Short answers, pulled from the story.
Greeks settled the site of Benghazi in the late seventh century BC and called the city Euesperides. The oldest coins minted there date to 480 BC and depict a silphium plant, the prized seasoning and medicine that was the signature export of Cyrenaica. In 246 BC the city was relocated and renamed Berenice after Ptolemaic princess Berenice married Ptolemy III.
Benghazi changed hands four times during World War II. British forces captured it in February 1941, Rommel's Africa Corps retook it in April, the British seized it again in December 1941, and Rommel reclaimed it in January 1942. The British Eighth Army captured the city for the final time on the 20th of November 1942 and held it for the rest of the war.
Benghazi became capital of the Emirate of Cyrenaica in 1949 under Idris Senussi I. From 1951, when the independent Kingdom of Libya was formed, Benghazi and Tripoli served as joint capital cities. Benghazi lost its capital status after Muammar Gaddafi's coup in 1969, when all government institutions moved to Tripoli.
US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALs Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the attack on the 11th of September 2012. The assault was carried out by a group of 125-150 gunmen associated with Ansar al-Sharia, and ten others were injured.
Benghazi was the starting point and operational centre of the 2011 revolution against Gaddafi. Peaceful protests began on the 15th of February 2011 and were met with lethal force, killing at least 500 people. The National Transitional Council was founded in Benghazi and used the city as its headquarters from the 26th of February to the 26th of August 2011, led by former justice minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
Benghazi had an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023, making it the second-most-populous city in Libya and the largest in Cyrenaica. It is a major seaport on the Gulf of Sidra, one of Libya's principal economic and industrial centres, and home to the National Library of Libya and the University of Benghazi, the oldest university in the country.