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Another source of popular information is Cities of the Underworld, a documentary series that ran for three seasons on the History Channel starting in 2007. This series roamed around the world, showing little-known underground structures in remote locales, as well as right under the feet of densely packed city-dwellers.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the most populated municipality and historic core city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.
Sitting on Missouri's western boundary with Kansas, with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the city encompasses about 319.03 square miles (826.3 km2), making it the 23rd largest city by total area in the United States. It serves as one of the two county seats of Jackson County, along with the major suburb of Independence. Other major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Blue Springs and Lee's Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Kansas City, Kansas.
The city is composed of several neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east, and the Country Club Plaza in the south. Celebrated cultural traditions include Kansas City jazz, theater, which was the center of the Vaudevillian Orpheum circuit in the 1920s, the Chiefs and Royals sports franchises, and famous cuisine based on Kansas City-style barbecue, Kansas City strip steak, and craft breweries.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Zoo
The Kansas City Zoo is a 202-acre (82 ha) zoo founded in 1909. It is located in Swope Park at 6800 Zoo Drive Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. The zoo has a Friends of the Zoo program. It is home to more than 1,300 animals and is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
In 2008, the Kansas City Zoo was voted to be one of America's best zoos. It was ranked number one in the nation for “African Animals and Exhibits,” with the authors, Allen W. Nyhuis and Jon Wassner, praising its 95-acre (38.4 ha) Africa exhibit as representing five nations with "one of the most extensive collections of African animals we’ve ever seen". The Zoo was also ranked among the top 10 in the nation for “Australian Animals and Exhibits” and for “Pachyderms: Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos”. In addition, the authors re-quoted famed ape expert Jane Goodall’s compliment that Kansas City has “one of the finest chimpanzee exhibits in North America”. “America’s Best Zoos 2008” ranks the Kansas City Zoo as the number one zoo in the nation for viewing both chimpanzees and kangaroos.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the third-most-populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second-most-populous county in the US, with a small portion of the northwest side of the city extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the United States.
Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than 30 years after the great fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles (including the Chicago School of architecture), the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts, issued by the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. Depending on the particular year, the city's O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked as the world's fifth or sixth busiest airport according to tracked data by the Airports Council International. The region also has the largest number of federal highways and is the nation's railroad hub. Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. In addition, the city has one of the world's most diversified and balanced economies, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. Chicago is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Allstate, Boeing, Caterpillar, Exelon, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, and Walgreens.
Chicago's 58 million domestic and international visitors in 2018 made it the second most visited city in the nation, as compared with New York City's 65 million visitors in 2018. The city was ranked first in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, literature, film, theatre, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music including house music. Of the area's many colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as "highest research" doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Center
875 North Michigan Avenue, formerly the John Hancock Center, is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, its name was changed to 875 North Michigan Avenue on February 12, 2018.
It was constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with Peruvian-American chief designer Bruce Graham and Bangladeshi structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan. When the building topped out on May 6, 1968, it was the second-tallest building in the world and the tallest outside New York City. It is currently the fourth-tallest building in Chicago and the ninth-tallest in the United States, after One World Trade Center, the Willis Tower, 432 Park Avenue, the Trump Tower Chicago, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, 30 Hudson Yards and the Aon Center. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to several offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums. It also contains the third-highest residence in the world, after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Trump Tower in Chicago. The building was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building. In 2018, John Hancock Insurance requested that its name be removed and the owner is seeking another naming rights deal.
From the 95th floor restaurant, diners can look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observatory (360 Chicago), which competes with the Willis Tower's Skydeck, has a 360° view of the city, up to four states, and a distance of over 80 miles (130 km). 360 Chicago is home to TILT, a moving platform that leans visitors over the edge of the skyscraper to a 30-degree angle, a full bar with local selections, Chicago's only open-air SkyWalk, and also features free interactive high definition touch screens in six languages. The 44th-floor sky lobby features America's highest indoor swimming pool.
Source: Scan of an original mounted print.
Image: RSR266.
Date: 1900-1901.
Photographer: William Hooper, 2 Market Street, Swindon.
Hooper collection copyright Paul A. Williams.
Used here by kind permission.
Repository: Local Studies at Swindon Central Library (R.S. Radway Collection).
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis
St. Louis is an independent city and inland port in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is situated along the western bank of the Mississippi River, which marks Missouri's border with Illinois. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River just north of the city. These two rivers combined form the fourth longest river system in the world. The city had an estimated 2017 population of 308,626 and is the cultural and economic center of the St. Louis metropolitan area (home to nearly 3,000,000 people), which is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois (after Chicago), and the 22nd-largest in the United States.
Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, and named after Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; at the time of the 1870 Census it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.
The economy of metropolitan St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. Its metro area is home to major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Express Scripts, Centene, Boeing Defense, Emerson, Energizer, Panera, Enterprise, Peabody Energy, Ameren, Post Holdings, Monsanto, Edward Jones, Go Jet, Purina and Sigma-Aldrich. Nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri are located within the St. Louis metropolitan area. The city has also become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical, and research presence due to institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. St. Louis has two professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. One of the city's iconic sights is the 630-foot (192 m) tall Gateway Arch in the downtown area.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busch_Stadium
Busch Stadium, also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III", is a baseball park located in St. Louis, Missouri, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. The stadium has a seating capacity of 44,494, and contains 3,706 club seats and 61 luxury suites. It replaced Busch Memorial Stadium (aka Busch Stadium II) and occupies a portion of that stadium's former footprint. A commercial area, dubbed Ballpark Village, was built adjacent to the stadium over the remainder of the former stadium's footprint.
