1.
Ian Fleming
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Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva and his wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels. Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952 and it was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short-story collections followed between 1953 and 1966, the novels revolved around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his number,007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the series of fictional books of all time. Fleming also wrote the childrens story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction, in 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Fleming was married to Ann Charteris, who was divorced from the second Viscount Rothermere owing to her affair with the author, Fleming and Charteris had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a smoker and drinker for most of his life. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously, other writers have since produced Bond novels, Flemings creation has appeared in film twenty-six times, portrayed by seven actors. Ian Fleming was born on 28 May 1908, at 27 Green Street in the wealthy London district of Mayfair and his mother was Evelyn St Croix Rose, and his father was Valentine Fleming, the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910. As an infant he lived, with his family, at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. Fleming was the grandson of the Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust, in 1914, with the start of the First World War, Valentine joined C Squadron, Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars, and rose to the rank of major. He was killed by German shelling on the Western Front on 20 May 1917, because the family owned an estate at Arnisdale, Valentines death was commemorated on the Glenelg War Memorial. Flemings elder brother Peter became a writer and married actress Celia Johnson. Fleming also had two brothers, Michael and Richard, and a younger maternal half-sister born out of wedlock, cellist Amaryllis Fleming. Amaryllis was conceived during an affair between John and Evelyn that started in 1923, some six years after the death of Valentine
2.
Space Race
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The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and the United States, for supremacy in spaceflight capability. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, the Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon. The Soviet Union beat the US to this, with the October 4,1957 orbiting of Sputnik 1, the race peaked with the July 20,1969 US landing of the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11. The USSR tried but failed manned lunar missions, and eventually cancelled them, the Space Race has left a legacy of Earth communications and weather satellites, and continuing human space presence on the International Space Station. It has also sparked increases in spending on education and research and development, the origins of the Space Race can be traced to Germany, beginning in the 1930s and continuing during World War II when Nazi Germany researched and built operational ballistic missiles. Wernher von Braun, a young engineering prodigy, was recruited by Becker and Dornberger to join their secret army program at Kummersdorf-West in 1932, von Braun dreamed of conquering outer space with rockets, and did not initially see the military value in missile technology. They led the team built the Aggregate-4 rocket, which became the first vehicle to reach outer space during its test flight program in 1942 and 1943. By 1943, Germany began mass-producing the A-4 as the Vergeltungswaffe 2 and its supersonic speed meant there was no defense against it, and radar detection provided little warning. Germany used the weapon to bombard southern England and parts of Allied-liberated western Europe from 1944 until 1945, after the war, the V-2 became the basis of early American and Soviet rocket designs. The United States also acquired a number of complete V2 rockets. The German rocket center in Peenemünde was located in the part of Germany. On Stalins orders, the Soviet Union sent its best rocket engineers to this region to see what they could salvage for future weapons systems, the Soviet rocket engineers were led by Sergei Korolev. He had been involved in clubs and early Soviet rocket design in the 1930s. After the war, he became the USSRs chief rocket and spacecraft engineer and his identity was kept a state secret throughout the Cold War, and he was identified publicly only as the Chief Designer. In the West, his name was officially revealed when he died in 1966. They were not allowed to participate in final Soviet missile design, with their help, particularly Helmut Gröttrups group, Korolev reverse-engineered the A-4 and built his own version of the rocket, the R-1, in 1948. Later, he developed his own designs, though many of these designs were influenced by the Gröttrup Groups G4-R10 design from 1949. The Germans were eventually repatriated in 1951–53 and he also started developing liquid-fueled rockets in 1921, yet he had not been taken seriously by the public
3.
The Guardian
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The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to maintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. In 2016, The Guardians print edition had a daily circulation of roughly 162,000 copies in the country, behind The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper has an online UK edition as well as two international websites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US, the newspapers online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world in October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers. Its combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million British readers, notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in particular the hacking of murdered English teenager Milly Dowlers phone. The investigation led to the closure of the UKs biggest selling Sunday newspaper, and one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world, in 2016, it led the investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing the then British Prime Minister David Camerons links to offshore bank accounts. The Guardian has been named Newspaper of the Year four times at the annual British Press Awards, the paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, given originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors. The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle and they launched their paper after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer, a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they better than those that do. When the government closed down the Manchester Observer, the champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, the prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty. Warmly advocate the cause of Reform, endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and. Support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, in 1825 the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called the Manchester Guardian the foul prostitute, the Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labours claims. The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators –, if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. CP Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised and he was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylors son in 1907. Under Scott, the moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886
4.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
5.
