document_title: Thanos

question_text: who voiced thanos in guardians of the galaxy

text: Thanos

text: Origin[edit]

text: Writer-artist Jim Starlin originally conceived of Thanos of Titan during college psychology classes. As Starlin described:

text: I went to college between doing U.S. military service and getting work in comics, and there was a psych class and I came up with Thanos ... and Drax the Destroyer, but I'm not sure how he fit into it, just anger management probably. So I came up to Marvel and [editor] Roy [Thomas] asked if I wanted to do an issue of Iron Man. I felt that this may be my only chance ever to do a character, not having the confidence that my career was going to last anything longer than a few weeks. So they got jammed into it. Thanos was a much thinner character and Roy suggested beefing him up, so he's beefed up quite a bit from his original sketches ... and later on I liked beefing him up so much that he continued to grow in size.[1]

text: Starlin has admitted the character is influenced by Jack Kirby's Darkseid:

text: Kirby had done the New Gods, which I thought was terrific. He was over at DC at the time. I came up with some things that were inspired by that. You'd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but that was not the case when I showed up. In my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos and the Titans. Roy took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said: "Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!"[2]

text: Publication history[edit]

text: Thanos' first appearance was in Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973), featuring a story by Jim Starlin that was scripted by Mike Friedrich. The storyline from that issue continued through Captain Marvel #25–33 (bi-monthly: March 1973 – Jan. 1974), Marvel Feature #12 (Nov. 1973), Daredevil #107 (Jan. 1974), and Avengers #125 (July 1974). He returned in an extended storyline that spanned Strange Tales #178-181 (Feb.–Aug. 1975), Warlock #9-11 (Oct. 1975 – Jan. 1976), Marvel Team Up #55 (March 1977), and the 1977 Annuals for Avengers and Marvel Two-in-One (Thanos does not actually appear until the end of Warlock #9). He was also featured in a short backup story in Logan's Run #6 (June 1977) and had a small role in the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel (April 1982).

text: The character was revived in Silver Surfer vol. 3, #34 (Feb. 1990) and guest-starred until issue #50 (June 1991), while simultaneously appearing in The Thanos Quest #1–2 (Sept.–Oct. 1990) and Infinity Gauntlet #1-6 (July–Dec. 1991). After an appearance in Spider-Man #17 (Dec. 1991), Thanos had a recurring role in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-42 (Feb. 1992 – Aug. 1995). This was followed by crossover appearances in Infinity War #1-6 (June – Nov. 1992), Infinity Crusade #1–6 (June – Nov. 1993), Silver Surfer vol. 3, #86-88 (Nov. 1993 – Jan. 1994), Warlock Chronicles #6-8, Thor #468–471 (Nov. 1993 – Feb. 1994), Namor The Sub-Mariner #44 (Nov. 1993), Secret Defenders #11-14 (Jan.–April 1994), Cosmic Powers #1–6 (March–July 1994), and Cosmic Powers Unlimited #1 (May 1995).

text: Thanos appeared in a connected storyline in Ka-Zar vol. 2, #4–11 (Aug. 1997 – March 1998), Ka-Zar Annual (1997), and the X-Man and Hulk Annual (1998), before featuring in Thor vol. 2, #21–25 (March–July 2000) and the 2000 Annual. The character was next used in Captain Marvel vol. 4, #17–19 (June–Aug. 2001), Avengers: Celestial Quest #1-8 (Nov. 2001 – June 2002), Infinity Abyss #1-6 (Aug.–Oct. 2002) and Marvel: The End #1-6 (May-Aug 2003).

text: In 2004 Thanos received an eponymous title that ran for 12 issues. In 2006, the character played an important role in Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4 (June – Sept. 2006) and Annihilation #1-6 (Oct. 2006 – March 2007). The character was re-introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, #24-25 (April–May 2010) and played a major role in The Thanos Imperative: Ignition (June 2010) and The Thanos Imperative #1-6 (July–Dec. 2010).

text: The character returned in Avengers Assemble #1 (March 2012).[3] A mini-series titled Thanos: Son of Titan by Joe Keatinge was planned for publication in August 2012, but was cancelled.[4]

text: The character's origin was expanded in the five-issue Thanos Rising miniseries by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi which was published monthly beginning in April 2013.[5] Later that same year, Thanos played a central role in the Infinity miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver.

text: In May 2014, Jim Starlin and Ron Lim worked together on the one-shot Thanos Annual, which is a prelude to a new trilogy of original graphic novels. The first, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, was released the following August.[6][7] Beginning in February 2015, Starlin also penned a four-issue miniseries titled Thanos vs. Hulk, which was set prior to the graphic novels. The second installment in the trilogy, Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, was released in June, 2015.[8] The third graphic novel, Thanos: The Infinity Finale, as well as the connected mini-series The Infinity Entity are announced for Spring 2016.[9]

text: At the same time Starlin was writing these graphic novels and tie-ins, the character also appeared in New Avengers #23-24 (Oct-Nov 2014),[10] Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, #18-20 (Oct-Dec 2014), Legendary Star-Lord #4 (Dec 2014), a six-issue miniseries titled Thanos: A God Up There Listening (Dec 2014), Avengers vol. 5, #40-41 (Mar-Apr 2015), and Deadpool vol. 3, #45 ("#250") (Jun 2015). Thanos also played a major role in the five-issue miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet vol. 2, (July 2015 – Jan 2016), a tie-in of the cross-over Secret Wars (2015).

text: Fictional character biography[edit]

text: Thanos was born on Saturn's moon Titan, and is the child of Eternals Mentor and Sui-San. Thanos carries the Deviants gene, and as such shares the physical appearance of the Eternals' cousin race. At birth, his mother attempted to kill him. During his school years, Thanos was a pacifist[11] and would only play with his brother Eros (Starfox) and pets. By adolescence, Thanos had become fascinated with nihilism and death, worshipping and eventually falling in love with the physical embodiment of death, Mistress Death.[12] As an adult, Thanos augmented his physical strength and powers mystically and artificially. He also attempted to create a new life for himself by starting a family. He is visited again by Mistress Death, for whom he murders his family.[13]

text: Cosmic Cube and Infinity Gems[edit]

text: Wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race.[14] Seeking universal power in the form of the Cosmic Cube, Thanos travels to Earth. Prior to landing, his vessel destroys a nearby car as a family witnesses his arrival.[15] Unbeknownst to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle survive: the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Kronos and is given a new form as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos' father, Mentor, and is raised to become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos eventually locates the Cube, and also attracts the attention of Mistress Death. Willing the Cube to make him omnipotent, Thanos then discards the Cube. He imprisons Kronos and taunts Kree hero Captain Marvel, who with the aid of superhero team the Avengers and ISAAC (a super-computer based on Titan), is eventually able to defeat Thanos by destroying the Cube.[16]

text: Thanos later comes to the aid of Adam Warlock in a war against the Magus and his religious empire.[17][18] During this alliance Thanos cultivates a plan to reunite with Mistress Death, and secretly siphons off the energies of Warlock's Soul Gem, and combines these with the power of the other Infinity Gems to create a weapon capable of destroying a star. Warlock summons the Avengers and Captain Marvel to stop Thanos, although the plan is foiled when Thanos kills Warlock. The Titan regroups and captures the heroes, who are freed by Spider-Man and the Thing. Thanos is finally stopped by Warlock, whose spirit emerges from the Soul Gem and turns the Titan to stone.[14][19] Thanos's spirit eventually reappears to accompany a dying Captain Marvel's soul into the realm of Death.[20]

text: The Infinity saga[edit]

text: Thanos is eventually resurrected,[21] and collects the Infinity Gems once again.[22] He uses the gems to create the Infinity Gauntlet, making himself omnipotent, and erases half the living things in the universe to prove his love to Death.[23] This act and several other acts are soon undone by Adam Warlock.[24] Warlock reveals that Thanos has always allowed himself to be defeated because the Titan secretly knows he is not worthy of ultimate power. Thanos joins Warlock as part of the Infinity Watch and helps him to defeat first his evil[25] and then good[26] personas, and cure Thor of "warrior Madness".[27]

text: The events above have been dubbed the "Infinity saga."[28]

text: Other adventures[edit]

text: Thanos later recruits a team of Earth-bound super-villains and puts them under the field leadership of Geatar in a mission to capture an ancient robot containing the obscure knowledge of a universal library and extract its data.[29] Thanos uses information from the robot to plot against and battle Tyrant, the first creation of Galactus turned destroyer.[30] When trapped in an alternate dimension, Thanos employs the aid of the brother of Ka-Zar, Parnival Plunder[31] and later the Hulk[32] to escape, although both attempts are unsuccessful. Thanos is eventually freed and comes into conflict with Thor, aligning himself with Mangog in a scheme to obtain powerful mystical and cosmic talismans which will allow him to destroy all life in the universe,[33] and during their battles Thanos decimates the planet Rigel-3.[34]

text: Thanos then uses the heroes Thor and Genis-Vell (Captain Marvel's son) against the death god Walker, who attempts to woo Mistress Death and then destroy the entity after being rejected.[35] Thanos then devises a plan to become the All-Father of a new pantheon of gods created by himself. Thanos, however, finds himself opposed by the Avengers' former member Mantis and her son Quoi, who apparently is destined to be the Celestial Messiah. Thanos abandons this plan after having to unite with Mistress Death to destroy the "Rot", a cosmic aberration in deep space caused by Thanos's incessant love for Death.[36] Thanos also once conducted extensive research on genetics, and after studying many of the universe's heroes and villains cloned them and gene-spliced his own DNA into the subjects. Although he later abandons the project, five clones survive, being versions of Professor X, Iron Man, Gladiator, Doctor Strange, and Galactus respectively. A sixth and unnamed version of Thanos also appears, and it is revealed the incarnations of Thanos encountered in the past by Thor and Ka-Zar were actually clones. The true Thanos – with the aid of Adam Warlock, Gamora, Pip the Troll, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Dr. Strange – destroys the remaining clones.[37]