The stadium opened on April 4, 2006 with an exhibition between the minor league Memphis Redbirds and Springfield Cardinals, both affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals, which Springfield won 5-3 with right-hander Mike Parisi recording the first win. The first official major league game occurred on April 10, 2006 as the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6–4 behind an Albert Pujols home run and winning pitcher Mark Mulder.
The highest attendance for a sports event other than baseball was on May 23, 2013, when 48,263 people watched Chelsea Football Club and Manchester City Football Club play a friendly match. To date, the largest attendance for a baseball game occurred Mothers Day May 12th, 2019 with an attendance of 48,556 in a game between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 2004, then Anheuser-Busch president August Busch IV announced the brewing-giant purchased the 20-year naming rights for the stadium. Team owner William Dewitt, Jr., said: "From the day we began planning for the new ballpark, we wanted to keep the name ‘Busch Stadium.' August Busch IV and Anheuser-Busch share our vision for continuing that tradition for our great fans and the entire St. Louis community."
The stadium is the third stadium in St. Louis to carry the name Busch Stadium. Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium in 1953. Team owner August Busch Jr. had planned to name it Budweiser Stadium, but league rules prohibited naming a venue after an alcoholic beverage. Busch named the stadium after himself and later created Busch Beer. The first Busch Stadium closed in 1966 and both the baseball Cardinals, and the National Football League (NFL)'s team of the same name (now the Arizona Cardinals) moved to a new multi-purpose stadium, named Busch Memorial Stadium.
Image source: www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM299140
Australia was approaching its bicentennial celebrations, and after Brisbane’s success hosting the 1982 Commonwealth Games, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland State Government were confident they could win the bid to hold the next World Exhibition.
Brisbane won the right to hold the event and Expo 88 was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 30 April 1988. By the time it closed, it had changed the way the world saw Brisbane and helped shaped the city as we know it today.
Starting with an estimated budget of $645 million, the Queensland State Government developed a World Expo that would recoup and support its own costs and promote international investment in Queensland, both during and after the event. South Bank, badly damaged in the 1973–74 floods, was chosen and the site acquired for $150 million. Developers completed construction on time and within budget. The targets set for ticket sales were reached 11 weeks before Expo 88 had even opened. It was off to a smashing start.
Celebrating ‘Leisure in the age of technology’, there was an incredible range of pavilions, performances, parades, comedy and artwork on show. Guests could experience over 50 restaurants filled with flavours from around the globe. Hosted over six months, it drew more than 18 million people to the renewed South Bank parklands district. An average of 100,000 people a day entered the gates.
An influx of royalty, celebrities and international visitors came to Brisbane for the exhibition, but it was Queensland residents who attended the most often, purchasing 500,000 season tickets. Expo 88 provided something the city needed: an easy-to-access recreational facility with exciting things to do, see and experience. Brisbanites returned again and again to socialise and enjoy the festival atmosphere.
The monorail was one of the most popular attractions. Giving travellers a view of the entertainments from above, it operated along a 2.3-kilometre track during Expo 88, taking up to 44,000 visitors a day from one side of Expo to the other, along the Brisbane River. Built by Swedish manufacturer Von Roll, the monorail cost $12 million and comprised four MkII trains with nine carriages each. The idea of keeping the monorail operating after Expo and extending it into the Brisbane CBD was discussed. Ultimately, the existing monorail wasn’t a feasible long-term people-moving solution and it was disbursed. Three trains were sold back to Von Roll and were used in Germany’s Europa-Park. The remaining train and some tracks were incorporated into the Sea World theme park on the Gold Coast.
Some of the most significant installations, exhibitions and artworks from Expo 88 were relocated and continue to be enjoyed today. Ken Done AM, a prominent Australian artist and designer, was commissioned to produce the entry and exit statement art pieces for the Australia Pavilion. Using the word ‘Australia’, Done produced a sign nearly six metres tall that could not be missed by anyone who attended Expo 88. The letters have since been restored and are on display at the Caboolture Heritage Village. The Nepal Peace Pagoda was the only international pavilion that remained on-site, after a petition asking that it remain attracted about 70,000 signatures. The Japan Garden and Pond were gifted to the city of Brisbane and moved to the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-Tha.
The buzz of activity, the investment in South Bank’s infrastructure and the spotlight on Brisbane transformed the city. The physical legacy left by Expo 88 turned South Bank into a thriving social space and prominent cultural hotspot: 42 hectares was dedicated to the construction of the South Bank Parklands.
blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2021/10/29/when-the-world-comes...
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_City,_South_Dakota
Rapid City is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western South Dakota, on the Black Hills' eastern slope. The population was 74,703 as of the 2020 Census.
Known as the "Gateway to the Black Hills" and the "City of Presidents" because of the life-size bronze president statues downtown, Rapid City is split by a low mountain ridge that divides the city's western and eastern parts. Ellsworth Air Force Base is on the city's outskirts. Camp Rapid, part of the South Dakota Army National Guard, is in the city's western part.
