Istanbul
Istanbul known as Byzantium and Constantinople, is the most populous city in Turkey and the country's economic and historic center. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosporus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives in suburbs on the Asian side of the Bosporus. With a total population of around 15 million residents in its metropolitan area, Istanbul is one of the world's most populous cities, ranking as the world's fourth largest city proper and the largest European city; the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Istanbul is viewed as a bridge between the West. Founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city grew in size and influence, becoming one of the most important cities in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as an imperial capital for 16 centuries, during the Roman/Byzantine, Palaiologos Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 CE and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold and the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate. The city's strategic position on the historic Silk Road, rail networks to Europe and the Middle East, the only sea route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean have produced a cosmopolitan populace. While Ankara was chosen instead as the new Turkish capital after the Turkish War of Independence, the city's name was changed to Istanbul, the city has maintained its prominence in geopolitical and cultural affairs; the population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in and city limits have expanded to accommodate them. Arts, music and cultural festivals were established towards the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network in the city.
12.56 million foreign visitors arrived in Istanbul in 2015, five years after it was named a European Capital of Culture, making the city the world's fifth most popular tourist destination. The city's biggest attraction is its historic center listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its cultural and entertainment hub is across the city's natural harbor, the Golden Horn, in the Beyoğlu district. Considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world, it hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years; the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from Byzas. Ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists.
Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin and hence predated the Megarean settlement. After Constantine the Great made it the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire in 330 CE, the city became known as Constantinople, which, as the Latinized form of "Κωνσταντινούπολις", means the "City of Constantine", he attempted to promote the name "Nova Roma" and its Greek version "Νέα Ῥώμη" Nea Romē, but this did not enter widespread usage. Constantinople remained the most common name for the city in the West until the establishment of the Turkish Republic, which urged other countries to use Istanbul. Kostantiniyye and Be Makam-e Qonstantiniyyah al-Mahmiyyah and İstanbul were the names used alternatively by the Ottomans during their rule; the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect if not inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, but used the name Stamboul—as the Turks did—to describe the walled peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara.
Pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Πόλιν", which means "to the city" and is how Constantinople was referred to by the local Greeks; this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name'Der Saadet' meaning the'gate to Prosperity' in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first and third syllables dropped. A Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol "plenty of Islam" because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, it is first attested shortly after the conquest
Doha
Doha is the capital and most populous city of the State of Qatar. Doha has a population of 1,850,000 in the city proper with the population close to 2.4 million. The city is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the east of the country, it is Qatar's fastest growing city, with over 80% of the nation's population living in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, it is the economic centre of the country. Doha was founded in the 1820s as an offshoot of Al Bidda, it was declared as the country's capital in 1971, when Qatar gained independence from being a British Protectorate. As the commercial capital of Qatar and one of the emergent financial centres in the Middle East, Doha is considered a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Doha accommodates an area devoted to research and education; the city was host to the first ministerial-level meeting of the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations. It was selected as host city of a number of sporting events, including the 2006 Asian Games, the 2011 Pan Arab Games and most of the games at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.
In December 2011, the World Petroleum Council held the 20th World Petroleum Conference in Doha. Additionally, the city hosted the 2012 UNFCCC Climate Negotiations and is set to host a large number of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup; the city will host the 140th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in April 2019. In May 2015, Doha was recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, La Paz, Havana and Kuala Lumpur. According to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the name "Doha" originated from the Arabic term dohat, meaning "roundness" — a reference to the rounded bays surrounding the area's coastline; the city of Doha was formed seceding from another local settlement known as Al Bidda. The earliest documented mention of Al Bidda was made in 1681, by the Carmelite Convent, in an account which chronicles several settlements in Qatar. In the record, the ruler and a fort in the confines of Al Bidda are alluded to. Carsten Niebuhr, a German explorer who visited the Arabian Peninsula, created one of the first maps to depict the settlement in 1765 in which he labelled it as'Guttur'.
