title: Grey's Anatomy

text: Bryce Olin of "Netflix" ranked "Grey's" 9th among the "50 Best TV Shows on Netflix" stating, "It's a tough call, but based on "Grey's" casting choices and revolutionary portrayals of female doctors in the series, I'm willing to argue that "Grey's Anatomy" is the best medical drama of all time. Obviously, Shonda Rhimes didn't reinvent the wheel with the series, but there's no denying its popularity." adding, "I understand its significance in the pop culture sphere." He also stated that the show could go higher in the ranks with the upcoming season stating, "Apparently, "Grey's Anatomy" fans are passionate about their show, although it seems like they've been closeted for the last few years. I'd love to move "Grey's Anatomy" even higher on the ranking, but I'll have wait until the eleventh season comes to Netflix."


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The show was criticized for its handling of a controversy: The "Grey's Anatomy" scandal revolved around actor Isaiah Washington using a homophobic slur on set. Mainstream media coverage scapegoated this scandal as “black masculinity for perpetrating homophobia, thus containing both sexual and racial difference in the name of tolerance.”


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: Critics included "Grey's Anatomy" in top ten lists for five of its 14 seasons; these are listed below in order of rank.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: "Grey Anatomy" has been considered an impact on culture by "Entertainment Weekly" executive editor, Lori Majewski, with her writing: ""Grey's Anatomy" isn't just a show, it's a phenomenon. When [the] final shows air, every place in New York City is empty. You could get a table at the best restaurants." "The Daily Beast" Jace Lacob also considered the show an impact, comparing its success to that of "Friends", and calling it a "cultural phenomenon". Steve Sternberg, a media analyst with Magna Global USA explained that the show appeals to a broad audience, writing: "Roughly 80 percent of households during prime time only have one TV set on. People are looking for shows they can watch with other household members." In its initial seasons, "Grey's Anatomy" introduced a "Mc-labeling" surge, which started when various characters dubbed Dempsey's character "McDreamy". Canadian newspaper the "National Post" considers this trend a "phenomenon". Analyzing the show's impact on culture, Dessylyn Arnold of "Yahoo!" "Voices" noted that the "Mc-labeling" trend has been parodied on other shows including "ER" and "". Mark Lawson of "The Guardian" has credited "Grey's Anatomy" with popularizing the "songtage", or musical montage segments. Parodying this, "MADtv" spoofed the show in 2006, making fun of the series' emotional scenes including those accompanied by a musical montage.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: "Grey's Anatomy" has also been credited to helping redefine "good" television; "The A.V. Club" writes, "Since "The Sopranos" burst onto the scene, we've too often classified a show as "good" based on how closely it adhered to the dark, violent, male-centric template set out by that particular show. It's time for that to end. At its best, "Grey's Anatomy" has been among the very best shows on TV, and at its worst, it's been at least fascinating to watch. To write it off is to unnecessarily narrow the definition of what good TV can be, to limit what the medium is capable of. TV is at its best when it emotionally connects, and even when it seems to be otherwise merrily hurtling off a cliff, "Grey's Anatomy" is nothing but emotional connection, which is more than other, more consistently better shows can say." The series placed at No. 66 on "Entertainment Weekly" "New TV Classics" list in 2007, and was declared the third-highest rated show for the first ten years of the "IMDb" (2002–2012). The show's premise has inspired the creation of "A Corazón Abierto", a Colombian adaptation of "Grey's Anatomy", which in turn spawned a Mexican version of the same name.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: An additional study conducted by Brian Quick of the University of Illinois indicated that the show's portrayal of doctors being "smart, good looking, capable, and interesting", leads viewers to associating real-world doctors to be that way. Surgical resident Karen Zink, M.D., deemed the show's portrayal of interns inaccurate, adding: "None of [the characters] have bags under their eyes. They all leave the hospital dressed cute, with their hair done and makeup on. That is so far away from the reality of interns. You are just dragging your butt, trying to stay alive. You don't have time to do your hair. You don't have time to put on makeup. Every surgical intern has bags under their eyes."


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: In 2011, a woman residing in Sheboygan, Wisconsin became unresponsive due to an asthma attack. Unable to wait for an ambulance, her daughter and a friend performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on her, which they learned from "Grey's Anatomy". In 2017, an Israeli woman saved her husband by performing cardiac massage she learned from "Grey's Anatomy", The woman performed cardiac massage for 20 minutes before medical personal arrived and transferred the husband to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The mid-season premiere of the 14th season was entitled "1-800-799-7233", the National Domestic Violence Hotline; upon release on January 18, 2018, the move was received favorably and viewers variously changed their Twitter usernames to the same and used the platform to bring awareness to both the hotline and the issue of domestic abuse.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: "Greys Anatomy" has received high viewership and ratings since its debut. The first 4 seasons of the program each ranked in the top 10 among all viewers, reaching its peak Nielsen ratings in the second season, attracting an average of 19.44 million viewers per episode, and ranking at No. 5 overall. Following the show's time-slot being relocated, overall rankings steadily declined, dropping below the top 10 in its fifth season. "Grey's Anatomy" made its greatest fall from its sixth to seventh season, slipping from #16 to No. 31. The series is on a steady decline in terms of overall viewership and rankings, yet "Grey's Anatomy" still holds value in charts when numbers are pulled from the digital video recorder (DVR). It was the most recorded show between 2007 and 2011, based on cumulative totals, and has been for several years in a row.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The most-watched episode of the series is "It's the End of the World", with 37.88 million viewers, aided by a lead-in from Super Bowl XL. "Grey's Anatomy" was the most expensive program on television in the 2007–08 season measured by advertising revenue, with earnings of US$400,000 per 30 seconds. The show was named the fourth (behind "Desperate Housewives", "Two and a Half Men", and "American Idol"), and the fifth-highest (behind "Glee", "Two and a Half Men", "The X Factor" and "American Idol") revenue-earning show, with the earnings of US$2.67 million and US$2.75 million per half hour in 2011 and 2012 respectively. While "Grey's Anatomy" is no longer ranked in the top numbers for overall ratings, the show's ranking in the key 18–49 demographic has remained high. As of season 8, the series is the highest-rated drama on television in the target demographic. In 2016, a "New York Times" study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "Grey's Anatomy" was "most popular in a swath of the middle of the country, particularly in areas with a lower percentage of college graduates".


