Timeline New York State
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New York State is the largest of the three Middle
Atlantic states and
ranks 30th in size among the 50 states. It measures 49,108 sq mi
(127,190 sq km), of which land takes up 47,377 sq mi (122,707 sq km)
and the remaining 1,731 sq mi (4,483 sq km) consist of inland water.
(www.city-data.com/states/New-York-Location-size-and-extent.html)
The tri-state area around NYC was inhabited by the Lenape Indians prior
to the arrival of Europeans.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A20)
The bluebird is the official state bird.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E3)
Lake Champlain was at one time an inland saltwater sea connected to the
Atlantic by the St. Lawrence Seaway. The fossilized remains of a whale
found there is on display in Charlotte, Vermont.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)
Buffalo started out as Buffalo Creek and came from the French "beau
fleuve" meaning beautiful river.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
1609 Sep 3-4,
Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan. The exact date is not
known.
(MC, 9/3/01)(www.hudsonriver.com)
1609 Sep 12, English
explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name.
Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in search of the
Northwest Passage, a water route linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, when he sailed up the present-day Hudson River.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1640 The towns of Southampton and
East Hampton, NY, were founded. (In 2004 Steven Petrow authored “The
Lost Hamptons.”
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)
1642 Feb 25, Dutch settlers
slaughtered lower Hudson Valley Indians in New Netherland, North
America, who sought refuge from Mohawk attackers.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1645 Aug 30, Dutch & Indians
signed peace treaty in New Amsterdam (NY).
(MC, 8/30/01)
1647 May 11, Peter Stuyvesant (37)
arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor. The one-legged
professional soldier was sent from the Netherlands to head the Dutch
trading colony at the southern end of Manhattan Island. Stuyvesant lost
a leg in a minor skirmish in the Caribbean in 1644.
(AP, 5/11/97)(ON, 4/00, p.1)(AH, 10/04, p.74)
1655 Aug 28, New Amsterdam &
Peter Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1665 Jun 12, England installed a
municipal government in New York, formerly the Dutch settlement of New
Amsterdam.
(AP, 6/12/97)
1665 The 1st horse racing track in
America was laid out on Long Island.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, Z1 p.3)
1672 Dec 10, Gov. Lovelace
announced monthly mail service between NY and Boston.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1676 Feb, Mohawk Indians attacked
and killed all but 40 Wampanoag Indians under Philip. NY Gov. Edmund
Andros had urged the Mohawks to attack the Wampanoags.
(AH, 6/02, p.48)
1683 Secatogue Indians deeded land
on the South Shore of Long Island to William Nicoll.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D6)
1685 The Old Dutch Church was
built in Tarrytown and later immortalized by Washington Irving.
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.2D)
1686 Jul 22, Albany, New York,
began operating under an official charter.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.2)
1686 Two Mohican Indians signed a
mortgage for their land in Schaghticoke with simple markings. It was
notarized by Robert Livingston, whose family became one of the greatest
agricultural landlords and int'l. merchants in the colony of New York.
(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W10)
1690 Feb 8, Some 200 French and
Indian troops burned Schenectady, NY, and massacred about 60 people to
avenge Iraquois raids on Canada.
(AH, 2/05, p.17)
1695 Sep 12, NY Jews petitioned
governor Dongan for religious liberties.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1704 May 20, Elias Neau formed a
school for slaves in NY.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1708 Feb 28, A slave revolt in
Newton, Long Island, NY, left 11 dead.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1712 Apr 7, There was a slave
revolt in New York City. A slave insurrection in New York City was
suppressed by the militia and ended with the execution of 21 blacks.
[see Jul 4]
(HN, 4/7/97)(HNQ, 6/10/98)
1712 Jul 4, Twelve slaves were
executed for starting a slave uprising in New York that killed nine
whites. [see Apr 7]
(HN, 7/4/98)(PCh, 1992, p.278)
1720 Sep 12, Frederick Philips
III, NYC, land owner (Bronx, Westchester & Putnam), was born.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1727 Nov 15, NY General assembly
permitted Jews to omit phrase "upon the faith of a Christian" from
abjuration oath.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1731 Aug 7, William Cosby arrived
in New York to assume his post as Governor for the New York Province.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html)
1733 Nov 5, John Peter Zenger
(b.1697), German-born immigrant, published the 1st issue of the New
York Weekly Journal. Zenger, the partner of William Bradford, had left
the Gazette to form the rival New York Weekly Journal. Attorney James
Alexander hired Zenger in order to publish anonymously his criticism of
NY Governor William Cosby.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R43)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1734 Oct 22, NY Gov. William Cosby
ordered the hangman and whipper of NY to burn 4 back issues of the New
York Weekly Journal.
(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1734 Nov 17, John Zenger was
arrested for libel against NY colonial governor William Cosby. Zenger
was later acquitted.
(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1736 Mar 10, NY colonial Gov.
William Cosby died. George Clarke became the new governor.
(ON, 11/04,
p.10)(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/chronology.html)
1745 Nov 28-29, French troops
attacked Indians at Saratoga, NY.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1752 Gouverneur Morris (d.1816),
chief writer of the US Constitution (1787), was born in NY. Morrisania,
the family manor, stretched for 1,900 acres from the Harlem River to
Long Island Sound in what later became the Bronx.
(WSJ, 5/28/03, p.D8)
1753 Oct 12, Sir Danvers Osborn
(b.1715), British colonial governor of New York, hanged himself 5 days
after arriving in NYC. His wife had recently died and the New York
assembly refused to support him in the style he felt his rank deserved.
(Econ, 1/12/08,
p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_Osborn)
1754 Jun 19, The Albany Congress
opened. New York colonial Gov. George Clinton called for the meeting to
discuss better relations with Indian tribes and common defensive
measures against the French. The attendees included Indians and
representatives from Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Benjamin Franklin
attended and presented his Plan of Union, which was adopted by the
conference. The meeting ended on July 11.
(AH, 2/06,
p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Congress)
1755 Sep 8, British forces under
William Johnson and 250 Indians defeated the French and their allied
Indians at the Battle of Lake George, NY.
(HN, 9/8/98)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.G6)
1755 Sep 18, Ft. Ticonderoga
opened in NY.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1757 Aug 9, English Ft. William
Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and
Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York,
was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British
army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1759 Jul 26, The French
relinquished Fort Carillon in New York, to the British under General
Jeffrey Amherst. The British changed the name to Fort Ticonderoga, from
the Iroquois word Cheonderoga (land between the waters).
(HN, 7/26/98)(AH, 10/02, p.26)
1766 The Beekman Arms of Rhinebeck
began serving beer. In 2000 it was the oldest continuously operating
tavern in the US.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, Z1 p.2)
1775 May 10, Ethan Allen and his
Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga,
N.Y.
(AP, 5/10/97) (HN, 5/10/98)
1775-1783
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4171/index.htm
1776 Jul 4, The Continental
Congress approved adoption of the amended Declaration of Independence,
prepared by Thomas Jefferson and signed by John Hancock--President of
the Continental Congress--and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary,
without dissent. However, the New York delegation abstained as directed
by the New York Provisional Congress. On July 9, the New York Congress
voted to endorse the declaration. On July 19, Congress then resolved to
have the "Unanimous Declaration" inscribed on parchment for the
signature of the delegates.
(HNQ, 7/4/98)(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)
1776 Aug 29, General George
Washington retreated during the night from Long Island to New York City.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1776 Aug 29, Americans withdrew
from Manhattan to Westchester.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1776 Sep 12, Nathan Hale left
Harlem Heights Camp (127th St) for a spy mission.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1776 Oct 11, C. Randle painted: "A
View of the New England Arm’d Vessels on Valcure Bay on Lake
Champlain." It depicted the fleet of Benedict Arnold just before the
Battle of Valcour Island on this day. The fleet was defeated but it
slowed the British advance from Canada.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A3)
1776 Oct 11, The naval Battle of
Valcour Island on Lake Champlain was fought during the American
Revolution. American forces led by Gen. Benedict Arnold suffered heavy
losses, but managed to stall the British.
(AP, 10/11/07)
1776 Oct 13, Benedict Arnold was
defeated at Lake Champlain by the British, who then retreated to Canada
for the winter. Arnold’s efforts bought the colonists 9 months to
consolidate their hold in northern New York. In 2006 James L. Nelson
authored “Benedict Arnold’s Navy.”
(HN, 10/13/98)(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.W5)
1776 Oct 28, The Battle of White
Plains was fought during the Revolutionary War, resulting in a limited
British victory. Washington retreated to NJ.
(AP, 10/28/06)(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1283.html)
1777 Apr 14, NY adopted a new
constitution as an independent state. Governeur Morris was the chief
writer of the state constitution. [see Apr 20]
(MC, 4/14/02)(WSJ, 5/28/03, p.D8)
1777 Apr 20, New York adopted a
new constitution as an independent state. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 4/20/02)
1777 Jul 6, British forces under
Gen. Burgoyne captured Fort Ticonderoga from the Americans.
(AP, 7/6/97)(MC, 7/6/02)
1777 Jul 7, American troops gave
up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1777 Sep 19, During the
Revolutionary War, American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga,
aka Battle of Freeman's Farm (Bemis Heights). American forces under
Gen. Horatio Gates met British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne at
Saratoga Springs, NY.
(AP,
9/19/97)(www.americanrevolution.com/BattleofSaratoga.htm)
1777 Oct 7, The second Battle of
Saratoga began during the American Revolution. During the battle
General Benedict Arnold was shot in the leg. Another bullet killed his
horse, which fell on Arnold, crushing his leg. The "Boot Monument" sits
close to the spot where Arnold was wounded, and is a tribute to the
general's heroic deeds during that battle. Although Arnold's
accomplishments are described on the monument, it pointedly avoids
naming the man best known for betraying his country. The British
forces, under Gen. John Burgoyne, surrendered 10 days later.
(AP, 10/7/97)(HNQ, 7/20/01)
1777 Oct 7, Simon Fraser, English
general, died in the battle of Saratoga, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Simon_Fraser_of_Balnian)
1777 Oct 17, General John Burgoyne
with British forces of 5,000 men surrendered to General Horatio Gates,
commander of the American forces at Schuylerville, NY. In the fall of
1777, the British commander Gen'l. Burgoyne and his men were advancing
along the Hudson River. After Burgoyne had retreated to the
heights of Saratoga, the Americans stopped and surrounded them.
The surrender was a turning point in the American Revolution,
demonstrating American determination to gain independence. After
the surrender, France sided with the Americans, and other
countries began to get involved and align themselves against
Britain.
(AP, 10/17/97)(HN, 10/17/98)(HNPD, 10/17/99)(SSFC,
6/30/02, p.C10)
1777 George Washington led a
campaign against the British and their Iroquois allies in Pennsylvania,
New York, and the Ohio country. These included the Six Nations Indians:
Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, and Tuscarora. In 2005 Glenn
F. Williams published “The Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s
Campaign Against the Iroquois.
(WSJ, 7/26/05, p.D8)
1778 Jul 8, George Washington
headquartered his Continental Army at West Point.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1778 Aug 31, British killed 17
Stockbridge Indians in Bronx during Revolution.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1778 Nov
11, British redcoats, Tory rangers and Seneca Indians in central New
York state killed more than 40 people in the Cherry Valley Massacre. A
regiment of 800 Tory rangers under Butler (1752-1781) and 500 Native
forces under the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant (1742-1807), fell upon
the settlement, killing 47, including 32 noncombatants, mostly by
tomahawk.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Cherry-Valley-Massacre)(AP, 11/11/07)
1778 Federalists won over
anti-Federalists in a crucial New York state ratifying convention for
the Constitution.
(WSJ, 6/10/98, p.A18)
1778 In the winter of 1778,
American troops stationed at West Point on the Hudson River nicknamed
the place "Point Purgatory." Now the site of the famous military
academy, during the Revolutionary War West Point was a strategic
highland on the Hudson. Both the British and the Americans considered
it very important for controlling the vital Hudson.
(HNQ, 5/29/00)
1779 Jul 16, American troops under
General Anthony Wayne, aka Mad Anthony Wayne, captured Stony Point, NY,
with a loss to the British of more than 600 killed or captured.
(HN, 7/16/98)(http://hhr.highlands.com/stpt.htm)
1780 Aug 5, Benedict Arnold took
over the command of West Point from American Major Gen. Robert Howe.
(ON, 11/01, p.2)
1780 Aug 30, General Benedict
Arnold betrayed the US when he promised secretly to surrender the fort
at West Point to the British army. Arnold whose name has become
synonymous with traitor fled to England after the botched conspiracy.
His co-conspirator, British spy Major John Andre, was hanged in an act
of spite by Washington ("it's good for the armies").
(MC, 8/30/01)
1780 Sep 21-22, General Benedict
Arnold, American commander of West Point, met with British spy Major
John André to hand over plans of the important Hudson River fort
to the enemy. Unhappy with how General George Washington treated him
and in need of money, Arnold planned to "sell" West Point for 20,000
pounds--a move that would enable the British to cut New England off
from the rest of the rebellious colonies. Arnold's treason was exposed
when André was captured by American militiamen who found the
incriminating plans in his stocking. Arnold received a timely warning
and was able to escape to a British ship, but André was hanged
as a spy on October 2, 1780. Condemned for his Revolutionary War
actions by both Americans and British, Arnold lived until 1801.
(HNPD, 9/21/98)
1780 Sep 23, British spy John
Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold's plot
to surrender West Point to the British. Arnold had switched sides
partly because he disapproved of the US French alliance.
(AP, 9/23/97)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)
1780 Sep 25, American General
Benedict Arnold joined the British.
(MC, 9/25/01)(ON, 11/01, p.5)
1780 Oct 2, British spy John Andre
was hanged in Tappan, N.Y., for conspiring with Benedict Arnold.
