Twenty years ago Las Vegas crossed from old to new with the opening of its first megaresort, the Mirage.

It was built on the site of the old Castaways — whose sports book manager famously set a line on "who shot J.R." — and no one had ever seen anything like Steve Wynn's $650 million, 3,000-room, volcano-erupting, white-tiger-displaying, high-roller resort, which officially inaugurated the casino construction boom that stretched from Las Vegas to riverboats in Iowa, gambling halls in historic mining towns in South Dakota and Colorado, hotel-casino strips in Mississippi, and hundreds of Native American casinos. The white building with the shimmering gold trim has undergone several upgrades over its two decades and is still one of the city's top destinations.

FIREWORKS BACK ON THE ROOF: After last year's dismal ground-level New Year's Eve fireworks display, which was barely visible to most, it's been announced that this year's pyrotechnics will revert to being fired from seven rooftop locations. The decision to go terrestrial was based largely on concerns stemming from the rooftop fire at the Monte Carlo earlier last year. But the county and the resort properties have put in place new controls that allayed concerns over roof launches.

CABO WABO: The long-awaited branch of the Sammy Hagar-owned Cabo Wabo nightclubs has opened. It's at Planet Hollywood in the spot formerly occupied by Trader Vic's and boasts a spectacular outdoor dining area looking across the Strip at the soon-to-open CityCenter complex.