Vancouver is a city in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, named
for George Vancouver, an English explorer. Vancouver is part of the
Greater Vancouver Regional District metropolitan area. With a
population of 2,180,737 Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in
western Canada and the third largest in the country. Vancouver has a
very ethnically diverse population: more than half of its residents
have a mother tongue other than English. Its economy has traditionally
relied on British Columbia's resource sectors: forestry, mining,
fishing and agriculture. It was first settled in the 1860s as a result
of immigration caused by the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and developed
rapidly from a small lumber mill town into a metropolitan centre
following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887. The
Port of Vancouver became internationally significant after the
completion of the Panama Canal and reduced freight rates in the 1920s
made it viable to ship export-bound prairie grain west through
Vancouver. It has since become the busiest seaport in Canada and
exports more cargo than any other port in North America. Vancouver is
consistently ranked one of the three most livable cities in the world.
In 2006, the city was ranked the 56th most expensive city to live in
among 144 major cities in the world and the second most expensive in
Canada (after Toronto).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1587:
Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle on suspicion
of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin,
Queen Elizabeth I of England.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland)
1849:
The Roman Republic was proclaimed.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic_(19th_century))
1904:
The Russo-Japanese War began after a surprise torpedo attack by the
Japanese on Russian ships near present-day Lüshunkou, China.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Arthur)
1971:
Trading began in NASDAQ, the world's first electronic stock exchange.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ)
1979:
Colonel Denis Sassou Nguesso was chosen as the new President of the
Republic of the Congo.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ)
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Wikiquote of the day:
One single war — we all know — may be productive of more evil,
immediate and subsequent, than hundreds of years of the unchecked
action of the mutual-aid principle may be productive of good. -- Peter
Kropotkin
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin)