title: The Internationale

text: The inclusion of "The Internationale" in the Toscanini's minds was not simply for the sake of a Soviet Union audience, but because of its relevance to all countries of the world.


title: The Internationale

text: Although Walter did not consider "The Internationale" to be "good music", he considered it to be (as he stated to the OWI) "more than the hymn of a nation or a party" and "an idea of brotherhood".


title: The Internationale

text: It would have been expensive to re-record a new performance of the "Inno" without "The Internationale", and it remained in the movie as originally released.


title: The Internationale

text: Some time during the McCarthy Era, however, it was edited out of re-released copies, and remained so until a 1988 Library of Congress release on video, which restored "The Internationale" to the movie.


title: The Internationale

text: A similar situation had occurred earlier in the War with the BBC's popular weekly Sunday evening radio broadcast, preceding the Nine O'Clock News, titled "National Anthems of the Allies", whose playlist was all of the national anthems of the countries allied with the United Kingdom, the list growing with each country that Germany invaded.


title: The Internationale

text: After the Germans began their invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), it was fully expected that "The Internationale", as the anthem of the Soviet Union, would be included in the playlist that day; but to people's surprise it was not, neither that week nor the week after. Winston Churchill, a staunch opponent of communism, had immediately sent word to the BBC via Anthony Eden that "The PM has issued an instruction to the Ministry of Information that the Internationale is "on no account" to be played by the B.B.C." (emphasis in the original).


title: The Internationale

text: Newspapers such as the "Daily Express" and "Daily Mail" were sharply critical of the Foreign Office, and questions were asked in the House of Commons.


title: The Internationale

text: Ambassador Ivan Maisky recorded in his diary a conversation with Duff Cooper on 1941-07-11 where Cooper asked him if the music played after Vyacheslav Molotov's speech on 1941-06-22 would be acceptable to the Soviet Union, and he replied that it would not be.


title: The Internationale

text: On the evening of 1941-07-13, the BBC instead played, in Maisky's words, "a very beautiful but little-known Soviet song", which he described as demonstrating "the British Government's cowardice and foolishness".


title: The Internationale

text: Rather than risk offending the Soviet Union by continuing to pointedly refuse to play its national anthem in a radio programme entitled "National Anthems", the BBC discontinued the programme.


title: The Internationale

text: This relaxation enabled "The Internationale" to be used in wartime broadcasts and films, and at public occasions, thereafter.


title: The Internationale

text: The BBC's 1943 "Salute to the Red Army" had a mass performance of "The Internationale" at the Royal Albert Hall by the choir of the Royal Choral Society, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and military bands, in front of the flag of the Soviet Union and following a speech by Anthony Eden.


title: The Internationale

text: The day before, which was Red Army Day, troops and the audience had sung "The Internationale" to the Lord Mayor of Bristol.


title: The Internationale

text: The 1944 movie "Tawny Pipit" depicted schoolchildren in the fictional village of Lipton Lea welcoming the character Olga Boclova (based upon Ludmilla Pavlichenko) to their town by singing "The Internationale".


title: The Internationale

text: Dmitry Shostakovich used "The Internationale" twice for the movie soundtrack to the 1936 Soviet movie "Girl Friends", once performed by a military-style band when a group of women are preparing for war, and a second time as a solo performance on a theremin.


title: The Internationale

text: Nikolai Evreinov's 1920 "The Storming of the Winter Palace" used both "The Internationale" and "La Marseillaise" symbolically in opposition to each other, with the former sung by the "Red platform" proletariat side and the latter sung by the "White platform" government side, the former starting weakly and in disarray but gradually becoming organised and drowning out the latter.


title: The Internationale

text: Qu Qiubai revised the translation of the lyrics into Chinese after having attended the Fourth Conference of Comintern in November 1921 and having not been able to join in the spontaneous singing by attendees there of "The Internationale" in their various home languages with their own Chinese rendition because the Chinese attendees did not have a good one.


title: The Internationale

text: He proceeded, according to the political memoirs of his contemporaries, in 1923 to re-translate the lyrics from the original French at the organ in his cousin's home in Beijing, publishing them in "New Youth", a journal that he was the editor-in-chief of.


title: The Internationale

text: This has become part of the cultural narrative of Qu's life, including in a 2001 television dramatisation of events, "The Sun Rises from the East", where Qu is depicted as explaining to Cai Hesen that he (Qu) did not translate the song's title because he wished to make the Chinese version, which used a phonetic rendering of the French name using Chinese words "yingtenaixiongnaier", accessible to a multi-lingual non-Chinese-speaking audience.


title: The Internationale

text: The television dramatisation included excerpts from the movie "Lenin in October", a popular movie in China during the time of Mao with scenes that were set to "The Internationale".


title: The Internationale

text: "Lenin in October" was one of several movies from Soviet cinema translated into Chinese in the 1950s that led to the widespread popularity of "The Internationale" in the early years of the PRC.


title: The Internationale

text: Others include "Lenin in 1918", a 1939 movie which came to China in 1951, with "The Internationale" abruptly terminated at the point in the movie that Lenin is shot by an assassin; and the 1952 "The Unforgettable 1919" which came to China that same year and used "The Internationale" for a mass rally scene involving Joseph Stalin.


title: The Internationale

text: Chinese movies about martyrs to the CCP cause would begin to incorporate the song into pivotal scenes later in the 1950s, this use peaking in the 1960s with inclusion into such movies as the 1965 "Living Forever in Burning Flames" depicting the execution of Jiang Jie.


title: The Internationale

text: In the 1956 movie "Mother", the character Lao Deng, a local revolutionary leader, is depicted singing "The Internationale" on the way to his execution, and in the 1960 "A Revolutionary Family" the son of the protagonist (in chorus with his fellow prisoners) also sings "The Internationale" on the way to his execution.


title: The Internationale

text: Political memoirs of Li Dazhao's daughter Li Xinghua recount his explaining the lyrics of the song to her, he having encountered it on his travels with Qu in 1923 and during his visit to Moscow the following year.


title: The Internationale

text: As with Qu, the song forms part of the cultural narrative of his life, it being the widely accepted account of his execution in 1927 that he sang the song in the last moments of his life.


title: The Internationale

text: As with Qu and Li, the song is found in many places in political histories of CCP leaders and martyrs to its cause, symbolising their socialist ideals, including Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping.


title: The Internationale

text: It has also seen continued, and sometimes contradictory, uses over the decades as politics in China have changed, such as (for one example) Chen Yun's use in the 1960s to justify a new agricultural land allocation policy.


title: The Internationale

text: It has maintained its status as a de facto CCP anthem, and its continued relevance over the decades can be seen in its inclusion in all three of the 1964 "The East Is Red", the 1984 "The Song of the Chinese Revolution", and the 2009 "The Road to Prosperity".


title: The Internationale

text: While the song has a wide influence as an adjunct of official ideology, it has also been used in counter-cultural movements, such as the demonstrators in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests singing it during their final retreat.


title: The Internationale

text: Barbara Mittler maintains that this dual use of "The Internationale" by the government and by people demonstrating against it disproves any hypothesis that "a certain type of music 'depicts' a certain social environment".


title: The Internationale

text: Timothy Garton Ash related a more pronounced role reversal in the August 1980 negotiations surrounding the creation of Solidarity, describing in his 1983 book "The Polish Revolution" striking workers watching the plenary of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party on television.


title: The Internationale

text: In response to the government officials singing "The Internationale" on screen, a Party ritual, workers spontaneously broke into a recital of the national anthem of Poland, which Ash characterised as "'Arise ye prisoners of want' pipes the box; 'Poland is not yet lost' thunders the hall."


title: The Internationale

text: "The Internationale" continues to be popular with 21st century Chinese audiences, as exemplified by its reception by audience when sung at the second curtain call of the "Shocking" concert of Liu Han, Liao Changyong, and Mo Hualun.


title: The Internationale

text: Qu was hired as a translator for students at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, where he met Xiao San in 1922, who had newly arrived from France.


title: The Internationale

text: There, Xiao was drawn into the performing arts as a vehicle for revolutionary messages and, in conjunction with other students, translated "The Internationale" and several Soviet songs from the original French and Russian into Chinese, separately from Qu's work in Beijing in 1923.


title: The Internationale

text: Ironically, the translation in the television dramatisation "The Sun Rises from the East" that is recited by the character of Qu, is not in reality Qu's translation at all, but is the 1949 official approved translation based upon Xiao's, that is additionally credited to Zheng Zhenduo.


title: The Internationale

text: The 2004 movie "My Years in France", a biopic of Deng Xiaoping, re-framed this history into a dramatic scene, set in 1920s Paris before Xiao leaves for Moscow, in which Zhou Enlai, Liu Qingyang, Zhang Shenfu, and others climb to the top of Notre Dame to sing "The Internationale" to the accompaniment of its bell Emmanuel, and the character of Xiao resolves at that point, instead, to translate the song into Chinese.


title: The Internationale

text: One of the earliest translations of the song dates from around 1900, when Dutch communist poet Henriette Roland Holst translated it into Dutch, with "Ontwaakt, verworpenen der aarde" ("Wake up, all who are cast away"). The American English version by Charless Kerr, and anonymous British English and Rumanian versions, were made around the same time. By the time of the 1910 International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen, versions had appeared in 18 different languages, including a Danish one by A. C. Meyer, which was sung at the end of a cantata by 500 singers.