(AP, 10/2/97)
1782 Dec 5, Martin Van Buren, 8th
US President (1837-1841) was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the first
chief executive to be born after American independence.
(AP, 12/5/08)
1783 Nov 3, Washington ordered the
Continental Army disbanded from its cantonment at New Windsor, NY,
where it had remained since defeating Cornwallis in 1781.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1784 NY state awarded Thomas Paine
227 acres in New Rochelle.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.A7)
1784 John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)
arrived in New York in 1784 at age 20 and worked for a fur merchant. He
built up his own fur business and invested in real estate. "Buy the
acre, sell the lot." He married into the Brevoort family and left $20
million when he died.
(HN, 7/17/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(WSJ, 3/2/00,
p.W10)
1787 Alexander Hamilton sponsored
a New York law that recognized adultery as the only ground for divorce.
It remained in force until 1967.
(WSJ, 8/6/07, p.B1)
1788 Jul 26, New York became the
11th state to ratify the Constitution.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1790 Oct 28, NY gave up claims to
Vermont for $30,000.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1791 Aaron Burr (1756-1836), later
US vice president (1801-1805), was elected as US Senator from New York
(1791-1797).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr)
1792 An edition of the Bible was
first printed in New York.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)
1794 Nov 11, The Treaty of
Canandaigua was signed at Canandaigua, New York, by fifty sachems and
war chiefs representing the Grand Council of the Six Nations of the
Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy (including the Cayuga, Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes), and by Timothy
Pickering, official agent of President George Washington. The
Canandaigua Treaty, a Treaty Between the United States of America and
the Tribes of Indians Called the Six Nations, was signed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Canandaigua)
1795-1840 New York state and local governments
entered into 26 treaties and several purchase agreements with the
Oneida Indians to acquire all but 32 of 270,000 acres. Almost none of
the transactions were approved by Congress as required by a 1790 law.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A9)
1797 Jan 1, Albany became the
capital of New York state, replacing New York City.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1797 Jun 2, 1st ascent of "Great
Mountain" (4,622') in Adirondack, NY, was by C. Broadhead.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1799 Mar 28, NY state abolished
slavery.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1800 Jan 7, Millard Fillmore, 13th
US president (1850-1853), was born in Summerhill (Locke), N.Y.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)(AP, 1/7/98)(HN, 1/7/99)
1801 May 16, William Henry Seward
was born. He was later Gov. of New York, the American Sec. of
State from 1861-1869 under Pres. Lincoln and purchased Alaska for the
United States.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1187)(HN, 5/16/99)(WSJ,
11/20/01, p.A16)
1802 Mar 16, The US Congress
authorized the establishment of the US Military Academy at West Point,
N.Y. President Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment
of the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
(www.usma.edu/history.asp)(AP, 3/16/97)
1802 Jul 4, The United State
Military Academy opened its doors at West Point, New York, welcoming
the first 10 cadets.
(AP, 7/4/97)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1802 Joseph Ellicott, New York
Quaker surveyor, founded Genessee County and the town of Batavia: "God
made Buffalo, I will try and make Batavia."
(WSJ, 6/28/02, p.W13)
1804 Jul 11, Vice President Aaron
Burr mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton (47), former first Treasury
Secretary, in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. A warrant for Burr’s
arrest was soon issued in New Jersey and New York, where Hamilton died.
In 1999 Richard Brookhiser wrote "Alexander Hamilton: American." In
2001 Joanne B. Freeman edited his writings and published: Alexander
Hamilton: Writings."
(AP, 7/11/97)(HN, 7/11/98)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A16)(WSJ,
12/3/01, p.A17)(ON, 12/08, p6)
1804 Jul 12, Alexander Hamilton
(47), US Sec. of Treasury, died in New York of wounds from a pistol
duel in New Jersey with VP Aaron Burr. In 1920 Frederick Scott Oliver
authored a Hamilton biography. In 2002 Stephen Knott authored
"Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth." In 2004 Ron Chernow
authored the biography "Alexander Hamilton." Lawyer Ambrose Spencer
(1765-1848) said Hamilton “more than any man, did the thinking of his
time.”
(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.M3)(WSJ,
10/20/04, p.D12)
1805 Charles Willson Peale,
American painter began his painting "The Exhumation of the Mastodon."
It was based on an 1881 real exhumation in rural New York that helped
topple biblically inspired beliefs of the history of the earth.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.E3)
1807 Jan 11, Ezra Cornell, founder
of Western Union Telegraph and Cornell University (NY), was born in
Westchester, NY.
(AP, 1/11/07)
1807 Aug 17, Robert Fulton’s
"North River Steam Boat" (popularly, if erroneously, known to this day
as the Clermont) began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its
successful round-trip to Albany. It was 125 feet (142-feet) long and 20
feet wide with side paddle wheels and a sheet iron boiler. He averaged
5 mph for the 300-mile round trip.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.F4)(WSJ, 9/21/01, p.A22)(AP,
8/17/07)
1807 Aug 19, Robert Fulton's North
River Steamboat arrived in Albany, two days after leaving New York.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1807 Aug 21, Robert Fulton's North
River Steamboat set off from Albany on its return trip to New York,
arriving some 30 hours later.
(AP, 8/21/07)
1813 Jul 31, British invaded
Plattsburgh, NY.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1813 Sep 7, The earliest known
printed reference to the United States by the nickname "Uncle Sam"
occurred in the Troy Post.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1813 Nov 16, The British announced
a blockade of Long Island Sound, leaving only the New England coast
open to shipping.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1813 Dec 19, British forces
captured Fort Niagara during the War of 1812.
(AP, 12/19/06)
1813 Dec 30, The British burned
Buffalo, N.Y., during the War of 1812.
(AP, 12/30/06)
1814 May 5, The British attacked
Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1814 May 11, Americans defeated
the British at Battle of Plattsburgh.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1814 Oct, The name Uncle Sam, a
nickname for the United States, was coined during the War of 1812.
Workers at Samuel Wilson's meat-packing plant in Troy, N.Y., which
supplied provisions to the U.S. Army, joked that the U.S. stamped on
the barrels bound for the troops actually stood for their boss Uncle
Sam Wilson. Army contractor Elbert Anderson, Jr. sought bids to provide
food for the 5,000 soldiers at the Greenbush Cantonment near Troy, NY.
The firm of E. & S. Wilson (Ebenezar and Samuel, d.1854 at 87)
provided many of the rations in oak casks labeled "E.A.-U.S.," as
required by the contract. A quip attributed the casks to Elbert
Anderson and his Uncle Sam. Later government property in general became
referred to as "Uncle Sam's."
(Hem., 7/95, p.89)(WC, Summer '97, p.3)
1815 Nov 12, American suffragist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, N.Y.
(AP, 11/12/97)
1816 Medical records from upstate
NY showed that a patient paid 25 cents to have a tooth pulled and $1.25
to have a baby.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.8)
1816 Gouverneur Morris (b.1752),
chief writer of the US Constitution (1787), died at Morrisania, NY. In
2003 Richard Brookhiser authored "Gentleman Revolutionary," a biography
of Morris.
(WSJ, 5/28/03, p.D8)
1817 Work began on the Erie
Canal, more properly named the New York State Barge Canal. The canal
connected Lake Erie with the Hudson and opened on October 26, 1825. The
canal was proposed by NY Gov. Dewitt Clinton and detractors called it
"Clinton's Folly." Workers were paid a quart of whiskey a day plus $1.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet,
12/7/98)(SFEC, 12/27/98, Z1 p.8)(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.8)
1818 May 27, American reformer
Amelia Jenks Bloomer, who popularized the "bloomers" garment that bears
her name, was born in Homer, N.Y.
(AP, 5/27/99)
1819 May 31, Poet Walt Whitman was
born in West Hill, N.Y.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1819 Oct 22, The 1st ship passed
through Erie Canal (Rome-Utica).
(MC, 10/22/01)
1819 Washington Irving published
"The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon," which included "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.2D)
1820 Joseph Smith claimed that God
and Christ appeared to him in Palmyra, NY, and told him not to join any
existing church but to prepare for an important task.
(NW, 9/10/01, p.48)
1820 Eliphalet Snedecor rented
land on Long Island, NY, and established a tavern. It became popular
among fisherman and bird shooters.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D6)
1822 Mar 9, The first patent for
false teeth was requested by C. Graham of NY. [see Jun 9, 1882]
(HN, 3/9/98)(MC, 3/9/02)
1822 Jun 9, Charles Graham
patented false teeth. [see Mar 9, 1822]
(MC, 6/9/02)
1823 Sep 21, The Angel Moroni 1st
appeared to Joseph Smith (b.1823), according to Smith (founder of
Mormon Church). Smith in New York claimed that an angel named Moroni
led him to ancient golden plates that revealed the untold story of
America during biblical times.
(SFC, 4/8/96, p.A-1,6)(MC, 9/21/01)
1823 Dec 23, The poem "A Visit
from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore, often called "Twas the night
before Christmas," was published in the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel. Recent
scholarship reveals the original to have been written by Major Henry
Livingston (1748-1828).
(AP, 12/23/97)(AH, 4/01, p.12)(AH, 2/05, p.18)
1824 Mar 2, In the Supreme Court
case of Gibbons v Ogden held that the power to regulate interstate
commerce was granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the
Constitution. The Court found that New York's licensing requirement for
out-of-state operators was inconsistent with a congressional act
regulating the coasting trade. Gibbons had hired Cornelius Vanderbilt
as captain of his boat, which operated under a federal license.
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595569/gibbons_v_ogden.html)(Econ,
4/18/09, p.90)
1824 Mar 9, Leland Stanford
(d.1863), railroad builder and founder of Stanford University, was born
in what was then Watervliet, New York (later the town of Colonie).
(HN,
3/9/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Stanford)
1824 Nov 5, Stephen Van Rensselaer
established the Rensselaer School with a letter to Rev. Dr. Samuel
Blatchford, in which he asked him to serve as the first president. The
first engineering college in the U.S., Rensselaer School, opened in
Troy, New York, on Jan 3, 1825. It later became known as Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rensselaer_Polytechnic_Institute)(WSJ,
6/2/06, p.79)
1825 Oct 26, The Erie Canal was
opened in upstate New York. It cut through 363 miles of wilderness and
measured 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep. It had 18 aqueducts and 83 locks
and rose 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The first boat on
the Erie Canal left Buffalo, N.Y. after eight years of construction. At
the request of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, the New York state
legislature had provided $7 million to finance the project. The canal
facilitated trade between New York City and the Midwest--manufactured
goods were shipped out of New York and agricultural products were
returned from the Midwest. As the canal became vital to trade, New York
City flourished and settlers rapidly moved into the Midwest and founded
towns like Clinton, Illinois. [see 1826] Gov. Clinton rode the Seneca
Chief canal boat from Buffalo to New York harbor for the inauguration.
In 2004 Peter L. Bernstein authored “Wedding of the Waters: The Erie
Canal and the Making of a Great Nation.” In 2009 Gerard Koeppel
authored “Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American
Empire.”
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.T10)(AP, 10/26/97)(HN,
10/26/98)(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W6)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.89)
1925 Nov 16, American Association
for Advancement of Atheism was formed in NY.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1825 Nov 26, The first college
social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College
in Schenectady, N.Y.
(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)
1825 Sing Sing Prison opened on
the banks of the Hudson River. The name was from the local Sint Sinct
Indian tribe. [see 1901]
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
1825 Mordecai Noah attempted to
establish a Jewish state called Grand Island near Buffalo. No one came
to the grand opening ceremony. At this time there were about 1000 Jews
living in Manhattan.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.E1,8)
1826 The Erie Canal, 387 miles
long and completed in 1826, connected Lake Erie, at Buffalo, to the
Hudson River at Albany, New York. Begun in 1817 through the determined
efforts of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal, which utilized
light packet boats drawn by horses, reduced the passenger schedule
between Buffalo and Albany from the 10 days required by stage service
to three-and-a-half days. The canal brought many settlers to the Mohawk
Valley and formed a great highway for freight from the Northwest to the
seaboard. [see 1825]
(HNQ, 12/29/99)
1826 In Batavia Capt. William
Morgan was kidnapped by brother Masons for divulging fraternity
secrets. His body was never found. His book "Illustrations of
Freemasonry" revealed some Mason secrets. His death inspired America's
1st third party, the anti-Mason, who dominated western NY for almost a
decade.
(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)(WSJ,
6/28/02, p.W13)
1827 Jul 4, New York state law
emancipated adult slaves. The laws were rewritten to make sure that all
slaves would eventually be freed.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.5)(Maggio, 98)(ON, 11/99, p.5)
1827 Joseph Smith, Mormon founder,
received his tablets on Mount Cumorah near Palmyra, NY.
(NW, 9/10/01, p.48)
1828 In Cobleskill, NY, cows fell
into a cave, that was turned into the Secret Caverns tourist
attraction. [see 1842]
(SFC, 7/25/03, p.A2)
1829 May 15, Joseph Smith was
"ordained" by John the Baptist- according to Joseph Smith. Mormon
church was founded in NY.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1829 Oct 17, Sam Patch (~23),
stunt diver, successfully dove 120 feet from a platform on Goat Island
at Niagara Falls.
(MC, 11/13/01)(ON, 4/02, p.6)
1829 Nov 13, Sam Patch (~23),
stunt diver, dove 125 feet from a platform at the Genesee Falls on
Friday the 13th in Rochester, NY. His body was found the following
March in the Genesee River ice. In 2003 Paul E. Johnson authored "Sam
Patch, the Famous Jumper."
