Portal:New York City

Ghostbusters II is a 1989 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and the second film in the Ghostbusters franchise. Set five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued and put out of business after the destruction caused during their battle with the deity Gozer the Gozerian. When a new paranormal threat emerges, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat it and save the world.

After the success of Ghostbusters, Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel but struggled to overcome objections from the cast and crew. As with the first film, Aykroyd and Ramis collaborated on the script, which went through many variations. The pair wanted to convey a message about the consequences of negative human emotions in large cities. They settled on the idea of negative feelings creating a mass of supernatural slime beneath New York City that empowers malevolent spirits. With a budget of $30–40 million, filming took place between November 1988 and March 1989 in New York City and Los Angeles. Production was rushed and large sections of the film were scrapped after poorly received test screenings. New scenes were written and filmed during re-shoots between March and April 1989, only two months before its release.

Ghostbusters II was released on June 16, 1989, to generally negative reviews. Critics responded unfavorably to what they perceived as largely a copy of the original and a softening of its cynical, dark humor to be more family-friendly, although the performances of Peter MacNicol and Rick Moranis were repeatedly singled out for praise. As the sequel to the then-highest-grossing comedy film of all time, Ghostbusters II was expected to dominate the box office. Instead, the film earned $215.4 million during its theatrical run compared with the original's $282.2 million, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year. Columbia Pictures deemed it a financial and critical failure, effectively dissuading Murray from participating in a third Ghostbusters film. Its soundtrack single, "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown, was a success, spending 20 weeks on the United States music charts. (Full article...)

Orchard Beach (sometimes called the Bronx Riviera) is the only public beach in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The 115-acre (47 ha), 1.1-mile-long (1.8 km) beach is part of Pelham Bay Park and is situated on the western end of Long Island Sound. The beach consists of a 13-section sandy shorefront, a hexagonal-block promenade, and a central pavilion with food stores and specialty shops. The recreational facilities include two playgrounds, two picnic areas, a large parking lot, and 26 courts for basketball, volleyball, and handball. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Orchard Beach was built as part of Pelham Bay Park and was originally located on the eastern shore of Rodman's Neck peninsula. In the 1930s, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses announced a project to expand Orchard Beach northward by connecting several islands in Pelham Bay Park via landfill. The expanded beach was dedicated in 1936 and opened in 1937, along with its pavilion and concession stands. Renovations to the beachfront were made in subsequent years. Sand was restored to the beach in 1964 and again in 1995. The promenade and bathhouse were designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2006. (Full article...)

Virginia Eliza Poe (née Clemm; August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847) was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and publicly married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. Biographers disagree as to the nature of the couple's relationship. Though their marriage was loving, some biographers suggest they viewed one another more like a brother and sister. In January 1842, she contracted tuberculosis, growing worse for five years until she died of the disease at the age of 24 in the family's cottage, at that time outside New York City.

Along with other family members, Virginia Clemm and Edgar Allan Poe lived together off and on for several years before their marriage. The couple often moved to accommodate Poe's employment, living intermittently in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. A few years after their wedding, Poe was involved in a substantial scandal involving Frances Sargent Osgood and Elizabeth F. Ellet. Rumors about amorous improprieties on her husband's part affected Virginia Poe so much that on her deathbed she claimed that Ellet had murdered her. After her death, her body was eventually placed under the same memorial marker as her husband's in Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. Only one image of Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe has been authenticated: a watercolor portrait painted several hours after her death.

The disease and eventual death of his wife had a substantial effect on Edgar Allan Poe, who became despondent and turned to alcohol to cope. Her struggles with illness and death are believed to have affected his poetry and prose, where dying young women appear as a frequent motif, as in "Annabel Lee", "The Raven", and "Ligeia". (Full article...)

The Tweed Courthouse (also known as the Old New York County Courthouse) is a historic courthouse building at 52 Chambers Street in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in the Italianate style with Romanesque Revival interiors. William M. "Boss" Tweed – the corrupt leader of Tammany Hall, a political machine that controlled the New York state and city governments when the courthouse was built – oversaw the building's erection. The Tweed Courthouse served as a judicial building for New York County, a county of New York state coextensive with the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the second-oldest city government building in the borough, after City Hall.

