Wilmington is a city in and the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 75,838 at the 2000 Census. A July 1, 2008 United States Census Bureau estimate places the population at 100,192. Wilmington is the principal city of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties in southeastern North Carolina, which had an estimated population of 347,012 as of July 1, 2008. It was named in honor of Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, who was Prime Minister under George II.
Wilmington was settled on the Cape Fear River and offers its historic downtown with its one mile long Riverwalk as a main tourist attraction. It is minutes away from nearby beaches. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington, North Carolina one of its 2008 Dozen Distinctive Destinations. City residents have the advantage of living nestled between the river and the ocean with Wrightsville Beach a short 20 minute drive from downtown.
In 2003 the city received, through an act of Congress, the designation of "A Coast Guard City". The city is also home port for the USCGC Diligence, a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter..
Wilmington is also known as the childhood home of basketball great Michael Jordan and journalist David Brinkley; famous Wilmington natives include Robert Ruark, Sonny Jurgenson, Charles Kuralt, Charlie Daniels, Roman Gabriel, Meadowlark Lemon, Trot Nixon and Alge Crumpler. The city produced four Medal of Honor recipients, Edwin Anderson, Jr. who won it in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914; Eugene Ashley, Jr., posthumously in Vietnam in 1971; William D. Halyburton, Jr. posthumously on Okinawa in 1945 and Charles P. Murray, Jr., in France in 1944. It is also home to the World War II Battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55). Now a war memorial, the ship is open to public tours and is on display across from the downtown port area. The town is home to the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the Wilmington Hammerheads USL soccer team, the training camp site for the Charlotte Bobcats and the Cape Fear Museum.
The city is home to EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest TV and movie production facility outside of California. "Dream Stage 10," the facility's newest soundstage is the third largest in the US and houses the largest special effects water tank in North America. Since the studios opening in 1984, Wilmington has become a major center of American film and television production; motion pictures such as A Walk To Remember , Blue Velvet , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Empire Records , Cape Fear , Black Knight , 28 Days , The Crow (death place of Brandon Lee), Nights in Rodanthe and the controversial Dakota Fanning film Hounddog ; as well as television shows such as Matlock , Surface , The WB's Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill have been produced there. Hundreds of films, documentaries, and television series have been filmed here.
Geography
Wilmington is located at 34°13′24″N 77°54′44″W / 34.22333°N 77.91222°W / 34.22333; -77.91222 (34.223232, -77.912122).. It is the Eastern Terminus of a major East-West Interstate 40 which ends at Barstow, California where it joins I-15, the Gateway to Southern California, some 2,554 miles away, passing through many major cities and state capitals along the way.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 41.5 square miles (107.4 km²). 41.0 square miles (106.2 km 2 ) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.2 km 2 ) of it (1.16%) is water.
Climate
Wilmington has a humid subtropical climate.
- Winters are generally cool with temperatures in the 50s and 60s (°F).
- Spring has temperatures in the 70s and 80s. The presence of abundant dense vegetation in the area causes significant pollen dusting in the springtime that tends to turn rooftops and cars yellow.
- Summer brings humidity with temperatures in the 80s and 90s °F. Heat Indexes can easily break the 100 °F mark. Due to the proximity of warm Atlantic Ocean waters, the area may be hit by a tropical cyclone during the summer, at an average of once every seven years.
- Fall is also generally humid at the beginning, with the same tropical threats as the summer. Temperatures hover mostly in the 70s and 80s. Some of the deciduous trees may lose their leaves; however most trees in the area are evergreens and therefore remain green year-round.
- Annual Average High Temperatures: 90 °F (summer) 60 °F (winter)
- Annual Average Low Temperatures 72 °F (summer) 38 °F (winter)
- Highest Recorded Temperature: 104 °F (1952)
- Lowest Recorded Temperature: 0 °F (1989)
- Warmest Month: July
- Coolest Month: January
- Highest Precipitation: July
- Annual Precipitation: 57.07 inches
History
Although there had been attempts to settle the Cape Fear region in the 1600s, the first permanent English settlers established themselves in the area in the 1720s. The town of Wilmington was incorporated in 1739. A number of the first settlers of the region came from South Carolina and Barbados. The British maintained a garrison at Fort Johnson near Wilmington during the Revolutionary War. Slavery came early to the region as landowners used slave labor to exploit the region's natural resources. The forest provided the region's major industries through the 18th and most of the 19th century: naval stores and lumber fueled the economy both before and after the American Revolution. A significant event in Wilmington's history is the coup d'état and Massacre of 1898.
Civil War
Main article: Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Civil WarDuring the Civil War the port was a major base for Confederate blockade runners. It was captured by Union forces in the Battle of Wilmington in February 1865, approximately one month after the fall of Fort Fisher had closed the port. Since almost all the action was some distance from the city itself, a number of Antebellum homes and other buildings are still extant.
Massacre of 1898
Main article: Wilmington Insurrection of 1898In November 1898 Wilmington was the scene of a violent attack by a well-organized group of whites who destroyed the printing press of the African American newspaper The Daily Record and set fire to the building in response to an editorial that "insulted white womanhood", which was credited to editor Alex Manly. The mob then went to the north side of town, where an unknown number of African Americans were murdered by lynching and many hundreds more were run out of town. No whites were killed during the incident.
At the same time, the Republican mayor and city council were forced to resign their offices and the leader of the white mob was then installed as mayor, effectively establishing a de facto coup d'état. The events in Wilmington—which was the largest city in the state at the time—helped make North Carolina into a controlled state. They also helped institute Jim Crow and disenfranchisement which lasted until the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the second half of the 20th century.
In 2006 the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission completed its official report on the event. Consisting of thirteen commissioners appointed by the legislature, the governor, mayor and city council of Wilmington, the commission was assisted by the staff of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. They used the experience of the Rosewood Report (completed 1993), and the Tulsa Report (completed 2001) as a model and set out to provide detailed explanations for the causes and effects of the riots and to propose a series of recommendations to address the wrongs perpetrated by earlier generations. The resolution also apologized to those affected by the riots and their repercussions and renounced these actions.
World War II
Main article: North Carolina Shipbuilding CompanyDuring World War II Wilmington was the home of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. The shipyard was created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program and built 243 ships during the five years it was in operation.
The city also was the site of a POW camp from February 1944 through April 1946. The camp was first located on the corner of Shipyard Blvd and Carolina Beach Rd and moved downtown to Ann Street between 8th Ave and 10th Ave when it outgrew the original location. At it's peak it housed 550 German prisoners.
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