Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, US. It is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) section of northwestern Grant Park. The area was previously occupied by parkland, Illinois Central rail yards and parking lots. The park, which is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive, features a variety of public art. As of 2009, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction. Planning of the park began in October 1997. Construction began in October 1998, and Millennium Park was opened in a ceremony on July 16, 2004, four years behind schedule. The three-day opening celebrations were attended by some 300,000 people and included an inaugural concert by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. The park has received awards for its accessibility and green design. Millennium Park has free admission, and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the Lurie Garden and other attractions. The park is connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge and the Nichols Bridgeway to other parts of Grant Park. Millennium Park is considered to be the city's most important project since the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and it far exceeded its originally proposed budget of $150 million.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Park

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

880:

The Nea Ekklesia church in Constantinople was consecrated, and would go on to set the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nea_Ekklesia

1707:

Under the terms of the Acts of Union, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, a single kingdom encompassing the entire island of Great Britain with a single parliament and government based in Westminster. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Britain

1753:

Carl Linnaeus published his Species Plantarum, which, with his earlier work Systema Naturae, is considered the beginning of modern botanical nomenclature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus

1865:

Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina signed a treaty creating an alliance against Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_the_Triple_Alliance

1947:

Italian separatist Salvatore Giuliano and his gang fired into a crowd of May Day marchers near Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 33. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portella_della_Ginestra_massacre

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

ukase (n): An arbitrary authoritarian command; a decree http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ukase

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. --Joseph Addison http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Addison