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: Below is a table of "Grey's Anatomy"s seasonal rankings in the U.S. television market, based on average total viewers per episode. Each U.S. network television season starts in September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: "Grey's Anatomy" has won a number of awards. the show has been nominated for 25 Primetime Emmy Awards, having been nominated for at least 1 every year, except in 2010. At the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005, Oh was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, which she went on to be nominated for every year until 2009, and Horton was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. The following year, at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, which they were nominated for again in 2007. Also in 2006, Wilson was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, which she went on to be nominated for every year until 2009, and Kyle Chandler was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. The 58th ceremony also honored Rhimes and Vernoff, who were both nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Rhimes, whose career kicked off in 1995, has since produced yet another ABC series, "Scandal", which began on air in 2012 and ended in 2019. Beginning in 2005, Rhimes has been continually nominated for numerous awards, including 3 Emmy Awards: first in 2006 for a dramatic series and a separate nomination for writing a dramatic series, followed by a third nomination in 2007 for a dramatic series.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: In 2007, at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, Heigl won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, while Knight was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Numerous guest actresses have been nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, including Burton in 2006 and 2007, Christina Ricci in 2006, Reaser in 2007, Diahann Carroll in 2008, and Sharon Lawrence in 2009, but the only actress to have won the award is Devine in 2011, who was nominated again in 2012. The show has also been nominated for 13 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, having won 3 of them: Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic), and Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The show has received 10 Golden Globe Award nominations since its premiere. At the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, in 2006, the series was nominated for Best Drama Series, Dempsey was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama Series, which he was nominated for again in 2007, and Oh won the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. The following year, at the 64th Golden Globe Awards, in 2007, Pompeo was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and the show won Best Drama Series. At the 65th Golden Globe Awards, in 2008, Heigl was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film, while the series in whole was nominated for Best Drama Series.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The series has won People's Choice Awards for Best Drama 5 times in 2007, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and has been nominated for several other People's Choice Awards, with nominations received by Oh as well as multiple wins from Dempsey, Pompeo winning in recent years 2013 and 2015, Heigl, Wilson, Demi Lovato, for guest starring, and the drama in whole for Favorite TV Drama. In 2007, Rhimes and the female cast were the recipient of the Women in Film Lucy Award, in recognition of the excellence and innovation in the show as a creative work that has enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television. The series has been honored with numerous NAACP Image Award nominations, many having been won, including 5 awards for Outstanding Drama Series. "Grey's Anatomy" has also received several Screen Actors Guild Awards, with nominations received by Dempsey, as well as wins from Oh, Wilson, and the main cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: On February 21, 2007, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that ABC was pursuing a spin-off medical drama television series for "Grey's Anatomy" featuring Walsh's character, Addison Montgomery. Subsequent reports confirmed the decision, stating that an expanded two-hour broadcast of "Grey's Anatomy" would serve as a backdoor pilot for the proposed spin-off. The cast of "Grey's Anatomy" was reportedly unhappy about the decision, as all hoped the spin-off would have been given to them. Pompeo commented that she felt, as the star, she should have been consulted, and Heigl disclosed that she had hoped for a spin-off for Stevens. The backdoor pilot that aired on May 3, 2007, sees Montgomery take a leave of absence from Seattle Grace Hospital, to visit her best-friend from Los Angeles, Naomi Bennett (Merrin Dungey, later Audra McDonald), a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist. While in Los Angeles, she meets Bennett's colleagues at the Oceanside Wellness Center. The two-hour broadcast entitled "The Other Side of This Life" served as the twenty-second and twenty-third episodes of the third season, and was directed by Michael Grossman, according to "Variety". The cast included Amy Brenneman, Paul Adelstein, Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Chris Lowell, and Merrin Dungey.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: KaDee Strickland's character, Charlotte King, who would be introduced in the spin-off's first-season premiere, did not appear in the backdoor pilot. Her addition to the main cast was announced on July 11, 2007, prior to the commencement of the first season. She did not have to audition for the role, but was cast after a meeting with Rhimes. Also not present in the backdoor pilot was McDonald, due to her character, Naomi Bennett, being portrayed by a different actress, Merrin Dungey. However, on June 29, 2007, ABC announced that Dungey would be replaced, with no reason given for the change. The drama was titled "Private Practice", and its premiere episode followed the second part of the season debut of "Dancing with the Stars", and provided a lead-in to fellow freshman series "Dirty Sexy Money". "Pushing Daisies", a third new series for the evening, rounded out the lineup as a lead-in to "Private Practice". The series ended its run on January 22, 2013, after 6 seasons.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: On May 16, 2017, Channing Dungey announced at the ABC Upfronts that the network ordered another "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, this one focusing on firefighters in Seattle. The series premiered mid-season in 2018. Stacy McKee, long-term "Grey's" writer and executive producer, serves as the spin-off's showrunner. The new show was introduced Season 14, Episode 13, when a house fire brings the firefighters to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. In July 2017, it was announced that Jaina Lee Ortiz was the first actress cast in the spin-off series. In September 2017, it was announced that Jason George, who has played Dr. Ben Warren since season 6, would be leaving "Grey's Anatomy" to move to the spin-off. He continued to be a series regular on "Grey's Anatomy" until the spin-off began production. In October 2017, it was announced that 5 new series regulars for the spin-off had been cast being Grey Damon, Jay Hayden, Okieriete Onaodowan, Danielle Savre and Barrett Doss. It was also announced that the spin-off had a 10-episode order for the first season. Later in October 2017, it was announced that Miguel Sandoval was cast as the Captain of the firehouse.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: On January 9, 2018, it was announced by Sarah Drew on her Instagram page that a 6-episode spin-off series following the new interns of Grey Sloan Memorial would be released for streaming on the ABC app and "abc.com" on Thursday, January 11, 2018. "Grey's Anatomy: B-Team" stars Sophia Taylor Ali (Dahlia Qadri), Jake Borelli (Levi Schmitt), Alex Blue Davis (Casey Parker), Jaicy Elliot (Taryn Helm), Rushi Kota (Vik Roy) and Jeanine Mason (Samantha "Sam" Bello) with special guest appearances made by Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), Kelly McCreary (Maggie Pierce), Kevin McKidd (Owen Hunt) and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber). The 6 episodes in this series were written by Barbara Kaye Friend with "Grey's Anatomy" series regular Sarah Drew (April Kepner) making her directorial debut directing each of them.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: "Grey's Anatomy" has several crossover storylines with both spin-offs "Private Practice" and "Station 19" throughout its run.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: An adaptation called "Doktorlar" ("Doctors") premiered on December 28, 2006, on Turkish network Show TV. It aired for 4 seasons.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: In 2010, "A Corazón Abierto" ("An Open Heart"), an adaptation of the series, was made by the Colombian network RCN TV. It aired for 2 seasons.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: In 2011, "A Corazón Abierto" ("An Open Heart"), an adaptation of the series, was made by the Mexican network TV Azteca. It aired for 2 seasons.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The American Broadcasting Company has partnered with J. Larson CafePress and Barco Uniforms to provide the series' branded merchandise through an online store. The products available include shirts, sweatshirts, kitchenware, homeware, and bags, with the "Grey's Anatomy" logo on it. Also available are custom unisex scrubs and lab coats in a variety of colors and sizes, designed by Barco. The merchandise released by the company is available for purchase at the "Grey's Anatomy" official website, and US$1 from every purchase is donated to Barco's Nightingales Foundation.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: Five volumes of the "Grey's Anatomy Original Soundtrack" have been released . For the first 2 seasons, the show's main title theme was an excerpt from "Cosy in the Rocket", by British duo Psapp; it is featured on the first soundtrack album released via ABC's corporate cousin, Hollywood Records, on September 27, 2005. The second soundtrack, featuring songs from the series' second season, was released on September 12, 2006, followed by a third soundtrack with music from the third season. Following the seventh season musical episode "Song Beneath the Song", ""Grey's Anatomy: The Music Event"" soundtrack was released, with volume 4 of the soundtrack released subsequently.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: In January 2009, Ubisoft announced that it had signed a licensing agreement with ABC Studios to develop a video game based on "Grey's Anatomy". Designed for the Wii, Nintendo DS and PC, "" was released on March 10, 2009. The game lets the player assume the role of one of the main characters, making decisions for the character's personal and professional life, and competing in a number of minigames. It has been criticized by reviewers because of the simplicity of the mini-games and voice actors who do not play the same characters on the series, with Jason Ocampo of "IGN" giving it a 6/10 overall rating. The Wii release received mixed reviews, and the Windows release received generally unfavorable reviews.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: ABC and Nielsen partnered in 2011 to create a "Grey Anatomy" application for Apple's iPad. The application was designed to allow viewers to participate in polls and learn trivial facts as they watch a live episode. It uses Nielsen's Media-Sync software to listen for the episode and to post features as the episode progresses.


title: Grey's Anatomy

text: The creators of the show set up a real online wedding registry to mark the wedding of Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd. Instead of buying gifts fans were encouraged to donate money to the American Academy of Neurology Foundation.


title: Star Wars

text: Star Wars is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and , comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. "Star Wars" is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.


title: Star Wars

text: The original film ("Star Wars"), retroactively subtitled "" (1977), was followed by the sequels "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" (1983), forming the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Lucas later returned to the series to direct a prequel trilogy, consisting of "" (1999), "" (2002), and "" (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney, relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. This led to a sequel trilogy, consisting of "" (2015), "" (2017), and "" (2019).


title: Star Wars

text: All nine films of the "Skywalker Saga" were nominated for Academy Awards, with wins going to the first two releases. Together with the theatrical live action "anthology" films "Rogue One" (2016) and "" (2018), the combined box office revenue of the films equated to over  billion, which makes it the second-highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Additional upcoming films are in the works, including an untitled movie from Taika Waititi and "Rogue Squadron" directed by Patty Jenkins, both currently without release dates.


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" franchise depicts the adventures of characters "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", in which humans and many species of aliens (often humanoid) co-exist with robots (typically referred to in the films as 'droids'), who may assist them in their daily routines; space travel between planets is common due to lightspeed hyperspace technology. The planets range from wealthy, planet-wide cities to deserts scarcely populated by primitive tribes. Virtually any Earth biome, along with many fictional ones, has its counterpart as a "Star Wars" planet which, in most cases, teem with sentient and non-sentient alien life. The franchise also makes use of other astronomical objects such as asteroid fields and nebulae. Spacecraft range from small starfighters, to huge capital ships such as the Star Destroyers, to space stations such as the moon-sized Death Stars. Telecommunication includes two-way audio and audiovisual screens, holographic projections, and HoloNet (internet counterpart).


title: Star Wars

text: The universe of "Star Wars" is generally similar to ours but its laws of physics are less strict allowing for more imaginative stories. One result of that is a mystical power known as the Force which is described in the original film as "an energy field created by all living things ... [that] binds the galaxy together". The field is depicted as a kind of pantheistic god. Through training and meditation, those whom "the Force is strong with" exhibit various superpowers (such as telekinesis, precognition, telepathy, and manipulation of physical energy). It is believed nothing is impossible for the Force. The mentioned powers are wielded by two major knightly orders at conflict with each other: the Jedi, peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who act on the light side of the Force through non-attachment and arbitration, and the Sith, who use the dark side by manipulating fear and aggression. While Jedi Knights can be numerous, the Dark Lords of the Sith (or 'Darths') are intended to be limited to two: a master and their apprentice. Another notable fictional element of "Star Wars" is hyperspace, an alternate dimension that allows faster-than-light travel.


title: Star Wars

text: Force-wielders are very limited in numbers in comparison to the population. The Jedi and Sith prefer the use of a weapon called a lightsaber, a blade of plasma that can cut through virtually any surface and deflect energy bolts. The rest of the population, as well as renegades and soldiers, use plasma-powered blaster firearms. As a result of galaxy-scaled politics (involving republics, empires, kingdoms, alliances, etc.), all this weaponry is made use of in various military conflicts during which most "Star Wars" material takes place. In the outer reaches of the galaxy, crime syndicates such as the Hutt cartel are dominant. Bounty hunters are often employed by both gangsters and governments. Illicit activities include smuggling and slavery.


title: Star Wars

text: The combination of science fiction and fantasy elements makes "Star Wars" a very universal franchise, capable of telling stories of various genres.