Rapid City is home to such attractions as Art Alley, Dinosaur Park, the City of Presidents walking tour, Chapel in the Hills, Storybook Island, and Main Street Square. The historic "Old West" town of Deadwood is nearby. In the neighboring Black Hills are the tourist attractions of Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, and the museum at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research. To the city's east is Badlands National Park.
Source: www.visittheusa.com/destination/rapid-city
Where a rugged landscape surrounds charm and culture
While Rapid City is best known for its proximity to national parks and enormous mountain carvings, including Mount Rushmore just 40 kilometers away, visitors to the heart of this Black Hills destination will be enthralled by a plethora of outdoor adventures, a charming and historic downtown and a salute to American Indian heritage in southwestern South Dakota.
The Famous Faces
Make Rapid City your headquarters for short jaunts to six national parks – Badlands National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Jewel Cave National Monument, Wind Cave National Park, Minuteman Missile Silo National Park and Mount Rushmore National Memorial – as well as Crazy Horse Memorial.
No trip here would be complete without seeing the heads of four U.S. presidents, each about 18 meters tall, carved into granite on the side of Mount Rushmore. Once there, you’ll see why the sculpture, which took 14 years to complete, attracts nearly 3 million people a year. Nearby, work continues in the Black Hills on another mountain carving, this one of the famous Lakota warrior Crazy Horse astride his horse, that will become the world’s largest sculpture upon completion. The memorial serves to preserve the culture of North American Indians.
Find out more about the area at The Journey Museum & Learning Center, which features exhibits tracing some 2.5 billion years of history, from the earliest rock formations to Native American cultures and Western frontier exploration.
Large-Scale Outdoor Adventures
Options are plentiful for people who enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, biking, fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, wildlife viewing and off-the-beaten-path exploration. Traipse through all of those national parks and see a variety of landscapes, including mountains, hills, canyons, valleys, creeks and lakes.
Take in the natural beauty of the Black Hills National Forest and all of its hidden gems, including the Stratobowl clearing that was home base for historic balloon flights. Venture into Custer State Park, where the Wildlife Loop takes visitors through 29 kilometers of hills and grasslands, home to more than 1,300 free-roaming bison. Stop in the Wildlife Station Visitor Center to learn what other types of wildlife you might encounter. Sites along the George S. Mickelson Trail – a Black Hills rail trail route that is about 175 kilometers long – include tunnels, bridges and 15 trail heads.
A City of Culture
In addition to the prominent Native American arts and culture, Rapid City has become known for its culinary, winery and brewery scene as well as history tied to the original settlers. The Sculpture Project: Passage of Wind and Water is a five-year public art initiative with sculptor Masayuki Nagase working during the summer months to carve by hand granite sculptures in Main Street Square. As you tour the city, look for the City of Presidents, life-size bronze statues of 43 former U.S. presidents, including the famous four that are also on Mount Rushmore.
Comfort is key in Rapid City, which features smaller boutique hotels, larger hotel chains, vacation rentals, camping and bed-and-breakfast establishments. Perhaps you will find a place with a history that includes some of the nation’s presidents.
Source: www.artalleyrc.com/
Here in the heart of Rapid City, a unique place exists; a functioning alley that hums with the urban street sounds of delivery and garbage trucks and a backbeat of shaking spray paint cans.
The walls feature truly unique works of art, personal and political expressions about community and global issues. It has a fickle nature and is constantly changing, sometimes, many times a day. It has become a sacred place for many - artists, locals and tourists. It is a place where you can get lost in the art - and also found.
Art Alley, located between 6th and 7th, and Main and Saint Joseph Streets in Rapid City, emerged as an organic, community gallery in 2003. In the beginning artists hung largely canvas artworks on the walls, and over time, evolved to painting directly on the walls.
A group of passionate artists and community members worked with city officials to nurture this organic art form, and Art Alley was born.
Additional Foreign Language Tags:
(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"
(South Dakota) "داكوتا الجنوبية" "南达科他州" "Dakota du Sud" "दक्षिण डकोटा" "サウスダコタ" "사우스다코타" "Южная Дакота" "Dakota del Sur"
(Rapid City) "رابيد سيتي" "拉皮德城" "Ville rapide" "रैपिड सिटी" "ラピッドシティ" "래피드시티" "Рапид Сити" "Ciudad rápida"
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_F._Udvar-Hazy_Center
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and the Gemini 7 space capsule.
The 760,000-square-foot (71,000 m2; 17-acre; 7.1 ha) facility was made possible by a $65 million gift in October 1999 to the Smithsonian Institution by Steven F. Udvar-Házy, an immigrant from Hungary and co-founder of the International Lease Finance Corporation, an aircraft leasing corporation. The main NASM building, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., had always contained more artifacts than could be displayed, and most of the collection had been stored, unavailable to visitors, at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland. A substantial addition to the center encompassing restoration, conservation and collection-storage facilities was completed in 2010. Restoration facilities and museum archives were moved from the museum's Garber facility to the new sections of the Udvar-Hazy Center.
Source: Scan of an original black and white photograph.
Set: HAL01.
Date: 11th May 1948.
Photographer: Jenkins.
