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Main article: History of Louisville, Kentucky

The history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the area's unique geography and location. The city attributes its growth to the fact that boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. In 1769, explorer Daniel Boone created a trail from North Carolina to Tennessee, and then spent the next two years exploring Kentucky. The first settlement was made in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark. Thirteen families were left behind and established Fort Nelson, the first permanent settlement at the site of Louisville. Today, Col. Clark is now recognized as the founder of Louisville, and several landmarks are named after him.

View of Main Street, Louisville, in 1846.

View of Main Street, Louisville, in 1846. Two years later, in 1780, the France, whose soldiers at the time were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark organized their expedition across America at the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville.
In 1828, the population swelled to 7,000; and Louisville became an incorporated city. The city grew rapidly in its formative years. In 1839, a precursor to the modern Kentucky Derby was held at Old Louisville's Oakland Race Course.
During the Civil War, Louisville was spared active fighting by the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky's bloodiest battle of the war. Years later, on 1891-09-07, train service arrived to the city with the completion of the Union station train hub.
In January 1937, a month of heavy rain throughout the Ohio River Valley prompted what became remembered as the "Great Flood of '37." The flood submerged about 70% of the city and forced the evacuation of 175,000 residents.
Throughout the 20th century, the arts flourished in Louisville. The Speed Art Museum was opened in 1927 and is now the oldest and largest museum of art in Kentucky. The Louisville Orchestra was founded in 1937. In 1949 the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival was begun, and today it is the oldest free and independently-operating Shakespeare festival in the United States.
For a variety of reasons, Louisville began to decline as an important city in the 1960s and 1970s. Highways that had been built in the 1950s facilitated a flight to the suburbs, and the downtown area began to die out. In 1974 a major (F4) tornado hit Louisville as part of the Super Outbreak of tornados that struck 13 states. It covered 21 miles (34 km) and destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area but was only responsible for two deaths.
After two decades of population loss, Jefferson County started gaining population again in the 1990s, in large part because of fast growing Vietnamese and Hispanic communities. Louisville has also experienced a regrowth in popularity and prosperity. This can be seen in the many changes in this period, including significant downtown infrastructure improvements such as the conversion of the waterfront into parkland and the emergance of ecclectic shopping districts and young professional residential areas along Bardstown Road & Frankfort Avenue.
Many cultural showcases were founded or expanded in this period. The Kentucky Center was officially dedicated in 1983. The Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), a popular alternative newspaper, was founded in 1990, and Snitch was established in the 1990s, although Snitch ceased publication in 2005. Velocity was later released by the Courier-Journal as well in 2003. The city's growth continues to the present day.
Several important projects in the city are slated for completions in the late 2000s or early 2010s; including the three tower Louisville Museum Plaza, whose tallest tower will replace the AEGON Center as Kentucky's tallest building and will feature a one acre public "park" 22 stories off the ground. There are several other important projects relating to the city's parks, including the creation of a "ring of parks", which will connect the waterfront, Levee Bike Trail, Jefferson Memorial Forest, and E.P. Sawyer State Park; and also the conversion of the former Big Four Railroad bridge over the Ohio River into the longest pedestrian only bridge in the world.

Pronunciation

The Louisville Convention & Visitors' Bureau proudly displays many of the common pronunciations of the city on its logo.

The Louisville Convention & Visitors' Bureau proudly displays many of the common pronunciations of the city on its logo. Most long-time residents pronounce the city's name as ['lu??v?l] (IPA)—often this degrades further into ['l?v?l]. The name is often pronounced far back in the mouth, in the top of the throat. The standard English pronunciation, however, is ['lu?iv?l] (referring to King Louis XVI), which is often utilized by political leaders and the media. No matter how Louisville is pronounced, the 's' is always silent. (This contrasts with name of the city Louisville, Colorado, which, although spelled the same, is pronounced ['lu?isv?l].)
The variability of the local pronunciation of Louisville's name can perhaps be laid at the feet of the city's location on the border between the North and South of the United States. Louisville's diverse population has traditionally represented elements of both Northern and Southern culture.
Regional migration patterns and the homogenization of dialect due to electronic media also may be responsible for the incidence of native-born Louisvillians adopting or affecting the standard English pronunciation. Nevertheless, the ['lu??v?l] pronunciation is most popular among residents and is, with little exception, used by news and sports reporters.

