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An Algonquian people known as the
Nacotchtank inhabited the area around the Anacostia River where Washington now
lies when the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century; however, Native
American people had largely relocated from the area by the early 18th century.
Georgetown was chartered by the Province of Maryland on the north bank of the
Potomac River in 1751. The town would be included within the new federal
territory established nearly 40 years later. The City of Alexandria, Virginia,
founded in 1749, was also originally included within the District.
James Madison expounded the need for a federal district on January 23, 1788, in
his "Federalist No. 43", arguing that the national capital needed to be distinct
from the states in order to provide for its own maintenance and safety. An
attack on the Congress at Philadelphia by a mob of angry soldiers, known as the
Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, had emphasized the need for the government to see
to its own security. Therefore, the authority to establish a federal capital was
provided in Article One, Section Eight, of the United States Constitution, which
permits a "District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of
particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the
government of the United States". The Constitution does not, however, specify a
location for the new capital. In what later became known as the Compromise of
1790, Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson came to an agreement
that the federal government would assume war debt carried by the states, on the
condition that the new national capital would be located in the South.
The United States Capitol after the burning of Washington, D.C. in the War of
1812.On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act provided for a new permanent capital to
be located on the Potomac River, the exact area to be selected by President
Washington. As permitted by the U.S. Constitution, the initial shape of the
federal district was a square, measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling
100 square miles (260 km2). During 1791–92, Andrew Ellicott and several
assistants, including Benjamin Banneker, surveyed the border of the District
with both Maryland and Virginia, placing boundary stones at every mile point;
many of the stones are still standing. A new "federal city" was then constructed
on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of the established settlement at
Georgetown. On September 9, 1791, the federal city was named in honor of George
Washington, and the district was named the Territory of Columbia, Columbia being
a poetic name for the United States in use at that time. Congress held its first
session in Washington on November 17, 1800.
The Organic Act of 1801 officially organized the District of Columbia and placed
the entire federal territory, including the cities of Washington, Georgetown,
and Alexandria, under the exclusive control of Congress. Further, the
unincorporated territory within the District was organized into two counties:
the County of Washington to the east of the Potomac and the County of Alexandria
to the west. Following this Act, citizens located in the District were no longer
considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, thus ending their representation
in Congress.
Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination of President
Lincoln On August 24–25, 1814, in a raid known as the Burning of Washington,
British forces invaded the capital during the War of 1812, following the sacking
and burning of York (modern-day Toronto). The Capitol, Treasury, and White House
were burned and gutted during the attack. Most government buildings were quickly
repaired, but the Capitol, which was at the time largely under construction, was
not completed until 1868.
Since 1800, the District's residents have protested their lack of voting
representation in Congress. To correct this, various proposals have been offered
to return the land ceded to form the District back to Maryland and Virginia.
This process is known as retrocession. However, such efforts failed to earn
enough support until the 1830s when the District's southern county of Alexandria
went into economic decline due to neglect by Congress. Alexandria was also a
major market in the American slave trade, and rumors circulated that
abolitionists in Congress were attempting to end slavery in the District; such
an action would have further depressed Alexandria's economy. Unhappy with
Congressional authority over Alexandria, in 1840 the people began to petition
for the retrocession of the District's southern territory back to Virginia. The
state legislature complied in February 1846, partly because the return of
Alexandria provided two additional pro-slavery delegates to the Virginia General
Assembly. On July 9, 1846, Congress agreed to return all the District's
territory south of the Potomac River to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Confirming the fears of pro-slavery Alexandrians, the Compromise of 1850
outlawed the slave trade in the District, though not slavery itself. By 1860,
approximately 80% of the city's African American residents were free blacks. The
outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to notable growth in the
District's population due to the expansion of the federal government and a large
influx of freed slaves. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the
Compensated Emancipation Act, which ended slavery in the District of Columbia
and freed about 3,100 enslaved persons, nine months prior to the Emancipation
Proclamation. By 1870, the District's population had grown to nearly 132,000.
Despite the city's growth, Washington still had dirt roads and lacked basic
sanitation; the situation was so bad that some members of Congress proposed
moving the capital elsewhere.
Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington With
the Organic Act of 1871, Congress created a new government for the entire
federal territory. This Act effectively combined the City of Washington,
Georgetown, and Washington County into a single municipality officially named
the District of Columbia. Even though the City of Washington legally ceased to
exist after 1871, the name continued in use and the whole city became commonly
known as Washington, D.C. In the same Organic Act, Congress also appointed a
Board of Public Works charged with modernizing the city. In 1873, President
Grant appointed the board's most influential member, Alexander Shepherd, to the
new post of governor. That year, Shepherd spent $20 million on public works
($357 million in 2007), which modernized Washington but also bankrupted the
city. In 1874, Congress abolished Shepherd's office in favor of direct rule.
Additional projects to renovate the city were not executed until the McMillan
Plan in 1901.
The District's population remained relatively stable until the Great Depression
in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation
expanded the bureaucracy in Washington. World War II further increased
government activity, adding to the number of federal employees in the capital;
by 1950, the District's population had reached a peak of 802,178 residents. The
Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1961,
granting the District three votes in the Electoral College.
After the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on
April 4, 1968, riots broke out in the District, primarily in the U Street, 14th
Street, 7th Street, and H Street corridors, centers of black residential and
commercial areas. The riots raged for three days until over 13,000 federal and
national guard troops managed to quell the violence. Many stores and other
buildings were burned; rebuilding was not complete until the late 1990s.
In 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, providing for
an elected mayor and city council for the District. In 1975, Walter Washington
became the first elected and first black mayor of the District. However, during
the later 1980s and 1990s, city administrations were criticized for
mismanagement and waste. In 1995, Congress created the District of Columbia
Financial Control Board to oversee all municipal spending and rehabilitate the
city government. The District regained control over its finances in September
2001 and the oversight board's operations were suspended.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and
deliberately crashed the plane into the Pentagon in nearby Arlington, Virginia.
United Airlines Flight 93, believed to be destined for Washington, D.C., crashed
in Pennsylvania when passengers tried to recover control of the pl
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