title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, called təˡqʷuʔbəʔ in the Puget Sound Salish dialect. It is locally known as the "City of Destiny" because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacoma's neighboring deep-water harbor, Commencement Bay. By connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacoma's motto became "When rails meet sails". Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast and Washington's largest port. The city gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname "Galloping Gertie".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Like most industrial cities, Tacoma suffered a prolonged decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization and divestment. Since the 1990s, downtown Tacoma has experienced a period of revitalization. Developments in the downtown include the University of Washington Tacoma; the T Line (formerly Tacoma Link), the first modern electric light rail service in the state; the state's highest density of art and history museums; and a restored urban waterfront, the Thea Foss Waterway.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The area was inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, most recently the Puyallup people, who lived in settlements on the delta.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1852, a Swede named Nicolas Delin built a water-powered sawmill on a creek near the head of Commencement Bay, but the small settlement that grew around it was abandoned during the Indian War of 1855–56. In 1864, pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, a Civil War veteran and land speculator, built a cabin (which also served as Tacoma's first post office; a replica was built in 2000 near the original site in "Old Town"). Carr hoped to profit from the selection of Commencement Bay as the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, and sold most of his claim to developer Morton M. McCarver (1807–1875), who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma was incorporated on November 12, 1875, following its selection in 1873 as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad due to lobbying by McCarver, future mayor John Wilson Sprague, and others. However, the railroad built its depot in New Tacoma, two miles (3 km) south of the Carr–McCarver development. The two communities grew together and joined, merging on January 7, 1884. The transcontinental link was effected in 1887, and the population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890. Rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was "literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: George Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century. In 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. As described by the account prepared by the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, on the morning of November 3, "several hundred men, led by the mayor and other city officials, evicted the Chinese from their homes, corralled them at 7th Street and Pacific Avenue, marched them to the railway station at Lakeview and forced them aboard the morning train to Portland, Oregon. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground."


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led to Tacoma's prominence in the region being eclipsed by the development of Seattle.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: A major tragedy marred the end of the 19th century, when a streetcar accident resulted in significant loss of life on July 4, 1900.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: From May to August 1907, the city was the site of a smelter workers' strike organized by Local 545 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), with the goal of a fifty-cent per day pay raise. The strike was strongly opposed by the local business community, and the smelter owners threatened to blacklist organizers and union officials. The IWW opposed this move by trying to persuade inbound workers to avoid Tacoma during the strike. By August, the strike had ended without meeting its demands.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma was briefly (1915–1922) a major destination for big-time automobile racing, with one of the nation's top-rated racing venues just outside the city limits, at the site of today's Clover Park Technical College.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1924, Tacoma's first movie studio, H. C. Weaver Studio, was sited at present-day Titlow Beach. At the time, it was the third-largest freestanding film production space in America, with the two larger facilities being located in Hollywood. The studio's importance has undergone a revival with the discovery of one of its most famous lost films, "Eyes of the Totem".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The 1929 crash of the stock market, resulting in the Great Depression, was only the first event in a series of misfortunes to hit Tacoma in the winter of 1929–30. In one of the coldest winters on record, Tacoma experienced mass power outages and eventually the shutdown of major power supply dams, leaving the city without sufficient power and heat. During the 30-day power shortage in the winter of 1929 and 1930, the engines of the aircraft carrier provided Tacoma with electricity.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: A power grid failure paired with a newly rewritten city constitution – put into place to keep political power away from a single entity such as the railroad – created a standstill in the ability to further the local economy. Local businesses were affected as the sudden stop of loans limited progression of expansion and renewal funds for maintenance, leading to foreclosures. Families across the city experienced the fallout of economic depression as breadwinners sought to provide for their families. Shanty-town politics began to develop as the destitute needed some form of leadership to keep the peace.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: At the intersection of Dock Street EXD and East D Street in the train yard, a shanty town became the solution to the growing scar of the depression. Tacoma's Hooverville grew in 1924 as the homeless community settled on the waterfront. The population boomed in November 1930 through early 1931 as families from the neighboring McKinley and Hilltop areas were evicted.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Collecting scraps of metal and wood from local lumber stores and recycling centers, families began building shanties (shacks) for shelter. Alcoholism and suicide became a common event in the Hooverville that eventually led to its nickname of "Hollywood on the Tide Flats", because of the Hollywood-style crimes and events taking place in the camp.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1956, the last occupant of "Hollywood" was evicted and the police used fire to level the grounds and make room for industrial growth.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1935, Tacoma received national attention when George Weyerhaeuser, the nine-year-old son of prominent lumber industry executive J.P. Weyerhaeuser, was kidnapped while walking home from school. FBI agents from Portland handled the case, in which a ransom of $200,000 secured the release of the victim. Four persons were apprehended and convicted; the last to be released was paroled from McNeil Island in 1963. George Weyerhaeuser went on to become chairman of the board of the Weyerhaeuser Company.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1951, an investigation by a state legislative committee revealed widespread corruption in Tacoma's government, which had been organized commission-style since 1910. Voters approved a mayor and city-manager system in 1952.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma was featured prominently in the garage rock sound of the mid-1960s with bands including The Wailers and The Sonics. The surf rock band The Ventures were also from Tacoma.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Downtown Tacoma experienced a long decline through the mid-20th century. Harold Moss, later the city's mayor, characterized late-1970s Tacoma as looking "bombed out" like "downtown Beirut" (a reference to the Lebanese Civil War that occurred at that time); "Streets were abandoned, storefronts were abandoned and City Hall was the headstone and Union Station the footstone" on the grave of downtown.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The first local referendums in the U.S. on computerized voting occurred in Tacoma in 1982 and 1987. On both occasions, voters rejected the computer voting systems that local officials sought to purchase. The campaigns, organized by Eleanora Ballasiotes, a conservative Republican, focused on the vulnerabilities of computers to fraud.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In 1998, Tacoma installed a high-speed fiber optic network throughout the community. The municipally owned power company, Tacoma Power, wired the city.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Beginning in the early 1990s, city residents and planners took steps to revitalize Tacoma, particularly its downtown. Among the projects were the federal courthouse in the former Union Station (1991); Save Our Station community group; Merritt+Pardini Architect (1991); Reed & Stem Architects (1911); the adaptation of a group of century-old brick warehouses into a branch campus of the University of Washington; the numerous privately financed renovation projects near the campus; the Washington State History Museum (1996), echoing the architecture of Union Station; the Museum of Glass (2002); the Tacoma Art Museum (2003); and the region's first light-rail line (2003). The glass and steel Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center opened in November 2004. America's Car Museum was completed in late 2011 near the Tacoma Dome.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The Pantages Theater (first opened in 1918) anchors downtown Tacoma's Theatre District. Tacoma Arts Live manages the Pantages, the Rialto Theater, and the Theatre on the Square. Tacoma Little Theatre (opened in 1918) bridges the Theater District and the Hilltop neighborhood. Other attractions include the Grand Cinema and the Landmark Temple Theatre.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma is at (47.241371, −122.459389). Its official elevation is , varying between sea level and about .


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma straddles the neighboring Commencement Bay with several smaller cities surrounding it. Large areas of Tacoma have views of Mount Rainier. In the event of a major eruption of Mount Rainier, the low-lying areas of Tacoma near the Port of Tacoma are at risk from a lahar flowing down the Puyallup River.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The city is several miles north of Joint Base Lewis–McChord, formerly known separately as Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: According to the Köppen climate classification, Tacoma has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csb"). The warmest months are July and August; the coldest month is December.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 198,397 people, 78,541 households, and 45,716 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 81,102 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 64.9% White (60.5% Non-Hispanic White), 12.2% African American, 8.2% Asian (2.1% Vietnamese, 1.6% Cambodian, 1.3% Korean, 1.3% Filipino, 0.4% Chinese, 0.4% Japanese, 0.2% Indian, 0.2% Laotian, 0.1% Thai), 1.8% Native American, 1.2% Pacific Islander (0.7% Samoan, 0.2% Guamanian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian), and 8.1% were from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 11.3% of the population (8.1% Mexican, 1.1% Puerto Rican).


