Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington Territory, which was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, by the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital. The state's most populous city is Seattle.

Washington is the 18th-largest state, with an area of , and the 13th-most populous state, with more than 7.7 million people. The majority of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry on Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep temperate rainforests in the west; mountain ranges in the west, center, northeast, and far southeast; and a semi-arid basin region in the east, center, and south, given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, after California. Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the state's highest elevation at , and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous U.S.

Washington is a leading lumber producer; its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. The state is the largest producer of apples, hops, pears, blueberries, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries in the U.S., and ranks high in the production of apricots, asparagus, dry edible peas, grapes, lentils, peppermint oil, and potatoes. Livestock, livestock products, and commercial fishing—particularly of salmon, halibut, and bottomfish—are also significant contributors to the state's economy. Washington ranks second only to California in wine production.

Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft, missiles, shipbuilding, and other transportation equipment, food processing, metals, and metal products, chemicals, and machinery. Washington has more than a thousand dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, and water storage.

Washington is one of the wealthiest as well as most socially liberal states in the country. The state consistently ranks among the best for life expectancy and low unemployment. Along with Colorado, Washington was one of the first to legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis, was among the first states to legalize same-sex marriage in 2012, and was one of only four U.S. states to have been providing legal abortions on request before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade loosened abortion laws nationwide. Similarly, Washington voters approved a 2008 referendum on legalization of physician-assisted suicide, and Washington is currently one of ten states—along with Washington, D.C.—to have legalized the practice.

Etymology

Washington was named after President George Washington by an act of the United States Congress during the creation of Washington Territory in 1853; the territory was to be named "Columbia", for the Columbia River and the Columbia District, but Kentucky representative Richard H. Stanton found the name too similar to the District of Columbia (the national capital, itself containing the city of Washington), and proposed naming the new territory after President Washington. Washington is the only U.S. state named after a president.

Confusion over the state of Washington and the city of Washington, D.C., led to renaming proposals during the statehood process for Washington in 1889, including David Dudley Field II's suggestion to name the new state "Tacoma"; these proposals failed to garner support. Washington, D.C.'s, own statehood movement in the 21st century has included a proposal to use the name "State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth", which would conflict with the current state of Washington. Residents of Washington (known as "Washingtonians") and the Pacific Northwest simply refer to the state as "Washington", and the nation's capital "Washington, D.C.", "the other Washington", or simply "D.C."

History

Early history

The 9,300-year-old skeletal remains of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete human remains found in North America, were discovered in Washington in the 1990s. The area has been known to host megathrust earthquakes in the past, the last being the Cascadia earthquake of 1700. The region has been home to many established tribes of indigenous peoples for thousands of years. They are notable for their ornately carved welcome figures, canoes, long houses and masks.  Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and, notably among the Makah, whale hunting. The peoples of the Interior had a different subsistence-based culture based on hunting, food-gathering and some forms of agriculture, as well as a dependency on salmon from the Columbia and its tributaries.

European exploration

The first recorded European landing on the Washington coast was by Spanish Captain Don Bruno de Heceta in 1775, on board the Santiago, part of a two-ship flotilla with the Sonora. He claimed the coastal lands up to Prince William Sound for Spain as part of their claimed rights under the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they maintained made the Pacific a "Spanish lake" and all its shores part of the Spanish Empire. Soon thereafter,  The smallpox epidemic of the 1770s devastated the Native American population.

In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook sighted Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Cook did not realize the strait existed. It was not discovered until Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, sighted it in 1787. The straits were further explored by Spanish explorers Manuel Quimper in 1790 and Francisco de Eliza in 1791, and British explorer George Vancouver in 1792.

European settlement

The British–Spanish Nootka Convention of 1790 ended Spanish claims of exclusivity and opened the Northwest Coast to explorers and traders from other nations, most notably Britain and Russia as well as the fledgling United States. American captain Robert Gray (for whom Grays Harbor County is named) then discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. He named the river after his ship, the Columbia. Beginning in 1792, Gray established trade in sea otter pelts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the state on October 10, 1805.

Explorer David Thompson, on his voyage down the Columbia River, camped at the confluence with the Snake River on July 9, 1811, and erected a pole and a notice claiming the territory for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site.

Britain and the United States agreed to what has since been described as "joint occupancy" of lands west of the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean as part of the Anglo–American Convention of 1818, which established the 49th Parallel as the international boundary west from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues west to the Pacific was deferred until a later time. In 1819, Spain ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to the United States.

Negotiations with Great Britain over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the Oregon boundary dispute was highly contested between Britain and the United States. Disputed joint occupancy by Britain and the U.S. lasted for several decades. With American settlers pouring into Oregon Country, Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement because it conflicted with the fur trade, reversed its position in an attempt to maintain British control of the Columbia District.

Fur trapper James Sinclair, on orders from Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, led some 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in 1841 to settle on Hudson Bay Company farms near Fort Vancouver. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled south-west down the Kootenai River and Columbia River. Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel to the United States in the Oregon Treaty on June 15, 1846.

In 1836, a group of missionaries, including Marcus Whitman, established several missions and Whitman's own settlement Waiilatpu, in what is now southeastern Washington state, near present-day Walla Walla County, in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Perce Indian tribes. Whitman's settlement would in 1843 help the Oregon Trail, the overland emigration route to the west, get established for thousands of emigrants in the following decades. Whitman provided medical care for the Native Americans, but when Indian patients—lacking immunity to new, "European" diseases—died in striking numbers, while at the same time many white patients recovered, they held "medicine man" Marcus Whitman personally responsible, and murdered Whitman and twelve other white settlers in the Whitman massacre in 1847. This event triggered the Cayuse War between settlers and Indians.

Fort Nisqually, a farm and trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company and the first European settlement in the Puget Sound area, was founded in 1833. Black pioneer George Washington Bush and his Caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Missouri and Tennessee, respectively, led four white families into the territory and founded New Market, now Tumwater, in 1846. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon's Black Exclusion Law, which prohibited African Americans from entering the territory while simultaneously prohibiting slavery. After them, many more settlers, migrating overland along the Oregon Trail, wandered north to settle in the Puget Sound area.

Spanish and Russian claims to the region were ceded in the early 19th century through a series of treaties. The Spanish signed the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, and the Russians the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and 1825.

The Oregon Question remained contested between the United Kingdom and the United States until the 1846 Oregon Treaty established the border between British North America and the United States along the 49th parallel until the Strait of Georgia. Vague wording in the treaty left the ownership of the San Juan Islands in doubt; during the so-called Pig War, both nations agreed to a joint military occupation of the islands. Kaiser Wilhelm I of the German Empire was selected as an arbitrator to end the dispute, with a three-man commission ruling in favor of the United States in 1872. The border established by the Oregon Treaty and finalized by the arbitration in 1872 remains the boundary between Washington and British Columbia.

Statehood

The growing population of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River formally requested a new territory. As a result of the Monticello Convention, held in present-day Cowlitz County, U.S. Congress passed legislation and President Millard Fillmore signed into law on March 2, 1853, the creation of a new Washington Territory. The boundary of Washington Territory initially extended farther east than the present state, including what is now the Idaho Panhandle and parts of western Montana, and picked up more land to the southeast that was left behind when Oregon was admitted as a state; the creation of Idaho Territory in 1863 established the final eastern border. A Washington state constitution was drafted and ratified in 1878, but it was never officially adopted. Although never approved by the United States Congress, the 1878 constitution is an important historical document that shows the political thinking of the time; it was used extensively during the drafting of Washington state's 1889 constitution, the one and only official Constitution of the State of Washington. Washington became the 42nd state of the United States on November 11, 1889.

Early prominent industries in the new state included agriculture and lumber. In Eastern Washington, the Yakima River Valley became known for its apple orchards, while the growth of wheat using dry farming techniques became particularly productive. Heavy rainfall to the west of the Cascade Range produced dense forests, and the ports along Puget Sound prospered from the manufacturing and shipping of lumber products, particularly the Douglas fir. Other industries that developed in the state included fishing, salmon canning and mining.

Post–statehood

For a long period, Tacoma had large smelters where gold, silver, copper, and lead ores were treated. Seattle was the primary port for trade with Alaska and the rest of the country, and for a time, it possessed a large shipbuilding industry. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.

During the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia River as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States and the largest dam in the world at its construction.

During World War II, the state became a focus for war industries. While the Boeing Company produced many heavy bombers, ports in Seattle, Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma were available for the manufacture of warships. Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, several of whom were quartered at Fort Lawton, which later became Discovery Park. In Eastern Washington, the Hanford Works atomic energy plant was opened in 1943 and played a major role in the construction of atomic bombs.

After the end of World War II, and with the beginning of the civil rights movement, the state's growing Black or African American population's wages were 53% above the national average. The early diversification of Washington through the Great Migration led to successful efforts at reducing discrimination in the workplace. In 1950, Seattle's first black representative for the state's legislature was elected. At the 1970 U.S. census, the black population grew to 7.13% of the total population.

In 1970, the state was one of only four U.S. states to have been providing legal abortions before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade which loosened abortion laws nationwide.