title: The Internationale

text: The traditional UK version of "The Internationale" is usually sung in three verses, while the American version, written by Charles Hope Kerr with five verses, is usually sung in two. The American version is sometimes sung with the phrase "the internationale", "the international soviet", or "the international union" in place of "the international working class". In English renditions, "Internationale" is sometimes sung as rather than the French pronunciation of . In modern usage, the American version also often uses "their" instead of "his" in "Let each stand in his place", and "free" instead of "be" in "Shall be the Human race."


title: The Internationale

text: Pete Seeger asked Billy Bragg to sing "The Internationale" with him at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 1989. Bragg thought the traditional English lyrics were archaic and unsingable (Scottish musician Dick Gaughan and former Labour MP Tony Benn disagreed), and composed a new set of lyrics. The recording was released on his album "The Internationale" along with reworkings of other socialist songs.


title: The Internationale

text: The original French "debout" means "stand up", and this is retained in the Russian translation and several English ones, but the German translation is "aufwachen" meaning "wake up"/"arise" and this connotation of sleeping can also be found in English versions that read "Arise ye workers from your slumber".


title: The Internationale

text: The existence of multiple translations led the song to gain pride of place in the official songbook of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, as it was a song that volunteers from many countries could all sing together, each in their own languages but all to the same tune.


title: The Internationale

text: The "anthem" in the early pages of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" has been described as a "parody" or a "reconfiguration" of "The Internationale"; Orwell's text states (as a "humorous introduction") that it was sung as "between Clementine and La Cucaracha", in reference to "Oh My Darling, Clementine" and "La Cucaracha".


title: The Internationale

text: William Carlos Williams' poem "Choral: The Pink Church" alludes to the lyrics of "The Internationale" in order to symbolise Communism, the poem otherwise barely mentioning Communism directly, Williams himself claiming to be "a pink [...] "not" a red" in a letter discussing the poem.


title: The Internationale

text: One of Aleksandr Lebedev-Frontov's most famous works, which hung in the headquarters of the National Bolshevik Party, is a poster of the French Fantomas aiming a pistol at the viewer, subtitled with the first line of the Russian version of "The Internationale".


title: The Internationale

text: "The Internationale" was translated to Bengali by Hemanga Biswas and Mohit Banerji. It was subsequently adopted by West Bengal's Left Front.


title: The Internationale

text: In addition to the Mandarin version, "The Internationale" also has Cantonese and Taiwanese Hokkien versions, occasionally used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The word "Internationale" is not translated in either version. Uyghur version, Tibetan version and Mongolian version is also translated for the use of ethnic minorities of China.


title: The Internationale

text: There were three Filipino versions of the song. The first was composed by Juan Feleo of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 under the title "Pandaigdigang Awit ng Manggagawa" (The International Worker's Anthem) which was translated from the English version. The second version was a retranslation of the first two stanzas on the basis of the French original by the Communist Party of the Philippines. The third version, which introduced the third stanza, was derived from both Chinese and French versions and translated by Jose Maria Sison, the CPP's founding chairman.


title: The Internationale

text: The original French text has six stanzas. The best-known and still widespread German-language adaptation was created by Emil Luckhardt (1880-1914) in 1910. His version is merely based on the original French text and is limited to a translation of the first two stanzas and the last stanza of the French song that is somewhat weakened and romanticised in its radicalism.


title: The Internationale

text: Apart from Luckhardt's version, there are at least seven other lesser-known German text variants - each relating to specific historical situations or ideologically divergent socialist, communist and anarchist alignments. In addition to the Luckhardt version mentioned above, there is a version penned by Franz Diederich (1908) and by Sigmar Mehring. In 1919 a version was written by Erich Mühsam and in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War another one for the German Thälmann Brigade (cf. also International Brigades) by Erich Weinert.


title: The Internationale

text: The Internationale is used in both Koreas, though it is more commonly used in the North. The DPRK uses "The Internationale" in propaganda and music, Party Congresses, and even sports events. In the South, the Internationale has been used by labour unions and protestors but remains less celebrated. As the northern lyrics are often considered too archaic and Communistic by southerners, there are 2 presently used versions of the Korean Internationale – the traditional lyrics, and the newer lyrics. While the northern lyrics borrow heavily from the Russian Internationale, the southern lyrics are completely original. In addition, the Southern refrain is longer and does not repeat.


title: The Internationale

text: For the first time, Abolqasem Lahouti, an Iranian poet and songwriter, translated and standardized this hymn into Persian. It was used as the official anthem of the short lived Persian Socialist Soviet Republic and one of the main anthems of the communist Tudeh Party of Iran .


title: The Internationale

text: Originally translated to Iberian Portuguese by Neno Vasco in 1909 from the French version, a very similar version in Brazilian Portuguese was wildly disseminated during the general strike of 1917 by anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists. The main difference between the two versions is that in the third verse the Brazilian version goes "Lords, bosses, supreme chiefs" ("Senhores, Patrões, chefs supremos") while the European version is "Messiah, God, supreme chiefs" ("Messias, Deus, chefes supremos)."


