Name of Toronto
John Graves Simcoe identified the area as a strategic location to base a new capital for Upper Canada, believing Newark to be susceptible to American invasion. A garrison was established at Garrison Creek, on the western entrance to the docks of Toronto Harbour, in 1793; this later became Fort York. The settlement it defended was renamed York on August 26, 1793, as Simcoe favoured English names over those of First Nations languages, in honour of Prince Frederick, Duke of York. Residents petitioned to change the name back to Toronto, and in 1834 the city was incorporated with its original name. The name York lived on through the name of York County (which was later split into Metropolitan Toronto and York Region), and continues to live on through the names of several districts within the city, including Yorkville, East York, and North York, the latter two suburbs that were formally amalgamated into the "megacity" of Toronto on January 1, 1998.
Scarborough, Toronto
First settled by Europeans in the 1790s, Scarborough has grown from a collection of small rural villages and farms to become fully urbanized with a diverse cultural community. Incorporated in 1850 as a township, Scarborough became part of Metropolitan Toronto in 1953 and was reconstituted as a borough in 1967. Scarborough rapidly developed as a suburb of Old Toronto over the next decade and became a city in 1983. In 1998, Scarborough and the rest of Metropolitan Toronto were amalgamated into the present city of Toronto. Scarborough is an administrative district in Toronto and has its own community council. The Scarborough Civic Centre, the former city hall, is still used by the municipal government of Toronto.