text: When the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten uses a source of cosmic power, the Heart of the Universe, to seize power in present-day Earth (killing most of Earth's heroes in the process), Thanos uses a time-travel stratagem to defeat him. Thanos then uses the Heart of the Universe to reverse Akhenaten's actions and was also compelled to correct a flaw in the universe. Changed by the experience, Thanos advises confidant Adam Warlock he will no longer seek universal conquest.[38] However, Marvel's Executive Editor Tom Brevoort has stated on his Tumblr blog that this story is not in any way a part of official Marvel continuity.[39][40]

text: Thanos decides to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3, and agrees to aid a colony of Rigellians in evacuating their planet before Galactus can consume it. During the course of this mission Thanos learns Galactus is collecting the Infinity Gems in an effort to end his unyielding hunger. Thanos later learns Galactus is being manipulated into releasing a multiversal threat called Hunger, which feeds on entire universes. Despite opposition from Thanos, Galactus unwittingly frees the entity, and when its intentions are revealed, the pair team up and attempt to destroy it.[41]

text: En route to the Kyln, an intergalactic prison, Thanos meets Death, who for the first time speaks to the Titan. Death claims to be worth wooing, but says Thanos must offer something other than death. At the Kyln Thanos encounters Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, and the Shi'ar warrior Gladiator, who are both prisoners, and the Beyonder, who has been rendered amnesiac by its choice to assume a humanoid female form. Thanos battles the Beyonder, causing its mind to shut down and leaving its power trapped within a comatose physical form. Thanos then instructs the Kyln officers to keep the Beyonder on life support indefinitely in order to prevent the entity from being reborn.[42] Thanos departs the Kyln in the company of Skreet, a chaos-mite freed from the prison. Thanos then meets the Fallen, revealed to be the true first Herald of Galactus. Thanos defeats the former Herald and places him under complete mental control.[43] He later appears in Wisconsin attempting to charge a weapon called the Pyramatrix with the life force of everyone on Earth until he is defeated by Squirrel Girl. After the battle, Uatu the Watcher appears and confirms to Squirrel Girl that she defeated the real Thanos, not a clone or copy.[44]

text: Annihilation[edit]

text: During the Annihilation War Thanos allies himself with the genocidal villain Annihilus. When the Annihilation Wave destroys the Kyln, Thanos sends the Fallen to check on the status of the Beyonder, whose mortal form he finds has perished. Before the Fallen can report back to Thanos it encounters Tenebrous and Aegis: two of Galactus's ancient foes. Thanos convinces Tenebrous and Aegis to join the Annihilation Wave in order to get revenge on Galactus, and they subsequently defeat the World Devourer and the Silver Surfer. Annihilus desires the secret of the Power Cosmic and asks Thanos to study Galactus. Once Thanos learns Annihilus's true goal is to use the Power Cosmic to destroy all life and remain the sole survivor, he decides to free Galactus. Drax the Destroyer kills Thanos before he can do so but discovers that Thanos had placed a failsafe device to allow Silver Surfer to free Galactus in the event that Annihilus betrayed him.[45] During a climactic battle with Annihilus, Nova is near death and sees Thanos standing with Mistress Death.[46]

text: The Thanos Imperative[edit]

text: A cocoon protected by the Universal Church of Truth is revealed to be hiding Thanos, who has been chosen by Oblivion to be the new Avatar of Death.[47] Resurrected before his mind could be fully formed, Thanos goes on a mindless rampage before being captured by the Guardians of the Galaxy.[48] Thanos pretends to aid the Guardians against the invading Cancerverse, and after discovering its origin kills an alternate version of Mar-Vell, the self-proclaimed Avatar of Life. This causes the collapse of the Cancerverse, and Nova sacrifices himself in an attempt to contain Thanos inside the imploding reality.[49] Thanos escapes[50] and returns to Earth seeking an artificial cosmic cube. He forms an incarnation of the criminal group Zodiac to retrieve it, but he is defeated by the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and remanded to the custody of the Elders of the Universe.[51]

text: Infinity and the Cabal[edit]

text: Thanos soon invades Earth again after being informed that most of the Avengers have temporarily left the planet.[52] He launches an assault on Attilan, which he offers to spare in exchange for the deaths of all Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22. Black Bolt later informs the Illuminati that the true purpose of the invasion is to find and kill Thane, an Eternal/Inhuman hybrid that Thanos had secretly fathered years earlier.[53] Thanos is trapped in a pocket limbo of stasis by his son.[54] Thanos is freed by Namor and was among the villains that joined his Cabal to destroy other worlds.[55] Thanos later meets his end on Battleworld, where he is easily killed by God Emperor Doom during an attempted insurrection.[56]

text: Ultimates and Civil War II[edit]

text: Thanos is unintentionally brought back to life by Galactus.[57] When Thanos prepares to raid a Project Pegasus facility to steal a Cosmic Cube, he is ambushed and defeated by a team of Avengers. During their battle, he mortally wounds War Machine and critically injures She-Hulk.[58][59][60] After his defeat, he is imprisoned in the Triskelion,[61] and manipulates Ant-Man into facilitating his escape.[62] Thanos goes on a killing spree, but Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau are able to stop him by devising a device that blocks the electrical synapses in his brain.[63]

text: Thanos somehow later recovers and escapes captivity, and reclaims his Black Order forces from Corvus Glaive. After retaking command of his Black Quadrant outpost, Thanos discovers that he is dying.[64] Thanos tries to force Mentor to find a cure for his malady, but kills him when he is unable to.[65] Around this time, Thanos is approached by a mysterious hooded woman, who proposes an alliance. He tasks her with bringing him the hammer of the deceased Ultimate Thor.[66] The woman fails, but removes her disguise to reveal herself as Hela, the Norse goddess of death. She tells Thanos that she needs his help to reclaim Hel, and in exchange, offers to give him the one thing he has been searching for his entire life: death. After this, the two kiss.[67]

text: Powers and abilities[edit]

text: Thanos is a mutant member of the race of superhumans known as the Titanian Eternals. The character possesses abilities common to the Eternals, but amplified to a higher degree through a combination of his mutant–Eternal heritage, bionic amplification, mysticism, and power bestowed by the abstract entity, Death. Demonstrating enormous superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, Thanos can absorb and project vast quantities of cosmic energy and is capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and matter manipulation. Thanos is an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained in the art of war on Titan.

text: Thanos has proved himself capable of briefly holding his own in battle against Odin,[68] and of blasting Galactus off his feet.[69]

text: Thanos is a supergenius in virtually all known fields of advanced science and has created technology far exceeding contemporary Earth science. He often employs a transportation chair capable of space flight, force field projection, teleportation, time travel, and movement through alternate universes. Thanos is also a master strategist and uses several space vessels, at least three under the name "Sanctuary", as a base of operations.

text: Other versions[edit]

text: Amalgam Comics[edit]

text: During the 1996 Amalgam Comics crossover between DC Comics and Marvel, Thanos merged with Darkseid to become "Thanoseid".[70]

text: Earth X[edit]

text: In the alternate universe limited series Earth X, Thanos dwelled in the Realm of the Dead with the entity Death.[71] It is revealed his mother was a Skrull and Death used her secret to make him believe that Death was his mother. When the deception is revealed, he uses the Ultimate Nullifier on Death.[72]

text: Ultimate Marvel[edit]

text: The Ultimate Marvel imprint title Ultimate Fantastic Four features an alternate universe version of Thanos who is the ruler of Acheron (and has a son called Ronan the Accuser, who is in possession of a Cosmic Cube[73]), a vast empire consisting of thousands of worlds that exist in another plane of existence.[74]

text: Marvel Zombies 2[edit]

text: Thanos features in the limited series Marvel Zombies 2, set in the alternate universe of Earth-2149. Having been "zombified", the character is killed by the cosmic-powered Hulk after an altercation over food.[75]

text: In other media[edit]

text: Television[edit]

text:
Thanos was featured in the Silver Surfer animated television series, voiced by Gary Krawford. Due to Fox's broadcast standards, Thanos is depicted as a worshiper of Lady Chaos. Thanos talks to a statue of Lady Chaos on his ship.[76]
Thanos appears on The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Steven Blum in his first appearance,[77] and by Jim Cummings in all other appearances.[78]
Thanos appears in the Avengers Assemble[79] and Guardians of the Galaxy animated shows, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[80]

text: Film[edit]

text:
Damion Poitier makes a cameo appearance as Thanos (credited as Man #1) during the mid-credits of the 2012 film The Avengers as Loki's mysterious benefactor.[81][82]
Josh Brolin appears as Thanos in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy.[83] He tries to use Ronan the Accuser to obtain an Infinity Stone. The film also introduces him as the adoptive father of Gamora and Nebula. Sean Gunn stood in for Thanos on set,[84][85] while Brolin provided the performance capture of the character.[86] Thanos was originally going to have a larger role in Guardians of the Galaxy, but Joss Whedon felt that the character needed to be threaded more gently.[87]
Brolin reprises his role (uncredited) in the mid-credits scene of the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thanos is seen retrieving an Infinity Gauntlet without stones saying "Fine, I'll do it myself."
Brolin will reprise his role in the upcoming films Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel.[88][89]

text: Video games[edit]

text:
Thanos appeared in the Capcom fighting games Marvel Super Heroes[citation needed] and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as a playable character, voiced by Andrew Jackson.[citation needed]
Thanos appears as a downloadable content character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes.[90]
Thanos appears as a playable character of Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[citation needed]
Thanos is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.[91]
Thanos is available to play with in Marvel: Contest of Champions.[citation needed]
There are two playable versions of Thanos in the match-three mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest. Thanos was added to the game in December 2016.[92]
Thanos appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, voiced by Jake Hart.[93] In the first chapter, Thanos seeks the Eternity Forge, an ancient artifact. He is killed in a battle with the Nova Corps and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,[94] voiced again by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[95] In this game, most of Thanos' moves have been revamped, as he is no longer have Infinity Stone-based moves on his move list from the previous Marvel vs. Capcom games. In the story mode, he was originally captured by Ultron Sigma (a fusion between Ultron and Sigma from Capcom's Mega Man X series), until he is rescued by the remaining heroes and soon must aid the heroes to devise another plan in combatting Ultron Sigma.