title: The Internationale

text: "The Internationale" was first translated into Vietnamese by the founder of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the first President of modern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, under the pseudonym "Nguyễn Ái Quốc". But the current lyrics in Vietnamese were translated by the 1st and 2nd General Secretaries of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Trần Phú and Lê Hồng Phong. It was subsequently adopted by the Communist Party of Vietnam.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the largest city in the state that is not a county seat (the city of Clearwater is the seat of Pinellas County). Along with Clearwater, these cities are part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-largest in Florida with a population of around 2.8 million. St. Petersburg is on the Pinellas peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and is connected to mainland Florida to the north.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Locals often refer to the city as St. Pete. Neighboring St. Pete Beach formally shortened its name in 1994 after a vote by its residents. St. Petersburg is governed by a mayor and city council.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: With an average of 361 days of sunshine annually, and a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive days of sunshine (768 days between 1967 and 1969), it is nicknamed "The Sunshine City." Located on the Gulf of Mexico, the average water temperature is typically around . Due to its good weather, the city has long been a popular retirement destination, although in recent years the population has moved in a much more youthful direction.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Pánfilo de Narváez expedition landed on the shores of Boca Ciega Bay at the Jungle Prada Site on April 14, 1528. It was the first inland exploration of North America. Of 300 men on the expedition only four survived. One of the survivors of the expedition, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, wrote the first book describing the peoples, wildlife, flora and fauna of inland North America in his "Relacion", published in Spain in 1542.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city was co-founded by John C. Williams, formerly of Detroit, who purchased the land in 1875, and by Peter Demens, who was instrumental in bringing the terminus of the Orange Belt Railway there in 1888. St. Petersburg was incorporated as a town on February 29, 1892, when it had a population of 300 people.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Local lore claims John C. Williams and Peter Demens flipped a coin to see who would have the honor of naming the city. When Demens won the coin toss the city was named after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where Peter Demens had spent half of his youth, while John C. Williams named the first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit (a hotel built by Demens). The Detroit Hotel still exists downtown on Central Ave, but has been turned into a condominium.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The oldest operating hotels are the Pier Hotel (formally Hotel Cordova), built in 1921, and The Exchange Hotel (formalley The Heritage Hotel), built in 1926.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The first major newspaper to debut in Tampa Bay was the St. Petersburg Times which established in 1884. Philadelphia publisher F. A. Davis turned on St. Petersburg's first electrical service in 1897. The city's first major industry was born in 1899 when Henry W. Hibbs (1862–1942), a native of Newport, North Carolina, established his wholesale fish business at the end of the railroad pier, which extended out to the shipping channel. Within a year, Hibbs Fish Company was shipping more than of fish each day.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg was incorporated as a city in June 1903. With this transition, the development of the downtown waterfront had dredging of a deeper shipping channel from 1906 to 1908 which opened St. Petersburg to larger shipping. Further dredging improved the port facilities through the 1910s. By then the city's population had quadrupled to a population of 4,127 citizens. F. A. Davis was instrumental to bringing the first trolley service in 1904.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In 1914, Al Lang invited the St. Louis Browns to move their spring training into the city, then worked tirelessly to make Grapefruit League training in and around St. Petersburg the destination for baseball teams and their fans by the 1920s. Lang eventually became mayor and ambassador for the city, and helped its permanent population grow tenfold in just a decade.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg's first library opened on December 1, 1915 which still operates to this day as the Mirror Lake Library.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In 1914 an airplane service across Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa and back was initiated, generally considered the first scheduled commercial airline flight. The flight took former mayor Abe Pheil to Tampa. The company name was the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, and the pilot was Tony Jannus flying a Benoist XIV flying boat. The Tony Jannus Award is presented annually for outstanding achievement in the airline industry.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city and its tourism industry burgeoned in the 1920s, with up to a quarter million visitors annually coming from Canada, the North and the Midwest by automobile, yacht, and railroad. The city was the principal Gulf Coast destination for long distance trains of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's "Southland" (from Chicago and Cincinnati) and "Gulf Coast Limited" (from New York, succeeded by the "West Coast Champion"), and Seaboard Air Line Railroad trains such as the "Southern States Special" (from New York, succeeded by the "Silver Meteor"). Travel time from across the bay was cut due to the Gandy Bridge's opening in 1924, allowing direct access to Tampa and the rest of central Florida.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city took on a Mediterranean flair, with Old Spanish Trail style architecture promoted by Snell Isle founder Perry Snell, whose new country club island homes adopted many elements of Moorish design. Those same elements were echoed in the city's new Vinoy, Jungle Country Club, Don Cesar and other fine hotels, as well as in Snell's new skyscraper office building downtown. The 1926 opening of the Million Dollar Pier marked the peak of the boom, adding an attraction that brought both tourists and townspeople together to enjoy fishing, amusements, trolley access and even a local radio station.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The St. Petersburg flag was created in 1927 and was designed by Mayor C.J. Maurer along with a committee of other public officials. It featured an array of colors symbolic of St. Pete's culture including the sunshine, water and land. The idea came after officials called for a new logo which later became the design for the flag. The pelican featured in the center became a symbol for the "Feed the Pelican Fund" which has supported the birds during the winter months.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Tourism declined by the late 1920s and early 1930s due to the Great Depression. The city recovered later in the 1930s with the help of the Public Works Administration, including a $10 million investment plan in 1939 which helped build the St. Petersburg City Hall. The second World War brought renewed growth, as the city's Bayboro Harbor became a training base for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Air Force chose the city as their technical service training station. The hotels filled for the first time in years, as up to 100,000 troops came to St. Petersburg. After the war, many of those troops who were stationed in St. Petersburg returned as residents or tourists.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In the 1950s, St. Petersburg experienced another population boom, with the return of retiree resettlement to the city. In 1954 the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge opened its first span to link St. Petersburg with Manatee County, connecting the next year to U.S. Route 19 in the city. With a large influx of car traffic, it was decided to remove the city's streetcar lines.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The development of major transportation continued into the 1960s with the completion of the Howard Frankland Bridge in 1960, creating another connection between St. Petersburg and Tampa. St. Petersburg also received its first stadium named the Bayfront Center which hosted the first professional hockey league in Tampa Bay. A new municipal marina and the Museum of Fine Arts were also built downtown. St. Petersburg is home to one of the world's largest reclaimed water systems that was built in the 1970s which flows 37 million gallons of water per day to provide for customers located throughout the city.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: From May to August 1968, 211 of the city's sanitation workers struck for higher wages. The strike began approximately one month after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee while supporting that city's sanitation workers strike.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In 1984, a full-scale flying replica of the Benoist XIV flying boat was constructed by Florida Aviation Historical Society for the 70th anniversary of the flight. This aircraft is now on loan to the St. Petersburg Museum of History in St. Petersburg, Florida.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Development of the first Major League Baseball team to be located in the Tampa Bay area began in St. Petersburg throughout the 1970s. The city tried to encourage numerous teams through the United States to make St. Petersburg their new home. Designs for a ballpark were first presented in 1983 and construction for a permanent dome stadium began in 1986. The stadium opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, renamed the Thunderdome in 1993. After many attempts to attract tenants to the new stadium, Major League Baseball gave St. Petersburg a franchise in 1995. In 1996, the dome was renamed a third time to Tropicana Field after naming rights were established with Tropicana Dole Beverages. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays was then established in 1998 after the stadium's renovation and the new team played their first game on March 31, 1998, giving the Tampa Bay area their first professional baseball team.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city population continued to multiply during the 20th century, booming through the 1970s as a popular retirement destination for Americans from midwestern cities, reaching 238,647 in the 1980 census. Serious urban problems and destruction of historic structures stymied growth in the subsequent decade and a half, but renewed interest in urban living by family aged residents and the expansion of the downtown university and related services has renewed its growth.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land, and of it (55.13%) is water. St. Petersburg is bordered by Tampa Bay's three sections, Old, Middle and Lower Tampa Bay.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Downtown St. Petersburg is the Central Business District, containing high rises for office use. The "Tampa Bay Times" newspaper is headquartered in the downtown area. The Poynter Institute, which owns the paper, is located on 3rd Street South.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Mahaffey Theater complex, the Morean Arts Center, dozens of other art galleries, Haslam's Bookstore, The Coliseum, Palladium Theatre, and Jannus Live are among the galleries and cultural venues featured downtown. Several prominent museums are located in the perimeter. Many of them have received notable accolades, including the Chihuly Collection presented by the Morean Arts Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Salvador Dalí Museum, the now-closed Florida International Museum, the St. Petersburg Museum of History, Florida Holocaust Museum, and the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art. The city hosts many outdoor festivals throughout the year.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg's downtown has been rated among the best in the South. The area's beaches are a drive from downtown.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Jutting a half mile into the bay was the St. Petersburg Pier, a major tourist attraction that offered various activities. "The Lens" design which was chosen by the International Design Competition Jury and accepted by City Council later had its contract terminated by a citywide election during the summer of 2013. Following this, the "Pier Park" was chosen out of the 16 new design teams that submitted work in late 2014 and in 2015 the Pier Park was set for construction in early 2017. The new Pier District opened on July 6, 2020, and contains green space, the Marketplace, playground, splash pad, and several public art installations, including Janet Echelman's aerial net sculpture, "Bending Art".


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Downtown also contains the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and a downtown branch of St. Petersburg College. The downtown perimeter includes several parks, most of which are waterfront or lakefront. Straub Park is nearly a half mile long, boasts a waterfront location, and is home of the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts. Because of the number of parks in the downtown area, The Trust for Public Land ranks St. Petersburg 1st in Florida and 15th out of 100 of the largest cities in the U.S. The Vinoy Park Hotel has a bayfront location, a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, and an AAA Four-Diamond rating. It fronts Vinoy Park, which holds music festivals, including the Warped Tour. Nearby is the historic Tramor Cafeteria building, now part of the "Tampa Bay Times". The city is connected via the Looper Trolley.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Most of the dining and nightlife can be found downtown on or near Central Avenue or Beach Drive along the waterfront. Venues include Jannus Live and the State Theatre. The active nightlife scene is credited to recent demographic and regulatory changes. In 2010, the city council voted to extend bar hours until 3 A.M., identical to cross-bay "rival" Tampa.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, is located in the western part of downtown. Until 2008, the team played its spring training games at nearby Progress Energy Park. This setup was unique, making St. Petersburg the first city that played host to its baseball team during spring training as well as the regular season since the 1919 Philadelphia Athletics. At the end of 2007, there was a debate over a new stadium to be built on the downtown waterfront at the current Progress Energy Park site. Tropicana Field would be demolished and replaced with prime residential and retail space. Completion of the stadium was planned for 2012; however, the proposal has been tabled indefinitely while a community-based organization investigates all alternatives for new stadium construction.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg has the third-largest dedicated public waterfront park system in North America, with a waterfront park system that stretches and is used year-round for public events, festivals and other activities. In the early 20th century, citizens and city leaders engaged in a long and boisterous debate over the future of the young city's waterfront space, with one side advocating for commercial, port and industrial development and the other side advocating for a long-term commitment to parks and public access to the waterfront. The public access and park contingent won the debate when, on Christmas Eve 1909, the city announced the acquisition of the waterfront land that is encompassed by the waterfront park system.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city is also becoming one of the largest destinations in Florida for kiteboarding with locations such as Fort De Soto Park, Pass-a-Grille, and Ten-Cent.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club was established in 1924 and gained attention as the "World's Largest Shuffleboard Club" with 110 courts and over 5,000 members in the 1950s and 1960s.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Northshore Aquatic Complex is a public pool and small water park located downtown on the St. Petersburg waterfront. Northshore contains a 50 meter pool with diving board, 25 meter training pool with zero depth entry, a play pool, and is home to both Saint Petersburg Aquatics swim club and Saint Petersburg Masters swim club.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is home to more than 100 neighborhoods, with most of the historic districts located near the bay. On the central Eastern edge of the city is Downtown St. Petersburg, which includes the city's residential and commercial skyscrapers, art galleries, museums, and parks.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The downtown area is home to the central business district and to many start-up companies, corporate branches, banks, law firms, and restaurants. Apart from downtown's business and cultural offerings, the area also includes a branch of St. Petersburg College and the campus of the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. The downtown district is home to two professional sports teams, the Tampa Bay Rays, which play in the western part of downtown at Tropicana Field, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, which play along the downtown waterfront at Al Lang Stadium.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: North of downtown lie the Historic Old Northeast and Snell Isle, which both have Mediterranean style historic and waterfront homes, parks, and recreational areas. Old Northeast is home to a shopping district, city landmarks, beaches, and small shops as well as small residential high rises. Snell Isle was founded by C. Perry Snell who bought up the land to develop upscale properties in the 1900s, and helped create some of St. Petersburg's resorts such as the Vinoy Park Hotel and the St. Petersburg Woman's Club, both of which are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The far north consists of the Gateway area which overlaps part of Pinellas Park, home to major employers such as Home Shopping Network and currently the site of much construction of residential and business buildings and of new toll roads.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The central portion of St. Petersburg includes the Grand Central District and Historic Kenwood. The Grand Central District houses the city's cafes, art galleries, restaurants, and bars all owing to the Craftsman style architecture. Historic Kenwood is filled with art studios and galleries similarly to the Grand Central District.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: South of downtown is Historic Roser Park, which houses historic Mediterranean and Eclectic style housing, parks, and museums. The neighborhood is divided by Booker Creek which flows into Bayboro Harbor.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In far western St. Petersburg, north of the separate city of South Pasadena, Florida, is the neighborhood of Pasadena, which includes the intersection of State Road 693 (Pasadena Avenue) and County Road 150 (Central Avenue).


