Prior to 1947, the only definition of first-class cricket had been one in Great Britain that dated from a meeting at Lord's in May 1894 between the Marylebone Cricket Club ( MCC ) committee and the secretaries of the clubs involved in the official County Championship, which had begun in 1890.

Prior to Verdi's body's being driven from the cemetery to the official memorial service and its final resting place at the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, Arturo Toscanini conducted a chorus of 820 singers in " Va, pensiero ".

Prior to signing the accords, Arafat — as Chairman of the PLO and its official representative — signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel.

Prior to the introduction of standard time, each municipality around the civilized world set its official clock, if it had one, according to the local position of the Sun ( see solar time ).

Prior to his election as FIFA President, Blatter was a senior FIFA official for 23 years.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the African Union Commission praised the election for taking place with " calm and serenity " Prior to the 2009 election, Tunisia amended its constitution to allow more candidates to run for president, allowing the top official from each political party to compete for the presidency regardless of whether they held seats in parliament.

Prior to July 1999, official estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners as high as 60 to 70 million nationwide, rivaling membership in the Communist Party.

Prior to the official engagement announcement, he abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject, adopting the surname Mountbatten from his British maternal grandparents.

Prior to the invention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR ), defibrillation, epinephrine injection, and other treatments in the 20th century, the absence of blood circulation ( and vital functions related to blood circulation ) was historically considered to be the official definition of death.

Prior to Blaze's debut, the Trail Blazers never had any official mascot.

Prior to the opening of the area, the United States platted five official townships: Randlett, Ahpeatone, Isadore, Quanah and Eschiti.

Prior to the official opening of the Burbank lot in 1940, The Walt Disney Studios was located at several different locations in Los Angeles and Hollywood.

Prior to official release on VHS and Laserdisc in 1996, the film was re-released to select theaters on March 8, 1996 taking in $ 550, 000.

Prior to the establishment of official rules by the Afghan Olympic Federation the sport was mainly conducted based upon rules such as not whipping a fellow rider intentionally or deliberately knocking him off his horse.

Prior to 1998, the official releases were handled by Vans via Uni Distribution in 1996 and Epitaph Records in 1997 respectively.

Prior to the building ’ s use as a museum, it was the site of the first official government press in the state, founded in 1821.

Prior to a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 24, 2012, head coach Gregg Popovich decided to give Duncan a night off by listing him on the official scorecard as ' DNP-OLD ', poking fun at his 36-year old body.

Prior to the official autopsy reports being released publicly, Haim's mother stated that the coroner had given her a " courtesy call " to state his preliminary findings that Haim died of pulmonary edema and was suffering from an enlarged heart and water in the lungs.

Prior to their early-20th century demolitions, the Province House and the Hancock Manor were also proposed as official residences.

Prior to its official April 15 opening, 60, 000 people toured the new facility during a two day open house event.

Prior to devolution, Bute House was the official residence of the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Prior to 1974, Quebec had no official language and was subject only to the requirements on the use of English and French contained in Article 133 of the British North America Act, 1867.

Prior to this, the only Tory / Conservative party in Scotland was the official Conservative Party, which had never achieved parity with the dominant Whig and Scottish Liberal Party ascendancy since the election reforms of 1832.

Prior to the dissolution of the National Assembly, the ADQ had held only five seats, and as a result did not have official party status.

Prior to the novel's publication, two excerpts were published: " Calla Bryn Sturgis " was published in 2001 on Stephen King's official site, and " The Tale of Gray Dick " was published in 2003 in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales.

Prior to Red Hat, Young built a couple of computer rental and leasing businesses, including founding Vernon Computer Rentals in 1984.

Prior to the December 1984 coup that brought Taya to power, the Mauritanian-Moroccan cooperation agency stated that relations between the two countries were on the mend in spite of alleged Moroccan complicity in a 1981 coup attempt and Mauritania's subsequent turn toward Algeria.

Prior to its affiliation with The Greens – European Free Alliance, the SNP had previously been allied with the European Progressive Democrats ( until 1984 ), Rainbow Group ( 1989 – 1994 ) and European Radical Alliance ( 1994 – 1999 ).

Prior to its breakup in 1984, Bell System's legal monopoly over telephony in the United States allowed the company to impose strict rules on how consumers could access their network.

Prior to 1984 the EPA reported the exact fuel economy figures calculated from the test.

Prior to the Live Aid concert, in November 1984 Sting performed " Do They Know It's Christmas?

Prior to 1984, AT & T Corp. also held investments in two smaller and otherwise independent companies, Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone ( SNET ).

Prior to 1984 Almere had an Adviesraad, which was chosen every 2 years ( 1978 – 1980, 1980 – 1982, 1982 – 1984 ).

Prior to the introduction of a new city charter on June 20, 1984, council members in Windom were referred to as alderpersons.

In a 1984 United States District Court ruling, the court affirmed that the municipal boundary of the City of Prior Lake did include the tribal lands in question.

& Gerton, M. I., " Origins of the Term Hypnotism Prior to Braid ", American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 27, No. 2, ( October 1984 ), pp. 107 – 110.

Prior to the building's completion in 1984, Music & Art ( a / k / a " The Castle on the Hill ") was located on Convent Avenue and 135th Street in what has since become part of City College ( CCNY )' s South Campus ; the building is home to A. Philip Randolph High School.

Prior to Simon's learning the song, Bob Dylan had borrowed the melody and several lines from Carthy's arrangement in creating his song, " Girl from the North Country ", which appeared on The Freewheelin ' Bob Dylan ( 1963 ), Nashville Skyline ( 1969 ) ( together with Johnny Cash ), Real Live ( 1984 ) and The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration ( 1993 ).

Prior to 1984, Olympic football was an amateur event, meaning that only non-professional players could participate.

Prior to the Bell System divestiture on January 1, 1984, American Telephone & Telegraph Company ( AT & T ) through its Bell System companies held a natural monopoly for telephone service within the United States.

Prior to 1984, the 5251 monitor predominated-it was US $ 2, 000 and what IBM called " dual color " ( green and white ).

Prior to 1984, the former Bastille railway station stood where the opera house now stands.

Prior to the 1984 season, their clubhouse ravaged by drug problems, the Royals started disassembling their team and starting over.

Prior to 1984, Canada was seen as having a dominant-party system led by the Liberal Party while Progressive Conservative governments therefore were considered by many of these pundits as caretaker governments, doomed to fall once the collective mood of the electorate shifted and the federal Liberal Party eventually came back to power.

Prior to then, the AT & T Long Lines division of the Bell System, which was what AT & T called itself when it was responsible for providing both long distance and local telephone service before the 1984 breakup, provided maintenance and installation of long line facilities for the Bell System's long distance service.

In September 1981, Prior became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and was in this office until September 1984.

Prior to the 1993 – 94 academic year, Jacksonville State competed in NCAA Division II athletics, winning national championships in men's basketball ( 1985 ), baseball ( 1990 and 1991 ), football ( 1992 ) and gymnastics ( 1984 and 1985 ).

Prior to 1984, the route known as I-880 used to be part of State Route 17.

Prior to 1984, the grades of Lieutenant and Member were classified as Members ( fourth class ) and Members ( fifth class ), respectively, but both with the post-nominals MVO.