Houston

Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in... Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex. It opened in 1965 as Harris County Domed Stadium and was nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Major League Baseball expanded to Houston in 1960 when the National League agreed to add two teams. The Colt .45s were to begin play in 1962, along with their expansion brethren New York Mets. Roy Hofheinz, a former mayor of Houston, and his group were granted the franchise after they promised to build a covered stadium. It was thought a covered stadium was a must for a major-league team to be viable in Houston due to the area's subtropical climate and hot summers. Game-time temperatures are usually above 97 degrees in July and August, with high humidity, and a likelihood of rain. Hofheinz claimed inspiration for what would eventually become the Astrodome when he was on a tour of Rome, where he learned that the builders of the ancient Colosseum installed giant velaria to shield spectators from the Roman sun.
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The Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in downtown Houston, Texas. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is... home to the Rockets of the National Basketball Association, the principal owners of the building, and the Aeros of the American Hockey League. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander first began to request a new arena in 1995, and attempted to release the Rockets from their lease at The Summit, which ran until 2003. However, he was denied by arena owner Chuck Watson, then-owner of the Aeros, who also wanted control of a new arena. The two sides agreed to equal control over an arena in a deal signed in 1997, but the proposal was rejected by city voters in a 1999 referendum. It was not until the city and the Rockets signed an amended agreement in 2001, excluding the Aeros, that the proposal was accepted. Construction began in July 2001, and the new arena was officially opened in September 2003. The total costs were $235 million, with the city of Houston paying the majority, and the Rockets paying for enhancements. Toyota paid $100 million for the naming rights.
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Reliant Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, in Houston, Texas, USA. Reliant Stadium has a seating capacity of 71,500, a total square footage of... 1,900,000 square feet with 97,000 sq ft of natural grass playing surface. Reliant Stadium is part of a collection of venues , which are collectively called Reliant Park. The stadium was constructed at the cost of $352 million. Reliant Stadium is the first facility in the NFL to have a retractable roof. The entire complex is named for Reliant Energy under a 32-year, US$300 million naming rights deal in 2000. The stadium is the home of the National Football League's Houston Texans, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the Texas Bowl, host to many international soccer matches for the USA National Soccer Team, and other events. The stadium served as the host facility for Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004 and WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009. The Houston NFL Holdings group came to Populous to begin the schematic design for the first-ever NFL retractable roof football stadium in 1997.
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The Lakewood Church Central Campus is a house of worship in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located about five miles southwest of Downtown... Houston, next to the Greenway Plaza. From 1975-2003 the building served as a multi-purpose sports arena, for various professional teams in Houston. From its opening until 1998, the building was known as The Summit. Computer technology firm Compaq bought naming rights to the building after that and, until being leased to Lakewood Church in 2003, it was known as Compaq Center. In 1971, the National Basketball Association's San Diego Rockets were purchased by new ownership group Texas Sports Investments that moved the franchise to Houston. The city, however, lacked an indoor arena suitable to host a major sports franchise, so plans were immediately undertaken to construct the new venue that would become The Summit. The Rockets played their home games in various local facilities such as Hofheinz Pavilion and the Astrodome during the interim.
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The Houston Museum District is an association of museums, galleries, cultural centers and community organizations located in Houston, Texas,... dedicated to promoting the arts, sciences, and cultural amenities of the area. The Houston Museum District currently includes 18 museums that recorded a collective attendance of over 8.7 million in 2007. All of the museums offer hours with free admission, and 11 of the museums are free all the time. Bordered roughly by Rice University, the Neartown area and Texas Medical Center, the Museum District specifically refers to the area located within a 1.5-mile radius of the Mecom Fountain in Hermann Park. The Museum District is served by four stops on the METRORail, one specifically named for it and is easily accessible from US 59, State Highway 288 and Main Street. The beginnings of the Museum District are found in 1977, when it became apparent that some action needed to be taken to provide easier access to the museums of the area. This call for community improvement evolved into the non-profit Montrose Project by the mid-80s but changed into the Museum District Development Association of Houston shortly thereafter.