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa") with some characteristics of a tropical monsoon climate (Am), with a defined rainy season from June through September. Many portions of St. Petersburg, especially along the bay and in south St. Petersburg, have tropical microclimates due to the maritime influence of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay. As a result, tropical flora like coconut palms and royal palms can be found throughout the city, and the city is home to the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum, a park which houses over 500 palms and cycads, including a pair of large Jamaican Tall coconut palms which predate the freeze of 1989. St. Petersburg, like the rest of the Tampa Bay area, is occasionally affected by tropical storms and hurricanes. However, the last time a hurricane directly struck the city was in 1946.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: According to the 2010 census, the city contained 244,769 people, making St. Petersburg the largest city in Pinellas County, and 129,401 households. The population density was .


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The racial makeup of St. Petersburg was 168,036 (68.7%) White, 58,577 (23.9%) African American, 7,779 (3.2%) Asian (0.8% Vietnamese, 0.5% Filipino, 0.5% Indian, 0.3% Chinese, 0.1% Korean, 0.1% Japanese, and 1.0% Other Asian), 723 (0.3%) Native American, 135 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 3,474 (1.4%) from other races, and 6,045 (2.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race numbered 16,214 (6.6%), with 5,272 (2.2%) Puerto Rican, 2,855 (1.2%) Mexican, 2,835 (1.2%) Cuban, and other Hispanic or Latino people making up 5,252 (2.1%) of the population.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: With the city having 129,401 households, 108,815 (84.1%) were occupied while 20,586 (15.9%) were not occupied. With 108,815 of the population in households, 3,888 (1.6%) lived in non-institutionalized group-quarters and 2,719 (1.1%) were institutionalized. There were 108,815 households, out of which 23,304 (21.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 37,847 (34.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 16,425 (15.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 4,849 (4.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 9,453 (3.9%) unmarried partnerships. 39,397 households (36.2%) were made up of individuals, and 28,267 (26.0%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19. Out of 108,815 occupied households, families made up 59,121 (54.3%) while non-families made up 49,694 (45.7%); the average family size was 2.88. The median age of the city was 41.6 years.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: As of 2000, 23.85% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.295% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no adult living partner present, and 43.8% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.865.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In 2000, the city's population was spread out, with 21.5% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.24 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: As of 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $34,597, and the median income for a family was $43,198. Males had a median income of $30,794 versus $27,860 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,107. About 9.2% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.1% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over. In 2010, 17.8% of the population was under the poverty line, including 32.2% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: As of 2000, those who spoke only English at home accounted were 88.53% of residents, Spanish was spoken by 4.43%, German by 0.78%, French by 0.72% of speakers, Vietnamese by 0.67%, Serbo-Croatian by 0.52%, and Laotian by 0.51% of the population.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: It is the 58th ranking city in the United States when it comes to violent crime. St. Petersburg ranks in the bottom tenth for safety among cities in Florida. Evidence of the social unrest and the schism within the city, particularly between South St. Petersburg and the rest of the city came with the St. Petersburg, Florida riots of 1996. Police Officer David Crawford was murdered in February 2011 by then-teenager Nicholas Lindsey.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: 35.9 percent of St. Petersburg residents consider themselves religious. Catholics make up the largest group at 14 percent followed by Methodists and Baptists, each of which compose of about four percent of the religious community.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Diocese of St. Petersburg governs 74 Catholic parishes as well as 46 schools and 480,000 Catholics in the Tampa Bay area. Bishop Gregory Parkes currently leads the Diocese of St. Petersburg which covers five counties in the state of Florida.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Much economic activity is concentrated in the Gateway area, which overlaps St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park. The median household income is $55,134. Health care, retail and professional services are the largest industries. The most common positions in St. Petersburg are Office and Administrative Support, Sales, and Management.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: According to the City of St. Petersburg, Florida's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the largest private-sector (non-government, non-school) employers in the city are (with trends since 2010):


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Commercial Revitalization Program of 2020 provided grants to commercial developments providing future work to the city. Grants are provided to commercial buildings and developments outside of downtown and are provided as matching grants.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: One of the first of many major events of the year that takes place is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, in January. The parade hosts a Battle of the Bands, and drum line extravaganzas that have been duplicated in other cities.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In March the city hosts the annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This is located in downtown St. Petersburg and is the first round of the IndyCar Series. It usually lasts three days with practice rounds, qualifications, and two main races.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Bluesfest, hosted in the Vinoy Park, hosts multiple live blues artists, offers views of the Tampa Bay waters from the park, and provides drinks and free food.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: One of the many art festivals, called the Mainsail Art Festival, is a free entry art exhibition at the Vinoy Park, which offers art sold by local artists. It also provides live music, awards, and food courts.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The downtown triathlon event is hosted by St. Anthony's Hospital and involves a 1.5k swim through Tampa Bay, a 40k bike along the waterways, and a 10k run through the neighborhoods.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Green Thumb Festival, which originated in 1986 to promote tree beautification and planting in the city of St. Petersburg, is currently held in Walter Fuller Park.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: A major event that takes place in June is the St. Pete Pride weekend, when the LGBT community and supporters celebrate in the streets with festivals, the 27/82 concert, and an LGBT pride parade. The weekend also hosts a variety of block parties, food stands, DJ stands, art festivals, local hosted parties, and the LGBT welcoming center.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Greenhouse and USF St. Pete's College of Business host an annual event known as "St. Pete Pitch Night" in October that hosts judges and business pitches.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In November, the annual Ribfest is held at Vinoy Park. It includes family fun zones, drinking vendors, and two stages hosting many country music artists.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: SHINE St. Pete Mural Festival is an annual event hosted by the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. The event began in 2015 and since has contributed to nearly 93 murals designed by artists from across the globe. 2020 marked the first event entirely composed of Florida-based artists, more specifically from the Tampa Bay area.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: From the end of November through December are holiday events. A tree lighting ceremony starts the celebrations. The Santa Parade is followed by Snowfest with "glice" skating, toboggan slides, and Kiddyland. Kids meet Santa and ice skate in the North Straub Park. North and South Straub Park are decorated with holiday lights and decorations while the Vinoy Park is decorated with large greeting cards created by the recreational centers in St. Petersburg.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: In mid-December, the city hosts an annual NCAA football game in Tropicana Field entitled the St. Petersburg Bowl.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: On December 31, St. Petersburg has the year's last event, First Night St. Petersburg, where people celebrate the arts from venues across the city.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The American Stage in the Park hosts many different shows at the Demens Landing Park throughout the year.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg hosted the Miss Florida Pageant eleven consecutive years from 2004 to 2015, until the pageant was moved to Lakeland.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Pride month takes place annually throughout the month of June to celebrate and recognize the identities of LGBTQ+ persons. The city of St. Petersburg hosts a variety of events to celebrate Pride Month including the annual Pride Parade.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The annual Women's March in the month of January typically takes place in Williams Park where thousands of individuals gather to march for female rights and equality. The last documented Women's March in St. Pete dates back to 2018 following the resurgence of the #MeToo Movement.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Demonstrations and protests began following the murder of George Floyd to raise awareness of systematic racism and demand social justice.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city has a children's museum (Great Explorations) and a Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement was expected to open in 2017, but is yet to be opened to the public following delays in breaking ground, construction, and other complications. The St. Petersburg Museum of History has a full-size replica of the Benoist XIV seaplane and is located near the approximate spot by the St. Petersburg Pier where the first scheduled commercial flight departed. St. Petersburg is home to the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum which highlights the life of Carter G. Woodson who founded the Associated Publishers and is the author of nearly 30 books still prevalent today. Past exhibits and events featured in the museum include the Ray McLendon Exhibit, a discussion of race and politics series, and a seminar on the conviction of Michael Morgan. The city also has the Holocaust Museum, and the Salvador Dalí Museum, which houses the largest collection of Dalí's works outside of Europe, including a number of famous and large-scale paintings such as "The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus". The Chihuly Collection, located on Central Avenue, houses glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: There are various other smaller art galleries and entertainment venues, especially in the downtown area, which has seen a boom in development since the mid-1990s; these include the Mahaffey Theater complex, American Stage (an equity regional theater), The Coliseum, Palladium Theatre, the Arts Center, and the Florida Craftsmen Gallery.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: There are seven distinct art districts in St. Petersburg. The "Deuces Live District" is home to the city of St. Petersburg's African American heritage, and includes locally owned art galleries and other specialty businesses, as well as historic buildings such as the Royal Theater. The "M.L. King North District" includes restaurants and cafes.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The old St. Petersburg Pier was a popular tourist attraction which closed in May 2013, and has been replaced with a new pier that opened in late 2020. The "Bounty", a replica of that was used in the 1962 Technicolor remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty", starring Marlon Brando, was permanently docked near the pier for many years until the ship was sold to Ted Turner in 1986. The "Bounty", however, sometimes visited St. Petersburg for the winter in the following years before its sinking in 2012. In 2010, the St. Petersburg City Council voted to demolish and rebuild the pier. The new pier will be opening "in phases" in 2020. A ceremony celebrating the opening is scheduled for the 4th of July.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Moorings partnered with Sailing Florida in Winter of 2020 to begin St. Petersburg's first ever sailing charter. This event took place in response to COVID-19 which restricted travel and left many Americans with the desire to leave their homes. The seven day itinerary takes occupants roundtrip from St. Petersburg to many islands around the Florida area.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The downtown Sundial shopping complex opened in May 2014, sitting on the renovated site of a shopping and entertainment complex formerly called BayWalk that originally opened in 2000. It contains a 12-screen movie theater originally owned by Muvico and now owned by AMC Theatres, as well as many chain restaurants and retail shops, catering to a middle- and upper-class audience. The Sundial St. Pete has nightlife destinations, as does the block surrounding Jannus Live. Restaurants serving ethnic and domestic culinary specialties can be found throughout the downtown area.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Every Saturday morning from October to May, the downtown area hosts a farmers' market in the parking area of Al Lang Stadium (formerly Progress Energy Park). Local vendors sell the fruits of their labors (whether edible or decorative) alongside artists of all kinds including live music.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: West of downtown on Central Avenue is the 600 Block Arts District, which contains Bohemian art and clothing stores. The eve-N-odd gallery is located in the historic Crislip Arcade built in 1925. The refurbished shopping arcade is one of 13 original city arcades built in the city. Only three are left, and only the Crislip arcade is still being used as a place for small businesses to set up shop. Further west is the Grand Central District located within Historic Kenwood District. It is known for its artistic community, LGBT presence, and the annual St. Pete Pride parade. Haslam's Bookstore can also be found in the Grand Central District. It is the largest independent bookstore in Florida, with over 30,000 square feet. As its name implies, Old Northeast is adjacent to downtown from the northeast. It is known for its historic status and eclectic architecture.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg boasts two historic neighborhoods: Roser Park, located just south of the downtown area, and Grenada Terrace, in the Old Northeast Neighborhood. Both are known for stately architecture, and together comprise the urban core of St. Petersburg.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: A bronze statue in honor of St. Pete resident Elder Jordan stands on 22nd Street and Seventh Avenue as of October 2020. Jordan was a slave from birth up until the age of 15 when he bought his freedom and moved to St. Petersburg where he created a successful business.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: North of downtown is the Great Explorations Children's Museum, an interactive museum featuring a Children's Village with giant pretend stores, fire house and pet vet clinic, and preschool, science, music, art, and water exhibits. It is located next to Sunken Gardens.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: 4th Street as a whole, from Downtown up to Gandy Boulevard, is home to many restaurants and bars running the gamut from fast food to haute cuisine. This area is called the "Garden District", although as of 2010 this name is not widely in use.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Boyd Hill Nature Park, located on Lake Maggiore, is a preserve where one can see many of the endangered plants and rare wildlife of Tampa Bay. A bird exhibit houses bald eagles, owls, hawks, and other species.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The area's main shopping mall is Tyrone Square Mall, constructed in 1972 and is located in the northwestern part of the city.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg has been used as a filming location for films over the years, including "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), "Summer Rental" (1985), "Cocoon" (1985), "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), "Loren Cass" (2006), "Dolphin Tale" (2011), "Magic Mike" (2012), "Spring Breakers" (2013), "Dolphin Tale 2" (2014), and "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" (2016).


