Mississauga is one of Canada's newest and most populous cities. Incorporated in 1974, and part of the Greater Toronto Area, Mississauga is Canada's sixth most populous municipality with a population of over 704,000. Mississauga offers extensive access to many major destinations in the United States and Canada with seven major highways running through it, as well as Canada's busiest airport Pearson International located in it. Although not incorporated as a city until 1974, Mississauga's history (or at least its name's history) dates back all the way to the 1600s, with the arrival of the Europeans. At this time, Algonquian and Iroquoian speaking communities already lived in the Credit River Valley locale. One of the First Nation's Groups found by the traders around this area was called the Mississaugas, which was originally a Lake Huron-based tribe. By 1700, the Iroquois had been driven away by the Mississaugas. The Toronto Township (not to be confused with the present city of Toronto) was formed in 1805 and officials from York (now known as Toronto), purchased 84,000 acres of land from the Mississaugas. In 1806 the area was open for settlement. In 1820 a second purchase established more settlements including Streetsville, Meadowvale Village and Malton. Most of Mississauga as we know it today was farmland for fruits and vegetables. Toronto residents travelled there to pick produce. The area continued to grow with the opening of Canada's busiest airport Toronto Pearson Internation Airport. In 1968 several surrounding townships settlements were amalgamated and formed the Town of Mississauga. 1974 saw the incorporation of Mississauga as a city. Mississauga was also unfortunately put on the map by in 1979 by a 106 car freight train derailment which was carrying poisonous and explosive chemicals. Because of the danger of chlorine gas spreading through the suburbs of Mississauga, 218,000 residents were evacuated. At the time, it was the largest North American peacetime evacuation in history. Good came out of disaster as many cities later modeled and studied their own emergency evacuation plans after Mississauga's. Mississauga is a great place to shop, visit an art gallery or enjoy outdoor fun in one of its many parks. It is centrally situated and very accessible, and it takes no time at all to get to downtown Toronto. Statistics Canada estimates the population at approximately 704,000 people, and this figure has doubled within the last 20 years. With a large immigrant population (slightly less than 45% speak a language besides English), Mississauga is a great place to meet new friends and potential mates. One way to do this is through a 25dates.com speed dating event, held regularly in Mississauga for different age groups. At these events, participants meet up to 25 singles they would never normally meet otherwise, and everyone is in the same boat - single. At 25dates.com events clients meet with each person of the opposite sex for 3 minutes, and then it's up to them to decide whether they want to see that person again. Two people saying "yes" to each other means it's a "match". 25dates.com then exchanges participants' contact information from them. If you are new to town and want to expand your circle of friends, or find that special someone, this is a great way to do so.