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The beer. Budweiser is produced using malted barley, rice, water, hops and yeast. The brewing happens in seven steps: milling, mashing, straining, brew kettle, primary fermentation, beechwood lagering and finishing. It is lagered with beechwood chips in the aging vessel. Because the beechwood chips are boiled in sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) for seven hours beforehand, there is little to no flavor contribution from the wood. The maturation tanks that Anheuser-Busch uses are horizontal, causing flocculation of yeast to occur much more quickly. Anheuser-Busch refers to this process as a secondary fermentation, with the idea being that the chips give the yeast more surface area to rest on. This is combined with a krausening procedure that re-introduces wort into the chip tank, reactivating the fermentation process. Placing beechwood chips at the bottom of the tank keeps the yeast in suspension longer, giving it more time to reabsorb and process green beer flavors such as acetaldehyde and diacetyl that Anheuser-Busch believes are off-flavors which detract from overall drinkability.
Budweiser and "Bud Light" are sometimes advertised as vegan beers, in that their ingredients and conditioning do not use animal by-products. Some people object to the inclusion of genetically engineered rice and animal products used in the brewing process. In July 2006, Anheuser-Busch brewed a version of Budweiser with organic rice for sale in Mexico. It has yet to extend this practice to any other countries. Budweiser brands. In addition to the regular Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch brews several different beers under the Budweiser brand, including Bud Light, Bud Ice, and Bud Light Lime. In July 2010, Anheuser-Busch launched Budweiser 66 in the United Kingdom. Budweiser Brew No.66 has 4% alcohol by volume, and is brewed and distributed in the UK by Inbev UK Limited. In 2020, Budweiser introduced Bud Light Seltzer. In August 2020, Bud Light Seltzers added grapefruit, cranberry and pineapple flavors, to its original offerings of black cherry, mango, lemon lime and strawberry. In October 2020, Bud Light Seltzers added Apple Crisp, Peppermint Pattie, and Gingersnap, with the cans sporting "ugly sweater" designs.
In July 2020, Budweiser introduced Bud Zero, its first alcohol-free low-calorie beer. It has zero sugar, zero alcohol, and 50 calories. Temporary "America" labeling. On May 10, 2016, "Advertising Age" reported that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau had approved new Budweiser labels to be used on 12-ounce cans and bottles from May 23 until the November elections. The name "Budweiser" was changed to "America". Much of the text on the packaging was replaced with patriotic American slogans, such as E pluribus unum and "Liberty & Justice For All". International production. Budweiser is licensed, produced and distributed in Canada by Labatt Brewing Company (also owned by AB InBev). Of the 15 Anheuser-Busch breweries outside of the United States, 14 of them are positioned in China. Budweiser is the fourth leading brand in the Chinese beer market.
Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly bounded by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Since the mid-20th century, it has been the focus of an urban legend suggesting that many aircraft, ships, and people have disappeared there under mysterious circumstances. However, extensive investigations by reputable sources, including the U.S. government and scientific organizations, have found no evidence of unusual activity, attributing reported incidents to natural phenomena, human error, and misinterpretation. Origins. The earliest suggestion of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in an article written by Edward Van Winkle Jones of the "Miami Herald" that was distributed by the Associated Press and appeared in various American newspapers on 17 September 1950. Two years later, "Fate" magazine published "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand that was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Sand recounted the loss of several planes and ships since World War II: the disappearance of "Sandra", a tramp steamer; the December 1945 loss of Flight 19, a group of five US Navy torpedo bombers on a training mission; the January 1948 disappearance of "Star Tiger", a British South American Airways (BSAA) passenger airplane; the March 1948 disappearance of a fishing skiff with three men, including jockey Albert Snider; the December 1948 disappearance of an Airborne Transport DC-3 charter flight en route from Puerto Rico to Miami; and the January 1949 disappearance of "Star Ariel", another BSAA passenger airplane.
Flight 19 was covered again in the April 1962 issue of "The American Legion Magazine". In it, author Allan W. Eckert wrote that the flight leader had been heard saying, "We cannot be sure of any direction ... everything is wrong ... strange ... the ocean doesn't look as it should." In February 1964, Vincent Gaddis wrote an article called "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" in "Argosy" saying Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region, dating back to at least 1840. The next year, Gaddis expanded this article into a book, "Invisible Horizons". Other writers elaborated on Gaddis' ideas, including John Wallace Spencer ("Limbo of the Lost", 1969, repr. 1973); Charles Berlitz ("The Bermuda Triangle", 1974); and Richard Winer ("The Devil's Triangle", 1974). Various of these authors incorporated supernatural elements. Triangle area. Sand's article in "Fate" described the area as "a watery triangle bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico". The "Argosy" article by Gaddis further delineated the boundaries, giving its vertices as Miami, San Juan, and Bermuda. Subsequent writers did not necessarily follow this definition. Some writers gave different boundaries and vertices to the triangle, with the total area varying from . "Indeed, some writers even stretch it as far as the Irish coast," according to a 1977 BBC program. Consequently, the determination of which accidents occurred inside the triangle depends on which writer reported them.
Criticism of the concept. Larry Kusche. Larry Kusche, author of "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved" (1975), argued that many claims of Gaddis and subsequent writers were exaggerated, dubious or unverifiable. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants, and others involved in the initial incidents. Kusche noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Another example was the ore-carrier recounted by Berlitz as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when in fact it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the "Pacific" Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents that sparked allegations of the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was simple: he would review period newspapers of the dates of reported incidents and find reports on possibly relevant events, like unusual weather, that were never mentioned in the disappearance stories.
Kusche concluded: Further responses. When the British Channel 4 television program "The Bermuda Triangle" (1992) was being produced by John Simmons of Geofilms for the "Equinox" series, the marine insurance market Lloyd's of London was asked if an unusually large number of ships had sunk in the Bermuda Triangle area. Lloyd's determined that large numbers of ships had not sunk there. Lloyd's does not charge higher rates for passing through this area. United States Coast Guard records confirm their conclusion. In fact, the number of supposed disappearances is relatively insignificant considering the number of ships and aircraft that pass through on a regular basis. The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much documentation contradicting many of the incidents written about by the Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and sinking of the tanker , the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies, in contrast with one Triangle author's claim that all the bodies had vanished, with the exception of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin at his desk, clutching a coffee cup. In addition, "V. A. Fogg" sank off the coast of Texas, nowhere near the commonly accepted boundaries of the Triangle.
The "Nova"/"Horizon" episode "The Case of the Bermuda Triangle", aired on 27 June 1976, was highly critical, stating that "When we've gone back to the original sources or the people involved, the mystery evaporates. Science does not have to answer questions about the Triangle because those questions are not valid in the first place ... Ships and planes behave in the Triangle the same way they behave everywhere else in the world." Skeptical researchers, such as Ernest Taves and Barry Singer, have noted how mysteries and the paranormal are very popular and profitable. This has led to the production of vast amounts of material on topics such as the Bermuda Triangle. They were able to show that some of the pro-paranormal material is often misleading or inaccurate, but its producers continue to market it. Accordingly, they have claimed that the market is biased in favor of books, TV specials, and other media that support the Triangle mystery, and against well-researched material if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint.
In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for Nature identified the world's 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the Bermuda Triangle was not among them. Benjamin Radford, an author and scientific paranormal investigator, noted in an interview on the Bermuda Triangle that it could be very difficult to locate an aircraft lost at sea due to the vast search area, and although the disappearance might be mysterious, that did not make it paranormal or unexplainable. Radford further noted the importance of double-checking information as the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle had been created by people who had neglected to do so. NOAA attributes most Bermuda Triangle disappearances to environmental factors such as hurricanes, sudden weather shifts from the Gulf Stream, and hazardous shallow waters. The U.S. Navy dismisses supernatural claims, emphasizing natural causes and human error. Additionally, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not list the Bermuda Triangle as an official location, given the lack of evidence distinguishing it from other ocean regions.
Hypothetical explanation attempts. Persons accepting the Bermuda Triangle as a real phenomenon have offered a number of explanatory approaches. Paranormal explanations. Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural concepts to explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover technology from the mythical lost city or state of Atlantis. Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock formation known as the Bimini Road off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some definitions. Followers of the purported psychic Edgar Cayce take his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968 as referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers describe the formation as a road, wall, or other structure, but the Bimini Road is of natural origin. Some hypothesize that a parallel universe exists in the Bermuda Triangle region, causing a time/space warp that sucks the objects around it into a parallel universe. Others attribute the events to UFOs. Charles Berlitz, author of various books on anomalous phenomena, lists several theories attributing the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces.
Natural explanations. Compass variations. Compass issues are frequently cited in accounts of Triangle incidents. While some have theorized that unusual local magnetic anomalies may exist in the area, such anomalies have not been found. Compasses have natural magnetic variations in relation to the magnetic poles, a fact that navigators have known for centuries. Magnetic (compass) north and geographic (true) north are exactly the same only for a small number of places – for example, , in the United States, only those places on a line running from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. But the public may not be as informed, and think there is something mysterious about a compass "changing" across an area as large as the Triangle, which it naturally will. Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream (Florida Current) is a major surface current, primarily driven by thermohaline circulation that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and then flows through the Straits of Florida into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and, like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. It has a maximum surface velocity of about . A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble can be carried away from its reported position by the current.
Human error. One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, "Revonoc", as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on 1 January 1958. Violent weather. Hurricanes are powerful storms which form in tropical waters and have historically cost thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle. Many Atlantic hurricanes pass through the Triangle as they recurve off the Eastern Seaboard, and, before the advent of weather satellites, ships often had little to no warning of a hurricane's approach. A powerful downdraft of cold air was suspected to be a cause in the sinking of "Pride of Baltimore" on 14 May 1986. The crew of the sunken vessel noted the wind suddenly shifted and increased velocity from to . A National Hurricane Center satellite specialist, James Lushine, stated "during very unstable weather conditions the downburst of cold air from aloft can hit the surface like a bomb, exploding outward like a giant squall line of wind and water."
Methane hydrates. An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of large fields of methane hydrates (a form of natural gas) on the continental shelves. Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water, and any wreckage would be deposited on the ocean floor or rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream. It has been hypothesized that periodic methane eruptions (sometimes called "mud volcanoes") may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning. Publications by the USGS describe large stores of undersea hydrates worldwide, including the Blake Ridge area, off the coast of the southeastern United States. However, according to the USGS, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.
Notable incidents. HMS "Atalanta". The sail training ship HMS "Atalanta" (originally named HMS "Juno") disappeared with her entire crew after setting sail from the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda for Falmouth, England on 31 January 1880. It was presumed that she sank in a powerful storm which crossed her route a couple of weeks after she sailed, and that her crew being composed primarily of inexperienced trainees may have been a contributing factor. The search for evidence of her fate attracted worldwide attention at the time (connection is also often made to the 1878 loss of the training ship HMS "Eurydice", which foundered after departing the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda for Portsmouth on 6 March), and she was alleged decades later to have been a victim of the mysterious triangle, an allegation resoundingly refuted by the research of author David Francis Raine in 1997. USS "Cyclops". The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy not related to combat occurred when the collier "Cyclops", carrying a full load of manganese ore and with one engine out of action, went missing without a trace with a crew of 306 sometime after 4 March 1918, after departing the island of Barbados. Although there is no strong evidence for any single theory, many independent theories exist, some blaming storms, some capsizing, and some suggesting that wartime enemy activity was to blame for the loss. In addition, two of "Cyclops"s sister ships, and , were subsequently lost in the North Atlantic during World War II. Both ships were transporting heavy loads of metallic ore similar to that which was loaded on "Cyclops" during her fatal voyage. In all three cases structural failure due to overloading with a much denser cargo than designed is considered the most likely cause of sinking.