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Mirror Lake Library, built in 1915, is one of only two Carnegie libraries still operating in Florida.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is represented by teams in four major professional sports (soccer, football, baseball, and hockey). Two teams, the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball and Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League, play in St. Petersburg proper, while the other two teams play across the bay in Tampa. As their names suggest, all of the teams represent the entire Tampa Bay area and seek to draw fans from both sides of Tampa Bay.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Tampa-St. Petersburg area hosted the Super Bowl LV, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium on February 7, 2021.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Rays began play in 1998, finishing last in the American League's East Division in nine of the first ten seasons they played, including their last year known as the "Devil Rays": 2007. In 2008, their 11th season, they held off the Boston Red Sox and won the AL East Division Championship for the first time. In the playoffs, they again faced the Red Sox in the ALCS. They defeated Boston and won the American League Pennant. However, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2008 World Series. The Rays also made an appearance in the 2020 World Series where they faced the Los Angeles Dodgers.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: From their inception until 2008, the Rays played their regular season games at Tropicana Field and their spring training games at historic Al Lang Stadium, formerly Progress Energy Park, giving them the unique distinction of being the only team in Major League Baseball that played its spring training games in their home city in more than 70 years. Beginning in 2009, the Rays have held spring training at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, ending a 94-year streak of springtime baseball in the city. Tropicana Field, the home venue of the Rays, played host to the 1999 Final Four. Despite not having a team in the city since 2000 (with the St. Petersburg Devil Rays), St. Petersburg is home to Minor League Baseball's main headquarters.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is home to the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the inaugural race was held in April 2005. The circuit itself is made of downtown streets passing Al Lang Stadium, the marina, and a runway in Albert Whitted Airport, and streets are temporarily blocked off for the annual Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series race. The race was postponed in 2020 due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and was rescheduled as the final race of the season, rather than the first race. In 2012, the road intersecting Turn 10 was renamed Dan Wheldon Way in memory of Dan Wheldon, who won the 2005 race thanks to a move made on that turn. Wheldon was killed in an accident at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the 2011 season finale.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The Tampa Bay Rowdies of the United Soccer League began play in Tampa in 2010 and moved to Al Lang Stadium in 2011. The long-time baseball venue is named after Al Lang, a former mayor of St. Petersburg who was instrumental in bringing spring training to the city in 1914. The Rowdies initially shared Al Lang Stadium with various amateur baseball events, but eventually took over operation of the facility and has converted it into a soccer-only facility The Rowdies' ownership has expressed interest in moving up to join Major League Soccer (MLS) and a 2016 referendum gave the club permission to build a larger privately funded stadium at the site of Al Lang Stadium if the move takes place.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city of St. Petersburg has been governed under a strong mayor form of government since 1993. The Mayor of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg City Council members are elected to a four-year term, limited to two consecutive terms. Currently the mayor of St. Petersburg is Ken Welch who took office on January 6, 2022. The legislative body consists of eight City Council members representing each of their designated city districts.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is in Florida's 13th congressional district and is represented in Congress by Democrat Charlie Crist. In 2020, 49.58 percent of Pinellas County voters cast ballots for Democratic candidate and the 46th President Joe Biden.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Public primary and secondary schools in St. Petersburg are administered by Pinellas County Schools. Public high schools within the city limits include:


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The non-profit Science Center of Pinellas County educates more than 22,000 school children annually through field trip classes and offers winter, spring and summer workshops for 2,000 more.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is home to several institutions of higher education. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg is an autonomous campus in the University of South Florida system. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg serves 6,500 students. Eckerd College, founded in 1958, is a private four-year liberal arts college. St. Petersburg College is a state college in the Florida College System. Also in St. Petersburg is the Poynter Institute, a journalism institute which owns the "Tampa Bay Times" in a unique arrangement. Stetson Law School is located in Gulfport, which is adjacent to St. Petersburg between the south beaches.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Other colleges and universities in the wider Tampa Bay Area include the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa located in Tampa and Hillsborough Community College, with campuses across Hillsborough County.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg College, founded in 1927, a state college within the Florida College System. It has an average of 65,000 students spread across 11 campuses and centers in the Bay area, four of which are in St. Petersburg.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city's main daily morning newspaper is the "Tampa Bay Times" as well as its free weekly sister publication "tbt*". The free weekly alternative newspaper "Creative Loafing" is also available in the area.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Cable television service is provided by Spectrum (previously Bright House Networks) and Wide Open West (abbreviated "WOW!", previously Knology), as well as fiber optic service provider Frontier Communications (previously Verizon FiOS).