From the collection of Mr. Neal H. Adair.
Used here by very kind permission.
Local Studies at Swindon Central Library.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan
Milan (Italian: Milano) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,372,810 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area (that stretches beyond the boundaries of the Metropolitan City of Milan) has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres (730 square miles). The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.
Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the field of the art, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, it has the third-largest economy among European cities after Paris and London, but the fastest in growth among the three, and is the wealthiest among European non-capital cities. Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and one of the "Four Motors for Europe".
The city has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals thanks to several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are currently among the world's biggest in terms of revenue, visitors and growth. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students. Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci. The city is served by a large number of luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide. The city is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, A.C. Milan and F.C. Internazionale, and one of Italy's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Cathedral
Milan Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Milano; Lombard: Domm de Milan) is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to St Mary of the Nativity (Santa Maria Nascente), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the largest church in Italy (the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City), the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_d%27Agrate
Marco d'Agrate (c. 1504 – c. 1574) was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Lombardy.
He was born to a family of sculptors, and collaborated with his brother Gian Francesco in a monument to Sforzino Sforza found in Basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. Also worked on the tomb of Giovanni del Conte in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan, and for the facade of the Certosa of Pavia.
His best known work is the statue of St Bartholomew Flayed (1562) found in the transept of the Cathedral of Milan. He signed it with a line that states: I was not made by Praxiteles but by Marco d'Agrate.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle
Bartholomew (Ancient Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος, translit. Bartholomaîos; Latin: Bartholomaeus; Coptic: ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who would also become an apostle),[Jn 1:43-51] although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.
According to the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Bartholomew's martyrdom is commemorated on the first day of the Coptic calendar (i.e. the first day of the month of Thout), which currently falls on September 11 (corresponding to August 29 in the Julian calendar). Eastern Christianity honours him on June 11 and the Roman Catholic Church honours him on August 24. The Church of England and other Anglican churches also honor him on August 24.
The Armenian Apostolic Church honours Saint Bartholomew along with Saint Thaddeus as its patron saints.
Bartholomew English for Bar Talmai (Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος, transliterated "Bartholomaios" in Greek) comes from the Aramaic: בר-תולמי bar-Tolmay native to Israel "son of Talmai" or "son of the furrows". Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels: Matthew,[10:1–4] Mark,[3:13–19] and Luke,[6:12–16] and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension[Acts 1:4,12,13]; on each occasion, however, he is named in the company of Philip. He is not mentioned by the name Bartholomew in the Gospel of John, nor are there any early acta, the earliest being written by a pseudepigraphical writer, Pseudo-Abdias, who assumed the identity of Abdias of Babylon and to whom is attributed the Saint-Thierry (Reims, Bibl. mun., ms 142) and Pseudo-Abdias manuscripts.
In art Bartholomew is most commonly depicted with a beard and curly hair at the time of his martyrdom. According to legends he was skinned alive and beheaded so is often depicted holding his flayed skin or the curved flensing knife with which he was skinned.
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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 29th most-populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being Lexington, the state's second-largest city. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, located in the state's north and on the border with Indiana.
Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachian Mountains. It is named after King Louis XVI of France. Sited beside the Falls of the Ohio, the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the founding city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which grew into a 6,000-mile (9,700 km) system across 13 states. Today, the city is known as the home of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), the University of Louisville and its Louisville Cardinals athletic teams, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and three of Kentucky's six Fortune 500 companies. Its main airport is also the site of United Parcel Service's worldwide air hub.
Since 2003, Louisville's borders have been the same as those of Jefferson County, after a city-county merger. The official name of this consolidated city-county government is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, abbreviated to Louisville Metro. Despite the merger and renaming, the term "Jefferson County" continues to be used in some contexts in reference to Louisville Metro, particularly including the incorporated cities outside the "balance" which make up Louisville proper. The city's total consolidated population as of the 2017 census estimate was 771,158. However, the balance total of 621,349 excludes other incorporated places and semiautonomous towns within the county and is the population listed in most sources and national rankings.
The Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), sometimes also referred to as Kentuckiana, includes Louisville-Jefferson County and 12 surrounding counties, seven in Kentucky and five in Southern Indiana. As of 2017, the MSA had a population of 1,293,953, ranking 45th nationally.
Source: scan of an original postcard.
Album: Dixon Attwell.
Postmark: March 16th 1914.
Local Studies at Swindon Central Library.
Source: galacticgallery.com/drew-struzan-other-cool-stuff/indiana...
Drew Struzan born March 18, 1947 is an American artist, illustrator and cover designer. He is known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. At art school a counsellor asked Struzan about his interests and told him he had a choice between fine art or illustration. As a fine artist he could paint whatever he wanted, but as an illustrator he could paint for money. Struzan chose to be an illustrator, saying, "I need to eat. Such was his success that in 2020he was admitted to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Source: Scan of an original black and white photograph.
Set: HAL01.
Date: 4th May 1954.
Photographer: Jenkins.
From the collection of Mr. Neal H. Adair.
Used here by their very kind permission.
Local Studies at Swindon Central Library.
Noumea, New Caledonia. 23 January, 1943.
Photographer not credited.
Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.
The last quartile of the 20th century was marked by a rise in software development by companies, individuals and hobbyist groups. Key among software development methodologies was a controversial yet innovative idea about giving away your software code for others to use and improve upon it.