The Washington Times
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The Washington Times is an American daily newspaper. It is published as a broadsheet at 3600 New York Avenue NE, Washington, the paper covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on American politics. One of the first broadsheets in the United States to adopt color photography, its edition is distributed throughout the District of Columbia and sections of Maryland. A weekly tabloid edition aimed at an audience is also published. A typical issue includes sections for world and national news, business, politics, editorials and opinion pieces, local news, sports, entertainment, and travel. Periodically, the paper publishes large, 30–40 page special sections devoted to specific topics that include reports. It is currently owned by diversified conglomerate Operations Holdings, which is an owned subsidiary of the church. Bo Hi Pak, the aide of church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon, was the founding president. Moon asked Richard L. Rubenstein, a rabbi and college professor who had written on the Holocaust, the newspapers first editor and publisher was James R. Whelan. At the time of founding of the Times Washington had only one major newspaper, massimo Introvigne, in his 2000 book The Unification Church, said that the Post had been the most anti-Unificationist paper in the United States. The Times was founded the year after the Washington Star, the second paper of D. C. went out of business. A large percentage of the came from the Washington Star. When the Times began, it was unusual among American broadsheets in publishing a full front page, along with full color front pages in all its sections. Although USA Today used color in the way, it took several years for the Washington Post, New York Times. It ran television commercials highlighting this fact, the Washington Times also used ink that it advertised as being less likely to come off on the readers hands than the Posts. This design and its editorial content attracted real influence in Washington, when the Times began it had 125 reporters,25 percent of them Unification Church members. In 1982 the Post criticized the Times for killing critic Scott Subletts negative review of the movie Inchon, which was also sponsored by the Unification Church. A former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum, in his 2000 book How We Got Here, The 70s, wrote that Moon had granted the Times editorial independence
6.
Live and Let Die (novel)
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Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series of stories, and is set in London, the US and Jamaica. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, Fleming wrote the novel at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica before his first book, Casino Royale, was published, much of the background came from Flemings travel in the US and knowledge of Jamaica. Bond becomes involved in the US through Mr Bigs smuggling of 17th-century gold coins from British territories in the Caribbean, as with Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics. The initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out, US sales, when the novel was released there a year later, were much slower. Major plot elements from the novel were incorporated into the Bond films For Your Eyes Only in 1981. The British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, to New York City to investigate Mr Big, real name Buonaparte Ignace Gallia. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the pirate Sir Henry Morgan, in New York Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two visit some of Mr Bigs nightclubs in Harlem, but are captured, Bond is interrogated by Mr Big, who uses his fortune-telling employee, Solitaire, to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr Big, supporting Bonds cover story, Mr Big decides to release Bond and Leiter, and has his henchman Tee-Hee Johnson break one of Bonds fingers. On leaving, Bond kills Tee-Hee and several more of Mr Bigs men, while Leiter is released with minimal physical harm by a gang member, sympathetic because of a shared appreciation of jazz. Solitaire later leaves Mr Big and contacts Bond, the travel by train to St. Petersburg, Florida. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr Bigs warehouses used for storing exotic fish, Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest He disagreed with something that ate him. Bond then investigates the warehouse himself and discovers that Mr Big is smuggling gold coins by hiding them in the bottom of tanks holding poisonous tropical fish, which he is bringing into the US. He is attacked in the warehouse by the Robber, another of Mr Bigs men, during the resultant gunfight, Bond outwits the Robber and causes him to fall into the shark tank. Bond continues his mission in Jamaica, where he meets a fisherman, Quarrel, and John Strangways. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters, Bond swims through shark- and barracuda-infested waters to Mr Bigs island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr Big. Bond and Solitaire are saved when the mine explodes seconds before they are dragged over the reef. Between January and March 1952 the journalist Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale, his first novel, Fleming conducted research for Live and Let Die, and completed the novel before Casino Royale was published in January 1953, four months before his second book was published
7.
