Wilmington, Delaware
| Wilmington | |||
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| Nickname : Chemical Capital of the World, Corporate Capital of the World | |||
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| Location in Delaware | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1638 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Delaware | ||
| County : | New Castle County | ||
| Coordinates : | 39 ° 45 ′ N , 75 ° 33 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | ||
| Residents : | 70,851 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 2,512.4 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 44.0 km 2 (approx. 17 mi 2 ) of which 28.2 km 2 (approx. 11 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 28 m | ||
| Postcodes : | 19801-19810, 19850, 19880, 19884-19887, 19889-19899 | ||
| Area code : | +1 302 | ||
| FIPS : | 10-77580 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 214862 | ||
| Website : | www.ci.wilmington.de.us | ||
| Mayor : | Mike Purzycki ( D ) (since 2017) | ||
 Wilmington from above |
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Wilmington is a city in New Castle County in the US state of Delaware , United States , with 70,851 inhabitants (as of 2010 ) and the seat of the county administration. The urban area has a size of 44.1 km².
history
In March 1638 a Swedish expedition, consisting of the ships Kalmar Nyckel (Key of Kalmar) and Vogel Grip (Vogel Greif), led by Peter Minuit, reached the coast of what is now Delaware. The settlers, who landed around March 29th, built Fort Christina (named after the then Swedish Queen Christina I ). Fort Christina, now Wilmington (Delaware), became the first permanent European settlement in Delaware. The Swedes claimed the region of the lower Delaware River (parts of what is now the US states of Delaware , Pennsylvania and New Jersey ) as a colony. The colony of New Sweden existed from March 29, 1638 to September 1655. The Swedish roots can still be found today in the flag of Wilmington. In 1655 the Dutch took over the Swedish colony.
In 1664 the region came under British rule. 1738 named King George III. the settlement in Wilmington. It was named after Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington and later Prime Minister. The city's greatest growth took place during the Civil War . In 1802, the DuPont company was founded with the construction of the first gunpowder factory . Around 1868 Wilmington was a stronghold of steel shipbuilding as well as the production of gunpowder and leather. In 1868 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington was also established.
The two world wars promoted the industrial development of Wilmington, so that more shipyards, steel works and chemical plants were built.
Name variants
The city has a few different names:
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economy
Wilmington is home to many U.S. trading companies and many Fortune 500 companies because of tax and legal advantages . Every well-known US bank and every well-known credit card company, but also companies like Viacom, are based in Wilmington.
The seaport (Port of Wilmington) produces approx. 400 ships p. a. from.
The largest employers in 2018 were:
| employer | Workers |
|---|---|
| Christiana Care Health System | 11.302 |
| State of Delaware | 8,000 |
| DuPont | 7.001 |
| Amazon | 4,300 |
| University of Delaware | 4,000 |
| Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children | 3,795 |
| YMCA of Delaware | 2,469 |
| Christina School District | 2,390 |
| AstraZeneca | 2,200 |
| Red Clay School District | 2,200 |
Educational institutions
- University of Delaware
- Delaware College of Art and Design
- Drexel University
Culture
The Delaware Art Museum has an important art collection. In addition to one of the most important collections of Pre-Raphaelite works outside of Great Britain, there are important works by John French Sloan and Howard Pyles .
Town twinning
Wilmingtons twin cities are
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sons and daughters of the town
- Richard H. Bayard (1796–1868), politician
- James Garretson (1828–1895), physician and dentist
- Thomas F. Bayard (1828–1898), politician
- Preston Lea (1841-1916), politician
- Howard Pyle (1853-1911), author and painter
- Robert P. Robinson (1869-1939), politician
- John Phillips Marquand (1893-1960), writer
- Estelle Taylor (1894–1958), actress
- Richard Lankford (1914-2003), politician
- Pud Brown (1917-1996), jazz musician
- Herta Ware (1917–2005), actress and theater principal
- Cisco Houston (1918–1961), folk musician
- Harry G. Haskell (1921-2020), politician (Republican)
- Daniel Nathans (1928–1999), microbiologist and biochemist and Nobel Prize winner
- Clifford Brown (1930-1956), jazz trumpeter
- Pierre du Pont (* 1935), politician
- Michael A'Hearn (1940-2017), astronomer and planetologist
- Robert W. Field (* 1944), chemist
- Brett Lunger (* 1945), racing car driver
- James Saunders (1946–1996), dancer and choreographer
- Tom Verlaine (* 1949), singer, guitarist and songwriter
- Louise Dolan (* 1950), theoretical physicist
- George Thorogood (born 1950), blues rock musician
- Wilby Fletcher (1954-2009), jazz drummer
- James Singleton (* 1955), musician and composer
- Fostina Dixon (* 1956), jazz musician
- Judge Reinhold (* 1957), actor
- Cynthia Rothrock (* 1957), actress and five-time karate world champion
- Tory Dent (1958–2005), poet, writer and art critic
- Kathleen Cassello (1958-2017), opera singer
- Matthew Shipp (* 1960), jazz musician
- Sara Lazarus (* 1962), jazz singer
- Terry Plank (* 1963), geochemist and volcanologist
- Elisabeth Shue (* 1963), actress
- Krišjānis Kariņš (* 1964), Latvian politician
- Sean Patrick Thomas (born 1970), actor
- Andrea Lauren Brown (born 1973), singer
- Luke Matheny (* 1976), director, screenwriter and actor
- Ryan Spahn (born 1980), film actor
- Garrett Neff (* 1984), model
- Aubrey Plaza (* 1984), comedian and actress
- Elena Delle Donne (* 1989), basketball player
- Paul Worrilow (born 1990), American football player
People connected to Wilmington
- Joe Biden (* 1942), politician (Democrat), lives in Wilmington
Web links
Wikinews: Wilmington, Delaware - on the newsIndividual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f U.S. Geological Survey. Geographic Names Phase I data compilation (1976-1981). 31-Dec-1981. Primarily from US Geological Survey 1: 24,000-scale topographic maps (or 1: 25K, Puerto Rico 1: 20K) and from US Board on Geographic Names files. In some instances, from 1: 62,500 scale or 1: 250,000 scale maps
- ^ American Maps, Rare and Early, 1579-1796, Vol. 1, Plate 2. Paris, London
- ↑ 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report , at www.wilmingtonde.gov , accessed May 17, 2019
- ^ Sister Cities of Wilmington