Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened extremely early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations. Black Friday is not a federal holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation was made: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss ("in the red") from January through November, and "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or "in the black".For large retail chains like Walmart, their net income is positive starting from January 1, and Black Friday can boost their year to date net profit from $14 billion to $19 billion.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (except in states where opening on Thanksgiving is prohibited due to blue laws, such as Massachusetts where they still opened around midnight), prompting calls for a walkout among some workers. Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds, with annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out.

The states which have official public holidays for state government employees on "The Day After Thanksgiving" include California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.

The news media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year. In earlier years, this was not actually the case. In the period from 1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from fifth to tenth on the list of busiest shopping days, with the last Saturday before Christmas usually taking first place.In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004, when it ranked second (after Saturday, December 18).

Black Friday is popular as a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in order to maintain an edge, or to simply keep up with the competition. Such hours may include opening as early as 12:00 am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight. In 2010, Toys 'R' Us began their Black Friday sales at 10:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers, like Sears, Aéropostale, and Kmart, began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning, and ran them through as late as 11:00 pm Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2:00 am Saturday morning. Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.

The news media usually give heavy play to reports of Black Friday shopping and their implications for the commercial success of the Christmas shopping season, but the relationship between Black Friday sales and retail sales for the full holiday season is quite weak and may even be negative.

History

That the day after Thanksgiving is the "official" start of the holiday shopping season may be linked together with the idea of Santa Claus parades. Parades celebrating Thanksgiving often include an appearance by Santa at the end of the parade, with the idea that 'Santa has arrived' or 'Santa is just around the corner' because Christmas is always the next major holiday following Thanksgiving.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Santa or Thanksgiving Day parades were sponsored by department stores. These include the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, in Canada, sponsored by Eaton's, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsored by Macy's. Department stores would use the parades to launch a big advertising push. Eventually it just became an unwritten rule that no store would try doing Christmas advertising before the parade was over. Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season officially started.

Later on, the fact that this marked the official start of the shopping season led to controversy. In 1939, retail shops would have liked to have a longer shopping season, but no store wanted to break with tradition and be the one to start advertising before Thanksgiving. President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date for Thanksgiving one week earlier, leading to much anger by the public who wound up having to change holiday plans. Some even refused the change, resulting in the U.S. citizens celebrating Thanksgiving on two separate days. Some started referring to the change as Franksgiving.

Pepsi Center Denver

Pepsi Center (aka The Can) is a multi-purpose arena in Denver, Colorado, United States. The building is home to the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. When not in use by one of Denver's sports teams, the building frequently serves as a concert venue.

Pepsi Center was constructed as part of a large six-year sporting venue upgrade in Denver along with Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, and Sports Authority Field at Mile High (formerly Invesco Field at Mile High), home of the Denver Broncos. The complex was constructed to be readily accessible. The arena is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by a nearby exit off Interstate 25. A light rail station is on the western side of the complex.

Ground was broken for the arena on November 20, 1997, on the 4.6-acre (19,000 m2) site. Its completion in October 1999 was marked by a Celine Dion concert. Also included in the complex are a basketball practice facility used by the Nuggets, and the Blue Sky Grill, a restaurant accessible from within and outside the Center itself. The atrium of the building houses a suspended sculpture depicting various hockey and basketball athletes in action poses.

Before the construction of Pepsi Center, the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche played in McNichols Sports Arena, a building that has since been torn down to serve as a parking lot for nearby Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Coincidentally, prior to the Avalanche relocating to Denver, the then-Quebec Nordiques played at another arena to which Pepsi owned naming rights: the Colisée Pepsi.

Pepsi Center hosted the 2001 NHL All-Star Game, the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, and the 2005 NBA All-Star Game. From 2004–2006, the center hosted the Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's ice hockey Frozen Four West Regional was hosted on March 24 and March 25, 2007. The Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver was held in the parking lot from 2002 to 2006. In 2004, Denver, Colorado was selected as one of five cities in the U.S. to host the Dew Action Sports Tour, a new extreme sports franchise that began in 2005. Titled the Right Guard Open, the inaugural event was held at Pepsi Center from July 6–10. The Dew Action Sports returned to Denver for its second year in 2006 during July 13–16. During the week of July 2–8, 2007, the arena hosted the International Convention and Contests of the Barbershop Harmony Society, a men's singing organization.

The NCAA Men's ice hockey Frozen Four tournament was held at the arena on April 10 and April 12, 2008. Pepsi Center also hosted games of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in 2004, 2008 and 2011. In 2012, the NCAA Women's basketball Final Four was held here.

