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Freeport Tortuga
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2019 Freeport Tortuga was a free port project by Dupont Caribbean Inc. of Texas, which began construction in 1971 based upon a 99-year contract with the government of Haiti. The location of the freeport was the old buccaneer stronghold of Tortuga (Haiti), Tortuga island located some 10 miles off the north coast of the main Haitian island of Hispaniola, which is also shared by the Dominican Republic. Freeport Tortuga ended with its expropriation by the Haitian government in 1974. Origin of the freeport In 1967, during the time that Don Pierson of Eastland, Texas, Eastland, Texas was attempting to lease a radio broadcasting ship that had been the former homes of ''Swinging Radio England'' and ''Britain Radio'' off the coast of England, he received a response from the Ambassador for Haiti in Washington, DC. Don Pierson's original plan was to lease or sell the ship to the government of Haiti for it to establish two powerful 50 kW commercial radio stati ...
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Free Port
Free economic zones (FEZ), free economic territories (FETs) or free zones (FZ) are a class of special economic zone (SEZ) designated by the trade and commerce administrations of various countries. The term is used to designate areas in which companies are taxed very lightly or not at all to encourage economic activity. The taxation rules and duties are determined by each country. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) has content on the conditions and benefits of free zones. Some special economic zones are called free ports. Sometimes they have historically been endowed with favorable customs regulations, such as the free port of Trieste. As the United Kingdom was proposing the creation of ten free ports after leaving the European Union in early 2020, the EU was clamping down on 82 free zones after finding that their special status had aided the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime. Definition The def ...
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Swinging Radio England
Swinging Radio England ("SRE") was a top 40 offshore commercial station billed as the "''World's Most Powerful''" that operated from 3 May 1966 to 13 November 1966 from a ship in the North Sea, four and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. While the station was dubbed a pirate radio station, its operation took place within the law and its offices were in the West End of London. Its representation was by a company formed earlier in the year to represent in Europe the ABC radio and television stations of the United States. Both the studio and the 50 kilowatt AM transmitter of Swinging Radio England were in two separate prefabricated rooms lowered into the two holds of the MV ''Olga Patricia'' (later renamed MV ''Laissez Faire''), a World War II vessel built in the US as a supply ship. The station shared the studio and transmitter holds with a 50 kW AM sister station named Britain Radio billed as the ''Hallmark of Quality'' and broadcasting easy listening music. O ...
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Wonderful Radio London
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 (in London's case, the " Fab 40") offshore commercial station that operated from 23 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. The station, like other offshore radio operators, was dubbed a pirate radio station, and went off air following the introduction of the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 which made it illegal to supply or assist such stations except in an emergency. The station was notable for helping to launch the careers of various disc jockeys who went on to work at BBC Radio 1. Its offices were in the West End of London at 17 Curzon Street, just off Park Lane. Origin of the station Radio London was the brainchild of Don Pierson, who lived in Eastland, Texas, United States. In a 1984 interview, Pierson said he got the idea in 1964, while reading a report in ''The Dallas Morning News'' of the start of Radio Ca ...
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Baby Doc
Jean-Claude Duvalier (; 3 July 19514 October 2014), nicknamed "Baby Doc" ( ht, Bebe Dòk), was a Haitian politician who was the President of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$2million wedding in 1980) while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere. Relations with the United States improved after Duvalier's ascension to the presidency, and later deteriorated under the Carter administration, only to normalize under Ronald Reagan due to the strong anti-communist stance of the Duv ...
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Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier (; 3 July 19514 October 2014), nicknamed "Baby Doc" ( ht, Bebe Dòk), was a Haitian politician who was the President of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$2million wedding in 1980) while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere. Relations with the United States improved after Duvalier's ascension to the presidency, and later deteriorated under the Carter administration, only to normalize under Ronald Reagan due to the strong anti-communist stance of the Duv ...
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Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger with Standard Oil of California, Gulf was one of the chief instruments of the Mellon family fortune; both Gulf and Mellon Financial had their headquarters in Pittsburgh, with Gulf's headquarters, the Gulf Tower, being Pittsburgh's tallest building until the completion of the U.S. Steel Tower. Gulf Oil Corporation (GOC) ceased to exist as an independent company in 1985, when it merged with Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), with both re-branding as Chevron in the United States. Gulf Canada, Gulf's main Canadian subsidiary, was sold the same year with retail outlets to Ultramar and Petro-Canada and what became Gulf Canada Resources to Olympia & York. However, the Gulf brand name and a number of the constituent business divisions of GOC ...
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François Duvalier
François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became more autocratic and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute ( ht, Tonton Makout), indiscriminately killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult. Prior to his rule, Duvalier was a physician by profession. He graduated from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Michigan on a scholarship that was meant to train Black doctors from the Caribbean ...
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Washington, DC
) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, National Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of the District of Columbia.svg , image_seal = Seal of the District of Columbia.svg , nickname = D.C., The District , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive map of Washington, D.C. , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , established_title = Residence Act , established_date = 1790 , named_for = George Washington, Christopher Columbus , established_title1 = Organized , established_date1 = 1801 , established_title2 = Consolidated , established_date2 = 1871 , established_title3 = Home Rule Ac ...
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ...
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Eastland, Texas
Eastland is a city in Eastland County, Texas, United States. Its population was 3,960 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Eastland County. History During the 1920s, Eastland, like nearby Cisco, Texas, Cisco, Ranger, Texas, Ranger, and Desdemona, Texas, Desdemona, was a petroleum boomtown. Eastland is known for the legend of "Ol' Rip the Horned Toad, Old Rip", a horned toad that allegedly lived many years sealed in the cornerstone of the previous Eastland courthouse built in 1897. The recession of 1921 exacerbated racial tensions between Anglos and Mexicans. Naturally, unemployment increased in town and Whites attempted to oust Mexicans who were hired during the WWI boom. Masked men ravaged shacks used by Mexicans as living quarters. Whites threatened Mexicans' lives, and fearful, they fled to nearby Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Worth to seek help from the Mexican Consulate, since local authorities took the side of the Anglo locals. In 1928, the current courthouse was erecte ...
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Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both List of U.S. states and territories by area, area (after Alaska) and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Houston is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas and the List of United States cities by population, fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most pop ...
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Don Pierson
Donald Grey Pierson (October 11, 1925 – March 30, 1996) was a businessman and civic leader in Eastland, Texas. He founded the British pirate stations Wonderful Radio London, Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio during the 1960s. He also attempted to create free ports on the islands of Tortuga, Haiti and Dominica during the 1970s. Brief biography Early life After graduating from Abilene High School in 1943, Pierson attended the University of Texas at Austin. He served as a gunnery instructor in the US Army Air Forces prior to the end of World War II. After the War, he continued his education at Baptist-affiliated Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene while he also worked as an automobile salesman. Business interests In 1948, he married the former Francis Annette Grubbs and, at the age of 21, acquired his first car dealership, a Dodge- Plymouth agency in Comanche. After opening his second dealership in 1953 for Oldsmobile- Cadillac in Eastland, he went on to e ...
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