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" film series centers around three sets of trilogies, the nine films of which are collectively referred to as the "Skywalker Saga". They were produced non-chronologically, with "Episode"s "IV"–"VI" (the original trilogy) being released between 1977 and 1983, "Episode"s "I"–"III" (the prequel trilogy) being released between 1999 and 2005, and "Episode"s "VII"–"IX" (the sequel trilogy), being released between 2015 and 2019. Each trilogy focuses on a generation of the Force-sensitive Skywalker family. The original trilogy depicts the heroic development of Luke Skywalker, the prequels tell the backstory of his father Anakin, while the sequels feature Luke's nephew, Ben Solo, and Luke's protegé Rey.


title: Star Wars

text: An anthology series set between the main episodes entered development in parallel to the production of the sequel trilogy, described by Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo as origin stories. The first entry, "Rogue One" (2016), tells the story of the rebels who steal the Death Star plans just before "Episode IV". "" (2018) focuses on Han Solo's backstory, also featuring original trilogy co-protagonists Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian and involving prequel trilogy villain Darth Maul.


title: Star Wars

text: Lucasfilm has a number of "Star Wars" films in development, two of which were confirmed during Disney Investor Day 2020. The first will be an unspecified film from Taika Waititi, who in May 2020 was announced to be directing a "Star Wars" film he was co-writing with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. The second is a film titled "Rogue Squadron", which is being directed by Patty Jenkins. Additionally, a trilogy independent from the Skywalker Saga is being written by "The Last Jedi" writer/director Rian Johnson. In September 2019, it was announced that Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige would collaborate to develop a "Star Wars" film, however the film was no longer in active development as of 2022. In February 2020, a film was announced to be in development from director J. D. Dillard and writer Matt Owens, however, Dillard announced he was no longer attatched to direct that film in November 2022. In May 2022, the Waititi film was expected to be the next "Star Wars" film to be produced, ahead of the previously announced "Rogue Squadron", with Kennedy stating that they were aiming for a late 2023 release date but had not yet officially scheduled one. As of September 2022, untitled films are scheduled for release on December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027.


title: Star Wars

text: In 1971, George Lucas wanted to film an adaptation of the "Flash Gordon" serial, but could not obtain the rights, so he began developing his own space opera. After directing "American Graffiti" (1973), he wrote a two-page synopsis, which 20th Century Fox decided to invest in. By 1974, he had expanded the story into the first draft of a screenplay.


title: Star Wars

text: Fox expected the film would be of limited financial success, and so it was given a relatively low budget, with production being moved to Elstree Studios in England to help save on cost. Many of the scenes were shot in England, and so featured a number of British actors. The "Star Wars" robots were built by the small English company "Peteric Engineering". A 2019 BBC documentary revealed how the parts required to create these machines and other now iconic film props, including the light sabres (Originally called 'laser guns'), were ingeniously recycled from items scavenged in junk shops, ever conscious of the need to spend as little money as possible.


title: Star Wars

text: The 1977 movie's success led Lucas to make it the basis of an elaborate film serial. With the backstory he created for the sequel, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies. Most of the main cast would return for the two additional installments of the original trilogy, which were self-financed by Lucasfilm.


title: Star Wars

text: "Star Wars" was released on May 25, 1977, and first subtitled "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the 1979 book "The Art of Star Wars". "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" was released on May 21, 1980, also achieving wide financial and critical success. The final film in the trilogy, "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" was released on May 25, 1983. The story of the original trilogy focuses on Luke Skywalker's quest to become a Jedi, his struggle with the evil Imperial agent Darth Vader, and the struggle of the Rebel Alliance to free the galaxy from the clutches of the Galactic Empire.


title: Star Wars

text: According to producer Gary Kurtz, loose plans for a prequel trilogy were developed during the outlining of the original two films. In 1980, Lucas confirmed that he had the nine-film series plotted, but due to the stress of producing the original trilogy, he had decided to cancel further sequels by 1981. In 1983, Lucas explained that "There was never a script completed that had the entire story as it exists now ... As the stories unfolded, I would take certain ideas and save them ... I kept taking out all the good parts, and I just kept telling myself I would make other movies someday."


title: Star Wars

text: Technical advances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the ability to create computer-generated imagery (CGI), inspired Lucas to consider that it might be possible to revisit his saga. In 1989, Lucas stated that the prequels would be "unbelievably expensive." In 1992, he acknowledged that he had plans to create the prequel trilogy. A theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy in 1997 "updated" the 20-year-old films with the style of CGI envisioned for the new trilogy.


title: Star Wars

text: "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was released on May 19, 1999, and "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" on May 16, 2002. "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", the first film in the franchise, was released on May 19, 2005. The first two movies were met with mixed reviews, with the third being received somewhat more positively. The trilogy begins 32 years before "Episode IV" and follows the Jedi training of Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father, and his eventual fall from grace and transformation into the Sith lord Darth Vader, as well as the corruption of the Galactic Republic and rise of the Empire led by Darth Sidious. Together with the original trilogy, Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader".


title: Star Wars

text: Prior to releasing the original film, and made possible by its success, Lucas planned "three trilogies of nine films." However, he announced to "Time" in 1978 that he planned "10 sequels." He confirmed that he had outlined the prequels and sequels in 1981. At various stages of development, the sequel trilogy was to focus on the rebuilding of the Republic, the return of Luke in a role similar to that of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy, Luke's sister (not yet determined to be Leia), Han, Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO. However, after beginning work on the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that "Star Wars" was meant to be a six-part series and that there would be no sequel trilogy.


title: Star Wars

text: Lucas decided to leave the franchise in the hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would make no more "Star Wars" films. That October, the Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Lucasfilm and announced that "Episode VII" would be released in 2015. The co-chairman of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, became president and served as executive producer of new "Star Wars" feature films. Lucas provided Kennedy his story treatments for the sequels during the 2012 sale, but in 2015 it was revealed Lucas's sequel outline had been discarded. The sequel trilogy also meant the end of the existing "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, which was discarded from canon to give "maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience."


title: Star Wars

text: "" was released on December 16, 2015, "" on December 13, 2017, and "" on December 18, 2019, in many countries. "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi" were both critical and box office successes. "Episode IX" received a mixed reception from critics and audiences. The sequel trilogy starts 30 years after "Episode VI" and focuses on the journey of the Force-sensitive orphan Rey, guided by Luke Skywalker. Along with ex-stormtrooper Finn and ace X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron, Rey helps the Resistance, led by Leia, fight the First Order, commanded by Han and Leia's son (and Luke's nephew), Kylo Ren.


title: Star Wars

text: Lucasfilm and Kennedy have stated that the standalone films would be referred to as the "Star Wars" anthology series (though the word "anthology" has not been used in any of the titles, instead carrying the promotional ""A Star Wars Story"" subtitle). Focused on how the Rebels obtained the Death Star plans introduced in the 1977 film, the first anthology film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", was released on December 16, 2016, to favorable reviews and box office success. The second, "", centered on a young Han Solo with Chewbacca and Lando as supporting characters, was released on May 25, 2018, to generally favorable reviews and underperformance at the box office. The television series "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was originally going to be a film instead but changed to a limited series due to "Solo" underperforming. Despite this, more anthology films are expected to be released, following a hiatus after 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker".


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" franchise has been spun off to various television productions, including two animated series released in the mid-1980s. Further animated series began to be released in the 2000s, the first two of which focused on the Clone Wars. After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, only the later remained canon. Eight live-action "Star Wars" series will be released on Disney+. The first, "The Mandalorian", premiered on November 12, 2019 and won the 2020 Webby Award for Television & Film in the category Social. Disney+ later released the "Ewoks" movies and animated series, along with the animated first appearance of Boba Fett from the "Star Wars Holiday Special", and the "" animated micro-series in a section called "Star Wars Vintage", which also includes the "" animated series. Certain aspects of the original "Clone Wars" micro-series are considered to not contradict the canon, while others do.


title: Star Wars

text: Many "Star Wars" series have been produced, both animated and live-action, the first being "Droids" and "Ewoks" in 1985. "The Mandalorian", the first live-action series to take place in the "Star Wars" universe, has spawned multiple spinoffs and inspired other live-action series to be created. Confirmed upcoming animated series include "Young Jedi Adventures", as well as upcoming live-action series "Ahsoka", "Skeleton Crew", "The Acolyte", and "Lando".


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" canon fictional universe spans multiple eras, of which three are focused around each of the film trilogies. The following eras were defined in January 2021:


title: Star Wars

text: The Expanded Universe of spin-off media depicts different levels of continuity, which were deemed non-canonical and rebranded as "Legends" on April 25, 2014, to make most subsequent works align to the episodic films, , and .


title: Star Wars

text: From 1976 to 2014, the term "Expanded Universe" (EU) was an umbrella term for all officially licensed "Star Wars" storytelling material set outside the events depicted within the theatrical films, including novels, comics, and video games. Lucasfilm maintained internal continuity between the films and television content and the EU material until April 25, 2014, when the company announced all of the EU works would cease production. Existing works would no longer be considered canon to the franchise and subsequent reprints would be rebranded under the "Star Wars Legends" label, with downloadable content for the massively multiplayer online game "" the only "Legends" material to still be produced. The "Star Wars" canon was subsequently restructured to only include the existing six feature films, the animated film "" (2008), and its companion animated series. All future projects and creative developments across all types of media would be overseen and coordinated by the story group, announced as a division of Lucasfilm created to maintain continuity and a cohesive vision on the storytelling of the franchise. Multiple comics series from Marvel and novels published by Del Rey were produced after the announcement.


title: Star Wars

text: "Star Wars" in print predates the release of the first film, with the November 1976 novelization of "Star Wars", initially subtitled """". Credited to Lucas, it was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. The first "Expanded Universe" story appeared in Marvel Comics' "Star Wars" #7 in January 1978 (the first six issues being an adaptation of the film), followed by Foster's sequel novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" the following month.


