- Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the only pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the only one from the Americas, the only one from the Southern Hemisphere, and the only one born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian Pope Gregory III.
- Monroe — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Monroe, located in southwestern Snohomish County about 50 miles west of the Cascade Range, came into being when Army scouts came to the area to establish outposts and began to settle. In 1860, Henry McClurg, the first settler, claimed land where the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers met to form the Snohomish River…