St. Louis Missouri History & Facts

St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, and the 20th-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, who named it for Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain. In 1800, it was retroceded to France, which sold it three years later to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the city was then the point of embarkation for the Corps of Discovery on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; from 1870 until the 1920 census, it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

A "Gamma" global city with a metropolitan GDP of more than $160 billion in 2017,metropolitan St. Louis has a diverse economy with strengths in the service, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and tourism industries. It is home to eight Fortune 500 companies. Major companies headquartered or with significant operations in the city include Ameren Corporation, Peabody Energy, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Anheuser-Busch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Stifel Financial, Spire, Inc., MilliporeSigma, FleishmanHillard, Square, Inc., Anthem BlueCross and Blue Shield, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Centene Corporation, and Express Scripts.

Major research universities include Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. The Washington University Medical Center in the Central West End neighborhood hosts an agglomeration of medical and pharmaceutical institutions, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

St. Louis has four professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, St. Louis City SC of Major League Soccer, anticipated to begin play in 2023, and the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL. Among the city's notable sights is the 630-foot (192 m) Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis, the St. Louis Zoo, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum.

The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture, which built numerous temple and residential earthwork mounds on both sides of the Mississippi River. Their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 to 1500. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the "Mound City". These mounds were mostly demolished during the city's development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, and the Illiniwek.

European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of Louisiana.

Famous Peoples From St. Louis Missouri

Janet Adair

Janet Adair (c. 1892 – 24 November 1938) was an American vaudeville, ragtime, musical revue and musical comedy performer in the early twentieth century, who also appeared in 5 movies.

Adair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in about 1892. She worked as a stenographer in that city until, during a party in 1910 to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, she reportedly accepted a dare to perform her character songs on stage.She was quickly engaged by St. Louis theatre manager Dan Fishell, and performed at moving picture theatres and in vaudeville shows in Missouri and nearby states, including Kentucky, Texas, Michigan, and Arkansas. She performed with accompanists Hazel Hickey (until 1914) and Emily or Emma Adelphi (later Mrs Jack Norworth) (from 1916).She toured nationally and to Canada,and frequently headlined variety shows.

Reviewers described Adair as "one of those few who have the singular attraction of personality combined with voice and action .. truly a comedienne"; "Diminutive and childlike Miss Adair "puts over" her songs in a fashion that is irresistible" "an excellent imitator"; "an irresistibly fascinating adorably clever young lady .. the atmosphere about her that gets right over the footlights ... Some call it personality, and others call it pep; but whatever it is, she has it in carload lots." Her songs, which she called "song definitions", were described as "satires of various personages easily recognizable .. clever jabs at certain phases of domestic and social life".

During 1919–1920, she appeared in the Shubert Gaieties of 1919.

She was a contralto member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's choir from August to December 1926.

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