text: Novels[edit]

text: Thanos is the protagonist of the 2017 novel Thanos: Death Sentence by Stuart Moore.[96] The book follows Thanos' last chance to win Death's love after his defeat at the end of The Infinity Gauntlet.

text: Collected editions[edit]

text: A number of the stories featuring Thanos have been republished into trade paperbacks and other collected editions:

text:
The Life of Captain Marvel (collects Iron Man #55, Captain Marvel #25-34, Marvel Feature #12), 1991, ISBN 0-87135-635-X
Essential Avengers: Volume 6 (includes Captain Marvel #33; The Avengers #125, 135), 576 pages, February 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3058-6
The Greatest Battles of the Avengers (includes Avengers Annual #7), 156 pages, December 1993, ISBN 0-87135-981-2
Avengers vs. Thanos (collects Iron-Man #55, Captain Marvel #25-33, Marvel Feature #12, Daredevil #105-107, Avengers #125, Warlock #9-11, 15, Avengers Annual #7, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, and material from Logan's Run #6), 472 pages, March 2013, ISBN 0-7851-6850-8
Essential Marvel Two-in-One: Volume 2 (includes Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2), 568 pages, July 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2698-8
Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel: Volume 3 (collects Captain Marvel #22–33, Iron Man #55), 288 pages, hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3015-2
Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel: Volume 6 (collects Captain Marvel #58-62, Marvel Spotlight #1-4, 8, Marvel Super-Heroes #3, Marvel Graphic Novel #1; Logan's Run #63), 296 pages, hardcover, May 2016, ISBN 978-0785199946
Marvel Masterworks Warlock: Volume 2 (collects Strange Tales #178-181; Warlock #9–15; Avengers Annual #7; Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2), hardcover, 320 pages, hardcover, June 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3511-1
The Death of Captain Marvel (collects Captain Marvel #34, Marvel Spotlight #1–2, Marvel Graphic Novel #1), 128 pages, hardcover, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4627-X
Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos (collects Silver Surfer #34–38; The Thanos Quest miniseries; "The Final Flower!" from Logan's Run #6), 224 pages, April 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2046-7 (hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4478-1)
The Infinity Gauntlet (collects The Infinity Gauntlet limited series), 256 pages, March 2000, ISBN 0-87135-944-8 (December 2004, ISBN 0-7851-0892-0; July 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2349-0; hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4549-4)
Infinity War (collects Infinity War limited series; Warlock and the Infinity Watch #7–10; Marvel Comics Presents #108–111), 400 pages, April 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2105-6
Infinity Crusade:

Volume 1 (collects Infinity Crusade #1-3, Warlock Chronicles #1–3, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18–19), 248 pages, December 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3127-2
Volume 2 (collects Infinity Crusade #4–6, Warlock Chronicles #4–5, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #20–22), 248 pages, February 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3128-0

Thor: Blood and Thunder (collects Thor #468–471, Silver Surfer #86–88, Warlock Chronicles #6–8, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #23–25), 336 pages, July 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5094-7
DC versus Marvel Comics (collects DC vs. Marvel mini-series, Doctor Strangefate #1), 163 pages, September 1996, ISBN 1-56389-294-4
Ka-Zar by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert:

Volume 1 (collects Ka-Zar #1–7, Tales of the Marvel Universe #1), 208 pages, January 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-4353-6
Volume 2 (collects Ka-Zar #8–14, Annual '97), 216 pages, March 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5992-6

Deadpool Classic: Volume 5 (collects Deadpool #26–33, Baby's First Deadpool, Deadpool Team-Up #1), 272 pages, June 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5519-5
The Mighty Thor by Dan Jurgens and John Romita, Jr.: Volume 4 (collects Thor vol. 2, #18–25, Annual 2000), 256 pages, November 2010, ISBN 978-0-7851-4927-9
Infinity Abyss (collects Infinity Abyss limited series), 176 pages, 2003, ISBN 0-7851-0985-4
Thanos: The End (collects Marvel: The End limited series), 160 pages, May 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1116-6
Thanos: Redemption (collects Thanos #1-12), 304 pages, November 2013, ISBN 0-7851-8506-2

Epiphany (collects Thanos #1–6), 144 pages, June 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1355-X
Samaritan (collects Thanos #7–12), 144 pages, October 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1540-4

Annihilation:

Volume 1 (collects Drax the Destroyer miniseries, Annihilation: Prologue one-shot, Annihilation: Nova miniseries), 256 pages, October 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2901-4 (hardcover, March 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2511-6)
Volume 2 (collects Annihilation: Ronan miniseries, Annihilation: Silver Surfer miniseries, Annihilation: Super-Skrull miniseries), 320 pages, November 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2902-2 (hardcover, May 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2512-4)
Volume 3 (collects Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files one-shot/handbook, Annihilation limited series, Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus miniseries), 304 pages, December 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2903-0 (hardcover, July 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2513-2)

The Thanos Imperative (collects The Thanos Imperative #1–6, The Thanos Imperative: Ignition, The Thanos Imperative: Devastation, Thanos Sourcebook), 248 pages, hardcover, February 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5183-4
Infinity (collects Infinity #1-6, New Avengers vol. 3, #7-12, Avengers vol 5, #14-23, Infinity: Against the Tide Infinite Comic #1-2), 632 pages, hardcover, February 2014, ISBN 978-0785184225
Thanos Rising (collects Thanos Rising #1-5), 136 pages, hardcover, July 2014, ISBN 978-0785190479
Thanos: A God Up There Listening (collects Thanos: A God Up There Listening #1-4 and Thanos Annual #1), 120 pages, hardcover, December 2014, ISBN 978-0785191582
Thanos vs. Hulk (collects Thanos vs. Hulk #1-4, Warlock (1972) #12), 112 pages, June 2015, ISBN 978-0785197126
Thanos: Cosmic Powers (collects Secret Defenders #12-14, Cosmic Powers #1-6), 344 pages, November 2015, ISBN 978-0785198178
Deadpool vs. Thanos (collects Deadpool vs. Thanos #1-4), 112 pages, December 2015, ISBN 978-0785198451
The Infinity Gauntlet: Warzones! (collects The Infinity Gauntlet #1-5), 112 pages, December 2015, ISBN 978-0785198741
Siege: Battleworld (collects Siege #1-4, Uncanny X-Men (2011) #9-10), 144 pages, Februar 2016, ISBN 978-0785195498
Secret Wars (collects Secret Wars #1-9 and material from Secret Wars #0 FCBD), 312 pages, March 2016, ISBN 978-0785198840
The Infinity Entity (collects: The Infinity Entity #1-4, Thanos Annual #1), 116 pages, July 2016, ISBN 978-0785194217'

text: Reception[edit]

text: Thanos was ranked number 47 on IGN's top 100 comic book villains of all time,[97] 22nd on Wizard's Top 100 Greatest Villains list,[citation needed] and number 21 on Complex's 25 Greatest Comic Book Villains List.[98]


document_title: History of Washington, D.C.

question_text: when did the capital move to washington dc

question_tokens: when did the capital move to washington dc

root

text: History of Washington, D.C.