The structure comprises pavilions to the east and west of a central section, as well as a rear wing to the south. Architect John Kellum and political appointee Thomas Little designed the first portion of the building, which was constructed from 1861 to 1872. Construction was interrupted in 1871 when Kellum died and the corruption involved in the building's construction was exposed to the public. The project was completed by architect Leopold Eidlitz, who added the rear wing and finished the interior between 1877 and 1881.

The media criticized the project as wasteful and gaudy during the courthouse's construction, and for a century after its completion, there were frequent proposals to demolish the building. Several modifications were made after completion, including removal of its front steps. Modern restoration and historic preservation were completed in 2001. The building has since housed the New York City Department of Education's headquarters on its upper floors and schools on its ground level. The Tweed Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark, and its facade and interior are both New York City designated landmarks. (Full article...)

The Great New York City Fire of 1845 broke out on July 19, 1845, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The fire started in a whale oil and candle manufacturing establishment and quickly spread to other wooden structures. It reached a warehouse on Broad Street where combustible saltpeter was stored and caused a massive explosion that spread the fire even farther.

The fire destroyed 345 buildings in the southern part of what is now the Financial District, resulting in property damage estimated at the time between $5 million and $10 million (equivalent to between $164 million and $327 million in 2023). Four firefighters and 26 civilians died. The Great New York City Fire of 1845 was the last of three particularly devastating fires that affected the heart of Manhattan, the other two occurring in 1776 and 1835.

While very destructive, the 1845 fire confirmed the value of building codes restricting wood-frame construction, which had been implemented in 1815. In spite of general improvements, the 1845 fire prompted public calls for a more proactive stance in fire prevention and firefighting, and the city established a reserve unit called the Exempt Fireman's Company. (Full article...)

55 Wall Street, formerly the National City Bank Building, is an eight-story building on Wall Street between William and Hanover streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The lowest three stories were completed in either 1841 or 1842 as the four-story Merchants' Exchange and designed by Isaiah Rogers in the Greek Revival style. Between 1907 and 1910, McKim, Mead & White removed the original fourth story and added five floors to create the present building. The facade and part of the interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is listed on both the New York State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a National Historic Landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, listed on the NRHP.

55 Wall Street's granite facade includes two stacked colonnades facing Wall Street, each with twelve columns. Inside is a cruciform banking hall with a 60-foot (18 m) vaulted ceiling, Corinthian columns, marble floors and walls, and an entablature around the interior. The banking hall was among the largest in the United States when it was completed. The offices of Citibank's predecessor National City Bank were in the corners of the banking hall, while the fourth through eighth floors were used as office space.

The Merchants' Exchange building replaced a structure that had burned down in the Great New York City Fire of 1835. 55 Wall Street subsequently hosted the New York Stock Exchange, then the United States Custom House until a new Custom House building was developed on Bowling Green in the 1900s. After 55 Wall Street was expanded, it served as the headquarters of National City Bank from 1908 to 1961; Citibank continued to own the building until 1992. The upper stories operated as a hotel from 2000 to 2003, then were renovated again and converted into the Cipriani Club Residences condominium development in 2006. The original banking room became a ballroom. (Full article...)

Conduit Avenue (Conduit Boulevard in Brooklyn) is an arterial road in New York City, the vast majority of which is in Queens. The divided highway runs from Atlantic Avenue in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn to Hook Creek Boulevard in Rosedale, Queens at the Nassau County border. The thoroughfare is named after an aqueduct in its right-of-way.

Conduit Avenue and Conduit Boulevard were conceived in 1921 as part of the Conduit Highway, later the Sunrise Highway, with the original highway opening in 1929. The highway was expanded in 1940 as part of the construction of the Belt Parkway. The Brooklyn section was originally supposed to host Interstate 78 within its median, but this section was ultimately not built. (Full article...)

