New York, N.Y.

New York City is the largest city in the United States. It is located in the southern part of New York State, at the mouth of the Hudson River (also known as North River as it passes Manhattan Island).

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name and went as far as Albany. Five years later, a permanent settlement was established at what is now New York, but it was originally called New Amsterdam by the Dutch governors. One of them, Peter Minuit, was said to have bought Manhattan Island from the Indians in exchange for beads, buttons, and trinkets. In 1664, Great Britain's Duke of York sent a fleet that quietly seized the settlement from the Dutch without bloodshed and rechristened the colony in honor of the duke.

Control of New York passed to the young U.S. at the end of the Revolutionary War, and George Washington was inaugurated president in New York's old City Hall. Congress met in New York from 1785 to 1790.

In 1898, when Greater New York was chartered, the city expanded to include the following five boroughs, which are also counties in New York State: Manhattan (New York County); Brooklyn (Kings County); Bronx (Bronx County); Queens (Queens County); and Staten Island (Richmond County).

“The Big Apple” is a major world capital and a world leader in finance, the arts, and communications. The port of New York is one of the finest in the world and ranks as the largest port complex on the East Coast. The city is the home of the United Nations and is headquarters for some of the world's largest corporations. The city is also the center of advertising, fashion, publishing, and radio broadcasting in the United States.

In Sept. 2001, terrorist hijackers crashed two commercial jets into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, causing the complete destruction of the twin towers and major loss of life.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg easily won his second term in the November 2005 elections. Mr. Bloomberg was reelected for his third term in 2009.

See also Encyclopedia: New York .

Selected famous natives and residents:

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar basketball player;
• Woody Allen actor and director;
• Robert Anderson playwright;
• Jean Arthur actress;
• Lauren Bacall actress;
• James Baldwin novelist;
• Harry Belafonte singer and actor;
• Humphrey Bogart actor;
• James Cagney actor;
• Maria Callas soprano;
• Paddy Chayefsky playwright;
• Aaron Copland composer;
• Sammy Davis, Jr. singer and actor;
• Agnes de Mille choreographer;
• Robert De Niro actor;
• Eamon De Valera former president of Ireland;
• Gertrude Elion Nobel Prize winner in medicine;
• Lou Gehrig baseball player;
• George Gershwin composer;
• Ira Gershwin lyricist;
• Jackie Gleason actor;
• Hank Greenberg baseball player;
• Rita Hayworth actress;
• Lena Horne singer;
• Julia Ward Howe poet and reformer;
• Washington Irving author;
• Henry James novelist;
• John Jay statesman and jurist;
• Michael Jordan basketball player;
• Jerome Kern composer;
• Sandy Koufax baseball player;
• Michael Landon actor;
• Roy Lichtenstein painter;
• Vince Lombardi football player and coach;
• Chico, Groucho, Harpo, and Zeppo Marx comedians;
• Herman Melville novelist;
• Yehudi Menuhin violinist;
• Ethel Merman singer and actress;
• James Michener novelist;
• Arthur Miller playwright;
• Eugene O'Neill playwright;
• J. Robert Oppenheimer nuclear physicist;
• Al Pacino actor;
• Jan Peerce tenor;
• Roberta Peters soprano;
• Elmer Rice playwright;
• Jerome Robbins choreographer;
• Norman Rockwell painter and illustrator;
• Eleanor Roosevelt reformer and humanitarian;
• Theodore Roosevelt former president;
• Jonas Salk polio researcher;
• Beverly Sills soprano;
• Neil Simon playwright;
• Risë Stevens mezzo-soprano;
• Barbra Streisand singer and actress;
• Ed Sullivan TV personality;
• Fats Waller pianist;
• Mae West actress;
• Edith Wharton novelist.
• Rosalyn Yalow Nobel Prize winner in medicine