(ON, 4/02, p.6)(SSFC, 6/15/03,
p.M6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Patch)
1829 Abner Cutler started a
cabinet making business in Buffalo, New York. The company manufactured
roll-top desks for decades.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.G5)
1830 Apr 6, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith and five
others in Fayette, Seneca County, N.Y. Joseph Smith published the "Book
of Mormon" in Palmyra, New York. He claimed that the manuscript was
based on ancient golden plates revealed to him by the angel Moroni and
written in the language of the Egyptians. The book records the journey
of an ancient Israelite prophet, Lehi, and his family to the American
continent some 2,000 years ago. [see 1827, 1831]
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(NH, 10/96, p.19)(AP, 4/6/97)(HN,
4/6/98)
1831 Aug 9, 1st US steam engine
train run was from Albany to Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1834 Feb 26, New York and New
Jersey ratified the 1st US interstate crime compact.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1834 Dec 3, 1st US dental society
was organized in NY.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1834 New York’s Gov. Marcy warned
the state not to enlarge the banking superstructure without
strengthening its foundation.
(Panic, p.17)
1834 New York and New Jersey made
a compact over Ellis Island, then a 3-acre site that held that the
surrounding submerged land belonged to New Jersey. By 1998 the island
was 27.5 acres due to landfill and its ownership was under contention.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A2)
1835 Nov 23, Henry Burden invented
the first machine for manufacturing horseshoes. He then made most of
the horseshoes for the Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Burden patented
a Horseshoe manufacturing machine in Troy, NY.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.E3)(MC, 11/23/01)
1836 Aug 25, Bret Harte (d.1902),
American author and journalist, was born in Albany, NY. "The only sure
thing about luck is that it will change." [1839 also given as a birth
date]
(WUD, 1994 p.648)(AP, 4/2/98)(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.6)
1837 Dec 29, Canadian militiamen,
claiming self-defense, destroyed the Caroline, a US steamboat docked at
Buffalo, N.Y. It was being used to ferry supplies to anti-British
rebels in Canada.
(AP, 12/29/97)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.25)
1839 Jul 8, John D. Rockefeller
(d.1937), financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil, was born
on a farm in Richford, New York. He moved into the refining end of the
oil business and gobbled up competitors. The 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust
Act forced the breakup of his Standard Oil Co. Ron Chernow later
published "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller." His philanthropy
totaled over $500 million and included the founding of the Univ. of
Chicago and the Rockefeller Inst. For medical Research, later
Rockefeller Univ.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(AP, 7/8/99)
1839 Jun 12, Baseball was said to
have been invented. According to legend Abner Doubleday chased cows out
of Elihu Phiney’s pasture and invented the game of baseball at
Cooperstown, New York, later home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
and the Cooperstown Bat Company. In 1939 on the 100th anniversary of
the day Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the sport, the National
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Americans began playing baseball in the 1840s. It was derived from the
British game called rounders.
(SFE, 10/1/95, p.T-11)(AP, 6/12/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R34)(WSJ, 7/19/01, p.A20)
1839 Sep 28, Frances E.C. Willard,
founder of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was born in NY.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1839 New York’s Gov. William
Seward (1801-1872) made his 1st inaugural address.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A16)
1841 Sep 9, The Great Lakes
steamer "Erie" sank off Silver Creek, NY., and 300 people died.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1842 In Cobleskill, NY, cows
stumbled across a cave on property owned by Lester Howe. The area was
turned into the Howe Caverns tourist attraction. [see 1928]
(SFC, 7/25/03, p.A2)
1843 Alonzo Blanchard of Albany,
NY, patented a stove design called “Washington.” It featured a
cast-iron statue of George Washington on top.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.G5)
1845 Beriah Swift of Millbrook,
N.Y., patented a coffee mill and built a factory to make the mills. He
was joined by William and John Lane about 1880 and the company moved to
Poughkeepsie.
(SFC, 10/14/98, Z1 p.3)
1845 Baseball players in Hoboken
formed the Knickerbocker club. Alexander Joe Cartwright was one of the
pivotal figures.
(WSJ, 7/19/01, p.A20)
1847-1852 Durfee’s Knickerbocker root beer was
bottled in Rochester, New York, during this period. Durfee used a
12-sided bottle in Ohio and New York. In 2008 the bottles were valued
at about $125.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.G3)
1848 Mar 29-1848 Mar 31, Niagara
Falls slowed to a trickle for about 30 hours due to an ice jam from
Lake Erie in the Niagara River.
(ON, 12/05, p.10)(SSFC, 3/29/09, p.C10)
1848 Jul 19, The first women’s
rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York. Organized by
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the two-day convention
discussed such topics as voting, property rights and divorce. It
launched the women’s suffrage movement. The convention issued a
"Declaration of Sentiments" based on the Declaration of Independence.
"The ideal newspaper woman has the keen zest for life of a child, the
cool courage of a man and the subtlety of a woman." Elizabeth Cady
Stanton made her first public speech at the Woman's Rights Convention.
After Cady Stanton was denied participation in an anti-slavery
convention and was told that women were "constitutionally unfit for
public and business meetings," she and four other women, including
abolitionist Lucretia Coffin Mott, planned a convention to challenge
that notion. They drafted a "Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions," 11 resolutions calling for equal rights for women,
including the right to vote. After lengthy debate, the document was
amended and signed by 68 women and 32 men of the approximately 300
attendees, setting the American women's rights movement in motion.
Susan B. Anthony joined the movement in 1852.
(HNPD, 7/19/98)(SFEC, 7/20/97, Par p.8)(SFEM,
6/28/98, p.30)(SFC, 7/6/98, p.D8)
1848 Jul 26, Charles Ellet Jr.,
engineer, completed a light suspension bridge over the Niagara River. A
boy's kite was used to transfer the 1st line across.
(ON, 7/02, p.8)
1848 Aug 9, The Barnburners
(anti-slavery) party merged with the Free Soil Party and nominated
Martin Van Buren for president at its convention in Buffalo, N.Y. The
Hunkers and the Barnburners were two factions within the Democratic
Party of New York split over the slavery issue in 1848. They injected
the issue into the Democratic National Convention held in Baltimore in
1848 when they both sent delegations. The Barnburners (who were also
known as the "Softs" while the Hunkers were called the "Hards") were
firm supporters of the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 that sought to restrict
the spread of slavery to newly acquired territory.
(AP, 8/9/97)(HNQ, 11/28/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1848 John Humphrey Noyes (b.1811)
founded the Oneida Community in upstate New York. The Perfectionists
were organized around communal property and a complex marriage that wed
all members to each other. In 1993 Spencer Klaw (d.2004) authored
“Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community.”
(MC, 9/3/01)(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.A6)(SFC, 6/21/04,
p.B5)
1849 Jan 23, English-born
Elizabeth Blackwell, the 1st woman to receive medical degree, graduated
at the top of her class from the medical school of Hobart College in
Geneva, N.Y.
(http://campus.hws.edu/his/blackwell/biography.html)(ON, 4/03, p.2)
1850 Senator Henry Clay of
Kentucky introduced the 8 provisions of the Great Compromise Bill. The
provisions of the Great Compromise bill were reduced to 5 and passed
one by one. They were in sum: 1) the admission of California as a free
state; 2) slavery in the territories of Utah and New Mexico would be
resolved by popular sovereignty; 3) slavery would be ended in the
District of Columbia; 4) the federal government would assume a $10
million debt by Texas; 5) the federal government would be responsible
for the return of runaway slaves. New York Sen. W.F. Seward stated:
"The unity of our empire hangs on the decision of this day."
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)
1851 Sep 14, James Fenimore Cooper
(b.1789), writer, died at Cooperstown, NY.
(www.online-literature.com)
1852 Apr 13, Frank W. Woolworth
(d.1919), founder of the retail chain of 5&10 cent stores, was born
on a farm near Watertown New York.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)(HN, 4/13/98)
1852 Jul 4, Frederick Douglass
delivered the keynote speech for the Independence Day celebration in
Rochester, NY. In 2006 James A. Colaiaco authored Frederick Douglass
and the Fourth of July.”
(WSJ, 7/1/06, p.P6)
1852 Sep 27, "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
premiered in Troy, NY.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1852 Elisha Graves Otis invented a
safety elevator in Yonkers, NY. Otis invented the safety elevator to
brake the car to a halt if the supporting cable broke. Otis Steam
Elevator Works made its 1st sale in 1854 to P.T. Barnum for display at
the New York’s World Fair. In 1889 (the same year Eiffel built his
Tower) the elevator met electricity. United Technologies acquired Otis
in 1976. In 2001 Jason Goodwin authored "Otis, Giving Rise to the
Modern City."
(HT, 5/97, p.23)(HNQ, 4/21/01)(WSJ, 10/9/01,
p.A20)(ON, 5/05, p.12)
1853 Aug 24, The 1st potato chips
were prepared by Chef George Crum at Saratoga Springs, NY.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1853 Oct 1, Robert Schuyler, the
president and general transfer agent of the New York & New Haven
Railroad Company, began issuing, shares of stock beyond the capital
limited by its charter.
(http://tinyurl.com/dbok8a)(http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/111/111.US.156.html)
1853 Elizabeth Schermerhorn James,
the aunt of Edith Wharton, built the Wyndclyffe mansion in Rhinebeck,
NY.
(WSJ, 9/29/03, p.A1)
1854 Apr 15, The immigrant steamer
ship "Powchattan" (Powhattan) struck Brigantine Shoals and sank off
Long Beach, NY. Over 300 people died.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/js051854.html)
1854 May 30, Vermont native
Elisha Graves Otis (1811-1861) unveiled his invention, the safety
elevator at the New York World's Fair. Audiences gasped as Otis, riding
on the hoist's platform, dramatically ordered the lifting rope cut.
Instead of falling, the car locked safely into the elevator shaft.
Prior to the 1850s there was no existing market for passenger elevators
because there was no safety mechanism in the event of a cable break. In
1852 Otis was a master mechanic working at a bedstead factory in
Yonkers, N.Y., when he built a hoisting machine with two sets of metal
teeth at the car's sides. If the lifting rope broke, the teeth would
lock into place, preventing the car from falling. Otis never realized
the potential of his invention. His sons built the Otis Elevator
Company, enabling the skylines of cities throughout the world to be
transformed with skyscrapers.
(HNPD, 5/30/99)(ON, 5/05, p.12)
1854 Jul 12, George Eastman
(d.1932), inventor of the Kodak camera, was born in Waterville, N.Y.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1854 Dec 26, Wood pulp paper was
1st exhibited in Buffalo.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1855 The stone Lydig Monson Hoyt
House, overlooking the Hudson River in Dutchess County, N.Y., was
designed by Calvert Vaux. It was acquired by the state in 1962 for
$300,000. It became an orphan property of the state and in 1998 was
offered to private benefactors on a 40-year lease.
(SFC, 3/11/98, Z1 p.9)
1857 The state's Republican
governor created a rival police force in NYC to undercut the criminally
affiliated Democratic Mayor, Fernando Wood. The court ruled in favor of
the governor.
(WSJ, 8/2100, p.A14)
1858 Sen. Seward denounced "an
aristocracy of slaveholders" who controlled the country through their
southern legislators: "I know that the Democratic Party must go down,
and the Republican Party must rise in its place.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A16)
1859 Feb 19, Daniel E. Sickles, NY
congressman, was acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.
This was the 1st time this defense was successfully used. Sickles had
shot and killed Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, author of
"Star Spangled Banner." He shot Lee, the DC district attorney, in
Lafayette Square for having an affair with his wife. Sickles pleaded
temporary insanity and the sanctity of a man's home and beat the murder
rap.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W10)(MC, 2/19/02)
1859 Jul 1, John Wise (d.1879), O.
A. Gager and John La Mountain took off on a maiden balloon flight to
carry mail from St. Louis to NYC. They landed in Jefferson County, New
York state on July 2. Their over 800-mile flight stood as a record
until 1900.
(ON, 11/00, p.8)
1859 Nov 28, Washington Irving (b.
Apr 3,1783) American essayist, author, historian, biographer,
attorney/lawyer, died. He was buried in the Hudson Valley Old Dutch
Church cemetery in Tarrytown. He was born in New York City and wrote
the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."
(DT, 11/28/97)(USAT, 11/12/99, p.2D)
1859 Jun 30, French acrobat
Blondin (born Jean Francois Gravelet) crossed Niagara Falls on a
tightrope as 5,000 spectators watched.
(AP, 6/30/97)(HN, 6/30/98)
1859 Aug 17, Harry Colcord crossed
over the Niagara Falls while strapped to the back of French tightrope
walker Blondin.
(www.simpenguin.com/genealogy/blondin/charlesblondinbio.html)
1860 Aug 3, The American Canoe
Association was founded at Lake George, NY.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1860 Bard College began as a small
school in Annandale-on-Hudson. It was next to Montgomery Place, whose
landscape was attributed to Andrew Jackson Downing, America's most
famous 19th century landscape architect.
(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A20)
1861-1885 The New York Stoneware Co. was in business
in Fort Edward, NY, during this period. It also worked under the name
of Satterlee and Morey.
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.F12)
1862 Jan 30, The USS Monitor was
launched at Greenpoint, Long Island.
(HN, 1/30/99)(AH, 12/02, p.8)
1862 Mar 12, Jane Delano (d.1919),
nurse, teacher and founder of the American Red Cross, was born in
Montour Falls, New York. She helped the American Red Cross Nursing
Service to be recognized as the nursing reserve for the Army and Navy.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Jane_Delano)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren
(79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook,
N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1862 The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy
was founded in Buffalo, NY. In 1905 it opened the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery following a generous gift from Buffalo entrepreneur and
philanthropist John J. Albright.
