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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ukase (n):
An arbitrary authoritarian command; a decree
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ukase>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.
--Joseph Addison
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Addison>
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