Economy

Bourbon bottle, 19th century. One-third of all bourbon whiskey comes from Louisville.

Bourbon bottle, 19th century. One-third of all bourbon whiskey comes from Louisville. Louisville's early economy first developed through the shipping and cargo industries. Its strategic location at the United States (within one day's travel to 60% of the cities in the continental U.S.) make it an ideal location for the transfer of cargo along its route to other destinations. In the early days, the Louisville and Portland Canal (the McAlpine Locks and Dam is built in this canal) was a crucial link in water traffic on its route from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and other origins) to the mouth of the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and beyond. The Nashville Railroad">Louisville & Nashville Railroad was also an important link between the industrialized northern cities and the South. Louisville's importance to the shipping industry continues today with the presence of the world air hub for UPS. Louisville's location at the crossroads of three major Interstate highways (I-64, I-65 and I-71) also contributes to its modern-day strategic importance to the shipping and cargo industry.
Additionally, Louisville is home to several major corporations and organizations:

Brown-Forman Corporation (Fortune 500)
Hillerich & Bradsby (known for Louisville Slugger baseball bats)
Humana Inc. (Fortune 500)
Kindred Healthcare Incorporated (Fortune 500)
Papa John's Pizza
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Yum! Brands, Inc. (owners of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A & W Restaurants; formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, spin-off of PepsiCo) (Fortune 500)

Louisville for a long time was also home to Brown & Williamson, one of the subjects of the tobacco industry scandals of the 1990s. Also located in Louisville are two major Ford plants, and a major General Electric appliance factory.
Additionally, one third of all of the bourbon whiskey comes from Louisville. The Brown-Forman Corporation is one of the major makers of bourbon, which is headquartered in Louisville. Other major distilleries of bourbon can be found both in the city of Louisville, or in neighboring cities in Kentucky, such as Heaven Hill (Bardstown, Kentucky), Woodford Reserve (Woodford County), or Maker's Mark (Loretto, Kentucky, with a restaurant/lounge in Louisville).

90% of the United States' disco balls are made in Louisville.

90% of the United States' disco balls are made in Louisville. Louisville also prides itself in its large assortment of small, independent businesses and restaurants. Some of these local businesses have become known for their ingenuity and creativity. For example, in 1934, Kaelin's Restaurant served the first hamburger with a slice of cheese on top, becoming known as the first cheeseburger. In 1926 the Brown Hotel became the home of the Louisville Hot brown "sandwich". In 1880, John Colgan also invented a way to make chewing gum taste better for a longer period of time.
The Highlands area of Louisville on Bardstown Road also contains many independent businesses, including but not limited to the popular Ear X-tacy music store, Baxter Avenue Theater, Carmichael's book store, the Wild and Woolly Video store, Heine Brothers' Coffee, Conti Coffee, Wick's Pizza, O'Shea's Irish Pub, among others. Several local brewpubs such as Rich O's Public House of New Albany Indiana, Browning's Restaurant and Brewery, Cumberland Brewing Company, and the Bluegrass Brewing Company offer an assortment of local brewing talent in the area.
Louisville also has connections to the entertainment industry. For example, 90% of the United States' disco balls are made in Louisville at National Products, Inc. Several major motion pictures have also been filmed in or near Louisville, including Goldfinger, Stripes, The Insider and Elizabethtown.

Sister cities

The distances to each of Louisville's sister cities are represented on this lightpost downtown.

The distances to each of Louisville's sister cities are represented on this lightpost downtown.
China
Argentina
Germany
France
Russia
Ecuador
Tamale, Ghana [6]
Leeds, England, UK [8]

Notes

1. ^ Climate information from NOAA.
2. ^ Maximum and minimum temperatures from Yahoo! Weather
3. ^ Data on Catholic residents from the Catholic Encyclopedia
4. ^ Data from E.on-U.S. (formerly LG&E Energy)
5. ^ Data from Louisville Water
6. ^ Sister cities designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI)
7. The Encyclopedia of Louisville, edition 1 (2001). Article: Population
8. ^ Leeds is considered a "Friendship City." Sister Cities of Louisville (2006). "Leeds, England." Accessed on February 13, 2006.

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Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville (GFDL)

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