(WSJ, 11/15/06,
p.D14)(www.albrightknox.org/geninfo.html)
1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4
wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1863 Aug 3, Horatio Seymour
(1810-1886), two-time governor of NY (1853-54 and 1863-64), asked Pres.
Lincoln to suspend the draft in NY.
(SC,
8/3/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Seymour)
1863 Aug 3, Saratoga Racetrack
opened in NY.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1864 Apr 30, New York became the
1st state to charge for a hunting license.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1864 Grover Cleveland, a lawyer
and politician in Buffalo, New York, dodged the draft by provided a
substitute when he was drafted.
(HNQ, 8/4/00)
1865 Cornell Univ., the youngest
member of the Ivy League, was founded by Ezra Cornell and Andrew
Dickson White as a coeducational, non-sectarian institution where
admission was offered irrespective of religion or race.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University)
1866 Feb 26, New York Legislature
established the NYC Metropolitan Board of Health.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 May 5, Villagers in Waterloo,
NY, held their 1st Memorial Day service. In 1966 Pres. Johnson gave
Waterloo, NY, the distinction of holding the 1st Memorial Day. On Apr
13, 1862, volunteers led by Sarah J. Evans had paid homage to the
graves of Civil War soldiers in the Washington area.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A2)
1866 May 29, US Gen'l. Winfield
Scott (79) died at West Point, New York. Union General Winfield Scott
was the originator of the military strategy known as the "Anaconda
Plan." Scott's plan for defeating the Confederacy featured a naval
blockade of the South designed to slowly "strangle" the fledgling
country. The Union did impose such a blockade, but by 1861 Scott was
considered too old to lead the federal armies and he retired that
November. Although a Virginian born on June 13, 1786, Scott-popularly
called "Old Fuss and Feathers"-remained loyal to the Union and its army
he commanded when war broke out.
(HNQ,
2/19/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winfield_Scott)
1866 A group of NY sportsmen
purchased some 4,000 acres on Long Island centered around Snedecor’s
Tavern and established the Southside Sportsmen’s Club. Around 1963 the
land was turned into a state preserve.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D6)
1867 Jun 19, The first running of
the Belmont Stakes horserace in the US. It later became part of the
Triple Crown. Oldest of the three U.S. horse races that constitute the
Triple Crown. The Belmont is named after August Belmont. The stakes is
held in early June at Belmont Park, near Garden City, Long Island; the
course is 1.5 mi (2,400 m).
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.8)(YB)
1868 Oct 7, Cornell University was
inaugurated in Ithaca, N.Y.
(AP, 10/7/97)
1868 Nov 3, Republican Ulysses S.
Grant was elected 18th president. He won the election over Democrat
Horatio Seymour (1810-1886), two-time governor of NY (1853-54 and
1863-64), by 27,000 votes. Seymour ran fairly close to Ulysses Grant in
the popular vote, but was defeated decisively in the electoral vote by
a count of 214 to 80. Grant used the 1867 typewriter phrase "Now is the
time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" for his campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Seymour)(AP,
11/3/97)(SFEC, 3/22/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A22)
1868 Dec 5, 1st American bicycle
college opened in NY.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1868 Maud Humphrey, artist, was
born in Rochester, N.Y. She worked as a watercolorist and specialized
in portraits of children dressed in Victorian fashions. One of her
children was movie star Humphrey Bogart.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)
1868 Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell
opened the world’s 1st medical school for women, the Women’s Medical
College of the New York Infirmary.”
(ON, 4/03, p.3)
1868 In Syracuse NY the Everson
Museum of Art was founded.
(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1869 Aug 24, Cornelius Swarthout
of Troy, New York, patented the waffle iron.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1869 The Bardovan Theater in
Poughkeepsie was built.
(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)
1869 Daniel E. Sickles was
appointed minister to Spain. A newspaper summed up his career: "mail
robber, spy, murderer, confidence man, general, satrap, politician." In
2002 Thomas Keneally authored "American Scoundrel," a biography of
Sickles.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W10)
1869 The petrified man hoax known
as the "Cardiff Giant" was promoted in New York, Boston, Albany and
Syracuse. A 10 foot 4 ½ inch limestone statue of a man was
claimed to have been dug up in Cardiff, N.Y.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.B3)
1869 John Augustus Roebling,
inventor of the steel wire cable and designer of the bridge, was killed
in a construction accident at the outset of construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge. Roebling had earlier completed the first suspension
bridge over the Niagara gorge linking the US and Canada. His son and
partner, Washington A. Roebling, supervised the Brooklyn Bridge to its
completion in spite of a debilitating illness.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/24/97)(HNPD, 5/23/99)(WSJ,
6/10/99, p.A24)
1870 Feb 2, The "Cardiff Giant,"
supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff,
N.Y., was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.
(AP, 2/2/97)
1870 Feb 2, Samuel Clemens, Mark
Twain, married Olivia Langdon in Elmira, New York. He fell in love with
her photograph during an 1867 trip to the Holy Land with her brother
Charles.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.31)
1871 Jan 3, Henry W.
Bradley patented oleomargarine in Binghamton, NY.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1872 Nov 5, Suffragist Susan B.
Anthony and a number of other women voted in Rochester, New York, in
the US general election. On Nov 18, 1872, she was arrested for voting
in the presidential election.
(ON, 8/09,
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
1873 Jun 18, Suffragist Susan B.
Anthony (1815-1906) was fined $100 in Canandaigua, NY, for attempting
to vote in the 1872 presidential election. The fine was never paid [see
Nov 5, 1872].
(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)(ON, 12/09, p.4)
1873 Asa T. Soule of Rochester,
NY, concocted the alcohol laced Hop Bitters patent medicine and made a
fortune. The Univ. of Rochester later declined a $100,000 offer to
change its name to Hops Bitters Univ.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)
1874 Feb 17, Thomas J. Watson Sr.
(d.1956), U.S. industrialist, was born in upstate New York. In 1914 he
began running the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., a predecessor to
IBM. He converted the financially ailing manufacturing business into
the international giant IBM.
(WUD, 1994, p.1614)(HN, 2/17/99)(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A1)
1874 Mar 8, Millard Fillmore
(b.1800), the 13th president of the United States (1850-1853), died of
a stroke in Buffalo, N.Y.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)(AP, 1/7/98)(AP, 3/8/98)
1874 The Chautauqua Institution
began as a Methodist community 60 miles south of Buffalo and
established a reputation as a purveyor of summer "learning vacations."
[see 1878] The Chautauqua Institution was founded to further adult
education. In 1970 Alfreda L. Irwin authored a study of the community:
"Three Taps of the Gavel."
(SFEC, 9/29/96, Par p.13)(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T2)(WSJ,
8/1/00, p.B1)
1874 The 1st rail line to the
Hamptons ran to Bridgehampton. 20 years later it was extended to
Montauk, Long Island. The 4-day trip from NYC was reduced to 1 day.
(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.W12)
1874 Winslow Homer (1836-1910),
son of a local whaler, took up painting in East Hampton, NY.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)
1875 John Durant Larkin
established a soap company in Buffalo, N.Y. The Larkin Co. attracted
customers by offering premium gifts. In 1901 the company founded
Buffalo Pottery to manufacture dishes given as premiums. The company
closed in 1962.
(SFC, 2/11/98, Z1 p.6)
1876 Feb 2, The National League of
Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York.
(AP, 2/2/97)
1876 T. Southard of Peekskill, NY,
became Southard, Robertson & Co. The Southard company had
manufactured toy wood-burning heating stoves as early as 1850.
(SFC, 3/1/06, p.G7)
1877 Richard Dugdale, American
social reformer, authored “The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism,
Disease, and Heredity.” The Jukes clan from upstate New York counted
prostitutes, thieves and drunkards in its ranks.
(WSJ, 1/15/09, p.A9)
1878 Aug 10, In Chautauqua, New
York, John H. Vincent (46), clergyman, introduced his idea for the
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. His vision was to spread
education around the globe with organized reading programs. The 1878
class read "Old Tales Retold from Grecian Mythology" by Augusta
Larned and "Studies of the Stars" by Henry w. Warren.
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.B1)
1878 Aug 21, The American Bar
Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.
(AP, 8/21/97)
1878 Scribner’s Magazine sent a
crew of bohemian writers and artists, the Tile Club, to report on life
in East Hampton, NY.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)
1878 George Eastman of Rochester,
NY, developed his own dry-plate formula for taking pictures, an
improvement on a method by British photographer Charles Bennett.
(ON, 3/05, p.10)
1879 Feb 22, Frank Winfield
Woolworth's 'nothing over five cents' shop opened at Utica, New York.
It was the first chain store. The "Great 5-Cent Store" failed within
weeks.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)(AP, 2/22/99)(HN, 2/22/99)
1879 Genesee Brewing began
producing beer in Rochester, NY.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.B2)
1879 George Eastman of Rochester,
NY, perfected a ready-to-use dry plate for photography. Eastman sought
to improve the chemistry and the processes of photography that had, for
40 years, required subjects to remain perfectly still for exposure
times of up to a minute.
(HN, 7/12/99)
1880 Dec, George Eastman received
an order for photographic dry-plates and together with Henry Strong
launched the Eastman Dry Plate Co.
(ON, 3/05, p.11)
1881 Aug 27, New York state's Pure
Food Law went into effect to prevent "the adulteration of food or
drugs."
(HN, 8/27/00)
1882 Jan 30, The 32nd president of
the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park,
N.Y.
(AP, 1/30/98)
1882 Jul 22,
Edward Hopper (d.1967), American artist (Nighthawks), was born in
Nyack, N.Y.
(www.fact-index.com)
1882 Lake Placid Lodge was built
in the Adirondacks by a German family.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.27)
1883 Jul 24, Matthew Webb
(b.1848), the 1st person to swim the English Channel (1875), drowned
while trying to swim across the Niagara River just below the falls.
(ON, 2/05, p.12)(www.telfordlife.com/Capt%20Webb.htm)
1883 Sep 11, James Goold Cutler,
architect, patented the postal mail chute. The first one was installed
in Rochester N.Y. He later became the mayor of Rochester.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.E4)(WSJ, 7/11/01, p.A1)(MC, 9/11/01)
1883 Echo Camp was built in the
Adirondacks for Gov. Phineas C. Lounsbury of Connecticut. It was later
turned into a private girl's camp.
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.25)
1884 Sep 17, Charles Tomlinson
Griffes, composer (White Peacock), was born in Elmira, NY.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1884 Oct 14, Transparent
paper-strip photographic film was patented by George Eastman. He had
invented a flexible paper-backed film that could be wound on rollers.
To encourage amateur photography and film sales, Eastman developed a
simple black box camera that cost $25 and came already loaded with a
100-exposure roll of film. When the roll was used up, the entire No. 1
Kodak camera was shipped back to Eastman's factory for developing and
reloading, at a cost of only $10. Eastman's photographic improvements
proved successful, with 13,000 cameras sold in 1888. The roll holder
was designed by William Hall Walker. Eastman renamed his corporation
the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company.
(HN, 7/12/99)(HN, 10/14/00)(ON, 3/05, p.11)
1884 Prior to his first election
to the presidency in 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland, then a bachelor,
admitted that Republican charges accusing him of fathering a child as a
young man in Buffalo were true. His honesty helped to calm the issue,
despite the popular campaign chant against him: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?
Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!" Cleveland married Frances Folsom
in the White House in 1886. He lost a reelection bid in 1888 to
Benjamin Harrison, even though he won the popular vote, but regained
the White House in 1892 to serve a second term as the 24th president.
(HN, 1/19/00)
1885 Mar 26, The Eastman Film Co.
of Rochester, N.Y., manufactured the first commercial motion picture
film. George Eastman had perfected a method for bonding photographic
emulsion onto thin strips of celluloid.
(AP, 3/25/98)(HN, 3/25/98)(ON, 11/03, p.5)
1885 Jul 23, Ulysses S. Grant
(b.1822), commander of the Union forces at the end of the Civil War and
the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y.,
at age 63. He had just completed the final revisions to his memoirs,
which were published as a 2 volume set by Mark Twain. In 1928 W.E.
Woodward authored "Meet General Grant," and in 1981 William S.
McFreeley authored "Grant: A Biography." His tomb was placed in the
largest mausoleum in the US on a bluff over the Hudson River. In 1998
Geoffrey Perret published the biography "Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier and
President." In 2004 Mark Perry authored “Grant and Twain.” In 2006
Edward G. Longacre authored “General Ulysses S. Grant: The Soldier and
Man.”
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A7)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.20)(AP,
7/23/98)(HN, 7/23/98)(ON, SC, p.11)(ON, 12/00, p.7)(WSJ, 5/14/04,
p.W10)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P9)
1886 Nov 30, 1st commercially
successful AC electric power plant opened in Buffalo.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1887 Frank Brownell, the maker of
George Eastman’s roll holder, created for Eastman a simple box camera.
Eastman named it “Kodak” and patented the name with the camera.
(ON, 3/05, p.12)
1888 Apr 24, Eastman Kodak was
formed. The company produced the Kodak Camera.
(HN, 4/24/98)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
1888 May 7, George Eastman
patented his Kodak box camera.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1889 The first commercial
transparent roll film, perfected by George Eastman and his research
chemist, was put on the market. This flexible film made possible the
development of Thomas Edison's motion picture camera in 1891. A new
corporation, The Eastman Company, was formed, taking over the assets of
the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company.
(www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/about/chrono1.shtml)
1897 West Point military academy
adopted the motto: "Duty, Honor, Country."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.7)
1888 Feb 22, John Reid of Scotland
demonstrated golf to Americans at Yonkers, NY. Reid converted his lawn
to six hole for golf in Yonkers N.Y., the first golf course in the US.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 2/22/02)
1888 Apr 18, Roscoe Conkling
(b.1829), former US Senator from New York (1867-1881), died. Conkling
was the undisputed leader of Republicans in NY.