text: Early settlement[edit]

text: Archaeological evidence indicates Native Americans settled in the area at least 4,000 years ago, around the Anacostia River.[2] Early European exploration of the region took place early in the 17th century, including explorations by Captain John Smith in 1608.[3] At the time, the Patawomeck (loosely affiliated with the Powhatan) and the Doeg lived on the Virginia side, as well as on Theodore Roosevelt Island, while the Piscataway (also known as Conoy) tribe of Algonquians resided on the Maryland side.[4] Native inhabitants within the present-day District of Columbia included the Nacotchtank, at Anacostia, who were affiliated with the Conoy.[5] Another village was located between Little Falls and Georgetown,[4] and English fur trader Henry Fleet documented a Nacotchtank village called Tohoga on the site of present-day Georgetown.[6]

tag: p

text: The first colonial landowners in the present-day District of Columbia were George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard, who were granted the Blue Plains tract in 1662, along with Saint Elizabeth, and other tracts in Anacostia, Capitol Hill, and other areas down to the Potomac River in the following years. Thompson sold his Capitol Hill properties in 1670, including Duddington Manor, to Thomas Notley; The Duddington property was handed down over the generations to Daniel Carroll, of Duddington.[7] As European settlers arrived, they clashed with the Native Americans over grazing rights. In 1697, Maryland authorities built a fort within what is now the District of Columbia. In that same year, the Conoy relocated to the west, near what is now The Plains, Virginia, and in 1699 they moved again, to Conoy Island near Point of Rocks, Maryland.[8][9]

text: Georgetown was established in 1751 when the Maryland legislature purchased sixty acres of land for the town from George Gordon and George Beall at the price of £280,[10] while Alexandria, Virginia was founded in 1749. Situated on the fall line, Georgetown was the farthest point upstream to which oceangoing boats could navigate the Potomac River. The strong flow of the Potomac kept a navigable channel clear year-round; and, the daily tidal lift of the Chesapeake Bay, raised the Potomac's elevation in its lower reach; such that fully laden ocean-going ships could navigate easily, all the way to the Bay. Gordon had constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac in approximately 1745. Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were added, and the settlement rapidly grew. The Old Stone House, located in Georgetown, was built in 1765 and is the oldest standing building in the District. It did not take long before Georgetown grew into a thriving port, facilitating trade and shipments of tobacco and other goods from colonial Maryland.[11] With the economic and population growth of Georgetown came also the founding of Georgetown University in 1789, at its founding drawing students from as far away as the West Indies.[12]

text: Founding[edit]

text: Establishment[edit]

text: The United States capital was originally located in Philadelphia, beginning with the First and Second Continental Congress, followed by the Congress of the Confederation upon gaining independence. In June 1783, a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall to demand payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. Congress requested that John Dickinson, the governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to Princeton, New Jersey on June 21, 1783.[13]

text: Dickinson's failure to protect the institutions of the national government was discussed at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787[citation needed]. The delegates therefore agreed in Article One, Section 8, of the United States Constitution to give the Congress the power:

text: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;[14]

text: James Madison, writing in Federalist No. 43, also argued that the national capital needed to be distinct from the states, in order to provide for its own maintenance and safety.[15] The Constitution, however, does not select a specific site for the location of the new District. Proposals from the legislatures of Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia all offered territory for the location of the national capital. Northern states preferred a capital located in one of the nation's prominent cities, unsurprisingly, almost all of which were in the north. Conversely, Southern states preferred that the capital be located closer to their agricultural and slave-holding interests.[16] The selection of the area around the Potomac River, which was the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, both slave states, was agreed upon between James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had a proposal for the new federal government to take over debts accrued by the states during the Revolutionary War. However, by 1790, Southern states had largely repaid their overseas debts. Hamilton's proposal would require Southern states to assume a share of Northern debt. Jefferson and Madison agreed to this proposal and in return secured a Southern location for the federal capital.[17]

text: On December 23, 1788, the Maryland General Assembly passed an act, allowing it to cede land for the federal district. The Virginia General Assembly followed suit on December 3, 1789.[18] The signing of the federal Residence Act on July 16, 1790, mandated that the site for the permanent seat of government, "not exceeding ten miles square" (100 square miles), be located on the "river Potomack, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern-Branch and Connogochegue".[19][20] The "Eastern-Branch" is known today as the Anacostia River. The Connogocheque (Conococheague Creek) empties into the Potomac River upstream near Williamsport and Hagerstown, Maryland. The Residence Act limited to the Maryland side of the Potomac River the location of land that commissioners appointed by the President could acquire for federal use.[19]

text: The Residence Act authorized the President to select the actual location of the site.[19] However, President George Washington wished to include the town of Alexandria, Virginia within the federal district. To accomplish this, the boundaries of the federal district would need to encompass an area on the Potomac that was downstream of the mouth of the Eastern Branch.

text: The U.S. Congress amended the Residence Act in 1791 to permit Alexandria's inclusion in the federal district. However, some members of Congress had recognized that Washington and his family owned property in and near Alexandria, which was just seven miles (11 km) upstream from Mount Vernon, Washington's home and plantation. The amendment therefore contained a provision that prohibited the "erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac".[21][22]

text: The final site was just below the fall line on the Potomac, the furthest inland point navigable by boats (see: Atlantic Seaboard fall line). It included the ports of Georgetown and Alexandria. The process of establishing the federal district, however, faced other challenges in the form of strong objections from landowners such as David Burns who owned a large, 650-acre (260 ha) tract of land in the heart of the district.[21] On March 30, 1791, Burns and eighteen other key landowners relented and signed an agreement with Washington, where they would be compensated for any land taken for public use, half of remaining land would be distributed among the proprietors, and the other half to the public.[21]

text: Pursuant to the Residence Act, President Washington appointed three commissioners (Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart) in 1791 to supervise the planning, design and acquisition of property in the federal district and capital city.[18] In September 1791, the three commissioners agreed to name the federal district as "The Territory of Columbia," and the federal city as the "City of Washington."[23][24]

text: On March 30, 1791, Washington issued a presidential proclamation that established "Jones's point, the upper cape of Hunting Creek in Virginia" as the starting point for the federal district's boundary survey. The proclamation also described the method by which the survey should determine the district's boundaries.[25] Working under the general supervision of the three commissioners and at the direction of President Washington, Major Andrew Ellicott, assisted by his brothers Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott, Isaac Roberdeau, Isaac Briggs, George Fenwick, and an African American astronomer, Benjamin Banneker, then proceeded to survey the borders of the Territory of Columbia with Virginia and Maryland during 1791 and 1792.[26]

text: The survey team enclosed within a square an area containing the full 100 square miles (260 km2) that the Residence Act had authorized. Each side of the square was 10 miles (16 km) long. The axes between the corners of the square ran north–south and east–west.[27] The center of the square is within the grounds of the Organization of American States headquarters west of the Ellipse.[28]

text: The survey team placed sandstone boundary markers at or near every mile point along the sides of the square (see: Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia). Many of these markers still remain. The south cornerstone is at Jones Point.[29] The west cornerstone is at the west corner of Arlington County, Virginia.[30] The north cornerstone is south of East-West Highway near Silver Spring, Maryland, west of 16th Street.[31] The east cornerstone is east of the intersection of Southern Avenue and Eastern Avenue.[32]

text: On January 1, 1793, Andrew Ellicott submitted to the commissioners a report that stated that the boundary survey had been completed and that all of the boundary marker stones had been set in place. Ellicott's report described the marker stones and contained a map that showed the boundaries and topographical features of the Territory of Columbia, The map identified the locations within the Territory of the planned City of Washington and its major streets, as well as the location of each boundary marker stone.[27][33]

text: Plan of the City of Washington[edit]

text: In early 1791, President Washington appointed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant to devise a plan for the new city in an area of land at the center of the federal territory that lay between the northeast shore of the Potomac River and the northwest shore of the Potomac's Eastern Branch.[34][36] L'Enfant then designed in his "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States..." the city's first layout, a grid centered on the United States Capitol, which would stand at the top of a hill (Jenkins Hill) on a longitude designated as 0,0°. The grid filled an area bounded by the Potomac River, the Eastern Branch (now named the Anacostia River), the base of an escarpment at the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line along which a street (initially Boundary Street, now Florida Avenue) would later travel, and Rock Creek.[34][36][37][38][39]

text: North-south and east-west streets formed the grid. Wider diagonal "grand avenues" later named after the states of the union crossed the grid. Where these "grand avenues" crossed each other, L'Enfant placed open spaces in circles and plazas that were later named after notable Americans.

text: L'Enfant's broadest "grand avenue" was a 400-foot-wide (122 m) garden-lined esplanade, which he expected to travel for about 1 mile (1.6 km) along an east–west axis in the center of an area that the National Mall now occupies.[34][36] A narrower avenue (Pennsylvania Avenue) connected the "Congress house" (the Capitol) with the "President's house" (the White House).[34][36] In time, Pennsylvania Avenue developed into the capital city's present "grand avenue".

text: L'Enfant's plan included a system of canals, one of which would travel near the western side of the Capitol at the base of Jenkins Hill.[34][36] To be filled in part by the waters of Tiber Creek, the canal system would traverse the center of the city and would enter both the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch.

text: On June 22, L'Enfant presented his first plan for the federal city to President.[40][41][42] On August 19, he appended a new map to a letter that he sent to the President.[41][43]

text: President Washington retained one of L'Enfant's plans, showed it to Congress, and later gave it to the three Commissioners.[44] The U.S. Library of Congress now holds both the plan that Washington apparently gave to the Commissioners and an undated anonymous survey map that the Library considers L'Enfant to have drawn before August 19, 1791.[44][45] The survey map may be one that L'Enfant appended to his August 19 letter to the President.[46]

text: L'Enfant subsequently entered into a number of conflicts with the three commissioners and others involved in the enterprise. During a contentious period in February 1792, Andrew Ellicott, who had been conducting the original boundary survey of the future District of Columbia (see: Boundary Stones (District of Columbia)) and the survey of the federal city under the direction of the Commissioners, informed the Commissioners that L'Enfant had not been able to have the city plan engraved and had refused to provide him with the original plan (of which L'Enfant had prepared several versions).[47][48][49][50]

text: Ellicott, with the aid of his brother, Benjamin Ellicott, then revised the plan, despite L'Enfant's protests.[47][48][49][51] Some of Ellicott's revisions, such as the straightening of the longer avenues, created minor changes to the city's layout, including the removal of Square No. 15 from L'Enfant's original plan.

