In 1806, French Emperor Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and established the Electorate of Saxony as a kingdom in exchange for military support. The Elector Frederick Augustus III accordingly became King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Frederick Augustus remained loyal to Napoleon during the wars that swept Europe in the following years; he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon. Prussia intended the annexation of Saxony but the opposition of Austria, France, and the United Kingdom to this plan resulted in the restoration of Frederick Augustus to his throne at the Congress of Vienna although he was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia, which led to the loss of nearly 50% of the Saxon territory. Most of these lands were merged with the Duchy of Magdeburg, the Altmark and some smaller territories to become the Prussian Province of Saxony, a predecessor of the modern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Lower Lusatia and part of the former Saxe-Wittenberg territory became part of the Province of Brandenburg and the northeastern part of Upper Lusatia became part of the Province of Silesia. The rump Kingdom of Saxony had roughly the same extent as the present state, albeit slightly smaller.
Meanwhile, in 1815, the southern part of Saxony, now called the "State of Saxony" joined the German Confederation. The German Confederation should not be confused with the North German Confederation mentioned below. This southern Saxony shaped the territory of modern Saxony. In the politics of the Confederation, Saxony was overshadowed by Prussia. King Anthony of Saxony came to the throne of Saxony in 1827. Shortly thereafter, liberal pressures in Saxony mounted and broke out in revolt during 1830—a year of revolution in Europe. The revolution in Saxony resulted in a constitution for the State of Saxony that served as the basis for its government until 1918.
During the 1848–49 constitutionalist revolutions in Germany, Saxony became a hotbed of revolutionaries, with anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin and democrats including Richard Wagner and Gottfried Semper taking part in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. (Scenes of Richard Wagner's participation in the May 1849 uprising in Dresden are depicted in the 1983 movie Wagner starring Richard Burton as Richard Wagner.) The May uprising in Dresden forced King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony to concede further reforms to the Saxon government.
In 1854 Frederick Augustus II's brother, King John of Saxony, succeeded to the throne. A scholar, King John translated Dante. King John followed a federalistic and pro-Austrian policy throughout the early 1860s until the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War. During that war, Prussian troops overran Saxony without resistance and then invaded Austrian (today's Czech) Bohemia. After the war, Saxony was forced to pay an indemnity and to join the North German Confederation in 1867. Under the terms of the North German Confederation, Prussia took over control of the Saxon postal system, railroads, military and foreign affairs. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Saxon troops fought together with Prussian and other German troops against France. In 1871, Saxony joined the newly formed German Empire.


The "new town in the Wiesen valley" ("Neustadt am Wiesenthal") was founded in 1527 by the lords of Schönburg as a mining town because, one year earlier, silver ore had been found in the region. By 1530 the new settlement had been granted town rights and, in 1559, its ownership passed to the House of Wettin.
Mining operations finally wound up in the 19th century and tourism increasingly took its place during the 20th. However, after the Second World War, there were attempts by the Russians to mine uranium for the nuclear arms race in the Zechengrund, today a nature reserve. Traces of their activity are still visible. On 1 September 1921 Oberwiesenthal was merged with the town of Unterwiesenthal further down the valley, which had first been mentioned in the records in 1406 and had town rights by 1510.


The town council of Oberwiesenthal consists of 14 councillors and the directly elected mayor or Bürgermeister, who presides over the council. The local elections of 7 June 2009, which had a voter participation of 62.5%, the following result:


Oberwiesenthal lies in the county of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic that follows the course of the Pöhlbach stream as far as Bärenstein (10 km northeast). The highest elevation in the borough is the Fichtelberg (sometimes called the Großer Fichtelberg or Great Fichtelberg) which, at 1,215 m above NN, is the highest mountain in Saxony.
Other important mountains in the region around Oberwiesenthal are the:
Keilberg (Klínovec) (1,244 m above NN; the highest summit in the Ore Mountains)
Kleiner or Hinterer Fichtelberg (1,206 m above NN) ("Little or Farther Fichtelberg")
Eisenberg (1,029 m above NN)


Data source to 1990: Oberwiesenthal in the Digital Historic Index of Places in Saxony (Digitales Historisches Ortsverzeichnis von Sachsen)
Data source from 1998: Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen


Oberwiesenthal (German: [oː.bɐ.ˈviː.zn̩.taːl] (listen); officially Kurort Oberwiesenthal) is a town and a ski resort in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony in Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the border with the Czech Republic, 19 km south of Annaberg-Buchholz, and 23 km northeast of Karlovy Vary. At 914 metres (2,999 ft), it is the highest town in Germany. The Olympic and World Championships goldmedalist in ski jumping Jens Weißflog competed for SC Tractor Oberwiesenthal and Oberwiesenthaler SV.


Heinz-Michael Kirsten (CDU) was elected mayor (Bürgermeister) in January 2002. By February 2002 the Annaberg district office (Landratsamt Annaberg) had declared this result void due to unpermitted election advertising. This resulted in a five-year legal battle by all sides that ended with a decision in 2007 by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, that confirmed the decision in February 2007 by the administrative appeals tribunal (Oberverwaltungsgericht) of Bautzen as legal. Heinz-Michael Kirsten was then sent on leave by the regional authority (Regierungspräsidium). On 4 November 2007 a new election took place in which no party achieved an absolute majority. In the second round of elections on 18 November the independent (now FDP) candidate, Mirko Ernst, was elected mayor. The current mayor is Jens Benedict, elected in September 2021.


May 19 – Judith of Bavaria, duchess of Swabia (d. 1130)
May 23 – Qin Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1161)
Achard of Saint Victor, Norman bishop (d. 1171)
Adrian IV, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1159)
Albert I (the Bear), margrave of Brandenburg (d. 1170)
Alexander III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1181)
Anselm of Havelberg, German bishop (approximate date)
Arnold I, archbishop of Cologne (approximate date)
Bruno II of Berg, archbishop of Cologne (d. 1137)
Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, English conjoined twins (d. 1134)
Elvira of Castile, queen of Sicily (approximate date)
Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d. 1148)
Héloïse d'Argenteuil, French abbess and scholar (d. 1162)
Herman of Carinthia, German astronomer (d. 1160)
Hillin of Falmagne, archbishop of Trier (d. 1169)
Jabir ibn Aflah, Arab astronomer and mathematician (d. 1150)
John of Meda, Italian monk and abbot (d. 1159)
Muhammad al-Idrisi, Almoravid geographer (d. 1165)
Owain Gwynedd, king of Gwynedd (approximate date)
Jacob ben Meir Tam, French Jewish rabbi (d. 1171)
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl Leicester (d. 1168)
Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby (d. 1162)
Robert of Melun, bishop of Hereford (d. 1167)
Robert of Newminster, English abbot (d. 1159)
Teobaldo Roggeri, Italian shoemaker (d. 1150)


Year 1100 (MC) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1100th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 100th year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th and last year of the 11th century, and the 1st year of the 1100s decade. In the proleptic Gregorian calendar, it was a non-leap century year starting on Monday (like 1900).


Despite a scarcity of archaeological evidence, the existence of the Kingdom of Moab prior to the rise of the Israelite state has been deduced from a colossal statue erected at Luxor by pharaoh Ramesses II, in the 13th century BCE, which lists Mu'ab among a series of nations conquered during a campaign. The early inhabitants likely came from the Arabian peninsula immigrating due to the lack of water emphasised by a drought.


In Ezekiel 25:9 the boundaries are given as being marked by Beth-jeshimoth (north), Baal-meon (east), and Kiriathaim (south). That these limits were not fixed, however, is plain from the lists of cities given in Isaiah 15–16 and Jeremiah 48, where Heshbon, Elealeh, and Jazer are mentioned to the north of Beth-jeshimoth; Madaba, Beth-gamul, and Mephaath to the east of Baalmeon; and Dibon, Aroer, Bezer, Jahaz, and Kirhareseth to the south of Kiriathaim. The principal rivers of Moab mentioned in the Bible are the Arnon, the Dimon or Dibon, and the Nimrim.
The territory occupied by Moab at the period of its greatest extent, before the invasion of the Amorites, divided itself naturally into three distinct and independent portions: the enclosed corner or canton south of the Arnon, referred to in the Bible as "field of Moab" (Ruth 1:1,2,6). The more open rolling country north of the Arnon, opposite Jericho and up to the hills of Gilead, called the "land of Moab" (Deuteronomy 1:5; 32:49) and the district below sea level in the tropical depths of the Jordan valley (Numbers 22:1).


The plateau is dotted with hundreds of dolmens, menhirs, and stone circles, and contains many ruined villages, mostly of the Roman and Byzantine periods. It contains the city of al-Karak whose modern inhabitants consider themselves as descendants of Moabites.


Moab (/ˈmoʊæb/) is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in the modern state of Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archaeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over an unnamed son of King Omri of Israel, an episode also noted in 2 Kings 3. The Moabite capital was Dibon. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moab was often in conflict with its Israelite neighbours to the west.


1674 (MDCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 1674th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 674th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 74th  year of the 17th century, and the  5th   year of the 1670s decade. As of the start of 1674, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


The first Dutch West India Company is dissolved.


