...but internationally famous for mostly two things

1)It's where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown off a train for refusing to sit in the third class area to give his seat up for a white man, even though Gandhi had paid for a first class ticket (this incident is what inspired him to begin his anti-discrimination campaining...)

2) A site just outside of town is where Nelson Mandela was arrested by authorities after being on the run for over a year, which marked the beginning of his almost thirty years in prison.

Pretty cool I thought....must have some sort of magnetic pull for groundbreaking individuals

My hometown is Canterbury in the UK. There are lots of historically significant structures around - being the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury - but none more so, I suppose, than the Canterbury Cathedral. The particular claim to fame - or perhaps infamy - would the be assassination of St. Thomas Becket following the (political and personal) rift that had taken place between him and the then King of England, Henry II.

The story surrounding it is a little confused, but the King was said to have made a throw-away comment on his sickbed - something along the lines of "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?"

4 Knights took this to be a royal command, went haring off to the Cathedral, cornered Becket with some nonsense excuse and demanded that Becket ride off to Winchester and account for his actions. Becket refused, and the knights - interpreting this as treason against the King's wishes - rushed out of the Cathedral to fetch swords hidden under a Sycamore tree, ran back in and killed the Archbishop.

A somewhat morbid claim to fame, but St. Thomas Becket was canonized after it, so I guess my hometown is the site where a saint was made .

I feel less than hopeful having read some of the previous replies!

My hometown is Coleraine in Northern Ireland. It isn't a terribly exciting place but it is the site of the earliest settlement in Ireland. Mountsandel Fort- it's easy to see why. When you climb to the top of the hill where the fort once stood, there is a great view up and down the river. It would have been impossible for enemies to sneak up on you! The fort is gone but the hill and forest remain. The hill, incidently, is a great place from which to stargaze.

Just as an little extra, James Nesbitt is from Coleraine. I'm sure most americans won't know him but he is a fairly famous actor in the UK. (Bloody Sunday, Murphy's Law, Jekyll, Cold Feet).

Also, Coleraine has a cheese factory which makes really yummy cheese and it's own whiskey, distilled in the Bushmills distillery, the oldest licensed distillery in the world. Delicious! Mmm Mmmm. Good enough for Bodger, I think.

My wikipedia informs me that the Mountsandel settlement dates from the Mesolithic era, or 5935 BC but the earliest huts found there date from 7000BC!

Wikipedia informs me that Cary, North Carolina is famous for being a part of the 'research traingle" in North Carolina. The triangle is fomed by the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, because of the major university each of those cities has. However, Cary has also passed Chapel Hill as the third most populous city in the Triangle. And that's pretty much it.