On May 18, 1980, following a period of heavy tremors and small eruptions, the north face of Mount St. Helens slid off in the largest landslide in recorded history before erupting violently, destroying a large part of the top of the volcano. The eruption flattened the forest up to 20 km north of the volcano, killed 57 people, flooded the Columbia River and its tributaries with ash and mud, and blanketed large parts of Washington eastward and other surrounding states in ash, making day look like night.

Geography

Washington is the northwesternmost state of the contiguous United States. It borders Idaho to the east, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 117°02'23" west), except for the southernmost section where the border follows the Snake River. Oregon is to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part and the 46th parallel forming the eastern part of the Oregon–Washington border. During Washington's partition from Oregon, the original plan for the border followed the Columbia River east until the confluence with the Snake, and then would have followed the Snake River east; this was changed to keep Walla Walla's fertile farmland in Washington.

To the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. Its northern border lies mostly along the 49th parallel, and then via marine boundaries through the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.

Washington is part of a region known as the Pacific Northwest, a term which always refers to at least Washington and Oregon, and may or may not include some or all the following, depending on the user's intent: Idaho, western Montana, northern California, British Columbia, and Alaska.

The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state. In addition to Western Washington and Eastern Washington, residents call the two parts of the state the "Westside" and the "Eastside", "Wet side" and "Dry side", or "Timberland" and "Wheatland", the latter pair more commonly in the names of region-specific businesses and institutions. These terms reflect the geography, climate, and industry of the land on both sides of the Cascades.

Western Washington

From the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly Mediterranean climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range has several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains. From north to south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. All are active volcanoes.

Mount Rainier—the tallest mountain in the state— is  south of the city of Seattle, from which it is prominently visible. The U.S. Geological Survey considers  Mount Rainier the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range, due to its proximity to the Seattle metropolitan area, and most dangerous in the continental U.S. according to the Decade Volcanoes list. It is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states.

Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula, which support dense forests of conifers and areas of temperate rainforest. These deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only rainforests in the continental United States. While Western Washington does not always experience a high amount of rainfall as measured in total inches of rain per year, it does consistently have more rainy days per year than most other places in the country.

Eastern Washington

Eastern Washington—the part of the state east of the Cascades—has a relatively dry climate, in distinct contrast to the west side. It includes large areas of semiarid steppe and a few truly arid deserts in the rain shadow of the Cascades; the Hanford reservation receives an average annual precipitation of . Despite the limited amount of rainfall, agriculture is an extremely important business throughout much of Eastern Washington, as the soil is highly productive and irrigation, aided by dams along the Columbia River, is fairly widespread. The spread of population in Eastern Washington is dominated by access to water, especially rivers. The main cities are all located alongside rivers or lakes; most of them are named after the river or lake they adjoin.

Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to  in Pullman, near the Washington–Idaho border. The Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the state's northeastern quadrant. The Palouse southeast region of Washington was grassland that has been mostly converted into farmland, and extends to the Blue Mountains.

Climate

The state of Washington has a temperate climate. The eastern half of Washington has a semi-arid climate, while the western side of Washington as well as the coastal areas of the state have a cool oceanic climate. Major factors determining Washington's climate include the large semi-permanent low pressure and high pressure systems of the north Pacific Ocean, the continental air masses of North America, and the Olympic and Cascade mountains. In the spring and summer, a high-pressure anticyclone system dominates the north Pacific Ocean, causing air to spiral out in a clockwise fashion. For Washington, this means prevailing winds from the northwest bring relatively cool air and a predictably dry season.

In the autumn and winter, a low-pressure cyclone system takes over in the north Pacific Ocean. The air spiraling inward in a counter-clockwise fashion causes Washington's prevailing winds to come from the southwest, and bring relatively cool and overcast weather and a predictably wet season. The term "Pineapple Express" is used colloquially to describe atmospheric river events, where repeated storm systems are directed by this persistent cyclone from the tropical Pacific regions a great distance into the Pacific Northwest.

Despite Western Washington's marine climate similar to many coastal cities of Europe, there are exceptions such as the "Big Snow" events of 1880, 1881, 1893, and 1916, and the "deep freeze" winters of 1883–1884, 1915–1916, 1949–1950, and 1955–1956, among others. During these events, Western Washington experienced up to  of snow, sub-zero (−18 °C) temperatures, three months with snow on the ground, and lakes and rivers frozen over for weeks. Seattle's lowest officially recorded temperature is  set on January 31, 1950, but low-altitude areas approximately three hours away from Seattle have recorded lows as cold as .

The Southern Oscillation greatly influences weather during the cold season. During the El Niño phase, the jet stream enters the U.S. farther south through California, therefore late fall and winter are drier than normal with less snowpack. The La Niña phase reinforces the jet stream through the Pacific Northwest, causing Washington to have more rain and snow than average.

In 2006, the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington published The Impacts of Climate change in Washington's Economy, a preliminary assessment of the risks and opportunities presented given the possibility of a rise in global temperatures and their effects on Washington state.

Rain shadow effects

Rainfall in Washington varies dramatically going from east to west. The Olympic Peninsula's western side receives as much as  of precipitation annually, making it the wettest area of the 48 conterminous states and a temperate rainforest. Weeks may pass without a clear day. The western slopes of the Cascade Range receive some of the heaviest annual snowfall (in some places more than  water equivalent) in the country. In the rain shadow area east of the Cascades, the annual precipitation is only . Precipitation then increases again eastward toward the Rocky Mountains (about  east of the Idaho border).

The Olympic mountains and Cascades compound this climatic pattern by causing orographic lift of the air masses blown inland from the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the windward side of the mountains receiving high levels of precipitation and the leeward side receiving low levels. This occurs most dramatically around the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range. In both cases, the windward slopes facing southwest receive high precipitation and mild, cool temperatures. While the Puget Sound lowlands are known for clouds and rain in the winter, the western slopes of the Cascades receive larger amounts of precipitation, often falling as snow at higher elevations. Mount Baker, near the state's northern border, is one of the snowiest places in the world. In 1999, it set the world record for snowfall in a single season—.

East of the Cascades, a large region experiences strong rain shadow effects. Semi-arid conditions occur in much of Eastern Washington with the strongest rain shadow effects at the relatively low elevations of the central Columbia Plateau—especially the region just east of the Columbia River from about the Snake River to the Okanagan Highland. Thus, instead of rain forests, much of Eastern Washington is covered with dry grassland, shrub-steppe, and dunes.

Temperatures

The average annual temperature ranges from  on the Pacific coast to  in the northeast. The lowest temperature recorded in the state was  in Winthrop and Mazama. The highest recorded temperature in the state was  at Hanford on June 29, 2021. Both records were set east of the Cascades. Western Washington is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover, long-lasting drizzles in the winter and warm, temperate summers. The eastern region, which does not benefit from the general moderating effect of the Pacific Ocean, occasionally experiences extreme climate. Arctic cold fronts in the winter and heat waves in the summer are not uncommon. In the Western region, temperatures have reached as high as  in Maple Valley during the June 2021 heat wave, and as low as  in Longview, and even -8 F (-22 C) in Sammamish.

Flora and fauna

Forests cover about half the state's land area, mostly west of the northern Cascades. Approximately two-thirds of Washington's forested area is publicly owned, including 64 percent of federal land. Common trees and plants in the region are camassia, Douglas fir, hemlock, penstemon, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, and many species of ferns. The state's various areas of wilderness offer sanctuary, with substantially large populations of shorebirds and marine mammals. The Pacific shore surrounding the San Juan Islands is heavily inhabited by killer, gray, and humpback whales.

In Eastern Washington, the flora is vastly different. Tumbleweeds and sagebrush dominate the landscape throughout large parts of the countryside. Russian olives and other trees are common alongside riverbanks; however, apart from the riversides, large swaths of Eastern Washington have no naturally existing trees at all (though many trees have been planted and are irrigated by people, of course). A wider variety of flora can be found in both the Blue Mountains and the eastern sides of the Cascades.

Mammals native to the state include the bat, black bear, bobcat, cougar, coyote, deer, elk, gray wolf, hare, moose, mountain beaver, muskrat, opossum, pocket gopher, rabbit, raccoon, river otter, skunk, and tree squirrel. Because of the wide range of geography, the state of Washington is home to several different ecoregions, which allow for a varied range of bird species. This range includes raptors, shorebirds, woodland birds, grassland birds, ducks, and others. There have also been a large number of species introduced to Washington, dating back to the early 18th century, including horses and burros. The channel catfish, lamprey, and sturgeon are among the 400 known freshwater fishes. Along with the Cascades frog, there are several forms of snakes that define the most prominent reptiles and amphibians. Coastal bays and islands are often inhabited by plentiful amounts of shellfish and whales. There are five species of salmon that ascend the Western Washington area, from streams to spawn.

Washington has a variety of National Park Service units. Among these are the Alta Lake State Park, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge, as well as three national parks—the Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park, and Mount Rainier National Park. The three national parks were established between 1899 and 1968. Almost 95 percent (876,517 acres, 354,714 hectares, 3,547.14 square kilometers) of Olympic National Park's area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. Additionally, there are 143 state parks and9 national forests, run by the Washington State Park System and the United States Forest Service. The Okanogan National Forest is the largest national forest on the West Coast, encompassing . It is managed together as the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest, encompassing a considerably larger area of around .

