Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Brussels-Capital Region is one of three federal regions of Belgium, comprising 19 municipalities including the City of Brussels. It covers 162 square kilometres and has a population of over 1.2 million. It is legally bilingual in French and Dutch since its creation on the 18th of June 1989.
Brussels hosts the principal EU institutions, including the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the Brussels hemicycle where three quarters of European Parliament sessions take place. The Treaty of Amsterdam formally gave Brussels the seat of the Commission and the Council. The EU has not declared a formal capital, but Brussels has served this function since European institutions began settling there in 1957.
The Belgian Revolution began in Brussels in 1830 following a performance of Auber's opera La Muette de Portici at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie. The unrest led to Belgian independence and Brussels becoming the capital. On the 21st of July 1831, Leopold I ascended the throne as the first King of the Belgians.
In 1695, during the Nine Years' War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery. The resulting fire destroyed the Grand-Place and 4,000 buildings, a third of all buildings in the city. It was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels, and the subsequent reconstruction left traces still visible today.
Residents of Brussels collectively speak 104 languages, up from 72 in 2001. French is spoken well to perfectly by 88% of the population and remains the lingua franca. Surveys from 2023 to 2024 indicate that 29% of the population speaks only languages other than French and Dutch at home.
On the 22nd of March 2016, ISIL detonated three coordinated nail bombs in Brussels: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem and one at Maalbeek metro station. Thirty-two victims and three suicide bombers were killed, and 330 people were injured. It was the deadliest act of terrorism in Belgian history.