What's your local history?

[Eli]

A long and illustrious history of being conquered by just about anyone you could think of:

Wikipedia says:
The past:

The beginning of the human settlement in the area of Ashdod is in the Paleolithic Age. During all three Stone Ages there was much human activity, and it is even mentioned in Ugaritic documents. At the end of the 13th century BC the Sea Peoples conquered the city and destroyed it. At the beginning of the 12th century BCE the Philistines (who are generally thought to have been one of the Sea Peoples) took over Ashdod, and during the years the city prospered and apparently became their capital

In 950 BCE it was destroyed in the conquering journey of Pharaoh Siamun; it is uncertain whether the petty king Dagantakala of the Amarna letters resided in Ashdod, but the city was rehabilitated after 815BCE. A little afterwards it was conquered by Sargon II, who destroyed the city and exiled its residents. Asdûdu led the revolt of Philistines, Judeans, Edomites, and Moabites against Assyria after expelling the king Akhimeti, whom Sargon had installed instead of his brother Azuri. Gath (Gimtu) belonged to the kingdom of Ashdod at that time.

An Assyrian general subjected Ashdod in 711 (cf. Isaiah 20:6), and the usurper, Yawani, fled. Mitinti was king in the time of Sennacherib; Akhimilki in the reign of Esarhaddon. Psammetichus of Egypt is reported to have besieged the great city Azotus for twenty-nine years (Herodotus, ii. 157); the biblical references to the remnant of Ashdod (Jeremiah 25:20; cf Zephaniah 2:4) are interpreted as an allusion to this event.

The city absorbed another blow in 605 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered it. In 539 BCE the city had been rehabilitated by the Persians, but was conquered in the wars of Alexander of Macedon, when its name was changed into Izotus.

In the Book of Nehemiah (at 4:1, 13:23, etc.), the Ashdodites seem still to represent the whole nation of the Philistines, so that 13:24, the speech of Ashdod (which the younger generation of the Jews are described as adopting), would simply be the general Philistine dialect. Winckler ("Gesch. Israels," p. 224) explains the use of that name by the fact that Ashdod was the nearest of the Philistine cities to Jerusalem; yet the simplest explanation seems to remain that Ashdod remained the leader among previously Philistine cities, even into Greek times.

The city prospered as Izotus under the Hellenist rule, until the Hasmonean Revolt. During the rebellion Judas Maccabeus arrived at its gates, but didn't conquer it. He had left it behind for his brother Jonathan, who conquered it in 147 BCE and destroyed the Temple of Dagon. According to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 13:15, volume 4), Alexander Jannæus possessed it. Pompey restored its independence in that he reconstructed its walls, though it belonged to the dominion of Herod and Salome (Antiquities... 17:18, volume 9), and Vespasian had to take it by force.

The statement of Ptolemy and Josephus that it was a maritime city, despite its standing 4 miles from the shore, is explained by the city having controlled a separate shore-edge harbour, which was called Azotus by the Sea (Antiquities... 13:15, volume 4). This place has been compared with the Asdudimmu mentioned by Sargon, but the comparison is hardly justified. To the west of the wooded height on which the city stands, traces of the ancient harbourr—now known as Minet el-Ḳal'a—can still be seen.

The importance of the city continued until the seventh century, then Ashdod-Sea was established - Azotus Paraliyus - and the importance of Ashdod faded. The Fatimids established shore fortresses in the area, and on Tel-Ashdod an Arabic village was established.

The location of the village on Via Maris resulted in an increase in its importance during the Ottoman age, when there was in the place a big village called Isdud, and in it a khan. In 1596 CE the population of Ashdod numbered 413 persons. In the beginning of the 20th century the city was known as Esdūd and was an insignificant village, its population numbering 5,000 persons, and its main industries being agriculture and trade. Ultimately the city became a municipal center for the villages around, and was renamed to Ashdod, and regained its national importance under Jewish dominion after the Balfour Declaration.

