Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russian engineers began constructing Fort Zailiyskoe on the 4th of February 1854, which authorities renamed Fort Vernoe before the end of that same year. The settlement later became the town of Almatinsk in 1867 before officials changed the name again to Verny later that year.
A devastating earthquake struck on the 28th of May 1887 at 4 a.m., destroying nearly all brick buildings within eleven minutes. Another catastrophic tremor hit on the 3rd of January 1911, causing over 770 structures to collapse including most modern buildings constructed between 1966 and 1971.
Kazakhstan declared independence on the 16th of December 1991, ending decades of Soviet rule. Two years later on the 28th of January 1993, the government officially restored the city's original Kazakh name from Alma-Ata to Almaty.
By 1995, particulate emissions exceeded both Kazakh and European Union standards by over twenty times with cars emerging as the primary source of contamination after 2003. Respiratory diseases increased by a factor of 1.5 between 2003 and 2013 before an independent air quality monitoring system launched in 2017.
Medeu sits at an altitude of 1,691 meters above sea level making it one of the highest outdoor skating rinks globally within a mountain valley fifteen kilometers from the city center. Over thirty-three years athletes set 126 world records on this unique surface due to thin air and pure mountain water quality.