Nancy, << NAN see or nahn SEE >> (pop. 104,592; met area pop. 435,356), is a city in northeastern France. It lies on the Meurthe River, 6 miles (10 kilometers) north of the Meurthe’s junction with the Moselle River. Nancy is the commercial center of the Lorraine region. Factories in the city produce furniture, glassware, and electrical equipment. The city has a university, founded in 1572, and a school of forestry and mining.
In 1477, Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, was killed in battle outside the walls of Nancy. In September 1944, American forces defeated the Germans in a vicious fight over control of Nancy toward the end of World War II (1939-1945). Several famous people were born in Nancy, including author Edmond de Goncourt, mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré, electronic composer and musician Pierre Schaeffer, and Nobel Prize-winning geneticist François Jacob. See also Goncourt ; Jacob, Francois ; Poincaré, Henri .
