The first brick settlements formed around 900, but it was not until 1305 that the first official mention of Hilversum (" Hilfersheem " from " Hilvertshem " meaning " houses between the hills ") is found.

In 21 March at 6: 30 am ( The hour at which people got up, as the farm was full of loud and restless animals ) 1424, Hilversum received its first official independent status.

Despite this growth, Hilversum was never granted city rights so it is still referred to by many locals as " het dorp ," or " the village.

By strange coincidence, in 2002 the most vocal ' Leefbaar Rotterdam ' politician Pim Fortuyn was shot and killed by an animal rights activist at Hilversum Media Park just after finishing a radio interview.

On 6 May 2002, at age 54, Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum, North Holland, by Volkert van der Graaf.

Parking lot in Hilversum where Fortuyn was assassinated

The term " Leefbaar " was turned into a political brand by the Leefbaar Utrecht and Hilversum parties ; the founders tried to reproduce this success by taking over the name.

The famous Last Date with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink was recorded in Hilversum, Holland, though it was not actually Dolphy's last concert.

Despite its earlier importance, Naarden population size was surpassed by Hilversum in the 18th century and today is smaller than its neighbour Bussum.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 12 March 1958 in Hilversum.

The 2010 prize was awarded to Bierman Henket Architecten and Wessel de Jonge Architecten for the restoration of the Zonnestraal Sanatorium, an aftercare colony for tubercular patients near Hilversum, in the Netherlands, built in 1931.

The new international trade routes opened by the Beaker people became firmly established and the culture was succeeded by a number of Bronze Age cultures, among them the Únětice culture in Central Europe, the Elp culture and Hilversum culture in the Netherlands, and by the Nordic Bronze Age, a culture of Scandinavia and northernmost Germany-Poland.

Hilversum 3 was renamed, along with the other two networks to Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 towards the late 1980s.

In the 1940s, the record business was spread out within Philips — research in the Eindhoven labs, development elsewhere in Eindhoven, recording in Hilversum, manufacturing in Doetinchem, distribution from Amsterdam and exports from Eindhoven.

He was professor of ancient literature and universal history at Leiden from 1822 to 1849, when he resigned his post and retired to Hilversum, where he died on 27 March 1865.

Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen ( Nouen ), ( Nijkerk, January 24, 1932 – Hilversum, September 21, 1996 ) was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books about spirituality.

Their first realised commission was the new offices for VPRO in Hilversum, Netherlands ( 1993 – 1997 ).

After a heated campaign a mere days before the election, Fortuyn was assassinated in Hilversum.

Gerretsen was born in Hilversum, Netherlands during World War II, and moved to Canada with his parents in 1954.

Designed by architect Reginald Uren 1933-1935, the building shows the influence of Hilversum town hall in the Netherlands and was awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The brick-based Town Hall for Hilversum in Holland by Willem Dudok ( 1928 – 30 ) was considered significant enough to earn him a RIBA Gold Medal in 1935.

The appearance of the exterior with its plain surfaces of specially chosen small bricks, with its dominating tower and elongated windows with pronounced keystones, pays direct homage to the Town Hall at Hilversum ( 1928 – 30 ) by W. M. Dudok, who was awarded a RIBA Gold Medal in 1935.

Hilversum is part of the Randstad, one of the largest conurbations in Europe.

Hilversum has one public library, two swimming pools ( Van Hellemond Sport and De Lieberg ), a number of sporting halls and several shopping centers ( such as Hilvertshof, De Gijsbrecht, Kerkelanden, Riebeeck Galerij and Seinhorst.

It is not the only municipality with three parish halls, but it is the one and only one which has a parish hall in another city ( Hilversum ).

Still ill, he returned to the Netherlands in 1936 to take up residence in a nursing home in Hilversum, where he died on October 5, just after his 38th birthday and one month after the publication of his last collection of verse, Een eerlijk zeemansgraf (" An Honourable Seaman's Grave ").

In 1914 he began teaching the classics at the Hilversum gymnasium ( grammar school ), but, due to deafness in one ear and impaired vision, had trouble maintaining order in the large classes at that institution.

Wright's early influence in northern Europe is unquestionable: Le Corbusier is known to have had and shared a copy, Czech architect Antonin Raymond and Austrian architects Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra all re-located to the United States in hopes of working for Wright, and one look at Willem Marinus Dudok's 1924 Hilversum Town Hall betrays its origins.

After some bureaucratic obstruction, which one critic described as a mini-Watergate, the VOO was finally granted a licence and was invited to open the new Hilversum 4 radio network on December 28, 1975.

Artifacts from this prehistoric civilization bear similarities to the Wessex Culture of southern Britain and may indicate that the first Hilversum residents emigrated from that area.

He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title at Hong Kong, and his first tour doubles title in Hilversum.

He turned professional late 1985 and won his first tour title at Hilversum, ( Netherlands ) in 1986.

Among his best results in other important tournaments were: clear first at Iwonicz Zdroj 1957, equal first with Taimanov at Dresden 1959, equal first with Lajos Portisch at Beverwijk 1965, clear first at Kislovodsk 1966, clear first at Gothenburg 1967, clear first at Kislovodsk 1968, equal first with Mikhail Botvinnik at Wijk aan Zee 1969 ( ahead of Keres ), equal first at Havana 1971 with Vlastimil Hort, equal first at Hilversum 1973 with Laszlo Szabo, clear first at Budapest 1973 ahead of Anatoly Karpov, clear first at Teesside 1975, clear first at Moscow 1975 ( ahead of Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, and Petrosian ), clear first at Las Palmas 1976, equal first with Gennadi Sosonko at Wijk aan Zee 1977, clear first at Bogotá 1978, equal first at Bern 1987 with Daniel Campora, clear first at Dortmund ' A ' 1989, and equal first at New York Manhattan 1990 with Gregory Kaidanov, at age 65.

In 1999, prominent media personalities Henk Westbroek and Jan Nagel, chairs of the highly successful Leefbaar Utrecht and Leefbaar Hilversum parties respectively, founded Leefbaar Nederland as a spin off from their local parties.

Furthermore, he had a column in the local newspaper, Gooi-en Eemlander, which covered Hilversum and the Almere region.

The next day, they performed a set at The Countdown Cafe in Hilversum, which was broadcast live on local radio.

In 2001, Nagel from ' Leefbaar Hilversum ' teamed up with ' Leefbaar Utrecht ' leaders to found a national ' Leefbaar Nederland ' party.

In 1964, the population reached a record high – over 103, 000 people called Hilversum home.

In 2012, in a Dutch episode of the tv-programme Classic Recordings about Shocking Blue's album At home, with a rare interview with guitar player Robbie van Leeuwen and clips of Nirvana's live performance of the song in Paradiso, Amsterdam, Shocking Blue's Klaasje van der Wal was proud of the fact that Novaselic once called him a bass god in a blog, while it was said that Van Leeuwen was pointed to the availability of the Nirvana album during a visit to Hilversum, The Netherlands.

This happened, however, after a break between Fortuyn and Nagel during a Leefbaar Nederland board meeting in Hilversum on Fortuyn's anti-Islamic viewpoints.

* Leefbaar Hilversum – 2 seats