Stampede Wrestling
Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in the Canadian Prairies. Established by Stu Hart in 1948, the promotion competed with other promotions such as NWA All-Star Wrestling and Pacific Northwest Wrestling and ran events in Calgary's Victoria Pavilion, Ogden Auditorium and the Stampede Corral between 1948 and 1984. Bought out by promoter Vince McMahon, the company was run by the World Wrestling Federation before being sold back to the Hart family the following year. Run by Bruce Hart until January 1990, he and Ross Hart reopened the promotion in 1999 and began running events in the Alberta area. Along with its wrestling school known as "The Dungeon", many of the promotion's former alumni becoming some of the most popular stars in the World Wrestling Federation and other American promotions during the 1980s and 1990s, the promotion produced one of the earliest televised professional wrestling programs that remained one of Calgary's most popular sports programs airing in over 50 countries worldwide.
Stampede Wrestling was operated by Stu Hart from 1948 to 1984. In 1983, a riot broke out during a match at the Ogden Auditorium in Calgary during a match between Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Sonny Two Rivers against Bad News Allen, The Stomper and Stomper's kayfabe son Jeff Gouldie. Longtime Stampede announcer Ed Whalen became distraught during the riot, in which a woman was trampled, causing him to quit from the Stampede on air. Speaking of the events he remarked, "We're starting to scare the patrons with this violence outside the ring, I will not be associated with it anymore." The event led to Stampede Wrestling being banned from Calgary for six months by the city's wrestling and boxing commission, within a year the operation was sold to the World Wrestling Federation. A member of the National Wrestling Alliance until about 1982, Stampede's talent was taken by the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, developing into the major professional wrestling promotion it is today. In 1985, the WWF sold Stampede back to the Hart family, who continued to run it until it was shut down in December 1989.
The promotion was reopened on April 1999 by Bruce and Ross Hart. Stampede's weekly shows were held at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary, with special events held at the Stampede Corral. Stampede Wrestling was the basis for a long-running weekly sports broadcast produced in Calgary showcasing many of the promotion's most popular wrestlers. Hosted by Ed Whalen most of its run, which went from 1957 to 1989, the series was syndicated around the world and reruns continue to be shown in some countries to this day. At the time Stampede was revived in 1999, a second Stampede Wrestling TV series was attempted, hosted by Bad News Allen and play by play commentator Mauro Ranallo, but it was short-lived and Whalen was not involved. In early 1999, Bruce and Ross Hart reopened Stampede Wrestling after a nine-year hiatus showcasing graduates from the Hart Dungeon training school. However, only weeks after their first event, the promotion once again became inactive following the death of Owen Hart in May. Although considering closing the promotion, the Hart family continued to promote events five months and began touring western Canada.
Although successful, the Harts were forced to cancel several tours in late 2001 and early 2002 due to the arrival of a rival promotion backed by a Calgary businessman. The promotion lost much of its roster due to its rival hiring away top stars. In 2005, promoters Bill Bell and Devon Nicholson took over day-to-day operations for Stampede Wrestling. During an event at the Spray Lakes Sawmill Sportsplex in Cochrane, Nicholson would face Abdullah the Butcher after the scheduled main event between Lance Storm and Rhyno was canceled when Rhyno failed to appear. At that same event, longtime tag team partners TJ Wilson and Harry Smith faced each other in Smith's final match for the promotion before leaving for World Wrestling Entertainment. Bruce and Ross Hart sold Stampede Wrestling to Bill Bell in 2007; the promotion ceased operations again in April 2008. WWE controls Stampede's extensive tape library. In December 2015, the WWE Network began adding Stampede Wrestling shows to its Vault section. However, it was all removed a few days after Bret Hart proved that he owned the rights to the footage of his matches.