Those new to the free and open source community may not appreciate how radical and dangerous the idea of giving away your source code for free was for people. Those that did subscribe to the ideology sacrificed tremendous profits and fame yet helped create what we now call FOSS today.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome
Rome is the capital city and a special comune of Italy (named Comune di Roma Capitale). Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region. With 2,872,800 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi), it is also the country's most populated comune. It is the fourth most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4,355,725 residents, thus making it the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. The Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states.
Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The city's early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines. Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and is regarded by some as the first ever metropolis. It was first called The Eternal City (Latin: Urbs Aeterna; Italian: La Città Eterna) by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the "Caput Mundi" (Capital of the World). After the fall of the Western Empire, which marked the beginning of the Middle Ages, Rome slowly fell under the political control of the Papacy, and in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. Beginning with the Renaissance, almost all the popes since Nicholas V (1447–1455) pursued over four hundred years a coherent architectural and urban programme aimed at making the city the artistic and cultural centre of the world. In this way, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, creating masterpieces throughout the city. In 1871, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, which, in 1946, became the Italian Republic.
Rome has the status of a global city. In 2016, Rome ranked as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The famous Vatican Museums are among the world's most visited museums while the Colosseum was the most popular tourist attraction in world with 7.4 million visitors in 2018. Host city for the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rome is the seat of several specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The city also hosts the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) as well as the headquarters of many international business companies such as Eni, Enel, TIM, Leonardo S.p.A., and national and international banks such as Unicredit and BNL. Its business district, called EUR, is the base of many companies involved in the oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and financial services. Rome is also an important fashion and design centre thanks to renowned international brands centered in the city. Rome's Cinecittà Studios have been the set of many Academy Award–winning movies.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_dei_Quattro_Fiumi
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor.
The base of the fountain is a basin from the centre of which travertine rocks rise to support four river gods and above them, a copy of an Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. Collectively, they represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas.
beautiful home offices, design ideas, home office, home studio, Inspiration, interior design ideas, interior design inspiration, interiors
Saw this on the way home from a party and just had to take a shot even if the conditions were less than optimal ;)
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona
Verona (Venetian: Verona or Veròna) is a city on the Adige river in Veneto, Italy, with 258,108 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third largest in northeast Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km2 (550.58 sq mi) and has a population of 714,274 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy, because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs, shows, and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheater built by the Romans.
Two of William Shakespeare's plays are set in Verona: Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. It is unknown if Shakespeare ever visited Verona or Italy, but his plays have lured many visitors to Verona and surrounding cities. The city has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_dei_Lamberti
The Torre dei Lamberti is an 84 m high tower in Verona, northern Italy.
Construction of the tower was started in 1172. In May 1403 the top of the tower was struck by lightning, but the restoration works didn't start until 1448 and took 16 years. During that time, the tower was enlarged: The more recent sections can be recognized today by the use of different materials (such as marble). The large clock was added in 1779.
The tower has two bells: the Marangona signals fires, work times, and the hours of the day, while the largest, called Rengo, is used to call the population to arms or to invoke the city's councils.
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Cathédrale de l'Incarnation (Grenade)
source WIKIPEDIA
La cathédrale de l'Incarnation de Grenade est un édifice de la Renaissance, bâti à partir du xvie siècle dans la ville espagnole de Grenade, en Andalousie. Cette cathédrale, considérée comme la toute première église construite en style Renaissance en Espagne1, fut envisagée dès le règne des Rois catholiques, et sa construction fut commencée sous Charles Ier, pour s’achever en 1704, sous le règne de Philippe V.
Dédiée au mystère de l'Incarnation, elle est le siège de la province ecclésiastique de Grenade, dont l'archevêque étend son autorité sur les diocèses d'Almería, Carthagène, Guadix, Jaén et Malaga. La cathédrale est classée Monument national depuis 1929.
Suite à la reconquête de la ville en 1492, les Rois Catholiques envisagent la construction d'une cathédrale sur le site de l'ancienne grande mosquée nasride de Grenade. Dès le 21 mai 1492 est fondée l'église cathédrale de Grenade, siège du nouveau diocèse. En 1505, la construction est projetée, et sa conception est confiée à Juan Gil de Hontañón et à Enrique Egas, qui travaillent déjà sur la Chapelle royale de la ville. Les travaux commencent en 1518. Les deux architectes prévoient la construction d'un édifice gothique, sur le modèle de la Cathédrale de Tolède, comme cela est encore le cas en de nombreux endroits d'Espagne (Ségovie, Salamanque...). Leur projet est néanmoins abandonné en 1523, peu après le début du chantier.
On adopte alors les plans de l'architecte Diego de Siloé, qui travaille déjà sur le monastère de San Jerónimo à Grenade4. Diego de Siloé prévoit de reprendre les bases du dessein antérieur, et d'élever à parptir de celui-ci un édifice pleinement renaissance. Il va mener les travaux de 1528 jusqu'à sa mort, en 1563. Divers architectes se succèdent pour diriger le chantier, selon les plans maniéristes élaborés par leur prédécesseur : Juan de Maeda, Alonso Cano et Teodoro Ardemans.
