...St. Louis ( or ; French: Saint-Louis or St-Louis, ) is an independent city Missouri QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States.http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro_general/2007/CSA-EST2007-alldata.csv The city was founded in 1764 just south of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers by colonial French traders Pierre Laclède and René Auguste Chouteau, who named the settlement after King Louis IX of France. The city, as well as the future state of Missouri, became part of the Spanish Empire after the French were defeated in the Seven Years' War. In 1800 the land was secretly transferred back to France, whose leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, promptly sold it to the United States in 1803; the city commemorates its multinational heritage by celebrating Three Flags Day. On August 22, 1876 the City of St. Louis voted to secede from St. Louis County and become an independent city, limiting its geographic growth. Once the fourth largest single city in the United States, St. Louis's city proper population has since slipped to 52nd. U.S. Bureau of the Census - Table 13. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1900. The 1904 World's Fair and 1904 Olympic Games, the first ever held in the Western Hemisphere, took place at the peak of the city's influence. St. Louis has historically had a large Italian population which is centered on the southside community of "The Hill." A large number of immigrants primarily from Italy, Germany, Bohemia and Ireland flooded St. Louis in the 19th century coloring the cuisine and architecture of the city. Today St. Louis has a majority population of African American, most of whom migrated to the city during the great migration to work in factories and other industries. St. Louis is the fourth most populous county in Missouri. Read full entry

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