Australians fete Sydney Opera House's 50th anniversary

Australians celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House on Friday by lighting up the sails of a harbourside "masterpiece" that has become an international icon. Fifty years to the day since Queen Elizabeth II opened the world's most recognizable concert hall, people lined the water's edge at night to see a spectacular laser show illuminate its exterior.
Besides the party, the Opera House has been hosting events recalling its complex history. It's Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, never set foot in the building that he designed after beating 232 others in a 1956 competition offering a prize of 5,000 Australian pounds. He died in 2008, a year after the Opera House had been listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO, which praised it as a "masterpiece of 20th century architecture".