Rockefeller Center will commemorate its 90th Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET. The decades-long holiday tradition dates back to 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression.
According to the Rockefeller Center website, Rockefeller Center workers at the time put their money together to buy a 20-foot tall Balsam Fir, adorned with garlands that were handmade by the workers' families, in hopes of lifting Christmas spirits. Two years later, Rockefeller Center chose to make the tree an annual holiday tradition – holding its first official lighting ceremony in 1933.
Over the years, each towering tree that lights up Midtown Manhattan has been unique. In 2022, the Rockefeller Christmas tree is a 14-ton Norway Spruce that is 82 feet tall and 50-feet wide, according to the Rockefeller Center. It's decorated with more than 50,000 lights on five miles of wire and a stunning Swarovski star, weighing about 900 pounds and coated in 3 million crystals.
As 72-year-old Nonki Kunene walks through the corridors of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, South Africa, she recalls the joy she and many others felt 30 years ago when they voted for the first time. It was at this school on April 27, 1994 that Kunene joined millions of South Africans to brave long queues and take part in the country's first democratic elections after decades of white minority rule which denied Black people the right to vote. Like many things in South Africa, the school that Kunene remembers has changed, and what used to be a school hall has now been turned into several classrooms.
Mr. ORNG, a prominent Valley sports fan and high school basketball coach, has officially been fired from Peoria High School amid allegations of child sex crimes.
There’s a harrowing report about the collapse of the healthcare system in the troubled country. Plus, the final episode of Beyond Paradise. Here’s what to watch this evening
The Nuggets defeated the Lakers, 112-105. Aaron Gordon led the way for the Nuggets with a Playoff career-high 29 points and 15 rebounds, while Jamal Murray (22 points, 9 assists) and Nikola Jokic (24 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists) added a combined 46 points in the victory. Anthony Davis tallied 33 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers
Harvey Weinstein's landmark New York sexual assault conviction was thrown out by an appeals court Thursday, and most of the dozens of civil cases filed against him since he became a central target in the #MeToo movement in 2017 have either been settled or dismissed. Weinstein was found guilty in 2022 in Los Angeles of the rape and sexual assault of Italian actor and model Evgeniya Chernyshova, and his 16-year sentence in that case will keep him in prison despite the reversal of the New York verdict.