Portal:New York City

The Mark Hellinger Theatre (formerly the 51st Street Theatre and the Hollywood Theatre) is a church building at 237 West 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, which formerly operated as a cinema and Broadway theater. Opened in 1930, the Hellinger Theatre is named after journalist Mark Hellinger and was developed by Warner Bros. as a movie palace. It was designed by Thomas W. Lamb with a modern facade and a Baroque interior. It has 1,605 seats across two levels and has been a house of worship for the Times Square Church since 1989. Both the exterior and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks.

The facade on 51st Street is designed in a modern 1930s style and is constructed with golden and brown bricks. The stage house to the west and the auditorium at the center are designed as one unit, with a cornice above the auditorium. The eastern section, containing the building's current main entrance, includes statues flanking the doors, as well as an overhanging marquee. The 51st Street facade was originally a side entrance; the main entrance was originally at 1655 Broadway but was closed in the 1950s. In contrast to the exterior, the theater has a Baroque interior. Its rotunda lobby contains eight fluted columns, a balcony, and a domed ceiling with several murals; a basement lounge exists under the lobby. The auditorium has a coved ceiling with murals, as well as boxes and a deep stage.

For the first two decades of the Hellinger Theatre's existence, it largely served as a cinema under the Hollywood Theatre name. Vaudeville was presented in 1932, and some legitimate productions were shown intermittently from 1934 to 1942. The theater was briefly known as the 51st Street Theatre in 1936 and 1941 and as the Warner Theatre from 1947 to 1948. Anthony Brady Farrell bought the theater and renamed it after Hellinger, reopening it as a legitimate theater in 1949. The theater was subsequently acquired by the Stahl family in 1957 and the Nederlander Organization in 1976. The Hellinger hosted some hits from the 1950s to the 1970s, including My Fair Lady and Timbuktu!, but its later productions were mostly flops. By 1989, a lack of Broadway productions prompted the Nederlanders to lease the theater to the Times Square Church, which bought the building two years later and continues to operate it . (Full article...)

The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in 1924 to control city-owned and operated public transportation service within the New York City Transit System. The agency oversaw the construction and operation of the municipal Independent Subway System (IND), which was constructed shortly after the Board was chartered. The BOT later presided over the major transfers of public transit from private control to municipal control that took place in the 1940s, including the unification of the New York City Subway in 1940. In 1953, the Board was dissolved and replaced by the state-operated New York City Transit Authority, now part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). (Full article...)

Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs 35.62 miles (57.32 km) from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The majority of I-278 is in New York City, where it serves as a partial beltway and passes through all five of the city's boroughs. I-278 follows several freeways, including the Union Freeway in Union County, New Jersey; the Staten Island Expressway (SIE) across Staten Island; the Gowanus Expressway in southern Brooklyn; the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway (BQE) across northern Brooklyn and Queens; a small part of the Grand Central Parkway in Queens; and a part of the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx. I-278 also crosses multiple bridges, including the Goethals, Verrazzano-Narrows, Kosciuszko, and Robert F. Kennedy bridges.

I-278 was opened in pieces from the 1930s through the 1960s. Some of its completed segments predated the Interstate Highway System and are thus not up to standards, and portions of I-278 have been upgraded over the years. In New York, the various parts of I-278 were planned by Robert Moses, an urban planner in New York City. The segments proposed tore through many New York City neighborhoods, causing controversy. Despite its number, I-278 does not connect to I-78. There were once plans to extend I-278 west to I-78 east of the Route 24 interchange in Springfield, New Jersey. This was canceled because of opposition from the communities along the route. The segment that does exist in New Jersey was opened in 1969. There were also plans to extend I-78 east across Manhattan and into Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge; this would have been a second interchange between I-278 and its parent highway, but these plans were also thwarted. I-78 was also planned to extend east beyond I-278 to John F. Kennedy International Airport, and then curve northward on the Clearview Expressway, ending at the Bruckner Interchange in the Bronx. If these plans were fully completed, I-78 and I-278 would have met at three interchanges.