text: Ellicott stated in his letters that, although he was refused the original plan, he was familiar with L'Enfant's system and had many notes of the surveys that he had made himself. It is therefore possible that Ellicott recreated the plan.[52]

text: Shortly thereafter, Washington dismissed L'Enfant. Ellicott gave the first version of his own plan to James Thakara and John Vallance of Philadelphia, who engraved, printed and published it. This version, printed in March 1792, was the first Washington city plan that received wide circulation.[53]

text: After L'Enfant departed, Ellicott continued the city survey in accordance with his revised plan, several larger and more detailed versions of which were also engraved, published and distributed. As a result, Ellicott's revisions became the basis for the capital city's future development.[47][48][54][55][56][57]

text: In 1800, the seat of government was finally moved to the new city, and on February 27, 1801, the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 placed the District under the jurisdiction of Congress. The act also organized the unincorporated territory within the District into two counties: the County of Washington on the northeast bank of the Potomac, and the County of Alexandria on the southwest bank. On May 3, 1802, the City of Washington was granted a municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the President of the United States.

text: 19th century[edit]

text: Economic development[edit]

text: The District of Columbia relied on Congress for support for capital improvements and economic development initiatives.[58] However, Congress lacked loyalty to the city's residents and was reluctant to provide support.[58] Congress did provide funding for the Washington City Canal in 1809, after earlier private financing efforts were unsuccessful. Construction began in 1810 and the canal opened in late 1815, connecting the Anacostia River with Tiber Creek.[59]

text: Construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) began in Georgetown in 1828. Construction westward through Maryland proceeded slowly. The first section, from Georgetown to Seneca, Maryland, opened in 1831.[60] In 1833 an extension was built from Georgetown eastward, connecting to the City Canal. The C&O reached Cumberland, Maryland in 1850, although by that time it was obsolete as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) had arrived in Cumberland in 1842.[61]:1 The canal had financial problems, and plans for further construction to reach the Ohio River were abandoned.[62]:7

text: War of 1812[edit]

text: During the War of 1812, British forces conducted an expedition between August 19 and 29, 1814, that took and burned the capital city. On August 24, the British routed an American militia, which had gathered at Bladensburg, Maryland to protect the capital (see Battle of Bladensburg). The militia then abandoned Washington without a fight. President James Madison and the remainder of the U.S. government fled the capital shortly before the British arrived.

text: The British then entered and burned the capital during the most notably destructive raid of the war. British troops set fire to the capital's most important public buildings, including the Presidential Mansion (the White House), the United States Capitol, the Arsenal, the Navy Yard, the Treasury Building, and the War Office, as well as the north end of the Long Bridge, which crossed the Potomac River into Virginia. The British, however, spared the Patent Office and the Marine Barracks. Dolley Madison, the first lady, or perhaps members of the house staff, rescued the Lansdowne Portrait, a full-length painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart as the British approached the Mansion.[63]

text: Railroads arrive in Washington[edit]

text: The B&O opened a rail line from Baltimore to Washington in 1835.[64]:157 Passenger traffic on the Washington Branch had increased by the 1850s, as the company opened a large station in 1851 on New Jersey Avenue NW, just north of the Capitol.[65]:92 Further railroad development continued after the Civil War, with a new B&O line (the Metropolitan Branch) connecting Washington to the west, and the introduction of competition from the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in the 1870s. In 1907, Union Station opened as the city's central terminal.[65]:227

text: Retrocession[edit]

text: Almost immediately after the "Federal City" was laid out north of the Potomac, some residents south of the Potomac in Alexandria County, D.C., began petitioning to be returned to Virginia's jurisdiction. Over time, a larger movement grew to separate Alexandria from the District for several reasons:

text:
Alexandria's economy had stagnated as competition with the port of Georgetown, D.C., had begun to favor the north side of the Potomac, where most members of Congress and local federal officials resided.
The Residence Act prohibited federal offices from locating in Virginia.
Alexandria was a center for slave trading. There was increasing talk of abolition of slavery in the national capital. Alexandria's economy would suffer if slavery were outlawed in the District of Columbia.
There was an active abolition movement in Virginia, and the pro-slavery forces held a slim majority in the Virginia General Assembly. (Eighteen years later, in the Civil War, the most anti-slavery counties would secede from Virginia to form West Virginia.) If Alexandria and Alexandria County were retroceded to Virginia, they would provide two new pro-slavery representatives.
The Alexandria Canal, which connected the C&O Canal to Alexandria, needed repairs, which the federal government was reluctant to fund.
Alexandria's residents had lost representation and the right to vote at any level of government.

tag: ul

text: After a referendum, Alexandria County's citizens petitioned Congress and Virginia to return the area to Virginia. By an act of Congress on July 9, 1846, and with the approval of the Virginia General Assembly, the area south of the Potomac (39 square miles; 101 km²) was returned, or "retroceded," to Virginia effective in 1847.[66]

text: The retroceded land was then known as Alexandria County, Virginia, and now includes a portion of the independent city of Alexandria and all of Arlington County, the successor to Alexandria County. A large portion of the retroceded land near the river was an estate of George Washington Parke Custis, who had supported the retrocession and helped develop the charter in the Virginia General Assembly for the County of Alexandria, Virginia. The estate (Arlington Plantation) would be passed on to his daughter (the wife of Robert E. Lee), and would eventually become Arlington National Cemetery.

text: Civil War era[edit]

text: A portion of the Washington Aqueduct opened in 1859, providing drinking water to city residents and reducing their dependence on well water. The aqueduct, which was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers, opened for full operation in 1864, using the Potomac River as its source.[67]

text: Washington remained a small city of a few thousand residents, virtually deserted during the summertime, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. President Abraham Lincoln created the Army of the Potomac to defend the federal capital, and thousands of soldiers came to the area. The significant expansion of the federal government to administer the war—and its legacies, such as veterans' pensions—led to notable growth in the city's population – from 75,000 in 1860 to 132,000 in 1870.

text: Slavery was abolished throughout the District on April 16, 1862 – eight months before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation—with the passage of the Compensated Emancipation Act.[68] The city became a popular place for freed slaves to congregate.

text: Throughout the war, the city was defended by a ring of military forts that mostly deterred the Confederate army from attacking. One notable exception was the Battle of Fort Stevens in July 1864 in which Union soldiers repelled troops under the command of Confederate General Jubal A. Early. This battle was only the second time that a U.S. President came under enemy fire during wartime when Lincoln visited the fort to observe the fighting.[69] (The first had been James Madison during the War of 1812.) Meanwhile, over 20,000 sick and injured Union soldiers were treated in an array of permanent and temporary hospitals in the capital.

text: On April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the war, Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth during the play Our American Cousin. The next morning, at 7:22 am, President Lincoln died in the house across the street, the first American president to be assassinated. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said, "Now he belongs to the ages."

text: Post-Civil War era[edit]

text: By 1870, the District's population had grown 75% from the previous census to nearly 132,000 residents.[70] Despite the city's growth, Washington still had dirt roads and lacked basic sanitation. The situation was so bad that some members of Congress suggested moving the capital further west, but President Ulysses S. Grant refused to consider such a proposal.[71]

text: In response to the poor conditions in the capital, Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which revoked the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, and created a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia.[72] The act provided for a governor appointed by the President, a legislative assembly with an upper-house composed of eleven appointed council members and a 22-member house of delegates elected by residents of the District, as well as an appointed Board of Public Works charged with modernizing the city.[73]

text: President Grant appointed Alexander Robey Shepherd, an influential member of the Board of Public Works, to the post of governor in 1873. Shepherd authorized large-scale municipal projects, which greatly modernized Washington. However, the governor spent three times the money that had been budgeted for capital improvements and ultimately bankrupted the city.[74] In 1874, Congress abolished the District's territorial government and replaced it with a three-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the President, of which one was a representative from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The three Commissioners would then elect one of themselves to be president of the commission.[75]

text: An additional act of Congress in 1878 made the three-member Board of Commissioners the permanent government of the District of Columbia. The act also had the effect of eliminating any remaining local institutions such as the boards on schools, health, and police.[76] The Commissioners would maintain this form of direct rule for nearly a century.[77]

text: The first motorized streetcars in the District began service in 1888 and spurred growth in areas beyond the City of Washington's original boundaries.[78] In 1888, Congress required that all new developments within the District conform to the layout of the City of Washington.[79] The City of Washington's northern border of Boundary Street was renamed Florida Avenue in 1890, reflecting growth of suburban areas in the County of Washington.[78] The city's streets were extended throughout the District starting in 1893.[79] An additional law passed in 1895 mandated that Washington formally absorb Georgetown, which until then had maintained a nominal separate identity, and renamed its streets.[80] With a consolidated government and the transformation of suburban areas within the District into urban neighborhoods, the entire city eventually took on the name Washington, D.C.[78]

text: In the early 1880s, the Washington City Canal was covered over. Originally an expansion of Tiber Creek, the canal connected the Capitol with the Potomac, running along the north side of the Mall where Constitution Avenue is today. However, as the nation transitioned over to railroads for its transport, the canal had become nothing more than a stagnant sewer, and so it was removed.[59]

text: Some reminders of the canal still exist. South of the Capitol, a road named Canal Street connects Independence Avenue, SW, and E Street, SE (although the northernmost section of the street was renamed Washington Avenue to commemorate the state of Washington).[81] A lock keeper's house built in 1835 at the eastern terminal of the C&O Canal (where the C&O emptied into Tiber Creek and the Potomac River) remains at the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue, NW, (formerly B Street, NW) and 17th Street, NW.[82] The western end of the City Canal emptied into the Potomac and connected with the C&O Canal near the lock keeper's house.[83][84]

text: One of the most important Washington architects of this period was the German immigrant Adolf Cluss.[85] From the 1860s to the 1890s, he constructed over 80 public and private buildings throughout the city, including the National Museum, the Agriculture Department, Sumner and Franklin schools.