title: Star Wars

text: After penning the novelization of the original film, Foster followed it with the sequel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" (1978). The novelizations of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) by Donald F. Glut and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) by James Kahn followed, as well as "The Han Solo Adventures" trilogy (1979–1980) by Brian Daley, and "The Adventures of Lando Calrissian" trilogy (1983) by L. Neil Smith.


title: Star Wars

text: Timothy Zahn's bestselling "Thrawn" trilogy (1991–1993) reignited interest in the franchise and introduced the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and Gilad Pellaeon. The first novel, "Heir to the Empire", reached #1 on the "New York Times" Best Seller list, and the series finds Luke, Leia, and Han facing off against tactical genius Thrawn, who is plotting to retake the galaxy for the Empire. In "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (1994) by Dave Wolverton, set immediately before the "Thrawn" trilogy, Leia considers an advantageous political marriage to Prince Isolder of the planet Hapes, but she and Han ultimately marry. Steve Perry's "" (1996), set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", was part of a multimedia campaign that included a comic book series and video game. The novel introduced the crime lord Prince Xizor, another popular character who would appear in multiple other works. Other notable series from Bantam include the "Jedi Academy" trilogy (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson, the 14-book "Young Jedi Knights" series (1995–1998) by Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, and the "" series (1996–2012) by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston.


title: Star Wars

text: Del Rey took over "Star Wars" book publishing in 1999, releasing what would become a 19-installment novel series called "The New Jedi Order" (1999–2003). Written by multiple authors, the series was set 25 to 30 years after the original films and introduced the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bestselling multi-author series "Legacy of the Force" (2006–2008) chronicles the crossover of Han and Leia's son Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force; among his evil deeds, he kills Luke's wife Mara Jade as a sacrifice to join the Sith. Although no longer canon, the story is paralleled in "The Force Awakens" with Han and Leia's son Ben Solo, who becomes the evil Kylo Ren.


title: Star Wars

text: Three series set in the prequel era were published by Scholastic for younger audiences: the 18-book "" (1999–2002) chronicles the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master Qui-Gon Jinn in the years before "The Phantom Menace"; the 11-book "Jedi Quest" (2001–2004) follows Obi-Wan and his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker in between "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones"; and the 10-book "" (2005–2008), set almost immediately after "Revenge of the Sith", features Obi-Wan and the last few surviving Jedi. In 2019, a new prequel era novel, starring Qui-Gon and the young Obi-Wan, was published by Del Rey under the title "Star Wars: Master and Apprentice".


title: Star Wars

text: Although Thrawn had been designated a "Legends" character in 2014, he was reintroduced into the canon in 2016 for the third season of the "Rebels" animated series, with Zahn returning to write more novels based on the character and set in the new canon.


title: Star Wars

text: Marvel Comics published a "Star Wars" comic book series from 1977 to 1986. Original "Star Wars" comics were serialized in the Marvel magazine "Pizzazz" between 1977 and 1979. The 1977 installments were the first original "Star Wars" stories not directly adapted from the films to appear in print form, as they preceded those of the "Star Wars" comic series. From 1985 to 1987, the animated children's series "" and "" inspired comic series from Marvel's Star Comics line. According to Marvel comics former Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, the strong sales of "Star Wars" comics saved Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvel's "Star Wars" series was one of the industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The only downside for Marvel was that the 100,000 copy sales quota was surpassed quickly, allowing Lippincott to renegotiate the royalty arrangements from a position of strength.


title: Star Wars

text: In the late 1980s, Marvel dropped a new "Star Wars" comic it had in development, which was picked up by Dark Horse Comics and published as the popular "Dark Empire" series (1991–1995). Dark Horse subsequently launched dozens of series set after the original film trilogy, including "Tales of the Jedi" (1993–1998), "" (1995–1998), "" (1998–2006), "Star Wars Tales" (1999–2005), "" (2002–2006), and "" (2006–2010).


title: Star Wars

text: After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, it was announced in January 2014 that in 2015 the "Star Wars" comics license would return to Marvel Comics, whose parent company, Marvel Entertainment, Disney had purchased in 2009. Launched in 2015, the first three publications were titled "Star Wars", "", and the limited series "".


title: Star Wars

text: First announced as "Project Luminous" at Star Wars Celebration in April 2019, the "" publishing initiative were revealed in a press conference in February 2020. Involving the majority of the then current officially licensed publishers, a new era set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga was explored in various books and comics. Including ongoing titles by Marvel and IDW Publishing, written by Cavan Scott and Daniel José Older respectively.


title: Star Wars

text: John Williams composed the soundtracks for the nine episodic films; he has stated that he will retire from the franchise with "The Rise of Skywalker". He also composed Han Solo's theme for "Solo: A Star Wars Story"; John Powell adapted and composed the rest of the score. Michael Giacchino composed the score of "Rogue One". Ludwig Göransson scored and composed the music of "The Mandalorian". Williams also created the main theme for "".


title: Star Wars

text: The first "Star Wars" audio work is "The Story of Star Wars", an LP using audio samples from the original film and a new narration to retell the story, released in 1977. Most later printed novels were adapted into audio novels, usually released on cassette tape and re-released on CD. As of 2019, audio-only novels have been released not directly based on printed media.


title: Star Wars

text: Radio adaptations of the films were also produced. Lucas, a fan of the NPR-affiliated campus radio station of his alma mater the University of Southern California, licensed the "Star Wars" radio rights to KUSC-FM for . The production used John Williams's original film score, along with Ben Burtt's sound effects.


title: Star Wars

text: The first was written by science-fiction author Brian Daley and directed by John Madden. It was broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981, adapting the original 1977 film into 13 episodes. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their film roles.


title: Star Wars

text: The overwhelming success, led to a 10-episode adaptation of "The Empire Strikes Back" debuted in 1983. Billy Dee Williams joined the other two stars, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian.


title: Star Wars

text: In 1983, Buena Vista Records released an original, 30-minute "Star Wars" audio drama titled "Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell", written by Daley. In the 1990s, Time Warner Audio Publishing adapted several "Star Wars" series from Dark Horse Comics into audio dramas: the three-part "Dark Empire" saga, "Tales of the Jedi", "", the "Dark Forces" trilogy, and "Crimson Empire" (1998). "Return of the Jedi" was adapted into 6-episodes in 1996, featuring Daniels.


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" franchise has spawned over one hundred computer, video, and board games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on the movie material, while others rely heavily on the non-canonical Expanded Universe (rebranded as "Star Wars Legends" and removed from the canon in 2014). "Star Wars" games have gone through three significant development eras, marked by a change in leadership among the developers: the early licensed games, those developed after the creation of LucasArts, and those created after the closure of the Lucasfilm division by Disney and the transfer of the license to Electronic Arts.


title: Star Wars

text: The first officially licensed electronic "Star Wars" game was Kenner's 1979 table-top "Star Wars Electronic Battle Command". In 1982, Parker Brothers published the first "Star Wars" video game for the Atari 2600, "", followed soon the year later by "", the first video game to depict lightsaber combat. They were followed in 1983 by Atari's rail shooter arcade game "Star Wars", with vector graphics to replicate the Death Star trench run scene from the 1977 film. The next game, "" (1984), has more traditional raster graphics, while the following "" (1985) has vector graphics.


title: Star Wars

text: Platform games were made for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including the Japan-exclusive "Star Wars" (1987), an international "Star Wars" (1991), and "" (1992). "Super Star Wars" (1992) was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, with two sequels over the next two years.


title: Star Wars

text: Lucasfilm founded its own video game company in 1982, becoming best known for adventure games and World War II flight combat games, but as George Lucas took more interest in the increasing success of the video game market, he wanted to have more creative control over the games and founded his own development company, LucasArts. Improved graphics allowed games to tell complex narratives, which allowed for the retelling of the films, and eventually original narratives set in the same continuity, with voice-overs and CGI cutscenes. In 1993, LucasArts released "", the first self-published "Star Wars" video game and the first space flight simulator based on the franchise. It was one of the best-selling video games of 1993 and established its own . The was released between 1998 and 2003, also focusing on space battles set during the films.


title: Star Wars

text: "" (1995), a hybrid adventure game incorporating puzzles and strategy, was the first "Star Wars" first-person shooter. It featured gameplay and graphical features not then common in other games, made possible by LucasArts' custom-designed game engine, the Jedi. The game was well received, and it was followed by . The series introduced Kyle Katarn, who would appear in multiple games, novels, and comics. Katarn is a former stormtrooper who joins the Rebellion and becomes a Jedi, a plot arc similar to that of Finn in the sequel trilogy films. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game, "Star Wars Galaxies", was in operation from 2003 until 2011. After Disney bought Lucasfilm, LucasArts ceased its role as a developer in 2013, although it still operates as a licensor.


title: Star Wars

text: Following its acquisition of the franchise, Disney reassigned video game rights to Electronic Arts. Games made during this era are considered canonical, and feature more influence from the "Star Wars" filmmakers. Disney partnered with Lenovo to create the augmented reality video game "Jedi Challenges", released in November 2017. In August 2018, it was announced that Zynga would publish free-to-play "Star Wars" mobile games. The "Battlefront" games received a canonical reboot with "Star Wars: Battlefront" in November 2015, which was followed by a sequel, "Battlefront II", in November 2017. A single-player action-adventure game, "", with an original story and cast of characters, was released in November 2019. A space combat game titled "", which builds upon the space battles from "Battlefront", was released in October 2020.