Two segments of I-278 have had different route number designations formerly planned or designated for it. I-87 was once planned to follow the segment of I-278 between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Major Deegan Expressway, but this ultimately became a part of I-278. Additionally, the Bruckner Expressway portion of I-278 had been designated with different route numbers. At first, it was to be I-895 between I-87 and the Sheridan Expressway and I-678 past there. Later, I-278 was planned to follow the Bruckner Expressway and the Sheridan Expressway to I-95 (with no route number for the Bruckner Expressway past there) before the current numbering took place by 1970, with I-895 designated onto the Sheridan Expressway (which was subsequently downgraded to a state highway in 2017). (Full article...)

Alfredo James Pacino (/pəˈtʃiːnoʊ/ pə-CHEE-noh; Italian: [paˈtʃiːno]; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.

A method actor, Pacino studied at HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg. Pacino went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Scent of a Woman (1992). His other Oscar-nominated roles were in The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), ...And Justice for All (1979), Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019). His other notable roles include The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Scarecrow (1973), Cruising (1980), Scarface (1983), The Godfather Part III (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), Heat (1995), Donnie Brasco, The Devil's Advocate (both 1997), The Insider, Any Given Sunday (both 1999), Insomnia (2002), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and House of Gucci (2021).

On television, Pacino has acted in multiple productions for HBO, including Angels in America (2003) and the Jack Kevorkian biopic You Don't Know Jack (2010), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for each. Pacino starred in the Amazon Prime Video series Hunters (2020–23). He has also had an extensive career on stage. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, winning Best Featured Actor in a Play in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969) and Best Actor in a Play for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977). (Full article...)

Edward Victor Boursaud SJ (September 1, 1840 – March 19, 1902) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who was the president of Boston College from 1884 to 1887. Raised in New York City and France, he studied at Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland before entering the Society of Jesus in 1863. For the next 18 years, he studied and taught at Jesuit institutions, including Boston College, Georgetown College, and Woodstock College, as well as the novitiate in Frederick, Maryland. In 1881 and 1887, he served three-year terms in Italy as the assistant secretary to the Jesuit Superior General for the English-speaking world.

In 1884, Boursaud became the president of Boston College, where he would remain for three years. He then served three years as the rector of Woodstock College from 1890 to 1893. In his later years, he spent time teaching and as a spiritual father at Jesuit institutions throughout the eastern United States. (Full article...)

Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from the novelette by Lehman. The shadowy noir cinematography filmed on location in New York City was shot by James Wong Howe. The picture was produced by James Hill of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists. The supporting cast features Sam Levene, Barbara Nichols, Joe Frisco, Edith Atwater, David White, and Emile Meyer. The musical score was arranged and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and the film also features jazz performances by the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Mary Grant designed the costumes.

The film tells the story of powerful and sleazy newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (portrayed by Lancaster and based on Walter Winchell) who uses his connections to ruin his sister's relationship with a man he deems unworthy of her.

Despite a poorly received preview screening, Sweet Smell of Success has greatly improved in stature over the years. It grew to become highly acclaimed by film critics, particularly for its cinematography and screenplay. In 1993, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (Full article...)

Nicholas Colasanto (January 19, 1924 – February 12, 1985) was an American actor and television director who is best known for his role as "Coach" Ernie Pantusso in the American television sitcom Cheers. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. (Full article...)

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755, or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 during George Washington's presidency.

Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He pursued his education in New York City where, despite his young age, he was a prolific and widely read pamphleteer advocating for the American revolutionary cause, though an anonymous one. He then served as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War, where he saw military action against the British in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for years as an aide to General George Washington, and helped secure American victory at the climactic Siege of Yorktown. After the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution of the United States, which he helped ratify by writing 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers.

As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic president, a strong national defense, and an industrial economy. He successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution provided the legal authority to fund the national debt, assume the states' debts, and create the First Bank of the United States, which was funded by a tariff on imports and a whiskey tax. He opposed American entanglement with the succession of unstable French Revolutionary governments and advocated in support of the Jay Treaty under which the U.S. resumed friendly trade relations with the British Empire. He also persuaded Congress to establish the Revenue Cutter Service. Hamilton's views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, and Hamilton helped draft the constitution of Haiti. (Full article...)

The 2021 New York City Marathon, the 50th running of that city's premier long-distance race, was held on November 7, 2021. Around 30,000 people ran in the event, of whom 25,020 finished. The race followed its traditional route, which passes through all five boroughs of New York City.