Moonraker (novel)
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Moonraker is the third novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. It was published by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 and featured a design conceived by Fleming. The plot is derived from a Fleming screenplay that was too short for a novel so he added the bridge passage between Bond and the industrialist Hugo Drax. In the latter half of the novel, the premise of Bond seconded to Draxs staff as the businessman builds the Moonraker, a prototype missile designed to defend England. Unknown to Bond, Drax is German, a now working for the Soviets, his plan is to build the rocket, arm it with a nuclear warhead. Uniquely for a Bond novel, Moonraker is set entirely in Britain, Moonraker, like Flemings previous novels, was well received by critics. Moonraker plays on a number of 1950s fears, including attack by rockets, Soviet communism, the re-emergence of Nazism, Fleming examines Englishness, and the novel shows the virtues and strength of England. Adaptations include a broadcast on South African radio in 1956 starring Bob Holness, the British Secret Service agent James Bond is asked by his superior, M, to join him at Ms club, Blades. A club member, the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax, is winning considerable money playing bridge, M suspects Drax is cheating, and while claiming indifference, is concerned as to why a multi-millionaire and national hero would cheat. Bond confirms Draxs deception and manages to turn the tables—aided by a pack of stacked cards—and wins £15,000, Drax is the product of a mysterious background, purportedly unknown even to himself. After extensive rehabilitation in an hospital, he returned home to become a wealthy industrialist. Because the rockets engine could withstand heat, the Moonraker was able to use these powerful fuels. All the rocket scientists working on the project are German, at his post on the complex, Bond meets Gala Brand, a beautiful police Special Branch officer working undercover as Draxs personal assistant. Bond also uncovers clues concerning his predecessors death, concluding that the man may have killed for witnessing a submarine off the coast. Draxs henchman Krebs is caught by Bond snooping through his room, later, an attempted assassination by triggering a landslide nearly kills Bond and Brand, as they swim beneath the Dover cliffs. Drax takes Brand to London, where she discovers the truth about the Moonraker by comparing her own launch trajectory figures with those in a notebook picked from Draxs pocket. She is captured by Krebs, and finds herself captive in a secret radio homing station—intended to serve as a beacon for the missiles guidance system—in the heart of London. While she is being taken back to the Moonraker facility by Drax, Bond gives chase, but is also captured by Drax and Krebs
8.
Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
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Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the story at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, inspired by a Sunday Times article on diamond smuggling, the book was first published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 26 March 1956. The story centres on Bonds investigation of a diamond-smuggling ring originating in the mines of Sierra Leone, along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the smuggling gang, Tiffany Case. Much of Flemings background research formed the basis for his non-fiction 1957 book The Diamond Smugglers, Diamonds Are Forever deals with international travel, marriage and the transitory nature of life. As with Flemings previous novels, Diamonds Are Forever received broadly positive reviews at the time of publication, the story was serialised in the Daily Express newspaper, first in an abridged, multi-part form and then as a comic strip. In 1971 it was adapted into the seventh Bond film in the series and was the last Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as Bond, the British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent on an assignment by his superior, M. Acting on information received from Special Branch, M tasks Bond with infiltrating a smuggling ring transporting diamonds from mines in the Crown colony of Sierra Leone to the United States, Bond must infiltrate the smugglers pipeline to uncover those responsible. Bond discovers that the ring is operated by the Spangled Mob and he follows the trail from London to New York. To earn his fee for carrying the diamonds he is instructed by a member, Shady Tree. There Bond meets Felix Leiter, a former CIA agent working at Pinkertons as a detective investigating crooked horse racing. Leiter bribes the jockey to ensure the failure of the plot to rig the race, when he goes to make the payment, he witnesses two homosexual thugs, Wint and Kidd, attack the jockey. Bond calls Tree to enquire further about the payment of his fee and is told to go to the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas, the Tiara is owned by Seraffimo Spang and operates as the headquarters of the Spangled Mob. Spang also owns an old Western ghost town, named Spectreville, at the hotel Bond finally receives payment through a rigged blackjack game where the dealer is Tiffany. After winning the money he is owed he disobeys his orders from Tree by continuing to gamble in the casino, Spang suspects that Bond may be a plant and has him captured and tortured at Spectreville. With Tiffanys help he escapes from Spectreville aboard a railway push-car with Seraffimo Spang in pursuit aboard an old Western train, Bond changes the points and re-routes the train onto a dead-end, and shoots Spang before the resulting crash. Assisted by Leiter, Bond and Tiffany go via California to New York, where they board the RMS Queen Elizabeth to travel to London, Wint and Kidd observe their embarkation and follow them on board. They kidnap Tiffany, planning to kill her and throw her overboard, Bond rescues her and kills both gangsters, he makes it look like a murder-suicide. Tiffany subsequently informs Bond of the details of the pipeline, the story begins in Africa where a dentist bribes miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouths, he extracts the gems during routine appointments