En 1590, une première modification importante du plan initial intervient. En raison des fondations trop fragiles, le projet d'élever deux hautes tours de 80 mètres pour encadrer la façade, est abandonné en 1590 sur ordre de Philippe II. Seule une tour a été bâtie ; elle est arasée, sa hauteur se limitant à 51 mètres. En 1665, Alonso Cano parvient à convaincre le chapitre de modifier le projet initial. La construction prend alors une allure plus baroque. Suite au décès de Cano en 1667, la direction du chantier est confiée à Melchior de Aguirre, qui achève l’œuvre en juillet 1703.
La cathédrale de Grenade prend place au cœur du centre historique de la ville, entre la Gran vía Colón et la Calle Reyes Católicos. Entourée par des édifices d'importance comme la Chapelle royale (Capilla Real), la bourse de commerce (Lonja) ou l'ancien marché de la soie (Alcaicería), elle trône sur la place de las Pasiegas, qui offre bien peu de recul pour contempler la grandiose façade de l'édifice. Diego de Siloé a conçu un vaste édifice de 115 mètres sur 67, qui constitue : « "(…)un ensemble alliant pureté, élégance des formes, et blancheur immaculée de la pierre." »
Le monument représente un des sommets de l'architecture de la Renaissance en Espagne, tout en intégrant des éléments décoratifs puisés dans l'art gothique (plan et voûtes) et l'art baroque (façade), témoignant de la longueur du chantier, qui s'est étalé sur près de deux-cents ans. Son influence fut très importante dans les constructions de ce type postérieures en Andalousie.
ENGLISH
Granada Cathedral
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The cathedral of Granada.
Granada Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Incarnation (Spanish: Catedral de Granada, Catedral de la Anunciación) is the cathedral in the city of Granada, capital of the province of the same name in the Autonomous Region of Andalusia, Spain. The cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of Granada.
Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had Gothic designs, such as are evident in the Royal Chapel of Granada by Enrique Egas, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Spanish Renaissance designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries. Foundations for the church were laid by the architect Egas starting from 1518 to 1523 atop the site of the city's main mosque; by 1529, Egas was replaced by Diego de Siloé who labored for nearly four decades on the structure from ground to cornice, planning the triforium and five naves instead of the usual three. Most unusually, he created a circular capilla mayor rather than a semicircular apse, perhaps inspired by Italian ideas for circular 'perfect buildings' (e.g. in Alberti's works). Within its structure the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It took 181 years for the cathedral to be built.
Subsequent architects included Juan de Maena (1563-1571), followed by Juan de Orea (1571-1590), and Ambrosio de Vico (1590-?). In 1667 Alonso Cano, working with Gaspar de la Peña, altered the initial plan for the main façade, introducing Baroque elements. The magnificence of the building would be even greater, if the two large 81 meter towers foreseen in the plans had been built; however the project remained incomplete for various reasons, among them, financial.
The Cathedral had been intended to become the royal mausoleum by Charles I of Spain of Spain, but Philip II of Spain moved the site for his father and subsequent kings to El Escorial outside of Madrid.
The main chapel contains two kneeling effigies of the Catholic King and Queen, Isabel and Ferdinand by Pedro de Mena y Medrano. The busts of Adam and Eve were made by Alonso Cano. The Chapel of the Trinity has a marvelous retablo with paintings by El Greco, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonso Cano.
ESPANOL
La Santa Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de la Anunciación de Granada es un templo católico de la ciudad española de Granada, comunidad autónoma de Andalucía, sede de la archidiócesis de la ciudad. El templo es una de las obras cumbres del Renacimiento español.
Nave central, capilla mayor y bóvedas de la catedral de Granada.
Durante el renacimiento, el Reino de Granada, al igual que Galicia, conformó un centro artístico independiente del estilo predominante en el resto de la península, el herrerianismo.
Con el reinado de Carlos I de España se llevarán a cabo numerosas construcciones en la ciudad de Granada, dada la intención del monarca en convertir a la urbe en el modelo de ciudad del siglo XVI. Así la construcción de la catedral de Granada será coetánea a las de el palacio cristiano de la Alhambra, la Universidad y la chancillería (actual sede del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía - TSJA).
Columnas y bóvedas de la catedral de Granada.
El primer proyecto fue encomendado en 1506 a Enrique Egas que concibió un templo de estilo gótico, tomando como modelo la Catedral de Toledo. Las obras comenzaron, bajo la dirección del propio Egas, con la colocación solemne de la primera piedra el 25 de marzo de 1523. Sin embargo, fue Diego de Siloé quien, en 1529, se encargó de las obras, que se concluirán en 1563, presentando un nuevo proyecto mucho más ambicioso. El autor trazó las líneas renacentistas de todo el edificio sobre los cimientos góticos, con girola y cinco naves en lugar de las tres habituales, combinando en su estructura elementos de otros órdenes arquitectónicos.
Con la llegada de la política centralista de Felipe II y, especialmente, con la expulsión de los moriscos de 1609, la región perdió gran parte de su fuerza económica y quedó relegada frente a otros centros locales. Sin embargo, sí se continuó desarrollando proyectos artísticos de importancia. Es el caso de la reforma de la fachada principal emprendida por Alonso Cano (1601 – 1667) en 1664 en la que se introdujeron elementos barrocos.