The elite races were won by Albert Korir and Peres Jepchirchir, both of Kenya, in 2:08:22 and 2:22:39 respectively; both athletes received $100,000 for winning their events. The wheelchair races were won by Marcel Hug of Switzerland and Madison de Rozario of Australia, in 1:31:24 and 1:51:01 respectively; both athletes received $25,000 for winning their events. (Full article...)

Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside Heights borders Central Harlem and Morningside Park to the east, Manhattanville to the north, the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side to the south, and Riverside Park to the west. Broadway is the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, running north–south.

Morningside Heights, located on a high plateau between Morningside and Riverside Parks, was hard to access until the late 19th century and was sparsely developed except for the Bloomingdale and Leake and Watts asylums. Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side were considered part of the Bloomingdale District until Morningside Park was finished in the late 19th century. Large-scale development started in the 1890s with academic and cultural institutions. By the 1900s, public transportation construction and the neighborhood's first subway line led to Morningside Heights being developed into a residential neighborhood. Morningside Heights was mostly developed by the 1930s. During the mid-20th century, as the institutions within Morningside Heights expanded, cultural tensions grew between residents who were affiliated with institutions and those who were not. After a period of decline, the neighborhood started to gentrify in the 1980s and 1990s.

A large portion of Morningside Heights is part of the campus of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university. Morningside Heights contains numerous other educational institutions such as Teachers College, Barnard College, the Manhattan School of Music, Bank Street College of Education, Union Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Additionally, Morningside Heights includes several religious institutions, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Riverside Church, the Church of Notre Dame, Corpus Christi Church, and Interchurch Center. The neighborhood also contains other architectural landmarks, such as St. Luke's Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) and Grant's Tomb. (Full article...)

On the morning of December 1, 2013, a Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line passenger train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Four of the 115 passengers were killed and another 61 injured; the accident caused $9 million worth of damage. It was the deadliest train accident within New York City since a 1991 subway derailment in Manhattan, and the first accident in Metro-North's history to result in passenger fatalities. The additional $60 million in legal claims paid out have also made it the costliest accident in Metro-North's history.

Early investigations found that the train had gone into the curve where it derailed at almost three times the posted speed limit. The engineer, William Rockefeller, later admitted that before reaching the curve he had gone into a "daze", a sort of highway hypnosis.

The leader of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team investigating said it was likely that the accident would have been prevented had positive train control (PTC) been installed per a prior federal mandate requiring its installation by 2015. Due to a number of other recent accidents involving Metro-North trains and tracks, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) demanded improved safety measures, which Metro-North began implementing within a week of the accident. (Full article...)

10 West 56th Street (originally the Frederick C. and Birdsall Otis Edey Residence) is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along 56th Street's southern sidewalk between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. The six-story building was designed by Warren and Wetmore in the French Renaissance Revival style. It was constructed in 1901 as a private residence, one of several on 56th Street's "Bankers' Row".

The main facade is largely clad with limestone, while the side facades are clad with brick and have limestone quoins. The ground story contains a glass storefront with rusticated molded-concrete piers. The second floor contains an arched Palladian window while the third and fourth stories have tripartite windows. A mansard roof rises above the fourth floor. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the house has 16,446 square feet (1,527.9 m²) inside.

The house was commissioned for stockbroker Frederick C. Edey and his wife Birdsall Otis Edey in 1899. The couple had initially planned to design their house alongside their neighbor H. B. Hollins, at 12 West 56th Street, but a covenant prevented the Edey house from being built for two years. The Edeys occupied the house until 1919, when the Frangold Realty Company bought it and added a sixth story. Over the following years, it was used largely for commercial purposes, though Elizabeth Taylor also lived at the house in the mid-1950s. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house as an official landmark in 2007. The house has been owned by billionaire Carlos Slim since 2011. (Full article...)

Robert Clinton Richardson, Jr. (born August 19, 1935) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees from 1955 through 1966. Batting and throwing right-handed, he formed a top double play combination with fellow Yankee infielders Clete Boyer and Tony Kubek. He became the only World Series Most Valuable Player to be selected from the losing team when he won the award for his play in the 1960 World Series. In 1962, he led the American League (AL) in hits with 209 and snared a line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey to win the 1962 World Series for the Yankees.