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: There were 78,541 households, of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 14.8% had a female householder with no spouse present, 5.6% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 41.8% were other families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.10.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The median age in the city was 35.1 years. 23% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.6% were from 25 to 44; 25.3% were from 45 to 64; and 11.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.4% male and 50.6% female.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 193,556 people, 76,152 households, and 45,919 families residing in the city. The median income for a household in the city was $37,879, and the median income for a family was $45,567. Males had a median income of $35,820, versus $27,697 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,130. About 11.4% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.6% of those under the age of 18 and 10.9% of those 65 and older.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: According to Uniform Crime Report statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018, there were 950 violent crimes and 5,641 property crimes per 100,000 residents. Of these, the violent crimes consisted of 84 forcible rapes, 7 murders, 257 robberies and 602 aggravated assaults, while 963 burglaries, 3,674 larceny-thefts, 1,004 motor vehicle thefts and 46 instances of arson defined the property offenses.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood struggled with crime in the 1980s and early 1990s. The beginning of the 21st century has seen a marked reduction in crime, while neighborhoods have enacted community policing and other policies.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Bill Baarsma (mayor, 2002–2010) was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with the goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The government of the city of Tacoma operates under a council-manager system. The city council consists of an elected mayor (Victoria Woodards) and eight elected council members: five from individual city council districts and three others from the city at-large. All serve four-year terms and are elected in odd-numbered years. The council adopts and amends city laws, approves a two-year budget, establishes city policy, appoints citizens to boards and commissions, and performs other actions. The council also meets in "standing committees", which examine the council's work in more defined areas, such as "Environment & Public Works", "Neighborhoods & Housing", and "Public Safety, Human Services & Education". The council meets as a whole most Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. in the council chambers at 747 Market St. Meetings are open to the public and provide for public input.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Victoria Woodards began her term as mayor of the City of Tacoma on January 2, 2018. She is Tacoma's third African-American mayor and third female mayor, and the second African-American female mayor. She succeeded Marilyn Strickland, who was elected in 2009, becoming Tacoma's first African-American female mayor.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Normal day-to-day operations of the city government are administered by Tacoma's city manager, who is appointed by the city council. Elizabeth Pauli was appointed Interim City Manager on February 6, 2017. She replaced former manager T. C. Broadnax, who was appointed to the office in January 2012 and left in 2017 to become the city manager of Dallas, Texas.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: At the federal level, Tacoma is part of three congressional districts. The western portion of the city is part of the 6th District, represented by Derek Kilmer. The eastern portion is in the 10th District, represented by Marilyn Strickland. Northeastern Tacoma is in the 9th District, represented by Adam Smith. All three are Democrats.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma is the home of several international companies, including staffing company True Blue Inc. (formerly Labor Ready), lumber company Simpson, and the food companies Roman Meal and Brown and Haley.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Beginning in the 1930s, the city became known for the "Tacoma Aroma", a distinctive, acrid odor produced by pulp and paper manufacturing on the industrial tide flats. In the late 1990s, Simpson Tacoma Kraft reduced total sulfur emissions by 90%. This largely eliminated the problem; where once the odor was ever-present, it is now only noticeable occasionally downtown, primarily when the wind is coming from the east. The mill produces pulpwood and linerboard products; previously owned by St. Regis the mill was sold to RockTenn in 2014. The mill's name changed yet again in 2016 to WestRock.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: U.S. Oil and Refining operates an oil refinery on the tide flats in the Port of Tacoma. Built in Tacoma in 1952, it refines 39,000 barrels of petroleum per day.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The Tacoma Mall is the largest shopping center in Tacoma. It is owned by Simon Property Group. Anchor tenants include JC Penney, Macy's, and Nordstrom.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: An economic setback for the city occurred in September 2009 when Russell Investments, which has been in downtown Tacoma since its inception in 1936, announced it was moving its headquarters to Seattle along with several hundred white-collar jobs. A large regional office for State Farm occupied the building until 2018 when the building was purchased by the 909 Destiny Fund LLC. The building is reopening as a multi-tenant Class A property. The anchor tenant is TOTE Alaska, which announced in 2019 that it would be relocating its Federal Way headquarters to the 909 A Street building's top two floors.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Hospitals in Tacoma are operated by MultiCare Health System and Franciscan Health System. Hospitals include MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, MultiCare Allenmore Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center. The Tacoma–Pierce County Health Department manages public health initiatives across the city and county.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: According to the City of Tacoma, the major employers in the area include the military, healthcare, finance and insurance, aerospace, trade and logistics, government and education, as follows:


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Parks and recreation services in and around Tacoma are governed by Metro Parks Tacoma, a municipal corporation established as a separate entity from the city government in 1907. Metro Parks maintains over fifty parks and open spaces in Tacoma.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Point Defiance Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country (at 700 acres), is in Tacoma. Scenic Five-Mile Drive allows access to many of the park's attractions, such as Owen Beach, Fort Nisqually, and the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium (PDZA). There are many historic structures within the park, including the Pagoda, which was originally built as a streetcar waiting room. It was restored in 1988 and now serves as a rental facility for weddings and private parties. The Pagoda was nearly destroyed by fire on August 15, 2011. Repair work began immediately after the fire and continued until January 2013, at which time the Pagoda was reopened for public use.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Ruston Way is a waterfront area along Commencement Bay north of downtown Tacoma that hosts several public parks connected by a multi-use trail and interspersed with restaurants and other businesses. Public parks along Ruston Way include Jack Hyde Park, Old Town Dock, Hamilton Park, Dickman Mill Park, Les Davis Pier, Marine Park, and Cummings Park. The trail is used by walkers, runners, cyclists, and other recreationalists. There are several beaches along Ruston Way with public access, some of which are also popular for scuba diving.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Another large park in Tacoma is Wapato Park, which has a lake and walking trails that circle the lake. Wapato is in Tacoma's south end, at Sheridan and 72nd St.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Wright Park, near downtown, is a large, English-style park designed in the late 19th century by Edward Otto Schwagerl and Ebenezer Rhys Roberts. It contains Wright Park Arboretum and the W. W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory. This historic park is also the home of local festivals such as Ethnic Fest, Out in the Park (Tacoma's Pride festival), and the Tacoma Hempfest (Tacoma's annual gathering advocating decriminalization of marijuana).


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Jefferson Park in North Tacoma is the location of a new sprayground, an area designed to be a safe and unique play area where water is sprayed from structures or ground sprays and then drained away before it can accumulate.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In response to the Tacoma area's growing dog population and stricter leash laws in many areas, dog parks have begun to be established. Rogers Off-Leash Dog Park is a metro public park established in 1949.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma includes several landmarks and was home to prolific architects, including Everett Phipps Babcock, Frederick Heath, Ambrose J. Russell, and Silas E. Nelsen.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Two suspension bridges span a narrow section of the Puget Sound called the Tacoma Narrows. The Tacoma Narrows Bridges link Tacoma to Gig Harbor and the Kitsap Peninsula. The failure of the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world, is a famous case study in architecture textbooks.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma has many properties that are listed on the City of Tacoma Register of Historic Places, the Washington State Heritage Register, and the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The city of Tacoma has an active municipal historic preservation program, which includes 165 individual city landmarks and over 1,000 historic properties included within five locally regulated historic overlay zones.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Engine House No. 9 is a fire station built in 1907. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The building houses a pub and microbrewery.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Stadium High School and the Stadium Bowl, part of the Tacoma School District, provided a setting for the movie "10 Things I Hate About You".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: "Fireboat No. 1" rests on a permanent dry berth at a public beach near Tacoma's Old Town neighborhood. It was built in 1929 for the Port of Tacoma by the Coastline Shipbuilding Company, and served for 54 years in waterfront fire protection, harbor security patrols, search and rescue missions, and water pollution control. It is one of only five fireboats designated as a National Historic Landmark. Visitors are able to walk around her exterior, but her interior is closed to the public.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: William Ross Rust House is a home in Colonial/Classic Revival style, built in 1905 by Ambrose J. Russell (architect) and Charles Miller (contractor).


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Murray Morgan Bridge is a 1911 steel lift bridge across the Thea Foss Waterway; in 2007, it was closed to automobile traffic due to its deteriorating condition but was reopened to all traffic in February 2013 following a substantial rehabilitation.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Other notable buildings include the National Realty Building, Lincoln High School, Rhodes House, Pythian Temple, Perkins Building, Tacoma Dome, and Rhodesleigh. The Luzon Building and Nihon Go Gakko school house have been demolished, and the MV Kalakala was scrapped in early 2015. University of Puget Sound, Cushman Dam No. 1, Cushman Dam No. 2, Rialto Theater, and Union Station are also noteworthy.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The school district for the majority of Tacoma is Tacoma Public Schools. The district contains 36 elementary schools, eleven middle schools, and 10 high schools, including three non-traditional high schools (SAMi, SOTA, and iDEA) and two alternative high schools (Oakland and Willie Stewart Academy). Tacoma is also home to three charter public schools: SOAR Academy (elementary), Green Dot Destiny (middle) and Summit Olympus (high) school.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Henry Foss High School operates an International Baccalaureate program. Sheridan Elementary School operated three foreign-language immersion programs (Spanish, French, and Japanese). Mount Tahoma High School opened a new building in South Tacoma in the fall of 2004. Stadium High School and Wilson High School were remodeled/refurbished and reopened in September 2006.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma School of the Arts, opened in 2001 in downtown Tacoma, is an arts-focused high school that serves as a national model for educational innovation. SOTA is a public school, part of the Tacoma Public Schools, and is one of the nation's first schools to implement standards-based instruction, influencing the design of many schools in the nation. SOTA is in multiple venues around Downtown Tacoma and uses Community Museums and Universities for instructional space. In 2009, SOTA's staff expanded to a second, STEM-based high school located in Point Defiance Park, the Science and Math Institute (SAMI). In 2017, the school district opened a third non-traditional high school in the same vein as SAMI and SOTA, called iDEA (Industrial Design, Engineering, and Art) in south Tacoma. SAMI and SOTA are the only schools in Tacoma to offer University of Washington in the Classroom college credit options from the University of Washington.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Other school districts with territory covering parts of Tacoma are: Clover Park School District, Fife Public Schools, Franklin Pierce School District, and University Place School District.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The area also has numerous private schools, including Evergreen Lutheran High School, the Annie Wright Schools, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Life Christian Academy, Charles Wright Academy, Covenant High School, and Parkland Lutheran School.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma's institutions of higher learning include the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Community College, City University of Seattle-Tacoma, Bates Technical College, Corban University School of Ministry/Tacoma Campus, as well as satellite campuses of The Evergreen State College and the University of Washington. Pacific Lutheran University is in Parkland, just south of the city; nearby Lakewood is the home of Clover Park Technical College and Pierce College.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The city's major daily newspaper is "The News Tribune", a subsidiary of McClatchy Newspapers since 1986. Its circulation is about 85,000 (100,000 on Sundays), making it the state's third-largest newspaper. A daily newspaper has been in circulation in Tacoma since 1883. Between 1907 and 1918, four dailies were published: "The Tacoma Ledger", "The News", "The Tacoma Tribune", and "The Tacoma Times".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma's television market is shared with Seattle. Four network owned-and-operated stations are licensed to the city: KCPQ 13 (Fox), KSTW 11 (CW), KTBW-TV 20 (TBN), and KWDK 42 (Daystar). Bates Technical College owns the city's PBS member station, KBTC-TV 28, which serves as the market's secondary PBS station. KBTC is housed at the former studios of KSTW, who sold the property when it moved to Renton in 2001.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Local papers include the "Tacoma Weekly", the legal paper "Tacoma Daily Index", the South Sound alternative newsweekly "Weekly Volcano" and the military publication the "Fort Lewis Ranger".


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: University of Washington Tacoma's weekly student-run newspaper "The Ledger" is also circulated around downtown Tacoma.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma is also the setting for the American comedy television series "Tacoma FD" on truTV. Created by members of the Broken Lizard comedy group, the series premiered on March 28, 2019.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The city has struggled to keep a minor league hockey franchise. The Tacoma Rockets of the Western Hockey League moved to Kelowna, British Columbia. The Tacoma Sabercats of the former West Coast Hockey League closed their doors for financial reasons. The Tacoma Dome still hosts traveling sports and other events, such as pro-wrestling, figure-skating tours, and the Harlem Globetrotters. At one point, the Tacoma Dome was home to a professional indoor soccer team, the Tacoma Stars. For the 1994–95 season, the Seattle SuperSonics played in the Tacoma Dome while the Seattle Center Coliseum was renovated (and renamed KeyArena). The Tacoma Dome also hosted the 1988 and 1989 Women's NCAA Final Four. Tacoma is home to the all-female flat track roller derby league Dockyard Derby Dames, which fields an away team. Many golf clubs and courses are located in Tacoma including Lake Spanaway Golf Course.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Cheney Stadium is home to the Tacoma Rainiers minor league baseball team, the Tacoma Defiance third-division soccer team, and Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma's system of transportation is based primarily on the automobile. The majority of the city has a system of gridded streets oriented in relation to A Street (one block east of Pacific Avenue) and 6th Avenue or Division Avenue, both beginning in downtown Tacoma. Within the city, and with a few exceptions, east-to-west streets are numbered and north-to-south streets are given a name or a letter. Some east-to-west streets are also given names, such as S. Center St. and N. Westgate Blvd. Streets are generally labeled "North", "South", "East", or "North East" according to their relationship with 6th Avenue or Division Avenue (west of 'Division Ave', '6th Avenue' is the lowest-numbered street, making it the dividing street between "North" and "South"), 'A Street' (which is the dividing line between "East" and "South"), or 1st Street NE (which is the dividing line between "East" and "North East"). This can lead to confusion, as most named streets intersect streets of the same number in both north and south Tacoma. For example, the intersection of South 11th Street and South Union Avenue is just ten blocks south of North 11th Street and North Union Avenue.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: To the east of the Thea Foss waterway and 'A Street', streets are similarly divided into "East" and "Northeast", with 1st Street NE being in-line with the Pierce–King county line. "North East" covers a small wedge of Tacoma and unincorporated Pierce County (around Browns Point and Dash Point) lying on the hill across the tideflats from downtown. Tacoma does have some major roads which do not seem to follow any naming rules. These roads include Schuster Pkwy, Pacific Ave, Puyallup Ave, Tacoma Mall Blvd, Marine View Dr (SR 509), and Northshore Pkwy. Tacoma also has some major roads which appear to change names in different areas (most notable are Tyler St/Stevens St, Oakes St/Pine St/Cedar St/Alder St, and S. 72nd St/S. 74th St). These major arterials actually shift over to align with other roads, which causes them to have the name changed.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: This numeric system extends to the furthest reaches of unincorporated Pierce County (with roads outside of the city carrying "East", "West", "North West", and "South West", except on the Key Peninsula, which retains the north–south streets but chooses the Pierce–Kitsap county line as the zero point for east–west streets. Until 2018, Key Peninsula's roads also carried a "KP N" or "KP S" ("Key Peninsula North" or "Key Peninsula South") designation at the end of the street name. From 2018, these designations have switched to "NW" and "SW" respectfully.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In portions of the city dating back to the Tacoma Streetcar Period (1888–1938), denser mixed-use business districts exist alongside single family homes. Twelve such districts have active, city-recognized business associations and hold "small town"-style parades and other festivals. The Proctor District, Tacoma, Old Town, Dome, 6th Avenue, Stadium, Lincoln Business District, and South Tacoma Business Districts are some of the more prominent of these and coordinate their efforts to redevelop urban villages through the Cross District Association of Tacoma. In newer portions of the city to the west and south, residential culs-de-sac, four-lane collector roads and indoor shopping centers are more commonplace.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The dominant intercity transportation link between Tacoma and other parts of the Puget Sound is Interstate 5, which links Tacoma with Seattle to the north and Portland, Oregon, to the south. State Route 16 runs along a concrete viaduct through Tacoma's Nalley Valley, connecting Interstate 5 with Central and West Tacoma, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Kitsap Peninsula. Seattle–Tacoma International Airport lies north, in the city of SeaTac.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Public transportation in Tacoma includes buses, commuter rail, light rail, and ferries. Public bus service is provided by Pierce Transit, which serves Tacoma and Pierce County. Pierce Transit operates 43 bus routes (five of which through Sound Transit), using a fleet of buses powered by compressed natural gas, diesel, and electric batteries. Bus service operates at 30–60 minute frequencies daily, while three heavily ridden "trunk" routes are mostly served every 20 minutes on weekdays and every half-hour to an hour on weekends as of October 2, 2011. The bus route serving the Pacific Avenue corridor is planned to be upgraded into a bus rapid transit line by 2022, at a cost of $150 million.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Sound Transit, the regional transit authority, provides weekday Sounder Commuter Rail service and daily express bus service to and from Seattle. Sound Transit has also established Tacoma Link light rail, a free electric streetcar line linking Tacoma Dome Station with the University of Washington, Tacoma, Tacoma's Museum District, and the Theater District. Expansion of the city's rail transit system is in planning stages by the city of Tacoma and Sound Transit. The line will be extended north along Commerce St/Stadium Way and then west along Division Ave. It will then turn south along Martin Luther King Jr. Way and end near South 19th Street.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: The Washington State Ferries system, which has a dock at Point Defiance, provides ferry access to Tahlequah at the southern tip of Vashon Island.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Tacoma from Tacoma Dome Station. The Cascades trains, operating as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia and as far south as Eugene, Oregon, serve Tacoma several times daily in both directions. The long-distance "Coast Starlight" operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles via the San Francisco Bay Area.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma's relationship with public utilities extends back to 1893. At that time the city was undergoing a boom in population, causing it to exceed the available amount of fresh water supplied by Charles B. Wright's Tacoma Light & Water Company. In response to both this demand and a growing desire to have local public control over the utility system, the city council put up a public vote to acquire and expand the private utility. The measure passed on July 1, 1893, with 3,195 in favor of acquiring the utility system and 1,956 voting against. Since then, Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) has grown from a small water and light utility to be the largest department in the city's government, employing about 1,200 people.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma Power, a division of TPU, provides residents of Tacoma and several bordering municipalities with electrical power generated by eight hydroelectric dams on the Skokomish River and elsewhere. Environmentalists, fishermen, and the Skokomish Indian Tribe have criticized TPU's operation of Cushman Dam on the North Fork of the Skokomish River; the tribe's $6 billion claim was denied by the U.S. Supreme court in January 2006. The capacity of Tacoma's hydroelectric system as of 2004 was 713,000 kilowatts, or about 50% of the demand made up by TPU's customers (the rest is purchased from other utilities). According to TPU, hydroelectricity provides about 87% of Tacoma's power; coal 3%; natural gas 1%; nuclear 9%; and biomass and wind at less than 1%. Tacoma Power also operates the Click! Network, a municipally owned cable television and internet service. The residential cost per kilowatt hour of electricity is just over 6 cents.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma Water provides customers in its service area with water from the Green River Watershed. As of 2004, Tacoma Water provided water services to 93,903 customers. The average annual cost for residential supply was $257.84.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: Tacoma Rail, initially a municipally owned street railway line running to the tideflats, was converted to a common-carrier rail switching utility. Tacoma Rail is self-supporting and employs over 90 people.