The First Battery Armory, also known as the 102nd Medical Armory and the State Armory, is a historic National Guard armory building at 56 West 66th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The building was constructed between 1901 and 1904 and was designed by Arthur J. Horgan and Vincent J. Slattery in multiple revival architectural styles. It is composed of a symmetrical brick-and-granite headhouse to the north and a drill hall to the south. The armory is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The three-story headhouse, measuring 175 by 26 feet (53.3 by 7.9 m), contains a central tower with a penthouse and is flanked by pavilions on its western and eastern ends. The facade of the headhouse, which remains largely intact, is made of granite at the first story and brick with granite trim on the upper stories. The drill hall is a three-story, gable-roofed space measuring approximately 175 by 73 feet (53 by 22 m); it also has a brick facade. The First Battery Armory was initially arranged in a similar manner to other armories, with offices, horse stables, storage rooms, training rooms, and areas where soldiers could socialize. The headhouse housed most of the mechanical rooms and administrative offices, while the drill room was used for training and horse stabling. The interior layout was changed significantly over the years, and almost none of the original interior decorations remain extant.

The New York City government built the armory for the First Battery of the New York National Guard, which had occupied rented space since its founding in 1867. The armory's site was selected in 1896, but construction did not start until May 1901 due to various disagreements. The building was completed in May 1903 and formally opened on February 3, 1904. The First Battery was reorganized multiple times during the late 1900s and early 1910s, and it moved out of the armory by 1917. The First Sanitary Train of the New York National Guard, which became the 102nd Medical Regiment, occupied the armory until 1976 and sometimes rented it out for events. The building was sold at auction to the American Broadcasting Company, which converted the armory to a television studio from 1977 to 1978. After the armory was converted into an office building in 2012, sports television network ESPN, a subsidiary of ABC parent The Walt Disney Company, moved into the armory. (Full article...)

The Nostrand Avenue station is a bi-level express station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It is served by the A train at all times and the C train at all times except late nights.

The station was planned as part of the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Fulton Street Line. Construction of the station began around 1929, and it was opened to service on April 9, 1936. Several of the station's entrances were closed in the late 20th century due to crime. In the 2010s and 2020s, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced plans to make the station ADA-accessible and to reopen closed exits.

Nostrand Avenue has four tracks and four side platforms, with two platform levels. Express trains stop on the upper level while local trains stop on the lower level. This is because, in the original design for the station, the Nostrand Avenue station was slated to be a local station with only two platforms, and the current upper level was intended to be a mezzanine. The primary entrances to the local and express platforms in each direction are at Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street. Another set of entrances from both sets of platforms leads to Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street. (Full article...)

The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 American comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman. The screenplay, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, is based on the 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger. The film stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt.

In 2003, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to a film adaptation of Weisberger's novel before it was completed for publication; the project was not greenlit until Streep was cast in the lead role. Principal photography lasted 57 days, primarily taking place in New York City from October to December 2005. Additional filming was done in Paris, France.

After premiering at the LA Film Festival on June 22, 2006, The Devil Wears Prada was theatrically released in the United States on June 30. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Streep's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim, thus earning her numerous awards and nominations, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Hathaway and Blunt also drew favorable reviews and various nominations for their performances. The film grossed over $326 million worldwide, against its $41 million budget, and was the 12th highest-grossing film worldwide in 2006. (Full article...)

The 14th Street–Union Square station is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Broadway Line, the BMT Canarsie Line and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It is located at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 14th Street, underneath Union Square Park in Manhattan. The complex is near the border of several neighborhoods, including the East Village to the southeast, Greenwich Village to the south and southwest, Chelsea to the northwest, and both the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park to the north and northeast. The 14th Street–Union Square station is served by the 4, 6, L, N, and Q trains at all times; the 5 and R trains at all times except late nights; the W train on weekdays; and <6> train weekdays in the peak direction.