La magnificencia del proyecto hubiese sido aún mayor si se hubieran erigido las dos grandes torres de ochenta y un metros de altura previstas en los planos. El proyecto no fue terminado por diversos problemas, entre ellos la muerte de Alonso Cano en 1667, y otros económicos, por lo que finalmente, en 1684, la Catedral quedó con una torre, formada solo por tres cuerpos en lugar de los seis previstos y con un total de cincuenta y siete metros de altura.
Interior de la catedral de Granada antes de que se suprimiera el coro. Fotografía de J. Laurent, ca. 1881.
En 1706 Francisco de Hurtado Izquierdo y posteriormente su colaborador José Bada construyeron el actual sagrario de la catedral. En él, el autor rompió su tendencia rococó, respetando la sobriedad de líneas y la estructura clásica del resto del conjunto.
La catedral de Granada es de planta rectangular debido a que sus cinco naves cubren por completo el crucero, que no llega a destacar sobre la planta. Las cinco naves están escalonadas en alturas, siendo mayor la central. En los pies de la catedral, se sitúan las dos torres, siendo la del lado izquierdo, llamada torre de san Miguel, un contrafuerte que sustituyó a la torre prevista en ese lado.
La capilla mayor está compuesta por una serie de columnas corintias sobre cuyo capitel se encuentra el entablamento y sobre éste, la bóveda, que alberga, al igual que los espacios inferiores sobre las columnas, una serie de ventanales con delicadas vidrieras.
La fachada está constituida por una estructura encuadrada en forma de arco del triunfo con portadas y lienzos de empotrados. Está formada por tres ejes coronados por arcos de medio punto sostenidos sobre pilastras, de forma similar a San Andrés de Mantua de Leon Battista Alberti. Las pilastras no tienen capiteles sino resaltes esculpidos en la pared, así como medallones de mármol adosados. Encima de la puerta principal se ubica un tondo en mármol de José Risueño sobre la Anunciación. Destaca también la presencia en la parte superior de un jarrón con azucenas, aludiendo al carácter virginal y puro de la madre de Dios.
El sagrario, elevado entre 1706 y 1759, sigue las proporciones clásicas del conjunto, manteniendo las columnas múltiples del crucero las formas del orden compuesto de Siloé.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_City,_Missouri
Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principal city of the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-most-populous metropolitan area in Mid-Missouri and the fifth-largest in the state. Most of the city is in Cole County, with a small northern section extending into Callaway County. Jefferson City is named for Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States.
Jefferson City is located on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau on the southern side of the Missouri River in a region known as Mid-Missouri, that is roughly mid-way between the state's two large urban areas of Kansas City and St. Louis. It is 29 miles south of Columbia, Missouri, and sits at the western edge of the Missouri Rhineland, one of the major wine-producing regions of the Midwest. The city is dominated by the domed Capitol, which rises from a bluff overlooking the Missouri River to the north; Lewis and Clark passed the bluff on their historic expedition upriver before Europeans established any settlement there.
Many of Jefferson City's primary employers are in service and manufacturing industries. Jefferson City is also home to Lincoln University, a public historically black land-grant university founded in 1866 by the 62nd Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops with support from the 65th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops.
Source: www.visitjeffersoncity.com/museum-of-missouri-military-hi...
Located at Ike Skelton Training Center, this museum houses exhibits beginning from 1808, the activation date of the Missouri Militia. Exhibits continue from the War of 1812 to the present day Guard. Closed all major holidays. Free admission.
Source: www.visitmo.com/things-to-do/museum-of-missouri-military-...
The Museum of Missouri Military History is dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of Missouri’s military history. Current exhibits include artifacts from the Revolutionary War to the present era.
Items on exhibit outside include an F-15 Eagle fighter, F-4 Phantom II fighter, Sherman tank, Sheridan Tank, as well as a C-130 Hercules.
Photographs are allowed inside and outside.
The facility is located at the Missouri National Guard’s Ike Skelton Training Center, east of Jefferson City. You will need to show identification at the center’s main gate.
Source: www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/16784
Exhibits date from the founding of the Missouri Militia in 1808, to today's modern Guard. Items cover the Missouri National Guard its involvement in the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and other conflicts; plus humanitarian relief efforts.
source: Jake's-Family-Sturgeon-1 (not my photo)
The sturgeaon is an endangered species because of overfishing mainly for its caviar but also because it is an excellent fish to eat. It is found in the Black Sea and the Caspian and it migrates up the fresh water rivers to lay their eggs (roe). Here we see two mature specimens caught in the Danube.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas
Las Vegas, often known simply as Vegas, is the 26th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada.
The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino-hotels and associated activities. It is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of "Sin City", and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.
Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053.
As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which are actually located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about 4.2 mi (6.8 km) long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".
Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are on the Strip, known for its contemporary architecture, lights, and wide variety of attractions. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas' economy. Most of the Strip has been designated as an All-American Road, and the North and South Las Vegas Strip routes are classified as Nevada Scenic Byways and National Scenic Byways.
Source: Scan of a slide from our collection.
Image: P...
Date: April 1977.
Copyright: © 1977 SBC.
Repository: Local Studies, Swindon Central Library.