The arena also hosted the 2008 Democratic National Convention, although the party's presidential nominee, then-Senator Barack Obama, made his acceptance speech at the nearby INVESCO Field at Mile High. To prepare for the convention, Pepsi Center underwent large scale projects including electrical power increases and the installation of new transformers by Xcel Energy (which is the namesake of the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, which hosted the 2008 Republican National Convention the following week) and telecommunications wiring by Qwest. A backup generator was installed that has the capacity to power the entire city of Pueblo, Colorado. Roughly 12 miles (19 km) of optical fiber cables were installed for the massive communication needs of the convention.

On August 15, 2008, World Wrestling Entertainment booked an internationally televised event, WWE Raw, to take place at Pepsi Center on Monday, May 25, 2009. However, Denver Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke arranged a verbal agreement to book Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals between the Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers on the same date prior to the Nuggets actually earning a slot in the playoffs. Though a contract existed to hold the venue for the WWE event and only a verbal agreement granted the Nuggets the venue, Kroenke stood firm that the Nuggets game would take precedence.

WWE chairman Vince McMahon said, "Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25 date for a potential playoff game."

For the WWE event, Ticketmaster refused to refund their processing fee, thereby only giving fans a partial refund. The fee, however, is strictly charged by Ticketmaster alone and not WWE or KSE. On May 20, 2009, it was announced that the WWE event scheduled for Pepsi Center would be moved to Staples Center in Los Angeles, California (home of the Nuggets' Western Conference Finals opponent), and return to the Denver area for a non-televised event at the Denver Coliseum on August 7, 2009, with refunds for the original date made available at points of purchase.

The double-booking controversy was parlayed into a main-event match during the May 25 edition of Raw at Staples Center. In the match, the face team wearing Lakers jerseys (Batista, Montel Vontavious Porter, John Cena, Jerry Lawler & Mr. Kennedy) defeated the heel team wearing Nuggets jerseys (The Miz, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton & The Big Show) in a 10-man tag team match.

Birth of a Mile High City!

The City and County of is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is also the second most populous county in Colorado after El Paso County. Denver is a consolidated city and county located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile or 5,280 feet (1,609.3 m) above sea level, making it one of the highest major cities in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Union Station and is the temporal reference for the Mountain Time Zone.

Denver City was founded in November 1858 as a mining town during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush in western Kansas Territory. That summer, a group of gold prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas, arrived and established Montana City on the banks of the South Platte River. This was the first settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria (named after the gold mining town of Auraria, Georgia), and St. Charles City.

On November 22, 1858, General William Larimer, a land speculator from eastern Kansas Territory, placed cottonwood logs to stake a claim on the bluff overlooking the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, across the creek from the existing mining settlement of Auraria, and on the site of the existing townsite of St. Charles. Larimer named the town site Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped that the town's name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County, but unknown to him Governor Denver had already resigned from office. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park in downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, with the intention of creating a major city that would cater to new emigrants. Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading.

The Denver area, part of the Territory of Kansas, was sparsely settled until the late 1850s. Occasional parties of prospectors came looking for gold, then moved on. In July 1858, Green Russell and Sam Bates found a small placer deposit near the mouth of Little Dry Creek (in the present-day suburb of Englewood) that yielded about 20 troy ounces (620 g) of gold, the first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. News spread rapidly and by autumn, hundreds of men were working along the South Platte River. By spring 1859, tens of thousands of gold seekers arrived and the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was under way. In the following two years, about 100,000 gold seekers flocked to the region.

In the summer of 1858 a group from Lawrence, Kansas, arrived and established Montana City on the banks of the South Platte River (modern-day Grant-Frontier Park). This was the first settlement in what would become the Denver Metropolitan Area. The site faded quickly due to poor findings by miners and most of the settlers and some structures moved north to the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek and formed a new settlement named St. Charles. The location was accessible to existing trails and had previously been the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

In October 1858, five weeks after the founding of St. Charles, the town of Auraria was founded by William Greeneberry Russell and party of fellow settlers from Georgia on the south side of Cherry Creek. The town, named for the gold mining settlement of Auraria, Georgia, was formed in response to the high cost of land in St. Charles and gave away lots to anyone willing to build and live there. A post office was opened in Auraria in January 1859 serving the 50 cabins that had already been constructed.

Capitol Hill Denver

Located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, the Capitol Hill neighborhood is bounded by Broadway, Downing Street, Colfax Avenue, and Seventh Avenue, which carry large volumes of traffic around the neighborhood. It is technically located in East Denver which begins immediately east of Broadway, the neighborhood's western boundary. Many consider the Cheesman Park neighborhood to be a part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but as defined by the city , Cheesman Park is a separate neighborhood. Denver also recognizes a statistical neighborhood called North Capitol Hill, but this is called Uptown by many residents. Colfax Avenue is the border between these two neighborhoods.

