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The outdoor skating rink at New York's Rockefeller Center has been open annually since 1936 and has been a symbol of winter in the city ever since.Here, Jessica Mills performs at the Rink at Rockefeller Plaza for the opening of the skating season Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1996.Photo: MARK LENNIHAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS -
The construction site of the projected 70-story RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York is seen in this 1932 photo.The excavation site in front of the RCA Building is to become a public plaza hosting an ice skating rink.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS -
With the famed Rockefeller Center Christmas tree rising above them, skaters glide on the ice at the center's skating rink in midtown Manhattan in 1949.Photo: JOHN LINDSAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Celebrities have always been an attraction at the rink.Sonja Henie skates is seen at a figure skating exhibition at New York's Rockefeller Center skating rink, February 12, 1937.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS -
But outdoor skating has long been a favorite past time in New York.This aerial view from 59th St. and Fifth Ave., shows ice skaters in New York's Central Park.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS -
In fact, outdoor skating at Central Park goes way back. Above, women and men ice skate in the park in 1893.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Outdoor skating even has an tradition in the modern Olympics.Above is a view of the stadium at Cortina, Italy, during the women's figure skating event, in the seventh Winter Olympic Games, on Feb. 2, 1956. This was the last time the skating events were held outside at the Olympics.Photo: NOLDE, AP -
Olympics skaters continued to skate outdoors at the Rockefeller rink, however. Here is World and national freestyle skating champion Dorothy Hamill is shown at Roc Center in 1976.Photo: Ron Frehm, AP -
The rink is, of course, is open for political photo ops too: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, ice skate at rink in 1968.Photo: Anonymous, AP -
Teddy was known for getting some time on the ice as well. He's shown here in 1972 at the eighth annual Kennedy Skating party at Rockefeller Center.Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw dips Olympic skating champion, and his wife, JoJo Starbuck .They were fixtures at the rink as well, until the couple split in 1983.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Other celebrities are less graceful: Meredith Vieira, co-host of the NBC "Today" television program, attempts a figure skating maneuver with actor Will Ferrell.Photo: RICHARD DREW, ASSOCIATED PRESS -
They say Muhammad Ali even floats like a butterfly on ice.Photo: Ray Howard, AP -
Even though New York likes to think of itself as the center of the world, the rink Mexico City's main Zocalo square is the biggest in the world.Photo: Marco Ugarte, ASSOCIATED PRESS
© 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
© 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
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