Minneapolis

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Opened... in 1982, it replaced Metropolitan Stadium, which was on the current site of the Mall of America in Bloomington and Memorial Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. The Metrodome was home to the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, and the Big Ten's University of Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team through 2010 and 2012, respectively. The stadium was also the home of the Minnesota Twins from 1982 to 2009, the Minnesota Timberwolves in their 1989-1990 inaugural season and the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008. The football playing field has been known as Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome since October 2009. The stadium is the ninth oldest stadium in the National Football League. Locally, it has several nicknames such as: "The Dome"., "the Thunderdome" and "The Homer Dome". The stadium has a fiberglass fabric roof that is self-supported by air pressure, and is the second major sports facility to have this feature .
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The Target Center is an arena in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is sponsored by Target Corporation. The arena has a capacity of 20,500 people.... It contains 702 club seats and 68 suites. The center is home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx and the LFL's Minnesota Valkyrie. The facility has also hosted RHI and Arena Football League teams in the past. The Timberwolves originally built and owned the arena in 1990. The City of Minneapolis purchased the arena in 1995, although management has changed hands a few times. The management was changed in May 2004 from Clear Channel Entertainment to Midwest Entertainment Group, a joint venture of the Timberwolves and Nederlander Concerts. On May 2, 2007 AEG Facilities assumed the Management contract of Target Center. The city of Minneapolis owns the arena and AEG Facilities manages day to day operations. In 2004, Target Center underwent a major renovation that saw the replacement of all 19,006 of its original seats plus the addition of nearly 1,500 new seats as well as the reconfiguration of the lower bowl to make the arena more fan-friendly.
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The Foshay Tower, now the W Minneapolis – The Foshay hotel, is a skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Modeled after the Washington Monument,... the building was completed in 1929, months before the stock market crash in October of that year. It has 32 floors and stands 447 feet high, plus an antenna mast that extends the total height of the structure to 607 feet . The building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, is an example of Art Deco architecture. Its address is 821 Marquette Avenue, although it is set well back from the street and is actually closer to 9th Street than Marquette. The Foshay Tower marked a significant landmark locally in the push skyward, as the tower was the first in the city to surpass the height of Minneapolis City Hall, completed in 1906. It remained the tallest building in Minneapolis until the IDS Center surpassed it in 1972. As the building was designed to echo the Washington Monument, the sides of the building slope slightly inward, and each floor of the Foshay Tower is slightly smaller than the one below it.
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The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Depot Freight House and Train Shed , now officially named The Depot, is a historic railroad depot in... downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad had a long history in the Minneapolis area, beginning in 1865 when a predecessor railroad, the Minnesota Central, built a line from Mendota to Minneapolis. The Minnesota Central also built a line from Mendota to St. Paul in that early era. Eventually, rail lines connected Minneapolis and St. Paul with Milwaukee, Wisconsin via Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The freight house and the first depot were built in 1879 with an Italianate architectural style. The first depot was razed after a new facility, with Renaissance Revival architecture, was built in 1899. Originally, the facility's most distinguishing feature, the clock tower, was pinnacled and modeled after the Giralda in Seville, Spain; high winds destroyed the pinnacle in 1941 and the tower has since had a flat top. The freight house served a large percentage of less-than-carload freight arriving and departing from the Minneapolis area.
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The Museum of Russian Art is a museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota that houses a collection of Russian art from the 20th century, especially Soviet... art. Additionally, it often hosts temporary exhibitions of art and artifacts with more general connections to Russian-speaking world. The museum was incorporated as a 501-3 non-profit corporation in 2001. It commenced exhibition activities open to the public in 2002, initially in loaned space in a corporate office park located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The organization initially showcased Russian Realist-style paintings from the late 19th century as well as from the Soviet era . The museum received initial funding from Minnesota residents Raymond and Susan Johnson, who had established an extensive personal collection of Russian art and artifacts. It was initially managed by Bradford Shinkle from its founding in 2001 until his retirement in 2008. Both Johnson and Shinkle have multiple connections to Russian culture.