title: Tacoma, Washington

text: In addition to municipal garbage collection, Tacoma offers commingled recycling services for paper, cardboard, plastics, and metals.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Samuel George Guevara (born July 28, 1993) is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Jericho Appreciation Society. He is a record tying three-time former AEW TNT Champion. He also appears in AEW's Mexico based partner promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where is currently in his first reign as AAA Mixed Tag Team Champions with real life wife and fellow AEW wrestler Tay Melo. During a previous stint with AAA, he held the AAA Cruiserweight Championship.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Guevara made his professional wrestling debut in 2010 - after being trained by Booker T - beginning his career in Booker's Reality of Wrestling promotion. Throughout the 2010s, he worked for numerous U.S. companies, most notably Impact Wrestling. He has also wrestled in Japan with DDT Pro Wrestling.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Guevara has been with AEW since the promotion's founding in 2019, featured early on as a member of Chris Jericho's first stable, The Inner Circle.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Sammy Guevara was born on July 28, 1993 in Houston, Texas to a Cuban father and an American mother. He grew up in the nearby suburb of Katy, Texas, and his parents divorced when Sammy was young. Guevara became a fan of wrestling in 2004 when he went to a WWE Smackdown show in Houston where he saw Booker T and Rey Mysterio wrestle. He later decided he wanted to become a professional wrestler, so he went to Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling wrestling school in Houston in 2010.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: After graduating from Booker T's wrestling school, Guevara made his major promotion debut on January 5, 2013 for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). On April 7, 2016, Guevara wrestled a AAA tag team dark match with Tony Guevara (The Laredo Kid) against Los Matadores (Primo and Epico Colón). Guevara first worked for Impact Wrestling in 2017 on its weekly TV show, Impact Xplosion, in a tag team match (with Davey Richards) against Drago and Taiji Ishimori. Guevara was later in Impact's Super X Cup tournament, losing to Drago in its opening round. Guevara debuted for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in its 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals. At PWG's May 2018 "Bask In His Glory" event, Guevara wrestled PWG World Champion WALTER in the main event for the title. On December 7, 2017, Guevara debuted in Major League Wrestling (MLW), and appeared many times on its TV show ("MLW Fusion") in 2018. Guevara won the PWFP Ultimate Championship from Raja Naveed at the "Rumble in Pakistan" event on April 28, 2019, but was later stripped of the title for going 340+ days without making any title defenses.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Guevara was a cast member for season four of Lucha Underground, the scripted TV show AAA co-produced with the El Rey network. Guevara made his Lucha Libre AAA World Wide debut at Verano de Escándalo 2018. He won the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship at the Triplemanía XXVI annual event on August before losing it to Laredo Kid on February 16, 2019. At Triplemanía XXVII, Guevara teamed up with Scarlett Bordeaux in a match for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship where they were unsuccessful.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On February 7, 2019, Guevara was announced to have signed with the newly formed All Elite Wrestling (AEW). At the promotion's inaugural event, Double or Nothing, on May 25, Guevara was defeated by Kip Sabian. At Fight for the Fallen on July 13, Guevara teamed with MJF and Shawn Spears to defeat Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc and Joey Janela in a six-man tag team match. On the premiere episode of "AEW Dynamite" on October 2, Guevara lost to Cody. After the match, Guevara shook hands with Cody, before AEW World Champion Chris Jericho viciously attacked Cody from behind in front of him. Later on that night, Guevara established himself as a heel when he assisted AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, Jake Hager (who made his AEW debut), Santana and Ortiz attacking Cody, The Young Bucks and Cody's half-brother Dustin Rhodes. They created a group that would become known as "The Inner Circle". Guevara would then begin a feud with Darby Allin leading into 2020, all the while assisting Jericho in his rivalries and championship defenses. At "Revolution" on February 29, 2020, Guevara was defeated by Allin. On the March 25 episode of AEW, The Inner Circle and The Elite were set to compete in a Blood and Guts match, but the COVID-19 outbreak would cause AEW to postpone the match. Guevara would then compete in a tournament to crown the inaugural AEW TNT Champion. He was again beaten by Allin in the first round of the tournament. A match between Matt Hardy and The Elite (Adam Page, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) and The Inner Circle would be announced for "Double or Nothing", called a Stadium Stampede match. At the event, The Inner Circle faced The Elite and Matt Hardy, but were unsuccessful in winning.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On June 22, 2020, Guevara was suspended by AEW after it was revealed that he made an inappropriate joke about wanting to "go rape" WWE wrestler Sasha Banks during a podcast in January 2016. He later made a YouTube video apologizing for the remarks and taking accountability for what he said. Later that day, Banks announced that she and Guevara were in contact with each other, that he had apologized to her, and that they had engaged in an "open discussion" to help him understand the severity of his comments. The conditions of his suspension are that he was required to attend sensitivity training, while his weekly pay was donated to the Women's Center of Jacksonville during the course of his suspension. Guevara returned on the July 22 episode of "Dynamite", disguised as Serpentico, as he interfered to help Jericho and Hager defeat Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus in a tag team match.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: After Guevara's return, he would resume his feud with Matt Hardy. On the August 5th episode of Dynamite, Guevara would get into a brawl with Hardy, resulting in Guevara hitting Matt Hardy with a chair, busting him open. He followed this with a 630 senton through a table. On the August 22 episode of Dynamite, Guevara would be attacked by Hardy during his cue cards segment. Matt would then launch Guevara through a table. A match between the two was made for All Out. The match would be a "Broken Rules" match, also known as a last man standing match. At the event, Sammy Guevara would lose to Matt Hardy. Their feud would yet again be put on hiatus, due to Hardy sustaining an injury during the match. On the September 16th episode of Dynamite, Matt Hardy would be found unconscious backstage, and he would later state that someone had attacked him. The attacker was revealed to be Guevara a month later, where he burned photographs of Hardy. And "The Elite Deletion" match was announced, taking place at The Hardy Compound in Cameron, North Carolina. The match was aired on the "Full Gear" pay-per-view on November 7, with Santana, Ortiz, and Gangrel running to aid Guevara and Private Party and The Hurricane evening the odds for Hardy. After sealing off the interfering parties, Hardy defeated Guevara again, ending the feud. At Full Gear, MJF and Wardlow became Guevara's new teammates in The Inner Circle after MJF defeated Jericho. On the December 9th Dynamite, Chris Jericho held an ultimatum for the Inner Circle, with many members showing frustrations with MJF. Sammy Guevara would declare that if one more thing happened with MJF, then he would quit the Inner Circle. The two would then shake hands.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On the February 10, 2021 edition of "AEW Dynamite", following weeks of growing tension between the two, Guevara attacked MJF following a backstage confrontation which gave MJF a kayfabe rib injury. Later on that night, Guevara announced his departure from The Inner Circle. This was set to leave him appearing on Impact Wrestling, but both parties couldn't come to an agreement about Guevara's storylines. A month later on the March 10 episode of "Dynamite", Guevara would make a return to AEW. He would reveal that he had set up a camera in The Inner Circle's locker room, which recorded MJF convincing Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz to turn on Chris Jericho. When it looked as though the three were about to attack Guevara and Jericho, they instead turned to MJF. Jericho would then fire MJF on the spot. However, MJF would state that he had already begun creating his own group, which led to Shawn Spears, Wardlow, FTR, and Tully Blanchard coming out and attacking The Inner Circle. On the March 31 episode of "Dynamite", Guevara, along with all of the other Inner Circle members, would return yet again and attack the group now known as The Pinnacle. They would kick The Pinnacle out of their locker room, as they had taken over it during the Inner Circle's absence.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Two weeks later on April 7, Chris Jericho (along with the rest of the members of the Inner Circle) would challenge The Pinnacle to a Blood and Guts match. At AEW Blood and Guts, The Pinnacle would defeat The Inner Circle, after Guevara forfeited the match to save Chris Jericho from being pushed off the top of the cage by MJF. However, MJF would still push Jericho off the cage onto the ramp. On the next episode of Dynamite, The Inner Circle would interrupt The Pinnacle's celebration by coming out in a "Bubbly Truck" (reminiscent of when Kurt Angle sprayed The Alliance with milk in a truck.) The Inner Circle would do the same thing to The Pinnacle, spraying them with bubbly and ruining their celebration. However, MJF would challenge The Inner Circle to a Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing, with the stipulation being that if The Inner Circle lost, they had to disband. Chris Jericho would accept the match, with Guevara primarily wrestling Shawn Spears. At Double or Nothing, The Inner Circle would win after Guevara hit a 630 senton on Spears in the ring after an extensive backstage brawl between the two, keeping the group alive. On the episode following the pay-per-view, The Inner Circle would declare a "summer of violence" for the Pinnacle. On the June 30th edition of AEW Dynamite, Sammy Guevara would lose to MJF after Spears hit him with a chair to the head.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On September 29, Guevara won the AEW TNT Championship at "Dynamite" by defeating Miro. The next week, Guevara would made his first successful defense against a debuting Bobby Fish. On December 25, at the special Holiday Bash episode of "Rampage", Guevara lost the title to Cody Rhodes, ending his reign at 87 days. A TNT Championship rematch between Rhodes and Guevara was scheduled to take place at Battle of the Belts I on January 8, 2022. However, Rhodes was forced to withdraw after being exposed to COVID-19. An interim TNT title was created as a result, with a match between Guevara and Cody's brother, Dustin, being scheduled at Battle of the Belts instead. Guevara would go on to win the match and become the interim TNT champion. On January 26 at AEW Beach Break, Guevara defeated Cody Rhodes in a ladder match to unify the belts, becoming the undisputed (and two-time) TNT Champion. The match was awarded 5 stars by professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, giving Guevara his first 5-star match. On the February 9, 2022 episode of "AEW Dynamite", the Inner Circle had a team meeting that ended with Sammy Guevara throwing his vest and walking out. At Revolution 2022, Guevara would win a Tornado tag team match with Allin and Sting over Andrade El Idolo, Matt Hardy, and Isiah Kassidy.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On the March 9, 2022 episode "Dynamite", Guevara would lose the TNT Championship to Scorpio Sky. Sammy would continue his feud with Scorpio Sky but with the inclusion of his girlfriend Tay Conti due to the official signing of Paige VanZant in AEW. At Battle of the Belts II, Sammy Guevara successfully ended Scorpio Sky's undefeated streak with a low blow, winning his record-tying 3rd TNT Championship. Sammy dropped the title back to Scorpio Sky on the April 27 episode of "Dynamite" in a ladder match, thus ending his reign at 12 days, which is the shortest reign in the title's history. Guevara also suffered injuries from the ladder match to his shoulder, as a result of a Twisting Splash from the top of a ladder. At Double or Nothing on May 29, 2022, Sky, VanZant and Ethan Page defeated Guevara, Frankie Kazarian and Tay Conti at in a six-person tag team match, with Guevara and Kazarian losing the right to further challenge Sky for the TNT Championship as a result.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On the June 15, 2022 "Dynamite" special episode "Road Rager", Guevara (dressed as Fuego Del Sol) interfered in the hair vs hair match between Ortiz and Chris Jericho, costing Ortiz the match and reuniting with Jericho and Hager, officially turning heel and joining the Jericho Appreciation Society. On August 12 on AEW Rampage Quake by the Lake Guevara teamed up with his wife Tay Melo to defend their AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship against Dante Martin and Skye Blue which they successfully retained.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On April 30, 2022 Guevara returned to AAA teaming with Tay Conti to defeat Los Vipers, Maravilla and Látigo, and Sexy Star II and Komander to win the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship at Triplemanía XXX. For most of the match, La Parka Negra would wrestle in Guevara’s place.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Guevara was in a relationship for 8 years with Pamella Nizio, a medical worker from Houston. In August 2021, he proposed to her at an AEW show in Houston in the middle of the ring; however, they split up soon afterwards in October of that same year.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Since January 2022, Guevara has been in a relationship with fellow AEW professional wrestler Taynara Melo, better known by her ring name Tay Conti. In June 2022, Guevara announced his engagement to Melo. On August 8, 2022 , Guevara and his now wife held their wedding ceremony in Orlando.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: On June 22, 2020, Guevara was suspended by AEW after it was revealed that he made an inappropriate joke about wanting to "go rape" WWE wrestler Sasha Banks during a podcast in January 2016. He later made a YouTube video apologizing for the remarks and taking accountability for what he said. Later that day, Banks announced that she and Guevara were in contact with each other, that he had apologized to her, and that they had engaged in an "open discussion" to help him understand the severity of his comments. The conditions of his suspension are that he was required to attend sensitivity training, while his weekly pay was donated to the Women's Center of Jacksonville during the course of his suspension.