And the recent past:

Immediately before the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Egyptian forces took over Isdud, and the city became the northern-most advancement point of the Egyptian forces. Battles were conducted in the area during the war. The city was surrounded during Operation Yoav, and the Egyptian Forces, fearing encirclement, retreated on October 28th, 1948 and with them the decisive majority if not all of the city's residents. According to the historian Benny Morris, about 300 residents had flown white flags, but they were expelled to what remained of the Gaza strip almost immediately.

In 1953, a group of surveyors and designers was sent to the desolate dunes area near the estuary of Lakhish Stream in order to choose a place to build a new power station in the south of the country (eventually "Eshkol A"). Its workers dwelled in the region settlements - Rehovot and Gedera.

On May 1st, 1956 then finance minister, Levi Eshkol, in the name of the governement, gave confirmation for the establishing of Ashdod city. "Ashdod Company Ltd." was established by the end of that year, a daughter-company of City-Builders Company Ltd. - by Oved Ben-Ami and Philipp Klotznik (USA).

The first settlers arrived in November 1956, 22 families of immigrants from Morocco, and a bit later, a group of immigrants from Egypt joined them. In July 1957, a concession was granted to Ashdod Company Ltd. on an area of 40,000 dunam (40 km²), a distance of 32 km (as the crow flies) from Tel Aviv, for the purpose of establishing Ashdod city.

The building of the Eshkol A power station in Ashdod was completed in 1958 and included 3 units: 2 units of 50 MW, and one unit of 45 MW (with the ability of sea water desalination).

The first local council was appointed in October 1959. Dov Gur was appointed on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Interior as the first local council head. The Magistrate's Court in the city was inaugurated in 1963, and, in January 1965, a contract between Ashdod Company and the General Health Maintenance Organization was signed regarding establishment of a hospital with 500 beds on an area of 250 dunams (250,000 m²) -- a hospital which has never been established.

The building of the port of Ashdod began in April 1961. The port was inaugurated in November 1963, and was utilezed for the first time in November 1965 with the coming of the Swedish ship "Wiengelgad".

The explosive growth of the city began in 1991, with the massive arrival of immigrants from the Soviet Union and infrastructure development.

[Odin]

The area that is present day Fargo was an early stopping point for steamboats floating down the Red River during the 1870s and 1880s. The city of Fargo was originally named "Centralia," but was later renamed to "Fargo" in honor of Northern Pacific Railway director and Wells Fargo Express Company founder William Fargo. Fargo was founded in 1871. The area started to flourish after the arrival of the railroad and the city became known as the "Gateway to the West".

During the 1880s, Fargo became the "divorce capital" of the Midwest due to very lenient divorce laws. A major fire struck the city on June 7, 1893 when the proprietor of a grocery store accidentally started the blaze as she emptied ashes behind her store on a windy day. The fire destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. However, Fargo was quickly rebuilt with new buildings made of brick, new streets, and a water system. The North Dakota State Agricultural College was founded in 1890 as North Dakota's land-grant university, becoming first accredited by the North Central Association in 1915. In 1960, NDAC became known as North Dakota State University.

Fargo-Moorhead boomed after World War II and the city grew rapidly despite being hit by a violent tornado in 1957. The tornado destroyed a large portion of the north end of the city. The coming of the two interstates (I-29 and I-94) revolutionized travel in the region and pushed growth of Fargo to the south and west of the city limits. In 1972, the West Acres Shopping Center was constructed near the intersection of the two Interstates. This mall would become the catalyst for retail growth in the area. It would also spell the beginning of a time of decline for the downtown area of Fargo.