title: Star Wars

text: In addition to the Disneyland ride Star Tours (1987) and its successor, (2011), many live attractions have been held at Disney parks, including the travelling exhibition , the Space Mountain spin-off Hyperspace Mountain, a walkthrough Launch Bay, and the night-time "". An immersive themed area called (2019) opened at Disneyland and opened at Walt Disney World in mid-2019. A themed hotel, , is currently under construction at Walt Disney World.


title: Star Wars

text: A multimedia project involves works released across multiple types of media. "" (1996) was a multimedia project set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" that included a novel by Steve Perry, a comic book series, , and action figures. "" (2008–2010) was a similar project set between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" that included a novel, a and its , a graphic novel, a role-playing game supplement, and toys.


title: Star Wars

text: The success of the "Star Wars" films led the franchise to become one of the most merchandised franchises in the world. While filming the original 1977 film, George Lucas decided to take a $500,000 pay cut to his salary as director in exchange for full ownership of the franchise's merchandising rights. By 1987, the first three films have made billion in merchandising revenue. By 2012, the first six films produced approximately billion in merchandising revenue.


title: Star Wars

text: Kenner made the first "Star Wars" action figures to coincide with the release of the original film, and today the original figures are highly valuable. Since the 1990s, Hasbro holds the rights to create action figures based on the saga. Pez dispensers began to be produced in 1997. "Star Wars" was the first intellectual property to be licensed in Lego history. Lego has produced animated parody short films and mini-series to promote their "Star Wars" sets. The Lego "Star Wars" video games are critically acclaimed bestsellers.


title: Star Wars

text: In 1977, the board game "Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star" was released. A "Star Wars Monopoly" and themed versions of "Trivial Pursuit" and Battleship were released in 1997, with updated versions released in subsequent years. The board game "Risk" has been adapted in two editions by Hasbro: "" (2005) and the "" (2006). Three "Star Wars" tabletop role-playing games have been developed: in the 1980s and 1990s, one by Wizards of the Coast in the 2000s, and one by Fantasy Flight Games in the 2010s.


title: Star Wars

text: "Star Wars" Trading Cards have been published since the first "blue" series, by Topps, in 1977. Dozens of series have been produced, with Topps being the licensed creator in the United States. Each card series are of film stills or original art. Many of the cards have become highly collectible with some very rare "promos", such as the 1993 Galaxy Series II "floating Yoda" P3 card often commanding US$1,000 or more. While most "base" or "common card" sets are plentiful, many "insert" or "chase cards" are very rare. From 1995 until 2001, Decipher, Inc. had the license for, created, and produced the "Star Wars Customizable Card Game".


title: Star Wars

text: "Star Wars" features elements such as knighthood, chivalry, and Jungian archetypes such as "the shadow".


title: Star Wars

text: There are also many references to Christianity, such as in the appearance of Darth Maul, whose design draws heavily from traditional depictions of the devil. Anakin was conceived of a virgin birth, and is assumed to be the "Chosen One", a messianic individual. However, unlike Jesus, Anakin falls from grace, remaining evil as Darth Vader until "Return of the Jedi". According to Adam Driver, sequel trilogy villain Kylo Ren, who idolizes Vader, believes he is "doing what he thinks is right". George Lucas has said that the theme of the saga is redemption.


title: Star Wars

text: The saga draws heavily from the hero's journey, an archetypical template developed by comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Each character—primarily Anakin, Luke, and Rey—follows the steps of the cycle or undergoes its reversal, becoming the villain. A defining step of the journey is "Atonement with the Father". Obi-Wan's loss of a father figure could have impacted his relationship with Anakin, whom both Obi-Wan and Palpatine are fatherlike mentors to. Luke's discovery that Vader is his father has strong repercussions on the saga and is regarded as one of the most influential plot twists in cinema. Supreme Leader Snoke encourages Kylo Ren to kill his father, Han Solo. Kylo uses the fact that Rey is an orphan to tempt her into joining the dark side. According to "Inverse", the final scene in "The Last Jedi", which depicts servant children playing with a toy of Luke and one boy using the Force, symbolizes that "the Force can be found in people with humble beginnings."


title: Star Wars

text: Political science has been an important element of "Star Wars" since the franchise launched in 1977, focusing on a struggle between democracy and dictatorship. Battles featuring the Ewoks and Gungans against the Empire and Trade Federation, respectively, represent the clash between a primitive society and a more advanced one, similar to the Vietnam-American War. Darth Vader's design was initially inspired by Samurai armor, and also incorporated a German military helmet. Originally, Lucas conceived of the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the "Schutzstaffel" served Adolf Hitler; this was condensed into one character in the form of Vader. Stormtroopers borrow the name of World War I German "shock" troopers. Imperial officers wear uniforms resembling those of German forces during World War II, and political and security officers resemble the black-clad SS down to the stylized silver death's head on their caps. World War II terms were used for names in the films; "e.g." the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (after a German general who served on the snow-laden Eastern Front). Shots of the commanders looking through AT-AT walker viewscreens in "The Empire Strikes Back" resemble tank interiors, and space battles in the original film were based on World War I and World War II dogfights.


title: Star Wars

text: Palpatine being a chancellor before becoming the Emperor in the prequel trilogy alludes to Hitler's role before appointing himself "Führer". Lucas has also drawn parallels to historical dictators such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and politicians like Richard Nixon. The Great Jedi Purge mirrors the events of the Night of the Long Knives. The corruption of the Galactic Republic is modeled after the fall of the democratic Roman Republic and the formation of an empire.


title: Star Wars

text: On the inspiration for the First Order formed "from the ashes of the Empire", "The Force Awakens" director J. J. Abrams spoke of conversations the writers had about how the Nazis could have escaped to Argentina after WWII and "started working together again."


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" saga has had a significant impact on popular culture, with references to its fictional universe deeply embedded in everyday life. Phrases like "evil empire" and "May the Force be with you" have become part of the popular lexicon. The first "Star Wars" film in 1977 was a cultural unifier, enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people. The film can be said to have helped launch the science-fiction boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, making science-fiction films a mainstream genre. The widespread impact made it a prime target for parody works and homages, with popular examples including "Hardware Wars", "Spaceballs", "" and "".


title: Star Wars

text: In 1989, the Library of Congress selected the original "Star Wars" film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." "The Empire Strikes Back" was selected in 2010, and "Return of the Jedi" was selected in 2021. 35mm reels of the 1997 Special Editions were the versions initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints, but it was later revealed that the Library possesses a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical releases.


title: Star Wars

text: The original "Star Wars" film was a huge success for 20th Century Fox, and was credited for reinvigorating the company. Within three weeks of the film's release, the studio's stock price doubled to a record high. Prior to 1977, 20th Century Fox's greatest annual profits were $37 million, while in 1977, the company broke that record by posting a profit of $79 million. The franchise helped Fox to change from an almost bankrupt production company to a thriving media conglomerate.


title: Star Wars

text: "Star Wars" fundamentally changed the aesthetics and narratives of Hollywood films, switching the focus of Hollywood-made films from deep, meaningful stories based on dramatic conflict, themes and irony to sprawling special-effects-laden blockbusters, as well as changing the Hollywood film industry in fundamental ways. Before "Star Wars", special effects in films had not appreciably advanced since the 1950s. The commercial success of "Star Wars" created a boom in state-of-the-art special effects in the late 1970s. Along with "Jaws", "Star Wars" started the tradition of the summer blockbuster film in the entertainment industry, where films open on many screens at the same time and profitable franchises are important. It created the model for the major film trilogy and showed that merchandising rights on a film could generate more money than the film itself did.


title: Star Wars

text: Film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his book "The Great Movies", "Like "The Birth of a Nation" and "Citizen Kane", "Star Wars" was a technical watershed that influenced many of the movies that came after." It began a new generation of special effects and high-energy motion pictures. The film was one of the first films to link genres together to invent a new, high-concept genre for filmmakers to build upon. Finally, along with Steven Spielberg's "Jaws", it shifted the film industry's focus away from personal filmmaking of the 1970s and towards fast-paced, big-budget blockbusters for younger audiences.


title: Star Wars

text: Some critics have blamed "Star Wars" and "Jaws" for "ruining" Hollywood by shifting its focus from "sophisticated" films such as "The Godfather", "Taxi Driver", and "Annie Hall" to films about spectacle and juvenile fantasy, and for the industry shift from stand-alone, one and done films, towards blockbuster franchises with multiple sequels and prequels. One such critic, Peter Biskind, complained, "When all was said and done, Lucas and Spielberg returned the 1970s audience, grown sophisticated on a diet of European and New Hollywood films, to the simplicities of the pre-1960s Golden Age of movies... They marched backward through the looking-glass." In an opposing view, Tom Shone wrote that through "Star Wars" and "Jaws", Lucas and Spielberg "didn't betray cinema at all: they plugged it back into the grid, returning the medium to its roots as a carnival sideshow, a magic act, one big special effect", which was "a kind of rebirth".


title: Star Wars

text: The original "Star Wars" trilogy is widely considered one of the best film trilogies in history. Numerous filmmakers have been influenced by "Star Wars", including Damon Lindelof, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, John Lasseter, David Fincher, Joss Whedon, John Singleton, Kevin Smith, and later "Star Wars" directors J. J. Abrams and Gareth Edwards. Lucas's concept of a "used universe" particularly influenced Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" (1982) and "Alien" (1979), James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986) as well as "The Terminator" (1984), George Miller's "Mad Max 2" (1981), and Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001–2003). Christopher Nolan cited "Star Wars" as an influence when making the 2010 blockbuster film "Inception".


