A little bit of history:

New York was discovered in 1524 by an Italian seafarer named Giovanni Da Verazzano. At this time the island was called Manna-hatta ("island of hills") and was inhibited by an indian tribe, the Algonquins.
In 1624 the first Dutch settlers started to colonize the island. They fixed their business establishment at the place they called "Nieuw Amsterdam".
Two years later, the first governor, Peter Minuit, bought the island and gave the indians some worthless stuff like glass pearls for it.
The Dutch settlers worked hard to make living in New Amsterdam a little bit more comfortable. They flatted the land, built canals and prepared the ground to plant wheat and fruits on it.
But also the British people wanted the island for their business. And so, after some wars, Charles II gave New Amsterdam to his brother, the Duke of York. So New Amsterdam was now called "New York".
Now New York began to bloom. The maritim trade was expanded, the first newspaper, the New York Gazette was published in 1725, and today's Columbia University was founded in 1754. And New York became a very important seaport.
But soon after the Declaration of Independence, the British had to give up the island.
From 1785 to 1790 New York became the Capitol for the United States, followed by Philadelphia.
in 1789 George Washington became the first president of the United States. In the new Federal Hall of New York he was sworn in.
About this time the first bank was built and also the first stock exchange was opened.
Manhattan expanded in the North, because of the two rivers in the East and the West. So a lot of new municipal districts developed. At our times only a few buildings are left from that time.
In 1811 the "Randal Plan" was approved, which said that New York had to be separated by this lattice-like streetnet into more than 2000 blocks.
The in 1825 opened Erie-Canal connected the town with the US inland sea. In the middle of the century New York was the richest town in the country. Everywhere new factories where founded and the richer people moved to the outskirts. At this time the town had more than 150 000 residents.
In the middle of the 19th century a lot of European people immigrated, most of them came from Germany and Ireland. But also former slaves moved to the North to live in freedom. In 17 years almost 3 million immigrants reached the harbor of New York. Most of the stayed in New York and epidemics and fire disasters were the results.
In 1858 the Central Park was planned. Many houses, hotels and department stores were built. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library and the Carnegie Hall opened in 1880 and three years later the Brooklyn Bridge was finished.
In 1886 the Lady of Liberty, a gift from France and today's landmark, was erected. Because of a new wave of immigrants at the end of the 19th century, Ellis island was opened to make dispatch of the immigrants easier.
In 1902 the first skyscraper was finished. It was the Flatiron Building, which is only 76 meters high.
Ten years later New York was the town with the highest number of residents: 6 million people lived there.
A lot of other skyscrapers were built like the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center.
Since 1919 alcohol was prohibited and so a lot of "Speakeasies" were founded; pubs where the people could drink alcohol secretly. Very popular was the Cotton Club in Harlem.
After the Wall Street Crash in 1929 New York, like the rest of the world, entered a state of crisis. Thousands of people were jobless and lived in slums.
About 1935 the government took hard steps against this situation. They created thousands of new jobs and supported a great number of projects from arts to architecture.
Many new buildings were finished after the second world war, like the headquarter of the UNO, the Idlewind Airport (now J.F.K. Airport), the Lever Building, the Seagram Building, the Lincoln Center and the World Trade Center.
In 1989 David Dinkins became the first black mayor of New York, and the probably most popular mayor was Rudolph Giuliani. Today's mayor is Michael Bloomberg.

The most shocking event in New York City's recent history was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, in which thousands of people lost their lives. Now, more than two years later, Ground Zero is getting a new face. Architects from all over the world submitted their plans for a worthy memorial. To take a look at the projects that made it into the final round and for a lot more photos of New York, please click here.