File:Outskirts of Lexington, Kentucky (14497063772).jpg

Lexington, consolidated with Fayette County, is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 61st largest in the United States. Known as the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region. In the 2013 US Census Estimate, the city's population was 308,428, anchoring a metropolitan area of 489,435 people and a combined statistical area of 708,677 people.

Lexington ranks tenth among US cities in college education rate, with 39.5% of residents having at least a bachelor's degree. It is the location of the Kentucky Horse Park, The Red Mile and Keeneland race courses, Rupp Arena, the world's largest basketball-specific arena, Transylvania University, the University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community & Technical College.

Lexington was founded in June, 1775, in what was then Fincastle County, Virginia, 17 years before Kentucky became a state. A party of frontiersmen, led by William McConnell, camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek (now known as Town Branch and rerouted under Vine Street) at the site of the present-day McConnell Springs. Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, they named their campsite Lexington. It was the first of what would be many American places to be named after the Massachusetts town.[4] The risk of Indian attacks delayed permanent settlement, though, for four years. In 1779, Col. Robert Patterson and 25 companions came from Fort Harrod and erected a blockhouse. Cabins and a stockade followed, establishing a settlement known as Bryan Station. In 1780, Lexington was made the seat of Virginia's Fayette County. Colonists defended it against a British and American Indian attack in 1782, during the last part of the American Revolution.

By 1820, Lexington was one of the largest and wealthiest towns west of the Allegheny Mountains. So cultured was its lifestyle that the city gained the nickname "Athens of the West". One early prominent citizen, John Wesley Hunt, became the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies.

Many of 19th-century America's most important people spent part of their lives in the city, including U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis (who attended Transylvania University in 1823 and 1824); Confederate general John Hunt Morgan; U.S. Senator and Vice President John C. Breckinridge; and Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State Henry Clay, who had a plantation nearby. Lincoln's wife Mary Todd Lincoln was born and raised in Lexington, and the couple visited the city several times after their marriage in 1842.

With its abundance of government and technology jobs, Lexington has one of the nation's most stable economies. The Lexington Metro Area had a July 2008 unemployment rate of only 5.4%. Lexington was named the 4th best city for "Businesses and Careers" in 2011 by Forbes Magazine, the 5th best city for Young Professionals in 2008 and 6th Best Value Cities 2011 by Kiplinger. As such, the city is home to several large corporations. The city has sizable employment from four Fortune 500 companies: Xerox (who acquired Affiliated Computer Services), Lexmark International, Lockheed-Martin, and IBM employing 3,000, 2,800, 1,705, and 552 respectively. United Parcel Service, Trane, and Amazon.com, Inc. have a large presence in the city, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky is within the Lexington CSA in adjoining Georgetown. The city is also host to a Jif peanut butter plant that produces more peanut butter than any other factory in the world and three notable corporate headquarters: Fazoli's, a fast food Italian chain that has expanded to more than twenty states; Tempur-Pedic, International, a manufacturer of mattresses with memory foam; and the Forcht Group of Kentucky, a holding company that employs more than 2,100 people across Kentucky. Forcht Group operates several businesses in Lexington including First Corbin Bancorp, Kentucky National Insurance Company, My Favorite Things, BSC, a bank data services company, and First Lab, among others.

The city's largest employer, the University of Kentucky, as of 2012, employs about 14,000, although that number is expected to shrink due to reduced funding from the state. The University is the ninth largest economic company in the state of Kentucky, with an annual budget of $1.4 billion, and the College of Medicine within the University is the 21st-largest company in the state.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington,_Kentucky