The Cretaceous is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. It is the final period of the Mesozoic Era; the name is derived from the Latin creta. It is abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide; the Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared; the Cretaceous ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs and large marine reptiles died out. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction which lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras; the Cretaceous as a separate period was first defined by Belgian geologist Jean d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1822, using strata in the Paris Basin and named for the extensive beds of chalk, found in the upper Cretaceous of Western Europe.

The name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series. In older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series: Neocomian and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide. In many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use; as with other older geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified but the exact age of the system's base is uncertain by a few million years. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic. However, the top of the system is defined, being placed at an iridium-rich layer found worldwide, believed to be associated with the Chicxulub impact crater, with its boundaries circumscribing parts of the Yucatán Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico; this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A 140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a stratigraphic study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin, Argentina.

Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age, sees the study as a "first step" toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences. From youngest to oldest, the subdivisions of the Cretaceous period are: Late Cretaceous Maastrichtian – Campanian – Santonian – Coniacian – Turonian – Cenomanian – Early Cretaceous Albian – Aptian – Barremian – Hauterivian – Valanginian – Berriasian – The high sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant large areas of the continents were covered by warm, shallow seas, providing habitat for many marine organisms; the Cretaceous was named for the extensive chalk deposits of this age in Europe, but in many parts of the world, the deposits from the Cretaceous are of marine limestone, a rock type, formed under warm, shallow marine circumstances. Due to the high sea level, there was extensive space for such sedimentation; because of the young age and great thickness of the system, Cretaceous rocks are evident in many areas worldwide.

Chalk is a rock type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, a type of algae that prospered in the Cretaceous seas. In northwestern Europe, chalk deposits from the Upper Cretaceous are characteristic for the Chalk Group, which forms the white cliffs of Dover on the south coast of England and similar cliffs on the French Normandian coast; the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of loose sediments in many places; the group has other limestones and arenites. Among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls; because the Alpine mountain chains did not yet exist in the Cretaceous, these deposits formed on the southern edge of the European continental shelf, at the margin of the Tethys Ocean.

Stagnation of deep sea currents in middle Cretaceous times caused anoxic conditions in the sea water leaving the deposited organic matter undecomposed. Half of the world's petroleum reserves were laid down at this time in the anoxic conditions of what would become the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. In many places around the world, dark anoxic shales were formed during this interval; these shales are an important source rock for oil and gas, for example in the subsurface of the North Sea. During the Cretaceous, the late-Paleozoic-to-early-Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangaea completed its tectonic breakup into the present-

Formula One: Built to Win is a 1990 racing video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Winky Soft and published by SETA Corporation. It was one of the first racing games to feature a career mode, multiple vehicles and an opportunity for the player to increase the performance of their in-game car through car tuning, which were unique elements for a racer of the NES era and a genre only revisited during the fifth generation of game consoles where games such as Gran Turismo became popular. Races start out as single-lap events but become double-lap events as the player starts racing against more experienced competition in places like Las Vegas and Hawaii. With gameplay similar to Rad Racer and Pole Position, the driver races towards the back of the screen; the names of the opponents are chosen at random. Like in Rad Racer, the player can supercharge an automobile to go up to 255 miles per hour or 410 kilometres per hour. Once the player enters a user name, the player has to start out driving a Mini Cooper without an international racing license.

From there, the player must earn the rankings needed to get better performing vehicles and automobile parts. These cars consist of the Vector W2, the Ferrari F40 and a Formula-1 race car. Drivers must be prepared to negotiate their way through both civilian traffic and other racers, both of which resemble whatever car that the player is driving at that time; the player must work towards the West Coast. All of tracks that make up the Formula One portion of the game are actual Formula One tracks from around the world. Elements from the 1990 and 1991 Formula One seasons have been used for this video game; because this game is based on the career of a race car driver, trying to go from "Rags to Riches," the beginning of the game provides a slow and conservative period. Designing an unbeatable car from the parts that they purchased in parts shops helps improve the handling, acceleration and maximum speed of their vehicle, it is possible to develop millionaire or multimillionaire race car drivers by being successful at the slot machine game at the Las Vegas portion of the game which may be visited at any time.

Though the player must manually turn his or her entire bank account into casino tokens, the casino tokens are automatically turned back into "dollars" after the player leaves the casino. The player must earn money. After winning the race, the money must be invested in faster and/or more efficient parts to improve the performance of the vehicle. Having a more efficient racing vehicle will result in winning more difficult races where the winner's prize is higher than in the easier races. Winning certain races will result in acquiring an international racing license. Parts in the game vary in cost and tires can only be used a limited number of times before they have to be purchased again. Tires that have the worst handling can be used an unlimited number of times; these tires are the only automobile parts that are free and the player automatically starts out with these at the beginning of the game's "career mode." In addition to the career mode of the game, there is a "free mode" of the game that allows unlimited use of all four vehicles on their respective tracks.

