Claim: Barry Gibb was raised in the UK.

Manchester -LRB- -LSB- ˈmæntʃɪstə -RSB- -RRB- is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester , England , with a population of 530,300 . It lies within the United Kingdom 's second-most populous urban area , with a population of 2.55 million . Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south , the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation . The local authority is Manchester City Council .   The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium , which was established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell . It was historically a part of Lancashire , although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated in the 20th century . Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand `` at an astonishing rate '' around the turn of the 19th century . Manchester 's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution , and resulted in it becoming the world 's first industrialised city .   Manchester achieved city status in 1853 . The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894 , creating the Port of Manchester and linking the city to sea , 36 mi to the west . Its fortunes declined after the Second World War , owing to deindustrialisation , but the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration .   In 2014 , the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city , the highest-ranked British city apart from London . Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK .  It is notable for its architecture , culture , musical exports , media links , scientific and engineering output , social impact , sports clubs and transport connections . Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world 's first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom and developed the stored-program computer .