title: Sammy Guevara

text: Guevara has his own YouTube channel, which has 200,000 subscribers as of 2022. He regularly uploads vlogs (video blogs) on the channel. Guevara featured in the AEW mobile game, "AEW Elite GM" in 2021. Notable vlogs of Guevara's include his trips to do shows for promotions outside North America, his initial adventures as a wrestler working for independent promotions around the United States, as well as his adventures traveling around the United States with his AEW co-workers. Guevara's friends and fellow AEW co-workers, such as Fuego Del Sol, Griff Garrison, Alan "5" Angels, Isiah Kassidy, Dustin Rhodes, and (more recently) Aaron Solow and wife Tay Melo make frequent appearances, and the vlogs, instead of sticking strictly to a visual diary format, now include specific fictional storylines between the aforementioned wrestling personalities.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Phan Thị Kim Phúc (; born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the girl in the picture and the Napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph, titled "The Terror of War", taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: The image, taken for the Associated Press by a 21-year-old Vietnamese-American photographer named Nick Ut, shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Phan Thi Kim Phúc and her family were residents of the village of Trảng Bàng in South Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on Trảng Bàng, which had been attacked and occupied by North Vietnamese forces. Kim Phúc joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from the Caodai Temple to the safety of South Vietnamese-held positions. The Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilot mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to attack. The bombing killed two of Kim Phúc's cousins and two other villagers. Kim Phúc received third degree burns after her clothing was burned by the fire.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut took a photograph of Kim Phúc running naked amid other fleeing villagers, South Vietnamese soldiers, and other press photographers. This became one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War. In an interview many years later, she recalled she was yelling, "Nóng quá, nóng quá" ("too hot, too hot") in the picture. "The New York Times" editors were at first hesitant to consider the photo for publication because of the nudity, but they eventually approved it. A cropped version of the photo—with the press photographers to the right removed—was featured on the front page of "The New York Times" the next day. It later earned a Pulitzer Prize and was chosen as the World Press Photo of the Year for 1973.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: After snapping the photograph, Ut took Kim Phúc and the other injured children to Barsky Hospital in Saigon, where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she probably would not survive. After a 14-month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures, including skin transplantations, she was able to return home. A number of the early operations were performed by Finnish plastic surgeon Aarne Rintala. It was only after treatment at a special hospital in Ludwigshafen, West Germany, in 1982, that Kim Phúc was able to properly move again.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Ut continued to visit Kim Phúc until he was evacuated during the fall of Saigon, and they now speak almost weekly via telephone.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Less publicized is the film, shot by British television cameraman Alan Downes for the British Independent Television News (ITN) and his Vietnamese counterpart Le Phuc Dinh who was working for the American television network NBC, which shows the events just before and after the photograph was taken (see image on right). In the top-left frame, a man stands and appears to take photographs as a passing airplane drops bombs. A group of children, Kim Phúc among them, run away in fear. After a few seconds, she encounters the reporters dressed in military fatigues, including Christopher Wain who gave her water (top-right frame) and poured some over her burns. As she turns sideways, the severity of the burns on her arm and back can be seen (bottom-left frame). A crying woman, Kim Phúc's grandmother, Tao, runs in the opposite direction holding her badly burned grandchild, 3-year-old Danh, Kim Phúc's cousin, who died of his injuries (bottom-right frame). Sections of the film shot were included in "Hearts and Minds" (1974), the Academy Award-winning documentary about the Vietnam War directed by Peter Davis.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Audio tapes of President Richard Nixon, in conversation with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman in 1972, reveal that Nixon mused, "I'm wondering if that was fixed", after seeing the photograph. After the release of this tape, Ut commented, "Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on 12 June 1972... The picture for me and unquestionably for many others could not have been more real. The photo was as authentic as the Vietnam War itself. The horror of the Vietnam War recorded by me did not have to be fixed. That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phúc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives."


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: Phúc was removed from her university as a young adult studying medicine and used as a propaganda symbol by the communist government of Vietnam. Due to constant pain, she considered suicide, but in 1982 she found a New Testament in a library that led her to become a Christian. Her faith enabled her to forgive. In 1986, she was granted permission to continue her studies in Cuba. Prime Minister of Vietnam Phạm Văn Đồng became her friend and patron. After arriving in Cuba, she met Bui Huy Toan, another Vietnamese student and her future fiancé. In 1992, Phúc and Toan married.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: On the way to their honeymoon in Moscow, they left the plane during a refuelling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, and asked for political asylum in Canada, which was granted. The couple now live in Ajax, Ontario, near Toronto, and have two children. In 1996, Phúc met the surgeons who had saved her life. The following year, she became a Canadian citizen. In 2015, it was reported that she was receiving laser treatment, provided free of charge at a hospital in Miami, to reduce the scarring on her left arm and back.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: In 1997, she established the first Kim Phúc Foundation in the U.S., with the aim of providing medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war. Later, other foundations were set up, with the same name, under an umbrella organization, Kim Phúc Foundation International.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: In 2004, Phúc spoke at the University of Connecticut about her life and experience, learning how to be "strong in the face of pain" and how compassion and love helped her heal. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and gives lectures around the world.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: On December 28, 2009, National Public Radio broadcast her spoken essay, "The Long Road to Forgiveness," for the "This I Believe" series. In May 2010, Phúc was reunited by the BBC with ITN correspondent Christopher Wain, who helped to save her life. On May 18, 2010, Phúc appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Its My Story". In the programme, Phúc related how she was involved through her foundation in the efforts to secure medical treatment in Canada for Ali Abbas, who had lost both arms in a rocket attack on Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: In a December 21, 2017, article for "The Wall Street Journal", Kim Phúc wrote that the trauma she suffered in the napalm strike still requires treatment, but that the psychological trauma was greater: "But even worse than the physical pain was the emotional and spiritual pain." This led directly to her conversion to Christianity, which she credits with healing the psychological trauma of living over forty years being known to the world as "Napalm Girl". "My faith in Jesus Christ is what has enabled me to forgive those who had wronged me," she wrote, "no matter how severe those wrongs were."