1835 (MDCCCXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1835th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 835th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 35th  year of the 19th century, and the  6th   year of the 1830s decade. As of the start of 1835, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


October 2 – The Texas Revolution – Battle of Gonzales: Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
October 3 – The Staedtler Company (pencil manufacturers) is founded by J. S. Staedtler in Nuremberg, Germany.
October 28
The United Tribes of New Zealand is founded at Waitangi, with the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand.
Texas Revolution – Battle of Concepción: The Texian Army defeats the Mexicans.
November 12 – Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.
November 16 – Halley's Comet reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.
November 19 – A force of 500 Māori people invade and enslave the peoples of the Chatham Islands.
November 27 – Two London men, James Pratt and John Smith, are hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London, after a conviction of buggery. They are the last to suffer capital punishment for homosexual acts in England.
December 7
The Bavarian Ludwig Railway opens between Nuremberg and Fürth, with a train hauled by the English-built Der Adler ("The Eagle"), the first railway in Germany.
Future U.S. President James K. Polk becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
December 9 – The Army of the Republic of Texas captures San Antonio.
December 16–17 – The Great Fire of New York destroys 530 buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange.
December 20 – The Texas Declaration of Independence is first signed at Goliad, Texas.
December 21 – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is chartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
December 28 – United States: The Second Seminole War led by Osceola breaks out.
December 29 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed between the United States Government, and members of the Cherokee Nation.


Annual British iron production reaches 68,000 tons.


Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, decrees that all peasant labor obligations be converted into cash payments.
The Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry), an influential chemistry textbook by Antoine Lavoisier, is published; translated into English in 1790, it comes to be considered the first modern chemical textbook.
German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovers the element uranium, while studying the mineral pitchblende.
The Bengal Presidency first establishes a penal colony, in the Andaman Islands.
Famine in Ethiopia.
Thomas Jefferson returns from Europe, bringing the first macaroni machine to the United States.
Influenced by Dr. Benjamin Rush's argument against the excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community form a temperance movement in the United States.
Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) is built to protect early U.S. settlements in the Northwest Territory.
Former slave Olaudah Equiano's autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest published works by a black writer, is published in London.


The 1780s (pronounced "seventeen-eighties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1780, and ended on December 31, 1789. A period widely considered as transitional between the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, the 1780s saw the inception of modern philosophy. With the rise on astronomical, technological, and political discoveries and innovations such as Uranus, cast iron on structures, republicanism and hot-air balloons, the 1780s kick-started a rapid global industrialization movement, leaving behind the world's predominantly agrarian customs in the past.


From 1809, his childhood friendship with Maria Elizabeth Bicknell developed into a deep, mutual love. Their marriage in 1816 when Constable was 40 was opposed by Maria's grandfather, Dr Rhudde, rector of East Bergholt. He considered the Constables his social inferiors and threatened Maria with disinheritance. Maria's father, Charles Bicknell, solicitor to George IV and the Admiralty, was reluctant to see Maria throw away her inheritance. Maria pointed out to John that a penniless marriage would detract from any chances he had of making a career in painting. Golding and Ann Constable, while approving the match, held out no prospect of supporting the marriage until Constable was financially secure. After they died in quick succession, Constable inherited a fifth share in the family business.
John and Maria's marriage in October 1816 at St Martin-in-the-Fields (with Fisher officiating) was followed by time at Fisher's vicarage and a honeymoon tour of the south coast. The sea at Weymouth and Brighton stimulated Constable to develop new techniques of brilliant colour and vivacious brushwork. At the same time, a greater emotional range began to be expressed in his art.
Three weeks before their marriage, Constable revealed that he had started work on his most ambitious project to date In a letter to Maria Bicknell from East Bergholt, he wrote:
’I am now in the midst of a large picture here which I had contemplated for the next exhibition
The picture was Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River), it was the largest canvas of a working scene on the River Stour that he had worked on to date and the largest he would ever complete largely outdoors. Constable was determined to paint on a larger scale, his objective was not only to attract more attention at the Royal Academy exhibitions but also, it seems, to project his ideas about landscape on a scale more in keeping with the achievements of the classical landscape painters he so admired. Although Flatford Mill failed to find a buyer when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817. Its fine and intricate execution drew much praise, encouraging Constable to move on to the even larger canvases that were to follow.


John Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable. His father was a wealthy corn merchant, owner of Flatford Mill in East Bergholt and, later, Dedham Mill in Essex. Golding Constable owned a small ship, The Telegraph, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents' second son, his older brother was intellectually disabled and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a boarding school in Lavenham, he was enrolled in a day school in Dedham. Constable worked in the corn business after leaving school, but his younger brother Abram eventually took over the running of the mills.
In his youth, Constable embarked on amateur sketching trips in the surrounding Suffolk and Essex countryside, which was to become the subject of a large proportion of his art. These scenes, in his own words, "made me a painter, and I am grateful"; "the sound of water escaping from mill dams etc., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things." He was introduced to George Beaumont, a collector, who showed him his prized Hagar and the Angel by Claude Lorrain, which inspired Constable. Later, while visiting relatives in Middlesex, he was introduced to the professional artist John Thomas Smith, who advised him on painting but also urged him to remain in his father's business rather than take up art professionally.
In 1799, Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in art, and Golding granted him a small allowance. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, he attended life classes and anatomical dissections, and studied and copied old masters. Among works that particularly inspired him during this period were paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, Peter Paul Rubens, Annibale Carracci and Jacob van Ruisdael. He also read widely among poetry and sermons, and later proved a notably articulate artist.
In 1802 he refused the position of drawing master at Great Marlow Military College (now Sandhurst), a move which Benjamin West (then master of the RA) counselled would mean the end of his career. In that year, Constable wrote a letter to John Dunthorne in which he spelled out his determination to become a professional landscape painter:
For the last two years I have been running after pictures, and seeking the truth at second hand... I have not endeavoured to represent nature with the same elevation of mind with which I set out, but have rather tried to make my performances look like the work of other men...There is room enough for a natural painter. The great vice of the present day is bravura, an attempt to do something beyond the truth.
His early style has many qualities associated with his mature work, including a freshness of light, colour and touch, and reveals the compositional influence of the old masters he had studied, notably of Claude Lorrain. Constable's usual subjects, scenes of ordinary daily life, were unfashionable in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins. He made occasional trips further afield.
By 1803, he was exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy. In April he spent almost a month aboard the East Indiaman Coutts as it visited south-east ports while sailing from London to Deal before leaving for China.
In 1806 Constable undertook a two-month tour of the Lake District. He told his friend and biographer, Charles Leslie, that the solitude of the mountains oppressed his spirits, and Leslie wrote:
His nature was peculiarly social and could not feel satisfied with scenery, however grand in itself, that did not abound in human associations. He required villages, churches, farmhouses and cottages.
Constable adopted a routine of spending winter in London and painting at East Bergholt in summer. In 1811 he first visited John Fisher and his family in Salisbury, a city whose cathedral and surrounding landscape were to inspire some of his greatest paintings.
To make ends meet, Constable took up portraiture, which he found dull, though he executed many fine portraits. He also painted occasional religious pictures but, according to John Walker, "Constable's incapacity as a religious painter cannot be overstated."
Another source of income was country house painting. In 1816, he was commissioned by Major-General Francis Slater-Rebow to paint his country home, Wivenhoe Park, Essex. The Major-General also commissioned a smaller painting of the fishing lodge in the grounds of Alresford Hall, which is now in the National Gallery of Victoria. Constable used the money from these commissions towards his wedding with Maria Bicknell.


John Constable RA (/ˈkʌnstəbəl, ˈkɒn-/; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".
Constable's most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1821) and The Hay Wain (1821). Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He became a member of the establishment after he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.


The parish of East Bergholt is its own electoral ward as part of Babergh District council and is part of the Samford division of Suffolk County Council.
The village has its own parish council made up of 13 councillors.
The village is twinned with the village of Barbizon in France.


The village is the home of the East Bergholt Dramatic Society, which was probably formed some time during the 1960s. Lady Anne Wake-Walker was President of the Society for most of the time from its inception to the early 1990s. Her daughter Diana MacFarlane is the present President. The group, which has about 20 members, meets most Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Constable Memorial Hall, from 8pm to 10pm.


In 2014 plans were drawn up for a new 144 housing estate in the north of the village. Local residents responded by erecting multiple signs around the village campaigning for a "No" decision by Babergh District Council. In March 2016, Babergh District Council approved the plans for a new housing development, despite strong opposition from Action East Bergholt Group and many concerned residents.  As a result, in April 2017 residents were reported to be considering a fight to become part of neighbouring Essex county rather than the current county of Suffolk.
Despite earlier strong opposition to any large developments within East Bergholt, the parish council has given its support to a large quasi-commercial development within East End, East Bergholt. Thereby exposing itself to future large developments within the village.


East Bergholt is a village in the Babergh District of Suffolk, England, just north of the Essex border.
The nearest town and railway station is Manningtree, Essex. East Bergholt is ten miles (16 kilometres) north of Colchester and eight miles (13 kilometres) south of Ipswich. Schools include East Bergholt High School, a comprehensive for children aged 11–16, and a primary school.
During the 16th century, its inhabitants became well known for Protestant radicalism  A few of its citizens were martyred during the reign of Queen Mary I, and the Protestant martyrologist John Foxe recorded their stories in his famous work Acts and Monuments (also known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs).
East Bergholt is the birthplace of painter John Constable whose father owned Flatford Mill. Flatford and Dedham, Essex, both made famous by John Constable, are within walking distance of East Bergholt.


1925
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1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1925th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 925th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 25th  year of the 20th century, and the  6th   year of the 1920s decade.


