Short answers, pulled from the story.
The name Montreal is a direct translation of the triple-peaked mountain known in French as Mont Royal. This geographical feature rises 233 meters above sea level and served as the first stopping place for Indigenous peoples of the Ojibwe migration story. The etymology remains a subject of debate, with some historians suggesting it evolved from an Italian translation used by Venetian geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1556.
French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived at the site on the 2nd of October 1535. He encountered a fortified village of over a thousand Saint Lawrence Iroquoians known as Hochelaga. By 1603, Samuel de Champlain reported that these settlements had completely disappeared due to disease and intertribal conflict.
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve founded Ville-Marie on the southern shore in 1642. He named the settlement after the Virgin Mary, but the mountain's name eventually eclipsed the religious title. The colony struggled to survive its early years, with the population barely reaching 50 people by 1652.
A Tory mob burned down the Parliament Buildings in 1849 to protest the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill. This event stripped the city of its status as the capital of the Province of Canada. Queen Victoria established Ottawa as the new capital in 1857 for strategic reasons.
The debt from the 1976 Summer Olympics was not paid off until December 2006. The Olympic Stadium cost $1.5 billion to build, but with interest, the figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion. This financial burden left the city with long-term economic consequences.
Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America, with 4.38 students per 100 residents. The city is home to four universities, ten other degree-awarding institutions, and 12 CEGEPs. McGill University, established in 1821, is the oldest operating university in Montreal.