[5] The 47-floor building, north of Rockefeller Center at Sixth Avenue and 53rd Street, has hosted every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy.

The hotel opened on June 26, 1963, as the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center,[7] and offered 2,153 rooms, making it the largest in the city.

[9] Management simultaneously announced that it was ending room service and establishing a self-service cafeteria called "Herb n' Kitchen".

[13] In late spring 1971, Neil Sheehan and colleagues at The New York Times were in rooms[14] at the hotel organizing and summarizing the Pentagon Papers, an internal DoD study of the history of the Vietnam War which he had surreptitiously copied from Daniel Ellsberg for publication.

[15] In June 1972, Elvis Presley stayed at the hotel while performing four sold-out concerts at nearby Madison Square Garden.

Each spring, the hotel serves as the venue for the Inner Circle Show, the annual charity dinner produced by New York City journalists.

On December 4, 2024, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed outside the hotel lobby, where he was scheduled to speak at an investor meeting.