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Article: Happy Birthday, Sao Paulo, World's second-largest city is 450 years old today
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- January 25, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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SAO PAULO, Brazil - Just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, on a
breezy plateau whose rivers were harnessed for electricity by an
engineer from Omaha, one of the world's greatest cities is
celebrating its 450th birthday today.
As the dancers and samba bands hit the streets and fireworks light
up the summer night, Sao Paulo has much to celebrate, not least its
sheer size: With 18.3 million people in 2001, it has edged out Mexico
City as the world's second-largest metropolitan area, behind Tokyo,
according to the United Nations.
That's up from a bare 65,000 in 1890 - the greatest population
explosion in human history, according to the Fernand Braudel
Institute, a local think tank.
South ...