Due to Latvia's strategic location and prosperous city, its territories were a frequent focal point for conflict and conquest between at least four major powers, the State of the Teutonic Order ( later Germany ), the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and Russia.

This agreement gave Lithuanians control of the city of Vilnius (, ), the old Lithuanian capital, but a city with a majority Polish population.

The Lithuanian victory in the Battle of Saule temporarily stabilized the northern front, but the Christian orders continued to make gains along the Baltic coast, founding the city of Klaipėda ( Memel ).

The First Peace of Thorn ending the Polish – Lithuanian – Teutonic War was signed in the city in February 1411.

This city will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of their rulers, and the glory of their deeds shall echo throughout the world ".

During the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389 – 1392, Vytautas besieged and razed the city in an attempt to wrest control from Jogaila.

A variety of languages were spoken: Lithuanian, Polish, Ruthenian, Russian, Old Slavonic, Latin, German, Yiddish, Hebrew and Turkic ; the city was compared to Babylon.

The Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuanian independence from any affiliation to any other nation, was issued in the city on 16 February 1918.

A Lithuanian Army parade took place on 29 October 1939 through the city centre.

The current Constitution, as did the earlier Lithuanian Constitution of 1922, mentions that ..." the capital of the State of Lithuania shall be the city of Vilnius, the long-standing historical capital of Lithuania ".

Goldberg was born to a Jewish Lithuanian family from Kaunas, however her mother traveled to the nearby German city of Königsberg ( today, Russian Kaliningrad ) in order to give birth in better medical conditions.

Several ethnic churches are located in this part of the city, as a result of settlement in the area by a large number of Eastern European immigrants, with Polish, Slovak, Czech, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian significantly represented.

In order to repel future Polish – Lithuanian attacks, Boris Godunov made it his priority to heavily fortify the city.

After a defeat at the hands of king Wladislaw IV, the city remained in Polish – Lithuanian hands.

There was also a large Catholic movement to the city, opening up churches for their own ethnicity, such as St. Stanislaus ( Polish ), St. Rose ( Irish ), Holy Name ( German ), St. Patrick ( Irish ), Sacred Heart ( Italian ), St. Joseph ( German ), St. Mary ( German ), Holy Trinity ( Slovak ), St. Casimir ( Lithuanian ), and others.

The city was also claimed by Lithuanian government, after it was agreed by the Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920 signed on July 12, 1920 in Moscow that the city would be transferred to Lithuania.

However, Soviet defeat in the Battle of Warsaw made these plans obsolete, and Lithuanian authority was never established in the city.

Brest ( Берасце, Bierascie ;, earlier name Brasta ; ; ), formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug (" Brześć nad Bugiem " in Polish ) and Brest-Litovsk (" Brześć Litewski " in Polish, literally " Lithuanian Brest "), is a city ( population 310, 800 in 2010 ) in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet.

* the name of the city comes from the Lithuanian word brasta meaning ford.

Kaunas (; ; see also other names ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life.

After the final partition of the Polish – Lithuanian state in 1795, the city was taken over by the Russian Empire and became a part of Vilna Governorate.

Vilnius lies from the Baltic Sea and Klaipėda, the chief Lithuanian seaport.

Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalin's insistence between the Soviet Union ( the Kaliningrad Oblast in the Russian SFSR and the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region in the Lithuanian SSR ) and the People's Republic of Poland ( the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship ).

The Klaipėda Territory, a League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by Lithuanian troops in 1923 and was annexed without giving the inhabitants a choice by the ballot.

Partnership between Kuji and Klaipėda began in 1989, 1 year before the independence of Lithuania, hence becoming the first Lithuanian sister city in Japan.

Smetona participated in the activity of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union that had staged the Klaipėda Revolt, which gave him greater name-recognition.

Under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the former German Memelland, with its Baltic port Memel ( Lithuanian: Klaipėda ), was again transferred to Lithuania, or as it was after 1945 the Lithuanian SSR.

The Russian side of the Curonian Spit belongs to Zelenogradsk district of the Kaliningrad Oblast, while the Lithuanian side is partitioned among Klaipėda city municipality and Neringa municipality.

In 1997 the band finally decided to disband and performed 3 huge gigs in Lithuanian cities of Klaipėda, Kaunas, and Vilnius, with an attendance of 60, 000 in the final performance on 17 May in Vingis Park of Vilnius.

The original Scalovian and Curonian territory was conquered around 1252 by the Teutonic Knights, who constructed Memelburg (" Memel Castle ") and the city of Memel ( now usually known by its Lithuanian name Klaipėda ).

The part of Kaliningrad Oblast ( excluding the city of Kaliningrad and its surroundings ), a few territories in Poland's Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, as well as the following territories in modern-day Lithuania: the Klaipėda district municipality, the Šilutė district municipality, Klaipėda city, Pagėgiai municipality, and Neringa municipality had once ethnically, linguistically and culturally been the latter Lithuanian region.

Giving the Prussian Lithuanian name first and followed by the German name, the major cities in former Lithuania Minor were Klaipėda ( Memel ) and Tilžė ( Tilsit ).

The administrative Lithuanian Province ( part of the administrative province of Sambia ) ( about 10 000 km² ) comprised four districts of that time: Klaipėda ( Memel ), Tilžė ( Tilsit, Sovetsk ), Ragainė ( Raganita, Ragnit, Neman ) and Įsrutis ( Insterburg, Cerniachovsk ).

Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila ( born March 20, 1929 in Klaipėda ) was an official of the Lithuanian SSR nomenclatura.

In 1923 the Klaipėda region was annexed by Lithuania and the port of Klaipėda had became a part of the Lithuanian railway system.

Steponas Darius ( known as Stephen Darius in the USA ; born Steponas Darašius ; January 8, 1896 in Rubiškė, now Klaipėda district of Lithuania – July 17, 1933 near Soldin, Germany ) was a Lithuanian American pilot.

Across the 0. 5 km wide strait, on the Lithuanian mainland, is the port city of Klaipėda.

After Lithuanians seized the Klaipėda Region in January 1923, the League saw recognition of Lithuanian interest in Klaipėda as adequate compensation for the loss of Vilnius.

In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius Russians make up 14, 43 % of the population, in Lithuania's third largest city Klaipėda 28 %.

Their adversaries were unable to achieve their goal of capturing the Lithuanian sea-coast from Klaipėda to Šventoji.

* 1923 – Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebel against the League of Nations decision to leave the area as a mandated region under French control.

In April 1946, northern East Prussia became an official province of the Russian SFSR as the " Kyonigsbergskaya Oblast ", with the Memel Territory becoming part of the Lithuanian SSR.

In the early hours of 23 March 1939, after a political ultimatum caused a Lithuanian delegation to travel to Berlin, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Juozas Urbšys and his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Treaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany in exchange for a Lithuanian Free Zone in the port of Memel, using the facilities erected in previous years.

German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop delivered an ultimatum to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister on March 20, 1939, demanding the surrender of the Memel region to German control.

The Soviet Union recaptured Lithuania in 1944 and the Memel region was incorporated into the newly-formed Lithuanian SSR in 1945 while the remainder of East Prussia was divided between Poland ( the southern two-thirds now forming the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship ) and the Soviet Union ( the remaining territory which was formed into the Kaliningrad Oblast ).

Although Klaipėda ( Memel ) passed into the hands of the German feudal lords under the Treaty of Melno, in 1422, Palanga and Šventoji remained under Lithuanian control.