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is located just southeast of Denver's Central Business District (CBD) in a well-established residential neighborhood, with commercial centers located along major traffic routes (such as Colfax Avenue and Broadway) and interior arterials (such as East 13th and 14th Avenues). The neighborhood is directly east of the Civic Center neighborhood and the Colorado State Capitol. Over 95% of this neighborhood is developed. The average year of construction for buildings is 1920, with some of the oldest single-family homes in the city. The characteristics of Capitol Hill are closely related to other east Denver neighborhoods, which include the hospital district and the North Capitol Hill neighborhood. Public transportation and city support services are readily available. 

Neighborhood Boundaries:

North - Colfax Avenue

South - Seventh Avenue

East - Downing Street

West – Broadway

Capitol Hill is Denver's most densely populated neighborhood. It was once the home of Denver's elite and origination of American Foursquare architecture. Today it consists of historic mansions, apartments and condo buildings. Because of the concentration of multi-family uses and the urban character of the neighborhood, parking is at a premium. The area is strongly influenced by the Colorado State Capitol and Downtown Denver which is adjacent to the northwest boundary of the neighborhood. Commercial uses are typically located on major arterials such as Colfax Avenue, East 8th Avenue, East 14th Avenue, East 13th Avenue, Lincoln Street and Broadway. A considerable number of mansion properties have been converted to office uses over the past several years due to zoning exemptions offered to historic structures which are zoned for residential uses. Office development in the neighborhood is primarily concentrated in the northwest portion of the neighborhood with small professional offices located throughout the neighborhood.

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is influenced by its proximity to the Colorado State Capitol, Downtown and its northern boundary, East Colfax Avenue.

Capitol Hill is one of the most cosmopolitan neighborhoods in Denver, well known as a haven for artists and bohemians. There are numerous restaurants, clubs, bars, stores, concert venues, and other cultural amenities in the community. East 13th Avenue is the center of Denver's punk community with the punk club Bender's, as well as various stores that cater to punks and hipsters. Colfax Avenue has a reputation for a wild nightlife with two concert venues (The Fillmore and the Ogden), and numerous late-night bars, coffeeshops, restaurants, stores and clubs on the street. During the day, lobbyists and politicians from the Colorado State Capitol can be seen making deals in the restaurants and bars of the neighborhood.

Capitol Hill is also known as a gay-friendly neighborhood and is sometimes categorized as a gay village. The annual PrideFest gay pride parade goes through the neighborhood.

Capitol Hill is next to two major Denver parks, Civic Center Park and Cheesman Park. Both of these are meeting centers for the community; they host many festivals, including the Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods-sponsored People's Fair in early June.

Capitol Hill has had a long bohemiam reputation with the Colburn Hotel on Grant Street being a one time residence of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg.

Capitol Hill is one of many neighborhoods in central Denver in a gentrification phase. The neighborhood was originally the home of Denver's elite who constructed elaborate mansions. As the economy of Denver slumped after the Silver Crash of 1893, construction in Capitol Hill concentrated on apartments. Three buildings still in existence are examples of the architecture of this time: The Colonnade, Alta Court (currently an office building), and the Hamilton. This cultural and demographic shift, from single-family mansions toward boarding houses and rental property for the transient middle class, marked a shift toward the present multi-family dominance of the neighborhood.

Capitol Hill remained a solid middle-class neighborhood until after World War II, when middle-class families left Capitol Hill. The demographics of people left behind were transients and renters.

Another watershed in the history of Capitol hill was the completion of Interstate 70. No longer did incoming tourists drive down East Colfax Avenue on their way into downtown. The tourist dollar was effectively wiped out as a revenue source for East Colfax after this decade. So began another downward spiral. With no tourists to spend money along East Colfax the businesses suffered, as did the demand to go to Capitol Hill.

The affordability, urban character and eclectic architecture made the area appealing to young bohemians, artists, musicians (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were former neighborhood residents) which has led to a gradual gentrification that reached its height during the 2000s. The rents in the neighborhood have increased significantly over the past decade, and many of the cheap apartments in the area have been converted into more expensive condominiums. Nonetheless the neighborhood has an older housing stock which lacks off-street parking, contributing to a relative affordability compared to other central neighborhoods.

Currently many portions of East Colfax Avenue are undergoing redevelopment to make them denser and more pedestrian-friendly. Despite these redevelopment efforts, a brief stroll along Colfax Avenue through the Capitol Hill neighborhood will provide a glimpse of its history.

Finally, Capitol Hill is also well known for its crime, particularly the sale and common use of drugs in the neighborhood. Recently drug sales have decreased in the neighborhood as policing initiatives brought down the crime rate and hastened the ongoing gentrification. The crime rate in the Capitol Hill neighborhood is at 114 incidents per 1,000 persons, well above the national and city averages.

Culture and contemporary life of Denver!

