History of the world's tallest buildings
The buildings that were the tallest secular skyscrapers, which excludes religious buildings, were:
The list of tallest buildings is based on the default metric of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), that of measuring to the highest architectural element. Other criteria would generate a different list. Shanghai World Financial Center is not on the above list, but it surpassed Taipei 101 in 2008 to become the building with the highest occupied floor. Using the criteria of highest tip (including antennae), the World Trade Center in New York City was the world's tallest building from 1972 to 2000, until the Sears Tower in Chicago (which already had a higher occupied floor than the World Trade Center) had its antenna extended to give that building the world's tallest tip; a title it held until the 2010 completion of Burj Khalifa. Petronas Towers and Taipei 101 were never the world's tallest buildings by the highest–tip criteria.
List of tallest buildings in New York City
A second skyscraper boom began in the early 1960s. Since then, the city has seen the completion of nearly 70 structures rising at least high, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center. One WTC also known as the North Tower, was the tallest building in the world from 1972 until 1973 and the tallest building in New York City until 2001. The North Tower, as well as the other six buildings in the World Trade Center complex, were destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001. One World Trade Center began construction in 2006 as the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex; upon its topping out in May 2013, the skyscraper surpassed the Willis Tower to become the tallest building in the United States.