Stampede Wrestling was famous for "The Dungeon", a professional wrestling school located in the basement of the Calgary mansion Hart House, home of the Hart family. Stu Hart and Mr. Hito were the main trainers in the Dungeon; the school trained a number of WCW, ECW, WWE, Japanese stars, including the Hart Brothers, Mark Henry, Chris Benoit, Ricky Fuji, Hiroshi Hase, Ken Shamrock, Justin Credible and Edge. The Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame list professional wrestlers and others who have competed in Stampede Wrestling, from Stu Hart's Klondike Wrestling to the original Stampede Wrestling promotion which closed in 1990. Hart Legacy Wrestling McCoy, Heath. Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling. Toronto: CanWest Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9736719-8-X BooksAyling, Tom. "Revolutionary: A Biography of George Waclaw Spelvin". 2012 ISBN 978-1-105-42913-2 Erb, Marsha. "Stu Hart: Lord of the Ring". Toronto: ECW Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55022-508-1 Hart, Bret. "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling".
Toronto: Random House, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-35567-6 Hart, Bruce. "Straight From the Hart". Toronto: ECW Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-55022-939-4 Billington, Tom. "Pure Dynamite". Etobicoke: Winding Star Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55366-084-6Webhttp://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2011/11/04/sta
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 27th among United States cities in population; the population grew following the 2010 Census, with the population estimated to have increased to 643,648 as of July 2017. As of 2015, the Oklahoma City metropolitan area had a population of 1,358,452, the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,459,758 residents, making it Oklahoma's largest metropolitan area. Oklahoma City's city limits extend into Canadian and Pottawatomie counties, though much of those areas outside the core Oklahoma County area are suburban or rural; the city ranks as the ninth-largest city in the United States by total area when including consolidated city-counties. Lying in the Great Plains region, Oklahoma City has one of the world's largest livestock markets. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy.
The city is in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. Oklahoma City is on the I-35 Corridor, one of the primary travel corridors south into neighboring Texas and Mexico and north towards Wichita and Kansas City. Located in the state's Frontier Country region, the city's northeast section lies in an ecological region known as the Cross Timbers; the city was founded during the Land Run of 1889 and grew to a population of over 10,000 within hours of its founding. The city was the scene of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people died, it was the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United States until the attacks of September 11, 2001, remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U. S. history. Since the time weather records have been kept, Oklahoma City has been struck by thirteen strong tornadoes.
Since 2008, Oklahoma City has been home to the National Basketball Association's Oklahoma City Thunder, who play their home basketball games at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Oklahoma City was settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the "Unassigned Lands" was opened for settlement in an event known as "The Land Run"; some 10,000 homesteaders settled the area. The town grew quickly. Early leaders of the development of the city included Anton Classen, John Shartel, Henry Overholser and James W. Maney. By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had surpassed Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the new state's population center and commercial hub. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City was a major stop on Route 66 during the early part of the 20th century. Before World War II, Oklahoma City developed major stockyards, attracting jobs and revenue in Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska. With the 1928 discovery of oil within the city limits, Oklahoma City became a major center of oil production.
Post-war growth accompanied the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which made Oklahoma City a major interchange as the convergence of I-35, I-40, I-44. It was aided by federal development of Tinker Air Force Base. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported city's population as 8.6 % 90.7 % white. Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City in 1971. Latting was the first woman to serve as mayor of a U. S. city with over 350,000 residents. Like many other American cities, center city population declined in the 1970s and 1980s as families followed newly constructed highways to move to newer housing in nearby suburbs. Urban renewal projects in the 1970s, including the Pei Plan, removed older structures but failed to spark much new development, leaving the city dotted with vacant lots used for parking. A notable exception was the city's construction of the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge, a botanical garden and modernistic conservatory in the heart of downtown. Architecturally significant historic buildings lost to clearances were the Criterion Theater, the Baum Building, the Hales Building, the Biltmore Hotel.