David Seaton, a British political resident in Muscat, wrote the first English record of Al Bidda in 1801. He describes the geography and defensive structures in the area, he stated that the town had been settled by the Sudan tribe, whom he considered to be pirates. Seaton attempted to bombard the town with his warship, but returned to Muscat upon finding that the waters were too shallow to position his warship within striking distance. In 1820, British surveyor R. H. Colebrook, who visited Al Bidda, remarked on the recent depopulation of the town, he wrote: Guttur – Or Ul Budee, once a considerable town, is protected by two square Ghurries near the sea shore. This could contain two hundred men. There are remaining at Ul Budee about 250 men, but the original inhabitants, who may be expected to return from Bahrein, will augment them to 900 or 1,000 men, if the Doasir tribe, who frequent the place as divers, again settle in it, from 600 to 800 men; the same year, an agreement known as the General Maritime Treaty was signed between the East India Company and the sheikhs of several Persian Gulf settlements.
It sought to end piracy and the slave trade. Bahrain became a party to the treaty, it was assumed that Qatar, perceived as a dependency of Bahrain by the British, was a party to it. Qatar, was not asked to fly the prescribed Trucial flag; as punishment for alleged piracy committed by the inhabitants of Al Bidda and breach of treaty, an East India Company vessel bombarded the town in 1821. They razed the town, forcing between 300 and 400 natives to flee and temporarily take shelter on the islands between the Qatar and the Trucial Coast. Doha was founded in the vicinity of Al Bidda sometime during the 1820s. In January 1823, political resident John MacLeod visited Al Bidda to meet with the ruler and initial founder of Doha, Buhur bin Jubrun, the chief of the Al-Buainain tribe. MacLeod noted. Following the founding of Doha, written records conflated Al Bidda and Doha due to the close proximity of the two settlements; that year, Lt. Guy and Lt. Brucks mapped and wrote a description of the two settlements.
Despite being mapped as two separate entities, they were referred to under the collective name of Al Bidda in the written description. In 1828, Mohammed bin Khamis, a prominent member of the Al-Buainain tribe and successor of Buhur bin Jubrun as chief of Al Bidda, was embroiled in controversy, he had murdered a native of Bahrain. In response, the Al-Buainain tribe revolted, provoking the Al Khalifa to destroy the tribe's fort and evict them to Fuwayrit and Ar Ru'ays; this incident allowed the Al Khalifa additional jurisdiction over the town. With no effective ruler, Al Bidda and Doha became a sanctuary for pirates and outlaws. In November 1839, an outlaw from Abu Dhabi named Ghuleta took refuge in Al Bidda, evoking a harsh response from the British. A. H. Nott, a British naval commander, demanded that Salemin bin Nasir Al-Suwaidi, chief of the Sudan tribe in Al Bidda, take Ghuleta into custody and warned
Tianjin
Tianjin romanized as Tientsin, is a coastal metropolis in northern China and one of the nine national central cities of the People's Republic of China, with a total population of 15,621,200 as of 2016 estimation. Its built-up area, made up of 12 central districts, was home to 12,491,300 inhabitants in 2016 and is the world's 29th-largest agglomeration and 11th-most populous city proper, it is governed as one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of central government of the PRC and is thus under direct administration of the central government. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in northern China. In terms of urban population, Tianjin is the fourth largest in China, after Shanghai and Guangzhou. In terms of administrative area population, Tianjin ranks fifth in Mainland China; the walled city of Tianjin was built in 1404. As a treaty port since 1860, Tianjin has been a major gateway to Beijing.
