Queens, coextensive with Queens County, is the largest by area of the five boroughs and counties in New York City, New York, United States. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to its east, and shares maritime borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey. Queens is the most linguistically diverse place in the world, It is home to both of New York City's airports: John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia. Among its landmarks are Flushing Meadows–Corona Park; Citi Field, home to the New York Mets baseball team; the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament; Kaufman Astoria Studios; Silvercup Studios; and the Aqueduct Racetrack.
History
Colonial and post-colonial history
thumb|left|upright=1|[[Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England]]
thumb|upright=1|[[Queens Boulevard, looking east from Van Dam Street, in 1920. The newly built IRT Flushing Line is in the boulevard's median.]]
The Dutch, were the first settlers and established the first European settlement in the region was who established the colony of New Netherland. The first settlements were established in 1635 followed by further settlement at Maspeth in 1642 (ultimately unsuccessful), Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) in 1652 and Jamaica in 1655. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) who were subject to Dutch law. LaGuardia Airport, established on a site in northern Queens that had been a seaplane base, opened in 1939, named for mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who pushed for the development of a modern airport in New York City. Idlewild Airport, in southern Queens, opened in 1948 on the site of a former golf course and was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963. In one of several notable incidents, TWA Flight 800 took off from the airport on July 17, 1996, and exploded in midair off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 on board the Boeing 747. American Airlines Flight 587 took off from the latter airport on November 12, 2001, but ended up crashing in Belle Harbor, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground. In late October 2012, much of Breezy Point was damaged by a massive six-alarm fire caused by Hurricane Sandy, the largest fire of residential homes in FDNY history, destroying 126 homes in an area where every building was damaged by either water, wind or the resulting fires.
Geography
thumb|upright=1|Location of Queens (red) within [[New York City]]
thumb|upright=1|Aerial view of Queens looking north from [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]]
Queens is located on the far western portion of geographic Long Island and includes a few smaller islands, most of which are in Jamaica Bay, forming part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which in turn is one of the National Parks of New York Harbor. In an average year, there are 14 days on which the temperature does not go above all day. LaGuardia Airport's record-low temperature was on February 15, 1943, the effect of which was exacerbated by a shortage of heating oil and coal.!! 1990 || n/a
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