History

Washington became the national capital in 1800. .) At that time, its population numbered about 3,200, of which some 600 were slaves. In 1802 Congress granted the city a charter, setting up a government with an appointed mayor and an elected council.

The city grew slowly. During the War of 1812, Washington was inadequately defended, and the British burned most of the public buildings, including the Capitol and the White House, in 1814. By 1819, the city had been rebuilt.

In 1820 Congress granted Washington a new charter, giving it more powers in municipal affairs. The office of mayor was made elective. Washington was growing rapidly in population but had not developed into the industrial and commercial center its planners had envisioned. As a result, Virginia asked for the return of some 30 square miles (78 km2) of land it had ceded to the federal government for the national capital. In 1846 Congress agreed and returned Alexandria, reducing the size of the capital by one-third.

Prior to the Civil War, Washington became a stop for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. By 1850, blacks (about 80 per cent of them free) made up one-fourth of the city's population. On September, 1850, Congress passed a law abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia. As war approached, there were fears for the safety of the capital city, surrounded as it was by two slaveholding states, Virginia and Maryland. After Lincoln's inauguration, troops were brought in from northern states for protection. Much heavy fighting of the Civil War took place near Washington. In 1864 Confederate General Jubal Early planned to raid Washington and moved his troops to within six miles (10 km) of the city before being repulsed.

The black population of Washington increased rapidly during the war years. The municipal government's powers proved too limited to provide for the needs of these new residents. Also, the city was unable to undertake the physical improvements required to accommodate the growth it had experienced during the war. This led Congress to enact the District Territorial Act (1871), which gave the city the same boundaries as the district and created a territorial form of government for it. Under this act, the city had a governor appointed by the President and a house of delegates elected by the residents; it also had a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also in 1871, Congress authorized a vast building and public-works program.

During the Panic of 1873, the city went bankrupt as a result of poor management. The following year, Congress placed the district temporarily under the control of three Presidentially appointed commissioners. The Organic Act of 1878 made this arrangement permanent.

By the late 19th century, a metropolitan area was developing around the city. In 1890 Washington's population totaled nearly 200,000 people, with blacks constituting about one-third of the total—the largest proportion of blacks in any big city in the United States. In 1894 the city for the first time became the focal point for a major public protest when Jacob Coxey led hundreds of unemployed men ("Coxey's Army") to Washington to ask the federal government for aid.

In the early 20th century, a beautification program was undertaken and a park system was created. The city became a major tourist attraction. Washington's growth spurts in the first half of the century coincided with World Wars I and II and the Great Depression, when people were attracted to the city by job opportunities in the expanding federal civil service. Population reached its peak in 1950, totaling more than 800,000. In the early 1950's, a massive program of slum clearance and urban redevelopment was begun.

In 1961 the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in Presidential elections, was ratified. In 1953 some 250,000 persons marched in Washington in support of civil-rights legislation. The city government was reorganized in 1967, with the district commissioners being replaced by a Presidentially appointed mayor, deputy mayor, and bipartisan council. With the capital's population more than 70 per cent black, a black mayor and a black council majority were selected.

In 1968 a wave of rioting by black residents followed the assassination of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The largest anti-war demonstration in the city's history took place in 1969, when about 600,000 persons marched in Washington, calling for peace in Vietnam.

In 1974 the District of Columbia received home rule and a mayor and council were elected. In 1978 Congress approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the district to elect voting members to both houses of Congress. However, it failed to win ratification. In 1995, hundreds of thousands of black males came to Washington to take part in what was called the Million Man March, held to condemn racism and promote personal responsibility.

On September 11, 2001, a commercial airliner, hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists, was crashed into the Pentagon. The attack killed 125 persons in the Pentagon and all 64 persons on the airplane.