section_path: History/Late 20th and early 21st centuries
section_name: Late 20th and early 21st centuries
paragraph_text: Late 20th and early 21st centuries
  
  In 1969, the Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. They are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights. Wayne R. Dynes, author of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, wrote that drag queens were the only " transgender folks around" during the Stonewall riots. The transgender community in New York City played a significant role in fighting for LGBT equality.
  
  In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates. Growing fiscal deficits in 1975 led the city to appeal to the federal government for financial aid; President Gerald Ford gave a speech denying the request, which was paraphrased on the front page of the New York Daily News as "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD". The Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed and granted oversight authority over the city's finances. While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into the beginning of the 1990s.
  
  New York City's population exceeded 8 million for the first time in the 2000 census; further records were set in the 2010 and 2020 censuses. Important new economic sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged.
  
  The year 2000 was celebrated with fanfare in Times Square.
  
  New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Two of the four hijacked airliners were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people, including 343 first responders from the New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers.
  
  The area was rebuilt with a new World Trade Center, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and other new buildings and infrastructure, including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the city's third-largest hub. The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the world's seventh-tallest building by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m), a reference to the year of American independence.
  
  The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and popularizing the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide.
  
  New York City was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including flooding that led to the days-long shutdown of the subway system, and flooding of all East River subway tunnels and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel. The New York Stock Exchange closed for two days due to weather for the first time since the Great Blizzard of 1888. At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of Sandy, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion. The disaster spawned long-term efforts towards infrastructural projects to counter climate change and rising seas, with $15 billion in federal funding received through 2022 towards those resiliency efforts.
  
  In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the city was confirmed. With its population density and extensive exposure to global travelers, the city rapidly replaced Wuhan, China as the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, straining the city's healthcare infrastructure. Through March 2023, New York City recorded more than 80,000 deaths from COVID-19-related complications.