The Lexington Avenue Line platforms were built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as an express station on the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. As part of the Dual Contracts, the Broadway Line platforms opened in 1917 and the Canarsie Line platform opened in 1924. Several modifications have been made to the stations over the years, and they were combined on July 1, 1948. The complex was renovated in the 1990s and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

The Lexington Avenue Line station has two abandoned side platforms, two island platforms, and four tracks, while the parallel Broadway Line station has two island platforms and four tracks. The Canarsie Line station, crossing under both of the other stations, has one island platform and two tracks. Numerous elevators make most of the complex, except for the Lexington Avenue Line station, compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). In 2019, over 32 million passengers entered this station, making it the fourth-busiest station in the system. (Full article...)

Big Apple Rappin' (subtitled: The Early Days of Hip-Hop Culture in New York City 1979–1982) is a 2006 compilation album released on Soul Jazz Records. The album is a compilation of the early days of New York hip hop by Johan Kugelberg, who had collected early hip hop material, specifically records flyers and fanzines and other memorabilia with the idea to donate them to an academic institution. The music Kugelberg gathered for the compilation surrounded hip hop music released around the period "Rapper's Delight" became a hit song. The music is predominantly hip hop with a disco backing tracks which Kugelberg described as "the first great records." Along with the music, photography and flyers were compiled from the era, as well as interviews with DJs and rappers such as Grandmaster Caz and Glen Adams.

Reviews of the album complimented the in-depth research and compiling of the compilation album, with some critics noting the dated or repetitive nature of the music and long length of the individual tracks as drawbacks. Jon Dolan of Spin gave the album a five-star rating and later included it in the magazines best reissues of 2006 list in 2007. Along with Kugelberg's collected records, a copy of the album is included in Cornell University's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. (Full article...)

The 86th Street station is a station on the first phase of the Second Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Second Avenue and 86th Street, in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side in Manhattan, it opened on January 1, 2017. The station is served by the Q train at all times, limited rush hour N trains, and one northbound A.M. rush hour R train. There are two tracks and an island platform.

The station was part of the original Second Avenue Subway as outlined in the Program for Action in 1968. Construction on that project started in 1972, but stalled in 1975 due to lack of funding. In 2007, a separate measure authorized a first phase of the Second Avenue Line to be built between 65th and 105th Streets, with stations at 72nd, 86th, and 96th Streets. The station opened on January 1, 2017, as an intermediate station along Phase 1. Since opening, the presence of the Second Avenue Subway's three Phase 1 stations has improved real estate prices along the corridor. The 86th Street station was used by approximately 8.4 million passengers in 2019.

The station, along with the other Phase 1 stations along the Second Avenue Subway, contains features not found in most New York City Subway stations. It is fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, containing two elevators for disabled access. Additionally, the station contains air conditioning and is waterproofed, a feature only found in newer stations. The artwork at 86th Street is Subway Portraits, a selection of twelve face portraits by painter Chuck Close. (Full article...)

The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. It was established in 1935 to preserve the art collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The museum consists of 14th- to 19th-century European paintings, as well as other pieces of European fine and decorative art. It is located at the Henry Clay Frick House, a Beaux-Arts mansion designed for Henry Clay Frick. The Frick also houses the Frick Art Reference Library, an art history research center established by Frick's daughter Helen Clay Frick in 1920, which contains sales catalogs, books, periodicals, and photographs.

The museum dates to 1920, when the trustees of Frick's estate formed the Frick Collection Inc. to care for his art collection, which he had bequeathed for public use. After Frick's wife Adelaide Frick died in 1931, John Russell Pope converted the Frick House into a museum, which opened on December 16, 1935. The museum acquired additional works of art over the years, and it expanded the house in 1977 to accommodate increasing visitation. Following fundraising campaigns in the 2000s, a further expansion was announced in the 2010s. From 2021 until March 2024, during the renovation of the Frick House, the Frick Madison operated at 945 Madison Avenue. The Frick House is scheduled to reopen in late 2024.

