Short answers, pulled from the story.
Austin was incorporated on the 27th of December 1839. It was briefly named Waterloo before being renamed in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas and widely called the Father of Texas.
Austin holds that official slogan because it has more music venues per capita than any other American city. The claim is supported by the long-running PBS concert program Austin City Limits, the annual South by Southwest festival, and a downtown ZIP code that hosts more bar and alcohol-serving establishments than any other in the United States.
Austin adopted the Silicon Hills nickname in the 1990s during a rapid influx of technology and development companies. The region's technology roots go back to 1962 when Tracor began operations, followed by IBM in 1967, Texas Instruments shortly after, and Motorola in 1974. By 2023, the Greater Austin metro area had a gross domestic product of $248 billion.
Keep Austin Weird is an unofficial local slogan urging residents to support small, independent businesses over large corporations. According to the 2010 book Weird City, the phrase originated with Austin Community College librarian Red Wassenich and his wife Karen Pavelka, who were concerned about the city's rapid commercialization and overdevelopment.
Austin had a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census, making it the 12th-most populous city in the United States and the second-most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona. The broader Austin metro area had an estimated 2.55 million residents, ranking as the 25th-largest metropolitan area in the nation.
Austin experienced a severe drought from October 2010 through September 2011, recording less than a third of normal rainfall. In 2018, Hurricane Sergio flooding pushed Lake Travis to 146% capacity and triggered a mandatory boil-water advisory. In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri dropped 6.4 inches of snow and caused rolling blackouts that left an estimated 40% of Austin Energy customers without power at the peak of the crisis.