 From 1991 album For the Boys "To Deserve You" – 4:11 Original version appears on 1995 album Bette of Roses "Beast of Burden" – 3:48 From 1983 album No Frills "Favorite Waste of Time" – 2:40 From 1983 album No Frills "Hello in There" – 4:17 "Do You Want to Dance?" – 2:44 "From a Distance" – 4:38 "Chapel of Love" – 2:53 "Only in Miami" – 3:57 "When a Man Loves a Woman" – 4:54 "The Rose" – 3:34 "Miss Otis Regrets" – 2:39 "Shiver Me Timbers" – 4:42 "Wind Beneath My Wings" – 4:53 "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" – 2:19 "One for My Baby" – 4:06 "Friends" – 2:55 "In My Life" – 3:12 "To Deserve You" – 5:13 From 1995 album Bette of Roses Bette Midler – compilation producer Arif Mardin – compilation producer Scott Wittman – creative consultant Doug Sax – digital remastering at The Mastering Lab Greg Gorman – cover photo Rod Dyer Group / Qris Yamashita – art direction

George Bradford Cook known as G. Bradford Cook and Brad Cook, is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1972, he resigned after being caught up in the Robert Vesco securities fraud scandal and received temporary disbarments in two states for lying to a grand jury in the case. Cook was born on May 10, 1937, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to George Brash Cook, an insurance executive, Margaret Colman Cook, he attended public elementary and junior high school in Lincoln, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he graduated from high school in 1955. Cook was accepted. However, wanting a career in politics, he thought it would be easier to build that career in Nebraska than California. So he was accepted at the University of Nebraska Law School, he graduated in 1961, in the fall of 1962 joined the law firm of Winston Strawn Smith & Patterson in Chicago, where he practiced securities law. He wed Laura Shedd Armour, a descendant of meatpacking robber baron Philip Danforth Armour, on January 22, 1966.

The couple had a daughter, Jennifer, in 1975. Cook was active in Republican Party politics. A friend asked him to apply for the general counsel position at the Federal Communications Commission, but he declined, he was invited to interview for the general counsel position at the United States Department of Health and Welfare, but again declined because he felt the agency was too big and it was outside his specialty. His political activities led William J. Casey, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to interview him for the general counsel job there in summer 1971. Cook was appointed to the position on September 1, sworn in on September 7. In 1972, Chairman Casey reorganized the SEC to create a regulatory division. Cook was appointed associate director of the new division, retained his job as general counsel. Cook's opportunity to vault to the chairmanship of the SEC came just a year later. Richard Helms resigned as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in early 1973. Casey, once an intelligence officer himself, resigned from the SEC to seek the CIA position.

Through friends, Cook made it known that he wanted to be chairman of the SEC. He won the backing of both White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs John Ehrlichman. Cook was nominated by President Richard Nixon, approved by the United States Senate, sworn in as SEC chairman on March 3, 1973, he was the youngest person to lead a federal agency. In 1972, SEC Chairman William Casey met with Cook and assigned him an enforcement case pending against Robert Vesco. In doing so, Casey took the case away from the SEC's Enforcement Division, a move Cook claims he did not question. A mutual fund company, Investors Overseas Service, registered in Panama, was attempting to come into the United States, a complicated process that involved changing the company's articles of incorporation, operating procedures and governance to conform with American securities law. Vesco was battling Bernard Cornfeld, chief executive officer of IOS, for control of the company, the SEC was investigating Vesco for having covered up the transfer of $224 million in corporate funds to a personal account.

Vesco made a $200,000 cash donation to the 1972 Nixon presidential campaign with the expectation that he would receive favorable treatment from the SEC. Another $50,000 in cash was given in violation of federal elections laws. Harry L. Sears, a prominent Republican fund-raiser in New Jersey and Vesco associate, delivered the cash donations to Maurice Stans, Nixon's former Secretary of Commerce and head of finance for Nixon's presidential re-election campaign. Stans arranged for Sears to meet with United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, Mitchell set up a meeting with Sears and Cook in May 1972. Cook became the intent with which they were made. Cook alleges that he told Casey about the donations, although he cannot confirm that Casey did anything with the information. Casey denied knowing how the embezzled $250,000 had been used. Shortly after his conversation with Casey, Cook went on a hunting trip in Texas with Stans. On November 13, 1972, while he and Stans crouched in a rice field, Cook mentioned that he wished to be SEC chairman and that he was prosecuting a number of cases, including the Vesco lawsuit.

Cook mentioned. Two days back in Washington, Stans called Cook and asked that the information about the $250,000 be deleted from the legal filings in the case. Cook agreed to do so, told SEC Associate Director of Enforcement Stanley Sporkin to remove the information. On November 17, Cook called Stans to confirm. Cook said in 1973 in congressional testimony that the deleted information was made with Chairman Casey's concurrence. Casey agreed that he told Cook to "work it out" with Sporkin, but denied knowing that Cook had spoken with Stans. On March 7, 1973, Stans invited Cook to the White House for lunch. Stans informed Cook that the Nixon campaign was going to return the money to Vesco, asked that discussion of the donation be edited out of testimony the SEC would file with the court. After speaking with Sporkin, Cook advised Stans that the testimony had to be submitted in full and he could not do as Stans had asked. Federal prosecutors began investigating possible illegal fund-raising by the Nixon re-election campaign in 1973 as part of the Watergate scandal.

Cook was called before a grand jury to testify about the Vesco donations on April 19, 1973