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The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas founded by John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel,... but also as a major work of modern art. On its walls are fourteen black but color hued paintings by Mark Rothko. The shape of the building, an octagon inscribed in a Greek cross, and the design of the chapel was largely influenced by the artist. Susan J. Barnes states "The Rothko Chapelbecame the world's first broadly ecumenical center, a holy place open to all religions and belonging to none. It became a center for international cultural, religious, and philosophical exchanges, for colloquia and performances. And it became a place of private prayer for individuals of all faiths" On September 16, 2000 the Rothko Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1964 Rothko was commissioned by John and Dominique de Menil to create a meditative space filled with his paintings. The works are site-specific, one of the requirements of the program.
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The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , located in Houston, is one of the largest museums in the United States. The permanent collection of the museum... spans more than 6,000 years of history with more than 62,000 works from six continents. The museum benefits the Houston community through programs, publications and media presentations. Each year, 1.25 million people benefit from museum's programs, workshops and resource centers. Of that total, more than 500,000 people participate in the community outreach programs The MFAH's permanent collection totals 63,718 pieces in 300,000 square feet of exhibition space, placing it among the larger art museums in the United States. The museum's collections and programs are housed in seven facilities. Main Campus The school offers classes at the Studio School for Adults and the Glassell Junior School, as well as Community Bridge Programs, special programs for youths, and the Core Artist-in-Residence Program. Other Facilities The Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston is the oldest art museum in Texas.
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Anna Nicole Smith was an American model, actress and television personality. Smith first gained popularity in Playboy, becoming the 1993 Playmate of... the Year. She modeled for clothing companies, including Guess jeans and Lane Bryant. Smith dropped out of high school and was married in 1985. Her highly publicized second marriage to oil business mogul J. Howard Marshall, 62 years her senior, resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, which she denied. Following Marshall's death, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate; her case, Marshall v. Marshall, reached the U.S. Supreme Court on a question of federal jurisdiction and again on a question of bankrutpcy court authority . She died on February 8, 2007 in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs. Within the final six months of her life, Smith was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel and the paternity and custody battle over her biological daughter Dannielynn.
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Mary Lou Retton is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic... all-around title, after 14 Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia,, of Italian heritage . Her father, Ronnie, operated a coal-industry transportation equipment business. She attended Fairmont Senior High School, but did not graduate. She competed in the Olympic games during her sophomore year. Retton lived in Houston, Texas until 2009, when her family returned to West Virginia. She is married to former Houston real estate developer Shannon Kelley, who now works for the Fairmont State University athletic department. Together they have four daughters: Shayla Rae Kelley , McKenna Lane Kelley , Skyla Brae Kelley , and Emma Jean Kelley . Inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television, Retton took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont. She was coached by Gary Rafaloski.
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Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television... commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in the The Lizzie McGuire Movie. With the success of the Lizzie McGuire franchise, she established herself as a teen idol. Duff subsequently ventured into motion pictures and has appeared in many successful films, including Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Duff has expanded her repertoire to include pop music and has released three RIAA-certified platinum albums. Metamorphosis, her debut studio album, was certified triple platinum. She followed it up with two more albums, Hilary Duff and Most Wanted, which were also certified platinum. In 2007, Duff released her third studio album, Dignity, which was certified gold and spawned her highest charting US single to date, "With Love". Best of Hilary Duff, a compilation of her greatest hits, was released in the last quarter of 2008.
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Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer , and chairman of the board of Amazon.com. Bezos was born in... Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen. His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas, and over the generations acquired a 25,000 acre ranch in Cotulla. Bezos' maternal grandfather was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. He retired early to the ranch, where Bezos spent many summers as a youth, working with him. At an early age, Bezos displayed a striking mechanical aptitude – as a toddler, he tried dismantling his crib with a screwdriver. Bezos was born to a teenage mother in Albuquerque. Her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year. When Jeff was five, she remarried, this time to Miguel Bezos. Miguel was born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States alone when he was fifteen years old, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque, married, and legally adopted Jeff. After the marriage, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon.
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Haylie Katherine Duff is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the older sister of actress and singer-songwriter Hilary Duff. She is... best known on her role as Sandy Jameson in the television series 7th Heaven, and as Annie Nelson in the made for television films Love Takes Wing and its sequel Love Finds a Home. Duff was born in Houston, Harris County, Texas. She is two and a half years older than her sister, Hilary. Duff's mother, Susan Colleen is a homemaker and film producer and producer of The Perfect Man and Material Girls , as well as the manager of her sister Hilary. Her father, Robert Erhard 'Bob' Duff, is a partner and owner in a chain of convenience stores with father John B. Duff and who resides at the family home in Houston to maintain the family's business. She began her acting career as an offshoot of her early dance training. Growing up in Texas, Duff began ballet at an early age. By age ten, Duff landed a role in the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company’s production of The Nutcracker.
