[2][3] The county gained prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal mining region, drawing a large portion of its labor force from European immigrants.

King Charles II of England had granted the land to the Connecticut Colony in 1662, but also to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in 1681.

On June 30, 1778, Loyalist forces, under the command of Major John Butler, arrived in the Wyoming Valley to attack the rebel American settlements.

The following year, Major General John Sullivan would lead several thousand men in a scorched-earth campaign against the Iroquois nations in central and western New York.

[7] Two years later, in September 1780, reports of Iroquois and Loyalist activity in the region resulted in a detachment of 41 Patriot militia from Northampton County being sent to investigate.

With the Trenton Decree, on December 30, 1782, the confederation government officially decided that the region belonged to Pennsylvania; the Wyoming Valley became part of Northumberland County.

It was formed from a section of Northumberland County and named after Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French soldier and diplomat to the American rebels and new government of the independent USA during the late 18th century.

In 1808, Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre discovered a solution to ignite anthracite with the usage of an iron grate; it allowed for the coal to light and burn easier.

[12] As the mining industry grew, a large region north of the Wyoming Valley, close to the Pennsylvania border with New York state, sought independence from Luzerne County.

[19] Even through Luzerne County lost a vital region (the coal mining cities of Scranton and Carbondale), its boroughs and townships continued to grow.

[22] The region's first significant mining disaster occurred on September 6, 1869, when a massive fire at the Avondale Colliery in Plymouth Township killed 110 people.

Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin formed a posse and fired on a group of unarmed striking miners in what is now known as the Lattimer massacre.

Luzerne is infamous for being the last county whose sheriff legally formed a posse to restore order in a time of civil unrest.

The Great Strike of 1902 gained national attention when it threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply for major U.S. cities.

This resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court case Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, which laid the foundation for a large part of modern American civil procedure.

[33] As the United States entered the age of mass air transportation, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the two largest cities in Northeast Pennsylvania, recognized the need for a large-scale airport.

Despite the Great Depression and hard times affecting the local coal mining industry, a windfall multimillion-dollar opportunity to plan and build a regional airport was presented to the counties of Luzerne and Lackawanna through the federal government's Public Works Administration.

At the historic cemetery in Forty Fort, 2,000 caskets were washed away, leaving body parts on porches, roofs, and in basements.

The first took place on September 25, 1982, when George Banks killed thirteen people in a shooting rampage in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township.

Like most regions in the Rust Belt, Luzerne County witnessed population loss and urban decay over many decades beginning in the mid-20th century.

However, despite continuing population loss in recent years, the economy has grown moderately; warehousing has replaced manufacturing as the main industry.

[38] In the late 2000s, several scandals related to public corruption, cronyism, patronage hiring, and wasteful spending affected the county.

County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak resigned in 2009; he was ultimately sentenced to prison for accepting money from a developer who received government-backed financing.

This referendum "starts a new chapter in Luzerne County history," remarked James Haggerty, the chairman of the commission that wrote and proposed the charter.

From March to June of that year, the Borough of Duryea received national attention for its role in the landmark Supreme Court case Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, in which the court stated that "a government employer's allegedly retaliatory actions against an employee do not give rise to liability under the Petition Clause unless the employee's petition relates to a matter of public concern.

"[42] The second major event occurred in September 2011, when Luzerne County witnessed historical flooding from Tropical Storm Lee.

During the 2016 presidential election, the county swung dramatically to Republican Donald Trump, who won it with 58% of the vote, the largest margin since President Richard Nixon in 1972.

[100] Later, in the 2022 midterm elections, another controversy occurred when an error caused several voting machines in the county to run out of paper.

[102] After Luzerne County adopted a home rule charter, the office of sheriff became an appointed position (and was no longer an elected one).

The following cities, boroughs, and townships are located in Luzerne County: Census-designated places are geographical areas designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data.