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: In July 2022, Kim Phúc in person welcomed 236 Ukrainian refugees with children aboard a special flight from Warsaw to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The airplane used for the special flight bore an image of her iconic 1972 photo. The flight was arranged by an organization called Solidaire.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: In 1996, Kim Phúc gave a speech at the United States Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day. In her speech, she said that one cannot change the past, but everyone can work together for a peaceful future. John Plummer, a Vietnam veteran, who said he took part in coordinating the air strike with the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (though Plummer's entire chain of command and declassified documents indicate otherwise) met with Phúc briefly and was publicly forgiven. Plummer later admitted to "The Baltimore Sun" he had lied, saying he was "caught up in the emotion at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the day Phuc spoke". Canadian filmmaker, Shelley Saywell, made a documentary about their meeting.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: On November 10, 1994, Kim Phúc was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Her biography, "The Girl in the Picture", was written by Denise Chong and published in 1999. In 2003, Belgian composer Eric Geurts wrote "The Girl in the Picture," dedicated to Kim Phúc. It was released on Flying Snowman Records, with all profits going to the Kim Phúc Foundation. It was released again in 2021 as part of Eric's album "Leave a Mark".


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: On October 22, 2004, Kim Phúc was made a member of the Order of Ontario, and received an honorary Doctorate of Law from York University for her work to support child victims of war around the world. On October 27, 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree in Law from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. On June 2, 2011, she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Lethbridge. On May 19, 2016, she was awarded a Doctor of Civil Law, Honoris Causa by Saint Mary's University (Halifax).


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: On February 11, 2019, Kim Phúc was awarded the 2019 Dresden Peace Prize in recognition of her work with UNESCO and as an activist for peace.


title: Phan Thi Kim Phuc

text: "The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phúc Story, the Photograph and the Vietnam War" by Denise Chong, is a 1999 biographical and historical book tracing the life story of Kim Phúc. Chong's historical coverage emphasizes the life, especially the school and family life, of Kim Phúc from before the attack, through convalescence, and into the present time. The book deals primarily with Vietnamese and American relationships during the Vietnam War, while examining themes of war, racism, immigration, political turmoil, repression, poverty, and international relationships through the lens of family and particularly through the eyes and everyday lives of women. Kim Phúc and her mother, Nu, provide the lens through which readers of "The Girl in the Picture" experience war, strife, and the development of communism in Vietnam. Like Chong's first book, "The Girl in the Picture" was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for non fiction.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including "The Rape of the Lock", "The Dunciad", and "An Essay on Criticism," and for his translation of Homer.


title: Alexander Pope

text: After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted author in "The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations", some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. "damning with faint praise" or "to err is human; to forgive, divine").


title: Alexander Pope

text: Alexander Pope was born in London on 21 May 1688 during the year of the Glorious Revolution. His father (Alexander Pope, 1646–1717) was a successful linen merchant in the Strand, London. His mother, Edith (1643–1733), was the daughter of William Turner, Esquire, of York. Both parents were Catholics. His mother's sister was the wife of famous miniature painter Samuel Cooper. Pope's education was affected by the recently enacted Test Acts, a series of English penal laws that upheld the status of the established Church of England, banning Catholics from teaching, attending a university, voting, and holding public office on penalty of perpetual imprisonment. Pope was taught to read by his aunt and attended Twyford School circa 1698. He also attended two Roman Catholic schools in London. Such schools, though still illegal, were tolerated in some areas.


title: Alexander Pope

text: In 1700, his family moved to a small estate at Popeswood, in Binfield, Berkshire, close to the royal Windsor Forest. This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing "Papists" from living within of London or Westminster. Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem "Windsor Forest". Pope's formal education ended at this time, and from then on, he mostly educated himself by reading the works of classical writers such as the satirists Horace and Juvenal, the epic poets Homer and Virgil, as well as English authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and John Dryden. He studied many languages, reading works by French, Italian, Latin, and Greek poets. After five years of study, Pope came into contact with figures from London literary society such as William Congreve, Samuel Garth and William Trumbull.


title: Alexander Pope

text: At Binfield he made many important friends. One of them, John Caryll (the future dedicatee of "The Rape of the Lock"), was twenty years older than the poet and had made many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the ageing playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet, who helped Pope revise his first major work, "The Pastorals". He also met the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha, both of whom remained lifelong friends.


title: Alexander Pope

text: From the age of 12 he suffered numerous health problems, including Pott disease, a form of tuberculosis that affects the spine, which deformed his body and stunted his growth, leaving him with a severe hunchback. His tuberculosis infection caused other health problems including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain. He grew to a height of only . Pope was already removed from society as a Catholic, and his poor health alienated him further. Although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters, including Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. It has been alleged that his lifelong friend Martha Blount was his lover. His friend William Cheselden said, according to Joseph Spence, "I could give a more particular account of Mr. Pope's health than perhaps any man. Cibber's slander (of carnosity) is false. He had been gay [happy], but left that way of life upon his acquaintance with Mrs. B."


title: Alexander Pope

text: In May 1709, Pope's "Pastorals" was published in the sixth part of bookseller Jacob Tonson's "Poetical Miscellanies". This earned Pope instant fame and was followed by "An Essay on Criticism", published in May 1711, which was equally well received.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot, who together formed the satirical Scriblerus Club. Its aim was to satirise ignorance and pedantry through the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus. He also made friends with Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In March 1713, "Windsor Forest" was published to great acclaim.


title: Alexander Pope

text: During Pope's friendship with Joseph Addison, he contributed to Addison's play "Cato", as well as writing for "The Guardian" and "The Spectator". Around this time, he began the work of translating the "Iliad", which was a painstaking process – publication began in 1715 and did not end until 1720.


title: Alexander Pope

text: In 1714 the political situation worsened with the death of Queen Anne and the disputed succession between the Hanoverians and the Jacobites, leading to the Jacobite rising of 1715. Though Pope, as a Catholic, might have been expected to have supported the Jacobites because of his religious and political affiliations, according to Maynard Mack, "where Pope himself stood on these matters can probably never be confidently known". These events led to an immediate downturn in the fortunes of the Tories, and Pope's friend Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, fled to France.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope lived in his parents' house in Mawson Row, Chiswick, between 1716 and 1719; the red-brick building is now the "Mawson Arms", commemorating him with a blue plaque.


title: Alexander Pope

text: The money made from his translation of Homer allowed Pope to move in 1719 to a villa at Twickenham, where he created his now-famous grotto and gardens. The serendipitous discovery of a spring during the excavation of the subterranean retreat enabled it to be filled with the relaxing sound of trickling water, which would quietly echo around the chambers. Pope was said to have remarked, "Were it to have nymphs as well – it would be complete in everything." Although the house and gardens have long since been demolished, much of the grotto survives beneath Radnor House Independent Co-educational School. The grotto has been restored and will open to the public for 30 weekends a year from 2023 under the auspices of Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust.


title: Alexander Pope

text: "An Essay on Criticism" was first published anonymously on 15 May 1711. Pope began writing the poem early in his career and took about three years to finish it.


title: Alexander Pope

text: At the time the poem was published, its heroic couplet style was quite a new poetic form and Pope's work an ambitious attempt to identify and refine his own positions as a poet and critic. It was said to be a response to an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past.


title: Alexander Pope

text: The "essay" begins with a discussion of the standard rules that govern poetry, by which a critic passes judgement. Pope comments on the classical authors who dealt with such standards and the authority he believed should be accredited to them. He discusses the laws to which a critic should adhere while analysing poetry, pointing out the important function critics perform in aiding poets with their works, as opposed to simply attacking them. The final section of "An Essay on Criticism" discusses the moral qualities and virtues inherent in an ideal critic, whom Pope claims is also the ideal man.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope's most famous poem is "The Rape of the Lock", first published in 1712, with a revised version in 1714. A mock-epic, it satirises a high-society quarrel between Arabella Fermor (the "Belinda" of the poem) and Lord Petre, who had snipped a lock of hair from her head without permission. The satirical style is tempered, however, by a genuine, almost voyeuristic interest in the "beau-monde" (fashionable world) of 18th-century society. The revised, extended version of the poem focuses more clearly on its true subject – the onset of acquisitive individualism and a society of conspicuous consumers. In the poem, purchased artefacts displace human agency and "trivial things" come to dominate.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Though "The Dunciad" first appeared anonymously in Dublin, its authorship was not in doubt. Pope pilloried a host of other "hacks", "scribblers" and "dunces" in addition to Theobald, and Maynard Mack has accordingly called its publication "in many ways the greatest act of folly in Pope's life". Though a masterpiece due to having become "one of the most challenging and distinctive works in the history of English poetry", writes Mack, "it bore bitter fruit. It brought the poet in his own time the hostility of its victims and their sympathizers, who pursued him implacably from then on with a few damaging truths and a host of slanders and lies."