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Kirby Puckett was a Major League Baseball center fielder. He played his entire 12-year baseball career with the Minnesota Twins and he is the Twins... franchise's all-time leader in career hits, runs, doubles, and total bases. At the time of his retirement, his .318 career batting average was the highest by any right-handed American League batter since Joe DiMaggio. Puckett was the fourth baseball player during the 20th century to record 1,000 hits in his first five full calendar years in Major League Baseball, and was the second to record 2,000 hits during his first ten full calendar years. After being forced to retire at age 35 due to loss of vision in one eye from a central retinal vein occlusion, Puckett was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility. Puckett was born and raised in Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project on Chicago's South Side , before attending and playing baseball for Calumet High School.
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Sean Michael Waltman is an American professional wrestler currently signed with WWE in their developmental program. He wrestled there under the ring... names 1–2–3 Kid and X-Pac off and on from 1993–2002, World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Syxx, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Syxx-Pac and also under his real name. Waltman is the only wrestler in history to have held the TNA X Division Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, and the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship. Waltman is a member of the group known in wrestling as The Kliq, which also consists of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall. After being trained by former professional wrestling brothers Boris and Joe Malenko, Waltman began his career as The Lightning Kid, working his way through various independent organizations such as Pro Wrestling America and the Global Wrestling Federation , winning the PWA Light Heavyweight title, the PWA Iron Horse TV Title and the GWF Light Heavyweight Championship. Throughout the early part of his career, Waltman worked extensively with wrestler Jerry Lynn in both North America and Japan.
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Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr. Kildare in several movies,... which was apt since originally he had studied medicine at the University of Arizona. Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and reared in San Diego, California. Ayres began acting in bit player roles in films in 1927. He was discovered that year playing banjo in the Henry Halstead Orchestra as Halstead was recording one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival Night in Paris . Ayres wrote, "I was a member of Henry Halstead's orchestra in 1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego, California for the summer. My instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Year's Eve the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a memorable occasion." Ayres played opposite Greta Garbo in 1929's The Kiss, but it was his leading role in 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front which made him a star.
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Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung... in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice. Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age. In a 1968 interview on the Tonight Show, Khaury described the discovery of his ability to sing in an upper register in 1952: "I was listening to the radio and singing along as I was singing I said 'Gee, it's strange. I can go up high as well.'" He then entered a local talent show and sang "You Are My Sunshine" in his newly discovered falsetto. He started using the stage name Tiny Tim in 1962 when his manager at the time, George King, booked him at a club that favored acts by performers short in stature.
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Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator. Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade... and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet." His career in journalism was begun by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards. Joining the Vaudeville News in 1920, Winchell left the paper for the Evening Graphic in 1924, and in turn was hired on June 10, 1929 by the New York Daily Mirror where he finally became a the author of what would be the first syndicated gossip column, entitled On-Broadway. Using connections in the entertainment, social, and governmental realms, he would expose exciting or embarrassing information about celebrities in those industries. This caused him to become very feared, as a journalist, because he would routinely impact the lives of famous or powerful people, exposing alleged information and rumors about them, using this as ammunition to attack his enemies, and to blackmail influential people. He used this power, trading positive mention in his column for more rumors and secrets.
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Joshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the... television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax. That same year, he received an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Male Performance. Hartnett gained fame for his role as Cpt Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor, and has starred since then for a variety of well-known directors such as Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Robert Rodriguez, Tran Anh Hung, Roland Joffé and Michael Bay. Hartnett was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was raised by his father, Daniel Hartnett, a building manager, and his stepmother, Molly, an artist. He has three younger half-siblings. He is of Irish ancestry and was raised Roman Catholic, attending Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Grade School, where he played Adam Apple in an eighth grade production of "Krazy Kamp". He later attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School before switching to South High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from which he graduated in June 1996.
