Manchester is a large city in the county of Greater Manchester, the fifth most populous English district. It is in the west of England and is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority for the city is the Manchester City Council
The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of "Mamucium", which was established in AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. The name originated from the Latin name of Mamucium (or its variant Mancunio); the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. The name is generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name; the generally accepted etymology is that it comes from the Brittonic "mamm-" ("breast", in reference to a "breast-like hill"). However, more recent work suggests that it could have come from "mamma" ("mother", in reference to a local river goddess). Both usages are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as "mam" meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix "-chester" is from an Old English ceaster ("Roman fortification", itself a loanword from Latin castra, "fort; fortified town")
It is historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated in the 20th century. The first to be included, Wythenshawe, was added to the city in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanization was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialized city. Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and directly linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles (58 km) to the west. Its fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialization, but the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration
In 1885, Bradford, Harpurhey, Rusholme and parts of Moss Side and Withington townships became part of the City of Manchester and 4 years later became a county borough (likely Manchester County) as did many larger Lancashire towns, and were therefore no longer governed by Lancashire County Council. Between 1890 and 1933, more areas were added to the city which had been administered by Lancashire County Council, including former villages such as Burnage, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Longsight, and Withington
In 1931, the Cheshire civil parishes of Baguley, Northenden and Northen Etchells from the south of the River Mersey were added
In 1974, by way of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of Manchester became a metropolitan district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester
That year, Ringway, the village where the Manchester Airport is located, was added to the City
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