Administrative divisions

There are 39 counties within the state, and 281 incorporated municipalities which are divided into cities and towns. The majority of the state's population lives within Western Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area; the city of Seattle is the principal city of the metropolitan area, and Western Washington, with a 2020 census population of 737,015.

Demographics

Population
Washington's population was 7,705,281 in the 2020 census, a 14.6% increase since the 2010 census. In 2020, the state ranked 13th overall in population, and was the third most populous, after California and Texas, west of the Mississippi River. Washington has the largest Pacific Northwest population, followed by Oregon, then Idaho. The Washington State Office of Financial Management reported the state population at 7,951,150 as of April 1, 2023.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area population was 4,018,762 in the 2020 census, more than half the state total.

The center of population of Washington in 2010 was at , in an unpopulated part of the Cascade Mountains in rural eastern King County, southeast of North Bend, northeast of Enumclaw, and west of Snoqualmie Pass.

Washington's proportion of residents under the age of five was 6.7%, 25.7% under 18, and 11.2% 65 or older.

In 2018, The top countries of origin for Washington's immigrants were Mexico, India, China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 25,211 homeless people in Washington.

The racial composition of Washington's population as of 2021 was:

According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 12.1% of Washington's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (9.7%), Puerto Rican (0.4%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (1.8%). The five largest ancestry groups were: German (17.8%),
Irish (10.8%), English (10.4%), Norwegian (5.4%), and American (4.6%).

 Birth data
In 2011, 44.3 percent of Washington's population younger than age1 were minorities.

Note: Births in table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.

 Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Areas of concentration

While the population of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest is relatively scarce overall, they are mostly concentrated in the South End and Central District areas of Seattle, and in inner Tacoma. The black community of Seattle consisted of one individual in 1858, Manuel Lopes, and grew to a population of 406 by 1900. It developed substantially during and after World War II when wartime industries and the U.S. Armed Forces employed and recruited tens of thousands of African Americans from the Southeastern United States. They moved west in the second wave of the Great Migration, leaving a high influence on West Coast rock music and R&B and soul in the 1960s, including Seattle native Jimi Hendrix, a pioneer in hard rock, who was of African American and Cherokee Indian descent.

Native Americans lived on Indian reservations or jurisdiction lands such as the Colville Indian Reservation, Makah, Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, Quinault, Salish people, Spokane Indian Reservation, and Yakama Indian Reservation. The westernmost and Pacific coasts have primarily American Indian communities, such as the Chinook, Lummi, and Salish. Urban Indian communities formed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation programs in Seattle since the end of World War II brought a variety of Native American peoples to this diverse metropolis. The city was named for Chief Seattle in the very early 1850s when European Americans settled the sound.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are mostly concentrated in the Seattle−Tacoma metropolitan area of the state. Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, which are all within King County, have sizable Chinese communities (including Taiwanese), as well as significant Indian and Japanese communities. The Chinatown-International District in Seattle has a historical Chinese population dating back to the 1860s, who mainly emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China, and is home to a diverse East and Southeast Asian community. Koreans are heavily concentrated in the suburban cities of Federal Way and Auburn to the south, and in Lynnwood to the north. Tacoma is home to thousands of Cambodians, and has one of the largest Cambodian-American communities in the United States, along with Long Beach, California, and Lowell, Massachusetts. The Vietnamese and Filipino populations of Washington are mostly concentrated within the Seattle metropolitan area. Washington state has the second highest percentage of Pacific Islander people in the mainland U.S. (behind Utah); the Seattle-Tacoma area is home to more than 15,000 people of Samoan ancestry, who mainly reside in southeast Seattle, Tacoma, Federal Way, and in SeaTac.

The most numerous (ethnic, not racial, group) are Latinos at 11%, as Mexican Americans formed a large ethnic group in the Chehalis Valley, Skagit Valley, farming areas of Yakima Valley, and Eastern Washington. They were reported to at least date as far back as the 1800s. But it was in the late 20th century, that large-scale Mexican immigration and other Latinos settled in the southern suburbs of Seattle, with limited concentrations in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties during the region's real estate construction booms in the 1980s and 1990s.

Additionally, Washington has a large Ethiopian community, with many Eritrean residents as well. Both emerged in the late 1960s, and developed since 1980. An estimated 30,000 Somali immigrants reside in the Seattle area.

Languages

In 2010, 82.51% (5,060,313) of Washington residents age5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.79% (477,566) spoke Spanish, 1.19% (72,552) Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Standard Chinese), 0.94% (57,895) Vietnamese, 0.84% (51,301) Tagalog, 0.83% (50,757) Korean, 0.80% (49,282) Russian, and 0.55% (33,744) German. In total, 17.49% (1,073,002) of Washington's population age5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.

Religion

Major religious affiliations of the people of Washington are:
 Christian: 50%
 Protestantism: 33%
 Catholicism: 17%
 Latter-day Saint: 3%
 Jehovah's Witness: 1%
 Unaffiliated/Other: 42%
 New Age: 3%
 Buddhism: 2%
 Judaism: 1%
 Hinduism: 1%

The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church, with 784,332; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with 282,356; and the Assemblies of God, with 125,005.

Aquarian Tabernacle Church is the largest Wiccan church in the country.

Like other West Coast states, the percentage of Washington's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" is higher than the national average.

Economy

Washington has a relatively strong economy, with a total gross state product of $612,996.5 million in 2019, placing it fifth in the nation and growing by 6.5 percent per year—the fastest rate in the United States. The minimum wage as of January 1, 2021, was $13.69 an hour, the second highest of any state or district in the country behind Washington D.C at $14.00 an hour. Significant business within the state include the design and manufacture of aircraft (Boeing), automotive (Paccar), computer software development (Microsoft, Bungie, Amazon, Nintendo of America, Valve, ArenaNet, Cyan Worlds), telecom (T-Mobile US), electronics, biotechnology, aluminum production, lumber and wood products (Weyerhaeuser), mining, beverages (Starbucks, Jones Soda), real estate (John L. Scott, Colliers International, Windermere Real Estate, Kidder Mathews), retail (Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Car Toys, Costco, R.E.I.), and tourism (Alaska Airlines, Expedia, Inc.). A Fortune magazine survey of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the U.S. has four Washington-based companies: Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco. At over 80 percent the state has significant amounts of hydroelectric power generation. Also, significant amounts of trade with Asia pass through the ports of the Puget Sound, leading to a number six ranking of U.S. ports (ranking combines twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) moved and infrastructure index).

With the passage of Initiative 1183, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) ended its monopoly of all-state liquor store and liquor distribution operations on June 1, 2012.

, the state's unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

Taxes

The state of Washington is one of seven states that do not levy a personal income tax. The state does not collect a corporate income tax or franchise tax either. Washington businesses are responsible for various other state levies, including the business and occupation tax (B & O), a gross receipts tax which charges varying rates for different types of businesses.

Washington's state base sales tax is 6.5%, which is combined with a local sales tax that varies by locality. The combined state and local retail sales tax rates increase the taxes paid by consumers, depending on the variable local sales tax rates, generally between 7.5% and 10%. As of March 2017, the combined sales tax rate in Seattle and Tacoma was 10.1%. The cities of Lynnwood and Mill Creek have the highest sale tax rate in the state at 10.5%. These taxes apply to services as well as products. Most foods are exempt from sales tax. However, prepared foods, dietary supplements, and soft drinks remain taxable.

An excise tax applies to certain products such as gasoline, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages. Property tax was the first tax levied in the state of Washington, and its collection accounts for about 30% of Washington's total state and local revenue. It continues to be the most important revenue source for public schools, fire protection, libraries, parks and recreation, and other special-purpose districts.

All real property and personal property are subject to tax unless specifically exempted by law. Most personal property owned by individuals is exempt from tax. Personal property tax applies to personal property used when conducting business, or to other personal property not exempt by law. All property taxes are paid to the county treasurer's office where the property is located. Neither does the state assess any tax on retirement income earned and received from another state. Washington does not collect inheritance taxes. However, the estate tax is de-coupled from the federal estate tax laws, and therefore, the state imposes its estate tax.

Washington state has the 18th highest per capita effective tax rate in the United States, as of 2017. , Washington has the highest gasoline prices in the United States, at an average of $4.97, in part due to the third-highest gasoline tax in the country. Their tax policy differs from neighboring Oregon's, which levies no sales tax, but does levy a personal income tax. This leads to border economic anomalies in the Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area. Additional border economies exist with neighboring British Columbia and Idaho.

Agriculture

Washington is a leading agricultural state. For 2018, the total value of Washington's agricultural products was $10.6 billion. In 2014, Washington ranked first in the nation in production of red raspberries (90.5 percent of total U.S. production), hops (79.3 percent), spearmint oil (75 percent), wrinkled seed peas (70.4 percent), apples (71.1 percent), sweet cherries (62.3 percent), pears (45.6 percent), Concord grapes (55.1 percent), carrots for processing (30.6 percent), and green peas for processing (32.4 percent).

Washington also ranked second in the nation in the production of fall potatoes (a quarter of the nation's production), nectarines, apricots, asparagus, all raspberries, grapes (all varieties taken together), sweet corn for processing (a quarter of the nation's production), and summer onions (a fifth of the nation's production). Washington also ranked third in the nation in the production of dried peas, lentils, onions, and peppermint oil.