During the Boxer Rebellion the city was the seat of the Tianjin Provisional Government. Under the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, Tianjin became one of the largest cities in the region. At that time, numerous European-style buildings and mansions were constructed in concessions, many of which are well-preserved today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin suffered a depression due to the policy of the central government and Tangshan earthquake, but recovered from 1990s. Nowadays Tianjin is a dual-core city, with its main urban area located along the Hai River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal; as of the end of 2010, around 285 Fortune 500 companies have set up base in Binhai. Since 2010, Tianjin's Yujiapu Financial District has become known as China's Manhattan. Tianjin is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 天津, which mean "Heavenly Ford" or "Ford of Heaven"; the origin of the name is obscure. One folk etymology is that it was an homage to the patriotic Chu poet Qu Yuan, whose "Li Sao" includes the verse "...departing from the Ford of Heaven at dawn...".
Another is that it honors a former name of the Girl, a Chinese constellation recorded under the name Tianjin in the Astronomical Record section of the Book of Sui. A third is; the most common are that it was bestowed by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, who crossed Tianjin's Gu River on his way south to overthrow his nephew the Jianwen Emperor. The land where Tianjin is located today was created in ancient times by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at Bohai Gulf, including the Yellow River, which entered the open sea in this area at one point; the opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center. During the Qing dynasty Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture or Zhou in 1725 with Tianjin County established under the prefecture in 1731, it was upgraded to an urban prefecture or Fu before becoming a relay station under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili. In 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, of being engaged in the opium trade.
They imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the same year, the British and French prevailed, the Treaty of Tientsin were signed, which opened Tianjin to foreign trade; the treaties were ratified by the Xianfeng Emperor in 1860, Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France, thus to the outside world. Between 1895 and 1900, Britain and France were joined by Japan and Russia, by countries without Chinese concessions such as Austria-Hungary and Belgium, in establishing self-contained concessions in Tianjin, each with its own prisons, schools and hospitals; these nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas. The presence of foreign influence in Tianjin was not always peaceful. In June 1870, the orphanage held by the Wanghailou Church, in Tianjin, built by French Roman Catholic missionaries, was accused of the kidnapping and brainwashing of Chinese children.
On June 21, the magistrate of Tianjin County initiated a showdown at the church that developed into violent clashes between the church's Christian supporters and non-Christian Tianjin residents. The furious protestors burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate and killed eighteen foreigners including ten French nuns, the French consul, merchants. France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, forced to pay compensation for the incident. In 1885 Li Hongzhang founded the Tianjin Military Academy for Chinese army officers, with German advisers, as part of his military reforms; the move was supported by Anhui Army commander Zhou Shengchuan. The academy was to serve Anhui Green Standard Army officers. Various practical military and science subjects were taught at the academy; the instructors were Germa
Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American worldwide consumer products company focused on the production and provision of household, health care, personal care products. Under its "Hill's Pet Nutrition" brand, it is a manufacturer of veterinary products; the company's corporate offices are on Park Avenue in New York City. In 1806 devout Baptist English immigrant soap and candle maker William Colgate established a starch and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City under the name "William Colgate & Company". In 1833 he suffered a severe heart attack. In the 1840s the firm began selling individual cakes of soap in uniform weights. In 1857 Colgate died and the company was reorganized as "Colgate & Company" under the management of his devout Baptist son Samuel Colgate, who did not want to continue the business but thought it would be the right thing to do. In 1872 he introduced a perfumed soap. In 1873 the firm introduced its first Colgate Toothpaste, an aromatic toothpaste sold in jars. In 1896, the company sold the first toothpaste in Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream.
In 1896, Colgate hired Martin Ittner and under his direction founded one of the first applied research labs. By 1908 they initiated mass sales of toothpaste in tubes. William's other son, James Boorman Colgate, was a primary trustee of Colgate University. In Milwaukee, the B. J. Johnson Company was making a soap of palm oil and olive oil, the formula of, developed by B. J. Johnson in 1898; the soap was popular enough to rename their company after it — "Palmolive". Around the start of the 20th century Palmolive, which contained both palm and olive oils, was the world's best-selling soap. Extensive advertising included the radio programs The Palmolive Hour and Palmolive Beauty Box Theater. A Missouri-based soap manufacturer known as Peets Brothers who were from Wisconsin merged with Palmolive to become Palmolive-Peets. In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 "Peet" was dropped from the title, leaving only "Colgate-Palmolive Company", the current name.
