The Empire State Building became the tallest building in New York City and the world until the first World Trade Center towers passed it in 1970. When these towers were brought down in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York. It stopped being New York's tallest building in 2012 when the new One World Trade Center was built.
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, a plane crashed into the building due to heavy fog and started a fire, but the building was only damaged a little. 14 people (3 in the plane) were killed in the accident.
The Empire State Building is at 350 Fifth Avenue. The building has its own ZIP Code, 10118. There is a big Art Deco lobby with shops at Fifth Avenue. People can also go to a lobby on 34th Street. The Empire State Building has 73 elevators.
The 80th, 86th, and 102nd floors have places where people can look at the city from high above. There is a steel mast on the top of the Empire State Building. The builders wanted to have an airship station on the roof, but the station was not opened. Today, people cannot go to the mast. The mast has a radio transmitter. The Empire State Building also lights up at night.
Calvià
Calviá is a village on the island of Mallorca and it has some of the most beautiful beaches on the island.
The village of Calvià has an area of and an altitude of . There are almost 50,000 inhabitants.
Tourism is the main source of income in this city. In summer there are many tourist coming to this city, especially from the United Kingdom.
Hoover Dam
The Hoover Dam is a large dam on the Colorado River. It is on the border of the states of Arizona and Nevada. The reservoir it made is called Lake Mead. The dam is named after the former US President Herbert Hoover. At first it was called "Boulder Dam", but the name was changed to honor Hoover, who was president when the idea of building the dam started.
Felanitx
Felanitx is on the east side of Majorca close to Porto Colom on the coast. It is from Palma.
It is the centre of a very touristic area (there are more than 2.300 hotel rooms), especially in summer.
There are 17,000 inhabitants.
It is the home town of the famous painter Miquel Barceló, who has just worked in the cathedral of Palma.
St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica, which is called "Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano" in Italian, is a large church in the Vatican City, in Rome, Italy. It is often called "the greatest church in Christendom". In Catholic tradition, St. Peter's Basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. It is believed that Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.
Although the Bible does not say that the apostle Peter went to Rome, other Roman Christians who were alive in the 1st century AD have written about him. Catholics believe that after Peter was killed, his body was buried in a cemetery where the basilica now stands. A tomb has been found below the altar of the basilica, and there were some bones, but no-one can say for certain if they are the bones of St. Peter.
A church was built here in the 4th century AD. The building that stands here now was begun on April 18, 1506 and was finished in 1626. Many Popes have been buried there. Although many people think St. Peter's is a cathedral, it is not, because it does not have a bishop. The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and although he usually uses St. Peter's as his main church, because he lives in the Vatican, his bishop's throne is in a different church, the cathedral of "Saint John Lateran". Large important churches like St. Peter's are often called basilicas. There are four ancient basilicas in Rome that were begun by the Emperor Constantine soon after he made Christianity the legal religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD (300s). The basilicas are "St. Peter's Basilica", "St. John Lateran", "Santa Maria Maggiore" and "St. Paul outside the Walls".
St. Peter's is famous for many reasons:
One of the books of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles, tells what happened to the disciples of Jesus after he was put to death by crucifixion in the 1st century AD. One of his twelve disciples became the leader. His name was Simon Peter and he was a fisherman from Galilee. Peter became one of the most important people in starting the Christian Church. Another important disciple was Paul of Tarsus, who travelled to many places and wrote lots of letters to teach and to encourage people in the new Christian groups that began to spring up in many different parts of the Roman Empire. St. Paul travelled to Rome. It is believed that St. Peter also travelled to Rome and that both Paul and Peter were put to death there as Christian martyrs. St. Paul was beheaded with a sword. Peter was crucified up-side-down. It is believed that the body of St. Peter was buried in a cemetery near the Via Cornelia, a road leading out of the city, on the hill called Vaticanus. Peter's grave was marked, by a red rock, the symbol of his name. The place where Peter died was marked, in the 1400s, by a little round temple called the "Tempietto" designed by Bramante.
St. Peter is very important in Roman Catholic tradition because Peter is believed to have been the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and so he was the first bishop. The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 16, verse 18) tells that Jesus said these words to Peter:
The name Peter means a "rock". The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus made Peter the head of the Christian Church, and so all the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) must be the leaders of the Christian Church throughout the whole world. The Protestant and Orthodox churches believe that Jesus was speaking about the important words Peter had just said: ""You are the Christ and the Son of the Living God"" (Matthew 16:16), and that this "Confession of Faith" is the rock that the Christian Church is built on.
On December 23, 1950, while making his Christmas radio broadcast to the world, Pope Pius XII announced that Saint Peter's tomb had been discovered. Archaeologists had been searching for ten years in a place under the basilica that had been covered up for about a thousand years. They had found part of a small building dating from soon after St. Peter's death, and some bones, but no-one could be sure if they were the bones of St. Peter.
St. Peter's Basilica, as it stand today, was begun in 1506. The first basilica, which is now called "Old St. Peter's Basilica" was begun by the Emperor Constantine between 326 and 333 AD. This was a big wide church in the shape of a Latin Cross, over 103.6 metres (350 feet) long. The central part called the "nave" had two aisles on either side, separated by rows of talls Roman columns. In front of the main entrance was large courtyard with a covered walkway all around. This church had been built over a small "shrine" (little chapel) believed to mark the burial place of St. Peter. The old basilica contained a very large number of tombs and memorials, including those of most of the popes from St. Peter to the 15th century.
By the end of the 15th century (1400s), the old basilica was falling to pieces. Pope Nicholas V, (1447–55), was worried about it and got two architects, Leone Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino, to make plans to restore it or build a new one. But Pope Nicholas had so many political problems that when he died, very little of the work had been done.
In 1505, Pope Julius II decided to "demolish" (pull down) the old St. Peter's and build a basilica that would be the grandest church in the world and make Rome (and himself) famous. He held a competition and invited lots of artists and architects to draw designs. A plan was selected and the build was begun, but Pope Julius did not get his new basilica. In fact, it was not finished for 120 years. The planning and construction (or "building work") lasted through the reigns of 21 popes and 8 architects.