"Carroll A. Deering". "Carroll A. Deering", a five-masted schooner built in 1919, was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on 31 January 1921. FBI investigation into the "Deering" scrutinized, then ruled out, multiple theories as to why and how the ship was abandoned, including piracy, domestic Communist sabotage and the involvement of rum-runners. Flight 19. Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on 5 December 1945, while over the Atlantic. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east from Fort Lauderdale for , north for , and then back over a final leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The disappearance was attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error leading to the aircraft running out of fuel. One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared. A tanker off the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion and observing a widespread oil slick when fruitlessly searching for survivors. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident. According to contemporaneous sources, the Mariner had a history of explosions due to vapor leaks when heavily loaded with fuel, as it might have been for a potentially long search-and-rescue operation.
"Star Tiger" and "Star Ariel". G-AHNP "Star Tiger" disappeared on 30 January 1948, on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda; G-AGRE "Star Ariel" disappeared on 17 January 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Both were Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft operated by British South American Airways. Both planes were operating at the very limits of their range and the slightest error or fault in the equipment could keep them from reaching the small island. Douglas DC-3. On 28 December 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, number NC16002, disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft, or the 32 people on board, was ever found. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation found there was insufficient information available on which to determine probable cause of the disappearance. "Connemara IV". A pleasure yacht was found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on 26 September 1955; it is usually stated in the stories (Berlitz, Winer) that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season shows Hurricane Ione passing nearby between 14 and 18 September, with Bermuda being affected by winds of almost gale force. In his second book on the Bermuda Triangle, Winer quoted from a letter he had received from Mr J.E. Challenor of Barbados:
KC-135 Stratotankers. On 28 August 1963, a pair of US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic west of Bermuda. Some writers say that while the two aircraft did collide, there were two distinct crash sites, separated by over of water. However, Kusche's research showed that the unclassified version of the Air Force investigation report revealed that the debris field defining the second "crash site" was examined by a search and rescue ship, and found to be a mass of seaweed and driftwood tangled in an old buoy. References. Bibliography. The incidents cited above, apart from the official documentation, come from the following works. Some incidents mentioned as having taken place within the Triangle are found "only" in these sources: Further reading. Newspaper articles. ProQuest has newspaper source material for many incidents, archived in Portable Document Format (PDF). The newspapers include "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", and "The Atlanta Constitution". To access this website, registration is required, usually through a library connected to a college or university.
Website links. The following websites have either online material that supports the popular version of the Bermuda Triangle, or documents published from official sources as part of hearings or inquiries, such as those conducted by the United States Navy or United States Coast Guard. Copies of some inquiries are not online and may have to be ordered; for example, the losses of Flight 19 or USS Cyclops can be ordered direct from the United States Naval Historical Center. Books. Most of the works listed here are largely out of print. Copies may be obtained at your local library, or purchased used at bookstores, or through eBay or Amazon.com. These books are often the "only" source material for some of the incidents that have taken place within the Triangle.
Borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term "borough" designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History. In the Middle Ages, boroughs were settlements in England that were granted some self-government; burghs were the Scottish equivalent. In medieval England, boroughs were also entitled to elect members of parliament. The use of the word "borough" probably derives from the burghal system of Alfred the Great. Alfred set up a system of defensive strong points (Burhs); in order to maintain these particular settlements, he granted them a degree of autonomy. After the Norman Conquest, when certain towns were granted self-governance, the concept of the burh/borough seems to have been reused to mean a self-governing settlement. The concept of the borough has been used repeatedly (and often differently) throughout the world. Often, a borough is a single town with its own local government. However, in some cities it is a subdivision of the city (for example, New York City, London, and Montreal). In such cases, the borough will normally have either limited powers delegated to it by the city's local government, or no powers at all. In other places, such as the U.S. state of Alaska, "borough" designates a whole region; Alaska's largest borough, the North Slope Borough, is comparable in area to the entire United Kingdom, although its population is less than that of Swanage on England's south coast with around 9,600 inhabitants. In Australia, a "borough" was once a self-governing small town, but this designation has all but vanished, except for the only remaining borough in the country, which is the Borough of Queenscliffe.
Boroughs as administrative units are to be found in Ireland and the United Kingdom, more specifically in England and Northern Ireland. Boroughs also exist in the Canadian province of Quebec and formerly in Ontario, in some states of the United States, in Israel, formerly in New Zealand and only one left in Australia. Etymology. The word "borough" derives from the Old English word "burg, burh", meaning a fortified settlement; the word appears as modern English "bury", "-brough", Scots "burgh", "borg" in Scandinavian languages, "Burg" in German. A number of other European languages have cognate words that were borrowed from the Germanic languages during the Middle Ages, including "brog" in Irish, "bwr" or "bwrc", meaning "wall, rampart" in Welsh, "bourg" in French, "burg" in Catalan (in Catalonia there is a town named "Burg"), "borgo" in Italian, "burgo" in Portuguese, Galician and Castilian (hence the castilian place-name Burgos, galician place-names O Burgo and Malburgo), the "-bork" of Lębork and Malbork in Polish and the "-bor" of Maribor in Slovenian.
The 'burg' element, which means "castle" or "fortress", is often confused with 'berg' meaning "hill" or "mountain" (cf. iceberg, inselberg). Hence the 'berg' element in Bergen or Heidelberg relates to a hill, rather than a fort. In some cases, the 'berg' element in place names has converged towards burg/borough; for instance Farnborough, from "fernaberga" (fern-hill). Definitions. Australia. In Australia, the term "borough" is an occasionally used term for a local government area. Currently there is only one borough in Australia, the Borough of Queenscliffe in Victoria, although there have been more in the past. However, in some cases it can be integrated into the council's name instead of used as an official title, such as the Kingborough Council in Tasmania. Canada. In Quebec, the term borough is generally used as the English translation of , referring to an administrative division of a municipality, or a district. Eight municipalities are divided into boroughs: See List of boroughs in Quebec. In Ontario, it was previously used to denote suburban municipalities in Metropolitan Toronto, including Scarborough, York, North York and Etobicoke prior to their conversions to cities. The Borough of East York was the last Toronto municipality to hold this status, relinquishing it upon becoming part of the City of Toronto government on January 1, 1998.
Colombia. The Colombian municipalities are subdivided into boroughs (English translation of the Spanish term ) with a local executive and an administrative board for local government. These boroughs are divided into neighborhoods. Ireland. There are four borough districts designated by the Local Government Reform Act 2014: Clonmel, Drogheda, Sligo, and Wexford. A local boundary review reporting in 2018 proposed granting borough status to any district containing a census town with a population over 30,000; this would have included the towns of Dundalk, Bray, and Navan. This would have required an amendment to the 2014 Act, promised for 2019 by minister John Paul Phelan. Historically, there were 117 parliamentary boroughs in the Irish House of Commons, of which 80 were disfranchised by the Acts of Union 1800. All but 11 municipal boroughs were abolished under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, six of these became county boroughs: Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Derry, Limerick and Waterford. From 1921, Belfast and Derry were part of Northern Ireland and stayed within the United Kingdom on the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Galway was a borough from 1937 until upgraded to a county borough in 1985. The county boroughs in the Republic of Ireland were redesignated as "cities" under the Local Government Act 2001. Dún Laoghaire was a borough from 1930 until merged into Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county in 1994. There were five borough councils in place at the time of the Local Government Reform Act 2014 which abolished all second-tier local government units of borough and town councils. Each local government authority outside of Dublin, Cork City and Galway City was divided into areas termed municipal districts. In four of the areas which had previously been contained borough councils, as listed above, these were instead termed Borough Districts. Kilkenny had previously had a borough council, but its district was to be called the Municipal District of Kilkenny City, in recognition of its historic city status. Israel. Under Israeli law, inherited from British Mandate municipal law, the possibility of creating a municipal borough exists. However, no borough was actually created under law until 2005–2006, when Neve Monosson and Maccabim-Re'ut, both communal settlements (Heb: yishuv kehilati) founded in 1953 and 1984, respectively, were declared to be autonomous municipal boroughs (Heb: vaad rova ironi), within their mergers with the towns of Yehud and Modi'in. Similar structures have been created under different types of legal status over the years in Israel, notably Kiryat Haim in Haifa, Jaffa in Tel Aviv-Yafo and Ramot and Gilo in Jerusalem. However, Neve Monosson is the first example of a full municipal borough actually declared under law by the Minister of the Interior, under a model subsequently adopted in Maccabim-Re'ut as well.
Mexico. In Mexico as translations from English to Spanish applied to Mexico City, the word "borough" has resulted in a delegación (delegation), referring to the 16 administrative areas within Mexico City, now called alcaldías. New Zealand. New Zealand formerly used the term borough to designate self-governing towns of more than 1,000 people, although 19th century census records show many boroughs with populations as low as 200. A borough of more than 20,000 people could become a city by proclamation. Boroughs and cities were collectively known as municipalities, and were enclaves separate from their surrounding counties. Boroughs proliferated in the suburban areas of the larger cities: By the 1980s there were 19 boroughs and three cities in the area that is now the City of Auckland. In the 1980s, some boroughs and cities began to be merged with their surrounding counties to form districts with a mixed urban and rural population. A nationwide reform of local government in 1989 completed the process. Counties and boroughs were abolished and all boundaries were redrawn. Under the new system, most territorial authorities cover both urban and rural land. The more populated councils are classified as cities, and the more rural councils are classified as districts. Only Kawerau District, an enclave within Whakatāne District, continues to follow the tradition of a small town council that does not include surrounding rural area.
Trinidad and Tobago. In Trinidad and Tobago, a Borough is a unit of Local Government. There are 5 boroughs in The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago: United Kingdom. England and Wales. Ancient and municipal boroughs. During the medieval period many towns were granted self-governance by the Crown, at which point they became referred to as boroughs. The formal status of borough came to be conferred by Royal Charter. These boroughs were generally governed by a self-selecting corporation (i.e., when a member died or resigned his replacement would be by co-option). Sometimes boroughs were governed by bailiffs. Debates on the Reform Bill (eventually the Reform Act 1832) lamented the diversity of polity of such town corporations, and a Royal Commission was set up to investigate this. This resulted in a regularisation of municipal government by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. 178 of the ancient boroughs were re-formed as "municipal boroughs", with all municipal corporations to be elected according to a standard franchise based on property ownership. The unreformed boroughs lapsed in borough status, or were reformed (or abolished) later. Several new municipal boroughs were formed in the new industrial cities after the bill enacted, per its provisions.
As part of a large-scale reform of local government in England and Wales in 1974, municipal boroughs were finally abolished (having become increasingly irrelevant). However, the civic traditions of many were continued by the grant of a charter to their successor district councils. As to smallest boroughs, a town council was formed for an alike zone, while charter trustees were formed for a few others. A successor body is allowed to use the regalia of the old corporation, and appoint ceremonial office holders such as sword and mace bearers as provided in their original charters. The council, or trustees, may apply for an Order in Council or Royal Licence to use the coat of arms. Parliamentary boroughs. From 1265, two burgesses from each borough were summoned to the Parliament of England, alongside two knights from each county. Thus parliamentary constituencies were derived from the ancient boroughs. Representation in the House of Commons was decided by the House itself, which resulted in boroughs being established in some small settlements for the purposes of parliamentary representation, despite their possessing no actual corporation.
