Sandakan was the former capital of British North Borneo until 1946.The town prospered in the early days due to its port with visiting traders from about the world.Sandakan is an important town to Australian and British WWII history with the infamous Death Marches commencing here in 1945
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/sandakan.htm and
http://www.sandakan-deathmarch.com/. After WWII the capital moved to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). http://wikitravel.org/en/Sandakan