1 April: Leeds

On this date in 1974 the City of Leeds was established. 10 things you didn't know about Leeds:

1. The name derives from an old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning "people of the fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire. A person from Leeds is known locally as a Loiner. The origin of that word isn't known. A posh word for a person from Leeds is Leodensian, which comes from the Latin name for the city.
2. Leeds Kirkgate Market is Europe’s largest indoor market with over 600 stalls. It's also the birthplace of Marks and Spencer: Michael Marks opened his Penny Bazaar there in 1884.
3. One of the city's landmarks is Temple Works, a Grade-I listed former flax mill known for its incredible Ancient Egyptian design. It was the largest single room in the world when it was built in 1836. Maintaining the correct humidity for a flax mill was a challenge for the time, which was solved by growing grass on the roof. To keep the grass under control, they grazed sheep on the roof. Getting the sheep up there was another challenge, solved by inventing the hydraulic Lift.
4. The Temperance Hotel, now known as Leeds Bridge House, is another Leeds landmark dating back to 1879. It's said to have inspired the Flat Iron Building in New York. The city's tallest building is a business and residential building which has been nicknamed "The Dalek".
5. The first moving images were created in Leeds in 1880 by Louis le Prince in a garden. 8 years later, he created an early movie in the city centre, entitled Crossing Leeds Bridge.
6. The Royal Armouries in Leeds is home to the largest suit of animal armour in the world, 16th-century Elephant armour brought to the UK in 1801 by the former wife of the Governor of Madras. The armour weighs in at 118 kilograms and comprises 5,840 plates.
7. Famous people from Leeds include Barbara Taylor Bradford, Alan Bennett, Herbert Asquith, Dennis Healey, Ernie Wise, Peter O'Toole, Marco Pierre White, Jeremy Paxman, Keith Lemon, Mel B and the Kaiser Chiefs. Pudsey Bear from “Children in Need” is named after the Pudsey district of Leeds.
8. A Blackburn Type D aircraft – a one seat single engine monoplane, was built in Leeds by Robert Blackburn for Cyril Foggin in 1912. It can still fly, making it the oldest flying plane in Britain. The first steam locomotive in the world was made in Leeds, too, and Middleton Railway is the oldest continuously working public railway in the world. It originally opened in 1758 to move coal from the nearby quarries.
9. Leeds City Station is the busiest in the UK outside of central London, with over 900 trains and 100,000 passengers a day.
10. 130,000 years ago, giant hippos roamed where the streets of Leeds are today. We know this because the bones of one were found in 1984 during the construction of the Armley Gyratory. The bones now reside in Leeds City Museum.

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