In 1993, the city passed a massive redevelopment package known as the Metropolitan Area Projects, intended to rebuild the city's core with civic projects to establish more activities and life to downtown. The city added a new baseball park. Water taxis transport passengers within the district, adding activity along the canal. MAPS has become one of the most successful public-private partnerships undertaken in the U. S. exceeding $3 billion in private investment as of 2010. As a result of MAPS, the population living in downtown housing has exponentially increased, together with demand for additional residential and retail amenities, such as grocery and shops. Since the MAPS projects' completion, the downtown area has seen continued
San Francisco
San Francisco the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, the fourth-most populous in California, with 884,363 residents as of 2017, it covers an area of about 46.89 square miles at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second-most densely populated large US city, the fifth-most densely populated U. S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is part of the fifth-most populous primary statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area; as of 2017, it was the seventh-highest income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $119,868. As of 2015, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $154.2 billion, a GDP per capita of $177,968. The San Francisco CSA was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2017, with a GDP of $907 billion.
Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the US, the San Francisco CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2017, at $93,938. San Francisco was ranked 14th in the world and third in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2018. San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi; the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. San Francisco's status as the West Coast's largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900, when around 25% of California's population resided in the city proper. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.
It became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "hippie" counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes along liberal Democratic Party lines. A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, its Chinatown district. San Francisco is the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Gap Inc. Fitbit, Salesforce.com, Reddit, Inc. Dolby, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pinterest, Uber, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation and Weather Underground.
It is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the De Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the California Academy of Sciences. As of 2019, San Francisco is the highest rated American city on world liveability rankings; the earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay. Seven years on March 28, 1776, the Spanish established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís, established by the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system ended, its lands became privatized.
In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, Mexico ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography; the California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849; the promise of great wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.
Some of these 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships and hotels.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of performance art and entertainment that combines athletics with theatrical performance. It takes the form of events, held by touring companies; the unique form of sport portrayed is fundamentally based on classical and "catch" wrestling, with modern additions of striking attacks, strength-based holds and throws and acrobatic maneuvers. Much of these derive from the influence of various international martial arts. An additional aspect of combat with improvised weaponry is sometimes included to varying degrees; the matches have predetermined outcomes to heighten entertainment value and all combative maneuvers are executed with the full cooperation of those involved and performed in specific manners intended to lessen the chance of actual injury. These facts were once kept secret but are now a accepted open secret. To promote and sustain the willing suspension of disbelief by maintaining an aura of verisimilitude, the performing company avoids discussing the true nature of the performance in official media.
Fan communications by individual wrestlers and promotions through outside media directly acknowledge the dramatic and "fixed" nature of the spectacle. Originating as a popular form of entertainment in 19th-century Europe and as a sideshow exhibition in North American traveling carnivals and vaudeville halls, professional wrestling grew into a standalone genre of entertainment with many diverse variations in cultures around the globe, is now a billion dollar entertainment industry. Since the 1980s, local forms have declined in Europe, wrestling from North America has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century and a half of existence and has been exported back to Europe to fill the cultural gap left by the aforementioned decline of local versions; the advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, wrestling was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Show wrestling has become prominent in Central/North America and Europe.
In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries. Although professional wrestling started out as small acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, branded merchandise and home video. Pro wrestling was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, Bound for Glory, Wrestle Kingdom and Starrcade are among the highest-selling pay-per-view programming each year. In modern day, internet programming has been utilized by a number of companies to air web shows, internet pay per views or on-demand content, helping to generate internet-related revenue earnings from the evolving World Wide Web. Home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week.
Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, wrestling constitutes a recurring topic in both academia and the media. Several documentaries have been produced looking at professional wrestling, most notably, Beyond the Mat directed by Barry W. Blaustein, Wrestling with Shadows featuring wrestler Bret Hart and directed by Paul Jay. There have been many fictional depictions of wrestling; the largest professional wrestling company worldwide is the United States-based WWE, which bought out many smaller regional companies in the late 20th century, as well as its primary US competitors World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in early 2001. Other prominent professional wrestling companies worldwide include the US-based Impact Wrestling known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Ring of Honor; when talking about professional wrestling, there are two levels: the "in-show" happenings that are presented through the shows, happenings which are outside the scope of performance but have implications on the performance, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc.
