Knoxville

City and inland port in eastern Tennessee, USA, on the upper Tennessee River, 1,000 km/620 mi from its junction with the Ohio River; seat of Knox County; population (2000) 173,900. It is the centre of a mining and agricultural region, and the administrative headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority; it is also a tourist centre for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located 40–50 km/25–31 mi to the south. Industries include textiles, clothing, and food products.

The community was laid out in 1792 and named after General Henry Knox, the first US secretary of war; the city was incorporated in 1815. Knoxville was the first state capital of Tennessee (1796–1812; 1817–19). Union troops captured the city in 1863 during the American Civil War. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the world's largest nuclear research facilities, is nearby.

Knoxville is the seat of the University of Tennessee (1794) and Knoxville College (1875). A world fair was held in the city in 1982, with the theme ‘Energy Turns the World’.