Short answers, pulled from the story.
King John of England formally established Liverpool as a borough in 1207. The original street plan designed by King John laid out seven streets in the shape of a double cross, including what is now known as Water Street and High Street.
Liverpool became the European port most heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade, generating substantial profits that fueled rapid growth. The town's wealth was built on the backs of enslaved people, with sugar and tobacco from the West Indies surpassing trade with Ireland and Europe.
Liverpool merchants helped to bring out cotton from ports blockaded by the Union Navy and built ships of war for the Confederacy. The Confederate Navy ship the CSS Alabama was built at Birkenhead on the Mersey, and the CSS Shenandoah surrendered there, marking the final surrender at the end of the war.
The Luftwaffe made 80 air raids on Merseyside, killing 2,500 people and causing damage to almost half the homes in the metropolitan area. Despite the destruction, the city played a pivotal role in the Battle of the Atlantic, which was planned, fought, and won from Liverpool.
The advent of containerization meant that the city's docks became largely obsolete, and dock workers were made unemployed, leading to massive losses of jobs. By the early 1980s, unemployment rates in Liverpool were among the highest in the UK, standing at 17% by January 1982.
Liverpool Airport was renamed after Beatle and Liverpudlian John Lennon in 2002, the first British airport to be named in honor of an individual. The city's cultural renaissance continued with the designation as a joint European Capital of Culture for 2008, which generated over £800 million for the local economy within a year.