title: Star Wars

text: The "Star Wars" saga has inspired many fans to create their own non-canon material set in the "Star Wars" galaxy. In recent years, this has ranged from writing fan fiction to creating fan films. In 2002, Lucasfilm sponsored the first annual Official "Star Wars" Fan Film Awards, officially recognizing filmmakers and the genre. Because of concerns over potential copyright and trademark issues, however, the contest was initially open only to parodies, mockumentaries, and documentaries. Fan fiction films set in the "Star Wars" universe were originally ineligible, but in 2007, Lucasfilm changed the submission standards to allow in-universe fiction entries. Lucasfilm has allowed but not endorsed the creation of fan fiction, as long as it does not attempt to make a profit.


title: Star Wars

text: As the characters and the storyline of the original trilogy are so well known, educators have used the films in the classroom as a learning resource. For example, a project in Western Australia honed elementary school students storytelling skills by role-playing action scenes from the movies and later creating props and audio/visual scenery to enhance their performance. Others have used the films to encourage second-level students to integrate technology in the science classroom by making prototype lightsabers. Similarly, psychiatrists in New Zealand and the US have advocated their use in the university classroom to explain different types of psychopathology.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic (), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. Argentina is a federal state subdivided into twenty-three provinces, and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital and largest city of the nation, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and a part of Antarctica.


title: Argentina

text: The earliest recorded human presence in modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The Inca Empire expanded to the northwest of the country in Pre-Columbian times. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century. Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The declaration and fight for independence (1810–1818) was followed by an extended civil war that lasted until 1861, culminating in the country's reorganization as a federation. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with several waves of European immigration, mainly Italians and Spaniards, radically reshaping its cultural and demographic outlook; over 60% of the population has full or partial Italian ancestry, and Argentine culture has significant connections to Italian culture.


title: Argentina

text: The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh-wealthiest nation in the world by the early 20th century. In 1896, Argentina's GDP per capita surpassed that of the United States and was consistently in the top ten before at least 1920. Currently, it is ranked 62nd in the world. Following the Great Depression in the 1930s, Argentina descended into political instability and economic decline that pushed it back into underdevelopment, although it remained among the fifteen richest countries for several decades. Following the death of President Juan Perón in 1974, his widow and vice president, Isabel Perón, ascended to the presidency, before being overthrown in 1976. The following military junta, which was supported by the United States, persecuted and murdered thousands of political critics, activists, and leftists in the Dirty War, a period of state terrorism and civil unrest that lasted until the election of Raúl Alfonsín as president in 1983.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is a regional power, and retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs. A major non-NATO ally of the United States, Argentina is a developing country that ranks 47th in the Human Development Index, the second-highest in Latin America after Chile. It maintains the second-largest economy in South America, and is a member of G-15 and G20. Argentina is also a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization, Mercosur, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the Organization of Ibero-American States.


title: Argentina

text: In English, the name "Argentina" comes from the Spanish language; however, the naming itself is not Spanish, but Italian. "Argentina" (masculine "argentino") means in Italian "(made) of silver, silver coloured", derived from the Latin "argentum" for silver. In Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said "l'Argentina".


title: Argentina

text: The name "Argentina" was probably first given by the Venetian and Genoese navigators, such as Giovanni Caboto. In Spanish and Portuguese, the words for "silver" are respectively "plata" and "prata" and "(made) of silver" is "plateado" and "prateado". "Argentina" was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin.


title: Argentina

text: The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to "La Argentina", a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region. Although "Argentina" was already in common usage by the 18th century, the country was formally named "Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata" by the Spanish Empire, and "United Provinces of the Río de la Plata" after independence.


title: Argentina

text: The 1826 constitution included the first use of the name "Argentine Republic" in legal documents. The name "Argentine Confederation" was also commonly used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the country's name as "Argentine Republic", and that year's constitutional amendment ruled all the names since 1810 as legally valid.


title: Argentina

text: In English, the country was traditionally called "the Argentine", mimicking the typical Spanish usage "la Argentina" and perhaps resulting from a mistaken shortening of the fuller name 'Argentine Republic'. 'The Argentine' fell out of fashion during the mid-to-late 20th century, and now the country is referred to as "Argentina".


title: Argentina

text: The earliest traces of human life in the area now known as Argentina are dated from the Paleolithic period, with further traces in the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Until the period of European colonization, Argentina was relatively sparsely populated by a wide number of diverse cultures with different social organizations, which can be divided into three main groups.


title: Argentina

text: The first group are basic hunters and food gatherers without development of pottery, such as the Selknam and Yaghan in the extreme south. The second group are advanced hunters and food gatherers which include the Puelche, Querandí and Serranos in the centre-east; and the Tehuelche in the south—all of them conquered by the Mapuche spreading from Chile—and the Kom and Wichi in the north. The last group are farmers with pottery, like the Charrúa, Minuane and Guaraní in the northeast, with slash and burn semisedentary existence; the advanced Diaguita sedentary trading culture in the northwest, which was conquered by the Inca Empire around 1480; the Toconoté and Hênîa and Kâmîare in the country's centre, and the Huarpe in the centre-west, a culture that raised llama cattle and was strongly influenced by the Incas.


title: Argentina

text: Europeans first arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. The Spanish navigators Juan Díaz de Solís and Sebastian Cabot visited the territory that is now Argentina in 1516 and 1526, respectively. In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded the small settlement of Buenos Aires, which was abandoned in 1541.


title: Argentina

text: Further colonization efforts came from Paraguay—establishing the Governorate of the Río de la Plata—Peru and Chile. Francisco de Aguirre founded Santiago del Estero in 1553. Londres was founded in 1558; Mendoza, in 1561; San Juan, in 1562; San Miguel de Tucumán, in 1565. Juan de Garay founded Santa Fe in 1573 and the same year Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera set up Córdoba. Garay went further south to re-found Buenos Aires in 1580. San Luis was established in 1596.


title: Argentina

text: The Spanish Empire subordinated the economic potential of the Argentine territory to the immediate wealth of the silver and gold mines in Bolivia and Peru, and as such it became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776 with Buenos Aires as its capital.


title: Argentina

text: Buenos Aires repelled two ill-fated British invasions in 1806 and 1807. The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the example of the first Atlantic Revolutions generated criticism of the absolutist monarchy that ruled the country. As in the rest of Spanish America, the overthrow of Ferdinand VII during the Peninsular War created great concern.


title: Argentina

text: Beginning a process from which Argentina was to emerge as successor state to the Viceroyalty, the 1810 May Revolution replaced the viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros with the First Junta, a new government in Buenos Aires composed by locals. In the first clashes of the Independence War the Junta crushed a royalist counter-revolution in Córdoba, but failed to overcome those of the Banda Oriental, Upper Peru and Paraguay, which later became independent states. The French-Argentine Hippolyte Bouchard then brought his fleet to wage war against Spain overseas and attacked Spanish California, Spanish Chile, Spanish Peru and Spanish Philippines. He secured the allegiance of escaped Filipinos in San Blas who defected from the Spanish to join the Argentine navy, due to common Argentine and Philippine grievances against Spanish colonization. At a later date, the Argentine Sun of May was adopted as a symbol by the Filipinos in the Philippine Revolution against Spain. He also secured the diplomatic recognition of Argentina from King Kamehameha I of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Historian Pacho O'Donnell affirms that Hawaii was the first state that recognized Argentina's independence.


title: Argentina

text: Revolutionaries split into two antagonist groups: the Centralists and the Federalists—a move that would define Argentina's first decades of independence. The Assembly of the Year XIII appointed Gervasio Antonio de Posadas as Argentina's first Supreme Director.


title: Argentina

text: On 9 July 1816, the Congress of Tucumán formalized the Declaration of Independence, which is now celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday. One year later General Martín Miguel de Güemes stopped royalists on the north, and General José de San Martín took an army across the Andes and secured the independence of Chile; then he led the fight to the Spanish stronghold of Lima and proclaimed the independence of Peru. In 1819 Buenos Aires enacted a centralist constitution that was soon abrogated by federalists.


title: Argentina

text: Some of the most important figures of Argentinean independence made a proposal known as the Inca plan of 1816, which proposed that United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Present Argentina) should be a monarchy, led by a descendant of the Inca. Juan Bautista Túpac Amaru (half-brother of Túpac Amaru II) was proposed as monarch. Some examples of those who supported this proposal were Manuel Belgrano, José de San Martín and Martín Miguel de Güemes. The Congress of Tucumán finally decided to reject the Inca plan, creating instead a republican, centralist state.


title: Argentina

text: The 1820 Battle of Cepeda, fought between the Centralists and the Federalists, resulted in the "end of the Supreme Director rule". In 1826 Buenos Aires enacted another centralist constitution, with Bernardino Rivadavia being appointed as the first president of the country. However, the interior provinces soon rose against him, forced his resignation and discarded the constitution. Centralists and Federalists resumed the civil war; the latter prevailed and formed the Argentine Confederation in 1831, led by Juan Manuel de Rosas. During his regime he faced a French blockade (1838–1840), the War of the Confederation (1836–1839), and a combined Anglo-French blockade (1845–1850), but remained undefeated and prevented further loss of national territory. His trade restriction policies, however, angered the interior provinces and in 1852 Justo José de Urquiza, another powerful caudillo, beat him out of power. As new president of the Confederation, Urquiza enacted the liberal and federal 1853 Constitution. Buenos Aires seceded but was forced back into the Confederation after being defeated in the 1859 Battle of Cepeda.