9.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)
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On Her Majestys Secret Service is the tenth novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 1 April 1963. The initial and secondary print runs sold out, with over 60,000 books sold in the first month, Fleming wrote the book in Jamaica whilst the first film in the Eon Productions series of films, Dr. No, was being filmed nearby. On Her Majestys Secret Service is the book in what is known as the Blofeld trilogy. The story centres on Bonds ongoing search to find Ernst Stavro Blofeld after the Thunderball incident, after meeting him and discovering his latest plans, Bond attacks the centre where he is based, although Blofeld escapes in the confusion. Bond meets and falls in love with Contessa Teresa Tracy di Vicenzo during the story, the pair marry at the end of the story but Blofeld kills Bonds wife, hours after the ceremony. Fleming made a number of revelations about Bonds character within the book, on Her Majestys Secret Service received broadly good reviews in the British and American press. The novel was adapted to run as a story in Playboy in 1963. In 1969 the novel was adapted as the film in the Eon Productions James Bond film series and was the only film to star George Lazenby as Bond. In 2014 On Her Majestys Secret Service was adapted as a play on BBC Radio, for more than a year, James Bond, British Secret Service operative 007, has been involved in Operation Bedlam, trailing the private criminal organisation SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The organisation had hijacked two nuclear devices and subsequently blackmailed the western world, as described in Thunderball, convinced SPECTRE no longer exists, Bond is frustrated by MI6s insistence that he continue the search and his inability to find Blofeld. He composes a letter of resignation for his superior, M, the following day Bond follows her and interrupts her attempted suicide, but they are captured by professional henchmen. They are taken to the offices of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse, Tracy is the daughter and only child of Draco who believes the only way to save his daughter from further suicide attempts is for Bond to marry her. To facilitate this, he offers Bond a dowry of £1 million, Bond refuses the offer, afterwards Draco uses his contacts to inform Bond that Blofeld is somewhere in Switzerland. On a visit to the College of Arms, Bond finds that the motto of Sir Thomas Bond is The World Is Not Enough. Blofeld has undergone plastic surgery partly to remove his earlobes, but also to himself from the police. Bond learns Blofeld has been curing a group of young British and Irish women of their livestock, believing himself discovered, Bond escapes by ski from Piz Gloria, chased by SPECTRE operatives, a number of whom he kills in the process. Afterward, in a state of exhaustion, he encounters Tracy. She is in the town at the base of the mountain after being told by her father that Bond may be in the vicinity, Bond is too weak to take on Blofelds henchmen alone and she helps him escape to the airport
10.
London Evening Standard
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The London Evening Standard is a local, free daily newspaper, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant local/regional evening paper for London and the area, with coverage of national and international news. In October 2009, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and became a free newspaper, the newspaper was founded by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard on 21 May 1827, as the Standard. The early owner of the paper was Charles Baldwin, under the ownership of James Johnstone, The Standard became a morning paper from 29 June 1857. The Evening Standard was published from 11 June 1859, by the end of the 19th century, the evening edition eclipsed its morning counterpart. Both The Standard and the Evening Standard were acquired by C. Arthur Pearson in 1904, in May 1915, Edward Hulton purchased the Evening Standard from Davison Dalziel. Dalziel had purchased both papers in 1910, and closed The Standard, the paper, in 1916. Hulton introduced the gossip column Londoners Diary, originally billed as a written by gentlemen for gentlemen. It became a staunchly Conservative paper, harshly attacking Labour in 1945 in a campaign that backfired. In the 1960s, the paper was now upstaged by The Evening News, during the decade, the paper also began to publish the comic strip Modesty Blaise that bolstered the papers sales throughout the 1970s. In 1987 the Evening News was briefly revived to compete with Robert Maxwells London Daily News, in 1988 it incorporated the byline Incorporating the Evening News, which remained until the papers sale in 2009. A few years earlier,12 percent of the paper was sold to Justin Shaw, Associated News keeps the remaining 24 percent. In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would drop its midday News Extra edition from 4 January 2010 with the first edition being the West End Final, previously there were three editions each weekday, excluding Bank holidays. The first, News Extra, went to print at 10,00 am and was available around 11 am in central London, slightly later in more outlying areas. The page changes were indicated by stars in the bottom corner of each page. In January 2010, circulation was increased to 900,000, in May 2009, the newspaper launched a series of poster ads, each of which prominently featured the word Sorry in the papers then-masthead font. These ads offered various apologies for past editorial approaches, such as Sorry for losing touch, none of the posters mentioned the Evening Standard by name, although they featured the papers Eros logo. Ex-editor Veronica Wadley criticised the Pravda-style campaign saying it humiliated the papers staff, the campaign was designed by McCann Erickson
11.