After the 1832 Reform Act, which disenfranchised many of the rotten boroughs (boroughs that had declined in importance, had only a small population, and had only a handful of eligible voters), parliamentary constituencies began to diverge from the ancient boroughs. While many ancient boroughs remained as municipal boroughs, they were disenfranchised by the Reform Act. County boroughs. The Local Government Act 1888 established a new sort of borough – the county borough. These were designed to be 'counties-to-themselves'; administrative divisions to sit alongside the new administrative counties. They allowed urban areas to be administered separately from the more rural areas. They, therefore, often contained pre-existing municipal boroughs, which thereafter became part of the second tier of local government, below the administrative counties and county boroughs. The county boroughs were, like the municipal boroughs, abolished in 1974, being reabsorbed into their parent counties for administrative purposes. Metropolitan boroughs.
In 1899, as part of a reform of local government in the County of London, the various parishes in London were reorganised as new entities, the 'metropolitan boroughs'. These were reorganised further when Greater London was formed out of Middlesex, parts of Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire and the County of London in 1965. These council areas are now referred to as "London boroughs" rather than "metropolitan boroughs". When the new metropolitan counties (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, and West Yorkshire) were created in 1974, their sub-divisions also became metropolitan boroughs in many, but not all, cases; in many cases these metropolitan boroughs recapitulated abolished county boroughs (for example, Stockport). The metropolitan boroughs possessed slightly more autonomy from the metropolitan county councils than the shire county districts did from their county councils. With the abolition of the metropolitan county councils in 1986, these metropolitan boroughs became independent, and continue to be so at present.
Other current uses. Elsewhere in England a number of districts and unitary authority areas are called "borough". Until 1974, this was a status that denoted towns with a certain type of local government (a municipal corporation, or a self-governing body). Since 1974, it has been a purely ceremonial style granted by royal charter to districts which may consist of a single town or may include a number of towns or rural areas. Borough status entitles the council chairman to bear the title of mayor. Districts may apply to the British Crown for the grant of borough status upon advice of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, local government was reorganised in 1973. Under the legislation that created the 26 districts of Northern Ireland, a district council whose area included an existing municipal borough could resolve to adopt the charter of the old municipality and thus continue to enjoy borough status. Districts that do not contain a former borough can apply for a charter in a similar manner to English districts. United States. In the United States, a borough is a unit of local government or other administrative division below the level of the state. The term is currently used in seven states. The following states use, or have used, the word with the following meanings:
Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered to the east by Cardinham parish, to the southeast by Lanhydrock parish, to the southwest and west by Lanivet parish, and to the north by Helland parish. Bodmin had a population of 14,736 as of the 2011 Census. It was formerly the county town of Cornwall until the Crown Courts moved to Truro which is also the administrative centre (before 1835 the county town was Launceston). Bodmin was in the administrative North Cornwall District until local government reorganisation in 2009 abolished the District ("see also Cornwall Council"). The town is part of the North Cornwall parliamentary constituency, which is represented by Ben Maguire MP. Bodmin Town Council is made up of sixteen councillors who are elected to serve a term of four years. Each year, the Council elects one of its number as Mayor to serve as the town's civic leader and to chair council meetings.
Situation and origin of the name. The name of the town probably derives from the Cornish "Bod-meneghy", meaning "dwelling of or by the sanctuary of monks". Variant spellings recorded include "Botmenei" in 1100, "Bodmen" in 1253, "Bodman" in 1377 and "Bodmyn" in 1522. The "Bodman" spelling also appears in sources and maps from the 16th and 17th centuries, most notably in the celebrated map of Cornwall produced by John Speed but actually engraved by the Dutch cartographer Jodocus Hondius the Elder (1563–1612) in Amsterdam in 1610 (published in London by Sudbury and Humble in 1626). The hamlets of Cooksland, Little Kirland, Dunmere and Turfdown are in the parish. History. St. Petroc founded a monastery in Bodmin in the 6th century and gave the town its alternative name of "Petrockstow". The monastery was deprived of some of its lands at the Norman Conquest but at the time of Domesday still held eighteen manors, including Bodmin, Padstow and Rialton. Bodmin is one of the oldest towns in Cornwall, and the only large Cornish settlement recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. In the 15th century the Norman church of St Petroc was largely rebuilt and stands as one of the largest churches in Cornwall (the largest after the cathedral at Truro). Also built at that time was an abbey of canons regular, now mostly ruined. For most of Bodmin's history, the tin industry was a mainstay of the economy.
An inscription on a stone built into the wall of a summer house in Lancarffe furnishes proof of a settlement in Bodmin in the early Middle Ages. It is a memorial to one "Duno[.]atus son of Me[.]cagnus" and has been dated from the 6th to 8th centuries. Arthur Langdon (1896) records three Cornish crosses at Bodmin; one was near the Berry Tower, one was outside Bodmin Gaol and another was in a field near Castle Street Hill. There is also Carminow Cross at a road junction southeast of the town. The Black Death killed half of Bodmin's population in the mid 14th century (1,500 people). The local seat of government was the Bodmin Guildhall in Fore Street. Rebellions. Bodmin was the centre of three Cornish uprisings. The first was the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 when a Cornish army, led by Michael An Gof, a blacksmith from St. Keverne and Thomas Flamank, a lawyer from Bodmin, marched to Blackheath in London where they were eventually defeated by 10,000 men of the King's army under Baron Daubeny. Then, in the autumn of 1497, Perkin Warbeck tried to usurp the throne from Henry VII. Warbeck was proclaimed King Richard IV in Bodmin but Henry had little difficulty crushing the uprising. In 1549, Cornishmen, allied with other rebels in neighbouring Devon, rose once again in rebellion when the staunchly Protestant Edward VI tried to impose a new Prayer Book. The lower classes of Cornwall and Devon were still strongly attached to the Roman Catholic religion and again a Cornish army was formed in Bodmin which marched across the border into Devon to lay siege to Exeter. This became known as the Prayer Book Rebellion. Proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were suppressed and in total 4,000 people were killed in the rebellion.
Bodmin Borough Police. The Borough of Bodmin was one of the 178 municipal boroughs which under the auspices of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 was mandated to create an electable council and a Police Watch Committee responsible for overseeing a police force in the town. The new system directly replaced the Parish Constables that had policed the borough since time immemorial and brought paid, uniformed and accountable law enforcement for the first time. Bodmin Borough Police was the municipal police force for the Borough of Bodmin from 1836 to 1866. The creation of the Cornwall Constabulary in 1857 put pressure on smaller municipal police forces to merge with the county. The two-man force of Bodmin came under threat almost immediately, but it would take until 1866 for the Mayor of Bodmin and the Chairman of the Police Watch Committee to agree on the terms of amalgamation. After a public enquiry, the force was disbanded in January 1866 and policing of the borough was deferred to the county from thereon. "Bodmin Town".
The song "Bodmin Town" was collected from the Cornishman William Nichols at Whitchurch, Devon, in 1891 by Sabine Baring-Gould who published a version in his "A Garland of Country Song" (1924). Churches. Parish church of St Petroc. The existing church building is dated 1469–72 and was until the building of Truro Cathedral the largest church in Cornwall. The tower which remains from the original Norman church and stands on the north side of the church (the upper part is 15th-century) was, until the loss of its spire in 1699, high. The building underwent two Victorian restorations and another in 1930. It is now listed Grade I. There are a number of interesting monuments, most notably the black Delabole slate memorial to Richard Durant, his wives and twenty children, carved in low relief, and that of Prior Vivian which was formerly in the Priory Church (Thomas Vivian's effigy lying on a chest, all in black Catacleuse stone). There is also a twelfth-century ivory casket which is thought to have once contained relics of St Petroc. The font of a type common in Cornwall is of the 12th century: large and finely carved in elvan.
Other churches. The Chapel of St Thomas Becket is a ruin of a 14th-century building in Bodmin churchyard. The holy well of St Guron is a small stone building at the churchyard gate. The Berry Tower is all that remains of the former church of the Holy Rood and there are even fewer remains from the substantial Franciscan Friary established ca. 1240: a gateway in Fore Street and two pillars elsewhere in the town. The Roman Catholic Abbey of St Mary and St Petroc, formerly belonging to the Canons Regular of the Lateran was built in 1965 next to the already existing seminary. The Roman Catholic parish of Bodmin includes a large area of North Cornwall and there are churches also at Wadebridge, Padstow and Tintagel (St Paul's Church, Tintagel). In 1881 the Roman Catholic mass was celebrated in Bodmin for the first time since 1539. A church was planned in the 1930s but delayed by the Second World War: the Church of St Mary and St Petroc was eventually consecrated in 1965: it was built next to the already existing seminary. There are also five other churches in Bodmin, including a Methodist church.
Sites of interest. Bodmin Jail. Bodmin Jail, operational for over 150 years but now a semi-ruin, was built in the late 18th century, and was the first British prison to hold prisoners in separate cells (though often up to ten at a time) rather than communally. Over fifty prisoners condemned at the Bodmin Assize Court were hanged at the prison. It was also used for temporarily holding prisoners sentenced to transportation, awaiting transfer to the prison hulks lying in the highest navigable reaches of the River Fowey. Also, during 1918–19 in the First World War the prison held some material from Britain's Public Record Office, including the Domesday Book, but not the Crown Jewels as is commonly claimed: in World War II these were stored in Windsor Castle. Institutions. Other buildings of interest include the former Shire Hall, now a tourist information centre, and Victoria Barracks, formerly depot of the now defunct Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and now the site of the regimental museum. It includes the history of the regiment from 1702, plus a military library. The original barracks house the regimental museum which was founded in 1925. There is a fine collection of small arms and machine guns, plus maps, uniforms and paintings on display. The Honey Street drill hall was the mobilisation point for reservists being deployed to serve on the Western Front.
Bodmin County Lunatic Asylum, later known as St Lawrence's Hospital, was designed by John Foulston. The humorist, William Robert Hicks, was domestic superintendent in the mid-19th century. Walker Lines, named after Lieutenant-General Harold Walker, was a Second World War camp built as an extension to the DCLI Barracks. It was used to harbour men evacuated from Dunkirk and later to house troops for the D-Day landings. In the 1950s it was the site of the JSSL. The site is now an industrial estate but still known as 'Walker Lines'. Bosvenna House, an Edwardian manor house, was formerly Bosvenna Hotel, and the home of the Royal British Legion Club, but has since become a private residence. There is a sizable single storey Masonic Hall in St Nicholas Street, which is home to no less than eight Masonic bodies. Other sites. Bodmin Beacon Local Nature Reserve is the hill overlooking the town. The reserve has of public land and at its highest point it reaches with the distinctive landmark at the summit. The tall granite monument to Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert was built in 1857 by the townspeople of Bodmin to honour the soldier's life and work in India.
In 1966, the "Finn VC Estate" was named in honour of Victoria Cross winner James Henry Finn who once lived in the town. An ornate granite drinking bowl which serves the needs of thirsty dogs at the entrance to Bodmin's Priory car park was donated by Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand who lived at Tredethy. Education. There are no independent schools in the area. Primary schools. Beacon ACE Academy opened as a primary school for pupils aged between 3–11 in September 2017, following the merger of Beacon Infant and Nursery School and Robartes Junior School. Beacon ACE Academy is part of Kernow Learning Multi Academy Trust and is rated Good by Ofsted. The school offers places for 420 pupils as well as 30 places within its Nursery and 10 places within its Area Resource Base for pupils with Special Educational Needs. St Petroc's voluntary aided Church of England Primary School, Athelstan Park, Bodmin, was given this title in September 1990 after the amalgamation of St. Petroc's Infant School and St. Petroc's Junior School. St. Petroc's is a large school with some 440 pupils between the ages of four and 11. Eight of its fourteen governors are nominated by the Diocese of Truro or the Parochial Church Council of St. Petroc's, Bodmin. It is currently rated as "Requires Improvement" by Ofsted.