Born in Sumter, South Carolina, Richardson grew up desiring to play for the Yankees after seeing the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees. Drawing interest from 11 out of 16 MLB teams, he signed with the Yankees and made his debut for them two years later. Earning a regular spot on the roster in 1957, Richardson reached his first All-Star Game that year. He lost starts at second base to Gil McDougald later in the year, though, and was mostly a reserve player in 1958. It was not until 1959 that he would become a regular at second base. In 1960, he was named the World Series MVP; though the Yankees lost the Series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Richardson batted .367 with 12 runs batted in (RBI). He won the next two World Series, ending the 1962 series by catching McCovey's line drive in what The Sporting News called baseball's 13th most memorable play in 1999. Richardson led the AL in hits that year, with 209.

From 1961 to 1965, Richardson won five straight Gold Glove Awards at second base. He played in the All-Star Game every year from 1962 through 1966. In 1963, he won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, and he played in the World Series in 1963 and 1964. His last two years in the major leagues, he had 164 and 153 hits, respectively. Though only 31 after the 1966 season, Richardson retired to spend more time with his family. The Yankees held a special day for him towards the end of the season, making Richardson the 10th Yankee to be so honored. (Full article...)

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (colloquially known as the Met Life Tower and also as the South Building) is a skyscraper occupying a full block in the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City. The building is composed of two sections: a 700-foot-tall (210 m) tower at the northwest corner of the block, at Madison Avenue and 24th Street, and a shorter east wing occupying the remainder of the block bounded by Madison Avenue, Park Avenue South, 23rd Street, and 24th Street. The South Building, along with the North Building directly across 24th Street, comprises the Metropolitan Home Office Complex, which originally served as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (now publicly known as MetLife).

The South Building's tower was designed by the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and erected between 1905 and 1909. Inspired by St Mark's Campanile, the tower features four clock faces, four bells, and lighted beacons at its top, and was the tallest building in the world until 1913. The tower originally included Metropolitan Life's offices, and since 2015, it has contained a 273-room luxury hotel known as the New York Edition Hotel. The tower was designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1989, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was also made a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

The east wing was designed by Lloyd Morgan and Eugene Meroni and constructed in two stages between 1953 and 1960. The east wing is also referred to as One Madison Avenue. It replaced another building on the site, which was built in phases from 1893 to 1905, and which was also designed by LeBrun's firm. When the current east wing was built, the 700-foot tower was extensively renovated as well. In 2020, work started on an addition to the east wing, which will be designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and be completed in 2023 or 2024. (Full article...)

Cornelius H. Charlton (July 24, 1929 – June 2, 1951) was a soldier in the United States Army during the Korean War. Sergeant Charlton posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions near Chipo-ri, South Korea on June 2, 1951.

Born to a coal mining family in West Virginia, Charlton enlisted in the Army out of high school in 1946. He was transferred to the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, fighting in the Korean War. During a battle for Hill 543 near the village of Chipo-ri, Charlton took command of his platoon after its commanding officer was injured, leading it on three successive assaults of the hill. Charlton continued to lead the attack until the Chinese position was destroyed, at the cost of his life. For these actions, Charlton was awarded the medal.

In the following years, Charlton was honored numerous times, but was controversially not given a spot in Arlington National Cemetery, which his family claimed was due to racial discrimination. The controversy attracted national attention before Charlton was finally reburied in Arlington in 2008. (Full article...)

The New York Cosmos (simply the Cosmos in 1977–1978) were an American professional soccer club based in New York City and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York, including Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the club remained for the rest of its history.

Founded in December 1970, the team competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) until 1984 and was the strongest franchise in that league, both competitively and financially – based largely around its backing by Warner Communications President Steve Ross, which enabled it to sign internationally famous stars such as the Brazilian forward Pelé, Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia, the West German sweeper Franz Beckenbauer, and famous late Brazilian rightback Carlos Alberto Torres. The acquisition of these foreign players, particularly Pelé, made the Cosmos into what journalist Gavin Newsham called "the most glamorous team in world football", and contributed to the development of soccer across the United States, a country where it had previously been largely ignored.