The Frick has about 1,500 pieces in its collection as of 2021. Artists with works in the collection include Bellini, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Goya, Holbein, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner, Velázquez, Vermeer, and Whistler. The museum has gradually acquired additional pieces over the years to supplement the paintings in Frick's original collection. In addition to its permanent collection, the museum has hosted small temporary exhibitions on narrowly defined topics, as well as academic symposiums, concerts, and classes. The Frick Collection typically has up to 300,000 visitors annually and has an endowment fund to support its programming. Commentary on the museum over the years has been largely positive, particularly in relation to the works themselves and their juxtaposition with the Frick House. (Full article...)

The St. James Theatre, originally Erlanger's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 246 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, it was designed by Warren and Wetmore in a neo-Georgian style and was constructed for A. L. Erlanger. It has 1,709 seats across three levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.

The facade is made largely of stucco, except for the ground story, which is clad in cast stone above a granite water table. The ground story has several recessed openings to the lobby, auditorium, and upper-story offices. Above that are two marquees and a double-story cast-iron loggia, masking the fire escapes from the auditorium. The top story contains windows from the offices there. The auditorium is decorated largely with murals and ornamental plasterwork. The theater has a sloped orchestra level, two balcony levels, and a flat ceiling with a carved sounding board. The first balcony level contains box seats near the front of the auditorium, above which are murals. In addition, there are several lounges and passageways throughout the theater.

Erlanger had proposed a theater on the site as early as 1921, but two proposals failed to materialize. Erlanger's Theatre opened on September 26, 1927, with the musical The Merry Malones. Erlanger died in 1930, and the theater then passed to Lodewick Vroom in 1932; Vroom renamed it after St James's Theatre in London. The Shubert family acquired the St. James in 1941 but were forced to sell it in 1956 following an antitrust suit. William L. McKnight bought the theater and renovated it in 1958, with Jujamcyn taking over the venue's operation. The theater was further renovated in 1985, 1999, and 2016. The theater has housed several long-running musicals in its history, including original productions of Oklahoma!, The King and I, Hello, Dolly!, The Who's Tommy, and The Producers. (Full article...)

The Q was a multilevel LGBT nightclub in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Backed by celebrity investors including Billy Porter and Zachary Quinto, the club was billed as "the largest queer-owned and -operated nightlife venue in Manhattan". It was known for its five distinctly themed rooms and for its entertainment selection, which featured A-list comedians, prominent local drag queens, burlesque acts and jazz bands. The establishment was originally set to open in 2020, but its debut was pushed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2022, Frankie Sharp—one of the club's three founding owners—filed a lawsuit against the other two, Alan Picus and Bob Fluet. The club shuttered in March 2023 in the aftermath of the legal proceedings. During its operation, the Q garnered praise from critics, who have described it as innovative, inclusive and chic. (Full article...)

The Broadway Junction station is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the elevated BMT Canarsie Line and BMT Jamaica Line, and the underground IND Fulton Street Line. It was also served by trains of the Fulton Street Elevated until that line closed in 1956. It is located roughly at the intersection of Broadway, Fulton Street and Van Sinderen Avenue at the border of Bedford–Stuyvesant and East New York, Brooklyn. The complex is served by the A, J, and L trains at all times; the C train at all times except late nights; and the Z train during rush hours in the peak direction only.

The station is adjacent to the East New York Yard and a complex track junction between the tracks leading to the yard, the Canarsie Line, and the Jamaica Line. The structure of the elevated station still contains the ironwork for the trackways used by the old Fulton Elevated. The station has a single exit and entrance through a fare control building located at the eastern end of the Fulton Street Line station. There is evidence of closed exits from the Jamaica Line platforms.