There are a further two primary schools within Bodmin; Berrycoombe School in the northwest corner of the town, and St. Mary's Catholic Primary School. Bodmin College. Bodmin College is a large state comprehensive school for ages 11–18 on the outskirts of the town. The college is home to Bodmin College Jazz Orchestra. In 1997, Systems & Control students at Bodmin College constructed Roadblock, a robot which entered and won the first series of "Robot Wars" and was succeeded by "The Beast of Bodmin." The school also has one of the largest sixth forms in the county. Callywith College. Callywith College is a further education college in Bodmin that opened in September 2017. A new-build college on a site close to the Asda supermarket, it will eventually cater for 1,280 students, with 197 staff employed. A total of 660 places were available in its first year. It is being created with the assistance of Truro and Penwith College to serve students aged 16–19 from Bodmin, North Cornwall and East Cornwall. It received the go-ahead in February 2016, funded as a Free School.
Army School of Education. Aspiring National Service Sergeant Instructors of the Royal Army Education Corps underwent training at the Army School of Education, situated at the end of the Second World War at Buchanan Castle, Drymen in Scotland, and later, from 1948, at the Walker Lines, Bodmin, until it moved to Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. Transport. Bodmin Parkway railway station – once known as Bodmin Road – is a principal calling point on the Cornish Main Line about south-east of the town centre. Buses to central Bodmin, Wadebridge, Padstow, Rock, Polzeath, Port Isaac and Camelford depart from outside the station entrance. It is connected to Bodmin town by a branch line that is home to the local steam railway, Bodmin and Wenford Railway. Bodmin is just off the A30 providing a connection to the M5 motorway at Exeter, northeast. Bus and coach services connect Bodmin with some other districts of Cornwall and Devon. Sport and leisure. Bodmin has a non-league football club Bodmin Town playing in the South West Peninsula League; a level 10 league in the English football league system. Their home ground is at Priory Park. Bodmin Rugby Club play rugby union at Clifden Parc and compete in the Tribute Cornwall/Devon league; a level 8 league in the English rugby union system.
The Royal Cornwall Golf Club (now defunct) was located on Bodmin Moor. It was founded in 1889 and became "Royal" in 1891. The club disbanded in the 1950s. There is an active running club, Bodmin RoadRunners. Bodmin was a stage finish in 2021 cycling Tour of Britain (Stage 1, 5 September). Cornish wrestling. Bodmin has been a great centre for Cornish wrestling over the centuries. The Bodmin Wrestling Association was instrumental in the setting up of the Cornish Wrestling Association in 1923. At the base of the monument on The Beacon are the remains of the wrestling ring which many believe was a Plen-an-gwary. More recently Cornish wrestling tournaments are held as part of the revival of Bodmin Riding. Other places in Bodmin where Cornish wrestling tournaments and matches were held include: William George Fish, known as "Billy the Fish", from Bodmin, was the featherweight champion in 1927 and 1928 and the lightweight champion in 1933 and 1934. Deprivation and crime. Some areas of the town have high levels of deprivation, and the proportion of children in poverty is higher than the average for Cornwall. The town is in the most deprived 20% on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and a higher than average proportion of people living in the area have no qualifications.
Bodmin has problems with drug-dealing. It is part of the county lines drug trafficking network. Cuckooing is an issue locally. Media. "Cornish Guardian" is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday in seven separate editions, including the Bodmin edition. In October 2020, the "Bodmin Voice", sister paper to the "Newquay Voice", was launched. It is published every Wednesday and focuses centrally on Bodmin. Bodmin is the home of NCB Radio, an internet radio station which aims to bring a dedicated station to North Cornwall. The town is also served by county-wide radio stations, BBC Radio Cornwall, Heart West and Greatest Hits Radio South West. Local TV coverage is provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Caradon Hill and the local relay transmitters. Notable people. See also Town twinning. Bodmin is twinned with Bederkesa in Germany; Grass Valley, in California, United States; and Le Relecq-Kerhuon (Ar Releg-Kerhuon in Brittany), France. Official heraldry. W. H. Pascoe's 1979 "A Cornish Armory" gives the arms of the priory and the monastery and the seal of the borough.
Official events. On Halgavor Moor (Goats' Moor) near Bodmin there was once an annual carnival in July which was on one occasion attended by King Charles II. Halgavor extends into the parish of Lanhydrock. Bodmin Riding, a horseback procession through the town, is a traditional annual ceremony. 'Beating the bounds' and 'hurling'. In 1865–66 William Robert Hicks was mayor of Bodmin, when he revived the custom of beating the bounds of the town. He was – according to the Dictionary of National Biography – a very good man of business. This still takes place more or less every five years and concludes with a game of Cornish hurling. Hurling survives as a traditional part of beating the bounds at Bodmin, commencing at the close of the 'Beat'. The game is organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin and was last played in 2015. The game is started by the Mayor of Bodmin by throwing a silver ball into a body of water known as the "Salting Pool". There are no teams and the hurl follows a set route. The aim is to carry the ball from the "Salting Pool" via the old A30, along Callywith Road, then through Castle Street, Church Square and Honey Street to finish at the Turret Clock in Fore Street. The participant carrying the ball when it reaches the turret clock will receive a £10 reward from the mayor. In 2015, beating of the bounds and Cornish hurling took place at Bodmin 8 April organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin.
Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor () is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a slightly lower peak. Many of Cornwall's rivers have their sources here. It has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic era, when early farmers started clearing trees and farming the land. They left their megalithic monuments, hut circles and cairns, and the Bronze Age culture that followed left further cairns, and more stone circles and stone rows. By medieval and modern times, nearly all the forest was gone and livestock rearing predominated. The name Bodmin Moor is relatively recent. An early mention is in the "Royal Cornwall Gazette" of 28 November 1812. The upland area was formerly known as Fowey Moor after the River Fowey, which rises within it. Geology. Bodmin Moor is one of five granite plutons in Cornwall that make up part of the Cornubian batholith. The intrusion dates from the Cisuralian epoch, the earliest part of the Permian period, and outcrops across about 190 square km. Around the pluton's margins where it intruded into slates, the country rock has been hornfelsed. Numerous peat deposits occur across the moor whilst large areas are characterised by blockfields of granite boulders; both deposits are of Holocene age (see also Geology of Cornwall).
Geography. Dramatic granite tors rise from the rolling moorland: the best known are Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall at , and Rough Tor at . To the south-east Kilmar Tor and Caradon Hill are the most prominent hills. Considerable areas of the moor are poorly drained and form marshes (in hot summers these can dry out). The rest of the moor is mostly rough pasture or covered with heather and other low vegetation. The moor contains about 500 holdings with around 10,000 beef cows, 55,000 breeding ewes and 1,000 horses and ponies. Most of the moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), "Bodmin Moor, North", and has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), as part of Cornwall AONB. The moor has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports about 260 breeding pairs of European stonechats as well as a wintering population of 10,000 Eurasian golden plovers. The moor has also been recognised as a separate natural region and designated as national character area 153 by Natural England.
Institutional landowners within "Bodmin Moor, North" SSSI include the National Trust, the Ministry of Defence, the Forestry Commission and Highways England. Rivers and inland waters. Bodmin Moor is the source of several of Cornwall's rivers: they are mentioned here anti-clockwise from the south. The River Fowey rises at a height of and flows through Lostwithiel and into the Fowey estuary. The River Tiddy rises near Pensilva and flows southeast to its confluence with the River Lynher (the Lynher flows generally south-east until it joins the Hamoaze near Plymouth). The River Inny rises near Davidstow and flows southeast to its confluence with the River Tamar. The River Camel rises on Hendraburnick Down and flows for approximately before joining the sea at Padstow. The River Camel and its tributary the De Lank River are an important habitat for the otter, and both have been proposed as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) The De Lank River rises near Roughtor and flows along an irregular course before joining the Camel south of Wenford.
The River Warleggan rises near Temple and flows south to join the Fowey. On the southern slopes of the moor lies Dozmary Pool. It is Cornwall's only natural inland lake and is glacial in origin. In the 20th century three reservoirs have been constructed on the moor; these are Colliford Lake, Siblyback Lake and Crowdy reservoirs, which supply water for a large part of the county's population. Various species of waterfowl are resident around these rivers. Parishes. The parishes on the moor are as follows: History and antiquities. Prehistoric times. 10,000 years ago, in the Mesolithic period, hunter-gatherers wandered the area when it was wooded. There are several documented cases of flint scatters being discovered by archaeologists, indicating that these hunter-gatherers practised flint knapping in the region. During the Neolithic era, from about 4,500 to 2,300 BC, people began clearing trees and farming the land. It was also in this era that the production of various megalithic monuments began, predominantly long cairns (three of which have currently been identified, at Louden, Catshole and Bearah) and stone circles (sixteen of which have been identified). It was also likely that the naturally forming tors were also viewed in a similar manner to the manmade ceremonial sites.
In the following Bronze Age, the creation of monuments increased dramatically, with the production of over 300 further cairns, and more stone circles and stone rows. More than 200 Bronze Age settlements with enclosures and field patterns have been recorded. and many prehistoric stone barrows and circles lie scattered across the moor. In the late 1990s, a team of archaeologists and anthropologists from UCL researched the Bronze Age landscapes of Leskernick over several seasons (Barbara Bender; Sue Hamilton; Christopher Tilley and students). In a programme shown in 2007 Channel 4's "Time Team "investigated a 500-metre cairn and the site of a Bronze Age village on the slopes of Rough Tor. King Arthur's Hall, thought to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age ceremonial site, can be found to the east of St Breward on the moor. Medieval and modern times. Where practicable, areas of the moor were used for pasture by herdsmen from the parishes surrounding the moor. Granite boulders were also taken from the moor and used for stone posts and to a certain extent for building (such material is known as moorstone). Granite quarrying only became reasonably productive when gunpowder became available.
The moor gave its name (Foweymore) to one of the medieval districts called stannaries which administered tin mining: the boundaries of these were never defined precisely. Until the establishment of a turnpike road through the moor (the present A30) in the 1770s the size of the moorland area made travel within Cornwall very difficult. Its Cornish name, Goen Bren, is first recorded in the 12th century. English Heritage monographs "Bodmin Moor: An Archaeological Survey" Volume 1 and Volume 2 covering the post-medieval and modern landscape are publicly available through the Archaeology Data Service. Jamaica Inn is a traditional inn on the Moor. Built as a coaching inn in 1750 and having an association with smuggling, it was used as a staging post for changing horses. In the 1980s, there was a big problem with the water supply in Camelford. Many people had medical issues after this and some died. Monuments and ruins. Roughtor was the site of a medieval chapel of St Michael and is now designated as a memorial to the 43rd Wessex Division of the British Army. In 1844 on Bodmin Moor the body of 18-year-old Charlotte Dymond was discovered. Local labourer Matthew Weeks was accused of the murder, and at noon on 12 August 1844 he was led from Bodmin Gaol and hanged. The murder site now has a monument erected from public money, and her grave is at Davidstow churchyard.
Legends and traditions. Dozmary Pool is identified by some people with the lake in which, according to Arthurian legend, Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur to The Lady of the Lake. Another legend relating to the pool concerns Jan Tregeagle. The Beast of Bodmin has been reported many times but never identified with certainty. The Beast of Bodmin is an instance of sightings of a British big cat. Searches for physical "evidence" to support such a claim has typically been found to have far more ordinary and less sensational origins. In the case of the Beast of Bodmin, when a skull found in the River Fowey was presented to the Natural History Museum as proof of its existence, it was found to have been cut from a leopard skin rug. Film. "Cornish Cowboy", a 2014 short documentary film screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, was shot on Bodmin Moor. The film features the work of St Neot horse trainer, Dan Wilson. Literature. British/Australian author Brand King sets much of his second novel, "A Cornish Spring" on Bodmin Moor. The novel evokes the ghost of murdered 19th century farmgirl Charlotte Dymond to drive its narrative. Her monument features on the book's cover.