His success as the legate of a legion earned him a consulship in 51, after which he retired from public life, having incurred the enmity of Claudius' wife, Agrippina, who was the most powerful and influential figure in her husband's reign. He came out of retirement in 63 when he was sent as governor to Africa Province. According to Tacitus (ii.97), his rule was "infamous and odious" but according to Suetonius (Vesp. 4), he was "upright and, highly honourable". On one occasion, Suetonius writes, Vespasian was pelted with turnips.
Vespasian used his time in North Africa wisely. Usually, governorships were seen by ex-consuls as opportunities to extort huge amounts of money to regain the wealth they had spent on their previous political campaigns. Corruption was so rife that it was almost expected that a governor would come back from these appointments with his pockets full. However, Vespasian used his time in North Africa making friends instead of money, something that would be far more valuable in the years to come. During his time in North Africa, he found himself in financial difficulties and was forced to mortgage his estates to his brother. To revive his fortunes he turned to the mule trade and gained the nickname mulio (muleteer).
Returning from Africa, Vespasian toured Greece in Nero's retinue, but lost Imperial favor after paying insufficient attention (some sources suggest he fell asleep) during one of the Emperor's recitals on the lyre, and found himself in the political wilderness.


The name Mumbai (Marathi: मुंबई, Gujarati: મુંબઈ, Hindi: मुंबई) derived from Mumbā or Mahā-Ambā—the name of the patron goddess (kuladevata) Mumbadevi of the native Koli community—and ā'ī meaning "mother" in the Marathi language, which is the mother tongue of the Koli people and the official language of Maharashtra. The Koli people originated in Kathiawar and Central Gujarat, and according to some sources they brought their goddess Mumba with them from Kathiawar (Gujarat), where she is still worshipped. However, other sources disagree that Mumbai's name was derived from the goddess Mumba.
The oldest known names for the city are Kakamuchee and Galajunkja; these are sometimes still used. In 1508, Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia used the name "Bombaim" in his Lendas da Índia (Legends of India). This name possibly originated as the Galician-Portuguese phrase bom baim, meaning "good little bay", and Bombaim is still commonly used in Portuguese. In 1516, Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa used the name Tana-Maiambu: Tana appears to refer to the adjoining town of Thane and Maiambu to Mumbadevi.
Other variations recorded in the 16th and the 17th centuries include: Mombayn (1525), Bombay (1538), Bombain (1552), Bombaym (1552), Monbaym (1554), Mombaim (1563), Mombaym (1644), Bambaye (1666), Bombaiim (1666), Bombeye (1676), Boon Bay (1690), and Bon Bahia. After the English gained possession of the city in the 17th century, the Portuguese name was anglicised as Bombay. Ali Muhammad Khan, imperial dewan or revenue minister of the Gujarat province, in the Mirat-i Ahmedi (1762) referred to the city as Manbai.
The French traveller Louis Rousselet, who visited in 1863 and 1868, states in his book L’Inde des Rajahs, which was first published in 1877: "Etymologists have wrongly derived this name from the Portuguese Bôa Bahia, or (French: "bonne bai", English: "good bay"), not knowing that the tutelar goddess of this island has been, from remote antiquity, Bomba, or Mumba Devi, and that she still ... possesses a temple".
By the late 20th century, the city was referred to as Mumbai or Mambai in Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada and Sindhi, and as Bambai in Hindi. The Government of India officially changed the English name to Mumbai in November 1995. This came at the insistence of the Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena party, which had just won the Maharashtra state elections, and mirrored similar name changes across the country and particularly in Maharashtra. According to Slate magazine, "they argued that 'Bombay' was a corrupted English version of 'Mumbai' and an unwanted legacy of British colonial rule." Slate also said "The push to rename Bombay was part of a larger movement to strengthen Marathi identity in the Maharashtra region." While the city is still referred to as Bombay by some of its residents and by some Indians from other regions, mention of the city by a name other than Mumbai has been controversial, resulting in emotional outbursts, sometimes of a violently political nature.


The Mughal Empire, founded in 1526, was the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent during the mid-16th century. Growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein with the Portuguese Empire on 23 December 1534. According to the treaty, the Seven Islands of Bombay, the nearby strategic town of Bassein and its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese. The territories were later surrendered on 25 October 1535.
The Portuguese were actively involved in the foundation and growth of their Roman Catholic religious orders in Bombay. They called the islands by various names, which finally took the written form Bombaim. The islands were leased to several Portuguese officers during their regime. The Portuguese Franciscans and Jesuits built several churches in the city, prominent being the St. Michael's Church at Mahim (1534), St. John the Baptist Church at Andheri (1579), St. Andrew's Church at Bandra (1580), and Gloria Church at Byculla (1632). The Portuguese also built several fortifications around the city like the Bombay Castle, Castella de Aguada (Castelo da Aguada or Bandra Fort), and Madh Fort. The English were in constant struggle with the Portuguese vying for hegemony over Bombay, as they recognised its strategic natural harbour and its natural isolation from land attacks. By the middle of the 17th century the growing power of the Dutch Empire forced the English to acquire a station in western India. On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed the islands in possession of the English Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles. However, Salsette, Bassein, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala still remained under Portuguese possession. From 1665 to 1666, the English managed to acquire Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala.
In accordance with the Royal Charter of 27 March 1668, England leased these islands to the English East India Company in 1668 for a sum of £10 per annum. The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661, to 60,000 in 1675. The islands were subsequently attacked by Yakut Khan, the Muslim Koli admiral of the Mughal Empire, in October 1672, Rickloffe van Goen, the Governor-General of Dutch India on 20 February 1673, and Siddi admiral Sambal on 10 October 1673.
In 1687, the English East India Company transferred its headquarters from Surat to Bombay. The city eventually became the headquarters of the Bombay Presidency. Following the transfer, Bombay was placed at the head of all the company's establishments in India. Towards the end of the 17th century, the islands again suffered incursions from Yakut Khan in 1689–90. The Portuguese presence ended in Bombay when the Marathas under Peshwa Baji Rao I captured Salsette in 1737, and Bassein in 1739.
By the middle of the 18th century, Bombay began to grow into a major trading town, and received a huge influx of migrants from across India. Later, the British occupied Salsette on 28 December 1774. With the Treaty of Surat (1775), the British formally gained control of Salsette and Bassein, resulting in the First Anglo-Maratha War. The British were able to secure Salsette from the Marathas without violence through the Treaty of Purandar (1776), and later through the Treaty of Salbai (1782), signed to settle the outcome of the First Anglo-Maratha War.
From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands of Bombay into a single amalgamated mass by way of a causeway called the Hornby Vellard, which was completed by 1784. In 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone defeated Baji Rao II, the last of the Maratha Peshwa in the Battle of Khadki. Following his defeat, almost the whole of the Deccan Plateau came under British suzerainty, and was incorporated into the Bombay Presidency. The success of the British campaign in the Deccan marked the end of all attacks by native powers.
By 1845, the seven islands coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard project via large scale land reclamation. On 16 April 1853, India's first passenger railway line was established, connecting Bombay to the neighbouring town of Thana (now Thane). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city became the world's chief cotton-trading market, resulting in a boom in the economy that subsequently enhanced the city's stature.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. In September 1896, Bombay was hit by a bubonic plague epidemic where the death toll was estimated at 1,900 people per week. About 850,000 people fled Bombay and the textile industry was adversely affected. While the city was the capital of the Bombay Presidency, the Indian independence movement fostered the Quit India Movement in 1942 and the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in 1946.


Mumbai is on a narrow peninsula on the southwest of Salsette Island, which lies between the Arabian Sea to the west, Thane Creek to the east and Vasai Creek to the north. Mumbai's suburban district occupies most of the island. Navi Mumbai is east of Thane Creek and Thane is north of Vasai Creek. Mumbai consists of two distinct regions: Mumbai City district and Mumbai Suburban district, which form two separate revenue districts of Maharashtra. The city district region is also commonly referred to as the Island City or South Mumbai. The total area of Mumbai is 603.4 km² (233 sq mi). Of this, the island city spans 67.79 km² (26 sq mi), while the suburban district spans 370 km² (143 sq mi), together accounting for 437.71 km² (169 sq mi) under the administration of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The remaining areas belong to various Defence establishments, the Mumbai Port Trust, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Borivali National Park, which are out of the jurisdiction of the MCGM. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region which includes portions of Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts in addition to Greater Mumbai, covers an area of 4,355 km² (1681.5 sq mi).
Mumbai lies at the mouth of the Ulhas River on the western coast of India, in the coastal region known as the Konkan. It sits on Salsette Island (Sashti Island), which it partially shares with the Thane district. Mumbai is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west. Many parts of the city lie just above sea level, with elevations ranging from 10 m (33 ft) to 15 m (49 ft); the city has an average elevation of 14 m (46 ft). Northern Mumbai (Salsette) is hilly, and the highest point in the city is 450 m (1,476 ft) at Salsette in the Powai–Kanheri ranges. The Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Borivali National Park) is located partly in the Mumbai suburban district, and partly in the Thane district, and it extends over an area of 103.09 km² (39.80 sq mi).
Apart from the Bhatsa Dam, there are six major lakes that supply water to the city: Vihar, Lower Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tulsi, Tansa and Powai. Tulsi Lake and Vihar Lake are located in Borivili National Park, within the city's limits. The supply from Powai lake, also within the city limits, is used only for agricultural and industrial purposes. Three small rivers, the Dahisar River, Poinsar (or Poisar) and Ohiwara (or Oshiwara) originate within the park, while the polluted Mithi River originates from Tulsi Lake and gathers water overflowing from Vihar and Powai Lakes. The coastline of the city is indented with numerous creeks and bays, stretching from the Thane creek on the
eastern to Madh Marve on the western front. The eastern coast of Salsette Island is covered with large mangrove swamps, rich in biodiversity, while the western coast is mostly sandy and rocky.
Soil cover in the city region is predominantly sandy due to its proximity to the sea. In the suburbs, the soil cover is largely alluvial and loamy. The underlying rock of the region is composed of black Deccan basalt flows, and their acidic and basic variants dating back to the late Cretaceous and early Eocene eras. Mumbai sits on a seismically active zone owing to the presence of 23 fault lines in the vicinity. The area is classified as a Seismic Zone III region, which means an earthquake of up to magnitude 6.5 on the Richter magnitude scale may be expected.


Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands: Isle of Bombay, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island (also known as Little Colaba). It is not exactly known when these islands were first inhabited. Pleistocene sediments found along the coastal areas around Kandivali in northern Mumbai suggest that the islands were inhabited since the South Asian Stone Age. Perhaps at the beginning of the Common Era, or possibly earlier, they came to be occupied by the Koli fishing community.
In the 3rd century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, during its expansion in the south, ruled by the Buddhist emperor Ashoka of Magadha. The Kanheri Caves in Borivali were excavated from basalt rock in the first century CE, and served as an important centre of Buddhism in Western India during ancient Times. The city then was known as Heptanesia (Ancient Greek: A Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE. The Mahakali Caves in Andheri were cut out between the 1st century BCE and the 6th century CE.
Between the 2nd century BCE and 9th century CE, the islands came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties: Satavahanas, Western Satraps, Abhira, Vakataka, Kalachuris, Konkan Mauryas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas, before being ruled by the Shilaharas from 810 to 1260. Some of the oldest edifices in the city built during this period are the Jogeshwari Caves (between 520 and 525), Elephanta Caves (between the sixth to seventh century), Walkeshwar Temple (10th century), and Banganga Tank (12th century).
King Bhimdev founded his kingdom in the region in the late 13th century and established his capital in Mahikawati (present day Mahim). The Pathare Prabhus, among the earliest known settlers of the city, were brought to Mahikawati from Saurashtra in Gujarat around 1298 by Bhimdev. The Delhi Sultanate annexed the islands in 1347–48 and controlled it until 1407. During this time, the islands were administered by the Muslim Governors of Gujarat, who were appointed by the Delhi Sultanate.
The islands were later governed by the independent Gujarat Sultanate, which was established in 1407. The Sultanate's patronage led to the construction of many mosques, prominent being the Haji Ali Dargah in Worli, built in honour of the Muslim saint Haji Ali in 1431. From 1429 to 1431, the islands were a source of contention between the Gujarat Sultanate and the Bahmani Sultanate of Deccan. In 1493, Bahadur Khan Gilani of the Bahmani Sultanate attempted to conquer the islands but was defeated.


Mumbai has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate (Aw) under the Köppen climate classification. It varies between a dry period extending from October to May and a wet period peaking in June. The cooler season from December to February is followed by the hotter season from March to May. The period from June to about the end of September constitutes the south west monsoon season, and October and November form the post-monsoon season.
Flooding during monsoon is a major problem for Mumbai. Between June and September, the south west monsoon rains lash the city. Pre-monsoon showers are received in May. Occasionally, north-east monsoon showers occur in October and November. The maximum annual rainfall ever recorded was 3,452 mm (136 in) for 1954. The highest rainfall recorded in a single day was 944 mm (37 in) on 26 July 2005. The average total annual rainfall is 2,213.4 mm (87 in) for the Island City, and 2,502.3 mm (99 in) for the suburbs.
The average annual temperature is 27 °C (81 °F), and the average annual precipitation is 2,213 mm (87 in). In the Island City, the average maximum temperature is 31 °C (88 °F), while the average minimum temperature is 24 °C (75 °F). In the suburbs, the daily mean maximum temperature range from 29 °C (84 °F) to 33 °C (91 °F), while the daily mean minimum temperature ranges from 16 °C (61 °F) to 26 °C (79 °F). The record high is 42.2 °C (108 °F) set on 14 April 1952, and the record low is 7.4 °C (45 °F) set on 27 January 1962.
Tropical Cyclones are rare in the city, The worst Cyclone to ever impact Mumbai was the 1948 Mumbai Cyclone where gusts reached 151 km/h (94 mph) in Juhu, The storm left 38 people dead and 47 missing, The storm reportedly impacted Bombay for 20 hours and left the city devastated


Pittsburgh (/ˈpɪtsbɜːrɡ/ PITS-burg) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania, behind Philadelphia, and 68th-largest city proper in the U.S. with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania; its population of 2.37 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 27th-largest in the U.S. Furthermore, it is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–New Castle–Weirton combined statistical area that extends into Ohio and West Virginia.
Pittsburgh is located in southwest Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. Pittsburgh is known both as "the Steel City" for its more than 300 steel-related businesses and as the "City of Bridges" for its 446 bridges. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclined railways, a pre-revolutionary fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. The city developed as a vital link of the Atlantic coast and Midwest, as the mineral-rich Allegheny Mountains led to the region being contested by the French and British empires, Virginians, Whiskey Rebels, and Civil War raiders.
Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in the manufacturing of other important materials—aluminum and glass—and in the petroleum industry. Additionally, it is a leader in computing, electronics, and the automotive industry. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York City and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment; it had the most U.S. stockholders per capita. Deindustrialization in the 1970s and 1980s laid off area blue-collar workers as steel and other heavy industries declined, and thousands of downtown white-collar workers also lost jobs when several Pittsburgh-based companies moved out. The population dropped from a peak of 675,000 in 1950 to 370,000 in 1990. However, this rich industrial history left the area with renowned museums, medical centers, parks, research centers, and a diverse cultural district.
After 1990, Pittsburgh transformed into a hub for the health care, education, and technology industries. Pittsburgh is home to large medical providers, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Google, Apple Inc., Bosch, Facebook, Uber, Nokia, Autodesk, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are among 1,600 technology firms generating $20.7 billion in annual Pittsburgh payrolls.
Federal money has supported the research agenda. The area has served as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research and the nuclear navy.  The nation's fifth-largest bank, eight Fortune 500 companies, and six of the top 300 U.S. law firms make their global headquarters in the area, while RAND Corporation (RAND), BNY Mellon, Nova, FedEx, Bayer, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have regional bases that helped Pittsburgh become the sixth-best area for U.S. job growth.
In 2015, Pittsburgh was listed among the "eleven most livable cities in the world". The Economist's Global Liveability Ranking placed Pittsburgh as the most or second-most livable city in the United States in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2018. The region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and energy extraction.


The city consists of the Downtown area, called the Golden Triangle, and four main areas surrounding it. These surrounding areas are subdivided into distinct neighborhoods (Pittsburgh has 90 neighborhoods). Relative to downtown, these areas are known as the Central, North Side/North Hills, South Side/South Hills, East End, and West End.


Pittsburgh has an area of 58.3 square miles (151 km²), of which 55.6 square miles (144 km²) is land and 2.8 square miles (7.3 km²), or 4.75%, is water. The 80th meridian west passes directly through the city's downtown.
The city is on the Allegheny Plateau, within the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau. The Downtown area (also known as the Golden Triangle) sits where the Allegheny River flows from the northeast and the Monongahela River from the southeast to form the Ohio River. The convergence is at Point State Park and is referred to as "the Point." The city extends east to include the Oakland and Shadyside sections, which are home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, Carnegie Museum and Library, and many other educational, medical, and cultural institutions. The southern, western, and northern areas of the city are primarily residential.
Many Pittsburgh neighborhoods are steeply sloped with two-lane roads. More than a quarter of neighborhood names make reference to "hills," "heights," or similar features.
The steps of Pittsburgh consist of 800 sets of outdoor public stairways with 44,645 treads and 24,090 vertical feet. They include hundreds of streets composed entirely of stairs, and many other steep streets with stairs for sidewalks. Many provide vistas of the Pittsburgh area while attracting hikers and fitness walkers.
Bike and walking trails have been built to border many of the city's rivers and hollows. The Great Allegheny Passage and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath connect the city directly to downtown Washington, D.C. (some 335 miles [539 km] away) with a continuous bike/running trail.


The written history of Kaohsiung can be traced back to the early 17th century, through archaeological studies have found signs of human activity in the region from as long as 7,000 years ago. Prior to the 17th century, the region was inhabited by the Makatao people of the Siraya tribe, who settled on what they named Takau Isle (translated to 打狗嶼 by Ming Chinese explorers); "Takau" meaning "bamboo forest" in the aboriginal language.