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Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday... of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Although he reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombing in World War II, the Nuremberg trials, combat in the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran Hostage Crisis, and the murders of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and The Beatles musician John Lennon, he was known for extensive TV coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of a Moon-rock award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase "And that's the way it is," followed by the date on which the appearance is aired. Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the son of Helen Lena , and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite , a dentist.
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Eloise Broady is an American model and actress. She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the month in April, 1988. She is sometimes credited as:... Eloise Dejoria, Eloise Schmitt, Elois DeJoria or Eloise DeJoria. She is currently married to John Paul DeJoria.
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William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles... and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from Nothing". Alongside Tony Sheridan, Billy Preston was the only other musician to be credited on a Beatles recording after he was credited on the group's number-one hit, "Get Back", with the record title listed as The Beatles with Billy Preston. William Everett Preston was born on September 2, 1946 in Houston, Texas. At the age of three, the family moved to Los Angeles where Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother Robbie's lap. Noted as a child prodigy, by the age of ten, Preston was playing organ onstage backing several gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and Andrae Crouch. At twelve, he appeared in the Nat King Cole-starring W.C. Handy biopic, St. Louis Blues, playing Handy at a younger age; a year prior, he appeared on Cole's national TV show singing the Fats Domino hit, "Blueberry Hill".
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Ted Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original creator of the Three Stooges,... but had a successful stage and film career of his own. Healy was born Ernest Lea Nash on October 1, 1896 in Houston, Texas, and was known as Lee. In 1912, as teenagers, Nash and his childhood friend Harry Moses Horwitz joined the Annette Kellerman Diving Girls, a vaudeville act which included four boys. The work ended quickly, however, after an accident on stage. Nash and Howard then went their separate ways. Nash developed a vaudeville act and adopted the stage name Ted Healy. Healy's act was a hit, and he soon expanded his role as a comedian and master of ceremonies. He added performers to his stage show, including his new wife Betty. When some of his acrobats quit in 1922, Moe Howard answered the advertisement for replacements. Since Howard was no acrobat, Healy cast his old friend as a stooge .
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Ray Stricklyn was an American film actor, stage actor, television actor, soap opera star and publicist. His acting career took off with B-movie... Westerns that placed his boyish good looks playing opposite top talent of the time. Born in Houston, Texas, his father was a sign painter. At the age of 16 Ray Stricklyn auditioned for a part in the play Ah, Wilderness and was given the lead role. He went on to perform several roles for the Houston Little Theater. In 1950 he won a scholarship to a New York drama school. Two years later he made his Broadway début in A Climate of Eden by Moss Hart. George Seaton was in New York casting his film The Proud and the Profane and gave Stricklyn a one-scene role. He then moved to Los Angeles to further his film career. After his performance in Ten North Frederick , he was given a contract with 20th Century-Fox, but it wasn't renewed following The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker . His first lead role was as Jesse James in Young Jesse James . However, as the 1960s progressed he received fewer film roles and he returned to theatre work.
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Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of... the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name. Nesmith is notable as a songwriter, including "Different Drum" sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys, and as executive producer of the cult film Repo Man. In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long Elephant Parts. Nesmith was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Harris County, Texas in 1942. He was an only child; his parents, Warren Audrey Nesmith and Bette Nesmith Graham, divorced when their son was four. He and his mother moved to Dallas, Texas to be closer to her parents, sister, aunts and grandmother. Bette took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphics design, and developed very good secretarial skills, including shorthand, and, auspiciously, touch typing. When Nesmith was 13 his mother invented a typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper.
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Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television... commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in the The Lizzie McGuire Movie. With the success of the Lizzie McGuire franchise, she established herself as a teen idol. Duff subsequently ventured into motion pictures and has appeared in many successful films, including Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Duff has expanded her repertoire to include pop music and has released three RIAA-certified platinum albums. Metamorphosis, her debut studio album, was certified triple platinum. She followed it up with two more albums, Hilary Duff and Most Wanted, which were also certified platinum. In 2007, Duff released her third studio album, Dignity, which was certified gold and spawned her highest charting US single to date, "With Love". Best of Hilary Duff, a compilation of her greatest hits, was released in the last quarter of 2008.
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