The apple industry is of particular importance to Washington. Because of the favorable climate of dry, warm summers and cold winters of central Washington, the state has led the U.S. in apple production since the 1920s. Two areas account for the vast majority of the state's apple crop: the Wenatchee–Okanogan region (comprising Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas, and Grant counties), and the Yakima region (comprising Yakima, Benton, and Kittitas counties). Washington produces seven principal varieties of apples which are exported to more than sixty countries.

Wine

Washington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine, behind only California. By 2006, the state had over  of vineyards, a harvest of  of grapes, and exports going to more than forty countries around the world from the state's 600 wineries. By 2021, that number had grown to 1050 wineries. While there are some viticultural activities in the cooler, wetter western half of the state, almost all (99%) of wine grape production takes place in the desert-like eastern half. The rain shadow of the Cascade Range leaves the Columbia River Basin with around  of annual rain fall, making irrigation and water rights of paramount interest to the Washington wine industry. Viticulture in the state is also influenced by long sunlight hours (on average, two more hours a day than in California during the growing season) and consistent temperatures.

Internet access

From 2009–2014, the Washington State Broadband Project was awarded $7.3 million in federal grants, but the program was discontinued in 2014. For infrastructure, another $166 million has been awarded since 2011 for broadband infrastructure projects in Washington state.

U.S. News & World Report  ranked Washington second nationally for household internet access, and sixth for online download speed, based on data from 2014 and 2015.

In 2019, Washington State Legislature established the Washington State Broadband Office with two key mandates: high-speed internet access for 100% of WA residents by 2024 and an increase to 150/150Mbit/s by 2028.

In March 2021, the Washington State Department of Commerce issued their first biennial report on the progress of these key mandates throughout 2020.

The report includes five sections: public survey results, digital adoption disparities as they relate to federal census data, a Partner-Plan-Fund-Build-Adopt model for continued progress, success stories, and a policy discussion conclusion.

According to the report, "...over 42,000 survey responses from nearly 32,000 unique locations, showing that 6.4 percent of respondents reported having no broadband service, and 57 percent reported service at download speeds under 25 Mbps..."

Transportation

Washington's state transportation system comprises several modes that are maintained by various government entities. The state highway system, called State Routes, includes over  of roads and the Washington State Ferries system, the largest of its kind in the nation and the third largest in the world. There are also  of local roads maintained by cities and counties, as well as several ferries operated by local governments. There are 140 public airfields in Washington, including 16 state airports owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) is the major commercial airport of greater Seattle. Boeing Field in Seattle is one of the busiest primary non-hub airports in the U.S.

There are extensive waterways around Washington's largest cities, including Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Olympia. The state highways incorporate an extensive network of bridges and the largest ferry system in the United States to serve transportation needs in the Puget Sound area. Washington's marine highway constitutes a fleet of twenty-eight ferries that navigate Puget Sound and its inland waterways to 20 different ports of call, completing close to 147,000 sailings each year. Washington is home to four of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington, and the Hood Canal Bridge which connects the Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap Peninsula. Among its most famous bridges is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in 1940 and was rebuilt. Washington has 75 port districts, including several major seaports on the Pacific Ocean. Among these are ports in Seattle, Tacoma, Kalama, Anacortes, Vancouver, Everett, Longview, Grays Harbor, Olympia, and Port Angeles. The Columbia and Snake rivers also provide  of inland waterways that are navigable by barges as far east as Lewiston, Idaho.

The Cascade Mountain Range also impedes transportation. Washington operates and maintains roads over seven major mountain passes and eight minor passes. During the winter months, some of these passes are plowed, sanded, and kept safe with avalanche control. Not all stay open through the winter. The North Cascades Highway, State Route 20, closes every year due to snowfall and avalanches in the area of Washington Pass. The Cayuse and Chinook passes east of Mount Rainier also close in winter.

Washington is crossed by several freight railroads, and Amtrak's passenger Cascade route between Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, BC is the eighth busiest Amtrak service in the U.S. Seattle's King Street Station, the busiest station in Washington, and the 15th busiest in the U.S., serves as the terminus for the two long-distance Amtrak routes in Washington, the Empire Builder to Chicago and the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles. The Sounder commuter rail service operates in Seattle and its surrounding cities, between Everett and Lakewood. The intercity network includes the Cascade Tunnel, the longest railroad tunnel in the United States, which is part of the Stevens Pass route on the BNSF Northern Transcom.

Sound Transit Link light rail currently operates in the Seattle area at a length of , and in Tacoma at a length of . The entire system has a funded expansion plan that will expand light rail to a total of 116 miles by 2041. Seattle also has a  streetcar network with two lines and plans to expand further by 2025. 32 local bus transit systems exist across the state, the busiest being King County Metro, located in Seattle and King County, with just above 122 million riders in 2017. Clark County has historically resisted proposals to extend Portland's MAX Light Rail into Vancouver, including the rejection of two ballot measures, but light rail is slated to be included in a future replacement of the Interstate Bridge.

Environment

Hanford Nuclear Reservation is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. The radioactive materials are known to be leaking from Hanford into the environment.

In 2007, Washington became the first state in the nation to target all forms of highly toxic brominated flame retardants known as PBDEs for elimination from the many common household products in which they are being used. A 2004 study of 40 mothers from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Montana found PBDEs in the breast milk of every woman tested.

Three recent studies by the Washington State Department of Ecology showed toxic chemicals banned decades ago linger in the environment and concentrate in the food chain. In one of the studies, state government scientists found unacceptable levels of toxic substances in 93 samples of freshwater fish from 45 sites. The toxic substances included PCBs, dioxins, two chlorinated pesticides, DDE, dieldrin and PBDEs. As a result of the study, the department will investigate the sources of PCBs in the Wenatchee River, where unhealthy levels of PCBs were found in mountain whitefish. Based on the 2007 information and a previous 2004 Ecology study, the Washington State Department of Health advises the public not to eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs. Study results also showed high levels of contaminants in fish tissue that scientists collected from Lake Washington and the Spokane River, where fish consumption advisories are already in effect.

On March 27, 2006, Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law the recently approved House Bill 2322. This bill would limit phosphorus content in dishwashing detergents statewide to 0.5 percent over the next six years. Though the ban would be effective statewide in 2010, it would take place in Whatcom County, Spokane County, and Clark County in 2008. A recent discovery had linked high contents of phosphorus in water to a boom in algae population. An invasive amount of algae in bodies of water would lead to a variety of excess ecological and technological issues.

Government and politics

State government

Washington's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The current statewide elected officials are:
 Jay Inslee, Governor (D)
 Denny Heck, Lieutenant Governor (D)
 Steve Hobbs, Secretary of State (D)
 Mike Pellicciotti, State Treasurer (D)
 Patrice McCarthy, State Auditor (D)
 Bob Ferguson, Attorney General (D)
 Chris Reykdal, Superintendent of Public Instruction (D)
 Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands (D)
 Mike Kreidler, Insurance Commissioner (D)

The bicameral Washington State Legislature is the state's legislative branch. The state legislature is composed of a lower House of Representatives and an upper State Senate. The state is divided into 49 legislative districts of equal population, each of which elects two representatives and one senator. Representatives serve two-year terms, while senators serve for four years. There are no term limits. The Democratic Party has a majority in the House and Senate.

The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the state. Nine justices serve on the bench and are elected statewide.

Federal representation

The two current United States senators from Washington are Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats. Murray has represented the state since 1993, while Cantwell assumed office in 2001. The state is one of four with two female senators.

Washington's ten representatives in the United States House of Representatives (see map of districts) as of the 2022 election are Suzan DelBene (D-1), Rick Larsen (D-2), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-3), Dan Newhouse (R-4), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5), Derek Kilmer (D-6), Pramila Jayapal (D-7), Kim Schrier (D-8), Adam Smith (D-9), and Marilyn Strickland (D-10).

Due to Congressional redistricting as a result of the 2010 Census, Washington gained one seat in the United States House of Representatives. With the extra seat, Washington also gained one electoral vote, raising its total to 12.

Politics

The state is typically thought of as politically divided by the Cascade Mountains, with Western Washington being liberal (particularly the ) and Eastern Washington being conservative.

Although the Eastern half of the state votes heavily Republican, the overwhelming Democratic dominance in the Seattle metropolitan area has turned Washington into a reliably blue state. It is considered part of the Blue wall of states that have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. This voting streak began with Democrat Michael Dukakis narrowly capturing Washington in 1988. The state has since turned much more solidly blue, beginning with Obama's landslide victory in 2008, and Democrats winning the state by double digits in every subsequent presidential election.

Washington was considered a key swing state in 1968, and it was the only western state to give its electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey over his Republican opponent Richard Nixon. Washington was considered a part of the 1994 Republican Revolution, and had the biggest pick-up in the house for Republicans, who picked up seven of Washington's nine House seats. However, this dominance did not last for long, as Democrats picked up one seat in the 1996 election, and two more in 1998, giving the Democrats a 5–4 majority.