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: St. Petersburg is in the Tampa-St. Petersburg television and radio markets. WTSP channel 10 (CBS) and WTOG channel 44 (The CW) are licensed to St. Petersburg, with studios in unincorporated Pinellas County in the Gandy Boulevard area just north of the St. Petersburg limits. Spectrum Bay News 9, the local cable TV news service, is based in northeast St. Petersburg. Independent station WTTA is licensed to St. Petersburg, with studios in Tampa. Official city government programming, known as StPeteTV, can be found on Spectrum on Channel 641, WOW! Cable on Channel 15 or Frontier Channel 20 as well as online. City government programming previously aired on city-owned WSPF-CD channel 35 until 2012, when the city sold the station to private interests.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city is connected to Tampa by the east by causeways and bridges across Tampa Bay, and to Bradenton in the south by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Interstate 275), which traverses the mouth of the bay. Travel Channel named the Skyway Bridge one of the top 10 Best Bridges in the World. It is also served by Interstates 175 and 375, which branch off I-275 into the southern and northern areas of downtown respectively. The Gandy Bridge, conceived by George Gandy and opened in 1924, was the first causeway to be built across Tampa Bay, connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa cities without a circuitous trip around the bay through Oldsmar.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Nearby Tampa International Airport provides air transportation for most passengers. Smaller airlines, with destinations to smaller cities and towns, operate at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, with most tenants providing only seasonal services. Albert Whitted Airport provides general aviation services near the heart of downtown St. Petersburg.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Mass transit in St. Petersburg is provided by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA). A sightseeing trolley, called The Looper, also travels to key downtown destinations daily such as USFSP, Sundial, Vinoy Hotel, and the multiple museums around the city. Short-term bike sharing is also offered.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: CSX Transportation operates a former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad branch line which sees daily rail traffic from north Tampa though Safety Harbor, Clearwater, and Largo. As of March 2008, the portion that ran into downtown St. Petersburg and the adjacent western industrial areas was abandoned. There is a small rail yard to the northwest of downtown St. Petersburg at the new end of the rail line with several spur lines serving industries in the area.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The former Seaboard Air Line branch from the western coastal portion of the county was abandoned in the 1980s and converted to a popular recreational trail called the Pinellas Trail.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Notable former stations include the St. Petersburg ACL station, which became an Amtrak station from 1971 to 1983, St. Petersburg Seaboard Air Line Passenger Station, and the St. Petersburg Seaboard Coast Line station.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: One of the main sea transportation areas in St. Peterburg is the Port of St. Petersburg, which is located in downtown St. Petersburg. Boat marinas in downtown St. Petersburg are also available such as the Municipal Marina which located in the Southern and Central Yacht Basins, and Harborage Marina located in the Bayboro Harbor.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city of St. Petersburg's major electricity system is provided by Duke Energy, the city's major gas system is provided by TECO Energy in the industrial and commercial parts of the city, and the city's water services are provided by the city of St. Petersburg.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: The city of St. Petersburg, Florida is currently a member in the Sister Cities International group that was created in 1956.


title: St. Petersburg, Florida

text: Every year, the city of St Pete sponsors three high school students to do a summer exchange with Takamatsu, Japan.


title: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappearance theories

text: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on 8 March 2014, after departing from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Najib Razak, stated that the aircraft's flight ended somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but no further explanation had been given. Despite searches finding debris considered with strong certainty to originate from the crash, official announcements were questioned by many critics, and several theories about the disappearance were proposed. Some of these theories were described as conspiracy theories.


text: Victims' relatives questioned the veracity of the Malaysian government's statements about the demise of the aircraft, and organized a protest at the Malaysian embassy in Beijing with the goal of forcing the Malaysian government to reveal any withheld information about Flight 370's whereabouts.


text: Rob Brotherton, a lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, wrote that conspiracy theories emerge immediately after any catastrophe occurs and conclusive information about why they do so remains unavailable. Andrew Leonard wrote that conspiracy theorists were bolstered by the revelation of new satellite data two weeks after the flight disappeared that had been hidden from the public.


text: Other factors involve the lack of a distress signal from the plane. According to Barbara Demick of the "Los Angeles Times", critics of the Malaysian government's statements also found support in the Joint Agency Coordination Centre's announcement on 29 May 2014 that the plane was not in the search area authorities had been combing since April 2014.


text: Conspiracy-focused internet sites claim that the official statement that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean is "a blatant cover-up." They note that a Boeing 777 does not have the structural integrity to survive crashing into the ocean, and that it would be comparable to hitting a concrete wall at terminal velocity. If Flight 370 hit the ocean, they say, it would have been broken into tens of thousands of pieces, many of which float on water (such as the seat cushions) and would be seen washing up on regional shores or easily spotted by search teams. Those criticisms diminished after several pieces of the aircraft were positively identified in the years after its disappearance.


text: Harvard professor Cass Sunstein noted that the conflicting information initially released by the Malaysian government explains the interest in alternative theories. Sunstein, who has written on the topic, argued in an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" on 20 March 2014 that conspiracy theories in general often are born out of horrific and disastrous situations because such events make people angry, fearful and looking for a "target".


text: David Soucie, a former FAA inspector, has said that the theories that have been put forth in this matter are important when there is a lack of knowledge, as the theories and notions help us to consider various possibilities. On 26 March 2014, he stated on CNN: In an accident investigation, it's a critical part to come up with theories. Especially right now when we don't have anything. We don't have anything tangible. We don't have something to say, hey, yes—because we don't know where that airplane is and we need to find out why. If you take one theory, the airplane would be where we're looking at right now. If you take another theory, where there was nefarious intent, they're trying to avoid radars, the airplane could be somewhere else. If you say it was—whatever it is, you've got to use these theories, weigh them against the facts so you know which one to go to.


text: Tim Black, deputy editor of "Spiked", wrote:  "...it's in this darkness, this near absence of knowledge [about MH370], that speculation has flourished," and an editorial in the "Chicago Sun-Times", not only stated that "conspiracy theories fill a vacuum when facts are scarce," but also urged governments to search for the plane to debunk these theories and give victims' family members peace of mind.


text: The common hypothesis, cited also here, that MH370 avoided Indonesian radar is based only on a statement that the plane was not observed by Indonesia.


text: The possibility of a simple hijacking has been brought up by various news outlets, including ABC News and the "Los Angeles Times". Speculation has mounted about the possibility that hijackers took the plane to a remote island, although no group has claimed responsibility; unofficial researchers have identified more than 600 possible runways at which the plane was capable of landing. No confirmation has been received from Malaysian officials. The credibility of several hijacking theories have become further marginalized following the discovery of the first definitive fragments of MH370 wreckage in July 2015.


text: French air traffic specialists Jean-Marc Garot, Michel Delarche and Jean-Luc Marchand launched a website with their hypothesis concerning a possible hijacking, with a subsequent location of the aircraft (following an emergency ditching due to fuel exhaustion) estimated at around , in the Indian Ocean near Christmas Island. However, the final report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), released in 2017, examined the possibility of controlled glide/ditching and found it very unlikely. Also, their hypothesis concerning a location of the crashed plane different from the searched locations is not the only one that exists.


text: Shortly after the aircraft disappeared, it was claimed that it may have been an act of terrorism, possibly a jihadist attack.


text: Between 9 and 14 March 2014, media mogul Rupert Murdoch tweeted that Flight 370's disappearance "confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China ." He later suggested the flight might have been hidden in northern Pakistan, "like Bin Laden". These remarks have not been confirmed, and were characterized as conspiracy theories by Shiv Malik in "The Guardian". The following month, the Russian newspaper "Moskovskij Komsomolets" endorsed a similar theory, claiming that "unknown terrorists" had hijacked the plane, flown it to Afghanistan, and then held the crew and passengers hostage.


text: A story circulated on Reddit that MH370 had sufficient fuel to be hijacked to North Korea as was done in 1969 with a Korean Air Lines YS-11.


text: A variety of social media posts and email chain letters claim that a patent (#8671381) was approved days after the disappearance of the MH370, and the right to the patent was split five ways—20% to Freescale Semiconductor and 20% each to four employees, all of whom were passengers on the plane. The patent deals with fabrication of integrated circuits on a semiconductor wafer. The urban myth website snopes.com suggests that there is no evidence that the four inventors listed on the patent application were on the aircraft passenger list, nor that they were entitled to a 20% share of the patent, and it says it is unlikely that their share would revert to Freescale on their death as presented in the email.


text: Conspiracy theorists have suggested that MH370 was either captured by the United States and then flown to the United States' military base on the atoll of Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory or that the plane landed at the base directly after being instructed to travel there. The latter theory was raised at a White House daily briefing on 18 March, whereupon press secretary Jay Carney responded, "I'll rule that one out." Underpinning the Diego Garcia theory were several elements, one of which was the co-pilot's mobile phone contact and the plane's westward turn, both of which were consistent with a flight path toward the island.


text: In that vein, it was reported by the "Daily Mirror", without giving a concrete source, that the captain had trained in landing on an Indian Ocean island with a short runway, using a flight simulator in his home computer. Several mass media sources reported that the captain had trained using his aviasimulator to land on five runways—each at least long—in the Indian Ocean region, namely Diego Garcia and Male International Airport (MLE) and other airstrips in India and Sri Lanka.


text: These allegations were disputed by the FBI, which reported that after analyzing the impounded flight simulator, it had found "nothing suspicious whatsoever" and said that the "Mirror"s reports about the simulator's contents were "unsubstantiated and unsourced". Giving a new twist to the MH370 missing story, a former French airline boss has claimed that the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down by the U.S. military near their base on Diego Garcia.


text: In an article published on 18 March 2014, journalists Farah Ahmed and Ahmed Naif of the Maldivian newspaper "Haveeru" wrote: "...several residents of Kuda Huvadhoo told "Haveeru" on Tuesday that they saw a 'low flying jumbo jet' at around 06:15 on March 8. They said that it was a white aircraft, with red stripes across it—which is what the Malaysia Airlines flights typically look like. Eyewitnesses from the Kuda Huvadhoo concurred that the jet was traveling North to South-East, towards the Southern tip of the Maldives—Addu. They also noted the incredibly loud noise that the flight made when it flew over the island. 'I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly.' said an eyewitness. 'It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too.' Mohamed Zaheem, the Island Councilor of Kuda Huvadhoo, said that the residents of the island had spoken about the incident."


