Kansas City

City and administrative headquarters of Wyandotte County, northeast Kansas, USA, at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers; population (2000 est) 146,900. It is adjacent to Kansas City, Missouri. The city is an agricultural market with stockyards, meatpacking plants, grain elevators, and flour mills. Other industries include oil refining, auto assembly, and the manufacture of aircraft engines, furniture, clothing, steel and aluminium products, chemicals, soap, and farm machinery.

History

Features It houses the National Agriculture Center and Hall of Fame and is the site of Wyandotte County Fair, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors each year. Kansas City Speedway is a new attraction (2001). Among the city's educational institutions are the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City Kansas Community College (1923), and Donnelly College (1949). There are 21 entries on the national register of historic places including a library and a fire station.

Kansas City

City in Jackson County, western Missouri, USA, at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, adjacent to Kansas City, Kansas, and sometimes regarded as one of twin cities; population (2001 est) 441,500. It is the financial, marketing, and distribution centre of the region; industries include metal production, electronics products, motor-vehicle assembly, industrial machinery, glass and chemical products, oil refining, and food processing.

The site was settled as a trading post by French fur trappers in 1821, was chartered as the Town of Kansas in 1850, incorporated as a city in 1853, and was renamed Kansas City in 1889. In the 1920s and 1930s Kansas City was run by Democrat boss Tom Pendergast, of the Ready-Mix Concrete Company, and in the nightclubs on Twelfth Street under his ‘protection’ jazz musicians such as Lester Young, Count Basie, and Charlie Parker performed.

Kansas City has 170 entries on the national register of historic places, including factories, historic districts, and churches. It is the seat of Kansas City Art Institute (1885), Rockhurst College (1910), Avila College (1916), Cleveland Chiropractic College (1922), the University of Missouri-Kansas City (1929), DeVry Institute of Technology (1931), Calvary Bible College (1932), Nazarene Theological Seminary (1945), Saint Paul School of Theology (1958), and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1957). It has also (since 1899) been the site of the annual American Royal Livestock, Horse Show and Rodeo, which attracts thousands of visitors each year. Kansas City is home to the Royals, a major league baseball team, and the Chiefs of the National Football League.

President Harry S Truman (1884–1972) died in Kansas City.