title: Alexander Pope

text: According to his half-sister Magdalen Rackett, some of Pope's targets were so enraged by "The Dunciad" that they threatened him physically. "My brother does not seem to know what fear is," she told Joseph Spence, explaining that Pope loved to walk alone, so went accompanied by his Great Dane Bounce, and for some time carried pistols in his pocket. This first "Dunciad", along with John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", joined in a concerted propaganda assault against Robert Walpole's Whig ministry and the financial revolution it stabilised. Although Pope was a keen participant in the stock and money markets, he never missed a chance to satirise the personal, social and political effects of the new scheme of things. From "The Rape of the Lock" onwards, these satirical themes appear constantly in his work.


title: Alexander Pope

text: In 1731, Pope published his "Epistle to Burlington," on the subject of architecture, the first of four poems later grouped as the "Moral Essays" (1731–1735). The epistle ridicules the bad taste of the aristocrat "Timon". For example, the following are verses 99 and 100 of the Epistle:


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope's foes claimed he was attacking the Duke of Chandos and his estate, Cannons. Though the charge was untrue, it did much damage to Pope.


title: Alexander Pope

text: There has been some speculation on a feud between Pope and Thomas Hearne, due in part to the character of Wormius in "The Dunciad", who is seemingly based on Hearne.


title: Alexander Pope

text: "An Essay on Man" is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets published between 1732 and 1734. Pope meant it as the centrepiece of a proposed system of ethics to be put forth in poetic form. It was a piece that he sought to make into a larger work, but he did not live to complete it. It


title: Alexander Pope

text: attempts to "vindicate the ways of God to Man", a variation on Milton's attempt in "Paradise Lost" to "justify the ways of God to Man" (1.26). It challenges as prideful an anthropocentric worldview. The poem is not solely Christian, however. It assumes that man has fallen and must seek his own salvation.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Consisting of four epistles addressed to Lord Bolingbroke, it presents an idea of Pope's view of the Universe: no matter how imperfect, complex, inscrutable and disturbing the Universe may be, it functions in a rational fashion according to natural laws, so that the Universe as a whole is a perfect work of God, though to humans it appears to be evil and imperfect in many ways. Pope ascribes this to our limited mindset and intellectual capacity. He argues that humans must accept their position in the "Great Chain of Being", at a middle stage between the angels and the beasts of the world. Accomplish this and we potentially could lead happy and virtuous lives.


title: Alexander Pope

text: The poem is an affirmative statement of faith: life seems chaotic and confusing to man in the centre of it, but according to Pope it is truly divinely ordered. In Pope's world, God exists and is what he centres the Universe around as an ordered structure. The limited intelligence of man can only take in tiny portions of this order and experience only partial truths, hence man must rely on hope, which then leads to faith. Man must be aware of his existence in the Universe and what he brings to it in terms of riches, power and fame. Pope proclaims that man's duty is to strive to be good, regardless of other situations.


title: Alexander Pope

text: The "Imitations of Horace" that followed (1733–1738) were written in the popular Augustan form of an "imitation" of a classical poet, not so much a translation of his works as an updating with contemporary references. Pope used the model of Horace to satirise life under George II, especially what he saw as the widespread corruption tainting the country under Walpole's influence and the poor quality of the court's artistic taste. Pope added as an introduction to "Imitations" a wholly original poem that reviews his own literary career and includes famous portraits of Lord Hervey ("Sporus"), Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull ("Balbus") and Addison ("Atticus").


title: Alexander Pope

text: Among the younger poets whose work Pope admired was Joseph Thurston. After 1738, Pope himself wrote little. He toyed with the idea of composing a patriotic epic in blank verse called "Brutus", but only the opening lines survive. His major work in those years was to revise and expand his masterpiece, "The Dunciad". Book Four appeared in 1742 and a full revision of the whole poem the following year. Here Pope replaced the "hero" Lewis Theobald with the Poet Laureate, Colley Cibber as "king of dunces". However, the real focus of the revised poem is Walpole and his works. By now Pope's health, which had never been good, was failing. When told by his physician, on the morning of his death, that he was better, Pope replied: "Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms." He died at his villa surrounded by friends on 30 May 1744, about eleven o'clock at night. On the previous day, 29 May 1744, Pope had called for a priest and received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was buried in the nave of St Mary's Church, Twickenham.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced plans to publish a translation of the "Iliad". The work would be available by subscription, with one volume appearing every year over six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which earned him 200 guineas (£210) a volume, a vast sum at the time.


title: Alexander Pope

text: His "Iliad" translation appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal" (though the classical scholar Richard Bentley wrote: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.")


title: Alexander Pope

text: Encouraged by the success of the "Iliad", Bernard Lintot published Pope's five-volume translation of Homer's "Odyssey" in 1725–1726. For this Pope collaborated with William Broome and Elijah Fenton: Broome translated eight books (2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 23), Fenton four (1, 4, 19, 20) and Pope the remaining 12. Broome provided the annotations. Pope tried to conceal the extent of the collaboration, but the secret leaked out. It did some damage to Pope's reputation for a time, but not to his profits. Leslie Stephen considered Pope's portion of the "Odyssey" inferior to his version of the "Iliad", given that Pope had put more effort into the earlier work – to which, in any case, his style was better suited.


title: Alexander Pope

text: In this period, Pope was employed by the publisher Jacob Tonson to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare. When it appeared in 1725, it silently regularised Shakespeare's metre and rewrote his verse in several places. Pope also removed about 1,560 lines of Shakespeare's material, arguing that some appealed to him more than others. In 1726, the lawyer, poet and pantomime-deviser Lewis Theobald published a scathing pamphlet called "Shakespeare Restored", which catalogued the errors in Pope's work and suggested several revisions to the text. This enraged Pope, wherefore Theobald became the main target of Pope's "Dunciad".


title: Alexander Pope

text: The second edition of Pope's "Shakespeare" appeared in 1728. Apart from some minor revisions to the preface, it seems that Pope had little to do with it. Most later 18th-century editors of Shakespeare dismissed Pope's creatively motivated approach to textual criticism. Pope's preface continued to be highly rated. It was suggested that Shakespeare's texts were thoroughly contaminated by actors' interpolations and they would influence editors for most of the 18th century.


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope's poetic career testifies to an indomitable spirit despite disadvantages of health and circumstance. The poet and his family were Catholics and so fell subject to the prohibitive Test Acts, which hampered their co-religionists after the abdication of James II. One of these banned them from living within ten miles of London, another from attending public school or university. So except for a few spurious Catholic schools, Pope was largely self-educated. He was taught to read by his aunt and became a book lover, reading in French, Italian, Latin and Greek and discovering Homer at the age of six. In 1700, when only twelve years of age, he wrote his poem "Ode on Solitude". As a child Pope survived once being trampled by a cow, but when he was 12 he began struggling with tuberculosis of the spine (Pott disease), which restricted his growth, so that he was only tall as an adult. He also suffered from crippling headaches.


title: Alexander Pope

text: In the year 1709, Pope showcased his precocious metrical skill with the publication of "Pastorals", his first major poems. They earned him instant fame. By the age of 23, he had written "An Essay on Criticism", released in 1711. A kind of poetic manifesto in the vein of Horace's "Ars Poetica", it met with enthusiastic attention and won Pope a wider circle of prominent friends, notably Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, who had recently begun to collaborate on the influential "The Spectator". The critic John Dennis, having found an ironic and veiled portrait of himself, was outraged by what he saw as the impudence of a younger author. Dennis hated Pope for the rest of his life, and save for a temporary reconciliation, dedicated his efforts to insulting him in print, to which Pope retaliated in kind, making Dennis the butt of much satire.


title: Alexander Pope

text: A folio containing a collection of his poems appeared in 1717, along with two new ones about the passion of love: "Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" and the famous proto-romantic poem "Eloisa to Abelard". Though Pope never married, about this time he became strongly attached to Lady M. Montagu, whom he indirectly referenced in his popular "Eloisa to Abelard", and to Martha Blount, with whom his friendship continued through his life.


title: Alexander Pope

text: As a satirist, Pope made his share of enemies as critics, politicians and certain other prominent figures felt the sting of his sharp-witted satires. Some were so virulent that Pope even carried pistols while walking his dog. In 1738 and thenceforth, Pope composed relatively little. He began having ideas for a patriotic epic in blank verse titled "Brutus", but mainly revised and expanded his "Dunciad". Book Four appeared in 1742; and a complete revision of the whole in the year that followed. At this time Lewis Theobald was replaced with the Poet Laureate Colley Cibber as "king of dunces", but his real target remained the Whig politician Robert Walpole.


title: Alexander Pope

text: By the mid-18th century, new fashions in poetry emerged. A decade after Pope's death, Joseph Warton claimed that Pope's style was not the most excellent form of the art. The Romantic movement that rose to prominence in early 19th-century England was more ambivalent about his work. Though Lord Byron identified Pope as one of his chief influences – believing his own scathing satire of contemporary English literature "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" to be a continuance of Pope's tradition – William Wordsworth found Pope's style too decadent to represent the human condition. George Gilfillan in an 1856 study called Pope's talent "a rose peering into the summer air, fine, rather than powerful".


