Hanover

Hanover or Hannover (/ˈhænəvər/; German: Hannover, pronounced [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the River Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later described as the Elector of Hanover). At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover.

From 1868 to 1946 Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and also of the Hanover administrative region until that was abolished in 2005. It is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hanover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up from the former district (Landkreis Hannover) and city of Hanover (note: although both Region and Landkreis are translated as district they are not the same).

With a population of 518,000, Hanover is a major centre of Northern Germany and the country's thirteenth largest city. Hanover also hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest marksmen's festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest Oktoberfest in the world (beside Oktoberfest of Blumenau). In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000. The Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is of national importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport and its large zoo. The city is also a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahnen), connecting European main lines in both the east-west (Berlin–Ruhr area) and north-south (Hamburg–Munich, etc.) directions.

Hanover Region

Hanover Region (German: Region Hannover) is a sui generis district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Heidekreis, Celle, Gifhorn, Peine, Hildesheim, Hamelin-Pyrmont, Schaumburg and Nienburg.

The District of Hanover has a unique legal status among the districts of Lower Saxony. It includes the City of Hanover, the state capital, which has the same privileges as a city that is not part of a district. As a consequence, the District is much larger in population than any other district of the state. Its administrative body is the Regionsparlament (engl.: "regional parliament"), headed by the Regionspräsident or "region president" (Hauke Jagau (SPD) since 2006). The members of the Regionsparlament are elected once every five years and the Regionspräsident is elected once every eight years in local elections.

History

The City of Hanover was not part of the district until 2001, when the old Hanover District and the city (then known officially as Kreisfreie Stadt Hannover, which means "District Free city of Hanover") were merged in order to form the new Region Hannover district (not to be confused with the former Regierungsbezirk Hannover).

Hanover, Pennsylvania

Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, 19 miles (31 km) southwest of York and 54 miles (87 km) north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland and is 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the Mason-Dixon line. The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 15,289 at the 2010 census. The borough is served by the 717 area code and the Zip Codes of 17331-34. Hanover is named after the German city of Hannover.

History

In 1727, John Digges, an Irish nobleman of Prince George's County, Maryland, obtained a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land where Hanover is now located from Charles Calvert, the fourth Lord Baltimore. The area was called Digges Choice, and in 1730, a group of Catholics started the settlement that became known as the Conewego Settlement. Settlers from both Maryland and Pennsylvania began moving into the area in the 1730s. At this time, the northern border of Maryland and the southern border of Pennsylvania did not agree with each other, and the area that is now Hanover was in the disputed area claimed by both states. This led to numerous disputes about property ownership from the 1730s until 1760. The dispute was settled when Maryland and Pennsylvania hired British experts Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey what became known as the Mason–Dixon Line. This line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767, and put an end to decades of disputes over rights and ownership.