(www.nndb.com/people/241/000050091/)
1888 Apr 24, Eastman Kodak was
formed. The company produced the Kodak Camera.
(HN, 4/24/98)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
1890 Apr 11, Ellis Island was
designated as an immigration station.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1890 Jul 13, John C. "Pathfinder"
Fremont (76), US explorer, governor (Arizona, California), died. He was
buried in obscurity in Sparkill, NY. Fremont (b.1830) was the 1st
Republican presidential candidate in 1856. In 1999 David Roberts
authored "A Newer World: Kit Carson, John C. Freemont and the Claiming
of the American West." In 2002 Tom Chaffin authored “Pathfinder: John
Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire.” In 2007 Sally
Denton authored “Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the
Couple Whose Power, Politics and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century
America.”
(WUD, 1994, p.567)(SFEC, 2/13/00, BR p.5)(SSFC,
12/22/02, p.M1)(SSFC, 7/1/07, p.M1)
1888 Jul, Harold P. Brown, on
behalf of Thomas Edison, zapped dogs at Columbia College to demonstrate
the supposed danger of alternating current, a mode of power favored by
Edison’s rival George Westinghouse. The NY state legislature had
recently designated electrocution as the official means for capital
punishment.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A26)(ON, 10/04, p.7)
1890 Aug 6, Convicted murderer
William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in the electric
chair as he was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York. He had
been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an
axe. In 2003 Jill Jonnes authored "Empires of Light," and account of
how Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse brought electric power to public use.
(AP, 8/6/97)(HN, 8/6/98)(MC, 8/6/02)(WSJ, 8/19/03,
p.D5)
1890 Nov 29, The first Army-Navy
football game was played, at West Point, New York. Navy defeated Army
by a score of 24-to-nothing.
(AP, 11/29/00)
1890 Frank and Charles Menches
included a recipe for the first known chopped-beef sandwich called a
"hamburger." They named it after the town of Hamburg, N.Y.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.E3)
1890 The Shepard Hardware Co. of
Buffalo, NY, began manufacturing its Jonah and the Whale mechanical
banks.
(SFC, 1/11/06, p.G2)
1890s The federal government
purchase Plum Island, located off the tip of Long Island. It was used
as a fort during both world wars. An Army project for conversion to a
biological warfare lab was later halted and the island was turned over
to the Agriculture Dept.
(WSJ, 1/8/02, p.A8)
1891 William Merritt Chase opened
the Shinnecock Summer School in the Hamptons to teach plein-art
painting.
(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.W12)
1892 Mar 15, New York State
unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1892 Mar 27, Ferde (Ferdinand
Rudolf von) Grof, composer, was born in NY.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1892 Apr 15, General Electric Co.,
formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Co. and other firms,
was incorporated in New York State.
(AP, 4/15/02)
1892 Sep 8, An early version of
"The Pledge of Allegiance" appeared in "The Youth’s Companion,"
published in Boston and edited by Francis Bellamy, a Christian
socialist, and cousin of writer Edward Bellamy. Frank E. Bellamy
(1876-1915) of Cherryvale High School in Kansas had authored a 500-word
patriotic essay which included the words of the Pledge of Allegiance
and instructions on saluting the American Flag. His teacher entered the
"Salute to the Flag" in a contest sponsored by the popular scholastic
publication The Youth's Companion. His essay won first place in this
national school contest.. [see Oct 12]
(AP, 9/8/97)(SSFC, 6/30/02,
p.A3)(www.leatherockhotel.com/FrankBellamy.htm)
1892 Oct 12, The American Pledge
of Allegiance was 1st recited in public schools to commemorate Columbus
Day. Francis Bellamy, a magazine editor of Rome, NY, wrote the "Pledge
of Allegiance." [see Sep 8]
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)(Internet)
1892 Dec 20, Pneumatic automobile
tire was patented in Syracuse, NY.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1892 The Seneca Indians set up a
treaty whereby non-Indian residents of Salamanca, a town built on the
Seneca Nation of Indians' Allegany Reservation, paid rent to the Seneca.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C14)
1894 Mar 8, NY passed the 1st
state dog license law. [see Mar 10]
(MC, 3/8/02)
1894 Mar 10, New York Gov. Roswell
P. Flower signed the nation's first dog-licensing law. The license fee
was $2, renewable annually for $1.
(AP, 3/10/99)
1894 The National Guard Armory at
Glen Falls, NY, was built. In 2009 it was put up for sale.
(SSFC, 10/25/09, p.A20)
1894-1895 The Guaranty Building in Buffalo, designed
by Louis Sullivan, was later considered America's most beautifully
ornamented urban construction.
(WSJ, 8/20/03, p.D12)
1895 Nov 5, George B. Selden of
Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road
Engine."
(AP, 11/5/07)
1895 The National Trust started in
the Lake District to "hold places of national interest and natural
beauty for the benefit of the nation."
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.18)
1895 William West Durant built the
Sagamore Lodge in the Adirondacks as a summer camp for the Vanderbilts.
His father had built the Adirondack railroad.
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.25)
1895 Bastian Brothers was founded
in Rochester, NY, as a jewelry store. It later expanded to manufacture
custom award pins, medals and similar items.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.G7)
1896 Dec 1, 1st certified public
accountants received certificates in NY.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1896 Andrew Dickson White,
scientist and the 1st president of Cornell Univ., authored "History of
the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom." He argued that
his fellow Protestants kept mankind in darkness and tried to prevent
him from establishing Cornell as a secular Univ.
(WSJ, 10/8/99, p.W15)
1897 Nov 15, The electricity plant
at Niagara Falls opened sending AC power 26 miles to Buffalo, NY. It
contained AC generators built by Westinghouse Electric and transformers
built by General Electric under license from Westinghouse Electric.
(ON, 10/04, p.8)
1897 In Le Roy, New York, Pearle
Wait, a carpenter, and his wife May, made a concoction of gelatin and
fruit flavor that they named Jell-O.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1897 The US Army began building
Fort Michie on Great Gull Island to protect the eastern approaches to
Long Island Sound.
(NH, 10/02, p.12)
1897 The Ellis Island immigration
center was destroyed by fire.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1898-1900 Theodore Roosevelt served as governor of
New York.
(ON, 12/99, p.12)
1899 Alfred Mosher Butts (d.1993),
the inventor of the Scrabble game, was born in Poughkeepsie, NY. The
game was initially called Lexico and then Criss-Cross Words. It was
named Scrabble in 1947. Sales took off in 1952.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.B1)
1899 The New York State Historical
Association was founded. It was based at the Fenimore Art Museum in
Cooperstown, NY.
(WSJ, 6/22/04, p.B8)
1899 In Le Roy, New York, Pearle
Wait, a carpenter, and his wife May, sold their formula for Jell-O for
$450 to neighbor Orator Frank Woodward.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1900 Frank Brownell, creator of
Eastman’s Kodak camera, designed the Brownie camera.
(ON, 3/05, p.12)
1901 Mar 1, At the Pan American
Exposition in Buffalo, NY, the electric current was turned on at the
Agricultural building by Henry Rustin, chief of the Mechanical and
Electricity Bureau, and the 4000 lamps on the exterior of the building
blazed into radiant beauty. The Exposition, which opened informally on
May 1, was held on a 342 acre site between Delaware Park Lake on the
south, the New York Central railroad tracks on the north, Delaware
Avenue on the east, and Elmwood Avenue on the west. The fair featured
the latest technologies, including electricity and the baby incubator
building, and attracted nearly 8 million people. A 400-foot electric
tower was the centerpiece.
(WSJ, 6/5/01,
p.A23)(http://panam1901.bfn.org/thisday/marcharchives.html)
1901 Apr 25, New York became the
first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was one
dollar.
(AP, 4/25/98)
1901 Sep 6, At the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz (28) made his
way along a reception line filing past President William McKinley.
Concealed within a handkerchief, Czolgosz held a .32-caliber revolver.
As he came face to face with the president, he fired two shots through
the handkerchief, striking McKinley in the chest and the abdomen.
McKinley died eight days after the shooting and became the third
American president assassinated. He was succeeded by Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz, explaining that he "thought it would be a
good thing for the country to kill the President," was put to death by
electrocution 45 days later. Emma Goldman was one of the people blamed
for the assassination.
(AP, 9/6/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70) (WSJ, 5/17/95,
p.A-18) (WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(HNPD, 9/6/98)(HN, 9/6/98)
1901 Sep 14, President McKinley
died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice
President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President of the
United States upon the death of William McKinley, who was shot eight
days earlier.
(AP, 9/14/97)(HN, 9/14/98)
1901 Oct 24, Anna Edson Taylor
(d.1921), a 43-year-old widow, was the first woman to go safely over
Niagara Falls in a barrel. She made the attempt for the cash award
offered, which she put toward the loan on her Texas ranch. Taylor died
in poverty.
(AP, 10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)
1901 Oct 29, Leon Czolgosz was
electrocuted for the assassination of President McKinley at Auburn
Prison in NY state. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley on September
6 during a public reception at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, N.Y.
Despite early hopes of recovery, McKinley died September 14, in
Buffalo.
(AP, 10/29/97)(HN, 10/29/98)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(AH,
10/01, p.30)
1901 Nov 2, The Pan American
Exposition, held in Buffalo New York, closed. Though it attracted
visitors from throughout the world, bad weather, and the unfortunate
assassination of Pres. William McKinley in September, affected
attendance. The Exposition lost money. The only structure
still standing on the site is the Buffalo & Erie County Historical
Society, formerly the New York State Building.
1901 Sing Sing, home of Sing Sing
prison, changed its name to Ossining.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
1901 The Buffalo Pottery Co. was
founded in Buffalo, NY., by the Larkin Soap Co. to make pottery used as
premiums for customers who bought Larkin soap.
(SFC, 1/10/07, p.G2)
1902 Mar 24, Thomas E. Dewey, New
York governor, was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)
1902 Aug 19, Ogden Nash (d.1971),
American author and humorist, was born in Rye, NY. Vanity, vanity, all
is vanity/ That's any fun at all for humanity. "Winter comes but once a
year, And when it comes it brings the doctor good cheer."
(WUD, 1994 p.951)(AP, 10/24/97)(AP, 12/21/98)(HN,
8/19/00)(MC, 8/19/02)
1902 In Buffalo, NY, the U.S. Hame
Co. was formed as the result of a consolidation of two 19th century
hame and saddlery manufacturers, the United Hame Co. of Buffalo, NY,
and the Consolidated Hame Co. of Andover, New Hampshire. In 1917 it
changed its name to USHCO and started making chassis for Ford and
Chevrolet trucks.
(www.coachbuilt.com/bui/u/us_body/us_body.htm)(SFC,
8/15/07, p.G7)
1903 Feb 22, The US side of
Niagara Falls ran short of water due to drought.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1903 The Buffalo Pottery Company
opened in Buffalo. It was established by the Larkin Co., a soap
manufacturer, to make premiums for its customers.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)
1903 The Adirondack Fire in NY
state burned some 637,000 acres.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A15)
1904 May 18, Jacob K. Javits, US
Senator-R-NY, was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1904 Sep 11, The battleship
Connecticut, launched in New York, introduced a new era in naval
construction.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1904 Frank Lloyd Wright designed
the Larkin Building in Buffalo, NY. It was demolished in 1950. His
Darwin Martin house was built in this year for an official of the
Larkin company.
(WSJ, 8/20/03, p.D12)
1905 Senior executives of
Equitable Life Insurance attempted to displace James Hyde, son of
founder Henry Hyde, from leadership. In 2003 Patricia Beard authored
"After the Ball," an account of the affair.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Charles Evans Hughes
supervised a New York state investigation into the insurance industry.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Alliance Furniture was
founded in Jamestown, NY, by a group of 8 partners of Swedish heritage.
The company manufactured high-quality dining-room furniture until at
least the 1950s.
(SFC, 6/18/08, p.G3)
1906 Mar 21, John D. Rockefeller
III, billionaire philanthropist (oil), was born.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1906 Nov 6, Republican Charles
Evans Hughes was elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper
publisher William Randolph Hearst. In 1910 he was appointed to the US
Supreme Court and served until 1916. In 1930 he was appointed as Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court and served until 1941.
(AP, 11/6/99)(SFC, 10/6/05, p.A15)
1906 A typhus fever outbreak on
Long Island was traced by George Soper, a sanitary engineer, to Mary
Mallon, a cook and healthy carrier of salmonella typhi. Mallon (aka
Typhoid Mary) was arrested and confined to North Brother Island.
(ON, 7/01, p.11)
1906-1930 The Heintz Art Metal Shop of Buffalo, N.Y.,
owned by Otto L. and Edwin Heintz, made decorative wares over this
period.
(SFC, 4/1/98, Z1 p.7)
1907 Nov 14, William Steig,
children author ("Shrek"), was born in New York.
(AP, 11/14/07)
1907 The Kutscher brothers opened
a country club in the Catskills called Kutscher's. Milton Kutscher
(d.1998 at 82) built it up to a leading resort.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.D10)
1907 William Walker founded the
American Thermos Bottle Co. in Brooklyn, NY. In 1913 he moved his
factory to Norwich.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.G6)
1908 Mar 4, The New York board of
education banned the act of whipping students in school.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1909 Dec 9, The 1st US monoplane
was flown by Henry W. Walden at Long Island, NY.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1910 Feb 19, Mary Mallon (aka
Typhoid Mary) was released from 4 years of quarantine on North Brother
Island. In 1914 she caused a typhus outbreak in the Sloane Maternity
Hospital. She was again arrested and returned to North Brother Island
where she died Nov 11, 1938.