text: The discovery in late July 2015 of debris from a Boeing 777, on a beach on Réunion island, east of Madagascar, suspected (and later confirmed) to be from MH370, quickly led to renewed Internet speculation that the plane had been shot down near Diego Garcia, which is away from Réunion, out of fears of a terrorist attack. However, oceanographers such as Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi from the University of Western Australia said that "the arrival of MH370 debris in Réunion would conform to the expected path of ocean currents from the point in its flight path where it was believed to have crashed". Many people, including some of those who believed the plane had landed safely on Diego Garcia (or elsewhere), quickly dismissed the debris as a fake.


text: Some had speculated that the passengers were still alive but could not answer their cellphones—sometimes known as the "phantom cellphone theory". This was based on early reports that family members of Flight 370 passengers heard ringing (as opposed to a busy/off signal) while calling the passengers' phones, though this was after the disappearance. However, this was later challenged by Jeff Kagan, a wireless analyst, who in an email to NBC News explained that the network may still produce "ringbacks" as it searches for a connection, even if the cellphone has been destroyed.


text: The cockpit had the mandated anti-hijacker fortified doors that could prevent locked-out crew or passengers from interfering with a suicide or hijacking into the Southern Ocean. This can be compared to SilkAir Flight 185 (a posited pilot suicide incident in 1997), EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999), LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 (2013), as well as the later Germanwings Flight 9525 (2015). On 17 February 2014, less than three weeks before Flight 370 disappeared, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 had been hijacked when the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cabin and diverted the aircraft to seek asylum in Switzerland.


text: Shortly after Flight 370's disappearance, media reports revealed that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's wife and three children moved out of his house the day before the disappearance; and a friend claimed that Captain Shah was seeing another woman and Shah's relationship with her was also in trouble. Claims of domestic problems have been denied by Shah's family. A fellow pilot and long-time associate of Shah stated the Captain was "terribly upset" that his marriage was falling apart. Police were also investigating reports that Shah received a two-minute phone call prior to the flight's departure from an unidentified woman using a mobile phone number obtained with a false identity. Furthermore, Captain Shah was also a supporter of Malaysian opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced to jail on 7 March after an earlier acquittal on sodomy charges was overturned in a move viewed as politically motivated.


text: Investigators noted strange behaviour by Shah from conducting 170 interviews—namely, that the Captain had made no social or professional plans for after 8 March, when Flight 370 disappeared. However, according to the French journalist Florence de Changy who wrote a book about the flight, dismissing "100 per cent of the official narrative", Shah made an appointment with his dentist to get back his tooth crown when the dentist phoned him a few days before 8 March. News reports about the Captain's lack of social plans and flight simulator exercises cite results of the police enquiry into the pilots, which have been shared with some of the investigation team but have not been released publicly. However, news reports on 23 July 2014 stated that the police considered the possible culpability of all those onboard the plane, and identified the captain as the prime suspect—if it is proven human intervention was involved. The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation reconstructed the deleted data from Captain Shah's home flight simulator; a Malaysian government spokesman indicated that "nothing sinister" had been found on it. However, "The Sunday Times" later reported that among deleted flight paths performed on the flight simulator, investigators found a flight path into the Southern Ocean where a simulated landing was made on an island with a small runway.


text: In 2016, a leaked American document stated that a route on the pilot's home flight simulator closely matching the projected flight over the Indian Ocean was found during the FBI analysis of the hard drive of the computer used for the flight simulator. This was later confirmed by the ATSB, although it stressed that this did not prove the pilot's involvement, and by the Malaysian government.


text: A book, "Goodnight Malaysian 370", was published in August 2014 by New Zealanders Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson; the authors blamed a deliberate act of the pilot for the aircraft's disappearance, but admitted they were not able to "provide any conclusive evidence to support his theory" nor any motive. Ewan Wilson had previously dismissed the fire emergency theory as unlikely. New Zealand aviation expert Peter Clark stated that to take over the aircraft took "immense knowledge" and that even the co-pilot would not have been sufficiently skilled to disable the communications system and reprogramme a seven-hour flight off-course. However, Clark admitted the theory would be difficult to prove even if the data recorders were found, because the voice recorders would likely have been overwritten; and because, if the pilot was in control of the aircraft, then instrument data would report no anomalies. Shah's family vehemently denied the possibility of pilot suicide.


text: Former British Airways senior Boeing 777 pilot Simon Hardy told BBC News that the plane's route was "probably very accurate flying rather than just a coincidence", and noted that the aircraft's turn toward the north-west over the Malacca Strait allowed a clear view of the captain's home island of Penang:


text: In May 2018, Simon Hardy also claimed on "60 Minutes Australia" that the captain used the flight as a murder-suicide and had deliberately flown the plane over his hometown of Penang before turning right and ditching the plane over the Indian Ocean. He said they found these results by reconstructing the captain's flight plan from the military radar and that the captain had avoided detection of the plane by military radar by flying along the border of Malaysia and Thailand, crossing in and out of each country's airspaces.


text: A number of theories suggest that the disappearance may have been the result of a fire in the cockpit, cargo compartment, landing gear, or another part of the plane.


text: In an earlier incident involving a Boeing 777, on 29 July 2011, EgyptAir Flight 667 suffered an intense oxygen-fed cockpit fire while still on the ground which destroyed the flight controls, the instruments and burnt a hole through the hull of the aircraft. Despite the arrival of firefighters within three minutes, the fire took 90 minutes to extinguish. Malaysia Air's maintenance records for the 777 aircraft are required to include information on whether the FAA-mandated fix to the wiring near the co-pilot's oxygen hose and replacement of the oxygen hose with one with no metallic components was performed.


text: Another suggestion is that the pilots had turned back and were attempting an emergency landing at the nearest suitable airport in Northern Malaysia, perhaps Penang International Airport or Langkawi International Airport (Langkawi Island), a airstrip with an approach over water with no obstacles. The emergency may have been due to an incident similar to the 11 July 1991 accident involving a Douglas DC-8, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, where a tire caught fire on takeoff, and the later spreading of the fire led to the destruction of the aircraft with the loss of 261 lives. In another accident, involving a fire on a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on 2 September 1998, Swissair Flight 111 from New York to Geneva developed a cockpit fire in the electrical wiring that spread rapidly, leading to a loss of flight instruments and control. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 229 lives, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, southwest of Halifax International Airport, Nova Scotia, where the plane was attempting an emergency landing. In the Swissair case, the transponders and communications systems failed due to fire and heat damage in the avionics circuit breaker panel.


text: American political commentator Rush Limbaugh, according to CNN, speculated that the aircraft may have been shot down. Supporters of this theory have noted that civilian aircraft have been shot down by military forces in the past, with Iran Air Flight 655 by the United States in 1988 and KAL 007 by the Soviet Union in 1983 being two frequently cited examples. On 19 March 2014, news agency reporter Scott Mayerowitz of Associated Press described "Accidental Shootdown" as one of seven "leading, plausible theories", but added that there was "no evidence that Flight 370 was brought down by a government entity". A Malaysian defense official, Ackbal bin Haji Abdul Samad, said it was "highly not possible" that his country's air force had shot down the plane. According to "The Financial Express", the Malaysian Air Force detected the plane on radar while it was in flight, but took no action because it was believed to be a "friendly" aircraft.


text: In May 2014, author Nigel Cawthorne's book "" was published. Cawthorne alleged that after the jet was shot down during a U.S.-Thai Joint Strike Fighter jet training exercise, searchers intentionally were sent astray as part of a sophisticated cover-up. The book received considerable criticism, especially from "The Australian" where it was characterised thus: "Cawthorne undoes everybody's good work by retrieving every obsolete and discredited non-fact from the trash, slapping the whole lot between covers." Relatives of those aboard Flight 370 criticised the book as "premature and insensitive".


text: In a CNN interview on 24 April 2014, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, stated only that the radar "tracked an aircraft which did a turn back, but they were not exactly sure whether it was MH370. What they were sure of was that the aircraft was not deemed to be hostile."


text: On 22 December 2014 the former head of Proteus Airlines, Marc Dugain, claimed that the plane may have been shot down by U.S. military personnel out of fear of an attack similar to the September 11 attacks on their Navy Base in Diego Garcia. The claims were described by the source article as "wild".


text: The hypothesis that a cyberattack may have been carried out on Flight 370 has been raised, primarily based on statements made by Sally Leivesley, a former scientific advisor to the UK government. Whether existing security on commercial flights is sufficient to prevent such an attack is also a matter of debate, although Boeing has dismissed the possibility. A spokeswoman for the company, Gayla Keller, said that they were "confident in the robust protection of all flight critical systems and inability for a hacker to gain access by either external or internal means on the 777 and all Boeing airplanes."


text: While supporters of this theory have cited Hugo Teso's app which hacked into pilot-training software, which Teso presented at a conference in April 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration and other major governmental bodies dismissed the significance of the app. They stated that the software on an actual plane would be different from the software on which Teso had tested his app.


text: Texas A&M University mathematics professor Goong Chen has argued that the plane may have entered the sea vertically; any other angle of entry would have splintered the airplane to many pieces, which would have necessarily been found already.


