Sandstone

Sandstone is a solid block. It can both be found naturally at the bottom of sand stacks, and crafted with 4 blocks of sand in a square, even without the use of a crafting bench. It was added in the Beta 1.2 update on January 13th, 2011.

Function and behaviour
Its unique style allows for desert-themed architecture. Sandstone can be quickly obtained in order to build a shelter and survive the first night in Survival when you spawn in a desert biome.

Placed Sandstone can be harvested with a pickaxe. Breaking this block by hand destroys the block but drops no resources; it takes slightly longer to pick it with bare hands than wood.

'Sandstone naturally spawns at the bottom of map generated sand.

This block can be crafted into a Sandstone slab.

Sandstone's blast resistance is similar to sand or dirt and markedly less than wood or stone.

Unlike sand, Sandstone does not obey the laws of gravity and will not fall down if placed without another block underneath.

Previous changes
Minecraft Beta 1.3
 * Sandstone can now be used to craft a sandstone slab.
 * Sandstone can now be found at the bottom of naturally generated sand, as of the Beta 1.3 update.

Minecraft Beta 1.2
 * Sandstone had been added to Minecraft.