Hoklo immigrants to the area during the 16th and 17th centuries called the region Takau (Chinese: 打狗; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Táⁿ-káu). The surface meaning of the associated Chinese characters was "beat the dog". According to one theory, the name Takau originates from the aboriginal Siraya language and translates as "bamboo forest". According to another theory, the name evolved via metathesis from the name of the Makatao tribe, who inhabited the area at the time of European and Hoklo settlement. The Makatao are considered by some to be part of the Siraya tribe.
During the Dutch colonization of southern Taiwan, the area was known as Tancoia to Europeans for a period of about three decades. In 1662, the Dutch were expelled by the Kingdom of Tungning, founded by Ming loyalists of Koxinga. His son, Zheng Jing, renamed the village Banlian-chiu (Chinese: 萬年州; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bān-liân-chiu; lit. 'ten-thousand-year state (zhou)') in 1664.
The name of "Takau" was restored in the late 1670s, when the town expanded drastically with immigrants from mainland China and was kept through Taiwan's cession to the Japanese Empire in 1895. In his 1903 general history of Taiwan, US Consul to Formosa James W. Davidson relates that "Takow" was already a well-known name in English. In 1920, the name was changed to Takao (Japanese: 高雄, after Takao (Kyoto)) and administered the area under Takao Prefecture. While the new name had quite a different surface meaning, its pronunciation in Japanese sounded more or less the same as the old name spoken in Hokkien.
After Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China, the name did not change, but the official romanization became Kaohsiung (pinyin: Gāoxióng; Wade–Giles: Kao¹-hsiung²), derived from the Wade-Giles romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 高雄.
The name Takau remains the official name of the city in Austronesian languages of Taiwan such as Rukai, although these are not widely spoken in the city. The name also remains popular locally in the naming of businesses, associations, and events.


The earliest evidence of human activity in the Kaohsiung area dates back to roughly 4,700–5,200 years ago. Most of the discovered remnants were located in the hills surrounding Kaohsiung Harbor. Artifacts were found at Shoushan, Longquan Temple, Taoziyuan, Zuoying, Houjing, Fudingjin and Fengbitou. The prehistoric Dapenkeng, Niuchouzi, Dahu, and Niaosong civilizations were known to inhabit the region. Studies of the prehistoric ruins at Longquan Temple have shown that that civilization occurred at roughly the same times as the beginnings of the aboriginal Makatao civilization, suggesting a possible origin for the latter. Unlike some other archaeological sites in the area, the Longquan Temple ruins are relatively well preserved. Prehistoric artifacts discovered have suggested that the ancient Kaohsiung Harbor was originally a lagoon, with early civilizations functioning primarily as Hunter-gatherer societies. Some agricultural tools have also been discovered, suggesting that some agricultural activity was also present. The pronunciation of Kaohsiung (Takao) in Japanese is similar to Takau (Takau), so the local flavor of Takao was renamed Kaohsiung.
The first Chinese records of the region were written in 1603 by Chen Di, a member of Ming admiral Shen You-rong's expedition to rid the waters around Taiwan and Penghu of pirates. In his report on the "Eastern Barbarian Lands" (Dong Fan Ji), Chen Di referred to a Ta-kau Isle:
It is unknown when the barbarians (Taiwanese aborigines) arose on this island in the ocean beyond Penghu, but they are present at Keeong Harbor (nowaday's Budai, Chiayi), the bay of Galaw (Anping, Tainan), Laydwawan (Tainan City), Yaw Harbor (Cheting, Kaohsiung), Takau Isle (Kaohsiung City), Little Tamsui (Donggang, Pingtung), Siangkeykaw (Puzi, Chiayi), Gali forest (Jiali District, Tainan), the village of Sabah (Tamsui, Taipei), and Dwabangkang (Bali, New Taipei City).


After control of Taiwan was handed over from Japan to the government of the Republic of China on 25 October 1945, Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County were established as a provincial city and a county of Taiwan Province respectively on 25 December 1945. The official romanization of the name came to be "Kaohsiung", based on the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin reading of the kanji name. Kaohsiung City then consisted of 10 districts, which were Gushan, Lianya (renamed "Lingya" in 1952), Nanzih, Cianjin, Cianjhen, Cijin, Sanmin, Sinsing, Yancheng, and Zuoying.
During this time, Kaohsiung developed rapidly. The port, badly damaged in World War II, was restored. It also became a fishing port for boats sailing to Filipino and Indonesian waters. Largely because of its climate, Kaohsiung overtook Keelung as Taiwan's major port. Kaohsiung also surpassed Tainan to become the second largest city of Taiwan in the late 1970s and Kaohsiung City was upgraded from a provincial city to special municipality on 1 July 1979, by the Executive Yuan with a total of 11 districts. The additional district is Siaogang District, which was annexed from Siaogang Township of Kaohsiung County.
The Kaohsiung Incident, where the government suppressed a commemoration of International Human Rights Day, occurred on 10 December 1979. Since then, Kaohsiung gradually grew into a political center of the Pan-Green population of Taiwan, in opposition to Taipei where the majority population is Kuomintang supporters.
On 25 December 2010, Kaohsiung City merged with Kaohsiung County to form a larger special municipality with administrative centers in Lingya District and Fongshan District.
On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya Districts of the city, killing 31 and injuring more than 300. Five roads were destroyed in an area of nearly 20 square kilometres (7.7 square miles) near the city center. It was the largest gas explosion in Taiwan's modern history.


In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Administrative control of the city was moved from New Fongshan Castle to the Fongshan Sub-District of Tainan Chō (臺南廳). In November 1901, twenty chō were established in total; Hōzan Chō (鳳山廳) was established nearby. In 1909, Hōzan Chō was abolished, and Takow was merged into Tainan Chō.
In 1920, during the tenure of 8th Governor-General Den Kenjirō, districts were abolished in favor of prefectures. Thus the city was administered as Takao City (高雄市, Takao-shi) under Takao Prefecture.
The Japanese developed Takao, especially the harbor that became the foundation of Kaohsiung to be a port city. Takao was then systematically modernized and connected to the end of North-South Railway. Forming a north–south regional economic corridor from Taipei to Kaohsiung in the 1930s, Japan's Southward Policy set Kaohsiung to become an industrial center. Kaohsiung Harbor was also developed starting from 1894. The city center was relocated several times during the period due to the government's development strategy. Development was initially centered on Ki-au (Chinese: 旗後; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kî-āu) region but the government began laying railways, upgrading the harbor, and passing new urban plans. New industries such as refinery, machinery, shipbuilding and cementing were also introduced.
Before and during World War II it handled a growing share of Taiwan's agricultural exports to Japan, and was also a major base for Japan's campaigns in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Extremely ambitious plans for the construction of a massive modern port were drawn up. Toward the end of the war, the Japanese promoted some industrial development at Kaohsiung, establishing an aluminum industry based on the abundant hydroelectric power produced by the Sun Moon Lake project in the mountains.
The city was heavily bombed by Task Force 38 and FEAF during World War II between 1944 and 1945.


Kaohsiung City (/ˌkaʊˈʃʌŋ/; Mandarin Chinese: [káʊɕjʊ̌ŋ] (listen); Wade–Giles: Kao¹-hsiung²; Pinyin: Gāoxióng) is a special municipality in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of 2,952 km² (1,140 sq mi). Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.72 million people as of May 2022 and is Taiwan's third most populous city and largest city in southern Taiwan.
Since founding in the 17th century, Kaohsiung has grown from a small trading village into the political and economic centre of southern Taiwan, with key industries such as manufacturing, steel-making, oil refining, freight transport and shipbuilding. It is classified as a "Gamma −" level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, with some of the most prominent infrastructures in Taiwan. The Port of Kaohsiung is the largest and busiest harbor in Taiwan while Kaohsiung International Airport is the second busiest airport in number of passengers. The city is well-connected to other major cities by high speed and conventional rail, as well as several national freeways. It also hosts the Republic of China Navy fleet headquarters and its naval academy. More recent public works such as Pier-2 Art Center, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and Kaohsiung Music Center have been aimed at growing the tourism and cultural industries of the city.


Tainan (/ˈtaɪˈnɑːn/), officially Tainan City, is a special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" for its over 200 years of history as the capital of Taiwan under Koxinga and later Qing rule. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals inspired its popular nickname "the Phoenix City". Tainan is classified as a "Sufficiency" level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
As Taiwan's oldest urban area, Tainan was initially established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a ruling and trading base called Fort Zeelandia during the period of Dutch rule on the island. After Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga in 1661, Tainan remained as the capital of the Tungning Kingdom until 1683 and afterwards the capital of Taiwan Prefecture under Qing Dynasty rule until 1887, when the new provincial capital was first moved to present-day Taichung, and then moved to Taipei eventually. Tainan has been historically regarded as one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and its former name, Tayouan, has been claimed to be the origin of the name "Taiwan". It is also one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, for its rich folk cultures including the famous local street food and traditional cuisine, extensively preserved Taoist rites and other living local traditions covering everything from child birth to funerals. The city houses the first Confucian school–temple in Taiwan, built in 1665, the remains of the Eastern and Southern gates of the old city, and countless other historical monuments. Tainan claims more Buddhist and Taoist temples than any other city in Taiwan.