text: On 17 July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine. Because it, like Flight 370, was also a Boeing 777, some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the plane that crashed in Ukraine was actually Flight 370. This is based in part on photographs of the crash scene, which conspiracy theorists claim show that the plane that crashed in Ukraine had structural differences from MH370. Experts have dismissed this theory and argued that it is merely coincidental that both planes involved belonged to the same airline.


text: When Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed on 28 December 2014, various similarities with MH370 were noted, including that both airlines were Malaysian-owned, and that both planes lost contact with air traffic control. There was also a reported conspiracy theory involving an alleged prediction on 15 December 2014 on Chinese news sites cite the user's name as "老百姓有自己的乐", which can be translated as 'the common people have their own pleasures'. The Chinese term "楼主" could be hyper-literally read as "master of a building", but this would be non-idiomatic, and in the context of Internet forums it invariably refers to the opener of a forum thread, referred to in English Internet slang as the "original poster" or OP. The user's post warned Chinese people to stay away from AirAsia as it would be attacked, as MH370 and MH17 allegedly had been (according to the user), as part of a conspiracy by a "black hand" or "despicable international bully" to harm Malaysian-owned airlines. Other online posters suggested that the user was either a Chinese intelligence official or a hacker who had come across secret information.


text: The theory that MH370 may have been consumed by a black hole received considerable attention when Don Lemon asked, on CNN, whether it was "preposterous" that it could have happened. Lemon was criticised for this by former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo, who, while appearing on CNN, said that "...a small black hole would suck in our entire universe so we know it's not that." TheWire.com (which "wasn't satisfied" with Schiavo's answer) obtained detailed reasons why a black hole couldn't swallow a plane from Columbia University astronomy professor David J. Helfand and Peter Michelson, a professor of physics at Stanford University. It is possible that Schiavo was expressing herself humorously, and did not expect to be taken literally.


text: Another hypothesis is that a meteor might have struck the plane; however, the statistical probability for this is extremely low.


text: In March 2018, around the fourth anniversary of Flight 370's disappearance, an individual received strange voicemails and texts with coordinates of a location in Indonesia somewhat close to where Flight 370 vanished. The voicemails, in Morse code, alluded to an alien abduction. This generated significant media attention, as the man who received the texts and voicemails also claimed that someone had showed up and taken pictures of his house, although this was never conclusively verified. The calls were placed using a VOIP service and were traced to two hotels in Port Blair, though the identity of the caller remains uncertain. Investigators dismissed the phone calls as most likely being a prank or hoax.


text: On 9 March 2014, members of the Chinese news media received an open letter that claimed to be from the leader of the Chinese Martyrs Brigade, a previously unknown group. The letter claimed that the loss of Flight 370 was in retaliation for the Chinese government's response to the knife attacks at Kunming railway station on 1 March 2014 and part of the wider separatist campaign against Chinese control over Xinjiang province. The letter also listed unspecified grievances against the Malaysian government. The letter's claim was dismissed as fraudulent based on its lack of detail regarding the fate of Flight 370 and the fact that the name "Chinese Martyrs Brigade" appeared inconsistent with Uyghur separatist groups which describe themselves as "East Turkestan" and "Islamic" rather than "Chinese".


title: Count Dooku

text: Count Dooku of Serenno, also known by his Sith name Darth Tyranus, or simply as Count Dooku, is a fictional character in the "Star Wars" franchise, created by George Lucas. One of the main antagonists of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, he appears in both "" (2002) and "" (2005), played by Christopher Lee, as well as associated media, such as books, comics, video games, and television series. Actor Corey Burton has voiced Dooku in most of his animated and video game appearances, most notably "" (2003–2005), "" (2008–2014; 2020), and the miniseries "Tales of the Jedi" (2022). Lee reprised the role in the 2008 that launched "The Clone Wars" series.


title: Count Dooku

text: In the fictional "Star Wars" universe, Dooku is a prominent political figure as the Count of his home planet of Serenno, as well as a former Jedi Master, who was trained by Yoda and mentored Obi-Wan Kenobi's master Qui-Gon Jinn. After becoming disillusioned with the corruption within the Galactic Republic's Senate and losing his faith in the Jedi Order, he eventually falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Sidious' second Sith apprentice, after Darth Maul. Dooku plays a pivotal role in Sidious' rise to power, leading the Confederacy of Independent Systems, made up of numerous planetary systems seeking independence from the Republic, throughout the Clone Wars, and engineering the creation of the Republic's clone army. Although Dooku hopes this will allow him to rule the galaxy alongside Sidious, whom he secretly plots to overthrow, he is ultimately betrayed by his master, who arranges his death at the hands of his eventual replacement, Anakin Skywalker, who later falls to the dark side and becomes Darth Vader.


title: Count Dooku

text: Dooku's character and Christopher Lee's portrayal in the prequel films were met with generally positive reactions from fans and critics. Since the release of the films, Dooku has been highlighted as one of the best "Star Wars" villains, and a foil for Anakin Skywalker, whose transformation into Darth Vader is foreshadowed through Dooku's own fall to the dark side. The character has also become very popular among the "Star Wars" fanbase, gaining a cult following.


title: Count Dooku

text: Count Dooku was portrayed by Sir Christopher Lee in "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith", while Kyle Rowling served as his stunt double. Lee also voiced the character in the , but was replaced by Corey Burton in the . Burton had previously voiced Dooku in the 2003 micro-series "", and went on to voice him in most of his subsequent animated and video game appearances.


title: Count Dooku

text: Count Dooku is introduced as the main antagonist of "", as a former Jedi Master who abandoned the Jedi Order after losing faith in the Republic the Jedi served. He is also the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a confederation of planetary systems rebelling against the Galactic Republic. Dooku believes that the Republic is corrupt, and that its politicians are more interested in maintaining the bureaucracy and enriching themselves than in properly representing their people.


title: Count Dooku

text: Dooku recruits bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) to assassinate Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) on Coruscant, but the attempt on her life is foiled by her assigned Jedi Protectors. A fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) forces Fett to flee from Kamino to Geonosis, and the bounty hunter rendezvous with his benefactor. After capturing Obi-Wan on Geonosis, Dooku tells him that he is attempting to save the Republic, explaining that thousands of senators are under the influence of a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious. In an attempt to convince Obi-Wan to join him, Dooku reminds him of his late master, Qui-Gon Jinn, who was Dooku's apprentice, and claims that he also wouldn't have served the Republic had he known that a Sith was in control. Padmé and Obi-Wan's Padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) later travel to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan; but are also captured, and all three are promptly sentenced to death in the Petranaki Arena.


title: Count Dooku

text: A Jedi strike team eventually arrives on the planet to rescue the trio, and are soon joined by the Republic's new clone army, resulting in a large-scale battle between the Republic and Separatist forces. Dooku tries to flee, but Obi-Wan and Anakin follow him and engage him in a lightsaber duel. Dooku subdues Anakin with Force lightning and duels and wounds Obi-Wan with his lightsaber. When Anakin comes to Obi-Wan's defense, Dooku then duels him, culminating in him cutting off the young Padawan's arm. Dooku's former Jedi Master, Yoda (Frank Oz), then arrives and the two duel. Unable to match Yoda's prowess, Dooku distracts him by using the Force to dislodge a large pillar and send it falling toward Anakin and Obi-Wan. Whilst Yoda is distracted and saves the two injured Jedi; Dooku escapes the planet in his solar sailer. Dooku then arrives on Coruscant, bringing the Geonosian designs of the Death Star to Sidious and informs his master that their plan is working: "The war has begun."


title: Count Dooku

text: In the opening of "", set three years later, Count Dooku and Separatist commander General Grievous (Matthew Wood) have kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) — Sidious' alter ego — as part of a plan orchestrated by Palpatine to lure Anakin to the dark side of the Force. Anakin and Obi-Wan board Grievous' ship, the Invisible Hand, and confront Dooku, who knocks Obi-Wan unconscious; leaving Anakin to face the Sith Lord alone. Anakin gives in to his hatred of Dooku and uses his anger to overpower him, severing both of Dooku's hands and leaving him helpless. Palpatine then orders Anakin to execute Dooku on the spot, thus betraying Tyranus. After initial hesitation, Anakin decapitates Dooku, much to his horror of the betrayal by his master. This dark side act sets off a chain of events that leads to Anakin's eventual fall to the dark side and transformation into Darth Vader, thus succeeding Tyranus as Sidious' apprentice and accomplishing his final goal: helping eliminate the Jedi Order and form the Galactic Empire.


title: Count Dooku

text: In the 2008 CGI film "", Count Dooku plots to bring Jabba the Hutt into the folds of the Confederacy by enlisting Jabba's uncle Ziro the Hutt to kidnap Jabba's son Rotta. After Ziro's agents deliver the Huttlet to the planet Teth, Dooku contacts Ziro again to arrange for his minion Asajj Ventress (voiced by Nika Futterman) to take custody of Rotta. When Jabba requests Jedi assistance to rescue his son, Dooku plans to frame the Jedi for the crime. Dooku duels Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) for the first time since their encounter in "Attack of the Clones". The duel ends in a draw, and Anakin and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) eventually foil Dooku's plan.