Sarah Louise Palin (pronounced /ˈpeɪlɨn/ ( listen); née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, author, speaker, and political news commentator who was the youngest person and the first woman elected Governor of Alaska. She served as governor from 2006 until she resigned in 2009. Chosen by Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain in August 2008 to be his running mate in that year's presidential election,[11] she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party, as well as the first female vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. On July 3, 2009, Palin announced she would not seek reelection as governor and that she was resigning effective July 26, 2009, eighteen months before the completion of her term. She cited ethics complaints that had been filed following her selection as running mate to John McCain as one of the reasons for her resignation, saying the resulting investigations had affected her ability to govern the state.[12][13][14][15] Speculation that she will run for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2012 began prior to the defeat of the McCain–Palin ticket in 2008.[16][17] In September 2010 a Daily Beast reporter said a presidential campaign "seems inevitable"[18] and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described Palin as "the most formidable force in the Republican Party."[19] Before she was elected governor, she was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 to 1996, and the city's mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 until she resigned in 2004. In November 2009, her autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life was released and it quickly became a best-seller, selling more than two million copies.[20] In January 2010, Palin began providing political commentary to the Fox News Channel under a multi-year contract.[21] It was announced in March 2010 that she was to host her own TV show, called Sarah Palin's Alaska. Palin is authoring a second book, America by Heart, which is expected to be on shelves by November 23, 2010. Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris. Since their inception, the group have released a collective total of thirty-one albums: fifteen studio albums; seven live albums; four EPs; and five compilations. Pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden achieved success during the early 1980s and, after several line-up changes, the band went on to release a series of platinum and gold albums. These include the US platinum-selling landmarks The Number of the Beast in 1982, Piece of Mind in 1983, Powerslave in 1984, the acclaimed live album Live After Death in 1985, Somewhere in Time in 1986, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in 1988. Their second most recent studio effort, A Matter of Life and Death, was released in 2006 and peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200 and at number 4 in the UK and is also one of the few rock albums to be certified platinum in India. Their newest album, The Final Frontier, was released on 13 August 2010 in some countries, and worldwide on 16–17 August 2010.[1] As one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history, Iron Maiden have sold over 80 million records under EMI[2] and a total of over 100 million records worldwide with almost no radio or television support.[3][4][5] The band won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002,[6] and were also inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California during their United States tour in 2005. As of October 2009, the band has played over 2000 live shows during their career. For the past 30 years, the band has been supported by their famous mascot, "Eddie the Head", who has appeared on almost all of their album and single covers, as well as their live shows.