Apollo Hall opened quickly after the city's founding in 1859 and staged many plays for eager settlers. In the 1880s Horace Tabor built Denver's first Opera House. After the start of the 20th century, city leaders embarked on a city beautification program that created many of the city's parks, parkways, museums, and the Municipal Auditorium, which was home to the 1908 Democratic National Convention and is now known as the Ellie CaulkinsOpera House. Denver and the metropolitan areas around it continued to support culture. In 1988, voters in the Denver Metropolitan Area approved the Scientific and Cultural Facilities Tax (commonly known as SCFD), a 1 cent sales tax that contributes money to various cultural and scientific facilities and organizations throughout the Metro area. The tax was renewed by voters in 1994 and 2004 and allows the SCFD to operate until 2018.

Denver is home to many nationally recognized museums, including a new wing for the Denver Art Museum by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the second largest Performing arts center in the nation after Lincoln Center in New York City and bustling neighborhoods such as LoDo, filled with art galleries, restaurants, bars and clubs. That is part of the reason why Denver was recently recognized for the third year in a row as the best city for singles. Denver's neighborhoods also continue their influx of diverse people and businesses while the city's cultural institutions grow and prosper. The city acquired the estate of abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still in 2004 and plans to build a museum to exhibit his works near the Denver Art Museum by 2010. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science currently holds an aquamarine specimen valued at over one million dollars, as well as specimens of the state mineral, rhodochrosite. Every September the Colorado Convention Center at 451 E. 58th Avenue hosts a gem and mineral show.

While Denver may not be as recognized for historical musical prominence as some other American cities, it still manages to have a very active pop, jazz, jam, folk, and classical music scene, which has nurtured several artists and genres to regional, national, and even international attention. Of particular note is Denver's importance in the folk scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Well-known folk artists such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and John Denver lived in Denver at various points during this time, and performed at local clubs. Also, three members of the widely popular group Earth, Wind, and Fire are from Denver. More recent Denver-based artists include The Lumineers, Air Dubai, The Fray, Flobots, Cephalic Carnage, Axe Murder Boyz, Deuce Mob, and Five Iron Frenzy.

Because of its proximity to the mountains, and generally sunny weather, Denver has gained a reputation as being a very active, outdoor oriented city. Many Denver residents spend the weekends in the mountains; either skiing in the winter or hiking, climbing, kayaking and camping in the summer.

Additionally, Denver and the surrounding cities of the Front Range are home to a large number of local and national breweries. Many restaurants in the region have on-site breweries, and some of the larger brewers, including Coors and the New Belgium Brewing Company, offer tours. The city also welcomes visitors from around the world when it hosts the annual Great American Beer Festival each fall.

Denver used to be a major trading center for beef and livestock when ranchers would drive (or later transport) cattle to the Denver Union Stockyards for sale. As a celebration of that history, each year for more than a century, Denver hosts the National Western Stock Show, attracting as many as 10,000 animals and 700,000 attendees. The National Western Stock Show is held every January at the National Western Complex, northeast of downtown.

Denver hosts four large Mexican American celebrations: Cinco de Mayo (with over 500,000 attendees),in May, El Grito de la Independencia, in September, the annual Lowrider show, and the Dia De Los Muertos art shows/events in North Denver's Highland neighborhood, and the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the original section of West Denver.

Denver is also famous for its dedication to New Mexican cuisine and the Chile. It's best known for its Green and Red Chile sauce, Colorado Burrito, Southwest (Denver) Omelette, Breakfast Burrito, Chiles rellenos, and Tamales most notably. Denver has a very large population of Mexican Americans (one of the country's largest), and is famous for many other southwest cuisine dishes as well. Denver is also well known for other types of food such as, Rocky Mountain oysters, Rainbow trout, and the Denver sandwich.

The Dragon Boat Festival in July, Moon Festival in September and Chinese New Year are annual events in Denver for the Chinese and Asian residents. Chinese hot pot (huo guo) and Korean BBQ restaurants have been growing in popularity. The Denver area has 2 Chinese newspapers, the Chinese American Post and the Colorado Chinese News.

Denver is also the setting for The Bill Engvall Show, and the setting for the 18th season of MTV's The Real World. It was also the setting for the prime time drama Dynasty from 1981 to 1989 (although the show was mostly filmed in Los Angeles). From 1998 to 2002, the city's Alameda East Veterinary Hospital was home to the Animal Planet series Emergency Vets, which spun off three one-off documentary specials and the current Animal Planet series E-Vet Interns. The city is also the setting for the Disney Channel Original TV Show, Good Luck Charlie, which is currently in its third season.

