The ethnic European and African history of Wilmington spans more than two and a half centuries. At the time of European encounter, historic Native Americans were members of tribes belonging to the Eastern Siouan family. The area along the river had been inhabited by various successive cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The city was founded in the 1730s, and after going through a series of different names (New Carthage, New London, Newton), its name became Wilmington in 1740, named after Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington. Numerous movies and television shows, in a range of genres, have been produced here, including Iron Man 3, Super Mario Bros., The Conjuring, A Walk to Remember, The Crow, Sleepy Hollow, Dawson's Creek, One Tree Hill, and The Summer I Turned Pretty. After the studio's opening in 1984, Wilmington became a major center of American film and television production. It houses the largest special-effects water tank in North America. Dream Stage 10, the facility's newest sound stage, is the third-largest in the United States. Wilmington is also the home of EUE/Screen Gems Studios, the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside California. Other attractions include the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science and the Children's Museum of Wilmington The World War II battleship USS North Carolina, now a war memorial, is moored across from the downtown port area, and is open to the public for tours. On September 2, 2020, President Donald Trump officially declared Wilmington as the first World War II Heritage City in the country. Congress as a "Coast Guard City", one of 29 cities that currently bear that designation, and was the home port for the USCGC Diligence, a United States Coast Guard medium-endurance cutter until 2020. In 2003, the city was designated by the U.S. By 1910, Charlotte overtook Wilmington as North Carolina's largest city. Whereas North Carolina had 125,000 registered black voters in 1896, it had 6,000 black voters by 1902. This coincided with broader efforts of disenfranchisement at the state level. They expelled opposition black and white leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people. In the Wilmington massacre of 1898, white supremacists launched a coup that overthrew the legitimately elected local Fusionist government. Toward the end of the 19th century, Wilmington was a majority-black, racially integrated, prosperous city, and the largest city in North Carolina. The city is home to University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), which provides a wide variety of programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and adult learners, in addition to cultural and sports events open to the community. Ĭity residents live between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, with four nearby beach communities just outside Wilmington: Fort Fisher, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and Kure Beach, all within half-hour drives from downtown Wilmington. The National Trust for Historic Preservation selected Wilmington as one of its 2008 Dozen Distinctive Destinations. In 2014, Wilmington's riverfront was ranked as the "Best American Riverfront" by readers of USA Today. Wilmington's historic downtown has a 1.75-mile (2.82 km) riverwalk, developed as a tourist attraction in the late 20th century. Wilmington is the principal city of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes New Hanover and Pender counties in southeastern North Carolina, which had a population of 285,905 in 2020. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth-most populous city in the state. Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina.
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