Operation Sea Lion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe) was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air and naval supremacy over the English Channel. With the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and never carried out.

By early November 1939, Adolf Hitler had decided on forcing a decision in the West by invading Belgium, the Netherlands and France. With the prospect of the Channel ports falling under Kriegsmarine (German Navy) control and attempting to anticipate the obvious next step that might entail, Grand Admiral (Großadmiral) Erich Raeder (head of the Kriegsmarine) instructed his operations officer, Kapitän Hans Jürgen Reinicke, to draw up a document examining "the possibility of troop landings in England should the future progress of the war make the problem arise." Reinicke spent five days on this study and set forth the following prerequisites:

New Year is the time at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count is incremented. In many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner. The New Year of the Gregorian calendar, today in worldwide use, falls on 1 January, as was the case with the Roman calendar. There are numerous calendars that remain in regional use that calculate the New Year differently.

The order of months in the Roman calendar was January to December since King Numa Pompilius in about 700 BC, according to Plutarch and Macrobius. According to Catholic tradition, 1 January is the day of the circumcision of Jesus (on the eighth day from his birth), when the name of Jesus was given to him (Luke 2:21).

It was only relatively recently that 1 January again became the first day of the year in Western culture. Until 1751 in England and Wales (and all British dominions) the new year started on 25 March – Lady Day, one of the four quarter days (the change to 1 January took place in 1600 in Scotland). Since then, 1 January has been the first day of the year. During the Middle Ages several other days were variously taken as the beginning of the calendar year (1 March, 25 March, Easter, 1 September, 25 December).^{[citation needed][where?]} In many countries, such as the Czech Republic, Italy and the UK, 1 January is a national holiday.

Viva Brother were an English Britpop band from Slough. Previously known as Brother, they signed to Geffen Records in October and EMI Publishing in November 2010. Their debut album, Famous First Words, was released on August 1, 2011, and reached #34 on the UK Albums Chart. It was confirmed on 1st April, 2012 that Viva Brother had split up.

Previously known as Kill the Arcade and Wolf Am I, the band was renamed Brother in 2010. The previous incarnation of the group wrote, recorded and performed music primarily in the pop-punk emo genre. Describing their latest sound as Gritpop, and citing bands such as Blur, The Stone Roses, and The Smiths as influences, the band began playing shows around the London area. In an interview for Drowned in Sound, Leonard Newell stated that his musical interest began to change after he started going to a club night called I Love the 90s. A demo of the song "Darling Buds of May" was played by DJ Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1. Lowe also picked up on the band's blog. The site featured a video of the band setting-up and playing a guerrilla gig in front of Slough railway station, along with a promo video they had shot using money they had earned playing local gigs. In October they signed a deal with Geffen Records and EMI Publishing the following November.