Famous Days for Students of English

19-03-1931

In the early 20th century, Las Vegas was a small town in the middle of the desert. There were just rocks and stones hundreds of kilometers around it.

Everything changed with the decision to build a large dam on the Colorado River. The construction brought tens of thousands of workers to Nevada. They were far away from their families and they needed to have some fun. This was a chance for Las Vegas which was only 48 kilometers away.

Las Vegas was a place where gambling, prostitution, and selling alcohol had prospered before the building of the dam, even though all of this was banned in America at that time. The US government, therefore, built a completely new town for the workers near the dam to keep them under control.

However, the workers wanted a fun, and the Las Vegas businessmen wanted to give it to them. There was also help from Nevada’s government because they gave permission for gambling on March 19, 1931.

The first official casinos appeared in the city and the number of visitors began to increase. In addition to the workers from the dam, people from other parts of the USA began to come to Las Vegas to have fun. Expensive restaurants, hotels, and performances by famous artists became common thing. The number of visitors kept increasing. Today, Las Vegas is the most visited city in the world with more than 40 million visitors a year.

Difficult words: dam (a big wall across a river), even though (although), ban (an official stop of some activity), therefore (for that reason), increase (to go up in number).