Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pope John Paul II was born Karol Józef Wojtyła on the 18th of May 1920, in Wadowice, Poland. Before becoming pope, he worked as a manual labourer in a limestone quarry during the Nazi occupation, studied philology at the Jagiellonian University, became a priest on the 1st of November 1946, earned a doctorate in philosophy at Rome's Angelicum, and served as Archbishop of Kraków and then as a cardinal.
Pope John Paul II was elected on the 16th of October 1978, winning on the eighth ballot of the conclave. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and, at 58 years of age, the youngest pope since Pius IX in 1846.
John Paul II is widely credited with helping to bring down Communist rule in Poland and Eastern Europe. His June 1979 visit to Poland contributed to the formation of the Solidarity movement in 1980. Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa credited him with giving Poles the courage to demand change. Mikhail Gorbachev later said that the collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II.
On the 13th of May 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman and member of the militant fascist group Grey Wolves, shot John Paul II in St. Peter's Square using a Browning 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. The Pope lost nearly three-quarters of his blood and underwent five hours of surgery. Two days after Christmas in 1983, John Paul II visited Ağca in prison and privately forgave him.
Pope John Paul II visited 129 countries during his pontificate, travelling more than 1,100,000 km. He was among the most-travelled world leaders in history. The Manila World Youth Day in 1995 drew up to four million people, which the Vatican described as the largest papal gathering ever.
Pope John Paul II was canonised on the 27th of April 2014 by Pope Francis, alongside Pope John XXIII. He had been beatified earlier by Pope Benedict XVI on the 1st of May 2011, Divine Mercy Sunday. After canonisation, some Catholics began referring to him as Pope Saint John Paul the Great, though that title is not official.