The governorship is held by Democrat Jay Inslee, who was elected to his first term in the 2012 gubernatorial election and, after the 2020 election, became the first incumbent in more than 40 years to be elected for a third term. In 2013 and 2014, both houses of the Washington State Legislature (the Washington Senate and the Washington House of Representatives) were controlled by Democrats. The state senate was under Republican control, due to two Democrats' joining Republicans to form the Majority Coalition Caucus. After the 2014 elections, the Democrats retained control of the House, while Republicans took a majority in the Senate without the need for a coalition. In November 2017, a special election gave Democrats a one-seat majority in the Senate and complete control over state government. Since then, in the 2018 election, the Democrats have only expanded their majorities.

No state has gone longer without a Republican governor than Washington. Democrats have controlled the Washington Governor's Mansion for  years; the last Republican governor was John Spellman, who left office in 1985. Washington has not voted for a Republican senator, governor, or presidential candidate since 1994, tying with Delaware for the longest streak in the country.

Washington uses the non-partisan blanket primary system after the approval of Initiative 872 in 2004. All candidates run on the same ballot during primary elections and the top two candidates advance to the general election in November, regardless of party affiliation. This has resulted in several same-party general election match-ups. In a 2020 study, Washington was ranked as the second easiest state for citizens to vote in.

The 2023 American Values Atlas by Public Religion Research Institute found that same-sex marriage is supported near-universally in Washington.

Notable legislation

Washington is one of the ten states to have legalized assisted suicide. In 2008 the Washington Death with Dignity Act ballot initiative passed and became law.

In November 2009, Washington voters approved full domestic partnerships via Referendum 71, marking the first time voters in any state expanded recognition of same-sex relationships at the ballot box. Three years later, in November 2012, same-sex marriage was affirmed via Referendum 74, making Washington one of only three states to have approved same-sex marriage by popular vote.

Also in November 2012, Washington was one of the first two states to approve the legal sale and possession of cannabis for both recreational and medical use with Initiative 502. Although marijuana is still illegal under U.S. federal law, persons 21 and older in Washington state can possess up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of marijuana-infused product in liquid form, or any combination of all three, and can legally consume marijuana and marijuana-infused products.

In November 2016, voters approved Initiative 1433, which among other things requires employers to guarantee paid sick leave to most workers. On January 1, 2018, the law went into effect, with Washington becoming the seventh state with paid sick leave requirements.

With the passage of Initiative 1639 in the 2018 elections, Washington adopted stricter gun laws.

Washington enacted a measure in May 2019 in favor of sanctuary cities, similar to California and Oregon laws which are among the strongest statewide mandates in the nation.

In 2019 the legislature passed the Clean Energy Transformation Act, which requires all electricity sales to be from zero-carbon sources by 2045 and net-zero by 2030.

Education

Elementary and secondary education

As of the 2020–2021 school year, 1,094,330 students were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in Washington, with 67,841 teachers employed to educate them. As of August 2009, there were 295 school districts in the state, serviced by nine Educational Service Districts. Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (a non-profit opt-in state agency) provides information management systems for fiscal & human resources and student data. Elementary and secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

High school juniors and seniors in Washington have the option of using the state's Running Start program. Begun by the state legislature in 1990, it allows students to attend institutions of higher education at public expense, simultaneously earning high school and college credit.

The state also has several public arts-focused high schools including Tacoma School of the Arts, the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and The Center School. There are also four Science and Math based high schools: one in the Tri-Cities known as Delta, one in Tacoma known as SAMI, another in Seattle known as Raisbeck Aviation High School, and one in Redmond known as Tesla STEM High School.

Higher education

There are more than 40 institutions of higher education in Washington. The state has major research universities, technical schools, religious schools, and private career colleges. Colleges and universities include the University of Washington, Seattle University, Washington State University, Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, Saint Martin's University, Pacific Lutheran University, Gonzaga University, University of Puget Sound, Evergreen State College, Whitman College, and Walla Walla University.

Health care

Insurance

The top two health insurers as of 2017 were Premera Blue Cross, with 24 percent market share, followed by Kaiser Permanente at 21 percent. For the individual market, Molina Healthcare had the top share at 23%.

The state adopted the Washington Healthplanfinder system in 2014 after the passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as "ObamaCare").

The state of Washington reformed its health care system in 1993 through the Washington Health Services Act. The legislation required individuals to obtain health insurance or face penalties, and required employers to provide insurance to employees. In addition, health insurance companies were required to sell policies to all individuals, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and cover basic benefits. The act was mostly repealed in 1995 before it could go into full effect.

Facilities

Hospitals exist across the state, but many of Washington's best-known medical facilities are located in and around Seattle. The Seattle–Tacoma area has six major hospitals: Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Children's, Swedish Medical Center, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, and St. Joseph Medical Center. The Seattle-area hospitals are concentrated on First Hill, which is home to Virginia Mason Medical Center (the neighborhood has received the nickname "Pill Hill" owing to the high concentration of healthcare facilities).

Culture

Sports

Pickleball, a racquet sport invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965, was designated as Washington's official state sport in 2022. For two years in a row, 2021 and 2022, the sport was named the fastest growing sport in the United States by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).

Major professional teams

Minor professional and amateur teams

College sports teams

 NCAA Division I
 Washington Huskies (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)
 Washington State Cougars (Pac-12 Conference; Football Bowl Subdivision)
 Gonzaga Bulldogs (West Coast Conference)
 Seattle Redhawks (Western Athletic Conference)
 Eastern Washington Eagles (Big Sky Conference; Football Championship Subdivision)

 NCAA Division II
 Central Washington Wildcats
 Saint Martin's Saints
 Seattle Pacific Falcons
 Western Washington Vikings

 NCAA Division III
 Pacific Lutheran Lutes
 Puget Sound Loggers
 Whitman Blues
 Whitworth Pirates

Individual sports

The Seattle Open Invitational golf tournament was part of the PGA Tour from the 1930s to the 1960s. The GTE Northwest Classic was part of the Senior PGA Tour from 1986 to 1995, and the Boeing Classic since 2005. In addition, the 2015 U.S. Open was held at Chambers Bay, and several major tournaments were held at Sahalee Country Club.

Pacific Raceways is a motorsports venue that has hosted the Northwest Nationals of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and a round of the Trans-Am Series.

The WTA Seattle tennis tournament was part of the WTA Tour from 1977 to 1982.

Symbols, honors, and names
Four ships of the United States Navy, including two battleships, have been named USS Washington in honor of the state. Previous ships had held that name in honor of George Washington.

The Evergreen State

The state's nickname, "The Evergreen State", was proposed in 1890 by Charles T. Conover of Seattle. The name proved popular as the forests were full of evergreen trees and the abundance of rain keeps the shrubbery and grasses green throughout the year. Although the nickname is widely used by the state, appearing on vehicle license plates for instance, it has not been officially adopted. The Evergreen State College, a state-funded institution in Olympia, also takes its name from this nickname.

State symbols

The state song is "Washington, My Home", the state bird is the American goldfinch, the state fruit is the apple, and the state vegetable is the Walla Walla sweet onion. The state dance, adopted in 1979, is the square dance. The state tree is the western hemlock. The state flower is the coast rhododendron. The state fish is the steelhead. The state folk song is "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" by Woody Guthrie. The unofficial, but popularly accepted, state rock song is Louie Louie. The state grass is bluebunch wheatgrass. The state insect is the green darner dragonfly. The state gem is petrified wood. The state fossil is the Columbian mammoth. The state marine mammal is the orca. The state soil is Tokul soil. The state land mammal is the Olympic marmot. The state seal (featured in the state flag as well) was inspired by the unfinished portrait of President George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. The state sport is pickleball.

Sister cities – friendship agreements
Washington has relationships with many provinces, states, and other entities worldwide.

Sister cities
  Jalisco, Mexico (1996)
  Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
  Jeollabuk-do, South Korea

Friendship agreements

  Sichuan, China
  Pangasinan, Philippines

See also

 Index of Washington (state)-related articles
 Outline of Washington (state)

Notes

References

Further reading

 Hardina, Nicole. Little Washington: A Nostalgic Look at the Evergreen State's Smallest Towns (2020)
 Johnson, Anna Maria, Steven Otfinoski, and Tea Benduhn. Washington: The Evergreen State (Cavendish Square, 2020), online for middle schools
 Ritter, Harry. Washington's History: The People, Land, and Events of the Far Northwest (2018)
 Sell, Terry M . Wings of Power: Boeing and the Politics of Growth in the Northwest (U of Washington Press, 2015)

Older studies

 .
  | Volume 2.
 Meany, Edmond S.  History of the State of Washington, New York: Macmillan, 1909.

Primary sources
 . Reprinted from the Washington Historical Quarterly, 1918–1919.

External links

 The official tourism site of the State of Washington
 Washington State Databases
 Secretary of State's Washington History website
 Constitution of the State of Washington
 Washington Administrative Code (State Administrative Rules)
 State Code Search Tool
 Energy Profile for Washington
 USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Washington
 Washington State Facts from USDA
 U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts: Washington
 Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
 Police Scanner Information for Washington state
 CWU Brooks Library Edward W. Nolan Photograph Collection

1889 establishments in the United States
Geography of the Pacific Northwest
States and territories established in 1889
States of the United States
States of the West Coast of the United States
Contiguous United States

Washington (state)


Kottabos Player is an Attic red-figure terracotta kylix said to have been painted by someone close to the Kleophrades Painter. It dates to the Greek Archaic period, about 500 BC. The kylix's height with handles is 3 3/16 in. (8.1 cm) and its width with handles is 10 1/16 in. (25.5 cm).

