Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ghent was the leading European city for cloth manufacture during the Middle Ages. It imported wool from Scotland and England and grew to become the largest city in Europe north of the Alps after Paris, with up to 65,000 people living within its walls by the 13th century.
The name Stroppendragers, meaning noose bearers, dates to the 1539 Revolt of Ghent. After the city rebelled, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was born in Ghent in 1500, punished the city's nobles by forcing them to walk barefoot before him with a noose (strop in Dutch) around their necks.
The Treaty of Ghent, negotiated in the city and signed on Christmas Eve 1814, formally ended the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. The source describes that conflict as the North American phase of the Napoleonic Wars.
Ghent was liberated on the 6th of September 1944 by the British 7th Armoured Division, known as the Desert Rats, together with local Belgian fighters. The northern suburbs and industrial area were cleared over the following days by the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division.
The Ghent Festival, known in Dutch as Gentse Feesten, is a ten-day annual event that has been held since 1969. It draws approximately 1 to 1.5 million visitors each year and did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium.
Ghent has the largest designated cyclist area in Europe, with nearly 400 km of cycle paths and more than 700 one-way streets where bicycles may travel against traffic. It also holds Belgium's first bicycle boulevard, where cars are considered guests and must stay behind cyclists.