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Charles Monroe Schulz , nicknamed Sparky, was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the... history of the medium and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul. He was the only child of Carl Schulz, who was born in Germany, and Dena Halverson, who was Norwegian. His uncle called him "Sparky" after the horse Spark Plug in Billy DeBeck's comic strip, Barney Google. Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, Spike, who ate unusual things, such as pins and tacks. Schulz drew a picture of Spike and sent it to Ripley's Believe It or Not!; his drawing appeared in Robert Ripley's syndicated panel, captioned, "A hunting dog that eats pins, tacks and razor blades is owned by C. F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn." and "Drawn by 'Sparky'" Schulz attended St. Paul's Richard Gordon Elementary School, where he skipped two half-grades.
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James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, actor, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th... Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. Ventura served as a Navy UDT during the Vietnam War. He later embarked on an 11-year professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking up the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the company's Hall of Fame in 2004. After leaving wrestling Ventura embarked on a successful film career, appearing in a number of films including 1987's Predator. Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991 to 1995. He ran as the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that implored citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". The campaign was successful, and Ventura served from January 4, 1999, to January 6, 2003, without seeking a second term.
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Sean Michael Waltman is an American professional wrestler currently signed with WWE in their developmental program. He wrestled there under the ring... names 1–2–3 Kid and X-Pac off and on from 1993–2002, World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Syxx, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Syxx-Pac and also under his real name. Waltman is the only wrestler in history to have held the TNA X Division Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, and the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship. Waltman is a member of the group known in wrestling as The Kliq, which also consists of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall. After being trained by former professional wrestling brothers Boris and Joe Malenko, Waltman began his career as The Lightning Kid, working his way through various independent organizations such as Pro Wrestling America and the Global Wrestling Federation , winning the PWA Light Heavyweight title, the PWA Iron Horse TV Title and the GWF Light Heavyweight Championship. Throughout the early part of his career, Waltman worked extensively with wrestler Jerry Lynn in both North America and Japan.
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Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr. Kildare in several movies,... which was apt since originally he had studied medicine at the University of Arizona. Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and reared in San Diego, California. Ayres began acting in bit player roles in films in 1927. He was discovered that year playing banjo in the Henry Halstead Orchestra as Halstead was recording one of the earliest Vitaphone movie shorts called Carnival Night in Paris . Ayres wrote, "I was a member of Henry Halstead's orchestra in 1927 at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego, California for the summer. My instruments were tenor banjo, long-neck banjo and guitar. After a hiatus, I rejoined Mr. Halstead with a new group, including Phil Harris, on New Year's Eve the same year for the opening night of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a memorable occasion." Ayres played opposite Greta Garbo in 1929's The Kiss, but it was his leading role in 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front which made him a star.
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George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which... both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Other notable films are Slaughterhouse-Five, The World According to Garp, The World of Henry Orient, Hawaii, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Great Waldo Pepper, Slap Shot, Funny Farm, A Little Romance with Laurence Olivier, and The Little Drummer Girl. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to George Roy and Helen Frances Owens Hill, part of a well-to-do Roman Catholic family with interests in the newspaper business; the family owned the Minneapolis Tribune. Hill was no relation to George W. Hill, director and cinematographer of numerous silent movies and early sound films in the 1920s and early 1930s. He was educated at The Blake School, one of Minnesota's most prestigious private schools. He had a love of flying. After school, he liked to visit the airport and his hobby was to memorize the records of World War I flying aces. He idolized U.S.
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Sidney "Sid" Gillman was an American football player, coach, executive, and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by... throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in making football into the modern game that it is today. Gillman played football as an end at Ohio State University from 1931 to 1933. He played professionally for one season in 1936 with the Cleveland Rams of the 1936 American Football League. After serving as an assistant coach at Ohio State from 1938 to 1940, Gillman was the head football coach at Miami University from 1944 to 1947 and at the University of Cincinnati from 1949 to 1954, compiling a career college football record of 81–19–2. He then moved to the ranks of coaching Professional Football, where he headed the NFL's Los Angeles Rams , the American Football League's Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers , and the NFL's Chargers , and Houston Oilers , amassing a career record of 123–104–7 in the National Football League and the American Football League.
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