text: The Washington Monument, a tribute to George Washington and the world's tallest stone structure, was completed in 1884.[86]

text: 20th century[edit]

text: In 1901, the Senate Park Improvement Commission of the District of Columbia (the "McMillan Commission"), which Congress had formed the previous year, formulated the McMillan Plan, an architectural plan for the redevelopment of the National Mall.[87] The commission was inspired by L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city, which had not been fully realized. The members of the commission also sought to emulate the grandeur of European capitals such as Paris, London, and Rome. They were also strongly influenced by the City Beautiful movement, a Progressive ideology that intended to build civic virtue in the poor through important, monumental architecture. Several of the Commission members, including Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. had in fact participated in the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, which was widely popular and helped to spread interest in the City Beautiful movement.

text: The McMillan Plan in many respects was an early form of urban renewal that removed many of the slums that surrounded the Capitol, replacing them with new public monuments and government buildings. The Plan proposed a redesign of the National Mall and the construction of the future Burnham-designed Union Station. World War I interrupted the execution of the Plan, but construction of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922 largely completed it.

text: Although the McMillan Plan resulted in the demolition of some slums in the Federal Triangle area, substandard housing was a much larger problem in the city during the early 1900s, with large portions of the population living in so-called "alley dwellings."[88] Progressive efforts eventually led to the creation of the Alley Dwelling Authority in 1934. The agency, led by John Ihlder, was an early example of a public housing agency, and was responsible for demolishing slum housing and building new units that were affordable, modern, and sanitary.

text: During his first administration (which started in 1913), President Woodrow Wilson introduced segregation into several federal departments, for the first time since 1863. He supported some cabinet appointees in their request for segregation of employees and creation of separate lunchrooms and restrooms. He was highly criticized for this, especially as he had attracted numerous votes from blacks. The policy held for decades.[89]

text: One advantage of federal rule over the District of Columbia was that the public school teachers were considered federal workers. Although the schools were segregated, black and white teachers were paid on an equal scale. The system attracted highly qualified teachers, especially for the M Street School (later called Dunbar High School), the academic high school for African Americans.[90]

text: In July 1919, whites, including uniformed sailors and soldiers, attacked blacks in Washington during Red Summer, when violence broke out in cities across the country. The catalyst in Washington was the rumored arrest of a black man for rape; in four days of mob violence, white men randomly beat black people on the street, and pulled others off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. Troops tried to restore order as the city closed saloons and theaters, but a summer rainstorm had a more dampening effect. A total of 15 people were killed: 10 whites, including two police officers; and five blacks. Fifty people were seriously wounded and another 100 less severely wounded.[91] The NAACP protested to President Wilson.[92]

text: In 1922, Washington was hit by its deadliest natural disaster when the Knickerbocker Storm dumped 18 inches (46 cm) of snow, causing the roof to collapse at the Knickerbocker Theater, a silent movie house. Ninety-eight people were killed, including a U.S. Congressman; 133 were injured.

text: On July 28, 1932, President Herbert Hoover ordered the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans who gathered in Washington, D.C., to secure promised veterans' benefits early. U.S. troops dispersed the last of the "Bonus Army" the next day.

text: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the city's population grew rapidly with the creation of additional Federal agencies under the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during which most of the Federal Triangle buildings were constructed. World War II brought further population increases and a significant housing shortage, as existing residents were urged to rent rooms to the influx of Federal staffers who arrived from throughout the country. During the war, as many as 200,000 railroad passengers passed through Union Station in a single day.[93] The Pentagon was built in nearby Arlington to efficiently consolidate Federal defense offices under one roof. One of the largest office buildings in the world, it was built rapidly during the early years of the war, partially opening in 1942, and complete in 1943.[94]

text: Civil rights[edit]

text: President Harry Truman ended de jure racial discrimination in the Armed Forces and federal workplaces in 1948. Parks and recreation facilities in Washington remained segregated until 1954. Public schools were desegregated soon after.[95]

text: When the city's Board of Education began building the John Phillip Sousa Junior High, a group of parents from the Anacostia neighborhood petitioned to have the school admit black and white students. When it was constructed, the board declared that only whites could enroll. The parents sued in a case decided in the landmark Supreme Court ruling Bolling v. Sharpe. Partly due to the District's unique status under the Constitution, the court decided unanimously that all of D.C.'s public schools had to be integrated. In the wake of this and the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, the Eisenhower administration decided to make D.C. schools the first to integrate, as an example to the rest of the nation.

text: In 1957, Washington became the first major city in the nation with a majority African-American population.[96] Like many cities, it had received thousands of black people from the South in the Great Migration, starting during World War I and accelerating in the 1940s and 1950s. With the buildup of government and defense industries during World War II, many new residents found jobs. In the postwar years, whites who were better established economically began to move to newer housing in adjoining states in the suburbanization movement that occurred around most major cities. They were aided by the extensive highway construction undertaken by federal and state governments.

text: On August 28, 1963, Washington took center stage in the Civil Rights Movement, with the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famed "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Following the assassination of King on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Washington was devastated by the riots that broke out in the U Street neighborhood and spread to other black areas, including Columbia Heights. The civil unrest drove many whites and middle-class blacks to move out of the city core. There had already been a steady movement of some residents to suburban locations in the search for newer housing and to avoid school integration. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many businesses left the downtown and inner city areas, drawn to suburban malls and following residential development. Marks of riots scarred some neighborhoods into the late 1990s.

text: Home rule[edit]

text: The District elects a delegate to the House of Representatives, who has the usual rights of membership, such as seniority and committee membership, except there is no formal vote. The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on March 29, 1961, gives the people a voice in the electoral college of the size of the smallest state (three votes).

text: In 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, ceding some of its power over the city to a new, directly elected city council and mayor. Walter Washington became the first elected mayor of Washington, D.C.

text: The first 4.6 miles (7.4 km) of the Washington Metro subway system opened on March 27, 1976, following years of acrimonious battles with Congress over funding and highway construction, including a rejected proposal to build a north-central freeway. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority had been created in 1973 through a merger of several local bus companies. Several new Metro stations such as Friendship Heights, Van Ness, Gallery Place, Columbia Heights, U Street, and Navy Yard – Ballpark eventually became catalysts for commercial development. The Kennedy Center opened, as well as several new museums and historic monuments on and around the National Mall.

text: In 1978, Congress sent the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. This amendment would have granted the District representation in the House, Senate, and Electoral College as if it were a state. The proposed amendment had a seven-year limit for ratification, and only sixteen states ratified it in this period.

text: The city's local government, particularly during the mayoralty of Marion Barry, was criticized for mismanagement and waste.[97] Barry defeated incumbent mayor Walter Washington in the 1978 Democratic Party primary. Barry was then elected mayor, serving three successive four-year terms. During his administration in 1989, The Washington Monthly magazine claimed that the District had "the worst city government in America".[98] After being imprisoned for six months on misdemeanor drug charges in 1990, Barry did not run for reelection.[99] In 1991, Sharon Pratt Kelly became the first black woman to lead a major U.S. city.[100]

text: Barry was elected again in 1994 and by the next year the city had become nearly insolvent.[99] In 1995, Congress created the District of Columbia Financial Control Board to oversee all municipal spending and rehabilitate the city government.[101] Mayor Anthony Williams won election in 1998. His administration oversaw a period of greater prosperity, urban renewal, and budget surpluses.[102] The District regained control over its finances in 2001 and the oversight board's operations were suspended in September of that year.[103]

text: Williams did not seek reelection in 2006. Council member Adrian Fenty defeated Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp in that year's Democratic primary race to succeed Williams as mayor and started his term in 2007. Shortly upon taking office, Fenty won approval from the city council to directly manage and overhaul the city's under-performing public school system.[104] However, Fenty lost a Democratic Party primary to former Council Chair Vincent Gray in August 2010. Mayor Gray won the general election and assumed office in January 2011 with a pledge to bring economic opportunities to more of the city's residents and under-served areas.[105]

text: 21st century[edit]

text: On September 16, 2013, the Washington Navy Yard shooting occurred when lone gunman Aaron Alexis fatally shot twelve people and injured three others in a mass shooting at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) inside the Washington Navy Yard in the Southeast quadrant of the city.[106][107][108] The attack, which took place in the Navy Yard's Building 197, began around 8:20 a.m. EDT and ended when Alexis was killed by police around 9:20 a.m. EDT. It was the second-deadliest mass murder on a U.S. military base, behind only the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009.

