[12][13] Cleveland was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve in modern-day Northeast Ohio by General Moses Cleaveland, after whom the city was named.

The city's location on the river and the lake shore allowed it to grow into a major commercial and industrial metropolis by the late 19th century, attracting large numbers of immigrants and migrants.

[28] A center of abolitionist activity,[30][31] Cleveland (code-named "Station Hope") was a major stop on the Underground Railroad for escaped African American slaves en route to Canada.

[43] The city counted major Progressive Era politicians among its leaders, most prominently the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson, who was responsible for the development of the Cleveland Mall Plan.

[46] In addition to the large immigrant population, African American migrants from the rural South arrived in Cleveland (among other Northeastern and Midwestern cities) as part of the Great Migration for jobs, constitutional rights, and relief from racial discrimination.

In 1919, the city attracted national attention amid the First Red Scare for the Cleveland May Day Riots, in which local socialist and IWW demonstrators clashed with anti-socialists.

[60] The ban on alcohol led to the rise of speakeasies throughout the city and organized crime gangs, such as the Mayfield Road Mob, who smuggled bootleg liquor across Lake Erie from Canada into Cleveland.

[60][61] The era of the flapper marked the beginning of the golden age in Downtown Cleveland retail, centered on major department stores Higbee's, Bailey's, the May Company, Taylor's, Halle's, and Sterling Lindner Davis, which collectively represented one of the largest and most fashionable shopping districts in the country, often compared to New York's Fifth Avenue.

[75] However, by the 1960s, Cleveland's economy began to slow down, and residents increasingly sought new housing in the suburbs, reflecting the national trends of suburban growth following federally subsidized highways.

[85] In December 1978, during the turbulent tenure of Dennis Kucinich as mayor, Cleveland became the first major American city since the Great Depression to enter into a financial default on federal loans.

Downtown saw the construction of the Key Tower and 200 Public Square skyscrapers, as well as the development of the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex – consisting of Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – and North Coast Harbor, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the Great Lakes Science Center.

[121] By contrast, seasonal totals approaching or exceeding 100 inches (254 cm) are not uncommon as the city ascends into the Heights on the east, where the region known as the "Snow Belt" begins.

[133] In recent decades, Cleveland has been working to address the issue of harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie, fed primarily by agricultural runoff, which have presented new environmental challenges for the city and for northern Ohio.

[14] As a result, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County today have substantial communities of Irish (especially in West Park), Italians (especially in Little Italy), Germans, and several Central-Eastern European ethnicities, including Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Rusyns, Slovaks, Ukrainians, and ex-Yugoslav groups, such as Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.

[47] Cleveland's Latino community consists primarily of Puerto Ricans, as well as smaller numbers of immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South and Central America, and Spain.

[143] Additionally, the city and the county have significant communities of Albanians,[144] Arabs (especially Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians),[145] Armenians,[146] French,[147] Greeks,[148] Iranians,[149] Scots,[14] Turks,[150] and West Indians.

Other large companies based in the city and the county include Aleris, American Greetings, Applied Industrial Technologies, Eaton, Forest City Realty Trust, Heinen's Fine Foods, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Lincoln Electric, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Moen Incorporated, NACCO Industries, Nordson Corporation, OM Group, Swagelok, Kirby Company, Things Remembered, Third Federal S&L, TransDigm Group, and Vitamix.

[185] Its popularity in the city was so great that Billy Bass, the program director at the WMMS radio station, referred to Cleveland as "The Rock and Roll Capital of the World".

Many major figures in jazz performed in the city, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday.

[194][196] In the "talkie" era, Cleveland featured in several major studio films, such as Michael Curtiz's pre-Code classic Goodbye Again (1933) with Warren William and Joan Blondell.

[201] In 1925, Russian Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky came to Cleveland and gave a poetry recitation to the city's ethnic working class, as part of his trip to America.

[240] Another celebrated sandwich, the Polish Boy, is a popular street food and Cleveland original frequently sold at downtown hot dog carts and stadium concession stands.

[243] With its blue-collar roots well intact, and plenty of Lake Erie perch and walleye available, the tradition of Friday night fish fries remains alive and thriving in Cleveland, particularly in ethnic parish-based settings, especially during the season of Lent.

[256] Cleveland mayor Michael R. White worked with the NFL and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to bring back the Browns beginning in the 1999 season, retaining all team history.

[285] Previous mayors include progressive Democrat Tom L. Johnson, World War I-era War Secretary and BakerHostetler founder Newton D. Baker, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harold Hitz Burton, two-term Ohio Governor and Senator Frank J. Lausche, former U.S. Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Anthony J. Celebrezze, two-term Ohio Governor and Senator George V. Voinovich, former U.S.

[289] Another nationally prominent Ohio Republican, former U.S. President James A. Garfield, was born in Cuyahoga County's Orange Township (today the Cleveland suburb of Moreland Hills).

[342] The Cleveland-area television market is served by 11 full power stations, including WKYC (NBC), WEWS-TV (ABC), WJW (Fox), WDLI-TV (Bounce), WOIO (CBS), WVPX-TV (Ion), WVIZ (PBS), WUAB (CW/RESN), WRLM (TCT), WBNX-TV (independent), and WQHS-DT (Univision).

Anderson both created and performed as the immensely popular Cleveland horror host Ghoulardi on WJW-TV's Shock Theater, and was later succeeded by the long-running late night duo Big Chuck and Lil' John.

[370] The Port of Cleveland, at the Cuyahoga River's mouth, is a major bulk freight and container terminal on Lake Erie, receiving much of the raw materials used by the region's manufacturing industries.

[381] Historically, Cleveland industrialist Cyrus S. Eaton, an apprentice of John D. Rockefeller, played a significant role in promoting dialogue between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.