Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England, located 56 miles northwest of London, 64 miles south of Birmingham, and 24 miles northwest of Reading, along the River Cherwell. It was first settled by the Britons and later by the Romans and Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxons named the town Oxnaforda ("ford of the oxen") and established a nunnery in 727 AD. During the 10th century, Oxford became an important border town between Wessex and Danish-ruled Mercia, and, in 1002, the city's Danes were massacred by their Saxon neighbors during the St. Brice's Day Massacre. Oxford was heavily damaged during the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and the Normans built Oxford Castle to keep the local Saxons in order. A Jewish community developed during the 12th century, and the city was besieged in 1142 during The Anarchy. The University of Oxford boomed after 1167, when King Henry II of England banned English students from studying in Paris, although violent riots between the "town and gown" in 1355 led to 93 students and townspeople being killed. During the English Civil War, King Charles I of England used Oxford as his capital after fleeing London, and it was captured by the Parliamentarians in 1646. In 1790, a canal was built to connect Oxford to Coventry, and the railway arrived in 1844, as did a British Army in 1876. Oxford became a county borough in 1890, and the city experienced rapid industrial and population growth during the Interwar period. Oxford's lack of heavy industry spared it from the Blitz during World War II. In 2017, Oxford had a population of 152,450 people, 63.6% of whom were white British, 1.6% white Irish, 12.5% other white, 12.5% Asian, 4% mixed race, 4.6% Black, and 1.4% other.
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