text: Terrorism and security[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: The Washington area was a main target of the September 11, 2001 attacks. American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked by five Islamic terrorists and flew into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, killing 125 people inside the building, as well as 64 on board the airliner, including the five terrorists. United Airlines Flight 93, which was also hijacked and which went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, supposedly intended to target either the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

text: Since September 11, 2001, a number of high-profile incidents and security scares have occurred in Washington. In October 2001, anthrax attacks, involving anthrax-contaminated mail sent to numerous members of Congress, infected 31 staff members, and killed two U.S. Postal Service employees who handled the contaminated mail at the Brentwood sorting facility. An FBI and DOJ investigation determined the likely culprit of the anthrax attacks to be Bruce Edwards Ivins, a scientist, but he committed suicide in July 2008 before formal charges were filed.[109]

text: During three weeks of October 2002, fear spread among residents of the Washington area, during the Beltway Sniper attacks. Ten apparently random victims were killed, with three others wounded, before John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested on October 24, 2002.

text: In 2003 and 2004, a serial arsonist set over 40 fires, mainly in the District and the close-in Maryland suburbs, with one fire killing an elderly woman. A local man was arrested in the serial arson case in April 2005 and pleaded guilty.

text: The toxin ricin was found in the mailroom of the White House in November 2003 and in the mailroom of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in February 2004.

text: After the September 11 attacks, security was increased in Washington. Screening devices for biological agents, metal detectors, and vehicle barriers became more commonplace at office buildings as well as government buildings. After the 2004 Madrid train bombings, local authorities decided to test explosives detectors on the vulnerable Washington Metro subway system.

text: When U.S. forces in Pakistan raided a house suspected of being a terrorist hideout, they found information several years old about planned attacks on Washington, D.C., New York City, and Newark, New Jersey. It was directed to intelligence officials. On August 1, 2004, the Secretary of Homeland Security put the city on Orange (High) Alert. A few days later, security checkpoints appeared in and around the Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom neighborhoods, and fences were erected on monuments once freely accessible, such as the Capitol. Tours of the White House were limited to those arranged by members of Congress. Screening devices for biological agents, metal detectors, and vehicle barriers became more common at office buildings as well as government buildings and in transportation facilities. This ultra-tight security was referred to as "Fortress Washington"; many people objected to "walling off Washington" based on information several years old. The vehicle inspections set up around the U.S. Capitol were removed in November 2004.

text: Statehood movement[edit]

text: On November 8, 2016, Washington voters were asked to advise the Council to approve or reject a proposal, which included advising the council to petition Congress to admit the District as the 51st State and to approve a constitution and boundaries for the new state. The voters of the District of Columbia voted overwhelmingly to advise the Council to approve the proposal, with 86% of voters voting to advise approving the proposal.[110] Challenges, including Republican opposition in Congress and constitutional issues, continue to cause problems for the movement.

text: Changing demographics[edit]

text: New migration patterns have appeared. Washington has a steadily declining black population, due to many African Americans' leaving the city for suburbs. At the same time, the city's Caucasian and Hispanic populations have steadily increased.[111] Since 2000 there has been a 7.3% decrease in the African-American population, and a 17.8% increase in the European-American population.[112] In addition, many African Americans are going to the South in a New Great Migration, because of family ties, increased opportunities and lower cost of living.[113] They still are a majority in the city, comprising 51 percent of the population.


document_title: Ben Wyatt (Parks and Recreation)

question_text: what episode of parks and rec does ben come in

text: Ben Wyatt (Parks and Recreation)

text: Character biography[edit]

text: Ben is from Partridge, Minnesota. When he was 18, he ran for mayor and won on the strength of, in his words, "anti-establishment voter rebellion." However, being so inexperienced, he quickly ran the town's finances into the ground and was impeached after two months.[1][2] His signature failure was spearheading the development of a winter sports complex called Ice Town which bankrupted the town, leading to the newspaper headline "Ice Town Costs Ice Clown His Town Crown."[3] Ben attended Carleton College, where he was the host and DJ for a swing music college radio show called Zoot Suit Wyatt, a reference to the swing song "Zoot Suit Riot" (1997).[4] After becoming an accountant, he and Chris Traeger assumed the nicknames Butch Count-sidy and the Sum-dance Kid, with the names referencing the outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as being accounting puns.

text: Ben is very serious, mature and work-oriented, and usually doesn't seem fazed by much of the immature, eccentric behavior from some of the other members of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department, primarily Tom Haverford, Leslie Knope, and Andy Dwyer. Ben is often teased by Tom (and, early on, Leslie as well) for his affinity for, references to and vast knowledge in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Game of Thrones and other things considered to be "nerdy". Ben is also shown to have a hard time socializing, as his main focus is his work. During season six when he was jobless for a week, he created a game called The Cones of Dunshire. The game became very popular, which he realized while visiting San Francisco. He was angry that he didn't copyright it, but later in the show, one of his former coworkers surprises him with the copyright papers.

text: Season Two[edit]

text: When Ben comes to Pawnee, he immediately clashes with Leslie, as she yells at him three consecutive times for his seemingly callous attitude towards firing people and slashing her department's budget. However, when he asks her out for a beer, they begin to show respect for one another. He shares his past as the mayor of Partridge, and that he became a state auditor to prove he can be responsible and eventually run for office again.[2][5] Their new friendship turns sour when Ben and Chris reveal that the town is virtually out of funds and the government will have to be shut down until further notice.[6]

text: Despite the seriousness of the problems, Chris presents the situation in an extremely positive light and tries to make all the city hall employees around him happy, leaving the hard decisions and delivery of bad news up to Ben.[2] Chris and Ben form a budget task force, consisting of several government employees including Ron. When Ron accidentally reveals that Leslie was trying to set up an annual children's concert that was supposed to be canceled on Lot 48 behind Ann's house, Ben tries to shut it down. However, after seeing the effort Leslie put into it, which included having the equipment donated from local vendors, he pays the entertainer Freddy Spaghetti to come back after he booked another event, getting back on Leslie's good side. Ben is also surprised, but quietly pleased when Ron authorizes Leslie to take his place on the budget task force.[6]

text: Season Three[edit]

text: When the government shutdown ends, Ben informs the department that due to the shoestring budget, they will only be on maintenance for the time being. Ben suspects that Leslie is trying to have Ann convince Chris to distribute more funds to the department and confirms his suspicions when he crashes their date at the same time Leslie crashes it, but Ben decides to let it play out. While at a gay club, Ben mentions the failure of the Ice Town project, showing that he used to be just as ambitious as Leslie, but Leslie gives him credit for trying. Ben listens to Leslie's presentation regarding the Pawnee Harvest Festival idea that will allow them to do their jobs properly and bring funds into the department. When Ben asks what will happen if it doesn't bring in funds, Leslie says they can shut down the department, and Ben allows them to go forth with the festival.[3]

text: Ben assists Leslie with the festival preparations, and is thoroughly impressed when she gives a flawless presentation despite being stricken with the flu.[7] When Leslie and Ben try to ask the police force to handle security for the festival, Ben is shown not to have very strong social skills, although in this case it could be attributed to the fact that he doesn't understand Pawnee as well as Leslie.[8] He and Leslie continue to build a strong friendship over their development of the Harvest Festival, and it is implied he starts to show romantic interest in her when he inquires of the police chief about her relationship with Dave. He also becomes better friends with Tom, supporting him when he is rejected by a cologne magnate, although Tom does his fair share of ribbing Ben.[9]

text: While doing the media blitz for the festival, he is continuously asked about his disastrous tenure as mayor of Partridge. After freezing up at the majority of questions asked, he then goes on a furious tirade at a later interview, prompting businesses to pull their sponsorships at the festival and putting the parks department in jeopardy. At the last interview at Pawnee Today, Ben finally stands his ground, stating that everyone does stupid things when they were teenagers and that he has since saved at least five cities from bankruptcy as an auditor.[10][11] During the festival itself, a series of catastrophes leads Ben to feel he is cursed and leave the festival, returning later to admit he is not over his past. Leslie assures him that he is as responsible for the festival's success as she is, and has the local Native American chief Ken Hotate perform a fake ceremony to remove his "curse."[12]

text: Following the conclusion of the festival, Chris is installed as interim city manager of Pawnee, and offers Ben a job as assistant city manager, which he eventually accepts. It is implied that he made the decision to be closer to Leslie and that he and Leslie are attracted to each other,[13] but a new policy of Chris's forbids city employees to date each other and has halted any potential relationship. But, after being assigned to a road trip that would cause them to be alone, Ben tells Leslie that he likes her. At the end of the episode, Leslie approaches Ben to hand him receipts and he kisses her.[14]

text: Since he is staying in Pawnee permanently, Ben decides to move out of the motel where he has been living. Andy and April offer him a spare room in their house, since their previous roommate moved out and left the house to them. Although the two have been living by themselves for only a week, the house is a complete mess with no everyday items like plates or utensils available. Ben decides to teach a reluctant Andy and April how to properly live like adults.[15]

text: In "The Bubble", Leslie and Ben are officially dating, but they are keeping their relationship a secret due to a no-dating policy at work. They are enjoying what Leslie calls "the bubble", or the beginning of a relationship when everything is simple and fun. It is suddenly threatened, however, when Ben has a meeting with Leslie's mother Marlene, who wants Ben to approve the purchase of four new school buses despite a difficult budget season. Afraid of ruining the bubble, Leslie initially tells Ben she is not related to Marlene. Right before Ben's meeting, however, Leslie admits Marlene is her mother, making him nervous and causing him to capitulate to all of her demands during the meeting, which makes Marlene consider Ben weak. Leslie trains Ben for his next meeting with her mother. He impresses Marlene so much with his tough negotiation skills that she becomes flirtatious with him. An uncomfortable Ben tells Leslie they should tell her about their relationship, but Leslie does not want to lose the bubble. Fed up, Ben storms into Marlene's office and tells her that he is dating her daughter and asks her to keep it secret. Marlene laughs off the situation and tells Leslie that she approves of Ben.

