Mary Ann McKinley, age 13, Longview, Wash., for her question:
WHEN WAS LONDON FOUNDED?
London, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was founded about A.D. 43 when the armies of the Roman Empire conquered Britain. Almost immediately the Romans built a seaport on the Thames near present day London Bridge.
The Romans called the port Londinium. The name London comes from this word. By the 200s, the Romans had built a wall around London to protect it from raiders.
Then in 410, barbarian invaders attacked Rome. Roman troops in Britain were called home to fight the invaders. This date thus marks the end of Roman control over Britain. The native Britons who had moved to London stayed there and kept the settlement alive as a trading center. Today, except for a few ruins, little of Roman London remains.
In the 9th century King Alfred made London the capital of his kingdom. After a French nobleman known as William the Conqueror seized control of England in 1066, he began construction of the Tower of London, intending it as a citadel to awe the populace. Many Normans settled in London and erected imposing edifices. The wooden London Bridge was torn down in 1176 and rebuilt with stone. The new structure, completed in 1209, with 20 arches and a drawbridge, was in service until early in the 19th century when it, was replaced by a new bridge.
Throughout the Middle Ages the development of London was slow and was repeatedly arrested by wars, epidemics and commercial crises.
In 1665, during the Great Plague, nearly 70,000 Londoners succumbed to the disease within the period of a year. The epidemic was followed by the Great Fire of 1666 which destroyed most of the walled section of the city.
The Rebuilding Act of 1667 stipulated that only stone and brick be used. As a result, London's new buildings had little resemblance to the quaint wooden dwellings of old London.
The walls and gates of the city, among the last signs of the medieval town, were demolished in the 1760s.
During the 19th century many suburbs were incorporated into Greater London, all the bridges in the city were rebuilt in stone and the streets were furnished first with gas, and later with electric illumination.
London was heavily bombed during World War II, particularly from September 1940 to June 1941. About 10,000 persons were killed and 17,000 badly wounded. Among the famous buildings either damaged or destroyed were the Tower of London, the British Museum, the Houses of Parliament, Saint Paul's Cathedral and the Central Criminal Court, known as Old Bailey. Buckingham Palace, Lambeth and Saint James' Place were also damaged.
After the war, early efforts at rebuilding were severely handicaped by a labor shortage, but by the end of the 19509 most of the war damage in London was repaired.
Today London is one of the world's most important financial and cultural centers. The population of Greater London is about 7 million.