The Denver Economy

The Denver MSA has a gross metropolitan product of $157.6 billion in 2010, making it the 18th largest metro economy in the United States. Denver's economy is based partially on its geographic position and its connection to some of the major transportation systems of the country. Because Denver is the largest city within 500 miles (800 km), it has become a natural location for storage and distribution of goods and services to the Mountain States, Southwest states, as well as all western states. Another benefit for distribution is that Denver is nearly equidistant from large cities of the Midwest, such as Chicago and St. Louis and some large cities of the West Coast, such as Los Angeles and San Diego. Over the years, the city has been home to other large corporations in the central United States, making Denver a key trade point for the country. Several well-known companies originated in or have relocated to Denver.

William Ainsworth opened the Denver Instrument Company in 1895 to make analytical balances for gold assayers. Its factory is now in Arvada. AIMCO (NYSE: AIV) the largest owner and operator of apartment communities in the United States, with approximately 870 communities comprising nearly 136,000 units in 44 states, is headquartered in Denver, employing approximately 3,500 people. Also Samsonite Corp., the world's largest luggage manufacturer, began in Denver in 1910 as Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company but Samsonite closed its NE Denver factory in 2001, and moved its headquarters to Massachusetts after a change of ownership in 2006. The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, founded in Denver in 1911, is now a part of telecommunications giant CenturyLink. MediaNews Group purchased the Denver Post in 1987; the company is based in Denver. The Gates Corporation, the world's largest producer of automotive belts and hoses, was established in S. Denver in 1919. Russell Stover Candies Inc. made its first chocolate candy in Denver in 1923, but moved to Kansas City in 1969.

The Wright & McGill Company has been making its Eagle Claw brand of fishing gear in NE Denver since 1925. The original Frontier Airlines began operations at Denver's old Stapleton International Airport in 1950. Frontier was reincarnated at DIA in 1994. Scott's Liquid Gold, Inc., has been making furniture polish in Denver since 1954. Village Inn restaurants began as a single pancake house in Denver in 1958. Big O Tires, LLC, of Centennial opened its first franchise in 1962 in Denver. The Shane Company sold its first diamond jewelry in 1971 in Denver. Johns Manville Corp., a manufacturer of insulation and roofing products, relocated its headquarters to Denver from New York in 1972. CH2M HILL Inc., an engineering and construction firm, relocated from Oregon to the Denver Technological Center in 1980. The Ball Corporation sold its glass business in Indiana in the 1990s and moved to suburban Broomfield. Ball has several operations in greater Denver.

Molson Coors Brewing Company established its U.S. headquarters in Denver in 2005. Its subsidiary and regional wholesale distributor, Coors Distributing Company, is in NW Denver. The Newmont Mining Corporation, the 2nd largest gold producer in North America and one of the largest in the world, is headquartered in Denver. Large Denver-area employers that have headquarters elsewhere include Lockheed Martin Corp., United Airlines, Kroger Co. and Xcel Energy, Inc. MapQuest, an online site for maps, directions and business listings, is headquartered in Denver's LODO district. Online Trading Academy, a professional trader education company, has an office and center that is operating in Denver.

Geography also allows Denver to have a considerable government presence, with many federal agencies based or having offices in the Denver area. Along with federal agencies come many companies based on US defense and space projects, and more jobs are brought to the city by virtue of its being the capital of the state of Colorado. The Denver area is home to the former nuclear weapons plant Rocky Flats, the Denver Federal Center, the Denver Mint and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

In 2005, a $310.7 million expansion for the Colorado Convention Center was completed, doubling its size. The hope was that the center's expansion would elevate the city to one of the top 10 cities in the nation for holding a convention.

Denver's position near the mineral-rich Rocky Mountains encouraged mining and energy companies to spring up in the area. In the early days of the city, gold and silver booms and busts played a large role in the economic success of the city. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the energy crisis in America and resulting high oil prices created an energy boom in Denver captured in the soap opera Dynasty. Denver was built up considerably during this time with the construction of many new downtown skyscrapers. When the price of oil dropped from $34 a barrel in 1981 to $9 a barrel in 1986 the Denver economy dropped with it, leaving almost 15,000 oil industry workers in the area unemployed (including former mayor and current governor John Hickenlooper, a former geologist), and the highest office vacancy rate in the nation (30%).[83] There remain 700 employed petroleum engineers in the region,[84] and energy and mining are still important in Denver's economy today, with companies such as EnCana, Halliburton, Smith International, Rio Tinto Group, Newmont Mining, Noble Energy, and Anadarko.

The first Chipotle Mexican Grill near the campus of the University of Denver

Denver's west-central geographic location in the Mountain Time Zone (UTC−7) also benefits the telecommunications industry by allowing communication with both North American coasts, South America, Europe, and Asia in the same business day. Denver's location on the 105th meridian at over one mile (1.6 km) in elevation also enables it to be the largest city in the U.S. to offer a 'one-bounce' real-time satellite uplink to six continents in the same business day. Qwest Communications, Dish Network Corporation, Starz-Encore, DIRECTV, and Comcast are a few of the many telecommunications companies with operations in the Denver area. These and other high-tech companies had a boom in Denver in the mid to late 1990s. Denver had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation at 3.8% in October 2007. The Downtown region has seen increased real estate investment with the construction of several new skyscrapers set to be completed in 2010–2013.