(ON, 7/01, p.12)
1911 Sep 17, Cigar-smoking
Calbraith Perry Rodgers (1879-1912) set off from Sheepshead Bay, New
York, on the first flight across America. Rodgers, sponsored by the Vin
Fiz grape drink company, flew the fragile Wright B biplane in pursuit
of a $50,000 prize offered to the first person to make a
transcontinental flight in 30 days or less. Rodgers failed to win the
prize because his 4,321-mile flight took 84 days—of which only 3 days,
10 hours and 4 minutes was actual flying time! His average speed was
51.56 miles per hour. By the time he landed at Long Beach, California,
on November 5, Rodgers had made 70 crash landings, suffered numerous
minor injuries and had rebuilt his Vin Fiz so completely that only one
strut and the rudder were its original equipment.
(HNPD, 9/18/98)(ON, 10/06, p.12)
1911 Oct 20, Will Rogers Jr, actor
(Down to Earth), was born in NY.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1911 New York authorized private
wing-shooting preserves to hunt pheasants. Private preserves
proliferated rapidly toward the end of the century.
(WSJ, 2/1/99, p.A1)
1913 Mar 10, Harriet Tubman,
abolitionist, conductor on Underground RR, died in NY. In 2004
Catherine Clinton authored "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom" and
Kate Clifford Larson authored "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet
Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero."
(MC, 3/10/02)(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M1)(USAT, 2/5/04, p.5D)
1913 May 14, New York Governor
William Sulzer approved a state charter for the Rockefeller Foundation.
John D. Rockefeller had given $100 million to the Rockefeller
Foundation. This insulated a large part of Rockefeller's fortune from
inheritance taxes. At this time Rockefeller’s net worth approached $900
million, about $13 billion in 1998 dollars.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.68)
1913 New York state passed “the
eight foot sheet law” to ensure that the upper sheet in a hotel was of
sufficient length to cover the face so “that the inhalation by the
occupant of bacteria &c, may be prevented.”
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1914 Jun 19, Harry Lauter, actor
(Waterfront), was born in White Plains, NY.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1915 Jul 16, Barnard Hughes, actor
(Tron, Where's Poppa, Best Friends), was born in Bedford Hills, NY.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1916 Sep 11, The "Star Spangled
Banner" was sung at the beginning of a baseball game for the first time
in Cooperstown, New York.
(HN, 9/11/00)
1917 Nov 6, NY allowed women to
vote.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1918 Oct 9, E Howard Hunt,
involved in Watergate break-in, was born in Hamburg, NY.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1918 Nov 4, Art Carney (d.2003),
actor (Ed Norton-Honeymooners), was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
(EntW, 12/03, p.96)
1918 Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944)
was 1st elected governor of New York.
(TMC, 1994, p.1944)(WUD, 1994 p.1345)(WSJ, 3/6/00,
p.A20)
1919 Jan 6, The 26th president of
the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age
60.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1919 Jun 11, Sir Barton won the
Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1920 Jun 11, Robert Hutton, actor
(Torture Garden, Rocket), was born in Kingston, NY.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1921 Feb 22, An air mail plane
left San Francisco at 4:30 a.m., landing at New York (Hazelhurst Field,
L. I., N. Y.) at 4:50 p.m. on February 23.
(www.airmailpioneers.org/history/Sagahistory.htm)
1921 Nov 22, Rodney Dangerfield,
[John Cohen], comedian (Caddyshack), was born in Babylon, NY.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1921 The Martin Act was adopted in
NY state under Gov. Al Smith in response to numerous security fraud
scandals. It was named after legislator Francis J. Martin, who later
became a state court judge. It provided a model for the 1934 federal
statute that created the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
(WSJ, 10/2/02, p.C1)
1921 Frederick E. Walrath
(b.1871), master studio potter, died. Most of his work was done during
the years he spent teaching at the Mechanics Institute of Technology
(later named the Rochester Institute of Technology) in Rochester, NY,
(1908-1918).
(SFC, 11/15/06, p.G7)
1922 Feb 5, The Reader's Digest
began publication in Pleasantville, New York. In 1939 it moved to
Chappaqua, NY. In 2005 it published its 1,000th issue.
(HN, 2/5/01)(SFC, 7/19/05, p.D6)
1923 Feb 28, Charles Durning,
actor (Fury, Sting, Tootsie), was born in Highland Falls, NY.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1923 May 2, Lieutenants Okaley
Kelly and John Macready took off from New York for the West Coast on
what would become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1923 Gov. Al Smith repealed the
mechanism by which New York enforced Prohibition.
(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A20)
1924 Mar 10, The U.S. Supreme
Court upheld a New York state law forbidding late-night work for women.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1924 Oct 10, Edward D. Wood Jr,
director (Plan 9 from Outer Space), was born in Poughkeepsie, NY.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1924 Dec 28, Rod Serling (d.1975),
writer and host (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery), was born in Syracuse,
NY. He was also the author of "Requiem for a Heavyweight." He was
remembered in the PBS production titled: "Submitted for Your Approval,"
first broadcast on 11/29/95.
(WSJ, 11/27/95, p.A-14)(MC, 12/28/01)
1924 John J. Rigas, founder of
Adelphia Communications, was born in Wellsville, NY.
(USAT, 7/9/04, p.3B)
1924 The Hearst Corp. acquired the
Albany Times Union.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1925 Apr 14, Rod Steiger, film
actor (Illustrated Man, Pawnbroker), was born in West Hampton, NY.
(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A6)(MC, 4/14/02)
1925 Apr 19, Hugh O'Brian,
[Krampke], actor (Wyatt Earp), was born in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1925 Oct 3, Gore Vidal, writer
(Myra Breckinridge, Lincoln, DC, Burr), was born in West Point, NY. He
was named Eugen Luther Gore Vidal. His first book at age 20 was titled
"Williwaw." A memoir of his 1st 39 years was titled "Palimpsest." In
1999 some collected essays were published under the title "Sexually
Speaking: Collected Sex Writings." In 1993 a collection of essays was
titled "United States: 1952-1992".
(SFEC, 11/7/99, BR p.5)(HN, 10/3/00)
1925 Oct 20, Art Buchwald,
humorist, was born in Mt. Vernon, NY.
(HN, 10/20/00)(MC, 10/20/01)
1925 Nov 17, Charles Mackerras,
Australian conductor, was born in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 11/17/01)
c1925-1929 Ashbel Barney, NY investor, purchased the
Chateau des Thons near Dijon, France. He had it taken apart and shipped
it to Long Island where it was rebuilt.
(WSJ, 12/8/00, p.W16)
1927 May 20, Charles Lindbergh
(25) took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY, at 7:40 AM
aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
The Minnesota native had decided to compete for a $25,000 prize,
offered in 1919 by Raymond Orteig, NY hotel owner, to the first pilot
to complete the feat. The Spirit of St. Louis, was capable of flying
4,000 miles on 425 gallons of fuel. His greatest problems on the
33-hour, 30-minute flight were staying awake and keeping ice from
forming on the airplane’s wings.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)(HNPD, 5/21/00)(USAW,
5/19/02, p.26)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 Jun 27, Robert Casey, actor
(Henry-Aldrich Family Show), was born in Rochester, NY.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1927 Aug 12, Ralph Waite, actor
(John-Waltons, Roots), was born in White Plains, NY.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1928 Jan 12, Ruth Snyder (b.1895)
became the first woman to die in the electric chair. She was
electrocuted by “state electrician” Robert G. Elliott at Sing Sing
Prison in Ossining, New York, along with Judd Gray, her lover and
co-conspirator, for the murder of her husband, Albert on March 20,
1927. This was billed in the press as “The Dumb-Bell Murder.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Snyder)
1928 Feb 8, 1st transatlantic TV
image was received at Hartsdale, NY.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1928 Mar 19, Patrick McGoohan,
actor (#6-Prisoner, Secret Agent), was born in Astoria, NY.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1928 Jul 30, George Eastman showed
the 1st color motion pictures in the US. [see Jun 4, 1929]
(MC, 7/30/02)
1928 The 1st Saks Fifth Avenue
branch outside NYC opened in Southampton.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)
1929 Feb 19, A medical diathermy
machine was 1st used in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1929 Jun 4, George Eastman
demonstrated 1st Technicolor movie in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1929 Nov 20, Kenneth DeWitt
Schermerhorn, conductor, was born in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Dec 1, Dick Shawn, actor
(Producers, Maid to Order, Angel), was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1930 Nov 4, New York reelected
Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a landslide.
(ON, 12/07,
p.2)(www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=32)
1930 Herman G. Fisher (1898-1975)
and Irving L. Price co-founded the Fisher-Price toy company in East
Aurora, NY. Quaker Oats Company acquired the firm in 1969. Mattel Inc.
acquired Fisher-Price in 1993.
(www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/274/)(WSJ,
12/21/05, p.A8)
1930s The McKee Glass Co. made
Bottoms-Up glasses. The cocktail glasses could not stand up and were
designed to be held until emptied. The idea was copied from pottery
glasses of White Cloud Farms of Rock Tavern, N.Y.
(SFC, 1/28/98, Z1 p.3)
1931 Jan 13, The Bridge connecting
New York and New Jersey was named the George Washington Memorial
Bridge.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1931 May 25, John Gabriel, actor
(Cat Gang, Fantasies), was born in Niagara Falls, NY.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1931 Oct 25, The George Washington
Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, was completed at a cost
of $59 million and 12 lives. The US Post Office featured a
commemorative stamp. It was described as the most beautiful bridge in
the world.
(http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/george-washington/)(SFC, 9/3/98,
p.A19)
1931 Castro Convertible Corp.
began operating in New York as a maker of convertible sofa beds. It was
sold to Krause’s Furniture in 1993. Krause closed in 2002.
(SFC, 11/19/08, p.G6)
1932 Jan 23, New York Gov.
Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
(AP, 1/23/98)
1932 Feb 4, New York Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, N.Y.
(AP, 2/4/97)(HN, 2/4/99)
1932 Mar 31, 150 wild swans died
in Niagara waterfall.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1932 Mar 14, George Eastman (77),
founder of Eastman Kodak, committed suicide. “To my friends. My work is
done, why wait?”
(ON, 3/05, p.12)(http://tinyurl.com/5fjeq)
1932 Jul 1, New York Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt was nominated for president at the Democratic convention
in Chicago.
(AP, 7/1/07)
1932 Jul 2, New York Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt won the nomination for president on the 4th ballot at the
Democratic convention in Chicago.
(ON, 12/07, p.3)
1932 Nov 8, New York Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.
(AP, 11/8/97)
1933 Jun 11, Jud Strunk, singer,
comedian (Laugh-In), was born in Jamestown, NY.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1933 Jul 10, 1st police radio
system began operations at Eastchester Township, NY.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1933 Camp Wonundra, later known as
The Point, was built on Upper Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks for
William Avery Rockefeller.
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.27)
1934 Jul 1, The 1st x-ray photo of
entire body was made in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1934 Dec 14, 1st streamlined steam
locomotive was introduced in Albany, NY.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1934 Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
(89), artist, died on Staten Island. His work included "A Friend in
Need," commonly known as "Dogs Playing Poker."
(SFC, 6/17/02, p.D5)
1935 Jan 9, Bob Denver, actor
(Dobie Gillis, Gilligan's Island), was born in New Rochelle, NY.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1935 Mar 22, Michael Emmet Walsh,
actor (Wildcats, War Party), was born in Ogdensburg, NY.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1935 Mar 22, Blood tests were
authorized as evidence in court cases in NY.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1935 Apr 1, The first radio tube
to be made of metal was announced in Schenectady, NY.
(OTD)
1935 The name "Triple Crown
Winner" was coined by writer Charlie Hatton after the 3-year-old Omaha
won the Kentucky Derby, the NY Belmont Stakes and the Maryland
Preakness.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.E3)
1935 Scientists at Cornell Univ.
reported that restricting calories had an antiaging effect in rodents.
(WSJ, 10/30/06, p.A11)
1936 Jan 29, The first members of
baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in
Cooperstown, N.Y.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1937 Sep 1, Ron O'Neal, actor
(Superfly), was born in Utica, NY.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1937 Sep 27, The 1st Santa Claus
Training School opened in Albion, NY.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1937 Air service was launched
between La Guardia and East Hampton, NY.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)
1938 Mar 18, NY 1st required
serological blood tests of pregnant women.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1938
Apr 1, The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.
(OTD)
1938 Apr 10, NY made syphilis
testing mandatory for a marriage license.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1938 Sep 1, George Maharis, actor
(Buz-Route 66, Most Deadly Game), was born in Astoria, NY.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1938 Sep 21, A Category 3
hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread
damage and claiming more than 600 lives. Winds hit 183 MPH in New
England and 700 were killed. The storm hit Long Island and Connecticut
and caused $308 million in damage.
(AP, 9/21/97)(WSJ, 5/31/06, p.B1)
1938 Dec 29, Jon Voight, actor
(Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy), was born in Yonkers, NY.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1938 King's College was founded in
Tuxedo, NY. It went bankrupt in the 1990s and was bought by the Campus
Crusade for Christ. It reopened in the Empire State Building in 1999.
(WSJ, 7/5/02, p.W11)
1939 Jun 28, Pan American Airways
began regular trans-Atlantic passenger air service as the "Dixie
Clipper" left Port Washington, N.Y., for Portugal.
