For over 150 years, Camden served as a secondary economic and transportation hub for the Philadelphia area. Originally a suburban town with ferry service to 'the city,' Camden prospered during strong periods of manufacturing demand and faced distress during periods of economic dislocation. Currently, government, education, and healthcare are the three biggest employers in Camden; however, most employees commute to Camden and live in nearby suburbs such as Cherry Hill.

From 1901 through 1929, Camden was headquarters of the Victor Talking Machine Company, and thereafter to its successor RCA Victor, the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. RCA Victor contained one of the first commercial recording studios in the United States, where Enrico Caruso, among others, recorded. The RCA plant was also the site where the first color television was manufactured.

Walt Whitman lived his last years in Camden and is buried in Harleigh Cemetery on Haddon Avenue.

Camden is the place where the first drive-in theater opened, invented by Richard Hollingshead, on June 6, 1933.

From 1899 to 1967, Camden was the home of New York Shipbuilding Corporation, which at its World War II peak was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Notable naval vessels built at New York Ship include the ill-fated cruiser USS Indianapolis and the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. In 1962, the first commercial nuclear-powered ship, the NS Savannah, was launched in Camden, New Jersey. The Fairview section of Camden was a planned European-style garden village built by the Federal government during World War I to house New York Ship workers.

On September 6, 1949 mass murderer Howard Unruh went on a killing spree in his Camden neighborhood. Thirteen people died as a result. Unruh remains confined in a state psychiatric facility.

By 1969, Camden had been losing jobs and residents for a quarter century due in large part to urban decay, highway construction, and racial tensions. The worst racial riots occurred when a Puerto Rican motorist was beaten by city police and died in August 1971. Sections of downtown were looted and torched.

In 1996, Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman frisked Sherron Rolax in Camden, which many alleged violated Rolax's civil rights.

The town is mentioned by name in Fountains of Wayne's song, "Places".

Based on statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Camden was the third-most dangerous city in the U.S. during 2002, and has been ranked the nation's most dangerous city in 2004 and 2005. "Most dangerous city" is based on crime statistics in six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft.

City Councilman Ali Sloan-El, responding to 2004 news about the 2003 statistics, cites Camden's poverty as an important contributing factor to its high crime rate. The demographic data from the Census indicates about a third of the city's residents live below the poverty line.

However, in 2005, homicides in Camden dropped sharply, to 34 — fifteen fewer murders than were reported in 2004. Though Camden's murder rate is still much higher than the national average, the reduction in 2005 was a drop of over thirty percent.

The former mayor, Milton Milan, was also infamous for his connections to organized crime and drug addiction.

CONTRIBUTOR:
WIKIPEDIA- The Free Encyclopedia...