The history of the world could be told through countless biographies, as Carlyle said, and these biographies undoubtedly would represent gifted individuals and their contributions at different times in different cultures of the world. The Greeks and Romans recognized the value of talent, as did the tribes of the Bible, responding to the parables told by Jesus. The Chinese Dynasties and Confucius as a scholar saw value in educating those from all social strata according to their talents. And the history of the world and these societal contributions have occurred predominantly in cities, as Arnold Toynbee has noted in his text "Cities of Destiny." Thus, it is not surprising that cities are where gifted education began, from Hollingworth's Speyer School experiment in New York City on the East Coast, to Terman's efforts on the West Coast in large cities like San Diego, to the work of others in large Midwestern cities. Early research in gifted education was conducted in these urban sites. This article chronicles the history and evolution of urban programs in three sites--Chicago, New York, and San Diego--to profile the extensive efforts that have preceded the work in this field today and to illustrate the extensiveness of those efforts to focus on this population of learners within their largest and most diverse national settings. (Contains 1 figure.)