(AP, 6/28/99)(NPub, 2002, p.13)
1941 Jun 7, Whirlaway won the
Belmont Stakes & the triple crown.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1941 Nov 30, 101 year old
Nyack-Tarrytown (NY) ferry makes it's last run.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1942 Mar 2, Lou Reed [Louis
Firbank], vocalist, guitarist (Walk on the Wild Side, Velvet
Underground), was born in Freeport, NY.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1942 Mar 7, Michael Eisner, CEO
(Walt Disney), was born in Mt. Kisko, NY.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1942 Jun 13, Four men landed on a
Long Island beach from a German submarine with plans to sabotage NYC's
water system and industrial sites across the Northeastern US. [see Jun
27]
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.A1)
1943 Dec 23, The 1st telecast of a
complete opera (Hansel & Gretel) was made from Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1943-1955 Thomas E. Dewey (d.1971), born in Owosso,
Mich., in 1902, served as governor of New York. He also was a two-time
Republican presidential nominee,.
(HN, 3/24/01)(AP, 3/24/02)(AH, 12/02, p.4)
1944 Mar 4, Louis Buchalter, aka
Lepke, was executed at Sing Sing along with Mendy Weiss. Lepke and
fellow gangsters had dispatched Weiss in 1935 to kill Dutch Schultz,
who had planned to kill NYC prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.
(AH, 12/02, p.4)
1944 A 5.8 earthquake was centered
in Massena, 3 miles from the Canadian border.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A2)
1944 Al Smith (b.1873), former
4-term governor of New York, died. In 2001 Robert A. Slayton authored
"Empire Statesman," a biography of Alfred E. Smith.
(TMC, 1994, p.1944)(WUD, 1994 p.1345)(WSJ, 3/6/00,
p.A20)
1945 Jan 6, George Herbert Walker
Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1945 Mar 12, NY became the 1st
state to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Jul 1, New York established
the New York State Commission Against Discrimination to prevent
discrimination in employment because of race, creed or natural origin;
it was the first such agency in the United States.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1945 Jackson Pollock (d.1956) and
Lee Krasner (d.1984) purchased a property in East Hampton, NY, with a
loan from Peggy Guggenheim. It was declared a National Historic
Landmark in 1994. (www.pkhouse.org)
(Brochure, 2002)
1945 Constellation Brands of
Fairport, NY, began as Canandaigua Industries, a bulk-wine business in
the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY.
(WSJ, 1/16/04, p.A7)
1946 Apr 25, Talia Shire, actress
(Adrienne-Rocky, Godfather), was born in Lake Success, NY.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1946-1977 PCBs were released into the Hudson River by
2 General Electric plants and were buried in sediment along 197 miles
that was later declared a Superfund site. The EPA expected GE to dredge
some 35 miles at a cost of some $1 billion. GE fought the cleanup law
and was also involved in Superfund sites at Hoboken NJ and Milford NH.
Cleanup of the Hudson River began in 2009 at an estimated cost of $750
million, to be paid by GE. The sludge was scheduled to be buried in
West Texas.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(SFC,
6/22/09, p.A9)
1947 Jan, Chester Carlson, patent
attorney and kitchen inventor, signed a licensing agreement with Haloid
Corp. of Rochester, NY, to develop a copy machine. This marked the
beginning of Xerox’s copy business. 12 years later, the company
launched a practical dry copier. Entrepreneur Joe Wilson propelled
Xerox to success. In 2006 Charles D. Ellis authored Joe Wilson and the
Creation of Xerox.”
(WSJ, 8/17/95, p.C-1)(ON, 11/04, p.8)(Econ,
11/18/06, p.86)
1947 Mar 14, Billy Crystal,
comedian (Soap, SNL, City Slickers), was born in Long Beach, NY.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1948 Jun 19, The first women's
rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York. Organized by
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the two-day convention
discussed such topics as voting, property rights and divorce. It
launched the women's suffrage movement. The convention issued a
"Declaration of Sentiments" based on the Declaration of Independence.
"The ideal newspaper woman has the keen zest for life of a child, the
cool courage of a man and the subtlety of a woman."
(AP, 7/19/97)(DT internet 6/19/97)(SFEC, 7/20/97,
Par p.8) (HN, 6/19/98)(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.30)
1948 Jul 1, New York International
Airport at Idlewild, later renamed John F. Kennedy International
Airport, was officially opened.
(AP, 7/1/98)
1948 Oct 2, In New York the 1st
Grand Prix at Watkins Glen was held. Cameron Argetsinger (1921-2008)
was the main driving force behind the race which was won by Frank
Griswold. Formula racing continued there until bankruptcy in 1981. Two
year later Corning Glass Works revived the Watkins Glen race course in
partnership with Int’l. Speedway Corp.
(WSJ, 4/26/08,
p.A6)(www.nascar.com/races/tracks/wgi/index.html)
1948 The Green Chimneys Farm and
School was founded as a refuge for youngsters, mainly boys, who came
from troubled families. In 1998 a film documentary was made of 3 boys
at the residential treatment center whose aim was to return children to
their homes.
(WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A20)
1949 Apr 21, Patti LuPone,
actress, singer (Evita, Life Goes On), was born in Northport, NY.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1949 Aug 28, A riot prevented Paul
Robeson from singing near Peekskill, NY. A fundraising concert for the
widows and orphans of the Spanish Civil War turned into the Peeksill
riots. Helen Krimont Seitz (d.2001 at 90), a pioneer of modern day
care, helped organize the concert.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.C4)(MC, 8/28/01)
1949 The US government ceded Great
Gull Island in Long Island Sound to the American Museum of Natural
History.
(NH, 10/02, p.12)
1949 William Scandling, Will
Laughlin and Harry Anderson founded Saga Corp., a food services
operation, in Geneva, NY. It was named after Kanadasaga, an Indian
village that preceded Geneva. In 1986 Marriot Corp. bought out the
company.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A25)
1950 Feb 17, In New York 31 people
died in a train crash at Long Island’s Rockville Center.
(www.emergency-management.net/pass_train.htm)
1950 Nov 22, In New York 78 died
in a train crash in Richmond Hills (later Kew Gardens), NY.
(www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-lirr/lirr-0650-OL.html)
1950 The population of Buffalo,
NY, was around 580,000. By 2006 it dropped to 280,000. In 2006 Diana
Dillaway authored “Power Failure,” a look at Buffalo’s decline.
(WSJ, 6/30/06, p.W4)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.42)
1951 Aug 3, Frank Pace, Jr.,
Secretary of the Army, announced that 90 cadets of the United States
Military Academy at West Point, NY, were to be expelled for cheating
during examinations. Many of them were on the football team. In 1996
James Blackwell authored “On Brave Old Army Team: Cheating Scandal That
Rocked the Country - West Point, 1951.”
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=13874)(http://tinyurl.com/yfw7u3)
1952 May 2, Christine Baranski,
actress (Maryann-Cybill, Birdcage, Sweeney Todd), was born in Buffalo,
NY.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1952 Aug 27, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee
Herman), actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure), was born in Peekskill, NY.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1952 Dec 29, The 1st
transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale at Elmsford, NY.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1953 Mar 18, Margaret L.
Augustine, project manager for Biosphere 2, was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1953 Jun 19, Julius (b.5/12/1918)
and Ethel Rosenberg (b.9/28/1915), convicted of passing U.S. atomic
secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II, were executed at Sing
Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. The Supreme Court had vacated a stay
granted by Justice William O. Douglas and President Eisenhower refused
to intervene, despite a massive worldwide campaign to free them. In
1983 Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton authored “The Rosenberg File.” In
2001 Sam Roberts authored “The Brother,” an account of David
Greenglass, the younger brother of Ethel Rosenberg and star witness
against her and Julius. In 2008 Morton Sobell (91), a former Soviet spy
who had spent nearly 20 years in Alcatraz, fingered Julius Rosenberg as
a fellow Soviet spy, but not Ethel.
(TL, 1988, p.114)(BEP, 1994)(WSJ, 10/1/01,
p.A22)(WSJ, 9/25/08, p.A19)
1954 Jan 12, Howard Stern,
"Radio's Bad Boy," was born in Roosevelt, NY.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1954 Margaret Vanderbilt donated
Sagamore Lodge (1895) to Syracuse Univ. as a conference center.
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.24)
1954 Dr. George Moore and
colleagues at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute at Buffalo, NY,
published a pioneering study of male patients with cancer of the mouth
showing that a majority of them had been tobacco chewers for
significant periods of time.
(SFC, 6/16/08, p.B3)
1955 New York Gov. Averell
Harriman signed legislation that prohibited the distribution of lurid
comics, banned their sale to people under the age of 18 and banned such
words as “crime,” “terror,” “horror,” and “sex” from comic book titles.
In 2008 David Hajdu authored “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book
Scare and How it Changed America.”
(WSJ, 3/14/08, p.W2)
1956 Jan 3, Mel Gibson,
Academy Award-winning director and actor, was born in Peekskill, New
York. His films included Braveheart (1995) actor and director;
Maverick, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon series, Forever Young,
Hamlet, Bird on a Wire, Tequila Sunrise, Mad Max series, Mrs. Soffel,
The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously, Summer City.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000154/)
1956 Aug 11, Abstract artist
Jackson Pollock (b.1912) died in an automobile accident in East
Hampton, N.Y. He was born in Wyoming and became a leader of the
abstract expressionist school of art.
(AHD, 1971, p.1015)(AP, 8/11/97)
1957 Charles and Margaret Dyson
founded the Dyson Foundation to improve the lives of children in the
Mid-Hudson Valley.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.B2)
1957 Martin Stone (d.1998 at 83)
founded WVIP Radio in Mount Kisco. He produced "Howdy Doody" at NBC in
the late 40s and early 50s and "Author Meets the Critics."
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B6)
1958 Haloid Corp. changed its name
to Haloid-Xerox and produced a prototype of the 914 copy machine.
(ON, 11/04, p.8)
1959 Jun 10, Eliot Spitzer, later
NY state governor (2007), was born in the Bronx. In 2008 he faced the
end of his political career amidst a sex scandal.
(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A18)
1959 The West End Brewing Co.,
producers of Utica Club Beer, began running TV commercials in the
Northeast US. The ad campaign included the Schultz and Dooley ceramic
mugs based on the ad characters.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.G6)
1960 Mar, The Xerox model 914
plain-paper copier made its debut. It was invented by Chester Carlson
and had been nursed along by Batelle research institute of Ohio and
Haloid, a NY manufacturer of photographic paper. In 1961 Haloid became
Xerox.
(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.W8)(ON, 11/04, p.8)
1960 Edmund Wilson and Joseph
Mitchell authored “Apologies to the Iroquois.” It memorialized the
seizure by Robert Moses, the unelected head of the New York Power
Authority, of 600 acres by eminent domain for a power reservoir near
Niagara Falls.
(www.nyslittree.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/DB.PersonDetail/PersonPK/500.cfm)
1961 Feb 10, Niagara Falls
hydroelectric project began producing power.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1962 Jun 25, The Supreme Court
ruled that the use of an unofficial, nondenominational prayer in New
York public schools was unconstitutional.
(AP, 6/25/97)
1963 Mar 18, Vanessa L. Williams,
1st black Miss America (1983), singer, was born in Millwood, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1964 Jul 18, Riots erupted in the
African American communities of NYC and Rochester, NY.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1964 Jul 24-27, A race riot took
place in Rochester, New York, and 4 people were killed.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1964 Jul 25, There was a race riot
in Rochester, NY.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1964 Oct 20, Herbert Hoover
(b.1874), the 31st president of the United States (1929-1933),
died in New York at age 90.
(AP, 10/20/97)(AH, 12/02, p.20)
1964 Nov 3, Robert Kennedy was
elected senator from New York.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1964 Nov 21, New York's Verrazano
Narrows Bridge opened. It was the world's longest suspension bridge at
the time. It was designed by Swiss émigré Othmar Ammann.
(AP, 11/21/97)(MC, 11/21/01)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.D8)
1964-1971 Howard Boatwright (d.1999 at 80) served as
the dean of the music school at Syracuse Univ. His compositions
included String Quartet No. 2 (1975).
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.C2)
1965 Feb 13, James Mitchell (23),
amateur explorer, died inside Schroeder’s Pants Cave in Dolgeville, NY.
His remains were recovered in 2006.
(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.A13)
1965 Apr 13, Lawrence Wallace
Bradford Jr. (16) was appointed by New York Republican Jacob Javits to
be the first black page of the US Senate.
(AP, 4/13/02)
1965 Apr 21, New York World's Fair
reopened for a 2nd and final season.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1965 In western New York the
Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River opened. Construction of the dam
forced the departure of Pennsylvania's last Native Americans, the
Senecas, who now live near Salamanca, New York, on the northern shores
of land flooded by the dam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinzua_Dam)
1966 Jul 29, Bob Dylan was hurt in
motorcycle accident near Woodstock, NY.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1967 Jun 27, There was a race riot
in Buffalo, NY, and 200 were arrested.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_riot_of_1967)
1967 Jun 28, Fourteen people were
shot in race riots in Buffalo, New York.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1967 Jul 17, John Coltrane
(b.1926), jazz composer-musician died in Huntington, N.Y. He gained
attention through recordings as part of Miles Davis’ quintet in the
50s. By 1960, following critical acclaim, Coltrane was leading his own
quartet that eventually dissolved in 1965. He worked with various
musicians for the next two years until succumbing to liver cancer in
1967. Coltrane’s style, developed over the years from influences
ranging from Miles Davis’ forms of modal improvisation to Eastern
musical theory, has influenced and been imitated by numerous jazz
musicians since. His album’s included "Kulu Se Mama" written by Juno
Lewis (d.2002). In 2002 Ashley Kahn authored "A Love Supreme: The Story
of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.” In 2007 Ben Ratliff authored
“Coltrane: The Story of Sound.”
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A18)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.M5)(AP,
7/17/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.104)
1967 Charles Burchfield, artist,
died at 73. He spent most of his time on the outskirts of Buffalo. His
work included the watercolor "New Moon in January" (1918) and "Wind
Blown Asters" (1951).
