St. Louis (English /seɪnt ˈluːɪs/,/sænt luwi/ French: Saint-Louis or St-Louis /sɛ̃ lwi/) is an independent city 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... Read More
St. Louis (English /seɪnt ˈluːɪs/,/sænt luwi/ French: Saint-Louis or St-Louis /sɛ̃ lwi/) is an independent city 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. In 1763 the city was founded by colonial French traders Pierre Laclède and René Auguste Chouteau just south of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers who named the city for King Louis IX of France. The city was 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. 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 Sta See Less