Haarlem has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears its other nickname Bloemenstad (flower city) for this reason.
Haarlem has a rich history dating back to pre-medieval times, as it lies on a thin strip of land above sea level known as the strandwal (beach ridge), which connects Leiden to Alkmaar.
In 1219 the knights of Haarlem were laurelled by Count Willem I, because they had conquered the Egyptian port of Damietta (or Damiate in Dutch, present-day Dimyat) in the fifth crusade.
The situation worsened on 29 March 1573: the Amsterdam army, faithful to the Spanish king, controlled Haarlemmermeer lake, effectively blocking Haarlem from the outside world.
This attracted a large influx of Flemish and French immigrants (Catholics and Huguenots alike) who were fleeing the Spanish occupation of their own cities.
Today an impression of some of those original textile tradesmen can be had from the Book of Trades document created by Jan Luyken and his son.
On the Grote Markt, the central market square, there's a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster who is allegedly the inventor of the printing press.
Most scholars agree that the scarce evidence seems to point to Johann Gutenberg as the first European inventor of the printing press, but Haarlem children were taught about "Lau", as he is known, well into the 20th century.
Pieter Teyler van der Hulst and Henry Hope built summer homes there, as well as many Amsterdam merchants and councilmen.
Strong international competition and revolutionary new production methods based on steam engines already in use in England dealt a striking blow to Haarlem's industry.
The foundation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in that year gave hope to many who believed that under a new government, the economy would improve and that export-oriented economic activities, such as the textile industry, would recover.
New factories opened, and a number of large industrial companies were founded in Haarlem by Thomas Wilson, Guillaume Jean Poelman, J.B.T.
The Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM or Dutch Trade Company) was founded by King Willem I to create employment opportunities.
As one of the cities in the western part of the Netherlands with the worst economic situation, three cotton mills were created in Haarlem under the NHM-program in the 1830s.
These were run by experts from the Southern Netherlands, whom the NHM considered better at mechanical weaving through the local expertise of Lieven Bauwens.
However, after 1839 when Belgium split away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the protectionist measures for the Dutch East Indian market were removed, and the business began to flounder.
[10] Prévinaire's son went on to create the Haarlemsche Katoenmaatschappij, which made a kind of imitation batik cloth called "La Javanaise" that became popular in Belgian Congo.
The government of the Netherlands was relatively slow to catch up, even though the king feared competition from newly established Belgium if it would construct a railway between Antwerp and other cities.
The Dutch parliament balked at the high level of investment needed, but a group of private investors started the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij on 1 June 1836.
Though the old trekvaart was closed for water traffic after railway development, it is still possible to travel by boat from Amsterdam to Haarlem, via the ringvaart or the North Sea Canal.
The creation of new land in the Haarlemmermeer polder from 1852 onwards meant that the city could no longer refresh the water in its canals from the Spaarne river.
In 1859, the Oude Gracht canal stank so badly in the summer that it not only forced visitors away, but posed a public health threat due to cholera outbreaks.
In 1591, the city fathers had ordered excavation to build the Verwulft, a wide bridge over the Oude Gracht connecting the north and south portions of the Grote Houtstraat.
In 1911, Anthony Fokker showed his plane de Spin to the audience in Haarlem by flying around the Sint-Bavokerk on Queen's Day.
The German occupiers built a thick, black wall through the Haarlemmerhout (in the south of the city), as well as at the Jan Gijzenvaart in the evacuated area.
In February 1944, the family of Corrie ten Boom was arrested by the Nazis; they had been hiding Jews and Dutch resistance workers from the German occupier throughout the war.
Having been granted papal rights from Avignon was perhaps the reason that the ties to Rome were never very strong in Haarlem, since the building most commonly called the Cathedral in the centre of town only held a cathedra for 19 years, from 1559 to 1578.
That gave the various groups in Haarlem the time to quietly remove many of the treasures from the church and stash them safely in underground chapels.
The spelling changed to Harlem in keeping with contemporary English usage, and the district grew (as part of the borough of Manhattan) into the vibrant centre of African American culture in New York City and the United States generally by the 20th century.
Laurens Janszoon Coster is credited with being the inventor of a printing press using movable type, since he's said to have invented it simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg, but only some people believe this.