Denver has also enjoyed success as a pioneer in the fast casual restaurant industry, with many popular national chain restaurants founded and based in Denver. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Quizno's, and Smashburger were founded and headquartered in Denver. Qdoba Mexican Grill, Noodles & Company, and Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard originated in Denver, but have moved their headquarters to the nearby suburbs of Wheat Ridge, Broomfield, and Golden.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is an official United States holiday which honors people who have served in armed service, also known as veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.)

Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving.

Most sources spell Veterans as a simple plural without a possessive apostrophe (Veteran's or Veterans').

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies.[2] A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the "Father of Veterans Day."

U.S. Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

The National Veterans Award, created in 1954, also started in Birmingham. Congressman Rees of Kansas was honored in Alabama as the first recipient of the award for his support offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday, which marked nine years of effort by Raymond Weeks. Weeks conceived the idea in 1945, petitioned Gen. Eisenhower in 1946, and led the first Veterans Day celebration in 1947 (keeping the official name Armistice Day until Veterans Day was legal in 1954).

Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.

Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday, whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday. A Society for Human Resource Management poll in 2010 found that 21 percent of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011.

Non-essential federal government offices are closed. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday; those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive wages for that day in addition to holiday pay.

Free meals for Veterans are offered in many fast food and casual dinner restaurant chains. In his Armistice Day address to Congress, Wilson was sensitive to the psychological toll of the lean War years: "Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness," he remarked. As Veterans Day and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps (November 10, 1775) are only one day apart, that branch of the Armed Forces customarily observes both occasions as a 96-hour liberty period.

While the holiday is commonly printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements (spellings that are grammatically acceptable), the United States government has declared that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling.

Denver Comic Con

Denver Comic Con is a 3-day multigenre convention held annually in Denver, Colorado in the United States. The inaugural convention was held June 15 to 17, 2012 and was created as a fundraiser for the non-profit educational program Comic Book Classroom. The 2013 event was held May 31 to June 2, 2013 at the Colorado Convention Center, and will return in 2014 with a greatly-expanded space and streamlined ticketing system, on Father's Day Weekend, June 13 - 15.

Denver Comic Con embraces a host of popular arts including comic books, tabletop and video games, anime, manga, cosplay, horror and science fiction, webcomics, movies, television and literature.

The Denver Comic Con executes one of the largest programming schedules of any major genre convention, with over 250 distinct events in 2012 and almost 300 in 2013. The convention includes celebrity panels, seminars with professional creators, actors and artists, workshops with comic book professionals, and the DCC's Reel Heroes Independent Film Series. DCC's programming and guest line-ups are unique among conventions in that they actively promote the convention's twin missions of Community and Diversity. Among the distinct tracks of programming, for instance, the convention focused on comics and media featuring or produced by Colorado-area comics creators, women, minorities and the GLBT Community.

Like most comic book conventions, Denver Comic Con also features a large floorspace for exhibitors. Elements of the Con floor in Denver include celebrity autographs, a large artists’ alley, comic book dealers and collectibles merchants, as well as fan-based organizations like the 501st Legion.

During the 2012 Denver Comic Con, a special message by Stan Lee was broadcast to the Con floor, announcing his status as Guest of Honor for the 2013 Denver Comic Con. It was subsequently reported that Lee was forced to cancel his appearance due to a scheduling conflict with his cameo appearance in a Marvel movie. William Shatner, best known for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek media franchise, appeared as the new Guest of Honor.

Guests at the 2013 Denver Comic Con included Guest of Honor William Shatner, Star Trek’s George Takei, Peter Mayhew of Star Wars, Colin Baker and Daphne Ashbrook from Doctor Who, Kelly Hu of X2: X-Men United and Erin Gray of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Many of the stars of the web series The Guild also attended, including Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Robin Thorsen, and Sandeep Parikh. Animation guests included Phil LaMarr (Futurama), Khary Payton (Teen Titans) and Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad).

Comics and artistic guests included Neal Adams, Denny O’Neill, Chris Ware (Building Stories), Jeffrey Brown (Darth Vader and Son), Marvel legend Jim Steranko, and indie artists Peter Bagge and Jim Mahfood.

Long lines disrupted Denver Comic Con at the beginning of the 2013 event, when over 15,000 fans lined up for entry. Some fans were turned away on the order of Denver's fire marshall. Over 61,000 fans ultimately attended the convention in 2013.