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States. History. Indigenous history. The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns. wildflower seeds, grass seeds, and many different foods, including squirrel fat, and a shellmound, now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. Human remains and skeletons from Native American burials have been unearthed in West Berkeley and on campus alongside Strawberry Creek. Other artifacts were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek.
Spanish and Mexican eras. The first people of European descent (most of whom were of mixed race and born in America) arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. The De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the "Golden Gate)." Luis Peralta was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain, he was granted a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the "contra costa", "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley. Luis Peralta named his holding "Rancho San Antonio." The primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of the ranch to each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies mostly in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo, with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names (Vicente, Domingo, and Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant.
The Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after the Mexican War of Independence. However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War, and especially, the gold rush, saw the Peraltas' lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to various American claimants ("See" Kellersberger's Map). Politically, the area that became Berkeley was initially part of a vast Contra Costa County. On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County. The area that became Berkeley was then the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County. During this period, "Berkeley" was mostly a mix of open land, farms, and ranches, with a small, though busy, wharf by the bay.
Late 19th century. In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range (later called the Berkeley Hills) on Strawberry Creek, at an elevation of about above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate. According to the "Centennial Record of the University of California", "In 1866, at Founders' Rock, a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley, 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced "BARK-lee", but the city's name, to accommodate American English, is pronounced "BERK-lee". The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, and they began a collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California.
As construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries grew around the wharf area called Ocean View. A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to the university campus along what is now Telegraph Avenue. The first post office opened in 1872. By the 1870s, the transcontinental railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad, the Berkeley Branch Railroad, was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound (now a part of Emeryville) into what is now downtown Berkeley. That same year, the mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View. There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkeley at this time. In 1876, the state enacted the "mile limit law", which forbade sale or public consumption of alcohol within of the new University of California. Then, in 1899, Berkeley residents voted to make their city an alcohol-free zone. Scientists, scholars and religious leaders spoke vehemently of the dangers of alcohol.
On April 1, 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the university campus, together with local farmers, were granted incorporation by the State of California as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of the town were the slate of Denis Kearney's anti-Chinese Workingman's Party, who were particularly favored in the working-class area of the former Ocean View, now called West Berkeley. During the 1880s Berkeley had segregated housing and anti-Chinese laws. The area near the university became known for a time as East Berkeley. Due to the influence of the university, the modern age came quickly to Berkeley. Electric lights and the telephone were in use by 1888. Electric streetcars soon replaced the horsecar. A silent film of one of these early streetcars in Berkeley can be seen at the Library of Congress website. Early 20th century. Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The town and other parts of the East Bay escaped serious damage, and thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay. Among them were most of San Francisco's painters and sculptors, who between 1907 and 1911 created one of the largest art colonies west of Chicago. Artist and critic Jennie V. Cannon described the founding of the Berkeley Art Association and the rivalries of competing studios and art clubs.
In 1904, the first hospitals in Berkeley were created: the Alta Bates Sanatorium (today Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) for women and children, founded by nurse Alta Bates on Walnut Street, and the Roosevelt Hospital (later Herrick Hospital), founded by LeRoy Francis Herrick, on the corner of Dwight Way and Milvia Street. In 1908, a statewide referendum that proposed moving the California state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 33,000 votes. The city had named streets around the proposed capitol grounds for California counties. They bear those names today, a legacy of the failed referendum. On March 4, 1909, following public referendums, the citizens of Berkeley were granted a new charter by the State of California, and the Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth continued up to the crash of 1929. The Great Depression hit Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S., thanks in part to the university. In 1916, Berkeley implemented single-family zoning as an effort to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods. This has been described as the first implementation of single-family zoning in the United States By 2021, nearly half of Berkeley's residential neighborhoods were still exclusively zoned for single-family homes.
On September 17, 1923, a major fire swept down the hills toward the university campus and the downtown section. Around 640 structures burned before a late-afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to put it out. The next big growth occurred with the advent of World War II, when large numbers of people moved to the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond. One who moved out, but played a big role in the outcome of the war, was U.C. professor and Berkeley resident J. Robert Oppenheimer. During the war, an Army base, Camp Ashby, was temporarily sited in Berkeley. The element berkelium was synthesized utilizing the cyclotron at UC Berkeley, and named in 1949, in recognition of the university, thus placing the city's name in the list of elements. 1940–60s. During the 1940s, many African Americans migrated to Berkeley. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Berkeley's population as 11.7% black and 84.6% white. The postwar years brought moderate growth to the city, as events on the U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the university to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign the oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee (HUAC) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, including many from the university. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in the civil rights movement. Finally, in 1964, the university provoked a massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement. As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the university, particularly that organized by the Vietnam Day Committee.
Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the mid-to-late 1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue—became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there was considerable overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called "People's Park". The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan. In the end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A spin-off, "People's Park Annex", was established at the same time by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") underground construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the city by BART and is now Ohlone Park.
The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. While the 1960s were the heyday of liberal activism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic cities in the United States. 1970s and 1980s. Housing and zoning changes. After the 1960s, Berkeley banned most new housing construction, in particular apartments. Increasing enrollment at the university led to replacement of older buildings by large apartment buildings, especially in older parts of the city near the university and downtown. Increasing enrollment also led the university to wanting to redevelop certain places of Berkeley, especially Southside, but more specifically People's Park. Preservationists passed the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance in 1973 by ballot measure and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance in 1974 by the City Council. Together, these ordinances brought most new construction to a halt. Facing rising housing costs, residents voted to enact rent control and vacancy control in 1980. Though more far-reaching in their effect than those of some of the other jurisdictions in California that chose to use rent control where they could, these policies were limited by the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a statewide ban on rent control that came into effect in 1995 and limited rent control to multi-family units that were built (or technically buildings that were issued their original certificate of occupation) before the state law came into effect in 1995. For cities such as Berkeley, where rent control was already in place, the law limited the use of rent control to units built before the local rent-control law was enacted, i.e. 1980.
Political movements. During the 1970s and 1980s, activists increased their power in local government. This era also saw major developments in Berkeley's environmental and food culture. Berkeley's last Republican mayor, Wallace J. S. Johnson, left office in 1971. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971. The first curbside recycling program in the U.S. was started by the Ecology Center in 1973. Styrofoam was banned in 1988. As the city leaned more and more Democratic, local politics became divided between "Progressives" and "Moderates". 1984 saw the Progressives take the majority for the first time. Nancy Skinner became the first UC Berkeley student elected to City Council. In 1986, in reaction to the 1984 election, a ballot measure switched Berkeley from at-large to district-based elections for city council. In 1983, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force was established, which in 1984 made policy recommendation to the school board, which passed domestic partner legislation. The legislation became a model for similar measures nationwide. 1990s and 2000s.
In 1995, California's Costa–Hawkins Act ended vacancy control, allowing rents to increase when a tenant moved out. Despite a slow down in 2005–2007, median home prices and rents remain dramatically higher than the rest of the nation, fueled by spillover from the San Francisco housing shortage and population growth. South and West Berkeley underwent gentrification, with some historically Black neighborhoods such as the Adeline Corridor seeing a 50% decline in Black / African American population from 1990 to 2010. In the 1990s, public television's Frontline documentary series featured race relations at Berkeley's only public high school, Berkeley High School. With an economy dominated by the University of California and a high-demand housing market, Berkeley was relatively unaffected by the Great Recession. State budget cuts caused the university to increase the number of out-of-state and international students, with international enrollment, mostly from Asia, rising from 2,785 in 2007 to 5,951 in 2016. Since then, more international restaurants have opened downtown and on Telegraph Avenue, including East Asian chains such as Ippudo and Daiso.
A wave of downtown apartment construction began in 1998. In 2006, the Berkeley Oak Grove Protest began protesting construction of a new sports center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a lengthy court process. In 2007–2008, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a series of controversial motions by Berkeley's city council regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. ("See" Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy.) 2010s and 2020s. During the fall of 2010, the Berkeley Student Food Collective opened after many protests on the UC Berkeley campus due to the proposed opening of the fast food chain Panda Express. Students and community members worked together to open a collectively run grocery store right off of the UC Berkeley campus, where the community can buy local, seasonal, humane, and organic foods. The Berkeley Student Food Collective still operates at 2440 Bancroft Way.
On September 18, 2012, Berkeley became what may be the first city in the U.S. to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals: September 23, which is known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day. On September 2, 2014, the city council approved a measure to provide free medical marijuana to low-income patients. The Measure D soda tax was approved by Berkeley voters on November 4, 2014, the first such tax in the United States. Protests. In the fall of 2011, the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement came to two Berkeley locations: on the campus of the University of California and as an encampment in Civic Center Park. During a Black Lives Matter protest on December 6, 2014, police use of tear gas and batons to clear protesters from Telegraph Avenue led to a riot and five consecutive days and nights of protests, marches, and freeway occupations in Berkeley and Oakland. Afterwards, changes were implemented by the Police Department to avoid escalation of violence and to protect bystanders during protests. During a protest against bigotry and U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017, self-described anti-fascist protesters attacked Trump supporters in attendance. Police intervened, arresting 14 people. Sometimes called "antifa", these ‘anti-fascist’ activists were clad in black shirts and other black attire, while some carried shields and others had masks or bandanas hiding their faces to help them evade capture after street fighting. . These protests spanned February to September 2017 (See more at 2017 Berkeley Protests).
In 2019, protesters took up residence in People's Park against tree-chopping and were arrested by police in riot gear. Many activists saw this as the university preparing to develop the park. Homelessness. The city of Berkeley has historically been a central location for homeless communities in the Bay Area. Since the 1930s, the city of Berkeley has fostered a tradition of political activism. The city has been perceived as a hub for liberal thought and action and it has passed ordinances to oust homeless individuals from Berkeley on multiple occasions. Despite efforts to remove unhoused individuals from the streets and projects to improve social service provision for this demographic, homelessness has continued to be a significant problem in Berkeley. 1960s. A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s. The San Francisco Bay Area became a hotspot for hippie counterculture, and Berkeley became a haven for nonconformists and anarchists from all over the United States. Most public discourse around homelessness in Berkeley at this time was centered around the idea of street-living as an expression of counterculture.
During the Free Speech Movement in the fall of 1964, Berkeley became a hub of civil unrest, with demonstrators and UC Berkeley students sympathizing with the statewide protests for free speech and assembly, as well as revolting against university restrictions against student political activities and organizations established by UC President Clark Kerr in 1959. Many non-student youth and adolescents sought alternative lifestyles and opted for voluntary homelessness during this time. In 1969, People's Park was created and eventually became a haven for "small-time drug dealers, street people, and the homeless". Although the City of Berkeley has moved unhoused individuals from its streets, sometimes even relocating them to an unused landfill, People's Park has remained a safe space for them since its inception. The park has become one of the few relatively safe spaces for homeless individuals to congregate in Berkeley and the greater Bay Area. 1970s. Stereotypes of homeless people as deviant individuals who chose to live vagrant lifestyles continued to color the discourse around street-dwellers in American cities. However, this time period was also characterized by a subtle shift in the perception of unhoused individuals. The public began to realize that homelessness affected not only single men, but also women, children, and entire families. This recognition set the stage for the City of Berkeley's attitude towards homelessness in the next decade. 1980s.