The Republic of China (ROC) took over Taiwan on 25 October 1945 after World War II. Tainan City and Tainan County were established and became separate local entities under Taiwan Province in 1946. There was civil unrest in Tainan as part of the February 28 Incident in 1947. Tang De-Jhang, an ethnic Japanese man and Japanese educated lawyer, was a member of government which set up "The February 28 Incident Commission" and a popular candidate for city mayor, was accused of being a separatist and arrested by the ROC army on March 11. He was tortured and executed the next day in the park in front of Tainan City Hall (now named Tang Te-chang Memorial Park). Tang was posthumously pronounced not guilty by court later in March. Like other regions in Taiwan, many people in Tainan suffered for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) during the autocratic era.
The city held its first councilor and mayoral elections in 1950. In the 1960s, Tainan was overtaken by Kaohsiung as the economic center of southern Taiwan due to the redevelopment of Kaohsiung port. While Tainan City struggled through the second half of twentieth century, the county, especially the river south region, benefited from prioritization by national programs. The completion of the National Highway No. 1 was followed by the building of many industrial parks and other road improvements. As a result, the city sprawled inland into North, East and then the Yongkang and Rende districts.
In 1992, a redevelopment plan in the West district, to widen Haian Rd and build an underground plaza proved a failure as lack of geological surveying and overall planning meant that the works ran into a layer of groundwater. The development destroyed part of the historic Go-tiau-kang area. As a consequence, the Zhongzheng Road district, previously the most popular shopping precinct in Tainan since Japanese rule, went into decline due to the poor quality of the environment. By the mid-1990s, there was a growing awareness of the need to protect Tainan's historical and cultural treasures. Since then, the government and civil societies have worked to protect Tainan's heritage. It is an ongoing issue for Tainan to protect its past while reviving its old business center.
Following the establishment of the Southern Taiwan Science Park in 1995, the outskirt of the city saw a rapid growth in population through the 2000s. The city became more prosperous after the completion of several major transport infrastructure plans. The city center shifted eastward in the mid-1990s, closer to the densely populated Yongkang, East and North districts. There are several redevelopment plans to transform these districts into the new business centers of the city.
On March 19, 2004, President Chen Shui-bian was shot while campaigning for reelection in Tainan, a city that has been a major center for the pro-independent movement since the end of Japanese rule. On October 21, 2008, Chinese ARATS Vice President Zhang Mingqing was injured when he encountered protesters in Tainan Confucius Temple.
In June 2009, the Executive Yuan approved the plan to merge Tainan County and Tainan City to form a larger municipality of Tainan City. On 25 December 2010, Tainan County and Tainan City merged to become Tainan special municipality.
On February 6, 2016, the area was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, causing 116 fatalities and major damage, including building collapses (see 2016 Kaohsiung earthquake).


Archaeological excavations in Zuojhen District suggest that the Tainan region has been inhabited for at least 20,000 to 31,000 years. The indigenous Siraya tribe dominated the region by the 16th century. The Sakam people of the Sinkan sub-tribe inhabited the area of the present-day city. Other Sirayan sub-tribes, including the Soelangh, Mattauw and Baccloangh inhabited the surrounding area.
By the late 16th century, Chinese merchants and fishermen had set up several bases along the west coast of the island, including a sandbar across the Taikang Inner Sea (Chinese: 臺江內海; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-kang lāi-hái) off the bay of Sakam village (modern-day Fort Provintia). The Chinese adopted Taioan (modern-day Anping) as the name of the sandbar. Slightly north of Taioan, along the shoreline near Bassemboy (北線尾; Pak-siàn-bóe), Japanese traders established bases for trade with China. The early Chinese and Japanese also traded with the Sirayan people. Salt and food was exchanged for deer hides and dried deer meat. The Siraya people were influenced by both Chinese and Japanese cultures and lifestyles. They started to use Chinese words in their language, use Japanese tantō in ritual events, and also migrated inland due to the influx of newcomers. By the time the Europeans arrived, the influence of Chinese and Japanese traders and fishermen was already prominent.


January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885.
January 5–9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is published in New York and London.
January 16 – A resolution is passed in the German Parliament to condemn the Prussian deportations, the politically motivated mass expulsion of ethnic Poles and Jews from Prussia, initiated by Otto von Bismarck.
January 18 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
January 29 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (built in 1885).
February 6–9 – Seattle riot of 1886: Anti-Chinese sentiments result in riots in Seattle, Washington.
February 8 – The West End Riots following a popular meeting in Trafalgar Square, London.
February 14 – The first train load of oranges leaves Los Angeles via the United States transcontinental railroad.
March 3 – The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Serbo-Bulgarian War in the Balkans.
March 16 – A law establishing the Kiel Canal is adopted in the German Empire.
March 17 – Carrollton Massacre: 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.
March 29 – Wilhelm Steinitz becomes the first recognized World Chess Champion.
March – Gottlieb Daimler assembles his first automobile, in Germany.


1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1886th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 886th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 86th  year of the 19th century, and the  7th   year of the 1880s decade. As of the start of 1886, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


April 4 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the First Irish Home Rule Bill in the Parliament of the United Kingdom; it is defeated on June 8.
April 6 – The settlement of Vancouver, British Columbia is incorporated.
April 24 – Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the United States to identify himself publicly as African American, is ordained in Rome.
April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (the next time is in 1943).
April – The Swedish Dress Reform Society is established.
May 1 – A general strike begins in the United States, which escalates on May 4 into the Haymarket affair in Chicago, and eventually wins the eight-hour day for workers.
May 4 – Emile Berliner starts work that leads to the invention of the gramophone.
May 8 – American pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will be named 'Coca-Cola'.
May 15 – Portugal and France agree to regulate the borders of their colonies in Guinea.
May 17
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that corporations have the same rights as living persons.
Motherwell Football Club is founded in Scotland.
May 29 – John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (in The Atlanta Journal).
June 2 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House (Washington, D.C.), becoming the only President of the United States to wed in the executive mansion. She is 27 years his junior.
June 3 – Uganda Martyrs: Charles Lwanga, 12 other Catholic boys and men, and 9 Anglicans, are burned (and another Catholic speared) to death, at the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II of Buganda in Namugongo.
June 10 – The  Mount Tarawera volcano erupts in New Zealand, resulting in the deaths of over 150 people and the destruction of the famous Pink and White Terraces.
June 12 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria is detained as part of a deposition, drowning the following day under mysterious circumstances. Six weeks later his unfinished Neuschwanstein Castle is opened to the public.
June 13 – The Great Vancouver Fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
June 25 – Arturo Toscanini makes his conducting debut, with an Italian opera company visiting Rio de Janeiro.
June 30 – The Royal Holloway College for women is opened by Queen Victoria, near London, England.


July 3 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen.
July 9 – American inventor Charles M. Hall files a patent for his inexpensive method of refining aluminium (discovered on February 23); independently and near-simultaneously discovered in France by Paul Héroult it becomes known as the Hall–Héroult process.
July 23 – Steve Brodie is reported to have made a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, a claim subsequently disputed.
July 25 – Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative Party (UK)) becomes Great Britain's 30th Prime Minister.
August 13 – Nagasaki Incident: Chinese troops riot during shore leave in Nagasaki, Japan.
August 19 – The Christian Union (Church of God) is established.
August 20 – A massive hurricane demolishes the town of Indianola, Texas.
August 31 – The 7.0 Mw  Charleston earthquake affects southeastern South Carolina, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme); 60 people are killed, and damage is estimated at $5–6 million.
September 1 – Grasshopper Club Zürich is founded as the first football club in the Swiss city of Zürich by English students.
September 4 – American Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders, with his last band of warriors, to General Nelson Miles, at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.
September 9 – The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is signed.
September 21 – American physicist William Stanley, Jr. patents the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.


October 7 – Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.
October 24 – The British merchant vessel Normanton sinks off the coast of Japan, triggering the Normanton incident.
October 28 – In New York Harbor, U.S. President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France. The ensuing spontaneous celebration in New York City leads to the first ticker tape parade.
November – The extremely harsh winter of 1886–87 in the United States begins, killing tens of thousands of cattle on the Great Plains of North America.
November 1 – The biggest Buddhist boys' school in Sri Lanka, Ananda College, is founded in Colombo.
November 3 – In the British Raj, what will become one of the biggest boys' schools in Pakistan, Aitchison College, Lahore, is founded under the auspices of Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison.
November 11 – Heinrich Hertz verifies the existence of electromagnetic waves, at the University of Karlsruhe.
November 14 – German inventor Friedrich Soennecken first develops the hole puncher, a type of office tool capable of punching small holes in paper.
November 15 – A worldwide home appliance and power tool brand, Robert Bosch GmbH was founded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
November 30 – The Folies Bergère stages its first revue in Paris.
December 11 – London Association football club Arsenal, founded as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, play their first match (on the Isle of Dogs). The club is renamed Royal Arsenal soon afterwards, supposedly on December 25.
December 17 – English adventurer Thomas Stevens concludes the first circumnavigation by bicycle in Yokohama, having set out on his penny-farthing from San Francisco in 1884.


