New Mexico: Albuquerque facts
... is the birthplace of Microsoft (no, it wasn't Seattle).
... has more than 100 art galleries and 20 museums.
... was named for Spain's 10th Duke of Alburquerque. (The first "r" was dropped, by one account, because a station master had trouble with the spelling.)
... was the city from which the "runaway bride," Jennifer Wilbanks, called police and ended a search that titillated the nation in 2005.
... was the site of the first recorded balloon flight on July 4, 1882, by "Professor" Park A. Van Tassel, a local saloon keeper, who landed safely in a cornfield. The balloon museum is named for the late Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo, Albuquerque residents who were members of a three-man team that was first to cross the Atlantic by balloon in 1978.
— Beverly Beyette
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