Because actual events are co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, the lines are blurred and become confused. Special care must be taken; the actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers; some wrestlers would incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Historians are unsure at what point wrestling changed from competitive catch wrestling into worked entertainment; those who participated felt that maintenance of a constant and complete illusion for all who were not involved was necessary to keep audience interest. For decades, wrestlers lived their public lives; the pra
Samoan Islands
The Samoan Islands are an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and the wider region of Oceania. Administratively, the archipelago comprises most of American Samoa; the two Samoan jurisdictions are separated by 64 km of ocean. The population of the Samoan Islands is 250,000, sharing a common language, Samoan, a culture, known as fa'a Samoa and an indigenous form of governance called fa'amatai. Most Samoans are one of the largest Polynesian populations in the world; the oldest evidence of human activity in the Samoan Islands dates to around 1050 BCE. This comes from a Lapita site at Mulifanua wharf on Upolu island. In 1768, the eastern islands were visited by French explorer Bougainville, who named them the Navigator Islands, a name used by missionaries until about 1845 and in official European dispatches until about 1870. Politically the two jurisdictions of the Samoa Islands are. Known as German Samoa and Western Samoa. Capital Apia, currency Samoan tala.
American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States consisting of the islands to the east. Capital Pago Pago, currency US dollar In the late 1800s, rivalry between the United States and the United Kingdom resulted in the Tripartite Convention that formally partitioned the Samoan archipelago into a German colony and a United States territory. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899. New Zealand occupied the German colony through 1920 governed the western islands until independence in 1962 as a League of Nations Class C Mandate and United Nations Trust Territory after 1946; the pro-independence Mau movement across the islands led to the political independence of the western islands from New Zealand in 1962 while the eastern islands, American Samoa, remains a political territory of the United States. Upolu, population 143,418, most populous island in the group.
Savai'i, population 43,142, largest landmass and most western in the group, most recent volcanic eruptions Mt Matavanu. Manono, population 889 Apolima, population 75 Fanuatapu, volcanic tuff ring. Namua, has beach fale accommodation for visitors, viewed from Lalomanu beach. Nu'ulopa, lies in the Apolima Strait between Upolu and Savai'i. Nu'ulua, volcanic tuff ring, land area 25 hectares, conservation habitat for endemic native birdlife. Nu'usafe'e, tiny rocky islet off the south coast of Upolu by the village of Poutasi. Nu'utele, volcanic tuff ring, conservation for native birdlife viewed from popular Lalomanu beach; the islands of Manono, Apolima and Nu'ulopa lie in the Apolima Strait between Savai'i. The four small uninhabited islands Nu'utele, Nu'ulua and Fanuatapu are situated off the east coast of Upolu and comprise the Aleipata Islands. Tutuila, population 55,876, main island in the territory. Aunu'u, population 476, located south east of Tutuila. Ta'ū, population 873, largest island in Manu'a Group Ofu‑Olosega, volcanic doublet encompassing Ofu and Olosega, in the Manu'a Group of islands.
Rose Atoll known as Motu o Manu, conservation habitat for native birdlife, marine life, green turtle and endangered hawksbill turtle. Swains Island, population 17, politically administered by American Samoa but culturally part of Tokelau, copra plantation; the islands are 800 km from Fiji, 530 km from Tonga, 2,900 km from New Zealand, 4,000 km from Hawaii, U. S. A; the islands lies between 13° and 14° south latitude and 169° and 173° west longitude, about 480 km from west to east. The larger islands are volcanic in origin and covered in tropical moist forest; some of the smaller islands are coral atolls with black sand beaches. The highest peak is Mt. Silisili, on the island of Savai'i, one of the highest peaks in Polynesia at 1,858 m; the highest point in American Samoa is on Lata Mountain, at 966 m. The two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i in Samoa, are among the largest of Polynesian islands, at 1,718 km2 and 1,125 km2 exceeded in size only by the two main islands of Fiji and the Hawaiian islands of Hawaiʻi and Maui.