The station opened as Manhattan Junction as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in 1885. In 1900, an elevated connection was made with the Fulton Street Elevated, resulting in a change in service patterns. Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street trains were through-routed, going around the East New York Loop, with service to Cypress Hills requiring a transfer. The station started to be used by service to Canarsie in 1906. In 1919, the Manhattan Junction station was replaced by the current station which was then known as Eastern Parkway. The modern-day Canarsie Line platforms, known as Broadway Junction, opened in 1928 when that line was connected to the 14th Street–Eastern District Line. The Independent Subway System's Fulton Street Line was extended to Broadway–East New York in 1946, and the three stations were combined as one station complex on July 1, 1948. The names of the stations in the complex were conformed to Broadway Junction in 2003. (Full article...)

The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned New York State Route 495 on the New York side. It was designed by Ole Singstad and named after Abraham Lincoln. The tunnel consists of three vehicular tubes of varying lengths, with two traffic lanes in each tube. The center tube contains reversible lanes, while the northern and southern tubes exclusively carry westbound and eastbound traffic, respectively.

The Lincoln Tunnel was originally proposed in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the Midtown Hudson Tunnel. The tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel were constructed in stages between 1934 and 1957. Construction of the central tube, which originally lacked sufficient funding due to the Great Depression, started in 1934 and it opened in 1937. The northern tube started construction in 1936, was delayed due to World War II-related material shortages, and opened in 1945. Although the original plans for the Lincoln Tunnel called for two tubes, a third tube to the south of the existing tunnels was planned in 1950 due to high traffic demand on the other two tubes. The third tube started construction in 1954, with the delay attributed to disputes over tunnel approaches, and opened in 1957. Since then, the Lincoln Tunnel has undergone a series of gradual improvements, including changes to security and tolling methods.

The Lincoln Tunnel is one of two automobile tunnels built under the Hudson River, the other being the Holland Tunnel between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Lower Manhattan. The Lincoln Tunnel is also one of six tolled crossings in the New York area owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The tolls on each crossing are only collected in the New York-bound direction. , both directions of the tunnel carry a combined average of 112,995 vehicular crossings every day. The tunnel is part of New Jersey Route 495 on the western half of the river, and New York State Route 495 on the eastern half of the river. However, the New York state highway designation is not signed, and its use is inconsistent in official documents. (Full article...)

Sanford Koufax (/ˈkoʊfæks/; né Braun; born December 30, 1935), nicknamed "the Left Arm of God", is an American former baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, as well as the first major sports star on the West Coast, Koufax was the first three-time winner of the Cy Young Award, each time winning unanimously and the only pitcher to do so when a single award was given for both the leagues; he was also named the National League Most Valuable Player in 1963. Retiring at the age of 30 due to chronic pain in his pitching elbow, Koufax was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1972 at the age of 36, the youngest player ever elected.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Koufax was primarily a basketball player in his youth and had pitched in only a few games before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19. Due to the bonus rule he signed under, Koufax never pitched the minor leagues. His lack of pitching experience caused manager Walter Alston to distrust Koufax who saw inconsistent playing time during his first six seasons. As a result, though he often showed flashes of brilliance, Koufax struggled early on. Frustrated with the way he was being managed by the Dodgers, he almost quit after the 1960 season. After making adjustments prior to the 1961 season, Koufax quickly rose to become the most dominant pitcher in the major leagues. He was an All-Star in each of his last six seasons, leading the National League (NL) in earned run average each of his last five years, in strikeouts four times, and in wins and shutouts three times each. He was the first pitcher in the live-ball era to post an earned run average below 2.00 in three different qualifying seasons, and the first ever to record a 300-strikeout season three times.

Koufax won the Major League Triple Crown three times, leading the Dodgers to a pennant in each of those years. He was the first major league pitcher to throw four no-hitters, including a perfect game in 1965. He was named the World Series MVP twice, leading the weak-hitting Dodgers to titles in 1963 and 1965. Despite his comparatively short career, his 2,396 career strikeouts ranked seventh in major league history at the time, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers; his 40 shutouts were tied for ninth in modern NL history. He was the first pitcher in history to average more than nine strikeouts per nine innings pitched, and the first to allow fewer than seven hits per nine innings pitched. Koufax, along with teammate Don Drysdale, became a pivotal figure in baseball's labor movement when the two staged a joint holdout and demanded a fairer contract from the Dodgers before in 1966 season. Koufax is also considered one of the greatest Jewish athletes in history; his decision to sit out Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it coincided with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur garnered national attention and made him an iconic figure within the American Jewish community. (Full article...)