Associated events include the Four Color Mixer, a private after-party, and Rock Comic Con, a genre-themed concert at the Hard Rock Café Denver. Cosplayers are featured during the annual DCC Cosplay Shindig.

Since the inaugural 2012 Denver Comic Con, Breckenridge Brewery has collaborated with the Denver Comic Con to brew and sell a specialty beer, with the name chosen by a fan contest. The 2012 beer, an American wheat ale, was named, “The Fantastic Pour.” The 2013 beer, a Belgian Wit brewed with Buddha’s Hand fruit, was dubbed "The Caped Brewsader.

Aurora Rise, a non-profit group founded to provide financial support to victims of the 2012 Aurora shooting, appeared at the 2013 Denver Comic Con.

In March of 2013, Denver Comic Con was voted “Best Fan Convention” by the editors of Westword, a local alternative press publication.

The Denver Public Library is the public library of the city of Denver

The Denver Public Library is the public library of the city of Denver, Colorado in the United States. Its administrative headquarters is on the seventh floor of the Central Library in Downtown Denver. In 2010, the library had 2,288,842 items in its collection and a library card base of 339,883 local residents. In addition to its Central facility, it has 23 branches and a bookmobile program.

The library was established in June 1889 by City Librarian John Cotton Dana in a wing of Denver High School. In 1910, the library acquired a building of its own, called the Central Library, a Greek revival design funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie that was located in Civic Center Park in downtown. Between 1913 and 1920, Carnegie also underwrote construction of the first eight branches of the city library. Previously the city relied on traveling trunks of books. The city commissioned a new structure that is located on Broadway and 14th street and built by the firm of Fisher & Fisher/Burnham Hoyt. Burnham Hoyt is the identified architect of the north wing of the central Denver public library, built in 1955.

In 1990, 75% of Denver voters approved a $91.6 million bond issue to add onto the Fisher and Fisher/Burnham Hoyt building. The 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m2) structure was designed by architect Michael Graves and the Denver firm of Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois, and is beside the Denver Art Museum. The building at 1357 Broadway was listed on the National Register of Historic Places 1990, as Denver Public Library.

The Denver Public Library has a large Western History collection, which began under the direction of City Librarian Malcom G. Wyer and includes 600,000 photographs, 3,700 manuscript archives, 200,000 cataloged books, pamphlets, atlases, maps, and microfilm titles as well as a collection of Western fine art and prints. The Western History Department holds the Otto Perry collection of railroad photographs, numbering 20,000 negatives from all parts of North America made available for viewing on the Internet.

The Western History and Genealogy departments merged in 1995 and are located on the fifth floor. The Genealogy department includes 60,000 books, 75,000 pieces of microform, and hundreds of magazine and newsletter titles, charts, clippings, atlases and manuscripts.

The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library serves as an educational and cultural resource focusing on the history, literature, art, music, religion, and politics of African Americans in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West. The Library opened in 2003 and houses a full service branch library, research archives and the Western Legacies Museum, an exhibition space that spans more than 7,000 square feet (650 m2) and includes an African American Leadership Gallery, a replica of the Office of Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, and rotating exhibits which highlight historical periods, notable individuals and local Denver history.

Whats the best time to visit Denver

The most important thing to remember when travelling to Denver is this:  Denver and the Rocky Mountains do not have the same weather.   Denver is around 5280' (1609M) in elevation while Aspen is around 8,000' (2438M) and other ski resorts are even higher than 10,000' (3000M). In the winter, there may be massive snow storms going on in the mountains and ski resorts, while Denver is dry as a bone and warm.

In general,  Denver is SUNNY all year-round with over 300 days of sunshine annually on average. Bring your sunscreen, sunglasses and hat because at this elevation, the sun can be quite strong. Summers are hot and dry, but nights cool off considerably.  During June, there  also tend to be thunderstorms during the afternoons almost every day.  They roll in with dramatic skies and sometimes spectacular displays of lightning.  The rain cools things off and clears the air. They pass quickly, often lasting only a few minutes, before they move east over the plains. Winters are also sunny and dry in contrast to the mountains that receive  the famous champagne (dry, fluffy) powder (snow). A few cold days are often followed by warm temperate days, always with lots of sun. It is not uncommon for Denver to have days close to 60F (16C) throughout the winter months, followed, of course, by some very chilly days.  Typically there are two weeks of really hot weather in summer and two really cold weeks in winter.  In between, Denver is quite comfortable all four seasons.  Spring and fall are beautiful.  Dining outside is a three season affair.

Getting into the mountains is easy year-round except for during an active snow storm.  Denver and Colorado take good care of the highways and roads to make sure tourists can access the Rocky Mountains for four seasons of recreation, relaxation, and sports.  If you are unaccustomed to driving in snow or in mountains, it might be better to let someone else drive or get a good rental car for snowy conditions - four-wheel drive and heavy with GOOD tires.  During the summers, nights in the mountains can get quite chilly, even cold at high elevations.