Source photographs: www.flickr.com/photos/hillaryclinton/23005602573 and www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/23885776881/ - used via creative commons license.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona
Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest and California to the west. It also shares an international border with the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, which is the most populous state capital in the United States.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.
Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.
Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the country, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico and Central America. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state in recent years.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page,_Arizona
Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Canyon
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a 169.6-mile (272.9 km) length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. A small part of the lower end of Glen Canyon extends into northern Arizona and terminates at Lee's Ferry, near the Vermilion Cliffs. Like the Grand Canyon farther downstream, Glen Canyon is part of the immense system of canyons carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries.
In 1963, a reservoir, Lake Powell, was created by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, in the Arizona portion of Glen Canyon near the brand new town of Page, inundating much of Glen Canyon under water hundreds of feet in depth. Contrary to popular belief, Lake Powell was not the result of negotiations over the controversial damming of the Green River within Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park; the Echo Park Dam proposal was abandoned due to nationwide citizen pressure on Congress to do so. The Glen Canyon Dam remains a central issue for modern environmentalist movements. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon. Today, Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Source: www.usbr.gov/uc/rm/crsp/gc/
Glen Canyon Dam is the second highest concrete-arch dam in the United States, second only to Hoover Dam which stands at 726 feet. The 25.16 million acre-feet of water storage capacity in Lake Powell, created by Glen Canyon Dam, serves as a ‘bank account’ of water that is drawn on in times of drought. This stored water has made it possible to successfully weather extended dry periods by sustaining the needs of cities, industries, and agriculture throughout the West.
Hydroelectric power produced by the dam’s eight generators helps meet the electrical needs of the West’s rapidly growing population. With a total capacity of 1,320 megawatts, Glen Canyon Powerplant produces around five billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power annually which is distributed by the Western Area Power Administration to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Nebraska. In addition, revenues from production of hydropower help fund many important environmental programs associated with Glen and Grand canyons.
The designation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in 1972, underscores the value and importance of the recreation benefits associated with Lake Powell and the Colorado River downstream of the dam. The recreation area is managed by the National Park Service.
Glen Canyon Dam is the key water storage unit of the Colorado River Storage Project, one of the most complex and extensive river resource developments in the world. Without it, development of the Upper Colorado River Basin states’ portion of the Colorado River would not have been possible.
Additional Foreign Language Tags:
(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"
(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis
St. Louis is an independent city and inland port in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is situated along the western bank of the Mississippi River, which marks Missouri's border with Illinois. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River just north of the city. These two rivers combined form the fourth longest river system in the world. The city had an estimated 2017 population of 308,626 and is the cultural and economic center of the St. Louis metropolitan area (home to nearly 3,000,000 people), which is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois (after Chicago), and the 22nd-largest in the United States.
Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, and named after Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; at the time of the 1870 Census it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.
The economy of metropolitan St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. Its metro area is home to major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Express Scripts, Centene, Boeing Defense, Emerson, Energizer, Panera, Enterprise, Peabody Energy, Ameren, Post Holdings, Monsanto, Edward Jones, Go Jet, Purina and Sigma-Aldrich. Nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri are located within the St. Louis metropolitan area. The city has also become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical, and research presence due to institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. St. Louis has two professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. One of the city's iconic sights is the 630-foot (192 m) tall Gateway Arch in the downtown area.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busch_Stadium
Busch Stadium, also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III", is a baseball park located in St. Louis, Missouri, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. The stadium has a seating capacity of 44,494, and contains 3,706 club seats and 61 luxury suites. It replaced Busch Memorial Stadium (aka Busch Stadium II) and occupies a portion of that stadium's former footprint. A commercial area, dubbed Ballpark Village, was built adjacent to the stadium over the remainder of the former stadium's footprint.
The stadium opened on April 4, 2006 with an exhibition between the minor league Memphis Redbirds and Springfield Cardinals, both affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals, which Springfield won 5-3 with right-hander Mike Parisi recording the first win. The first official major league game occurred on April 10, 2006 as the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6–4 behind an Albert Pujols home run and winning pitcher Mark Mulder.
The highest attendance for a sports event other than baseball was on May 23, 2013, when 48,263 people watched Chelsea Football Club and Manchester City Football Club play a friendly match. To date, the largest attendance for a baseball game occurred Mothers Day May 12th, 2019 with an attendance of 48,556 in a game between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 2004, then Anheuser-Busch president August Busch IV announced the brewing-giant purchased the 20-year naming rights for the stadium. Team owner William Dewitt, Jr., said: "From the day we began planning for the new ballpark, we wanted to keep the name ‘Busch Stadium.' August Busch IV and Anheuser-Busch share our vision for continuing that tradition for our great fans and the entire St. Louis community."
The stadium is the third stadium in St. Louis to carry the name Busch Stadium. Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium in 1953. Team owner August Busch Jr. had planned to name it Budweiser Stadium, but league rules prohibited naming a venue after an alcoholic beverage. Busch named the stadium after himself and later created Busch Beer. The first Busch Stadium closed in 1966 and both the baseball Cardinals, and the National Football League (NFL)'s team of the same name (now the Arizona Cardinals) moved to a new multi-purpose stadium, named Busch Memorial Stadium.
plaster cast of a gem - Oxford; Beazley Gem database
www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/databases/gems.htm
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