May 2 – Gottfried Benn, German poet (d. 1956)
May 3 – Marcel Dupré, French composer (d. 1971)
May 4 – Aubrey Abbott, Australian politician and administrator of the Northern Territory (d. 1975)
May 10
Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian (d. 1968)
Felix Ysagun Manalo, first Executive Minister (Tagapamahalang Pangkalahatan) of the Iglesia ni Cristo (d. 1963)
Olaf Stapledon, British author, philosopher (d. 1950)
May 17 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain (d. 1941)
May 18 – Ture Nerman, Swedish communist leader (d. 1969)
May 20 – John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, British businessman (d. 1971)
May 26 – Al Jolson, American entertainer (d. 1950)
June 2 – Grover Whalen, American politician (d. 1962)
June 3 – Benjamin McCandlish, Governor of Guam (d. 1975)
June 6 – William A. Glassford, American admiral (d. 1958)
June 7 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (d. 1972)
June 9 – Kosaku Yamada, Japanese composer, conductor (d. 1965)
June 18 – George Mallory, English climber (d. 1924)
June 21 – William Ibbett, English submariner (d. 1975)
June 23 – Olaf M. Hustvedt, American admiral (d. 1978)
June 24
Ion Gigurtu, 42nd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1959)
George Shiels, Northern Irish dramatist (d. 1949)
June 25
Alimihan Seyiti, Chinese supercentenarian
Henry "Hap" Arnold, American general, aviation pioneer (d. 1950)
June 27
Sally Crute, American actress (d. 1971)
Carroll McComas, American actress (d. 1962)
June 28 – Hitoshi Imamura, Japanese general (d. 1968)
June 29
Robert C. Giffen, American admiral (d. 1962)
Robert Schuman, German-French politician, a founding father of the European Union (d. 1963)


Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday diēs Sāturnī ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day's name was introduced into West Germanic languages and is recorded in the Low German languages such as Middle Low German satersdach, saterdach, Middle Dutch saterdag (Modern Dutch zaterdag) and Old English Sæternesdæġ, Sæterndæġ or Sæterdæġ.


Although not called as such, siege engines performing the role recognizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first known catapult was developed in Syracuse in 399 BC. Until the introduction of gunpowder into western warfare, artillery was dependent upon mechanical energy which not only severely limited the kinetic energy of the projectiles, it also required the construction of very large engines to store sufficient energy. A 1st-century BC Roman catapult launching 6.55 kg (14.4 lb) stones achieved a kinetic energy of 16,000 joules, compared to a mid-19th-century 12-pounder gun, which fired a 4.1 kg (9.0 lb) round, with a kinetic energy of 240,000 joules, or a 20th-century US battleship that fired a 1,225 kg (2,701 lb) projectile from its main battery with an energy level surpassing 350,000,000 joules.
From the Middle Ages through most of the modern era, artillery pieces on land were moved by horse-drawn gun carriages. In the contemporary era, artillery pieces and their crew relied on wheeled or tracked vehicles as transportation. These land versions of artillery were dwarfed by railway guns; the largest of these large-calibre guns ever conceived – Project Babylon of the Supergun affair – was theoretically capable of putting a satellite into orbit. Artillery used by naval forces has also changed significantly, with missiles generally replacing guns in surface warfare.
Over the course of military history, projectiles were manufactured from a wide variety of materials, into a wide variety of shapes, using many different methods in which to target structural/defensive works and inflict enemy casualties. The engineering applications for ordnance delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, encompassing some of the most complex and advanced technologies in use today.
In some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the equipment that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery. The actions involved in operating an artillery piece are collectively called "serving the gun" by the "detachment" or gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The manner in which gunnery crews (or formations) are employed is called artillery support. At different periods in history, this may refer to weapons designed to be fired from ground-, sea-, and even air-based weapons platforms.


Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
Originally, the word "artillery" referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armor. Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannons, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, and mortars (collectively called cannon artillery, gun artillery or tube artillery), and rocket artillery. In common speech, the word "artillery" is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly called "equipment". However, there is no generally recognized generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: the United States uses "artillery piece", but most English-speaking armies use "gun" and "mortar". The projectiles fired are typically either "shot" (if solid) or "shell" (if not solid). Historically, variants of solid shot including canister, chain shot and grapeshot were also used. "Shell" is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions.
By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines. In some armies, the artillery arm has operated field, coastal, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank artillery; in others these have been separate arms, and with some nations coastal has been a naval or marine responsibility.
In the 20th century, technology-based target acquisition devices (such as radar) and systems (such as sound ranging and flash spotting) emerged in order to acquire targets, primarily for artillery. These are usually operated by one or more of the artillery arms. The widespread adoption of indirect fire in the early 20th century introduced the need for specialist data for field artillery, notably survey and meteorological, and in some armies, provision of these are the responsibility of the artillery arm.
Artillery has been used since at least the early Industrial Revolution. The majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was "the god of war".


During military operations, field artillery has the role of providing support to other arms in combat or of attacking targets, particularly in-depth. Broadly, these effects fall into two categories, aiming either to suppress or neutralize the enemy, or to cause casualties, damage, and destruction. This is mostly achieved by delivering high-explosive munitions to suppress, or inflict casualties on the enemy from casing fragments and other debris and from blast, or by destroying enemy positions, equipment, and vehicles. Non-lethal munitions, notably smoke, can also suppress or neutralize the enemy by obscuring their view.
Fire may be directed by an artillery observer or another observer, including crewed and uncrewed aircraft, or called onto map coordinates.
Military doctrine has had a significant influence on the core engineering design considerations of artillery ordnance through its history, in seeking to achieve a balance between the delivered volume of fire with ordnance mobility. However, during the modern period, the consideration of protecting the gunners also arose due to the late-19th-century introduction of the new generation of infantry weapons using conoidal bullet, better known as the Minié ball, with a range almost as long as that of field artillery.
The gunners' increasing proximity to and participation in direct combat against other combat arms and attacks by aircraft made the introduction of a gun shield necessary. The problems of how to employ a fixed or horse-towed gun in mobile warfare necessitated the development of new methods of transporting the artillery into combat. Two distinct forms of artillery were developed: the towed gun, used primarily to attack or defend a fixed-line; and the self-propelled gun, intended to accompany a mobile force and to provide continuous fire support and/or suppression. These influences have guided the development of artillery ordnance, systems, organizations, and operations until the present, with artillery systems capable of providing support at ranges from as little as 100 m to the intercontinental ranges of ballistic missiles. The only combat in which artillery is unable to take part in is close-quarters combat, with the possible exception of artillery reconnaissance teams.


1762 (MDCCLXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1762nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 762nd  year of the 2nd millennium, the 62nd  year of the 18th century, and the  3rd   year of the 1760s decade. As of the start of 1762, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


April 2 – A powerful earthquake along the border between modern-day Bangladesh and Myanmar causes a tsunami in the Bay of Bengal that kills at least 200 people.
April 5 – France issues a new ordinance requiring all black and mixed-race Frenchmen to register their identity information with the offices of the Admiralty Court, upon the advice of Guillaume Poncet de la Grave, adviser to King Louis XV. The new rule, which requires both free and enslaved blacks and mulattoes to list data including their age, surname, purpose for which they are residing in France, whether they have been baptized as Christians, where they emigrated from in Africa and the name of the ship upon which they arrived. Previously, the Declaration of 1738 required slave-owners to register their slaves, but placed no requirement on free people.
May 5 (April 24 O.S.) – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ends the war between Russia and Prussia, and returns all of Russia's territorial conquests to the Prussians.
May 22 – The Treaty of Hamburg takes Sweden out of the war against Prussia.
May 26 – Dissatisfied with the progress of the French and Indian War, King George III dismisses his Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, and replaces him with his former tutor, Tory politician John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute.  The Bute ministry lasts less than a year before Stuart's resignation in 1763.
May 31 – Marco Foscarini becomes the new Doge of the Republic of Venice after the death of Francesco Loredan, who had administered the Republic for 10 years.
June 8 – Cherokee Indian war chief Ostenaco and his two aides, Standing Turkey (Cunneshote) and Pouting Pigeon, are received by King George III. They had arrived three days earlier at Plymouth on the British frigate Epreuvre as guests of the Timberlake Expedition of Henry Timberlake, to discuss terms of peace with the British government.
June 24 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats the French forces in Westphalia. The British commander Lord Granby distinguishes himself.


An antiquated, inaccurate, and now debunked etymological theory held that the city's name originated from the word may-nilad (meaning "where nilad is found"). There are two versions of this false etymology. One popular incorrect notion is that the old word nilad refers to the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) that grows on the banks of the Pasig River. However, this plant species was only recently introduced into the Philippines from South America, and therefore could not have been the source of the toponym for old Manila.
Another incorrect etymology has arisen from the observation that, in Tagalog, nilád or nilár refers to a shrub-like tree (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea; formerly Ixora manila Blanco) that grows in or near mangrove swamps.
However, linguistic analysis shows that the word Maynilà is unlikely to have developed from this term. It is unlikely that native Tagalog speakers would completely drop the final consonant /d/ in nilad to arrive at the present form Maynilà. As an example, nearby Bacoor still retains the final consonant of the old Tagalog word bakoód ("elevated piece of land"), even in old Spanish renderings of the placename (e.g., Vacol, Bacor). Moreover, the historians Ambeth Ocampo and Joseph Baumgartner have shown that, in every early document, the place name Maynilà was always written without a final /d/. This documentation shows conclusively that the may-nilad etymology is spurious.
Originally, the mistaken identification of nilad as the source of the toponym probably originated in an 1887 essay by Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, in which he mistakenly used the word nila to refer both to Indigofera tinctoria (true indigo) and to Ixora manila (which is actually nilád in Tagalog). Early 20th century writings, such as those of Julio Nakpil and of Blair and Robertson, then simply repeated the claim. Today, this erroneous etymology continues to be perpetuated through casual repetition in both literature and in popular use. Examples of popular adoption of this mistaken etymology include the name of a local utility, Maynilad Water Services, and the name of an underpass close to Manila City Hall, Lagusnilad (meaning "Nilad Pass").