The best time to come?  Anytime!  Colorado is one of the few places in the world where you can ski in the morning in the Rockies, and golf in the afternoon in Denver, wearing shorts and a T-shirt for both.

Civic Center in Denver

Civic Center is a neighborhood and park in Denver, Colorado. The area is known as the center of the civic life in the city, with numerous institutions of arts,

government, and culture as well as numerous festivals, parades, and protests throughout the year. The park is home to many fountains, statues, and formal gardens, and includes a Greek amphitheater, a war memorial, and the Voorhies Memorial Seal Pond. It is well known for its symmetrical Neoclassical design.

Civic Center is located in central Denver just south of the Central Business District. The park is located at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway, perhaps the best-known and most important streets in Denver. The park borders are defined as Bannock Street on the west, Lincoln Street on the east, Colfax Avenue on the north, and 14th Avenue on the south. The institutions surrounding the civic center are generally thought of as part of the Civic Center area, and future plans for the civic center would extend the area further west all the way to Speer Boulevard.

Civic Center is also a neighborhood defined by the Denver city government, but is probably identified in the minds of Denverites as the "Golden Triangle." The borders of this neighborhood are Speer Boulevard on the west and south, Broadway on the east, and Colfax Avenue on the north.

Civic Center was an idea that originated with former Denver mayor Robert W. Speer. In 1904, Speer proposed a series of civic improvements based on the City Beautiful Ideas shown to him at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Speer hired Charles Mulford Robinson among others to develop plans for the area. Robinson proposed extending 16th Street to the Colorado State Capitol and to group other municipal buildings around a central park area. However, the plan was defeated in a 1907 election.

Undaunted, Speer gathered business leaders who brought in new ideas for the Civic Center including the creation of an east-west axial between the Colorado State Capitol, and swinging the north and south borders of the park into the city grid system.

These plans were stalled when in 1912, Speer was replaced as mayor. The new mayor brought in Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. who was developing plans for Denver's mountain parks. His ideas include an informal grove of trees on the eastern edge of the park, and a lighted concert area.

When Speer was reelected in 1916, he re-pursued his ideas about the Civic Center, hiring Chicago planner and architect Edward H. Bennett, a protégé of Daniel Burnham. Bennett combined the ideas of all of the previous plans, adding the Greek amphitheater, the Colonnade, the seal pond, and the realignment of Colfax Avenue and 14th Ave., around the park. The park officially opened in 1919.

Civic Center has long been the government, arts, history, and learning nexus of both the state of Colorado and the Denver Metropolitan Area. Among the institutions in the Civic Center are Denver Art Museum, and the Denver Public Library's Central Library along the parks south side, the Colorado State Capitol and the City and County Building of Denver along the east and west axis of the park, the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building on the park's north side, and the Colorado History Museum and the Colorado State Judicial Building towards the southeast of the park. The Denver Mint lies immediately west of the Civic Center Park across the street from the City and County Building.

Civic Center is known throughout the state as the rendezvous for the largest and most important cultural and civic events. Being at the center of the state and local government institutions, Civic Center has become the place for political statement for various groups and individuals representing a variety of causes. It was Civic Center where the public held a vigil for the victims of Columbine High School massacre, and 9/11. Former presidential candidate and Denver native John Kerry made a 2004 campaign stop at Civic Center, and 2008 Democratic nominee Barack Obama gave a speech there on October 26, 2008 to more than 120,000 supporters.

Civic Center is also the location for many annual events. These include:

January - The City and County Building has a Christmas lights display up until the National Western Stock Show ends in mid January.

March – Civic Center is at the end of one of the longest St. Patrick's Day parades in the nation.

April - An annual pro-cannabis rally/ cannabis culture gathering is held in Civic Center every year on April 20, otherwise known as 4/20.

May - Denver has a large Cinco de Mayo festival, held at Civic Center.

June - Civic Center is host to the People's Fair, a bohemian festival with various music, art, political booths, and other happenings; PrideFest, the annual gay pride festival is held at Civic Center, which is also the endpoint of the parade.

Summer - There are various theatre and music events held throughout the summer at the Greek amphitheater.

Summer - Each Wednesday night, the Denver Cruiser Ride stops at the Greek amphitheater, which riders refer to as the "Circle of Death."

September - A Taste of Colorado is a food and music festival held during Labor Day weekend at the park.

October - The park is the end point for a Columbus Day parade that often brings protests from American Indian groups.

December - The Parade of Lights ends at the City and County Building which has holiday lights from the beginning of the parade until the National Western Stock Show.

In 1990 and 1991, the Civic Center was the location of the CART Grand Prix of Denver.