In recent years, Fargo has seen relatively strong growth both in population and economic activity. Several businesses now have major operations in the community including Microsoft, Alien Technology, Navteq and Pracs Institute. The city's major retail districts on the southwest side have seen rapid expansion, and so has the downtown area due, at least in part, to investments made by the city and private developers through the Rennaisance District program. City leaders would like to see an addition of five-hundred new housing units in the downtown area within the next five years. Planning agencies have also been active in promoting housing rehabilitation in older sections of the city such as the Roosevelt neighborhood to stem blight and strengthen the core of the city. Indeed, during the 1990's most inner city neighborhoods such as Hawthorne, Jefferson and Horace Mann actually lost population even as rapid growth occurred along the edges of the city in sprawling new developments. This trend, however, is not unique to the city of Fargo. Since the late 1990s, the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Statistical Area has consistently had one of the lowest unemployment rates among MSAs in the United States. This, coupled with Fargo's low crime rate and the decent supply of affordable housing in the community, has prompted Money magazine to rank the city near the top of its annual list of America's most livable cities throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Nevertheless, Fargo in the early 21st century faces some challenges. Articles published in the summer of 2006 by The Forum, have noted that the supply of affordable housing in the city is shrinking due to wages and incomes not rising as fast as housing costs in the city. Moreover, research conducted by the North Dakota State Data Center and the U.S. Census Bureau document that the area's population growth may be stalling after decades of steady growth. In fact, 2005 census estimates showed a decrease in the population of Fargo proper, albeit an increase in the metro area as a whole. To sure, however, the Census Bureau has consistently underestimated the population of the city as well as for the state as a whole. Nonetheless, Richard Rathge, the state demographer, has warned that Fargo may very well be losing its primary pool of new migrants as outlying areas of North Dakota, traditionally the geographic area upon which Fargo draws for new migrants, has been rapidly declining in population for decades. In fact, Fargo, for the last two decades, has relied upon international migration for a very large proportion of its new in-migration. Indeed, while some in Fargo speak of the area's supposed rapid population growth, the metropolitan area's overall growth has been much less than that of Sioux Falls, SD, and is on par with other regional cities such as Bismarck-Mandan, ND, St. Cloud and Rochester, MN, and Cedar Rapids, IA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo%2C_ND

[VetLegion]

The point was you writing a few lines yourselves, not quoting wikipedia extensively...

[Will9]

Yea, I only used Wiki as my source.

[Proteus_MST]

The recorded history of Essen begins with the founding of a monastery for the daughters of members of the saxonian high nobility in Essen-Werden during the 9th century (although we have archeological excavations that show that there were already german settlements and iron foundries during the first century AD [where the area was part of germania libera, the free germany which wasn´t part of the imperium romanum]).
But till the 14th vcentury, Essen was only a village which had the right to hold markets, even though Emperor Otto I held court in Essen-Steele in 938.
Essen had to wait till the 14th when it finally was granted the rights of a city and was known as the Civitatis Asnidensis (or Asthnitis in Saxonian) and had the right to bear a seal (sigillum civitatum asnidensis) and to decide in legal matters.
(with Asthnitis meaning either "area in the east" or "ash-tree area")
It was already during the 15th century that Essen became known as weapons manufacturer, producing muskets (and later rifles), but it was only in the 19th century that Essen became famous for it.
It was the time when the Krupp dynasty became really wealthy and powerful (and the ruhr valley became important due to its large resources of coal), resulting in Kruppstadt (Krupp town) at the end of the 19th/ beginning of the 20th century which was a huge area west of the inner city of Essen which was filled with nothing but hundreds of manufaturing plants and steel mills and was one of the most important suppliers of modern weapons and steel for the german Empire (and later the third reich).

(Picture shows a part of the Kruppstadt)

Probably it is also the thing which inspired Firaxis to gibing the germans the assembly plant as unique building in Civ IV warlords

Sadly this also meant that Essen became a prime target for allied bombing raids resulting in 90% of the inner city of Essen and 60% of the whole city area of Essen being destroyed at the end of WW2.

