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Hilton Hotels & Resorts

Founded in 1919 by Conrad Hilton. Hilton bought his first hotel, the Mobley Hotel, in 1919 in Cisco, Texas.

The first hotel to bear the Hilton name was the Dallas Hilton, a high-rise that opened in Dallas, Texas in 1925.

In 1954 Hilton hotels bought the Statler Hotel chain, making it the largest hospitality company in the world. In 1954, at the Caribe Hilton Hotel's Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ramon “Monchito” Marrero created the Piña Colada.

The Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago was scene of the 1968 Democratic Convention riots that occurred across the street in Grant Park. The hotel's doors were locked for the first time in its history. The hotel still suffered minor damage as a result of the violence outside as the street level windows gave way under the weight of hundreds of protesters on the street during the ensuing riot.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their first Bed-In for Peace between March 25, 1969 and March 31, 1969 at the Amsterdam Hilton in Room 902. This room became a popular tourist destination.

On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper made the world's first handheld cellular phone call in public when he called Joel S. Engel at the New York Hilton with a 2 pound Motorola DynaTAC phone.

The Hilton Nicosia in Nicosia, Cyprus, was the scene of the assassination of Youssef Sebai, an Egyptian newspaper editor and friend of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat on February 19th 1978. The assassination and hijacking of a Cyprus Airways DC-8 at Larnaca Airport led to Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport by Egyptian forces. The Intervention by the Egyptians led to the deterioration of relations between Cyprus and Egypt.

The Beirut Hilton finished construction and was supposed to open on 14/4/1975. However, the Lebanese Civil War erupted exactly 1 day before the Grand Opening date, on the 13th of April. The Hotel was never opened and was severely damaged during the war. The building was demolished in the late 90's. Work on a completely separate Hilton Beirut Hotel was begun in the 2000's nearby, but it was never completed.

The Amsterdam Hilton hotel has had two notable incidents. On June 27, 1991, Dutch drug kingpin Klaas Bruinsma, once a major drug dealer of Europe, was assassinated in front of the building. On July 11, 2001, Dutch artist Herman Brood committed suicide by jumping from the roof.

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Thoughts about hotels.......

“The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a great refuge from home life”

---George Bernard Shaw quotes (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

---Muhammad Ali 

---Tom Stoppard quotes (British Playwright, b.1937)