title: Argentina

text: Overpowering Urquiza in the 1861 Battle of Pavón, Bartolomé Mitre secured Buenos Aires predominance and was elected as the first president of the reunified country. He was followed by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Nicolás Avellaneda; these three presidencies set up the basis of the modern Argentine State.


title: Argentina

text: Starting with Julio Argentino Roca in 1880, ten consecutive federal governments emphasized liberal economic policies. The massive wave of European immigration they promoted—second only to the United States'—led to a near-reinvention of Argentine society and economy that by 1908 had placed the country as the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world.


title: Argentina

text: Driven by this immigration wave and decreasing mortality, the Argentine population grew fivefold and the economy 15-fold: from 1870 to 1910 Argentina's wheat exports went from per year, while frozen beef exports increased from per year, placing Argentina as one of the world's top five exporters. Its railway mileage rose from . Fostered by a new public, compulsory, free and secular education system, literacy quickly increased from 22% to 65%, a level higher than most Latin American nations would reach even fifty years later. Furthermore, real GDP grew so fast that despite the huge immigration influx, per capita income between 1862 and 1920 went from 67% of developed country levels to 100%: In 1865, Argentina was already one of the top 25 nations by per capita income. By 1908, it had surpassed Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands to reach 7th place—behind Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Belgium. Argentina's per capita income was 70% higher than Italy's, 90% higher than Spain's, 180% higher than Japan's and 400% higher than Brazil's. Despite these unique achievements, the country was slow to meet its original goals of industrialization: after steep development of capital-intensive local industries in the 1920s, a significant part of the manufacture sector remained labour-intensive in the 1930s.


title: Argentina

text: Between 1878 and 1884 the so-called Conquest of the Desert occurred, with the purpose of giving by means of the constant confrontations between natives and Criollos in the border, and the appropriation of the indigenous territories, tripling the Argentine territory. The first conquest, consisted of a series of military incursions into the Pampa and Patagonian territories dominated by the indigenous peoples, distributing them among the members of the "Sociedad Rural Argentina", financiers of the expeditions. The conquest of Chaco lasted up to the end of the century, since its full ownership of the national economic system only took place when the mere extraction of wood and tannin was replaced by the production of cotton. The Argentine government considered indigenous people as inferior beings, without the same rights as Criollos and Europeans.


title: Argentina

text: In 1912, President Roque Sáenz Peña enacted universal and secret male suffrage, which allowed Hipólito Yrigoyen, leader of the Radical Civic Union (or UCR), to win the 1916 election. He enacted social and economic reforms and extended assistance to small farms and businesses. Argentina stayed neutral during World War I. The second administration of Yrigoyen faced an economic crisis, precipitated by the Great Depression.


title: Argentina

text: In 1930, Yrigoyen was ousted from power by the military led by José Félix Uriburu. Although Argentina remained among the fifteen richest countries until mid-century, this coup d'état marks the start of the steady economic and social decline that pushed the country back into underdevelopment.


title: Argentina

text: Uriburu ruled for two years; then Agustín Pedro Justo was elected in a fraudulent election, and signed a controversial treaty with the United Kingdom. Argentina stayed neutral during World War II, a decision that had full British support but was rejected by the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1943 a military coup d'état, led by General Arturo Rawson toppled the democratically elected government of Ramón Castillo. Under pressure from the United States, later Argentina declared war on the Axis Powers (on 27 March 1945, roughly a month before the end of World War II in Europe).


title: Argentina

text: During the Rawson dictatorship a relatively unknown military colonel named Juan Perón was named head of the Labour Department. Perón quickly managed to climb the political ladder, being named Ministry of Defence by 1944. Being perceived as a political threat by rivals in the military and the conservative camp, he was forced to resign in 1945, and was arrested days later. He was finally released under mounting pressure from both his base and several allied unions. He would later become president after a landslide victory over the UCR in the 1946 general election as the Laborioust candidate.


title: Argentina

text: The Labour Party (later renamed Justicialist Party), the most powerful and influential party in Argentine history, came into power with the rise of Juan Perón to the presidency in 1946. He nationalized strategic industries and services, improved wages and working conditions, paid the full external debt and claimed he achieved nearly full employment. He pushed Congress to enact women's suffrage in 1947, and developed a system of social assistance for the most vulnerable sectors of society. The economy began to decline in 1950 due in part to government expenditures and the protectionist economic policies.


title: Argentina

text: He also engaged in a campaign of political suppression. Anyone who was perceived to be a political dissident or potential rival was subject to threats, physical violence and harassment. The Argentine intelligentsia, the middle-class, university students, and professors were seen as particularly troublesome. Perón fired over 2,000 university professors and faculty members from all major public education institutions.


title: Argentina

text: Perón tried to bring most trade and labour unions under his thumb, regularly resorting to violence when needed. For instance, the meat-packers union leader, Cipriano Reyes, organised strikes in protest against the government after elected labour movement officials were forcefully replaced by Peronist puppets from the Peronist Party. Reyes was soon arrested on charges of terrorism, though the allegations were never substantiated. Reyes,who was never formally charged, was tortured in prison for five years and only released after the regime's downfall in 1955.


title: Argentina

text: Perón managed to get reelected in 1951. His wife Eva Perón, who played a critical role in the party, died of cancer in 1952. As the economy continued to tank, Perón started losing popular support, and came to be seen as a threat to the national process. The Navy took advantage of Perón's withering political power, and bombed the Plaza de Mayo in 1955. Perón survived the attack, but a few months later, during the Liberating Revolution coup, he was deposed and went into exile in Spain.


title: Argentina

text: The new head of State, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, proscribed Peronism and banned the party from any future elections. Arturo Frondizi from the UCR won the 1958 general election. He encouraged investment to achieve energetic and industrial self-sufficiency, reversed a chronic trade deficit and lifted the ban on Peronism; yet his efforts to stay on good terms with both the Peronists and the military earned him the rejection of both and a new coup forced him out. Amidst the political turmoil, Senate leader José María Guido reacted swiftly and applied anti-power vacuum legislation, ascending to the presidency himself; elections were repealed and Peronism was prohibited once again. Arturo Illia was elected in 1963 and led an increase in prosperity across the board; however he was overthrown in 1966 by another military coup d'état led by General Juan Carlos Onganía in the self-proclaimed Argentine Revolution, creating a new military government that sought to rule indefinitely.


title: Argentina

text: Following several years of military rule, Alejandro Agustín Lanusse was appointed president by the military junta in 1971. Under increasing political pressure for the return of democracy, Lanusse called for elections in 1973. Perón was banned from running but the Peronist party was allowed to participate. The presidential elections were won by Perón's surrogate candidate, Hector Cámpora, a left-wing Peronist, who took office on 25 May 1973. A month later, in June, Perón returned from Spain. One of Cámpora's first presidential actions was to grant amnesty to members of organizations that had carried out political assassinations and terrorist attacks, and to those who had been tried and sentenced to prison by judges. Cámpora's months-long tenure in government was beset by political and social unrest. Over 600 social conflicts, strikes, and factory occupations took place within a single month. Even though far-left terrorist organisations had suspended their armed struggle, their joining with the participatory democracy process was interpreted as a direct threat by the Peronist right-wing faction.


title: Argentina

text: Amid a state of political, social, and economic upheaval, Cámpora and Vice President Vicente Solano Lima resigned in July 1973, calling for new elections, but this time with Perón as the Justicialist Party nominee. Perón won the election with his wife Isabel Perón as vice president. Perón's third term was marked by escalating conflict between left and right-wing factions within the Peronist party, as well as the return of armed terror guerrilla groups like the Guevarist ERP, leftist Peronist Montoneros, and the state-backed far-right Triple A. After a series of heart attacks and with signs of pneumonia in 1974, Perón's health deteriorated quickly. He suffered a final heart attack on Monday, 1 July 1974, and died at 13:15. He was 78 years old. After his death, Isabel Perón, his wife and vice president, succeeded him in office. During her presidency, a military junta, along with the Peronists' far-right fascist faction, once again became the de facto head of state. Isabel Perón served as President of Argentina from 1974 until 1976, when she was ousted by the military. Her short presidency was marked by the collapse of Argentine political and social systems, leading to a constitutional crisis that paved the way for a decade of instability, left-wing terrorist guerrilla attacks, and state-sponsored terrorism.


title: Argentina

text: The "Dirty War" () was part of Operation Condor, which included the participation of other right-wing dictatorships in the Southern Cone. The Dirty War involved state terrorism in Argentina and elsewhere in the Southern Cone against political dissidents, with military and security forces employing urban and rural violence against left-wing guerrillas, political dissidents, and anyone believed to be associated with socialism or somehow contrary to the neoliberal economic policies of the regime. Victims of the violence in Argentina alone included an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 left-wing activists and militants, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas, and alleged sympathizers. Most of the victims were casualties of state terrorism. The opposing guerrillas' victims numbered nearly 500–540 military and police officials and up to 230 civilians. Argentina received technical support and military aid from the United States government during the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations.


title: Argentina

text: The exact chronology of the repression is still debated, yet the roots of the long political war may have started in 1969 when trade unionists were targeted for assassination by Peronist and Marxist paramilitaries. Individual cases of state-sponsored terrorism against Peronism and the left can be traced back even further to the Bombing of Plaza de Mayo in 1955. The Trelew massacre of 1972, the actions of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance commencing in 1973, and Isabel Perón's "annihilation decrees" against left-wing guerrillas during "Operativo Independencia" (Operation Independence) in 1975, are also possible events signaling the beginning of the Dirty War.


