The French explorer Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) founded a French settlement in Quebec City in 1608.  He adopted the Algonquin name of Quebec.  Champlain came to be called “The Father of New France,” since he served as its administrator for the rest of his life.  Quebec is home to the earliest known French settlement in North America, Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, established in 1541 by explorer Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) with some 400 persons, but abandoned less than a year later due to the hostility of the natives and the harsh winter.  The name “Canada” was given to the colony that developed around the settlement at Quebec.  Although the Acadian settlement at Port-Royal was established three years earlier, Quebec came to be known as the cradle of North America’s Francophone population, since this location seemed favorable to the establishment of a permanent colony.  In 1629 it was captured by English privateers during the Anglo-French War. As part of the ongoing negotiations following the end of the Anglo-French War in 1632, the English King Charles I agreed to return captured lands in exchange for Louis XIII paying his wife’s dowry.  In 1665, there were 550 people in 70 houses living in the city. One-quarter of the people were members of religious orders.  Quebec was the headquarters of many raids against New England during the French and Indian Wars.  In 1690 the city was attacked by the English, but was successfully defended.  In the last of its conflicts, the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War), Quebec was captured by the British in 1759, and held until the end of the war in 1763.  At the end of French rule, Quebec was a town of 8,000 inhabitants, surrounded by forests, villages, fields, and pastures.  The Americans’ failure to take Quebec in 1775 led to the end of their campaign in Canada.  The American invasion failed, however, and the war resulted in a permanent split of British North America into two entitles, the newly independent United States of America, and those colonies (including Quebec) that remained under British control, which would later become the country of Canada.  The city itself was not attacked during the War of 1812, when the United States again attempted to annex Canadian lands.  Until the late 18th century, Québec was the most populous city in present-day Canada.  From 1841 to 1867, the capital of the Province of Canada rotated between Kingston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec City.  In 1867, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the definite capital of the Dominion of Canada, while Quebec City was confirmed as the capital of the newly created province of Quebec.  During World War II, two conferences were held in Quebec City in 1943 and 1944, where a large part of the D-Day landing plans were made during those meetings.  Quebec City was built on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence River, where it narrows and meets the mouth of the Saint-Charles River.  The Plains of Abraham are located on the southeastern extremity of the plateau, where high stone walls were integrated during colonial days.  The great majority of city residents are native French speakers, 91%, since only 2% are Anglophones.  Quebec City’s Winter Carnival is the world’s largest winter festival.  Quebec City has the oldest educational institution for women in North America, led by the Ursulines of Quebec, which is now a private elementary school.  The Quebec Nordiques of the NHL moved to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995.  Have you ever been to a French speaking city?