The diameter of the bowl is 7 5/8 in. (19.3 cm).  The kylix is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The figure is a symposiast playing a party game called kottabos. He is about to fling the last of the wine in his cup at a lamp stand in an attempt to knock the lamp stand's finial off. The winner was he who did so.

References

Ancient Greek pottery
Ancient Greek paintings
6th-century BC works

Kottabos (Kleophrades Painter)


Public domain is a phrase that describes something that belongs to all people in general: the public. The public domain contains works (such as books, films, or paintings) that are not under copyright protection.

The opposite of "public domain" is copyrighted material, which is owned either by the creator of the work or their estate.  The term public domain is only used to describe things that can be copyrighted, such as photographs, drawings, written articles, books or plays, or similar works of art.  As a general rule, all intellectual property works, after enough time has gone by, will become part of public domain. Examples include the works of Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven, and the books of Isaac Newton.

A work can enter the public domain in many ways.
The copyright expires, many years (usually 50 or 70 years) after its creator dies.
The work's creator may legally give up all claims to the material.
The creator forgets to renew the work's copyright (for works before 1963).
The work may have been created by agencies of certain governments, in which case it was in the public domain from the time of its creation.
The work is made by an animal.
The copyright notice is missing an owner, year or copyright symbol (for works before 1989).

In some cases, if a work enters the public domain after copyright expiration, anyone using the work may still be required to note who created the work.  Even if some works are in the public domain due to not being copyrighted, there may be still non-copyright usage restrictions. For examples, even though the design of national currencies may be ineligible, or be unsuitable, for copyright, counterfeiting them for fraud is widely a very serious crime. Another example are logos and images that only have text or simple shapes. These logos aren't copyrighted in the United States, but they are often protected by trademarks.

Related pages
Copyleft

Intellectual property law

Public domain


Black Hand or Crna Ruka, officially Ujedinjenje ili Smrt ("Unification or Death")  was a secret group of Serbian nationalists (Pan-Serbians). It was founded in 1911 in Serbia.

Their aim was to create a country from other countries where Serbs lived, including Bosnia-Herzegovina which was a part of Austria-Hungary since 1908.

Killing of Franz Ferdinand

Five members of The Black Hand were in Sarajevo, Serbia, on 28 June, 1914 where Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne in Austria-Hungary, visited with his wife. Ferdinand was driven through the city in a convertible car. The members of the Black Hand attempted to kill Ferdinand by throwing grenades at his car. One of the grenades bounced off his car and exploded under the car following Ferdinand's. One of the members swallowed cyanide and attempted to jump into the river, however the cyanide was old, and the river was shallow, so he was arrested. One of the men, a Bosnian student called Gavrilo Princip, went to a cafe after failing to kill Ferdinand.

The Archduke and his wife decided to go and visit the people who were injured in the explosion in hospital, however the driver took a wrong turn and stopped outside the cafe where Princip was eating. Princip saw this and went outside. He took out a gun and shot at Ferdinand; two bullets hit the archduke, one hit his wife, and the other hit the car. Both Ferdinand and his wife died shortly after.

Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. Austria-Hungary then declared war on Serbia, and Russia joined the war on Serbia's side because the people of Serbia were Slavic, like Russia, and the Slavic countries had agreed to help each other if they were attacked. Since Russia is a large country it had to move soldiers closer to the war, but Germany feared that Russia's soldiers would also attack Germany. Russia did not like Germany because of things Germany had done in the past to become stronger. Germany declared war on Russia, and used a plan to attack Russia that had been created before the war, but it also involved attacking France and Belgium. France and Great Britain joined the war because Great Britain had agreed to help Belgium if it were ever attacked by someone else.

This quickly led to a full-scale war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Both country's allies became involved in the war, and soon most of Europe became involved.

The Black Hand also killed Alexander I of Serbia and Draga Mašin.

References

20th century in Europe
1911 establishments in Europe
1910s establishments in Serbia
Organizations based in Serbia

Black Hand


Hyeokgeose () was the first king of Silla (신라), a the kingdom of ancient south-west Korea, from B.C. 57 to B.C. 935.

Mythology

Birth of Hyeokgeose
In B.C. 69, six village chiefs gathered with their children and announced that "We have been living disorderly. It because we do not have a Great Chief on our villages. So, let's set someone on the throne who is a virtuous person and found a nation." At that time, they found the strange light looked like thunderbolt on Yang-san (양산) .

When they climbed the mountain to observe the light, The light went up to the sky at Najung (난정), the foot of Yang-san. And They found a white horse that was bowing. The horse flew up to the sky after it howled a long time. As soon as it left, they looked through the place and they found a big purple egg. The people broke the egg, and they reached out one boy who looked nice and beautiful. When people washed him at Dongchun (동천), his body shines and birds and beasts came to dance and sing. Also the sky and the earth shook and the sun and the moon became clear. After then, people named him King Hyeokgeose, meaning bright ruler.

Birth of Queen
When the son of the sky came down to the earth, he suggested that Hyeokgeose has to find good wife for him. At that time, Gyeryong (계룡), which is a dragon looked like rooster, came down from the sky to Alyeong-jung (알영정) in Sarang-ri (사량리) and bore a beautiful girl who had chicken beak under the dragon's left rib. When people moved and washed her at Bookchun (북천) in Walsung (월성), the beak chipped off. So the people called the place Balchun (발천) and named her Alyeong.

Marriage
The people built up the palace at the foot of South mountain and brought up two babies, who are Hyeokgeose and his wife to be a prince and princess.

Death
After 61 years from he start to rule the country, he flew up to heaven. After seven days, the ashes of his body fell to the earth and scattered, and the soul of his queen ascended to join him in paradise. All the people cried the ashes of their great king and queen. So they tried to bury them in the same tomb, but a big snake showed up and protected the ashes. So the royal remains of each were divided into five parts and interred in pairs in the Northern Mausoleum, within the precincts of a temple called Tamom-sa (담엄사). The people called these the Five Mausoleums, or Sa-ning (Tomb of the Snake;사능). The Crown Prince succeeded to the throne and was given the title Namhae-wang.

Reign
The prince was crowned king with Princess Alyeong. The country at that time was called Sorabol (서라벌) in native language. The name Silla was not used until a later time. during the reign of Kaerim-guk (계림국). The Great Chief of the Park family founded the kingdom of Silla and ruled over it for sixty-two years

Origin of Family Name, Park
Since the prince had been born from an egg in the shape of the gourd called "park" in the native tongue, they gave him the family name Park (박). The princess was named Alyeong (알영) after the well where she was born.

History of Korea
69 BC births

Hyeokgeose


Legend of Tianyun Mountain () is a 1980 Chinese film about Chinese people's sufferings from the long-term political campaigns from "Anti-rightists" in 1950s until the fall of Gang of Four. It depicted the individuals' hardship in the political turmoils and critically reflected the impact of that special history after the formation of the People's Republic of China. The film was based on the novel written by Lu Yanzhou, and was directed by Xie Jin, starring Wang Fuli, Shi Weijian, Zhong Xinghuo and Shi Jianlan.

Plot
In the early 1950s, Song Wei and Feng Qinglan, two female newly graduates from school, join Tianyun Mountain Exploration Team. Song falls in love with Luo Qun, the newly appointed political commissar. In spring of 1957, Song is sent to study in the Party school and joins the CPC. When these two plan to get married, the Anti-Rightist Movement outbreaks, and Luo is classified as "rightist" and deprived of his post. Wu Yao, who leads the political campaign in Tianyun Mountain, forces Song to break up with Luo. Under the political pressure, Song sends Luo a farewell letter, and later, marries Wu. Luo is sent to do drudgery in a rural village. On the other hand, Feng, who has hidden her admiration and love for Luo, leaves the exploration team and comes to Luo. They get married, despite outside duress, and live an impoverished but content life.

20 years later and after the fall of Gang of Four, Wu becomes the vice Party chief and head of the organization department of the region, and Song is also elevated to vice director of the organization department, though she has no real power. One day, a young girl, Zhou Yuzhen, tells Song about her encounter with a coachman named Luo Qun in Tianyun Mountain, who is still a non-rehabilitated rightist. Song feels guilty and decides to rectify Luo's injustice by herself. But her husband, Wu, viciously interferes with the case. Song stands up to the resistance and appeals to higher-ranking officers, and finally, Luo's case is straightened out. When the good news comes, however, the flame of Feng's life extinguishes due to long-drawn-out hardship. In the end, from a distance Song sees Luo standing in silent tribute in front of the grave of Feng.

