Erected in 1951, a 40-foot-tall neon cowboy named Vegas Vic stands in front of the Pioneer Club in downtown Las Vegas. Vic used to utter phrases like "Howdy, Partner" until 1966, when actor Lee Marvin — who was in town filming "The Professionals" — complained about the voice and it was permanently silenced. In 1980, a similar cowgirl named Vegas Vicky was erected across the street.

In 1973, founder and CEO Fred Smith took FedEx's remaining $5,000 to Vegas, where he bet it on a game of blackjack. Smith won $27,000 and wired it back to FedEx. As Smith said, "No business school graduate would recommend gambling as a financial strategy, but sometimes it pays to be a little crazy early in your career."

Vegas gambling legend William Lee Bergstrom is best known for placing a $777,000 bet in 1980 on a single game of craps — and miraculously winning! Bergstrom showed up with two suitcases, one containing $777,000 and another to house his winnings. In 1984, Bergstrom would return and place a million dollar bet on a game of craps (but lost).

In November 1966, eccentric mogul Howard Hughes checked into the penthouse at the Desert Inn, one of the Strip’s famous early hotels that operated from 1950 to 2000. Hughes liked it so much that he didn’t leave. But the owner at the time, Moe Dalitz, thought that Hughes had overstayed his welcome. Hughes’ solution? He simply bought the entire casino and took ownership in April 1967.

We have mobster Bugsy Siegel to thank for opening the oldest casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Flamingo. Siegel purchased the property in 1946, after construction had been stalled for years. He spent about $6 million after that initial purchase to make it as flashy and extravagant as possible. He didn’t get to enjoy it for long, though, since he died the following year.

The concept of a Vegas residency dates back to 1944 with Liberace, who continued performing in Vegas until his passing in 1987. Liberace earned as much as $300,000 a week and inspired future acts to take up residency in Vegas, including the Rat Pack, Elvis Presley, and Lady Gaga.

Visitors to Las Vegas are taking a vacation in the Mojave Desert. But the desert surrounding Vegas only begins to scratch the surface of how large the Mojave is. It spans about 20 million acres, and Vegas is located in its northeast corner. The desert is home to 12 native species of flora and fauna, including the Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion, the Joshua Tree, the Gila Monster, and the Creosote Bush.

Already world-famous for its scene-stealing water fountain, Bellagio Resort & Casino is also home to a chocolate fountain that measures 26 feet and three inches tall. Though it no longer holds the Guinness World Record, the fountain is nonetheless mesmerizing. It’s behind glass, but features a continuous stream of white, milk, and dark chocolate. The fountain even has its own pump room.

Second only to Malaysia's First World Hotel, the Venetian boasts a whopping 7,117 rooms, making it the runner-up on the list of the world's largest hotels. Right behind the Venetian is the MGM Grand Las Vegas, featuring 6,852 rooms. Las Vegas' Wynn, Mandalay Bay, and Luxor hotels also crack the top 10 in the largest hotel rankings.

The Stratosphere Tower is not only Las Vegas' tallest building, but also the tallest freestanding observation tower in the U.S. Standing 1,149 feet tall, the tower boasts a revolving restaurant, a 108th-floor lookout, a 109th-floor open-air deck, and several thrill rides — including a controlled bungee-jump and simulated roller coaster.

Shining out of the tip of the pyramid at the Luxor Resort & Casino, the Luxor light beam is so powerful that it can be seen from space. The 42.3-billion-candela light tunnel that powers the beam also creates its own ecosystem. It attracts an incredible number of moths; those moths then attract bats, which then attract owls. All of them fly all around the beam all night long.

It's not just Las Vegas — playing the lottery is prohibited in the entire state of Nevada. While that fact may seem surprising, it has been the case since the state's constitution was ratified in 1864. The state banned lotteries in favor of casino gambling, a law that ultimately paved the way towards the state becoming a gambling mecca. In 1990, the law was amended slightly to allow charitable raffles.

Residents and visitors in Las Vegas combined eat about 22 million pounds of shrimp annually — the most per capita out of every city in the world. That’s a lot of shrimp cocktails. Most of the shrimp is flown in from Asia, but efforts are underway to bring shrimp farming into the city itself.

Though the Strip today stretches along Las Vegas Boulevard, the original casino hub was Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. The two streets are about three miles apart. The switch took place due to a ban on gambling in Las Vegas that lasted until 1931. After the ban was lifted, it spurred major development on the Strip, which gradually became the go-to entertainment center in Las Vegas.

Located in downtown Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino opened in 1906, making it Sin City’s oldest casino still in operation today. Shortly after opening, the casino was forced to close in 1909, after the city outlawed gambling, but it reopened as the Golden Gate in 1931. It’s often confused for the Flamingo, which opened 40 years later and is the oldest on the Strip.

Walking down the Vegas Strip, it'd be hard to miss the replicas of several famous landmarks. Among them are the Paris Las Vegas hotel’s half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower, the Luxor's Sphinx replica, and the half-size Statue of Liberty found at the New York-New York hotel. You won’t find a replica of the Taj Mahal, but there used to be one located among the casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Las Vegas Strip isn’t actually in Las Vegas at all; it’s in Paradise, Nevada. Paradise didn’t even exist when the first casinos were built, but by 1950, several casinos had appeared on a desert road just outside Las Vegas. The city’s mayor wished to annex it into Las Vegas, but the casino owners fought against it for tax reasons. Instead, the unincorporated town of Paradise was created, where the Strip remains today.

Even though it’s most definitely a gambler’s paradise, Gambling Paradise is not one of Las Vegas’ popular nicknames. The city’s most famous nickname, Sin City, came from a book written by casino executives Dick Taylor and Pat Howell in 1963.

Las Vegas’ now-iconic welcome sign — which reads "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" — was erected in 1959 and designed in the Googie architecture style, combining elements of futurism and space travel. Each letter of the word "Welcome" is surrounded by a white circle representing a silver dollar, reflecting Nevada’s "Silver State" nickname.

You'd never know it today, but Las Vegas was built atop wetlands and meadows. Europeans first arrived in the area in the 1820s, when Spanish explorers led by Antonio Armijo encountered the land en route to California. Among those explorers was a scout named Rafael Rivera, who named the valley "Las Vegas," or "the meadows," for its spring-fed grassy landscape.