The study of the ionization of atoms resulting in vacancies in their inner shells and the subsequent decay of the atomic-vacancy states by x-ray and Auger transitions continue to be an active area of interest. A rapid survey of the theoretical efforts to calculate the transition probabilities involvingL-subshells in the high-Z atoms is presented. A complete review of theL₁-subshell yields for single-vacancy atomic states obtained by various experimental techniques is included. The production of multiple vacancies in theL shell and the role of the spectator vacancies in the decay process is discussed. A detailed case study of determining experimentally the number of multiple vacancies produced, and the x-ray fluorescence yields during ionization by heavy-ion bombardment is presented. It is established that the effect of spectator vacancies is to increase the x-ray fluorescence yields substantially.