Colgate-Palmolive has long been in competition with Procter & Gamble, the world's largest soap and detergent maker. P&G introduced its Tide laundry detergent shortly after World War II, thousands of consumers turned from Colgate's soaps to the new product. Colgate lost its number one place in the toothpaste market when P&G added fluoride to its toothpaste. In the beginning of TV, Colgate-Palmolive wished to compete with P&G as a sponsor of soap operas and sponsored many soaps in full or in part including The Doctors. George Henry Lesch, president, CEO, chairman of the board of Colgate-Palmolive in the 1960s and 1970s, during that time transformed it into a modern company with major restructuring. In 2005, Colgate sold the under-performing brands Fab, Arctic Power, ABC, Cold Power and Fresh Start, as well as the license of the Ajax brand for laundry detergents in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, to Phoenix Brands, LLC as part of their plan to focus on their higher margin oral and pet care products.
In 2006, Colgate-Palmolive announced the intended acquisition of Tom's of Maine, a leading maker of natural toothpaste, for US $100 million. Tom's of Maine was founded by Tom Chappell in 1970. Today, Colgate has numerous subsidiary organizations spanning 200 countries, but it is publicly listed in only two, the United States and India. On October 25, 2012, the company announced it would cut 2,310 workers, or 6% of its workforce, by the end of 2016 in a push to make the consumer products company more efficient; the company ranked 184th on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. In 1890, Madison University in New York State was renamed Colgate University in honor of the Colgate family following decades of financial support and involvement; the Colgate-Palmolive Company has sponsored a non-profit track meet open to women of all ages called the Colgate Women's Games. The Colgate Women's Games is the nation's largest amateur track series open to all girls from elementary school through college.
Held at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, competitors participate in preliminary meets and semi-finals over five weekends throughout January. Finalists compete for trophies and educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive Company at New York City's Madison Square Garden in February. For more than 20 years, the company supports the Starlight Children Foundation, a non profit organization dedicated to help ill children and their families; the mission is to help children to cope with pain and isolation through entertainment, family activities and education. In 2011, Colgate-Palmolive was one of the first companies recognized by PETA under the new "working for regulatory change" category for companies that test on animals only when mandated by government regulations and are seeking alternatives to animal testing; this relates to the corporation's decision to continue to participate in the profitable Chinese market, where some animal testing is still a regulatory requirement. Other ethical companies have chosen to decline entry to this market.
In 2006 Colgate-Palmolive acquired an 84% stake in Tom's of Maine. In 2011 the company chose to retain the use of the antibacterial agent triclosan in its market-leading Total toothpaste range, despite withdrawing it from several other product ranges, following concerns about triclosan's impact on health and t
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in Guangdong Province, China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status, with powers less than those of a province. Shenzhen, which follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County became a city in 1979, taking its name from the former county town, whose train station was the last stop on the Mainland Chinese section of the railway between Canton and Kowloon. In 1980, Shenzhen was established as China's first special economic zone. Shenzhen's registered population as of 2017 was estimated at 12,905,000. However, the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee estimates that the population of Shenzhen is about 20 million, due to the large unregistered floating migrant population living in the city. Shenzhen was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world in the 1990s and the 2000s and has been ranked second on the list of ‘top 10 cities to visit in 2019 by Lonely Planet. Shenzhen's cityscape results from its vibrant economy - made possible by rapid foreign investment following the institution of the policy of "reform and opening-up" in 1979.