Organizations such as Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) were established in 1971 in response to the needs of individuals with mental illness being released to the streets by state hospital closures. 1990s. In the 1990s, the City of Berkeley faced a substantial increase in the need for emergency housing shelters and saw a rise in the average amount of time individuals spent without stable housing. As housing became a more widespread problem, the general public, Berkeley City Council, and the University of California became increasingly anti-homeless in their opinions. In 1994, Berkeley City Council considered the implementation of a set of anti-homeless laws that the "San Francisco Chronicle" described as being "among the strictest in the country". These laws prohibited sitting, sleeping and begging in public spaces, and outlawed panhandling from people in a variety of contexts, such as sitting on public benches, buying a newspaper from a rack, or waiting in line for a movie. In February 1995, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the city for infringing free speech rights through its proposed anti-panhandling law. The following month, the Street Spirit, a monthly newspaper written for and by people experiencing homelessness, published its first of hundreds of issues covering homelessness in the Bay Area and across the nation. In May of that same year, a federal judge ruled that the anti-panhandling law did violate the First Amendment, but left the anti-sitting and sleeping laws untouched.
Following the implementation of these anti-sitting and sleeping ordinances in 1998, Berkeley increased its policing of homeless adults and youth, particularly in the shopping district surrounding Telegraph Avenue. The mayor at that time, Shirley Dean, proposed a plan to increase both social support services for homeless youth and enforcement of anti-encampment laws. Unhoused youth countered this plan with a request for the establishment of the city's first youth shelter, more trash cans, and more frequent cleaning of public bathrooms. 21st century. The City of Berkeley's 2017 annual homeless report and point-in-time count (PIT) estimate that on a given night, 972 people are homeless. Sixty-eight percent (664 people) of these individuals are also unsheltered, living in places not considered suitable for human habitation, such as cars or streets. Long-term homelessness in Berkeley is double the national average, with 27% of the city's homeless population facing chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness has been on the rise since 2015, and has been largely a consequence of the constrained local housing market. In 2015, rent in Alameda County increased by 25%, while the average household income only grew by 5%. The City of Berkeley's 2017 report also estimated the number of unaccompanied youth in Berkeley at 189 individuals, 19% of the total homeless population in the city. Homeless youth display greater risk of mental health issues, behavioral problems, and substance abuse, than any other homeless age group. Furthermore, homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ+ are exposed to greater rates of physical and sexual abuse, and higher risk for sexually-transmitted diseases, predominantly HIV.
The City of Berkeley has seen a consistent rise in the number of chronically homeless individuals over the past 30 years, and has implemented a number of different projects to reduce the number of people living on the streets. In 2008, the City focused its efforts on addressing chronic homelessness. This led to a 48% decline in the number of chronically homeless individuals reported in the 2009 Berkeley PIT. However, the number of "hidden homeless" individuals (those coping with housing insecurity by staying at a friend or relative's residence), increased significantly, likely in response to rising housing costs and costs of living. In 2012, the City considered measures that banned sitting in commercial areas throughout Berkeley. The measure was met with strong public opposition and did not pass. However, the City saw a strong need for it to implement rules addressing encampments and public usage of space as well as assessing the resources needed to assist the unhoused population. In response to these needs the City of Berkeley established the Homeless Task Force, headed by then-Councilmember Jesse Arreguín. Since its formation, the Task Force has proposed a number of different recommendations, from expanding the City Homeless Outreach and Mobile Crisis Teams, to building a short-term transitional shelter for unhoused individuals.
Geography. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city's area includes of land and (40.83%) water, most of it part of San Francisco Bay. Berkeley borders the cities of Albany, Oakland, and Emeryville and Contra Costa County, including unincorporated Kensington, as well as San Francisco Bay. Berkeley lies within telephone area code 510 (until September 2, 1991, Berkeley was part of the 415 telephone code that now covers only San Francisco and Marin counties), and the postal ZIP codes are 94701 through 94710, 94712, and 94720 for the University of California campus. Geology. Most of Berkeley lies on a rolling sedimentary plain that rises gently from sea level to the base of the Berkeley Hills. East of the Hayward Fault along the base of the hills, elevation increases more rapidly. The highest peak along the ridge line above Berkeley is Grizzly Peak, at an elevation of . A number of small creeks run from the hills to the Bay through Berkeley: Cerrito, Codornices, Schoolhouse, and Strawberry Creeks are the principal streams. Most of these are largely culverted once they reach the plain west of the hills.
The Berkeley Hills are part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, and run in a northwest–southeast alignment. Exposed in the Berkeley Hills are cherts and shales of the Claremont Formation (equivalent to the Monterey Formation), conglomerate and sandstone of the Orinda Formation and lava flows of the Moraga Volcanics. Of similar age to the Moraga Volcanics (extinct), within the Northbrae neighborhood of Berkeley, are outcroppings of erosion resistant rhyolite. These rhyolite formations can be seen in several city parks and in the yards of a number of private residences. Indian Rock Park in the northeastern part of Berkeley near the Arlington/Marin Circle features a large example. Earthquakes. Berkeley is traversed by the Hayward Fault Zone, a major branch of the San Andreas Fault to the west. No large earthquake has occurred on the Hayward Fault near Berkeley in historic times (except possibly in 1836), but seismologists warn about the geologic record of large temblors several times in the deeper past. The current assessment is that a Bay Area earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next 30 years is likely, with the Hayward Fault having the highest likelihood among faults in the Bay Area of being the epicenter. Moreover, like much of the Bay Area, Berkeley has many areas of some risk to soil liquefaction, with the flat areas closer to the shore at low to high susceptibility.
The 1868 Hayward earthquake did occur on the southern segment of the Hayward Fault in the vicinity of today's city of Hayward. This quake destroyed the county seat of Alameda County then located in San Leandro and it subsequently moved to Oakland. It was strongly felt in San Francisco, causing major damage. It was regarded as the "Great San Francisco earthquake" prior to 1906. It produced a furrow in the ground along the fault line in Berkeley, across the grounds of the new State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind then under construction, which was noted by one early University of California professor. Although no significant damage was reported to most of the few Berkeley buildings of the time, the 1868 quake did destroy the vulnerable adobe home of Domingo Peralta in north Berkeley. Today, evidence of the Hayward Fault's "creeping" is visible at various locations in Berkeley. Cracked roadways, sharp jogs in streams, and springs mark the fault's path. However, since it cuts across the base of the hills, the creep is often concealed by or confused with slide activity. Some of the slide activity itself, however, results from movement on the Hayward Fault.
A notorious segment of the Hayward Fault runs lengthwise down the middle of Memorial Stadium at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon on the University of California campus. Photos and measurements show the movement of the fault through the stadium. Climate. Berkeley has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csb" in the Köppen climate classification), with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Berkeley's location directly opposite the Golden Gate ensures that typical eastward fog flow blankets the city more often than its neighbors. The summers are cooler than a typical Mediterranean climate thanks to upwelling ocean currents along the California coast. These help produce cool and foggy nights and mornings. Winter is punctuated with rainstorms of varying ferocity and duration, but also produces stretches of bright sunny days and clear cold nights. It does not normally snow, though occasionally the hilltops get a dusting. Spring and fall are transitional and intermediate, with some rainfall and variable temperature. Summer typically brings night and morning low clouds or fog, followed by sunny, warm days. The warmest and driest months are typically June through September, with the highest temperatures occurring in September. Mid-summer (July–August) is often a bit cooler due to the sea breezes and fog common then.
In a year, there are an average of 2.9 days with highs of or higher, and an average of 0.8 days with lows of or lower. The highest recorded temperature was on June 15, 2000, and July 16, 1993, and the lowest recorded temperature was on December 22, 1990. February is normally the wettest month, averaging of precipitation. Average annual precipitation is , falling on an average of 63.7 days each year. The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on January 4, 1982. As in most of California, the heaviest rainfall years are usually associated with warm water El Niño episodes in the Pacific (e.g., 1982–83; 1997–98), which bring in drenching "Pineapple Express" storms. In contrast, dry years are often associated with cold Pacific La Niña episodes. Light snow has fallen on rare occasions. Snow has generally fallen every several years on the higher peaks of the Berkeley Hills. In the late spring and early fall, strong offshore winds of sinking air typically develop, bringing heat and dryness to the area. In the spring, this is not usually a problem as vegetation is still moist from winter rains, but extreme dryness prevails by the fall, creating a danger of wildfires. In September 1923, a major fire swept through the neighborhoods north of the university campus, stopping just short of downtown. On October 20, 1991, gusty, hot winds fanned a conflagration along the Berkeley–Oakland border, killing 25 people and injuring 150, as well as destroying 2,449 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units.
Demographics. 2020 census and estimates. The 2020 United States census reported that Berkeley had a population of 124,321. The population density was 11,874 people per square mile of land area (4,584/km2). The racial and ethnic makeup (where Latinos are excluded from the racial counts and treated as if a separate race) of Berkeley was 62,450 (50.2%) White, 9,495 (7.6%) Black or African American, 24,701 (19.9%) Asian, 253 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 226 (0.2%) from Native American, 1,109 (0.9%) from other races, and 9,069 (7.2%) multiracial (two or more races). There were 17,018 (13.7%) of Hispanic or Latino ancestry, of any race. According to the 2022 American Community Survey estimate, the median income for a household was $104,716 and the median income for a family was $177,068. Males had a median income of $102,565 versus $82,772 for females. The per capita income for the city was $63,310. About 4.3% of families and 17.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.
Earlier census data. From the 2010 United States census, the racial makeup of Berkeley was 66,996 (59.5%) White, 11,241 (10.0%) Black or African American, 479 (0.4%) Native American, 21,690 (19.3%) Asian (8.4% Chinese, 2.4% Indian, 2.1% Korean, 1.6% Japanese, 1.5% Filipino, 1.0% Vietnamese), 186 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 4,994 (4.4%) from other races, and 6,994 (6.2%) from two or more races. There were 12,209 people (10.8%) of Hispanic or Latino ancestry, of any race. 6.8% of the city's population was of Mexican ancestry. The Census reported that 99,731 people (88.6% of the population) lived in households, 12,430 (11.0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 419 (0.4%) were institutionalized. There were 46,029 households, out of which 8,467 (18.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,569 (29.5%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,855 (8.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,368 (3.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,931 (6.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 961 (2.1%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 16,904 households (36.7%) were made up of individuals, and 4,578 (9.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17. There were 18,792 families (40.8% of all households); the average family size was 2.81. There were 49,454 housing units at an average density of , of which 46,029 were occupied, of which 18,846 (40.9%) were owner-occupied, and 27,183 (59.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%. 45,096 people (40.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 54,635 people (48.5%) lived in rental housing units.
In the city, 13,872 people (12.3%) were under the age of 18, 30,295 (26.9%) were aged 18 to 24, 30,231 (26.9%) aged 25 to 44, 25,006 (22.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,176 (11.7%) were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.2 males. According to the 2011 American Community Survey 5-Year estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $60,908, and the median income for a family was $102,976. Males had a median income of $67,476 versus $57,319 for females. The per capita income for the city was $38,896. About 7.2% of families and 18.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over. Berkeley has a higher-than-average crime rate, particularly property crime, though the crime rate has fallen significantly since 2000. Transportation. Berkeley is served by Amtrak (Capitol Corridor), AC Transit, BART (Ashby, Downtown Berkeley Station and North Berkeley) and bus shuttles operated by major employers including UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80 and Interstate 580) runs along the bay shoreline. Each day there is an influx of thousands of cars into the city by commuting UC faculty, staff and students, making parking for more than a few hours an expensive proposition.