Today there are only few remains of the old Kruppstadt and most of the area is zoned as economical (some of the remains of the old Kruppstadt now have new functions, as examples, there are IKEA, the Musical theatre Colosseum and a well known disco (former Mudia Art, now Delta music park) which are located in old workshops/manufacturing plants of the former Kruppstadt).
Essen nowadays is known for some cultural buildings (for example Folkwang Museum, Grillo Theatre, Colosseum Musical Theatre, the Lichtburg [one of the oldest cinemas in germany]) and is seat of some important companies, for example (aside from Thyssen-Krupp of course) of the german branch of the Coca Cola company or Karstadt, which runs lots of large department stores throughout germany.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by VetLegion
The point was you writing a few lines yourselves, not quoting wikipedia extensively...

What´s the point? This is not Stories & Diplomacy...

[RGBVideo]

What´s the point?

Providing to the community instead of pointless unedited ripoff-spam. I think we all know how to check out your home city from wikipedia, there's no need to quote it all without cutting some bits and entering some new ones to provide a perspective which fits the interests of our international community.

[lord of the mark]

I would point out that whenever we drive down Maple Avenue in the heart of Vienna town proper (we actually live on the outskirts) and I sing "Wien, wien, nur zu allein" (Sp?) which I dont even know, but just sing to a generic waltz tune, it annoys my family greatly. Also my complaints that you cant get Cafe mit schlag (sp?) around here. Which is probably wrong, theres probably something at Starbucks thats the equivalent.

[Zoid]

[Edit] On second thought, not really relevant...

[Dis]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
IIRC, a large part of Henderson was flattened in WW II due to an explosion at an ammunition plant. This led to a reform in the construction of these plants. Henderson later became a place of manufacture for rocket fuel and the town benefitted from the earlier safety construction reforms when part of the rocket fuel plant blew up causing only limited damage, other than the breaking of an awful lot of windows.

Las Vegas was turned into a gambling center by a number of individuals associated with the Mafia as an alternative to Havana, where political instability was beginning to worry that crowd. The individuals with the vision to see a location in a hostile desert climate as a great gambling and entertainment center were quite amazing, whatever their background. It is the fastest growing city in the US and a very popular retirement center today.

Dis on the cutting edge out there.

what? We never had mafia run our town. all lies.

[Hueij]

Arnhem...

This is from Wikipedia before the part about why we are really famous starts:

Arnhem, first mentioned in 893 as Oppidium Arnoldi Villa had its real origins in 1233 when Otto II, count of Guelders from Zutphen conferred city rights on the town, which had belonged to the abbey of Prüm, settled in and fortified it. Arnhem entered the Hanseatic League in 1443. In 1473 it was captured by Charles the Bold of Burgundy. In 1514 Charles of Egmond, duke of Guelders, took it from the dukes of Burgundy; in 1543 it fell to the emperor Charles V. As capital of the so-called "Kwartier van Veluwe" it joined the Union of Utrecht in 1579, and became part of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1585. The French occupied the town 1672–1674; In 1795–1813 it was reoccupied by the French, this time Revolutionary and Imperial. In the early 19th century the former fortifications were almost completely dismantled, to give space for town expansion, the Sabelspoort (Sabresgate) is the only remaining part of the medieval walls.

In the 19th century Arnhem was a genteel resort town famous for its picturesque beauty. It was known as "het Haagje van het oosten" (The Little Hague of the East), mainly because a number of rich former sugar barons or planters from the Indies settled there as they did in The Hague. Even now the city is famous for its parks and greenery. The urbanisation in the north on hilly terrain is also quite unique for the Netherlands.

But:

British actress Audrey Hepburn attended Arnhem Conservatory during the war years 1939–1945.

