Send Gift Baskets to Mazeikiai, Lithuania

The first written mention of Mažeikiai was in 1335. A chronicler writing about a campaign of the Livonian Order in what is now Lithuania wrote that on hearing about an imminent attack, Duke Mažeika fled, abandoning his estate and giving the invading Order total control of the land. The town grew rapidly in 1869 when the Libau-Romney railway linking Vilnius and Liepaja was built. In 1893, it had 13 shops and 5 pubs. Several churches and synagogues have been constructed in 1894. In the early 1900s, a Catholic Church was established, followed by an Evangelical-Lutheran church in 1906. There was also a Jewish synagogue (built in 1899). From 1909 to 1918 the city was known as Muravyov.

In 1919, the town of Mažeikiai became the county center and was granted autonomy. During the first years of independence, Mažeikiai was subject to a territorial dispute between Lithuania and Latvia because of its importance as a railway hub. Latvian claims for the town were rejected by an international commission in 1921.

In 1922 a hospital, library, and museum opened, with a population in 1939 of 5,618. In 1940 there were 26 industrial companies, 4 banks, and a credit union operating here.

For a short period during 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Mažeikiai. The town was annexed by the Soviet Union in August of 1940, then re-occupied by Germans for a time before being liberated in October 1944. It was administered as part of the Lithuanian province of Generalbezirk Litauen in Reichskommissariat Ostland. In August 1941 a mass killing occurred in which 4,000 Jews from the Mažeikiai district were killed.

In 1950 Mažeikiai became the district center.