The island of Upolu is more populated than Savai'i. The next largest island is Tutuila, where harbor Pago Pago is located. Tutuila is much smaller than Upolu and Savai‘i at 136.2 km2 in area, but it is the largest island in American Samoa. The highest peak on Tutuila is Matafao Peak. Smaller islands in the archipelago include the three islets in the Apolima Strait between Savai'i and Upolu. Aunu'u is a small island off the eastern end of Tutuila. To the east of Tutuila, the Manu'a group comprises Ofu, Ta’u. An uninhabited coral atoll, Rose Atoll, is the southernmost point in the territory of the United States. Another coral atoll, Swains Island, is within t
Bob Backlund
Robert Louis Backlund is an American retired professional wrestler with an in-ring career spanning over 30 years, best known for his tenures in the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation, where he is a two-time WWWF/WWF Heavyweight Champion/WWF World Heavyweight Champion, as well as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Backlund was an accomplished amateur wrestler for the North Dakota State University Bison from the late 1960s to early 1970s. In 2000, he unsuccessfully ran for a Connecticut seat in Congress on a Republican ticket. Backlund was born in Princeton, Minnesota, in 1949. During his freshman year, Backlund was an All-American in both football and wrestling while at Waldorf Junior College in Forest City, Iowa. During his sophomore campaign, Backlund focused on wrestling and once again earned All American Honors. Backlund was an amateur wrestler at North Dakota State University, winning the Division II NCAA Championship at 190 pounds in 1971. In 1972 Backlund finished fifth at the NCAA DII Nationals.
He is a graduate of Princeton High School. He graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in physical education. Backlund was trained for professional wrestling by renowned trainer Eddie Sharkey and made his debut for the American Wrestling Association in 1973. Backlund's clean cut look and technical approach made him a natural face, he got over with the fans. After leaving the AWA, Backlund traveled the United States, working for the National Wrestling Alliance in its various territories. In 1974, Backlund wrestled in Texas, for Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk's Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion. In March, he defeated Terry Funk for the NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship. Backlund held it before losing it to Karl Von Steiger in May. In mid-1975, Backlund started working for Georgia Championship Wrestling, he teamed with Jerry Brisco to win the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship from Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji in October 1975, they held the championship belts for two months before losing to Tony Charles.
In 1976, Backlund left Georgia for Championship Wrestling from Florida. Here he teamed with Steve Keirn to defeat Bob Orton, Jr. and Bob Roop for the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship. Backlund and Keirn lost the title to The Hollywood Blonds in October 1976. While working for NWA Florida, Backlund wrestled in St. Louis, for Sam Muchnick's St. Louis Wrestling Club, he defeated Harley Race to win the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship on April 23, 1976, he lost the title to Jack Brisco on November 26. In early 1977, Backlund joined Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation, he was managed by "The Golden Boy" Arnold Skaaland. Less than four months into his WWWF run, Backlund received his first shot at the WWWF Heavyweight Championship against Superstar Billy Graham, but he lost by countout. Through 1977, Backlund received additional title shots at the champion, his fortunes started to change. On February 20, 1978, at Madison Square Garden, Backlund scored a pinfall victory over Graham and won the title, despite Graham's leg being on the rope during the pinfall.