Audrey Hepburn

[Adam Smith]

I live in Rockville, Maryland, a city of about 60,000, located about 15 miles NW of Washington DC. The town that became Rockville was described as "very dirty" in a log of General Braddock's expedition in 1775. In the 1800's it was the home of Josiah Henson, the slave whose autobiography became the basis for Uncle Tom's Cabin. LINK Rockville was also the first stop north of the Potomac on the Underground Railroad. Ironically, J. E. B. Stuart's confederate cavalry liked Rockville (by then known as Hungerford's Tavern) so much that they hung around for an extra day of drinks, thus depriving Lee of crucial cavalry reconniassance prior to the Battle of Gettysburg. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are burried in St. Mary's churchyard in the center of downtown Rockville.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Hueij

British actress Audrey Hepburn attended Arnhem Conservatory during the war years 1939–1945.

Audrey Hepburn

From me too. One of my favourite films is 'Breakfast at Tiffany's '.


I live in London's East End, way out east in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Plaistow, made famous in a (lewd)song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads:

Plaistow Patricia:

http://www.lyrics007.com/Ian%20Dury%20And%20The%20Blockheads%20Lyrics/Plaistow%20Patricia%20Lyrics.html

Nearby are a Norman convent and a Norman church, and Chaucer's Prioress in 'The Canterbury Tales' spoke French of the school of 'Stratford Atte Bowe', rather puncturing her stuck up demeanour.

Mary Tudor's reign saw martyrdoms close by:

On the 27th June 1556, eleven men and two women, later known as the Stratford Martyrs, were brought from Newgate and burnt at the stake on a single fire for their ‘protestant beliefs’.

Stratford Green, the place of their execution, was near the site of today’s St John’s Church (built in 1834), where a memorial was erected during the 19th century.

Keir Hardie was the United Kingdom's first ever Labour M.P. when he was elected as the member for West Ham in 1892.

We have a rather grandiose pumping station here, with architectural details that pay homage to the Alhambra, Romanesque Norman and Byzantine styles of decoration and building.

There's also a shiny techno techno techno, Nicholas Grimshaw version.

http://www.newham.gov.uk/Services/MuseumsAndGalleries/AboutUs/HeritageMuseumsAbbeyMills.htm

There are also the tidal mills at Three Mills, which date from before the Domesday Book was compiled:

1066 9 mills known to be in the Manor of Alestan (West Ham). These could only have been water mills on the Lea of which at least one was almost certainly at Three Mills.

1086 Domesday Book records 8 mills in Hame.
Medieval Site known as "Three Mills" and owned by Stratford Langthorne Abbey.

http://www.housemill.org.uk/

And a rather grand Anglo-Saxon horse burial was unearthed during recent excavations:

The Guardian (17 July 1998 p5):

`Jubilee line work brings to light archaeological treasure trove'

Finds from excavations along the line of the Jubilee Line extension include Roman oil lamps and jewellery, a Chinese cannon, an iron Age horse burial and the scorched floors of buildings torched in Boudicca's rebellion. Skeletons were found all long the line, including hundreds of monks from the great lost Cistercian abbey at Stratford, and hundreds of women from a cemetery at Borough, said to be prostitutes from the myriad local brothels buried in unconsecrated ground.

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/press98.html

Oh and apparently the Olympics are coming here. Hooray.


Abbey Mills:

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

History suggests that the two most strategically-important areas of England are the area around Merseyside, and the West country around the Severn Estuary. I live in the latter. No faction has ever managed to control England without holding both those areas simultaneously. This mean, of course, that so many battles have been fought on my home turf that if you dig down below two feet you hit a rich and thick layer of black pudding in the soil.

The trend started early. Visit Bristol Museum and you can gawp at a 3000+ year old skeleton with the bronze arrowheads still embedded in its bones. Among the more prominent bouts of slaughter here were the battles of Mons Badonicus circa 410AD (there are some who claim this happened elsewhere, usually because they are the owner of a King Arthur-themed pie shop in the claimed location), Dyrham in 577AD (possibly the most important battle fought on English soil) and the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685AD (the last true battle on English soil).

There have been centres of (apparently) religious activities here for over 8000 years, and the West Country contains the three largest Megalithic circles in Britain- Avebury, Stonehenge and Stanton Drew. It also contains Silbury Hill, Britain's attempt at a Great Pyramid. As such, this area poses a significant challenge to the theory that civilisation began in Mesopotamia.