text: In the season finale "Li'l Sebastian", Leslie and Ben continue their romance, but they have difficulty keeping it a secret. Ron finds out and warns them that Chris will fire them if he learns about it. As the city prepares for the memorial service for Li'l Sebastian, Pawnee's beloved celebrity miniature horse, Leslie and Ben are caught making out by a maintenance worker, so they send him home in exchange for his silence. Unfortunately, the worker had the propane for Li'l Sebastian's memorial flame, which results in later confusion behind the scenes, that Leslie and Ben struggle to fix throughout the night. Later, although the memorial turned out to be a success, things get even more complicated when Leslie is approached by scouts looking for potential candidates for elected office. They believe she would be a good candidate for upcoming city council seats, or possibly the mayoral position. With the expected increased media attention on her personal life, the scouts ask whether Leslie has any secret scandals in her life. She denies any such scandals exist, thus omitting her secret relationship with Ben, and the scouts promise to contact her about preparing an electoral run.[16]

text: Season Four[edit]

text: Though their relationship had become rather serious, Ben and Leslie are forced to break up to avoid a scandal which could derail Leslie's city council candidacy. Ben understands, giving Leslie a "Knope 2012" button he had made. He then starts helping Tom run his business Entertainment 720, where he's shocked at how much money Tom spends without getting any revenue. He also helps Tom charm Joan Callamezzo to try to get her book club to include Leslie's new book, but Joan gets drunk and hits on them. He and Leslie end up sharing lovelorn looks with each other. Ben is dragged along to Tom and Donna's "Treat Yo Self", where he treats himself to a Batman costume and a good cry over his breakup with Leslie.

text: While Leslie attempts to keep him in her life, Ben insists that he needs distance from her since being around Leslie is too difficult for him. Leslie continually tries to spend time with Ben until, through the help of Ben and Ann, she sees that she has been ignoring what Ben wants and doing only what she wants. Ben and Leslie meet at the Smallest Park, which is supposed to be their last project together. Leslie apologizes and tells Ben she'll leave him alone if that's what he wants. Ben responds that he doesn't want that but he thinks it's for the best. As Ben starts to leave, Leslie declares that she misses him like crazy and wants to be with him. After she asks how he feels, Ben kisses Leslie and the relationship is reinstated.

text: Later, they confess to Chris about their relationship, and he launches an investigation to check for any possible acts of corruption, as Ben is Leslie's superior. It turns out that in the season three's finale, Ben and Leslie had bribed a maintenance worker to keep quiet about them after the worker witnessed them kissing. As that was a possible reason for termination, Leslie was ready to take full responsibility only to find that Ben resigned from his job in order to save hers.

text: Following his termination, Ben takes some time to "explore his interests" which consists of him remaining in his house and attempting various hobbies like making calzones and stop motion films. His appearance becomes unkempt and after a visit from Chris, he realizes that despite convincing himself otherwise he's unhappy without some sort of direction in his life. After Leslie's campaign flops at the ice rink, Ann resigns (eagerly) from being Leslie's campaign manager and Leslie asks Ben to run her campaign given his experience with local politics. Ben takes over the duties of running Leslie's campaign for city council and helps turn the campaign around, making it competitive with Bobby Newport's bid for city office. Ben manages to secure the endorsement of Pawnee's retiring police chief and improve Leslie's likability at a bowling event (despite the spectacle of having punched a man who called Leslie 'a bitch'). In "Dave Returns", it is revealed that not only is Ben socially awkward around police officers, but he is afraid of them, saying "I am not afraid of cops. I have no reason to be. I never break any laws ever because I'm deathly afraid of cops."

text: Towards the end of the campaign, Ben is offered a job working for a congressional campaign in Washington, D.C.. Initially conflicted, as it would mean several months away from Pawnee, Ben is ultimately convinced by Leslie to take the job.

text: Season Five[edit]

text: Jonathan Banks and Glenne Headly guest starred as Ben's parents in the fifth season. He successfully runs a congressional campaign during the first five episodes of the season. When Ben returns to Pawnee, he proposes to Leslie, and they move into a house together. Later, Ben turns down multiple job offers in Pawnee to join Tom Haverford's company, Rent-a-Swag; concurrently, he ends up working for Sweetums, at a division dedicated to improving their public image by funding charities. He also takes on Andy as an assistant. Ben and Leslie throw a large event designed to help with fundraising for the Pawnee Commons instead of creating a wedding registry. During the event, Leslie tells Ben how much she hates the feeling of not being married to him. Ben responds by saying that they should just get married that night. After two hours of frantically finishing last minute details, a ceremony ruined by a drunk Councilman Jamm, and bailing Ron out of jail, they hold the wedding in the Parks Department.

text: Season Six[edit]

text: After Leslie attacks Sweetums in a press statement, Ben is fired from his job with the company. He then takes on the accountant job he has accepted and declined three times prior. Shortly later though Chris offers him the Job of City Manager of Pawnee because Chris is leaving town and Ben accepts it, becoming the new City Manager of Pawnee and Leslie's boss as she returns to her job in the Parks and Recreation Department. At the end of the episode entitled "Flu Season 2" Ben has a fight with his father who sold their family lake house where Ben had many wonderful childhood memories. He realizes he wants to start a family with Leslie, when he returns home to tell Leslie, he discovers that she is pregnant with their first child. When visiting Dr. Saperstein, they realize she's having triplets.

text: Season Seven[edit]

text: Ben remains city manager, and is planning the Pawnee Bicentennial. This, along with greatly improving the economy of Pawnee, gets him the award for Man of the Year. He and Leslie have triplets, two boys and one girl, whom they have named Stephen, Wesley, and Sonia. In The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show, Ben was made a Knight of the Order of the British Empire by His Royal Excellence Lord Edgar Darby Covington, 14th Earl of Cornwall-Upon-Thames and 29th Baron of Hertfordshire. After being contacted by Jennifer Barkley, and with Leslie's full support, he decides to run for Congress in 2018. While campaigning, he earns IOW's Woman of the Year award for giving Leslie room to speak her mind instead of reading scripted speeches. Through a series of flash-forwards in the final episode, it is revealed that Ben's congressional campaign was successful and is now a representative from Indiana for the House of Representatives. In 2025, he and Leslie are both given the opportunity to run as Governor of Indiana, Ben ultimately decides to let Leslie run (which she wins). By 2048, it is implied that at least one of them has been elected President of the United States, with Ben wearing a flag lapel pin and being acknowledged first by someone who appeared to be a member of the Secret Service.

text: Development[edit]

text: Adam Scott departed from his leading role on the Starz comedy television series Party Down to accept the role of Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation.[17][18] Parks and Recreation was one of Scott's favorite shows even before he took the role.[19] When he accepted a role on Parks and Recreation, it was unclear whether Party Down would be renewed for a third season, and Scott said, "I couldn't pass up the opportunity on Parks and Rec for a show that could possibly not exist anymore."[19] Although Party Down co-creator Rob Thomas said he believed the show could continue without Scott, and that the actor would continue to make guest appearances on the show,[18] Party Down was cancelled just three months after Scott departed.[20] Series co-creator Michael Schur said when the Ben Wyatt character was conceived, Scott was considered the "dream scenario" casting choice.[21] As part of Scott's contract with the series, he also signed a first look deal to develop television projects for NBC.[17]

text: Scott first appeared in Parks and Recreation starting in the penultimate second-season episode, "The Master Plan", the same episode Rob Lowe joined the regular cast as Chris Traeger.[17][21] The idea of a character trying to rebuild a government career following a humiliating public failure was one of the original ideas for the protagonist of Parks and Recreation. The idea was ultimately abandoned in favor of Leslie Knope's character, but those early ideas were ultimately incorporated into Ben Wyatt.[5][22] Ben's role as a state auditor, and Pawnee's subsequent budget problems, were conceived from global economic crisis and news reports about government services getting shut down around the country.[23] Scott described his character as "someone who jumped in on a moving train" in trying to integrate with the other characters.[19] Ben was expected to become a love interest for Leslie Knope from his earliest conception.[17][24] In addition to the growing relationship between Leslie and Ben, one of the biggest story arcs for season three was Ben's growing love of the city of Pawnee, which coincided with his romantic feelings for Leslie. Schur described Ben's character as one who never had a firm sense of home due to the excessive amount of traveling with his job, but who gradually grew to appreciate Pawnee due to the optimism and enthusiasm Leslie has for her job.[25]

text: Reception[edit]

text: The character received extremely positive reviews from critics and audiences alike.

text: Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called Scott one of the "rare but special" actors who can be both "the sane and deadpan center of the madness, but can also go convincingly, amusingly mad".[26] New York Daily News writer David Hinckley praised Scott's addition to the Parks and Recreation cast, claiming he "gets more of a character here than he does on Starz's entertaining Party Down and makes the best of it".[27] Scott received particular praise for his performance in "Media Blitz", in which his awkward and panicked responses to media inquiries about his past led to what reviewers considered more outwardly comedic opportunities for the character, compared to his usual straight man role.[10][11][28] Several reviewers mentioned that Ben Wyatt closely resembled Scott's character on Party Down, Henry Pollard. Ben's character is a politician who found great success at a young age, then suffered a downfall. Henry's character is an actor who became a caterer after his acting career declined.[2][29] Scott himself has said that he feels they are "vastly different characters and circumstances."[19]