The earliest evidence of human life around present-day Manila is the nearby Angono Petroglyphs, dated to around 3000 BC. Negritos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines, lived across the island of Luzon, where Manila is located, before the Malayo-Polynesians migrated in and assimilated them.
Manila was an active trade partner with the Song and Yuan dynasties of China. The polity of Tondo flourished during the latter half of the Ming dynasty as a result of direct trade relations with China. The Tondo district was the traditional capital of the empire, and its rulers were sovereign kings, not mere chieftains. Tondo was christened under the traditional Chinese characters in the Hokkien reading, Chinese: 東都; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tong-to͘; lit. 'Eastern Capital', due to its chief position located southeast of China. The kings of Tondo were addressed variously as panginoón in Tagalog ("lords") or panginuan in Maranao; anák banwa ("son of heaven"); or lakandula ("lord of the palace"). The Emperor of China considered the lakans—the rulers of ancient Manila—"王", or kings.
In the 13th century, Manila consisted of a fortified settlement and trading quarter on the shore of the Pasig River. It was then settled by the Indianized empire of Majapahit, as recorded in the epic eulogy poem Nagarakretagama, which described the area's conquest by Maharaja Hayam Wuruk. Selurong (षेलुरोङ्), a historical name for Manila, is listed in Canto 14 alongside Sulot, which is now Sulu, and Kalka. Selurong (Manila) together with Sulot (Sulu) was able to regain independence afterward, and Sulu even attacked and looted the Majapahit province of Po-ni (Brunei) in retribution.
During the reign of the Arab emir, Sharif Ali's descendant, Sultan Bolkiah, from 1485 to 1521, the Sultanate of Brunei which had seceded from Hindu Majapahit and became a Muslim, had invaded the area. The Bruneians wanted to take advantage of Tondo's strategic position in trade with China and Indonesia and thus attacked its environs and established the rajahnate of Maynilà (كوتا سلودوڠ; Kota Seludong). The rajahnate was ruled under and gave yearly tribute to Brunei as a satellite state. It created a new dynasty under the local leader, who accepted Islam and became Rajah Salalila or Sulaiman I. He established a trading challenge to the already rich House of Lakan Dula in Tondo. Islam was further strengthened by the arrival of Muslim traders from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.


During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, American soldiers were ordered to withdraw from Manila, and all military installations were removed on December 24, 1941. Two days later, General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an open city to prevent further death and destruction, but Japanese warplanes continued to bomb it. Manila was occupied by Japanese forces on January 2, 1942.
From February 3 to March 3, 1945, Manila was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theater of World War II. Some 100,000 civilians were killed in February. At the end of the war, Manila had suffered from heavy bombardment and became the second most-destroyed city in World War II. Manila was recaptured by joint American and Philippine troops.


Manila (/məˈnɪlə/ mə-NIL-ə, Spanish: [maˈnila]; Filipino: Maynila, [majˈnilaʔ]), known officially as the City of Manila (Filipino: Lungsod ng Maynila, locally [luŋˈsod nɐŋ majˈnilaʔ]), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and as of 2019 was the world's most densely populated city proper. It was the first chartered city in the country, designated as such by the Philippine Commission Act 183 of July 31, 1901. It became autonomous with the passage of Republic Act No. 409, "The Revised Charter of the City of Manila," on June 18, 1949. Manila is considered to be part of the world's original set of global cities because its commercial networks were the first to extend across the Pacific Ocean and connect Asia with the Spanish Americas through the galleon trade; when this was accomplished, it marked the first time in world history that an uninterrupted chain of trade routes circling the planet had been established. Manila is the second most natural-disaster-afflicted capital city in the world after Tokyo; despite this, it is among the most populous and fastest growing cities in Southeast Asia.
The Spanish city of Manila was founded on June 24, 1571, by Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi. This is regarded as the city's official founding date; however, a Tagalog-fortified polity called Maynilà had already existed on the site, dating back as far as 1258. It is the name of this old polity from which the Spanish and English name Manila derives. After the defeat of the polity's last indigenous Rajah, Sulayman III, in the Battle of Bangkusay, a fortified Spanish city called Intramuros was built directly on top of the site of old Maynilà. Manila was the seat of power for most of the country's colonial rulers and was one of the royal Spanish cities in the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies, along with Cebu, Naga, and Iloilo. Today, it is home to many historic sites, some of which were built during the 16th century.
The term "Manila" is commonly used to refer to the whole metropolitan area, the greater metropolitan area, or the city proper. The officially defined metropolitan area, called Metro Manila, the "capital region" of the Philippines, includes the much larger Quezon City and the Makati Central Business District. It is the most populous region in the country, one of the most populous urban areas in the world, and is one of the wealthiest regions in Southeast Asia. The city proper was home to 1,846,513 people in 2020,  and is the historic core of a built-up area that extends well beyond its administrative limits. With 71,263 people per square kilometer, Manila is the most densely populated city proper in the world.
Manila is located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay, on the island of Luzon. The Pasig River flows through the middle of the city, dividing it into the north and south sections. The city comprises 16 administrative districts and is divided into six political districts for the purposes of its representation in the Congress of the Philippines and the election of city council members. In 2018, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network listed Manila as an "Alpha-" global city and ranked it seventh in economic performance globally and second regionally (behind Delhi, India in the latter case), while the Global Financial Centres Index ranks Manila 79th in the world.


Maynilà, the Filipino name for the city, comes from the phrase may-nilà, meaning "where indigo is found". Nilà is derived from the Sanskrit word nīla (नील), which refers to indigo – and, by extension, to several plant species from which this natural dye can be extracted. The name Maynilà was probably bestowed because of the indigo-yielding plants that grow in the area surrounding the settlement, and not because it was known as a settlement that traded in indigo dye: Indigo-dye extraction became an important economic activity in the area only in the 18th century, several hundred years after the Maynila settlement was founded and named.
Maynilà was eventually hispanicized into Spanish as Manila.


On the origins of gunpowder technology, historian Tonio Andrade remarked, "Scholars today overwhelmingly concur that the gun was invented in China." Gunpowder and the gun are widely believed by historians to have originated from China due to the large body of evidence that documents the evolution of gunpowder from a medicine to an incendiary and explosive, and the evolution of the gun from the fire lance to a metal gun, whereas similar records do not exist elsewhere. As Andrade explains, the large amount of variation in gunpowder recipes in China relative to Europe is "evidence of experimentation in China, where gunpowder was at first used as an incendiary and only later became an explosive and a propellant... in contrast, formulas in Europe diverged only very slightly from the ideal proportions for use as an explosive and a propellant, suggesting that gunpowder was introduced as a mature technology."
However, the history of gunpowder is not without controversy. A major problem confronting the study of early gunpowder history is ready access to sources close to the events described. Often the first records potentially describing use of gunpowder in warfare were written several centuries after the fact, and may well have been colored by the contemporary experiences of the chronicler. Translation difficulties have led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence. Ambiguous language can make it difficult to distinguish gunpowder weapons from similar technologies that do not rely on gunpowder. A commonly cited example is a report of the Battle of Mohi in Eastern Europe that mentions a "long lance" sending forth "evil-smelling vapors and smoke", which has been variously interpreted by different historians as the "first-gas attack upon European soil" using gunpowder, "the first use of cannon in Europe", or merely a "toxic gas" with no evidence of gunpowder. It is difficult to accurately translate original Chinese alchemical texts, which tend to explain phenomena through metaphor, into modern scientific language with rigidly defined terminology in English.  Early texts potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where semantic change occurred. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, and the Chinese word pào changed in meaning from trebuchet to a cannon. This has led to arguments on the exact origins of gunpowder based on etymological foundations. Science and technology historian Bert S. Hall makes the observation that, "It goes without saying, however, that historians bent on special pleading, or simply with axes of their own to grind, can find rich material in these terminological thickets."
Another major area of contention in modern studies of the history of gunpowder is regarding the transmission of gunpowder. While the literary and archaeological evidence supports a Chinese origin for gunpowder and guns, the manner in which gunpowder technology was transferred from China to the West is still under debate. It is unknown why the rapid spread of gunpowder technology across Eurasia took place over several decades whereas other technologies such as paper, the compass, and printing did not reach Europe until centuries after they were invented in China.


Gunpowder is a low explosive: it does not detonate, but rather deflagrates (burns quickly). This is an advantage in a propellant device, where one does not desire a shock that would shatter the gun and potentially harm the operator; however, it is a drawback when an explosion is desired. In that case, the propellant (and most importantly, gases produced by its burning) must be confined. Since it contains its own oxidizer and additionally burns faster under pressure, its combustion is capable of bursting containers such as a shell, grenade, or improvised "pipe bomb" or "pressure cooker" casings to form shrapnel.
In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, gunpowder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making it useful for blasting slate, which is fragile, or monumental stone such as granite and marble. Gunpowder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. It is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.
Combustion converts less than half the mass of gunpowder to gas; most of it turns into particulate matter. Some of it is ejected, wasting propelling power, fouling the air, and generally being a nuisance (giving away a soldier's position, generating fog that hinders vision, etc.). Some of it ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel, where it also is a nuisance for subsequent shots, and a cause of jamming an automatic weapon. Moreover, this residue is hygroscopic, and with the addition of moisture absorbed from the air forms a corrosive substance. The soot contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide that turns into potassium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide, which corrodes wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Gunpowder arms therefore require thorough and regular cleaning to remove the residue.