The story
The area in what is now Tuusula was located in the larger municipality of Sipoo. It got its current name from its original inhabitants known as the Tuusas (based on the Germanic names Dose or Duse), who settled in the area centuries ago. The historical center called Tuusulan kirkonkylä ("Tuusula church village") was built on the shores of lake in the 16th century. In 1643, it became a separate parish in the municipality, and in 1653, it became a separate municipality. Tuusula's boundaries have not always remained the same: in 1924 the municipality of Kerava split from here; in 1950 the municipality of Korso was split between Tuusula, Kerava, and Sipoo; and in 1951 the municipality of Järvenpää split from here.
During the Crimean War (1853–1856), a Russian garrison was stationed in what is now Hyrylä. The modern parish mostly developed around it. Since the departure of the Helsinki Air Defence Regiment, the former garrison area has been redeveloped.
The area had always been a fairly fertile area, thus encouraging farming. The development of other industries began in 1795, when an ironworks was created in Kellokoski that functioned until the 1980s. The establishment of a railway in Jokela furthered the growth.
Soon after this industrial time another aspect of Tuusulan history was realised. The Tuusulanjärvi lake attracted many artists who wanted to paint the beautiful landscape. Following the footsteps of Aleksis Kivi, the Finnish national poet who spent the last years of his life in a hut on the shores of the lake, Jean Sibelius, Juhani Aho, and Pekka Halonen even established their main residences here. Recently these houses have become tourist sites, especially Sibelius' house Ainola. Also, Tuusula Lake Road on the eastern shore of the lake is an outside museum.
The Jokela rail crash was a rail crash which occurred on 21 April 1996 here.
Jokela High School was the site of the Jokela school shooting, a school shooting which occurred on 7 November 2007, leaving 9 dead (including the 18-year-old perpetrator, Pekka-Eric Auvinen).
From Wikipedia’s article on Tuusula, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5