Berkeley has one of the highest rates of bicycle and pedestrian commuting in the nation. Berkeley is the safest city of its size in California for pedestrians and cyclists, considering the number of injuries per pedestrian and cyclist, rather than per capita. Berkeley has modified its original grid roadway structure through use of diverters and barriers, moving most traffic out of neighborhoods and onto arterial streets (visitors often find this confusing, because the diverters are not shown on all maps). Berkeley maintains a separate grid of arterial streets for bicycles, called Bicycle Boulevards, with bike lanes and lower amounts of car traffic than the major streets they often parallel. Attempts to improve the biking infrastructure in Berkeley have been met with controversy. In 2023, the Berkeley city council fired the city's top transportation official for a plan to remove dozens of parking spots on a street to build a protected bike lane. Berkeley hosts car sharing network Zipcar. Rather than owning (and parking) their own cars, members share a group of cars parked nearby. Web- and telephone-based reservation systems keep track of hours and charges. Several "pods" (points of departure where cars are kept) exist throughout the city, in several downtown locations, at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, and at various other locations in Berkeley (and other cities in the region). Using alternative transportation is encouraged.
Berkeley has had recurring problems with parking meter vandalism. In 1999, over 2,400 Berkeley meters were jammed, smashed, or sawed apart. Starting in 2005 and continuing into 2006, Berkeley began to phase out mechanical meters in favor of more centralized electronic meters. Transportation history. The first commuter service to San Francisco was provided by the Central Pacific's Berkeley Branch Railroad, a standard gauge steam railroad, which terminated in downtown Berkeley, and connected in Emeryville (at a locale then known as "Shellmound") with trains to the Oakland ferry pier as well as with the Central Pacific main line starting in 1876. The Berkeley Branch line was extended from Shattuck and University to Vine Street ("Berryman's Station") in 1878. Starting in 1882, Berkeley trains ran directly to the Oakland Pier. In the 1880s, Southern Pacific assumed operations of the Berkeley Branch under a lease from its own paper affiliate, the Northern Railway. In 1911, Southern Pacific electrified this line and the several others it constructed in Berkeley, creating its East Bay Electric Lines division. The huge and heavy cars specially built for these lines were called the "Red Trains" or the "Big Red Cars". The Shattuck line was extended and connected with two other Berkeley lines (the Ninth Street Line and the California Street line) at Solano and Colusa (the "Colusa Wye"). At this time, the Northbrae Tunnel and Rose Street Undercrossing were constructed, both of which still exist. (The Rose Street Undercrossing is not accessible to the public, being situated between what is now two backyards.) The fourth Berkeley line was the Ellsworth St. line to the university campus. The last Red Trains ran in July 1941.
The first electric rail service in Berkeley was provided by several small streetcar companies starting in 1891. Most of these were eventually bought up by the Key System of Francis "Borax" Smith who added lines and improved equipment. The Key System's streetcars were operated by its East Bay Street Railways division. Principal lines in Berkeley ran on Euclid, The Arlington, , Telegraph, Shattuck, San Pablo, , and Grove (today's Martin Luther King Jr. Way). The last streetcars ran in 1948, replaced by buses. The first electric commuter interurban-type trains to San Francisco from Berkeley were put in operation by the Key System in 1903, several years before the Southern Pacific electrified its steam commuter lines. Like the SP, Key trains ran to a pier serviced by the Key's own fleet of ferryboats, which also docked at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. After the Bay Bridge was built, the Key trains ran to the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, sharing tracks on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge with the SP's red trains and the Sacramento Northern Railroad. It was at this time that the Key trains acquired their letter designations, which were later preserved by Key's public successor, AC Transit. Today's F bus is the successor of the F train. Likewise, the E, G and the H. Before the Bridge, these lines were simply the Shattuck Avenue Line, the Claremont Line, the Westbrae Line, and the Sacramento Street Line, respectively.
After the Southern Pacific abandoned transbay service in 1941, the Key System acquired the rights to use its tracks and catenary on Shattuck north of Dwight Way and through the Northbrae Tunnel to The Alameda for the F-train. The SP tracks along Monterey Avenue as far as Colusa had been acquired by the Key System in 1933 for the H-train, but were abandoned in 1941. The Key System trains stopped running in April 1958. On December 15, 1962, the Northbrae Tunnel was opened to auto traffic. Economy. Top employers. According to the city's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: Businesses. Berkeley is the location of a number of nationally prominent businesses, many of which have been pioneers in their areas of operation. Notable businesses include Chez Panisse, birthplace of California cuisine, Peet's Coffee's original store, the Claremont Resort, punk rock haven 924 Gilman, Saul Zaentz's Fantasy Studios, and Caffe Strada. Notable former businesses include pioneer bookseller Cody's Books, The Nature Company, The North Face, Clif Bar energy foods, the Berkeley Co-op, and Caffe Mediterraneum.
Berkeley has relatively few chain stores for a city of its size, due to policies and zoning that promote small businesses and impose limits on the size of certain types of stores. Places. Neighborhoods. Berkeley has a number of distinct neighborhoods. Surrounding the University of California campus are the most densely populated parts of the city. West of the campus is Downtown Berkeley, the city's traditional commercial core; home of the civic center, the city's only public high school, the busiest BART station in Berkeley, as well as a major transfer point for AC Transit buses. South of the campus is Southside, mainly a student ghetto, where much of the university's student housing is located. The busiest stretch of Telegraph Avenue is in this neighborhood. North of the campus is the quieter Northside neighborhood, the location of the Graduate Theological Union. Farther from the university campus, the influence of the university quickly becomes less visible. Most of Berkeley's neighborhoods are primarily made up of detached houses, often with separate in-law units in the rear, although larger apartment buildings are also common in many neighborhoods. Commercial activities are concentrated along the major avenues and at important intersections and frequently define the neighborhood within which they reside.
In the southeastern corner of the city is the Claremont District, home to the Claremont Hotel. Also in the southeast is the Elmwood District known for its commercial area on College Avenue. West of Elmwood is South Berkeley, known for its weekend flea market at the Ashby Station. West of (and including) San Pablo Avenue, itself a major commercial and transport corridor, is West Berkeley, the historic commercial center of the city. This neighborhood and area includes the former unincorporated town of Ocean View. West Berkeley contains the remnants of Berkeley's industrial area, much of which has been replaced by retail and office uses, as well as residential live/work loft space, paralleling the decline of manufacturing in the United States. This area abuts the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay and is home to the Berkeley Marina. Also nearby is Berkeley's Aquatic Park, featuring an artificial linear lagoon of San Francisco Bay. North of downtown is North Berkeley which has its main commercial area nicknamed the "Gourmet Ghetto" because of the concentration of well-known restaurants and other food-related businesses. West of North Berkeley (roughly west of Sacramento and north of Cedar) is Westbrae, a small neighborhood centered on a small commercial area on Gilman Street and through which part of the Ohlone Greenway runs. Meanwhile, further north of North Berkeley are Northbrae, a master-planned subdivision from the early 20th century, and Thousand Oaks. Above these last three neighborhoods, on the western slopes of the Berkeley Hills are the neighborhoods of Cragmont and La Loma Park, notable for their dramatic views, winding streets, and numerous public stairways and paths.
Parks and recreation. The city has many parks, and promotes greenery and the environment. The city has planted trees for years and is a leader in the nationwide effort to re-tree urban areas. Tilden Regional Park lies east of the city, occupying the upper extent of Wildcat Canyon between the Berkeley Hills and the San Pablo Ridge. The city is also heavily involved in creek restoration and wetlands restoration, including a planned "daylighting" of Strawberry Creek along Center Street. The Berkeley Marina and East Shore State Park flank its shoreline at San Francisco Bay and organizations like the Urban Creeks Council and Friends of the Five Creeks, the former of which is headquartered in Berkeley, support the riparian areas in the town and coastlines as well. César Chávez Park, near the Berkeley Marina, was built at the former site of the city dump. Landmarks and historic districts. 165 buildings in Berkeley are designated as local landmarks or local structures of merit. Of these, 49 are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including:
Historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places: Arts and culture. Berkeley is home to the Chilean-American community's La Peña Cultural Center, the largest cultural center for this community in the United States. The Freight and Salvage is the oldest established full-time folk and traditional music venue west of the Mississippi River. Additionally, Berkeley is home to the off-broadway theater Berkeley Repertory Theater, commonly known as "Berkeley Rep". The Berkeley Repertory Theater consists of two stages, a school, and has received a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The historic Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is operated by UC Berkeley, and was moved to downtown Berkeley in January 2016. It offers many exhibitions and screenings of historic films, as well as outreach programs within the community. Education. Colleges and universities. University of California, Berkeley's main campus is in the city limits. The Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of eight independent theological schools, is located a block north of the University of California Berkeley's main campus. The Graduate Theological Union has the largest number of students and faculty of any religious studies doctoral program in the United States. In addition to more theological schools, Zaytuna College, a newly established Muslim liberal-arts college, has taken 'Holy Hill' as its new home. The Institute of Buddhist Studies has been located in Berkeley since 1966. Wright Institute, a psychology graduate school, is located in Berkeley. Berkeley City College is a community college in the Peralta Community College District.
Primary and secondary schools. The Berkeley Unified School District operates public schools. The first public school in Berkeley was the Ocean View School, now the site of the Berkeley Adult School located at Virginia Street and San Pablo Avenue. The public schools today are administered by the Berkeley Unified School District. In the 1960s, Berkeley was one of the earliest US cities to voluntarily desegregate, utilizing a system of buses, still in use. The district has eleven elementary schools and one public high school, Berkeley High School (BHS). Established in 1880, BHS currently has over 3,000 students. The Berkeley High campus was designated a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2008. Saint Mary's College High School, a Catholic school, also has its street address in Berkeley, although most of the grounds and buildings are actually in neighboring Albany. Berkeley has 11 public elementary schools and three middle schools. The East Bay campus of the German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV) formerly occupied the Hillside Campus, Berkeley, California; it opened there in 2012. In December 2016, the GISSV closed the building, due to unmet seismic retrofit needs.
Public libraries. Berkeley Public Library serves as the municipal library. University of California, Berkeley Libraries operates the University of California Berkeley libraries. Government. Berkeley has a council–manager government. The mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term and is the ceremonial head of the city and the chair of the city council. The Berkeley City Council is composed of the mayor and eight council members elected by district who each serve four-year terms. Districts 2, 3, 5 and 6 hold their elections in years divisible by four while Districts 1, 4, 7 and 8 hold theirs in even-numbered years not divisible by four. The city council appoints a city manager, who is the chief executive of the city. Additionally, the city voters directly elect an independent city auditor, school board, and rent stabilization board. Most city officials, including council members, are elected using instant-runoff voting since November 2010. Kriss Worthington, elected in 1996 to represent District 7, became the first openly LGBT man elected to the Berkeley City Council. Lori Droste, elected in 2014 to represent District 8, became the first openly LGBT woman elected to the Berkeley City Council. Terry Taplin, elected in 2020 to represent District 2, became the first openly LGBT person of color elected to the Berkeley City Council.
In 1973, Ying Lee became the first Asian American city councilmember in Berkeley. Jenny Wong, elected in 2018, is the first Asian American City Auditor in Berkeley. In 2014, the City of Berkeley passed a redistricting measure on the ballot to create the nation's first student supermajority district in District 7, which in 2018 elected Rigel Robinson, a 22-year-old UC Berkeley graduate and the youngest Councilmember in the city's history. While much of UC Berkeley's student housing is located in District 7, large dormitories also exist in Districts 6 and 8. Districts 4 and 7 are majority-student. Nancy Skinner became the first student to serve on the City Council, elected in 1984 as a graduate student. Rigel Robinson, who was elected in 2018, became the second student to serve on the City Council as he completed his master's degree while in office. Adena Ishii became the first woman of color to be elected Mayor of Berkeley in November 2024. The city's Public Health Division is one of four municipally-operated public health agencies in California (the other three being Long Beach, Pasadena, and Vernon). Though it is part of the city government, it qualifies for the same state funds as a county public health department.