These races are done without the distraction of other vehicles. All races in "free mode" are single-lap only. There is still a limited amount of nitro like in the "normal mode" of the game. However, all races done under "free mode" always start with the nitro gauge filled up. New time records made in the "free mode" are saved into the game's battery along with the driver's name until they are broken by another player. Once the player reaches the Formula One level, he or she must race against drivers whose names sound similar to the actual drivers of the 1990 and 1991 Formula One seasons. For example, Satoru Nakajima is known in the game as S. Nakazma. Taito Grand Prix: Eikou heno License.

Thomas Churchyard was an English author and soldier. He is chiefly remembered for a series of autobiographical or semi-autobiographical verse collections, including Churchyardes Chippes. Thomas Churchyard was born at Shrewsbury in c. 1523, the son of a farmer. He received a good education, having speedily dissipated at court the money with which his father provided him, he entered the household of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. There he remained for twenty years. In 1541 Churchyard began his career as a soldier of fortune, being, he said, "pressed into the service", he fought his way through the Low Countries for thirty years. He served under the emperor Charles V in Flanders in 1542, returning to England after the Peace of Crépy. In the Scottish campaign of 1547 he was present at the barren victory of Pinkie, in the next year was taken prisoner at Saint Monance, but aided by his persuasive tongue he escaped to the English garrison at Lauder, where he was once more besieged, only returning to England on the conclusion of peace in 1550.

In the same year he went to Ireland to serve the lord deputy of Ireland, Sir Anthony St Leger, sent to pacify the country. Here Churchyard enriched himself, at the expense of the Irish. After this failure he departed once more to the wars to the Siege of Metz, "trailed a pike" in the emperor's army, until he joined the forces under William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton, with whom he says he served eight years. Grey was in charge of the fortress of Guînes, besieged by the duke of Guise in 1558. Churchyard arranged the terms of surrender, was sent with his chief to Paris as a prisoner, he was not released at the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis for lack of money to pay his ransom, but he was set free on giving his bond for the amount, an engagement which he repudiated as soon as he was safely in England. He is not to be identified with the "T. C." who wrote for the Mirror for Magistrates, "How the Lord Mowbray... was banished... and after died miserablie in exile", the work of Thomas Chaloner. These are plain compositions in the seven-lined Chaucerian stanza.

Repeated petitions to the Queen for assistance produced at first fair words, no answer at all. He therefore returned to active service under Lord Grey, in command of an English army sent in 1560 to help the Scottish rebels at the Siege of Leith, in 1564 he served in Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney; the religious disturbances in the Netherlands attracted him to Antwerp, where, as the agent of William of Orange, he allowed the insurgents to place him at their head, was able to save much property from destruction. This action made him so hated by the mob that he had to fly for his life in the disguise of a priest. In the next year he was sent by the earl of Oxford to serve under the prince of Orange. After a year's service he obtained leave to return to England, after many adventures and narrow escapes in a journey through hostile territory he embarked for Guernsey, thence for England, his patron, Lord Oxford, disowned him, the poet, whose health was failing, retired to Bath. He appears to have made a unhappy marriage at this time, returned to the Low Countries.

Falling into the hands of the Spaniards he was recognized as having had a hand in the Antwerp disturbance, was under sentence to be executed as a spy when he was saved by the intervention of a noble lady. This experience did not deter him from joining in the defence of Zutphen in 1572, but this was his last campaign, the troubles of the remaining years of his life were chiefly domestic. Churchyard was employed to devise a pageant for the Queen's reception at Bristol in 1574, again at Norwich in 1578, he had published in 1575 The Firste parte of Churchyarde's Chippes, the modest title which he gives to his works. No second part appeared, but there was a much enlarged edition in 1578. A passage in Churchyarde's Choise gave offence to Elizabeth, the author fled to Scotland, where he remained for three years, he was only restored to favour about 1584, in 1593 he received a small pension from the Queen. On Good Friday, 8 April 1580, Churchyard published a short account of the earthquake which had struck London and much of England only two days earlier.

The pamphlet, A Warning to the Wyse, a Feare to the Fond, a Bridle to the Lewde, a Glasse to the Good. Set forth in verse and prose, by Thomas Churchyard, gentleman provides the earliest accounts of the 1580 Dover Straits earthquake. In Churchyards Challenge the author refers to his broadside ballad, Davie Dicars dreame, which he says was written against by one Thomas Camel whom Churchyard "openly confuted", their argument came to involve not only Churchyard and Camel but William Waterman, Geoffrey Chappell, Richard Beard. All their various contributions were collected and reprinted in The Contention bettwyxt