Short answers, pulled from the story.
Berkeley was named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. In 1866, Frederick Billings stood at Founders' Rock and recalled the philosopher's line "westward the course of empire takes its way," suggesting the name for the new town and college site. The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee, but the city's name is pronounced BERK-lee to accommodate American English.
The Town of Berkeley was granted incorporation by the State of California on the 1st of April 1878. On the 4th of March 1909, following public referendums, the town was granted a new charter and officially became the City of Berkeley.
The 2020 United States census recorded Berkeley's population at 124,321. The population density was 11,874 people per square mile of land area. The city covers 17.7 square miles in total, including 10.5 square miles of land and 7.2 square miles of water.
The Free Speech Movement began in the fall of 1964 after the University of California banned distribution of political literature on campus, building on restrictions UC President Clark Kerr had established in 1959. The People's Park conflict came later, when the fight over a parcel of university land south of the campus led Governor Ronald Reagan to order a month-long National Guard occupation of Berkeley. The park remained undeveloped for decades after the conflict.
Berkeley passed the first sanctuary resolution in the United States on the 8th of November 1971. The Ecology Center launched the first curbside recycling program in the country in 1973. In 1984, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force produced legislation that became a national model. Berkeley voters approved the first soda tax in the United States on the 4th of November 2014. The 1916 single-family zoning ordinance is also described as the first such implementation in the United States.
The Hayward Fault Zone is a major branch of the San Andreas Fault that runs directly through Berkeley. A notorious segment passes lengthwise down the middle of Memorial Stadium on the UC Berkeley campus. Seismologists assess a Bay Area earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next 30 years as likely, with the Hayward Fault carrying the highest probability of being the epicenter among faults in the region.