Backlund's early challengers for the title included Spiros Arion, Mr. Fuji, Ivan Koloff, George "the Animal" Steele, Ken Patera, had his first high-profile title match in Japan, defending against Antonio Inoki, he won a series of rematches against Graham, including an April 1978 steel cage match at Madison Square Garden. Three days after winning the WWWF Heavyweight Championship, Backlund clashed with the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race in a rare "WWWF vs. NWA" title match. Both titles were on the line, but neither changed hands as the two fought to a 60-minute time limit draw. Defending against other champions became a recurring theme in Backlund's run with the title, he faced the AWA World Heavyweight Champion and two NWA World Heavyweight Champions He defeated the NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion Don Muraco. In 1982, he battled "International Champion". Early in his run and Peter Maivia formed a successful tag team and challenged for the WWWF World Tag Team Championship held by The Yukon Lumberjacks.
During a television taping in October 1978, Maivia attacked him and Skaaland. In the immediate aftermath, fans for the first time got to see another side of Backlund's personality: that of a raving, ranting maniac when angered or pushed hard enough. Backlund won a series of matches against Maivia, including a steel cage match in January 1979 at Madison Square Garden. In 1979, the World Wide Wrestling Federation became the World Wrestling Federation. On November 30, 1979, NWF Heavyweight Champion Antonio Inoki defeated Backlund in Tokushima, Japan to win the WWF title. Backlund won a rematch on December 6. However, WWF president Hisashi Shinma declared the re-match a no contest due to interference from Tiger Jeet Singh, Inoki remained Champion
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It began as a British colony in 1733, the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies to be established. Named after King George II of Great Britain, the Province of Georgia covered the area from South Carolina south to Spanish Florida and west to French Louisiana at the Mississippi River. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. In 1802–1804, western Georgia was split to the Mississippi Territory, which split to form Alabama with part of former West Florida in 1819. Georgia declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, was one of the original seven Confederate states, it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Empire State of the South. Atlanta, the state's capital and most populous city, has been named a global city.
Atlanta's metropolitan area contains about 55% of the population of the entire state. Georgia is bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina, to the northeast by South Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by Florida, to the west by Alabama; the state's northernmost part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. The Piedmont extends through the central part of the state from the foothills of the Blue Ridge to the Fall Line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the coastal plain of the state's southern part. Georgia's highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level. Of the states east of the Mississippi River, Georgia is the largest in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures; the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II.
The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for the colony's settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan, which envisioned an agrarian society of yeoman farmers and prohibited slavery. The colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins' Ear. In 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a crown colony, with a governor appointed by the king; the Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence. The State of Georgia's first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24, 1778, was the 4th state to ratify the United States Constitution on January 2, 1788. In 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains leading to the Georgia Gold Rush and establishment of a federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued in operation until 1861.
The resulting influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to take land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgia's tribes. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that U. S. states were not permitted to redraw Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched federal troops to gather the tribes and deport them west of the Mississippi; this forced relocation, known as the Trail of Tears, led to the death of over 4,000 Cherokees. In early 1861, Georgia became a major theater of the Civil War. Major battles took place at Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta. In December 1864, a large swath of the state from Atlanta to Savannah was destroyed during General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea. 18,253 Georgian soldiers died in service one of every five who served.
In 1870, following the Reconstruction Era, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be restored to the Union. With white Democrats having regained power in the state legislature, they passed a poll tax in 1877, which disenfranchised many poor blacks and whites, preventing them from registering. In 1908, the state established a white primary, they constituted 46.7% of the state's population in 1900, but the proportion of Georgia's population, African American dropped thereafter to 28% due to tens of thousands leaving the state during the Great Migration. According to the Equal Justice Institute's 2015 report on lynching in the United States, Georgia had 531 deaths, the second-highest total of these extralegal executions of any state in the South; the overwhelming number of victims were male. Political disfranchisement persisted through the mid-1960s, until after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. An Atlanta-born Baptist minister, part of the educated middle class that had developed in Atlanta's African-American community, Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a national leader in the civil rights movement.
King joining with others to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta in 1957 to provide political leadership for the Civil Rights Movement across the South. By the 1960s, the proportion of