title: Argentina

text: Onganía shut down Congress, banned all political parties, and dismantled student and worker unions. In 1969, popular discontent led to two massive protests: the "Cordobazo" and the "Rosariazo". The terrorist guerrilla organization Montoneros kidnapped and executed Aramburu. The newly chosen head of government, Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, seeking to ease the growing political pressure, allowed Héctor José Cámpora to become the Peronist candidate instead of Perón. Cámpora won the March 1973 election, issued pardons for condemned guerrilla members, and then secured Perón's return from his exile in Spain.


title: Argentina

text: On the day Perón returned to Argentina, the clash between Peronist internal factions—right-wing union leaders and left-wing youth from the Montoneros—resulted in the Ezeiza Massacre. Overwhelmed by political violence, Cámpora resigned and Perón won the following September 1973 election with his third wife Isabel as vice-president. He expelled Montoneros from the party and they became once again a clandestine organization. José López Rega organized the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA) to fight against them and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP).


title: Argentina

text: Perón died in July 1974 and was succeeded by his wife, who signed a secret decree empowering the military and the police to "annihilate" the left-wing subversion, stopping ERP's attempt to start a rural insurgence in Tucumán province. Isabel Perón was ousted one year later by a junta of the combined armed forces, led by army general Jorge Rafael Videla. They initiated the National Reorganization Process, often shortened to "Proceso".


title: Argentina

text: The "Proceso" shut down Congress, removed the judges on the Supreme Court, banned political parties and unions, and resorted to employing the forced disappearance of suspected guerrilla members including individuals suspected of being associated with the left-wing. By the end of 1976, the Montoneros had lost nearly 2,000 members and by 1977, the ERP was completely subdued. Nevertheless, the severely weakened Montoneros launched a counterattack in 1979, which was quickly put down, effectively ending the guerrilla threat and securing the junta's position in power.


title: Argentina

text: In 1982, the head of state, General Leopoldo Galtieri, authorised the invasion of the British territories of South Georgia and, on 2 April, of the Falkland Islands. The occupation provoked a military response from the United Kingdom leading to the Falklands War. Argentine forces were defeated and surrendered to British troops on 14 June. Street riots in Buenos Aires followed the defeat and the military leadership responsible for the humiliation withdrew. Reynaldo Bignone replaced Galtieri and began to organize the transition to democratic governance.


title: Argentina

text: Raúl Alfonsín won the 1983 elections campaigning for the prosecution of those responsible for human rights violations during the "Proceso": the Trial of the Juntas and other martial courts sentenced all the coup's leaders but, under military pressure, he also enacted the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws, which halted prosecutions further down the chain of command. The worsening economic crisis and hyperinflation reduced his popular support and the Peronist Carlos Menem won the 1989 election. Soon after, riots forced Alfonsín to an early resignation.


title: Argentina

text: Menem embraced and enacted neoliberal policies: a fixed exchange rate, business deregulation, privatizations, and the dismantling of protectionist barriers normalized the economy in the short term. He pardoned the officers who had been sentenced during Alfonsín's government. The 1994 Constitutional Amendment allowed Menem to be elected for a second term. With the economy beginning to decline in 1995, and with increasing unemployment and recession, the UCR, led by Fernando de la Rúa, returned to the presidency in the 1999 elections.


title: Argentina

text: De la Rúa left Menem's economic plan in effect despite the worsening crisis, which led to growing social discontent. Massive capital flight from the country was responded to with a freezing of bank accounts, generating further turmoil. The December 2001 riots forced him to resign. Congress appointed Eduardo Duhalde as acting president, who revoked the fixed exchange rate established by Menem, causing many working- and middle-class Argentines to lose a significant portion of their savings. By late 2002, the economic crisis began to recede, but the assassination of two "piqueteros" by the police caused political unrest, prompting Duhalde to move elections forward. Néstor Kirchner was elected as the new president. On 26 May 2003, he was sworn in.


title: Argentina

text: Boosting the neo-Keynesian economic policies laid by Duhalde, Kirchner ended the economic crisis attaining significant fiscal and trade surpluses, and rapid GDP growth. Under his administration, Argentina restructured its defaulted debt with an unprecedented discount of about 70% on most bonds, paid off debts with the International Monetary Fund, purged the military of officers with dubious human rights records, nullified and voided the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws, ruled them as unconstitutional, and resumed legal prosecution of the Junta's crimes. He did not run for reelection, promoting instead the candidacy of his wife, senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was elected in 2007 and subsequently reelected in 2011. Fernández de Kirchner's administration established positive foreign relations with countries with questionable human rights records, including Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba, while at the same time relations with the United States and United Kingdom became increasingly strained. By 2015, the Argentine GDP grew by 2.7% and real incomes had risen over 50% since the post-Menem era. Despite these economic gains and increased renewable energy production and subsidies, the overall economy had been sluggish since 2011.


title: Argentina

text: On 22 November 2015, after a tie in the first round of presidential elections on 25 October, center-right coalition candidate Mauricio Macri won the first ballotage in Argentina's history, beating Front for Victory candidate Daniel Scioli and becoming president-elect. Macri was the first democratically elected non-peronist president since 1916 that managed to complete his term in office without being overthrown. He took office on 10 December 2015 and inherited an economy with a high inflation rate and in a poor shape. In April 2016, the Macri Government introduced neoliberal austerity measures intended to tackle inflation and overblown public deficits. Under Macri's administration, economic recovery remained elusive with GDP shrinking 3.4%, inflation totaling 240%, billions of US dollars issued in sovereign debt, and mass poverty increasing by the end of his term. He ran for re-election in 2019 but lost by nearly eight percentage points to Alberto Fernández, the Justicialist Party candidate.


title: Argentina

text: President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took office in December 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Argentina and among accusations of corruption, bribery and misuse of public funds during Nestor and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's presidencies. On 14 November 2021, the center-left coalition of Argentina's ruling Peronist party, Frente de Todos (Front for Everyone), lost its majority in Congress, for the first time in almost 40 years, in midterm legislative elections. The election victory of the center-right coalition, Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), meant a tough final two years in office for President Alberto Fernandez. Losing control of the Senate made it difficult for him to make key appointments, including to the judiciary. It also forced him to negotiate with the opposition every initiative he sends to the legislature.


title: Argentina

text: With a mainland surface area of , Argentina is located in southern South America, sharing land borders with Chile across the Andes to the west; Bolivia and Paraguay to the north; Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east; and the Drake Passage to the south; for an overall land border length of . Its coastal border over the Río de la Plata and South Atlantic Ocean is long.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina's highest point is Aconcagua in the Mendoza province ( above sea level), also the highest point in the Southern and Western Hemispheres. The lowest point is Laguna del Carbón in the "San Julián Great Depression" Santa Cruz province ( below sea level, also the lowest point in the Southern and Western Hemispheres, and the seventh lowest point on Earth)


title: Argentina

text: The northernmost point is at the confluence of the Grande de San Juan and Mojinete rivers in Jujuy province; the southernmost is Cape San Pío in Tierra del Fuego province; the easternmost is northeast of Bernardo de Irigoyen, Misiones and the westernmost is within Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz province. The maximum north–south distance is , while the maximum east–west one is .


title: Argentina

text: Some of the major rivers are the Paraná, Uruguay—which join to form the Río de la Plata, Paraguay, Salado, Negro, Santa Cruz, Pilcomayo, Bermejo and Colorado. These rivers are discharged into the Argentine Sea, the shallow area of the Atlantic Ocean over the Argentine Shelf, an unusually wide continental platform. Its waters are influenced by two major ocean currents: the warm Brazil Current and the cold Falklands Current.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world hosting one of the greatest ecosystem varieties in the world: 15 continental zones, 2 marine zones, and the Antarctic region are all represented in its territory. This huge ecosystem variety has led to a biological diversity that is among the world's largest: 9,372 cataloged vascular plant species (ranked 24th); 1,038 cataloged bird species (ranked 14th); 375 cataloged mammal species (ranked 12th); 338 cataloged reptilian species (ranked 16th); and 162 cataloged amphibian species (ranked 19th).


title: Argentina

text: The original pampa had virtually no trees; some imported species like the American sycamore or eucalyptus are present along roads or in towns and country estates ("estancias"). The only tree-like plant native to the pampa is the evergreen Ombú. The surface soils of the pampa are a deep black color, primarily mollisols, known commonly as "humus". This makes the region one of the most agriculturally productive on Earth; however, this is also responsible for decimating much of the original ecosystem, to make way for commercial agriculture. The western pampas receive less rainfall, this "dry pampa" is a plain of short grasses or steppe.


title: Argentina

text: The National Parks of Argentina make up a network of 35 national parks in Argentina. The parks cover a very varied set of terrains and biotopes, from Baritú National Park on the northern border with Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego National Park in the far south of the continent. The Administración de Parques Nacionales (National Parks Administration) is the agency that preserves and manages these national parks along with Natural monuments and National Reserves within the country. Argentina had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.21/10, ranking it 47th globally out of 172 countries.


title: Argentina

text: In general, Argentina has four main climate types: warm, moderate, arid, and cold, all determined by the expanse across latitude, range in altitude, and relief features. Although the most populated areas are generally temperate, Argentina has an exceptional amount of climate diversity, ranging from subtropical in the north to polar in the far south. Consequently, there is a wide variety of biomes in the country, including subtropical rain forests, semi-arid and arid regions, temperate plains in the Pampas, and cold subantarctic in the south. The average annual precipitation ranges from in the driest parts of Patagonia to over in the westernmost parts of Patagonia and the northeastern parts of the country. Mean annual temperatures range from in the far south to in the north.