Short answers, pulled from the story.
St. Louis was founded on the 14th of February 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclede, and Auguste Chouteau. They named the settlement for King Louis IX of France, and it quickly became the regional center of the French Illinois Country.
On the 22nd of August 1876, the city voted to separate from St. Louis County, officially doing so in March 1877. The decision fixed the city's political boundaries permanently, which later prevented it from annexing surrounding suburban areas as other major American cities did, contributing to a dramatic long-term population decline.
St. Louis reached its peak population of 856,796 at the 1950 census. By the 2020 census, the city proper had a population of 301,578, representing a loss of 64.8 percent. The metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, still held an estimated population of over 2.8 million.
When the St. Louis Blues defeated the Boston Bruins to win the 2019 Stanley Cup, St. Louis became the eighth North American city to hold championships in all four major professional sports leagues. The Blues had been the last of the 1967 NHL expansion teams to win the Stanley Cup, having reached the Finals in their first three seasons but been swept each time.
An estimated 70,000 Bosnians live in the St. Louis metro area, a figure that ties the city with Chicago for the largest Bosnian population in the United States and the largest outside Bosnia itself. Most arrived after the Bosnian War began in 1992, aided by Catholic aid societies, and the highest concentrations are in the Bevo Mill neighborhood and south St. Louis County.
The St. Louis Rams returned to Los Angeles in 2016, a move the city contested legally. In 2021, the NFL and Rams owner Stan Kroenke agreed to settle out of court with the city for $790 million.