The city is a leading global technology hub, dubbed by media as the next Silicon Valley. Shenzhen hosts the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as well as the headquarters of numerous multinational companies such as JXD, Hytera, CIMC, SF Express, Shenzhen Airlines, Hasee, Ping An Bank, Ping An Insurance, China Merchants Bank, Tencent, ZTE, Huawei, DJI and BYD. Shenzhen ranks 14th in the 2019 Global Financial Centres Index, it has one of the busiest container ports in the world. The earliest known recorded mention of the name Shenzhen could date from 1410, during the Ming Dynasty. Local Hakka people call the drains in paddy fields “zhen”. Shenzhen means “deep drains” as the area was once crisscrossed with rivers and streams, with deep drains within the paddy fields; the character 圳 is limited in distribution to an area of South China with its most northerly examples in Zhejiang Province which suggests an association with southwards migration during the Southern Song Dynasty. Due to the city's growing economy in the technological industry, the city has been referred by media as "China's Silicon Valley".
The earliest archaeological remains so far unearthed in the Shenzhen area are shards from a site at Xiantouling on Dapeng Bay, dating back to 5000 BC. From the Han dynasty onwards, the area around Shenzhen was a center of the salt monopoly, thus meriting special imperial protection. Salt pans are still visible around the Pearl River area to the west of the city and are commemorated in the name of Yantian District; the settlement at Nantou was the political center of the area from early antiquity. In the year 331 AD, six counties covering most of modern southeastern Guangdong were merged into one province or "jun" named Dongguan with its administrative center at Nantou; as well as being a center of the politically and fiscally critical salt trade, the area had strategic importance as a stopping off point for international trade. The main shipping route to India and the Byzantine Empire started at Guangzhou; as early as the eighth century, chronicles recorded the Nantou area as being a major commercial center, reported that all foreign ships in the Guangzhou trade would stop there.
It was as a naval defense center guarding the southern approaches to the Pearl River. Nantou was a major naval center at the mouth of the Pearl River in the Ming Dynasty. In this capacity it was involved in 1521 in the successful Chinese action against the Portuguese Fleet under Fernão Pires de Andrade; this battle, called the Battle of Tunmen, was fought in the straits between Shekou and Nei Lingding Island. This area was involved in the events surrounding the end of the Southern Song dynasty; the imperial court, fleeing Kublai Khan’s forces, established itself in the Shenzhen area. Lu Xiufu, the then-chief minister, realized all was lost and knew the Mongolian forces would soon take over the area, he preferred suicide instead of the emperor being captured which might have brought shame to the dynasty, he jumped off a cliff with Emperor Bing, aged 7, the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty strapped to his back, killing both. In the late 19th century the Chiu or Zhao clan in Hong Kong identified that Chiwan, an area near Shekou as the final resting place of the Emperor and built a tomb for him.
The tomb, since restored, is still at the same location. Contrary to a common misconception of Shenzhen being a fishing village prior to becoming a city, Shenzhen was a regional market town, the county town of Bao'an since 1953. In November 1979, Bao'an County was promoted to prefecture level, directly governed by Guangdong province, it was renamed Shenzhen, after Shenzhen town. The administrative centre of the county stood around present location of the Dongmen. Shenzhen was singled out to be the first of the five Special Economic Zones in May 1980; the SEZ comprised an area of only 327.5 km2 of southern Shenzhen, covering the current Luohu, Futian and Yantian districts. The SEZ was promoted by Deng Xiaoping and created to be an experimental ground for the practice of market capitalism within a community guided by the ideals of "socialism with Chinese characteristics". In 1982 Bao'an County was re-established; the county was converted to become Bao'an District, out of the Special Economic Zone.
Shenzhen was promoted to a Sub-provincial City in March 1983 and w
Staples Center
Staples Center stylized as STAPLES Center, is a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L. A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street; the arena opened on October 17, 1999, is one of the major sporting facilities in the Greater Los Angeles Area. It is owned and operated by the Arturo L. A. Arena Company and Anschutz Entertainment Group; the arena is home to the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association. The Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League and the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA D-League were tenants. Staples Center is host to over 250 events and nearly 4 million guests each year, it is the only arena in the NBA shared by two teams, as well as one of only two North American professional sports venues to host two teams from the same league.
The Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park will host both the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams beginning in 2020. Staples Center is the venue of the Grammy Awards ceremony and will host the basketball competition during the 2028 Summer Olympics. Staples Center measures 950,000 square feet of total space, with a 94-foot by 200-foot arena floor, it stands 150 feet tall. The arena seats up to 19,067 for basketball, 18,340 for ice hockey, around 20,000 for concerts or other sporting events. Two-thirds of the arena's seating, including 2,500 club seats, are in the lower bowl. There are 160 luxury suites, including 15 event suites, on three levels between the lower and upper bowls; the arena's attendance record is held by the fight between World WBA Welterweight Champion, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley with a crowd of 20,820 set on January 25, 2009. Star PlazaOutside the arena at the Star Plaza are statues of Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson, although both played at The Forum, where the Kings and Sparks played.
A third statue of boxer Oscar De La Hoya was unveiled outside Staples Center on December 1, 2008. On April 20, 2010 a fourth statue of the late long time Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn, behind a Laker desk with a chair for fans to sit down for a picture, was unveiled. A fifth statue of the Laker legend Jerry West dribbling was unveiled on February 17, 2011. A sixth statue of Lakers player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was unveiled on November 16, 2012. A seventh statue of former Kings' Hall of Fame left wing Luc Robitaille was unveiled on March 7, 2015. An eighth statue of Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal was unveiled on March 24, 2017. On January 13, 2018 a ninth statue, of legendary Kings announcer Bob Miller, was unveiled. A tenth statue of Laker legend Elgin Baylor was unveiled on April 6, 2018. Secret tunnelOn January 15, 2018, in the aftermath of an NBA basketball game between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers, point guard Chris Paul made the best of playing in Staples Center for 6 years by utilizing a secret tunnel to confront former Clipper teammates Austin Rivers and Blake Griffin.
The final score of the game was 102-113. He was joined with teammates such as Trevor Ariza, James Harden, Gerald Green to confront the opponents, which only resulted in verbal altercations; the Staples Center has been referred to as "the deal that wasn't " Long before construction of the Staples Center broke ground, plans for the arena were negotiated between elected city officials, real estate developers Ed Roski of Majestic Realty and Philip Anschutz. They had acquired the hockey team the Los Angeles Kings in 1995 and were in the beginning of 1996 looking for a new home for their team, which played at the Forum in Inglewood. Majestic Realty Co. in conjunction with AEG were scouring the Los Angeles area for available land to develop an arena when they were approached by Steve Soboroff president of LA Recreation and Parks Commission. Mr. Soboroff requested that they consider building the arena in downtown Los Angeles adjacent to the convention center; the proposal intrigued Roski and Anschutz and soon a plan to develop the arena, the current Staples Center, was devised.
Months of negotiations ensued between Philip Anschutz and city officials with Ed Roski and John Semcken of Majestic Realty Co. spearheading the negotiations for the real estate developers. The negotiations grew contentious at times and the real estate developers threatened to pull out altogether on more than one occasion; the main opposition came from Councilman Joel Wachs, opposed utilizing public funds to subsidizing the proposed project and councilwoman Rita Walters, who objected parts of it. The developers and city leaders reached an agreement and in 1997, construction broke ground and Staples Center opened a year later, it was financed at a cost of US$375 million and is named for the office-supply company Staples, Inc., one of the center's corporate sponsors that paid for naming rights. The arena opened on October 17, 1999, with a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concert as its inaugural event. On October 21, 2009, Staples Center celebrated its 10th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, the venue's official web site nominated 25 of the arena's greatest moments from its first ten years with fans voting on the top ten.
During the late summer of 2010, modifications were made to
Elina Svitolina
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Kristina Mladenovic
From 1984 to 1998, the final match in singles was uniquely held in a best-of-five-sets format.
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