Cast
Wang Fuli as Song Wei
Shi Weijian as Luo Qun
Shi Jianlan as Feng Qinglan
Zhong Xinghuo as Wu Yao
Hong Xuemin as Zhou Yuzhen

Criticism
This was the first time director Xie Jin focused on Anti-Rightist Movement, and faithfully displayed that particular history on the screen. The film boldly and intensively revealed that historic tragedy that honest people were mistakenly condemned to "rightist". The film tried to analyze the historic lessens from various aspects including politics, ethics and morality, and address the origins of the tragedy. It mixed the individuals' personality, emotional changes with the political atmosphere, social problems and history development, underscoring the theme. The film won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Design awards in the first Golden Rooster Awards in China in 1981.

External links

Legend of Tianyun Mountain at the Chinese Movie Database

Chinese drama films
1980 films
1980s Mandarin-language films
Golden Rooster Best Film recipients
Films directed by Xie Jin
1980 drama films

Legend of Tianyun Mountain


"Freezes Over" is a four-issue Hellblazer story arc written by Brian Azzarello and drawn by artist Marcelo Frusin published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint. The story tells of John Constantine, an infamous English occult detective and con man, during one of his travels in the backbone of the United States. There he gets entangled in a saloon situation while seeking shelter from a strong blizzard. Eventually this leads to murder and a revelation of a local urban myth.

One of the most well known run of the series, author Brian Azzarello was nominated for an Eisner Award together with his other influential work, 100 Bullets. The story is notable for bringing back the series trademark horror roots, while bringing themes such as social distrust, suspenseful myth, mystery, and murder.

Plot
Taking place in the snowy backwoods of the American country, a powerful snow storm has hit the local area, making the highways and roads completely inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and  blizzard. Many took shelter in a local saloon run by Keith and his wife Hope. Among those were Jay together with his wife Marnie and their two young daughters; an old man named Rudy and his old wife Alma; Pete, a saloon regular and a close friend of Keith; and an unnamed trucker. All of them were having a good time with each other's company until the arrival of John Constantine. Constantine's sudden appearance and generally unfriendly nature created some dislike among the patrons, but they nonetheless make him stay.

Pete goes outs to throw rock salts out by the door, but notices a man with an icicle thrust in his chest inside a parked car. He informs the rest about it, and he and Keith drag the corpse inside, much to the horror of Jay's kids who saw it. The patrons try to call the police but find out that the phones are dead. Alma says that the icicle murder was like that of the local "Ice Man" murder legends, which is a local serial killer myth. This created discomfort among the folks, and they start accusing the Englishman. Constantine rebuffs the accusation and assures them he knew nothing about it. He even volunteers himself to help Pete examine the corpse outside. Rudy and Alma tell the others about the Ice Man legend which started in 1892. In the story, a Swede named Gunter Helgeson made a trip through a similar blizzard and finds a cabin with all of his colleagues dead and headless, their heads placed on icicles outside the camp. Gunter went missing the next day and was never found again. They say the Ice Man is said to kill during powerful snow storms, targeting those trapped in their own shelters.

Three other men soon arrive in the saloon, and are surprised to see the corpse, while Keith and the trucker carry it outside. One of them, Lamar, was actually shot in the torso, but they dismisses it as simply alcohol drinking. Constantine and Pete leave the saloon to check the now frozen corpse. The late arrivals go to the lavatory, and Rudy accidentally walks in and curses in surprise as he sees that one of them is bleeding heavily from a stomach wound. The three try to spin a story about a car crash but when Rudy spots a gun in the jacket of one of them, Waylon (the gunman) drops the act and pulls his gun on the old man. The second uninjured man, Dwight, warns Rudy that if he does not keep quiet about Lamar's injury, Waylon will have no problem with shooting him dead.

Outside, John asks Pete if he has ever seen a dead man before. Pete says he has not and tries to assure Constantine that the Iceman is not a myth but a real creature. Pete recounts a tale from his childhood, where he played in a long winter similar to the current raging snowstorm. While playing out with his sled, the snow suddenly started melting as winter's end approached. A young Pete sees three snowmen melting off to reveal three gruesomely killed men hidden in each snowman. This experience has haunted Pete for years, he said. Back at the salon, Waylon mistakes Rudy of trying to warn the others and becomes hostile to them as he pulls out and fires his pistol. They later tell everyone that they were robbers and murderers and that the patrons were now their hostages. Keith is ordered to clean Lamar's worsening wound. Back outside, Constantine and Pete heard the gunshots; both agree to rush to the nearest police station on foot while the storm worsens. While doing so, Constantine started speculating of Pete's odd behavior about the Ice Man legend, and confronts Pete about it. In the saloon, as everyone is kept shut, Waylon tries to rape Hope, but the woman manages to fight back. Keith pleads with them to leave his wife alone.

A sudden knock on the front door distracts everyone. Waylon opens the door and sees a grinning Constantine, who claims to be responsible for the murder of the man found with an icicle shoved into his chest. After hearing this, Jay urges Dwight to shoot Constantine. But a sneering Constantine bluffs Waylon, denouncing him as an amateur killer.  The lights suddenly go out, leaving the saloon in darkness. Dwight wonders if it was the other guy, Pete, who cut the power while Constantine distracted them, but Constantine suggests that the fault probably just rests with the weather. Waylon and Dwight decide to check outside for Pete, leaving Lamar to watch over their hostages. Constantine strikes up a conversation with the bleeding Lamar, and Constantine literally killed the gunman by talking him to death when Lamar got distracted and eventually loses large amounts of blood.  Hope realizes that Constantine is not the Iceman and John again assures that the Iceman is just a myth. Jay later gets paranoid and grabs Lamar's gun and warns everyone with it. Waylon and Dwight return and a tense standoff ensues between the two gunmen and the armed Jay. Waylon points his gun at Jay's daughters and when the terrified father lowers his gun, Waylon shoots him. Keith sees this as an opportunity and attacks Waylon. Dwight tries to shoot him but was suddenly shot by Hope with a shotgun in the jaw, killing him. Waylon panics, and grabs Jay's youngest kid as a hostage before running back to the storm.

Marnie tries to follow Waylon, but Constantine armed with a shotgun forbids her. Saying that she should leave it to the "legend" to save her daughter. Outside, Waylon tries to get inside his car, but an icicle is driven through his chest by Pete. The kid was returned safely, and everyone watches in horror as Pete builds a snowman out of Waylon's dead body. It was later revealed that John Constantine deduced that Pete was actually the Ice Man or was trying to be, and Constantine managed to manipulate him into killing as soon as he found out. John Constantine later leaves the saloon and its patrons behind as he walks back into the snowstorm.

Themes
Like many of Brian Azzarello's stories, Freezes Over exemplifies the darker personality of the human psyche, where the characters are deeply flawed and social distrust came to them during the murder. Azzarello brings his signature blending of Noir and urban horror made famous by his other work 100 Bullets. The story is in the style of a suspenseful mystery containing elements of urban myth, home invasion and murder. The story is notable for bringing back the comic's trademark graphic and psychological horror, but the supernatural theme that the series is well known for were absent or virtually omitted, focusing more on realistic horror.

Critical reception
UGO listed Hellblazer: Freezes Over as one of the "12 Legitimately Terrifying Comic Tales", saying that "While narrowing down one specific Hellblazer tale to add to this list is almost like picking out the best Krispy Kreme donut in a box of a dozen (they're all equally delicious!), Hellblazer: Freezes Over is a perfect blend of supernatural terror and real world nightmare situations" and that it was one "truly twisted tale".

Now Read This! described the storyline as a "claustrophobic bondage", saying that "The horror and power in this volume is all derived from the various deadly effects of anticipation. Azzarello used his run on Hellblazer to dissect the working principles of the graphic horror narrative and thus moved it beyond the simple clichés of goblins and beasties. Hellblazer is one of the best graphic series in print. If you're not a fan you should give it a try and thus become one."

Awards
The story was nominated for the Eisner Award, and Brian Azzarello nominated for his works with Hellblazer and 100 Bullets.

Collected Editions
Hellblazer: Freezes Over collects the "...Freezes Over" storyline illustrated by Marcelo Frusin as well as the one-shot "... And Buried?" illustrated by Steve Dillon and the two-part "Lapdogs and Englishmen" illustrated by Guy Davis.

 Hellblazer: Freezes Over ()

References

Hellblazer
2001 in comics
Vertigo Comics graphic novels
Crime comics
DC Comics storylines
Comics by Brian Azzarello
Harvey Award winners for Best Continuing or Limited Series

Freezes Over


Longue paume is an outdoor version of jeu de paume and therefore an ancestor of modern lawn tennis.  Hundreds of years ago it was quite popular, particularly in France.  It was part of the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, but not all think that the medals that were awarded  for longue paume at that Olympics have full value.  Today, the sport is played regionally in Picardie.  The governing body of the sport is the Fédération Française de Longue Paume with its headquarter in Amiens.

Other websites
 Connaissez-vous la Longue Paume?
 Ligue de Picardie de Longue Paume

Handball

Longue paume


5G is the fifth generation network of cellular mobile communications, first launched in March of 2019. 5G uses many new technologies that make it faster than 4G. 5G currently can get between 100 Mbit/s and 2 Gbit/s depending on the frequency that is used.  It is eventually meant to replace 4G.