Financial Times
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The Financial Times is an English-language international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. The paper, published and owned by Nikkei Inc. in Tokyo, was founded in 1888 by James Sheridan and Horatio Bottomley, and merged in 1945 with its closest rival, the Financial Times has an average daily readership of 2.2 million people worldwide. FT. com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital subscribers, FT Chinese has more than 1.7 million registered users. The world editions of the Financial Times newspaper had an average daily circulation of 234,193 copies in January 2014. In February 2014 the combined sale of the editions of the Financial Times was 224,000 copies. In October 2013 the combined print and digital circulation of the Financial Times reached nearly 629,000 copies. In December 2016 print sales for the paper stood at 193,211, on 23 July 2015 Nikkei Inc. agreed to buy the Financial Times from Pearson for £844m. On 30 November 2015 Nikkei completed the acquisition, the FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on 10 January 1888, renaming itself the Financial Times on 13 February the same year. Describing itself as the friend of The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, the readership was the financial community of the City of London, its only rival being the slightly older and more daring Financial News. After 57 years of rivalry the Financial Times and the Financial News were merged in 1945 by Brendan Bracken to form a single six-page newspaper, the Financial Times brought a higher circulation while the Financial News provided much of the editorial talent. The Lex column was introduced from Financial News. Pearson bought the paper in 1957, over the years the paper grew in size, readership and breadth of coverage. It established correspondents in cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the economy towards globalisation. On 1 January 1979 the first FT was printed outside the UK, since then, with increased international coverage, the FT has become a global newspaper, printed in 22 locations with five international editions to serve the UK, continental Europe, the U. S. The European edition is distributed in continental Europe and Africa and it is printed Monday to Saturday at five centres across Europe reporting on matters concerning the European Union, the Euro and European corporate affairs. In 1994 FT launched a lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. In 2009 it launched a website for the magazine. On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the world with the launch of FT. com
12.
James Bond (literary character)
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Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR, is a fictional character created by British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics, Fleming wrote twelve Bond novels and two short story collections, although the last two books—The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights—were published posthumously. The Bond character is a Secret Service agent, code number 007, residing in London but active internationally. Bond has a number of traits which run throughout the books, including an enjoyment of cars, a love of food and drink. There have also other authors who wrote one book each, Kingsley Amis, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd. Additionally, a series of novels based on Bonds youth—Young Bond—was written by Charlie Higson, as spin-offs from the literary works, there was a television adaptation of the first novel, Casino Royale, in which Bond was played as an American agent. A comic strip also ran in the Daily Express newspaper. There have been 26 Bond films, seven actors have played Bond in these films, the central figure in Ian Flemings work was the fictional character of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the Secret Service. Bond was also known by his number,007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. During World War II, Ian Fleming had mentioned to friends that he wanted to write a spy novel. It was not until 1952, however, shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris and he finished work on the manuscript in just over a month, completing it on 18 March 1952. Fleming went on to write a total of twelve Bond novels, the last two books—The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights—were published posthumously. Among those types were his brother, Peter, whom Fleming worshipped, sir Fitzroy Maclean was another figure mentioned as a possibility, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans, as was the MI6 double agent Dušan Popov. Distinct similarities between the protagonist in The Life Line, Mark Chalmers and James Bond have been highlighted by spy writer, Nigel West. On another occasion Fleming said, I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, James Bond was much better than something more interesting, like Peregrine Carruthers. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, after Fleming met the ornithologist and his wife, he described them as a charming couple who are amused by the whole joke. In the first draft of Casino Royale he decided to use the name James Secretan as Bonds cover name while on missions, Bonds number—007—was assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligences key achievements of World War I, the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, facially, Bond resembles the composer, singer and actor Hoagy Carmichael