As the Cosmos declined following Pelé's retirement, so did the NASL. Attendances fell, the league's television deal was lost, and it finally folded in 1985 after playing its last season in 1984. The Cosmos attempted to continue operations in the Major Indoor Soccer League, but attendances were so low that the club withdrew without completing a season. The team attempted an independent schedule in 1985, but also canceled that because of low attendance, and the Cosmos folded. Former club employee Peppe Pinton assumed the trademarks and property of the club when it was dissolved, in part because nobody else thought they had any value at that point. Pinton put the trophies, uniforms, and equipment into storage and operated a New Jersey day camp for children under the name "Cosmos Soccer Camp". (Full article...)

Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, and features Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and William Atherton in supporting roles.

Based on his own fascination with spirituality, Aykroyd conceived Ghostbusters as a project starring himself and John Belushi, in which they would venture through time and space battling supernatural threats. Following Belushi's death in 1982, and with Aykroyd's concept deemed financially impractical, Ramis was hired to help rewrite the script to set it in New York City and make it more realistic. It was the first comedy film to employ expensive special effects, and Columbia Pictures, concerned about its relatively high $25–30 million budget, had little faith in its box office potential. Filming took place from October 1983 to January 1984, in New York City and Los Angeles. Due to competition for special effects studios among various films in development at the time, Richard Edlund used part of the budget to found Boss Film Studios, which employed a combination of practical effects, miniatures, and puppets to deliver the ghoulish visuals.

Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984, to critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon. It was praised for its blend of comedy, action, and horror, and Murray's performance was often singled out for praise. It earned $282.2 million during its initial theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever. It was the number-one film in theaters for seven consecutive weeks and one of only four films to gross more than $100 million that year. Further theatrical releases have increased the total gross to around $295.2 million, making it one of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s. In 2015, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Its theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., was also a number-one hit. (Full article...)

The Rainbow Room is a private event space on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Run by Tishman Speyer, it is among the highest venues in New York City.

Opened in 1934, it was a focal point for the city's elite, as well as one of the United States' highest restaurants above ground. The Rainbow Room closed in 1942, due to World War II, and reopened in 1950. It received renovations in 1965 and 1985–1987, both of which sought to restore its original 1930s decor. Suffering from a decline in business following the financial crisis of 2007–08, the Rainbow Room closed in 2009. In 2012, the Rainbow Room was declared a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The restaurant reopened in 2014, following a renovation, serving classic and contemporary American cuisine. In 2017, the American Institute of Architects gave the Rainbow Room an award for outstanding interior architecture. The restaurant closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reopened for private events in 2021. (Full article...)

Gerald Samuel Lesser (August 22, 1926 – September 23, 2010) was an American psychologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1963 until his retirement in 1998. Lesser was one of the chief advisers to the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later known as the Sesame Workshop) in the development and content of the educational programming included in the children's television program Sesame Street. At Harvard, he was chair of the university's Human Development Program for 20 years, which focused on cross-cultural studies of child rearing, and studied the effects of media on young children. In 1974, he wrote Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street, which chronicled how Sesame Street was developed and put on the air. Lesser developed many of the research methods the CTW used throughout its history and for other TV shows. In 1968, before the debut of Sesame Street, he led a series of content seminars, an important part of the "CTW Model", which incorporated educational pedagogy and research into TV scripts and was used to develop other educational programs and organizations all over the world. He died in 2010, at the age of eighty-four, and was survived by his wife, a daughter, a son, and a grandchild. (Full article...)

The 96th Street station is a station on the IND Second Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Second Avenue and 96th Street on the border of the Upper East Side/Yorkville and East Harlem neighborhoods in Manhattan, it is the northern terminus for the Q train at all times. It is also served by limited rush hour N trains and one northbound morning rush hour R train. The station is the terminus for the first phase of the Second Avenue Line.

The station was not originally proposed as part of the Program for Action in 1968, but a later revision to that plan entailed building a Second Avenue Subway with one of its stops located at 96th Street. 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 Street, 86th Street and 96th Street. The station opened on January 1, 2017, as a terminal station, with provisions to extend the line north to Harlem–125th Street in Phase 2. Since opening, the presence of the Second Avenue Subway's three Phase 1 stations has improved real estate prices along the corridor. The 96th Street station was used by approximately 6.2 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 96th Street is "Blueprint for a Landscape", a mural by Sarah Sze. (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...)

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 (/ðə 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...)

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...)

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 on Earth.

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...)