title: Alexander Pope

text: Pope's reputation revived in the 20th century. His work was full of references to the people and places of his time, which aided people's understanding of the past. The post-war period stressed the power of Pope's poetry, recognising that Pope's immersion in Christian and Biblical culture lent depth to his poetry. For example, Maynard Mack, in the late 20th-century, argued that Pope's moral vision demanded as much respect as his technical excellence. Between 1953 and 1967 the definitive Twickenham edition of Pope's poems appeared in ten volumes, including an index volume.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: Injustice: Gods Among Us is a 2013 fighting video game it is the first installment in the "Injustice" franchise based upon the fictional universe of DC Comics. The game was developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. It was released in April 2013 in North America, Europe, and Australia, and June 2013 in Japan. An expanded version of the game, titled "Injustice: Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition", was released in November 2013 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. A free-to-play mobile app based on "Injustice" was also released for Android and iOS devices. A of the same name, written by Tom Taylor, was released beginning in January 2013.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: Players select one of several characters from the DC Universe (consisting of both villains and heroes), to engage in combat, aiming to knock out their opponent. The game is set in a 2.5D environment: while character models and backgrounds are rendered in three-dimensional graphics, the characters are restricted to fight within a two-dimensional space. "Injustice" builds upon several aspects from NetherRealm Studios' previous title, "Mortal Kombat", including its controls, game mechanics, narrative-driven campaign, and online functionality.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: The storyline is set in a parallel universe within the DC Comics' Multiverse. In this reality, Superman becomes a tyrant and establishes a new world order after the Joker tricks him into killing Lois Lane and destroying Metropolis with a nuclear bomb. In an effort to stop this, Batman summons counterparts of the League's members from another universe to join his insurgency and end the totalitarian regime. The game received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, gameplay mechanics, and use of the DC Comics license. "Injustice" became the highest selling game in the United States and United Kingdom during the month of its release. The game also won several awards for "Best Fighting Game" in 2013.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: A sequel, "Injustice 2", was released in May 2017. "Injustice", an animated film based on the game, was released in 2021.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: "Injustice: Gods Among Us" is a fighting game in which players control characters with different fighting styles and special attacks, engaging in one-on-one combat to deplete their opponent's life gauge. The game is in 2.5D: movement is restricted to a two-dimensional plane, while the characters and backgrounds are rendered in three-dimensions. Unlike the traditional fighting game design involving multiple rounds with regenerative life bars, "Injustice" uses a scheme similar to the "Killer Instinct" series. Each match consists of a single round with each player bearing two life bars. The game utilizes a four-button control layout of light, medium, and heavy attacks, alongside a "character trait" button, which activates a unique ability or attack designed to showcase each character. For instance, Superman's character trait provides a temporary boost in strength, while Batman's character trait summons a swarm of robotic bats.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: The stages, based on various locations from the DC Universe, such as the Batcave, Metropolis, and the Fortress of Solitude, feature interactive environments and multiple areas. If an opponent is hit with a heavy attack near a corner of the arena, it launches them, triggering a transition animation and taking the fight to a new section of the stage. Each section also contains objects that characters can interact with differently depending on their class. Characters fall into two classes: "power characters", who rely on brute strength and innate abilities, and "gadget characters", who use weapons, items, and other external mechanisms to win. For example, a gadget character like Batman can attach a bomb to a car to cause an explosion, while a power character like Superman will pick up the same car and smash his opponents with it. Players have the option to turn off interactive elements and stage transitions.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: As characters perform special moves, block oncoming attacks, or get hit by the opponent, their "super meters" will gradually fill. Portions of the super meter can be used to execute enhanced special moves or counter enemy moves. With a full meter, players can unleash their strongest special attack. Players may also expend their meter to interrupt a combo and enter a wager battle, dubbed the "clash system", which combines individualized cutscene cinematics with the process of betting meter. A clash may be triggered by a player only after they have lost their first life bar. During the sequence, both players commit portions of their meter in secret, with the highest bidder winning the clash.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: The story mode is split into several chapters. As the narrative plays out, the player swaps between different characters. Minigames are also incorporated into the story. The outcome of minigames can impact an upcoming battle, such as giving the player a health advantage over the CPU opponent. Additional game features include Battle Mode, Versus Mode, Training Mode, and S.T.A.R. Labs, which includes 240 character-specific challenges of varying difficulty. Online multiplayer modes include King of the Hill, a setup that allows up to eight players to spectate a match while waiting for their turn to fight, and Survivor, which carries over the current winner's health bar and character selection over each match. Playing through any of the game modes, including online matches with optional goal objectives, will net the player experience points that may be used to unlock alternate costumes, music, concept art, and other rewards.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: The campaign of "Injustice: Gods Among Us" was written by NetherRealm Studios in collaboration with DC Comics' writers. Described by NetherRealm as "Story Mode 3.0", the "Injustice" campaign was approached similarly to "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" and the 2011 "Mortal Kombat" reboot through the use of a cinematic narrative versus the traditional ladder-based single-player experience. According to lead designer John Edwards, the plot is meant to rationalize the game's fighting mechanics between characters that would not normally fight one another and explain how Batman can "stand toe-to-toe" with Superman. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti served as story consultants to ensure that the comic characters kept their proper voices in "Injustice".


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: In a parallel universe, the Joker tricks Superman into his pregnant wife Lois Lane and detonating a nuclear weapon that destroys Metropolis, killing millions of people. Mad with grief and rage, Superman murders the Joker, quickly losing his moral compass. Five years later, Superman has formed the One Earth Regime to enforce global peace, and rules the Earth as a ruthless dictator, alongside many other heroes and villains, and killing any who oppose him. Batman establishes the Insurgency to oppose Superman's Regime, and the ensuing war between the two factions leaves the Justice League disbanded.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: In the prime DC universe, the Joker also attempts to destroy Metropolis with a nuke supplied by Lex Luthor, but the villains are foiled by the Justice League. When Batman confronts the Joker, the two are suddenly teleported into the Regime's universe, where they find themselves pursued by Regime forces. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern are also teleported there. The last leaves to recharge his power ring and rescues a captive Deathstroke, while having altercations with Cyborg, Raven, Sinestro, and his own Yellow Lantern counterpart, all members of the Regime. Meanwhile, Aquaman defeats his counterpart in Atlantis, who was negotiating an alliance between Atlantis and the Regime. He then encounters Ares, who is weak from the virtual lack of conflict and has allied with the Insurgency out of spite for the Regime.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: After regrouping, the prime heroes meet Insurgency Batman and Lex Luthor (who in this universe is Superman's closest friend and an Insurgency mole) and receive nanotech pills derived from Kryptonian DNA, which increase their strength to Superman's level. Batman and Luthor explain to the heroes that they teleported them into their universe to help access a kryptonite weapon, which requires a DNA sample of all core Justice League members; however, the prime Batman and Joker were teleported by accident. Elsewhere, Batman is mistaken for his Insurgency counterpart and captured by the Regime, while the Joker meets this universe's Harley Quinn, who is allied with the Insurgency and founded the "Joker Clan" in his memory. After helping the Joker Clan fight off a Regime attack at Arkham Asylum, the Insurgents infiltrate the Batcave and retrieve the kryptonite weapon. Meanwhile, in the prime universe, Superman and Flash's efforts to recover their comrades result in Cyborg being inadvertently teleported into the Regime's universe, where he joins the Insurgency and helps Deathstroke take over the Regime Watchtower.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: After Superman publicly announces his intentions to execute prime Batman, Insurgency Batman and Green Arrow break into Stryker's Island to rescue him, while Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman stage an attack on the Regime to distract them. After the Batmen and Green Arrow escape via the Watchtower's teleporter, Superman realizes the Watchtower has been compromised and attempts to destroy it, but Deathstroke causes a chain explosion that sends him plummeting back to Earth. Luthor attempts to incapacitate the weakened Superman with the kryptonite weapon, but is stopped by Shazam, allowing Superman to execute him. Now aware of humanity's determination to depose him, Superman decides to destroy Gotham City and Metropolis to demonstrate the chaos that would arise in his absence, and invade the prime heroes' universe as punishment for their interference. When Shazam protests and invokes Lois' memory, Superman murders him, causing Flash to defect to the Insurgency.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: During a Regime attack on the Insurgency's hideout, Wonder Woman is teleported by Ares to Themyscira, where she defeats her Regime counterpart and convinces the Amazons to defect to the Insurgency. Meanwhile, prime Batman convinces his counterpart to bring prime Superman here to help. During the ensuing battle, Superman overpowers the Regime's top lieutenants and persuades Yellow Lantern to surrender, before confronting his counterpart at the Fortress of Solitude, pitying his loss yet declaring the planet needs freedom. When Regime Superman vows to bring prime Lois here, his prime counterpart reminds him Lois would be horrified at the tyrant he has become.


title: Injustice: Gods Among Us

text: Following Regime Superman's defeat, the Regime is dissolved and its members imprisoned, barring Flash, who is paroled, and Yellow Lantern, who is taken to Oa to be rehabilitated. While the prime heroes and Joker return to their universe, Insurgency Batman and prime Superman oversee the imprisonment of the latter's counterpart within a cell emitting red sun radiation that renders him powerless. As they walk away, Superman voices his fears that he could also go down a dark path if a similar tragedy happened to him. Batman says that he hopes this never happens, but will stand up to him even if so. Superman chuckles and tells him to get in line. Regime Superman's eyes glow red, indicating he still has some degree of his powers left.