We know next to nothing about the Megalithic culture that built most of these structures, and know little more about the Beaker culture which followed it (and was responsible for the later stages of Stonehenge). So from about 6000BC (possibly as early as 8000BC) to about 1000 BC there was an organised bunch of people, who didn't have any time for writing or stuff, but built really rather impressive temples. It's entirely possible that there were settled "towns", but the local building materials don't tend to leave many clues for archaeologists. However it's pretty clear that hundreds of years before Christ was born, this area saw extensive trade with the Phoenicians- usually lead, tin and gold.

By the time of the Roman invasions, you could call the people "Celtic", but "Celt" is really a cultural trend rather than a definite ethnic group. The local tribes were the Dobunni and the Dumnonii. In the late stages of the Roman era, huge villas were built around this area, reflecting its rich farmlands.

After the Romans left, the increasing pressure from the Saxon-dominated east saw the area become a bloodbath. Mons Badonicus held back the tide for 150 years, but in 577AD Ceawlin's Saxons annihilated the combined British armies at Dyrham, and drove the Britons back to what is now Wales and Devon/Cornwall. There were ups and downs for the West Saxons (Wessex) for the next 200 years, but after 800AD they became the dominant force in England under Egbert. From Egbert's line came the great English kings- Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan etc. The West Country ruled England, with key palaces at Glastonbury, Frome and Cheddar.

In the years after the Norman invasion, which saw power shift back to London, there was a bit of a decline. However it was still a wealthy area due to its fertility, and due to the trade coming through Bristol docks. Despite this, there was still a tradition of sullen resentment that tended to surface in religious dissent (methodism started here), in turn leading to rebellion. It made the area a major battlefield in the Civil War, and on into the Pitchfork Rebellion an Bloody Assizes.

In Georgian times, trade in wine, tobacco and slaves brought in huge wealth, which was further developed by Brunel's railways. Bristol became on of Britain's richest cities, and it is now probably the biggest financial centre outside of London.

The beauty of it all is that despute all the above, we've still just spent the last 10,000 years drinking scrumpy and having sex with our siblings.

[Whaleboy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and a local government district in central England on the River Nene, and the county town of Northamptonshire, in the English East Midlands region.

The district has a population of 194,800, whilst the Urban Area has a population of 189,474. By this measurement, it is the 21st largest settlement in England and is the UK's 3rd largest town, after Reading and Milton Keynes, without official city status. It is situated 67 miles (108 km) north of London.

Traditionally Northampton has been a major centre of shoemaking and other leather related industries. Shoemaking has virtually ceased, though the back streets of the town still show the pattern of small shoe factories surrounded by terraced houses for the outworkers. The main industries now include distribution and finance, and Barclaycard's head office resides there.

Northampton is the most populous district in England not to be a unitary authority, a status it failed to obtain in the 1990s local government reform.

It is also one of the most populous urban districts not to be a London Borough, metropolitan borough or city; on this basis the council claims that it is the largest town in England. Various other boroughs could claim the title, sometimes taking into account areas outside their civic boundaries, or outlying areas not usually considered part of the town.

Northampton's population has increased greatly since the 1960s, largely due to planned expansion under the New Towns Commission in the early-1960s. Other factors are the rail link and the busy M1 motorway that both lead direct to London. Northampton is within 70 miles of central London, and by car and train it takes approximately 1 hour 30 minutes to journey between the two. This transport link to the South East has proved attractive, with already high house prices in and around London rising rapidly since the 1990s causing many people to move increasingly further away from the area in order to commute from more reasonably-priced housing. Most of Northampton's housing expansion has taken place to the east of the town, with recent developments on the western outskirts at Upton and to the south adjacent to an improved junction on the M1 at Grange Park. Grange Park is where I live, we're about half a mile from the M1 but it's almost completely silent . Trees