Berkeley is also part of Alameda County, for which the Government of Alameda County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law, and the Charter of the County of Alameda. The county government provides countywide services, such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, and social services. The county's health department does not cover the city. The county government is primarily composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors, other elected offices including the Sheriff/Coroner, the District Attorney, Assessor, Auditor-Controller/County Clerk/Recorder, and Treasurer/Tax Collector, and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the County Administrator. In addition to the Berkeley Unified School District (which is coterminous with the city), Berkeley is also part of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), the East Bay Regional Park District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and the Peralta Community College District.
Politics. Berkeley has been a Democratic stronghold in presidential elections since 1960, becoming one of the most Democratic cities in the country. The last Republican presidential candidate to receive at least one-quarter of the vote in Berkeley was Richard Nixon in 1968. Consistent with Berkeley's reputation as a strongly liberal and/or progressive city, in the 2016 presidential election more votes were won by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein than by Republican candidate Donald Trump. In the 2020 Presidential election, Joe Biden received 93.8% of the vote while Donald Trump received 4.0% of the vote. According to the California Secretary of State, as of August 30, 2021, Berkeley has 75,390 registered voters. Of those, 56,740 (75.26%) are registered Democrats, 1,910 (2.53%) are registered Republicans, 14,106 (18.71%) have declined to state a political party affiliation, and 2,634 (3.49%) are registered with a third party. Berkeley became the first city in the United States to pass a sanctuary resolution on November 8, 1971.
Media. The city had a daily newspaper, the "Berkeley Gazette", which was founded and folded in 1984. The "Berkeley Barb" published counter-culture news from 1965 to 1980. Current media include "The Daily Californian", the student newspaper of UC Berkeley, the "Berkeley Times", and local online-only publications "Berkeleyside", the "Berkeley Daily Planet", and "The Berkeley Scanner". Notable people. Notable individuals who were born in and/or have lived in Berkeley include Kamala Harris, Steve Wozniak, scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Ernest Lawrence, actors Ben Affleck, and Andy Samberg, Major League Baseball broadcaster Matt Vasgersian, model Rebecca Romijn, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, rapper Lil B, authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Michael Chabon, entertainment and real estate mogul Herbie Herbert, and EDM producer KSHMR, and university presidents Blake R. Van Leer and Darryll Pines and adult education advocate Gretchen Bersch. Sister cities. Berkeley has 17 sister cities:
Bolventor Bolventor () is a hamlet on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in Altarnun civil parish between Launceston and Bodmin. Toponymy. The hamlet has been said to take its name from the "Bold Venture" that it must have appeared to build a farm in this moorland, but this is probably folk etymology, as "Bol-" is a common prefix in Cornish placenames. It is much more likely that the name derives from the 'Bold Adventure' tin-working area which was in operation near Jamaica Inn during the 1840s-1850s Jamaica Inn. Bolventor is the location of the famous Jamaica Inn coaching inn. It is bypassed by a dual carriageway section of the A30 trunk road; before the bypass was built the hamlet straddled the A30 road. Daphne du Maurier, a former resident, chose Bolventor as the setting for her novel about Cornish smugglers titled "Jamaica Inn". The inn that inspired the novel, Jamaica Inn, has stood beside the main road through the village since 1547. It is now a tourist attraction in its own right and dominates the hamlet. The Jamaica Inn was the subject of a paranormal investigation during a 2004 episode of reality television programme "Most Haunted".
Church. The former Holy Trinity Church that lies to the east of the hamlet closed some years ago. A mile from Bolventor there was a chapel of St Luke (from the 13th to the early 16th century): the font is now at the church of Tideford. Bolventor parish was established in 1846 (before that date the village was in St Neot parish; the new parish was made up of parts of St Neot, Altarnun and Cardinham parishes) but has now been merged with Altarnun. 1945 air disaster. On 14 September 1945 a Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk VII (PN305) was operating a flight from RAF Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, to Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal. During the flight an electrical failure occurred causing a dingy inside the wing to inflate dislodge from stowage. The dingy wrapped around the tail assembly and the aircraft went into a nose dive, crashing into the Priddacombe area of Bolventor. All 21 on board, seven crew and fourteen passengers, died in the crash.
Bengal Bengal ( ) is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between the modern-day sovereign nation of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, and Karimganj district of Assam. The ancient Vanga Kingdom is widely regarded as the namesake of the Bengal region. The Bengali calendar dates back to the reign of Shashanka in the 7th century CE. The Pala Empire was founded in Bengal during the 8th century. The Sena dynasty and Deva dynasty ruled between the 11th and 13th centuries. By the 14th century, Bengal was absorbed by Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent. An independent Bengal Sultanate was formed and became the eastern frontier of the Islamic world. During this period, Bengal's rule and influence spread to Assam, Arakan, Tripura, Bihar, and Odisha (formerly- Orissa). Bengal Subah later emerged as a prosperous part of the Mughal Empire.
The last independent Nawab of Bengal was defeated in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey by the East India Company. The company's Bengal Presidency grew into the largest administrative unit of British India with Calcutta as the capital of both Bengal and India until 1911. As a result of the first partition of Bengal, a short-lived province called Eastern Bengal and Assam existed between 1905 and 1911 with its capital in the former Mughal capital Dhaka. Following the Sylhet referendum and votes by the Bengal Legislative Council and Bengal Legislative Assembly, the region was again divided along religious lines in 1947. Bengali culture, particularly its literature, music, art and cinema, are well known in South Asia and beyond. The region is also notable for its economic and social scientists, which includes several Nobel laureates. Once home to the city with the highest per capita income level in British India, the region is today a leader in South Asia in terms of gender parity, the gender pay gap and other indices of human development.
Etymology. The name of "Bengal" is derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga (pronounced Bôngô), the earliest records of which date back to the "Mahabharata" epic in the first millennium BCE. The reference to 'Vangalam' is present in an inscription in the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, which is one of the oldest references to Bengal. The term "Vangaladesa" is used to describe the region in 11th-century South Indian records. The modern term "Bangla" is prominent from the 14th century, which saw the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, whose first ruler Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was known as the "Shah of Bangala". The Portuguese referred to the region as "Bengala" in the Age of Discovery. History. Antiquity. Neolithic sites have been found in several parts of the region. In the second millennium BCE, rice-cultivating communities dotted the region. By the eleventh century BCE, people in Bengal lived in systematically aligned homes, produced copper objects, and crafted black and red pottery. Remnants of Copper Age settlements are located in the region. At the advent of the Iron Age, people in Bengal adopted iron-based weapons, tools and irrigation equipment. From 600 BCE, the second wave of urbanisation engulfed the north Indian subcontinent as part of the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. Ancient archaeological sites and cities in Dihar, Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Mahasthangarh, Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar emerged. The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers were natural arteries for communication and transportation. Estuaries on the Bay of Bengal allowed for maritime trade with distant lands in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
The ancient geopolitical divisions of Bengal included Varendra, Suhma, Anga, Vanga, Samatata and Harikela. These regions were often independent or under the rule of larger empires. The Mahasthan Brahmi Inscription indicates that Bengal was ruled by the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE. The inscription was an administrative order instructing relief for a distressed segment of the population. Punch-marked coins found in the region indicate that coins were used as currency during the Iron Age. The namesake of Bengal is the ancient Vanga Kingdom which was reputed as a naval power with overseas colonies. A prince from Bengal named Vijaya founded the first kingdom in Sri Lanka. The two most prominent pan-Indian empires of this period included the Mauryans and the Gupta Empire. The region was a centre of artistic, political, social, spiritual and scientific thinking, including the invention of chess, Indian numerals, and the concept of zero. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai. The Greek ambassador Megasthenes chronicled its military strength and dominance of the Ganges delta. The invasion army of Alexander the Great was deterred by the accounts of Gangaridai's power in 325 BCE, including a cavalry of war elephants. Later Roman accounts noted maritime trade routes with Bengal. 1st century Roman coins with images of Hercules were found in the region and point to trade links with Roman Egypt through the Red Sea. The Wari-Bateshwar ruins are believed to be the emporium (trading centre) of Sounagoura mentioned by Roman geographer Claudius Ptolemy. A Roman amphora was found in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal which was made in Aelana (present-day Aqaba, Jordan) between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.
The first unified Bengali polity can be traced to the reign of Shashanka. The origins of the Bengali calendar can be traced to his reign. Shashanka founded the Gauda Kingdom. After Shashanka's death, Bengal experienced a period of civil war known as Matsyanyayam. The ancient city of Gauda later gave birth to the Pala Empire. The first Pala emperor Gopala I was chosen by an assembly of chieftains in Gauda. The Pala kingdom grew into one of the largest empires in the Indian subcontinent. The Pala period saw advances in linguistics, sculpture, painting, and education. The empire achieved its greatest territorial extent under Dharmapala and Devapala. The Palas vied for control of Kannauj with the rival Gurjara-Pratihara and Rashtrakuta dynasties. Pala influence also extended to Tibet and Sumatra due to the travels and preachings of Atisa. The university of Nalanda was established by the Palas. They also built the Somapura Mahavihara, which was the largest monastic institution in the subcontinent. The rule of the Palas eventually disintegrated. The Chandra dynasty ruled southeastern Bengal and Arakan. The Varman dynasty ruled parts of northeastern Bengal and Assam. The Sena dynasty emerged as the main successor of the Palas by the 11th century. The Senas were a resurgent Hindu dynasty which ruled much of Bengal. The smaller Deva dynasty also ruled parts of the region. Ancient Chinese visitors like Xuanzang provided elaborate accounts of Bengal's cities and monastic institutions.
Muslim trade with Bengal flourished after the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the Arab takeover of Persian trade routes. Much of this trade occurred with southeastern Bengal in areas east of the Meghna River. Bengal was probably used as a transit route to China by the earliest Muslims. Abbasid coins have been discovered in the archaeological ruins of Paharpur and Mainamati. A collection of Sasanian, Umayyad and Abbasid coins are preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum. Sultanate period. In 1204, the Ghurid general Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji began the Islamic conquest of Bengal. The fall of Lakhnauti was recounted by historians circa 1243. Lakhnauti was the capital of the Sena dynasty. According to historical accounts, Ghurid cavalry swept across the Gangetic plains towards Bengal. They entered the Bengali capital disguised as horse traders. Once inside the royal compound, Bakhtiyar and his horsemen swiftly overpowered the guards of the Sena king who had just sat down to eat a meal. The king then hastily fled to the forest with his followers.
Once inside the royal compound, Bakhtiyar and his horsemen swiftly overpowered the guards of the Sena king who had just sat down to eat a meal. The king then hastily fled to the forest with his followers. The overthrow of the Sena king has been described as a coup d'état, which "inaugurated an era, lasting over five centuries, during which most of Bengal was dominated by rulers professing the Islamic faith. In itself this was not exceptional, since from about this time until the eighteenth century, Muslim sovereigns ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent. What was exceptional, however, was that among India's interior provinces only in Bengal—a region approximately the size of England and Scotland combined—did a majority of the indigenous population adopt the religion of the ruling class, Islam". Bengal became a province of the Delhi Sultanate. A coin featuring a horseman was issued to celebrate the Muslim conquest of Lakhnauti with inscriptions in Sanskrit and Arabic. An abortive Islamic invasion of Tibet was also mounted by Bakhtiyar.

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