There are three main groups of frequencies used by 5G:

Lowband 5G is a type of 5G that uses low frequencies, just as 4G does. Lowband 5G has long range (meaning you can be far away from a tower or inside a building and still get signal) but slower speeds than other types of 5G. Lowband 5G is only a little bit faster than the LTE (Long Term Evolution) version of 4G. Lowband 5G usually has speeds of around 100 Mbit/s.

Midband 5G is a type of 5G that uses frequencies slightly higher than lowband 5G. It has shorter range than lowband 5G, but you can usually still get service indoors using midband 5G. Midband 5G is much faster than LTE. Midband 5G usually has speeds of 600 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s.

mmWave 5G is a type of 5G that uses frequencies much higher than lowband and midband. It has very short range. With mmWave, you can't get service inside buildings. Most solid objects can block mmWave. mmWave is much faster than any other type of 5G and can reach speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s currently. mmWave is considered the least practical version of 5G since the range is so short and basically anything can block it.

4G phones do not work on 5G. To use 5G, you need a phone that supports it. Most 5G phones have "5G" at the end of the phone's name.

There are concerns from conspiracy theorists that 5G might cause cancer or COVID-19. Scientists have found these theories to not be true.

References

Telecommunications
Mobile phones

5G


Sabrina Goes to Rome is a 1998 American television film produced for ABC, airing on October 4, 1998. The film is a part of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series franchise and is the second TV film made for the series following the 1996 Sabrina the Teenage Witch film, which was produced before the TV series went into production.

The film features only two main characters from the TV series, the protagonist Sabrina Spellman (played by Melissa Joan Hart), and other main character Salem Saberhagen (voiced by Nick Bakay). The film introduces the character of Gwen (played by Tara Charendoff), a British witch, whom Sabrina meets in Rome. As the film is set in Rome, none of the scenes are set on the original set of the TV series.

The film was directed by Tibor Takács, the director of the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch film. Takács also directed an episode of the TV series.

Due to the success of Sabrina Goes to Rome, ABC produced a sequel titled Sabrina Down Under. This film again only included Sabrina and Salem from the TV series. Tara Charendoff reprised her role of Gwen for the second film.

The film is included in the season 7 DVD release of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series.

Plot
Sabrina has received a letter from her father asking her to try and open a mysterious antique gold locket which her Aunt Sophia is trapped inside, however she has only two weeks to do so or the magic will fade and Aunt Sophia will be lost forever. The only clue she has is that "the secret to the locket lies in Rome" so Sabrina heads for Italy and the Eternal City of Rome, for what was supposed to be "two cat-less weeks" to herself. Unknown to her she is accompanied by Salem who has stowed away in her backpack. Sabrina finds an unexpected roommate: Gwen, a British witch with a talking guinea pig named Stonehenge (nicknamed "Stony"). At the inn where she is staying, Sabrina learns that her Aunt Sophia was banished and trapped in the locket because she fell in love with a mortal who betrayed her and revealed to a friend that she was a witch. Later while traveling the city, she meets Paul, the gorgeous American photographer who catches her before she falls into the famous Trevi Fountain. Together, Sabrina and Gwen set out to solve the mystery of the locket. When Paul and his friend Travis witness Sabrina doing magic, while turning a walking statue to stone (that Gwen brought to life by accident) they come up with an idea to sell the story. In the end Paul doesn't betray Sabrina, which sets Aunt Sophia free, as the locket says "Trust your heart".

Cast
 Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenage witch, visiting Rome to unlock the mystery of her aunt Sophia's locket to stop Sophia being lost forever.(Aunt Sophia looks just like Sabrina hinting that Melissa Joan Hart acted as Aunt Sophia in her few appearances) She has to learn to trust her heart when she finds out Paul's secret.
 Eddie Mills as Paul, an adopted American photographer, who saves Sabrina from falling into the famous Trevi Fountain. Paul finds out that Sabrina is a witch, and he tries to get evidence on video camera, so that he can sell the story along with Travis. After Sabrina reunites him with his real family in Italy, he doesn't want to expose her and destroys the video evidence.
 Tara Charendoff as Gwen, a British witch whose spells never go the way she plans. She helps Sabrina unlock the locket. She has a crush on Alberto, who she accidentally turns into a pigeon. To change him back she has to kiss him, however there is no way of her knowing which pigeon he is.
James Fields as Travis, a friend of Paul's who intends to gather evidence to expose Sabrina as a witch and become rich.
Eric Alexander as Alberto, a handsome young man who Gwen accidentally turns into a pigeon. Determined to turn him back into a human, Gwen ends up randomly kissing pigeons in hopes of changing Alberto back. When she is about to give up, she relents on kissing a pigeon who keeps visiting her and Alberto is restored to human form.
 Nick Bakay as the voice of Salem Saberhagen, a 500-year-old witch, sentenced to spend 100 years as a cat as punishment for attempting to take over the world. Salem stows away in Sabrina's backpack and once in Rome, befriends Stony to gain free food from outdoor eateries, as people don't take kindly to finding a guinea pig in their food.
 Richard Steven Horvitz as the voice of Stonehenge, aka Stoney, Gwen's talking guinea pig.

Books
As part of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch book collection, a book titled Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Sabrina Goes to Rome is available. The book is credited to author Mel Odom and the film's screenwriter Daniel Berendsen. It is unnumbered, as is the second film's book adaptation. The other books in the series are numbered in reading order. The book adds in a subplot not shown in the film - featuring Sabrina's aunts back in Westbridge spying on Harvey and a mysterious girl named Tish. This also references previous continuity from the TV series, where Hilda has brought back the three butlers the aunts used to employ (as shown in season 1's "The Great Mistake").

As part of the Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Salem's Tails book collection, a book titled Salem's Tails: Salem Goes to Rome is available. The book tells Salem's tale of his trip to Rome. This book is also unnumbered.

Music
The song heard in the opening credits is "Sky Fits Heaven" by Madonna.
Other songs featured in the movie include, "Crush" by Jennifer Paige.
The song heard at the ending credits is "Gassenhauer" by Carl Orff.

External links

1990s fantasy comedy films
1998 television films
1998 films
American teen comedy films
American television films
American fantasy comedy films
Films set in Rome
Sabrina the Teenage Witch films
Television sequel films
Films shot in Rome
Films directed by Tibor Takács
1990s American films
Films about teenagers
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996 TV series)

Sabrina Goes to Rome


William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois (pronoonced  ; Februar 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) wis an American sociologist, historian, ceevil richts activist, Pan-Africanist, author, an eeditor.

1868 births
1963 daiths
20t-century American novelists
African-American agnostics
African-American historians
African-American novelists
African-American filosofers
African-American social scientists
African-American studies scholars
Activists for African-American ceevil richts
American historians
American human richts activists
American humanitarians
American male novelists
American fowk o Dutch strynd
American fowk o Inglis strynd
American fowk o French strynd
American fowk o Haitian strynd
American political philosophers
American social sciences writers
American social wirkers
American socialists
American sociologists
Anglican saunts
Anti-racism activists
Fisk Varsity alumni
Ghanaian activists
Ghanaian historians
Ghanaian filosofers
Ghanaian writers
Harvard Varsity alumni
Historians o Africae
History o the Soothren Unitit States
History o the Unitit States (1865–1918)
Humboldt Varsity o Berlin alumni
Lenin Peace Prize recipients
Members o the Communist Pairty USA
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People activists
Naituralised ceetizens o Ghana
American pan-Africanists
Fowk associatit wi the history o African-American ceevil richts
Fowk frae Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Reconstruction Era
American rhetoricians
Spingarn Medal winners
Varsity o Massachusetts Amherst
Wilberforce Varsity faculty
Writers frae Massachusetts
Ghanaian fowk o African-American strynd
Urban sociologists
Progressive Era in the Unitit States
American emigrants tae Ghana
Filosofers from Massachusetts

W. E. B. Du Bois


Solid Snake is a fictional character who appeared in Metal Gear games by Konami. Introduced in the 1987 video games Metal Gear, and Metal Gear Solid, created by series creator Hideo Kojima, Solid Snake is a combination of a spy, special operations agent, and mercenary who works for FOXHOUND. Solid Snake (aka David) is one of three clones made in a secret project to clone the world's greatest soldier. His childhood is a mystery, but he is known to have fought in the Gulf War, and maybe a few others before that. After the war ended, he joined the Secret Organization known as FOXHOUND. While he was a member of this group, he discovered the existence of a new war machine, called Metal Gear. It is a staple throughout the series, as the title suggests. He fights a new type of Metal Gear in every games. In the fourth release in the Metal Gear Solid series, Snake's codename is changed to "Old Snake" as a reference to his old age. In reality, he is not actually as old as he seems. A side effect of the cloning that created him, was an aging process that would speed up when he reached a certain age, around the time a normal human's body starts to weaken. It should be noted, that another side effect of the cloning, is that he cannot have children.

Snake appeared in the Nintendo fighting games Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Metal Gear
Video game characters

Solid Snake


The Springfield Falcons are an American professional ice hockey team that began playing in 1994. They currently play in the American Hockey League and are the farm team of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL. They play their home games in Springfield, Massachusetts at the MassMutual Center. Their CHL affiliate team is the Fort Wayne Komets.

Other websites
Springfield Falcons' Official Site

American Hockey League teams
Columbus Blue Jackets
Ice hockey teams in the United States

Springfield Falcons