- Sunbury
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/sun"ber'ee, -beuh ree/, n.a city in E central Pennsylvania. 12,292.
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city, seat (1772) of Northumberland county, east-central Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Susquehanna River, 50 miles (80 km) north of Harrisburg. Located on the site of Shamokin, a Susquehanna (Susquehannock) Indian village, it was laid out in 1772 by John Lukens, surveyor general of Pennsylvania, and named for Sunbury, Middlesex, England. Fort Augusta, a settlers' bulwark against Indian attacks, was built in 1756. In July 1883, Thomas Edison (Edison, Thomas Alva) began operating in Sunbury the world's first three-wire central electric-lighting station.The city is now an industrial and agricultural marketing centre, manufacturing textiles, metal products, and construction materials. Fabridam, an inflated fabric-tube dam barrage impounding the Susquehanna River, has created the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) Augusta Lake for recreation. Inc. borough, 1797; city, 1922. Pop. (1990) 11,591; (2000) 10,610.town, south-central Victoria, Australia, on the road and rail route between Bendigo and the state capital, Melbourne, 24 miles (39 km) to the southeast. The Aboriginal name for the area was Koora Kooracup, but, when a gold rush to Bendigo began in 1851, a hotel (built on Jacksons Creek to house travelers to the goldfield) was named Sunbury, after Sunbury, Middlesex, England; the town took its name from the hotel. Surveyed in 1851 and proclaimed a municipality in 1866, Sunbury became the service centre for a prosperous district supporting dairying, sheep grazing, and the growing of wheat, oats, and barley. It is now an outer suburb of Melbourne. Many of its fine 19th-century buildings have been classified by Australia's National Trust. Pop. (2001) urban centre, 25,156.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