La Caravelle was a restaurant in New York City, specializing in French cuisine. It opened on September 21, 1960, at 33 West 55th Street in Manhattan. The restaurant was established by Fred Decré and Robert Meyzen, with Roger Fessaguet as head chef, and took its name from the type of sailing ships Christopher Columbus sailed on his voyages to the New World.
Like most European restaurants, La Caravelle had a menu that changed daily. This made the restaurant popular with new customers and also brought them back regularly. Salvador Dalí, John Lindsay, Leland Hayward, Walter Cronkite and Dorothy Kilgallen often dined at the restaurant in its early years. President John F. Kennedy was especially fond of La Caravelle's vichyssoise and chicken in champagne sauce, and he often requested them as takeout orders to eat on the plane while traveling.

Twenty years after its opening, chef Roger Fessaguet left the kitchen to become an owner with Meyzen due to the retirement of Fred Decré. In 1984, Robert Meyzen retired and Fessaguet and André Jammet took over ownership of the restaurant. The following year, a New York Magazine article cited it as one of the best restaurants in New York City, and mentioned that most guidebooks gave it their highest rating. Fessaguet retired in 1988, leaving ownership with Jammet and his wife. The Jammets redecorated La Caravelle in 1990, replacing the original red carpets and banquettes with a color scheme of green and peach. Artist Nina Duran was hired to create a small mural for the restaurant's foyer. The restaurant closed on May 22, 2004, despite garnering the James Beard Foundation's Most Outstanding Restaurant in the Country award in the same year. The name is now known for champagnes produced by the Jammets; the restaurant began serving them as its house brand in 1997. (Full article...)

Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located at the western end of Long Island, it is the largest of the five New York City boroughs by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to its east, and shares maritime borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey. Queens is the most linguistically and ethnically diverse place in the world.

With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after New York City itself, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. It is highly diverse as about 47% of its residents are foreign-born. (Full article...)

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City. Located on the westernmost end of Long Island, it is coextensive with Kings County in the U.S. state of New York. With 2,736,074 residents as of the 2020 United States census, Kings County is the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City and the most populous county in the State of New York. The population density of Brooklyn was 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km²) in 2022, making it the second-most-densely-populated county in the United States, behind Manhattan, and it had the ninth-highest population of any county nationwide. Were Brooklyn still an independent city, it would be the fourth most populous in the U.S. after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Named after the Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a border with the borough of Queens. It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across the East River, and is connected to Staten Island by way of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km²) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km²), Kings County is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. (Full article...)

Staten Island (/ˈstætən/ STAT-ən) is the southernmost borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km²); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.

A home to the Lenape indigenous people, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. (Full article...)

The Bronx (/brɒŋks/) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York City borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx is the only New York City borough not primarily located on an island. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km²) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census, its highest decennial census count ever. If each borough were ranked as a city, the Bronx would rank as the ninth-most-populous in the U.S. Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density. The population density of the Bronx was 32,718.7 inhabitants per square mile (12,632.8/km²) in 2022, the third-highest population density of any county in the United States, behind Manhattan and Brooklyn. With a population that is 54.8% Hispanic as of 2020, it is the only majority-Hispanic county in the Northeastern United States and the fourth-most-populous nationwide.

The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. (Full article...)

Manhattan (/mænˈhætən, mən-/ ^ⓘ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.

Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonists in 1624 on southern Manhattan Island; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York, based in present-day Lower Manhattan, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor greeted millions of arriving immigrants in the late 19th century and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals. Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898, and houses New York City Hall, the seat of the city's government. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, part of the Stonewall National Monument, is considered the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, cementing Manhattan's central role in LGBT culture. It was also the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the September 11 terrorist attacks. (Full article...)