(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1967-1997 The New Rochelle Mall opened with about 100
stores. It was demolished to make way for the $170 million,
450,000-sq-foot New Rochelle Center scheduled to open in Fall, 2000.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.B8)
1968 Nov 5, Shirley Chisholm of
Brooklyn, New York, was the first black woman elected to serve in the
House of Representatives.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1968 The Everson Museum in
Syracuse moved into a new poured-concrete structure designed by I.M.
Pei.
(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1969 Apr 19, In Ithaca N.Y. some
80 armed, militant black students at Cornell Univ. took over Willard
Straight Hall. They demanded a black studies program and cut a deal
with frightened administrators for total amnesty. In 1999 Donald
Alexander Downs described the events in his book: "Cornell '69."
(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A18)
1969 Aug 15, The Woodstock Music
and Art Fair opened in upstate New York. 400,000 young people gathered
at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in the Bethel hamlet of White Lake, N.Y. for
the Woodstock music festival. Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney) and companions
from the Hog Farm Commune handled security and ran a free kitchen and
"bad trips tent." The performers included Joan Baez; Crosby, Stills and
Nash; Creedence Clearwater; the Grateful Dead; Jimi Hendrix; the
Jefferson Airplane; Janis Joplin; Canned Heat and Ravi Shankar.
(TMC, 1994,
p.1969)(SFC,5/17/96,p.E-1)(WSJ,10/22/96,p.A20)(SFEC,1/26/97, p.A14)(AP,
8/15/97)(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)(SFC, 2/3/99, p.E1)
1969 Aug 18, Two concert goers
died at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from
an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix. The Woodstock
Music and Art Fair ended in Sullivan County, NY, with a mid-morning set
performed by Jimi Hendrix.
(HN, 8/18/99)(AP, 8/18/07)
1969 Fish and wildlife officials
in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. In 1970 the Vermont
Legislature re-instated the sport.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A2)
1970 Jan 7, Woodstock, NY, farmers
sued Max Yasgur (1919-1973) for $35,000 for damages caused by the
"Woodstock" rock festival.
(www.woodstockpreservation.org/pastpresent/maxtribute.html)
1970 The C.W. Post College Dome
Auditorium was built at Long Island Univ. in Brookville. It collapsed
under snow and ice in 1978.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.B1)
1971 May 25, Justin Henry Rye,
actor (Kramer vs. Kramer, 16 Candles), was born in Rye, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Henry)
1971 Sep 9-1971 Sep 13, Some 1,000
prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional
Facility near Buffalo, NY, in a siege that claimed 43 lives. In 2000 a
federal judge ordered an $8 million settlement to some 400 inmates to
settle a prisoner class action suit. $4 million was for lawyers.
(SFC, 1/5/00,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Prison_riots)(AP, 9/9/08)
1971 Sep 13, State troopers and
prison guards stormed Attica Correctional Facility in New York. The
four-day inmates' rebellion over poor living conditions claimed 43
lives, including 11 guards and 32 prisoners. Inmate Frank Smith
(d.2004) was beaten tortured and abused by guards. In 1997 a federal
jury awarded him $4 million. Another 1,280 inmates sought $2.8 billion
in damages against the state. In 2000 a federal court described the
guards' reaction as an "orgy of brutality" and ordered the state to pay
$8 million to inmates who were tortured after the uprising.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A3)(AP, 9/13/97)(SFC, 2/16/00,
p.A5)(SFC, 8/3/04, p.B6)
1971 Sep 9-13, In Attica, New
York, prisoners took 33 hostages. When police attacked on orders by
Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, 42 [43] were killed including 9 hostages.
In 2000 a federal judge ordered an $8 million settlement to some 400
inmates to settle a prisoner class action suit. $4 million was for
lawyers.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A3)(SFC, 1/5/00,
p.A3)
1972 Feb 14 Bill Torrey (38), an
executive vice president with the Oakland Seals, was named the 1st
General Manager of the Islanders, a Long Island hockey team.
(http://tinyurl.com/4hfu8o)
1972 Apr 4, Adam Clayton Powell
Jr. (b.1908), American politician, died in Florida. He was elected to
the US House of Representatives from Harlem in 1945 and became chair of
the Education and Labor Committee in 1961. He was the first black
Congressman from New York.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Clayton_Powell_Jr.)
1972 Dec 24, Charles Atlas
(b.1892), Italian-born body builder, died in Long Beach, NY. Atlas was
born as Angelo Siciliano in Acri, Italy, and moved to the US in 1905.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397860/)
1973 Feb 8, Max Yasgur (53), owner
Woodstock festival farmland, died of a heart attack. In 1969 his dairy
farm was the site of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. He had
offered his land for the festival over the objection of local officials.
(http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/ynames-nf/Yasgur+Max)
1973 May 27, Betty Tyson (24), a
prostitute and heroin addict, was arrested for the strangulation death
of a businessman. Her murder conviction was overturned in 1998, due to
a wrongfully suppressed police report, and she was released from prison
25 years to the day from her arrest in New York.
(SFC, 5/28/98,
p.A3)(http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A01251)
1973 Jul 28, Bill Graham produced
a rock festival in Watkins Glen, NY, that featured the Allman Brothers,
the Band, and the Grateful Dead. The concert drew some 650,000 people,
the single largest paying crowd in concert history.
(www.superseventies.com/watkinsglen.html)(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1973 New York State hired Charles
Gehring to translate some 12,000 pages of documents from New Amsterdam.
His work was used by Russell Shorto’s 2004 book “The Island at the
Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the
Forgotten Colony That shaped America.”
(AH, 10/04, p.73)
1974 Nov 13, In Amityville, NY, 6
members of the DeFeo family were shot and killed in their home. Ronald
DeFeo Jr., the oldest son, was convicted of the murders. A year later
George Lutz (1947-2006) and his family moved into the Long Island house
at 112 Ocean Ave. and stayed for 28 days before being driven out by the
alleged spirits of the DeFeos. In 1977 Jay Anson authored “The
Amityville Horror.” In 1979 the book was turned into a movie, which was
remade in 2005. In 1979 Austrian-born paranormal investigator Hans
Holzer (d.2009 at 89) authored “Murder in Amityville,” which formed the
basis for the 1982 film “Amityville II: The Possession.” In 1977 Holzer
and medium Ethel Johnson-Myers allegedly channeled the spirit of a
Shinnecock Indian chief, who said the house stood on an ancient Indian
burial ground.
(SSFC, 5/14/06,
p.B6)(www.warrens.net/amityvill.htm)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.B4)
1974 Nov 8, Singer Connie Francis
(b.1938) was raped in her hotel room after a concert at the Westbury
Music Fair on Long Island, NY.
(SFC, 9/1/96, Par.
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Francis)
1975 Jan 1, Hugh Carey (b.1919)
began serving as governor of New York. He served to the end of 1982.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Carey)
1975 Jun 24, In New York 113
people were killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashed while
attempting to land during a thunderstorm at John F. Kennedy
International Airport. The crash was later attributed to a microburst,
not experienced at the control tower because of a sea breeze front.
(AP, 6/24/97)(SFC, 6/24/09, p.D8)
1976 May 13, In game 6 the NY Nets
beat the Denver Nuggets in 9th & final American Basketball
Association (ABA) championship, 4 games to 2.
(www.remembertheaba.com/New-York-Nets.html)
1976 Jul 4, Opening ceremony of
the Dai Bosatsu monastery Catskill Mt NY.
(Maggio)
1976 Jul 7, The 1st female cadets
enrolled at the West Point Military Academy in NY.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5159)
1976 Aug 27, Transsexual Renee
Richards was barred from competing in US Tennis Open in Forest
Hills, NY.
(www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/08.27.html)
1976 Sep 10, 5 Croatian terrorists
captured a TWA-plane at La Guardia Airport, NY.
(http://nycslav.blogspot.com/2005/11/croatian-terroristsin-new-york.html)
1976 Oct 15, Carlo Gambino
(b.1902), US gangster, died at his summer home in Long Island.
(www.gambino.com/bio/carlogambino.htm)
1976 Dec 30, Governor Carey of New
York pardoned seven inmates to close the book on the Attica uprising.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1977 May 29, Danny Gerard, actor
(Alan Silver-Brooklyn Bridge), was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1977 Jun 11, Seattle Slew (d.2002
at 28) won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.
(AP, 6/11/97)(WSJ, 5/8/02, p.A1)
1977 Jul 13, A 25-hour power
blackout hit the New York City area and looters rampaged in the city
after lightning struck upstate power lines. Some 9 million people were
affected.
(TMC, 1994, p.1977)(AP, 7/13/97)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A7)
1977 Aug 10, Postal employee David
Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, NY, accused of being the "Son of
Sam" gunman responsible for six slayings and seven woundings. Berkowitz
was sentenced to six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 8/10/07)
1978 Jun 10, Affirmed (1975-2001),
ridden by Steve Cauthen, became a Triple Crown winner after winning the
NY Belmont Stakes by a nose over Alyadar.
(AP, 6/10/98)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A20)(NW, 12/31/01,
p.109)
1978 Dec 11, Six masked men bound
10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at NY Kennedy Airport & made
off with $5.8 M in cash & jewelry. Nicholas Pileggi wrote "Wise
Guys," which described his participation in the heist. The robbery
inspired the movie "Goodfellas."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_heist)(SFC,
5/10/97, p.A3)
1979 Jan 26, Nelson A. Rockefeller
(70), former Vice President under Ford, died in New York. He was also a
4-time governor of New York.
(AP,
1/26/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Rockefeller)
1980 Feb 13, The opening
ceremonies were held in Lake Placid, NY, for the 13th Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1980 Feb 22, In a stunning upset,
the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y.,
4-3.
(AP, 2/22/99)
980 Feb 23, Eric Heiden (21) won
his 5th speed skating gold at the Lake Placid Olympics. He went on to
become an orthopedic surgeon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_skating_at_the_1980_Winter_Olympics)(SSFC,
9/22/02, p.E1)
1980 Mar 10, "Scarsdale Diet"
author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. Jean
Harris (56) shot and killed her unfaithful lover, cardiologist Herman
Tarnower, co-author of "The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet" in
Purchase N.Y. She was granted clemency by Gov. Mario Cuomo after she
served 12 years of a 15 year sentence. Harris was released in January
1993.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/10/00)
1980 May 22, In response to a
request from the Governor of NY, President Carter declared a second
federal emergency at Love Canal, paving the way for federal aid to
relocate the more than 700 families who still lived near the former
toxic waste dump.
(www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/investigations/love_canal/lcreport.htm)
1980 Jun 7, Temperance Hill won
the Belmont Stakes (50:1 long shot).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kraynak)
1980 Sep 22-1980 Sep 24, In
Buffalo, NY, 4 African American men were shot in the
head.
(http://tinyurl.com/3c37rd)
1980 Oct 8-1980 Oct 9, In Buffalo,
NY, 2 African American taxi drivers were murdered and found with their
hearts cut out.
(http://tinyurl.com/3c37rd)
1980 Dec 1, The US Justice Dept
sued Yonkers, NY, citing racial discrimination.
(http://tinyurl.com/2m6tyl)
1980 Dec 11, President Carter
signed into a law legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental
"superfund" to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste
dumps. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund) was established by the US
Congress to clean up America's worst hazardous waste sites. Fifteen
years later more than $20 billion had been spent with 1300 waste sites
identified but only a small fraction cleaned. The fund was established
in response to toxic chemicals seeping into a housing development at
Love Canal in New York. The aim was to require private parties to clean
up past pollution when they could be found. The Fed would pay where the
responsible parties could not be determined.
(WSJ, 10/25/95, p.A-18)(SFC, 6/8/96,
p.A13)(www.epa.gov/superfund/20years/ch2pg3.htm)
1981 Jan 15, Emanuel Celler (92),
(Rep-D-NY, 1923-73), died.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1981 Feb 15, A rocket-powered ice
sled attained 399 kph on Lake George, NY.
(440 Int'l., 2/15/99)
1981 Feb 24, A jury in White
Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in
the fatal shooting of "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower.
(AP, 2/24/01)
1981 Mar 20, Former girls' school
headmistress Jean Harris was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to 15
years to life in prison for slaying "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman
Tarnower. Harris ended up serving almost 12 years.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1981 Jul 16, Singer Harry Chapin
was killed when his car was struck by a tractor-trailer on New York's
Long Island Expressway.
(AP, 7/16/01)
1981 Aug 29, Lowell Thomas (89),
broadcaster and world traveler died in Pawling, N.Y.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1981 Oct 20, Three members of the
radical Weather Underground were arrested following a bungled armored
truck robbery in Nanuet, N.Y., where a guard was killed. 2 police
officers were killed when the getaway truck was halted in Nyack. Susan
Rosenberg assisted in surveillance, driving a getaway car and passing
orders. Kathy Boudin was sentenced 20 years to life for assisting in
the getaway. In 2003 Boudin was paroled and Susan Braudy authored
"Family Circle," an account of the Boudin family. Rosenberg was
arrested in Nov 1984 while unloading a cache of weapons in New Jersey
and received a 58-year sentence for her role in the robbery. Pres.
Clinton commuted Rosenberg’s sentence in 2001.
(AP, 10/20/01)(SFC, 8/21/03, p.A6)(WSJ, 11/26/03,
p.D10)(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.W15)
1982 Jan 31, Kathleen Durst (29)
disappeared after spending a weekend at the family cottage in South
Salem. Robert Durst, her husband, reported her missing Feb 5. In 2001
Robert Durst was arrested and charged in the dismemberment death of
Morris Black (71) in Galveston, Texas. Durst was also a suspect in the
Dec, 2000, shooting death of author Susan Berman.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A15)
1982 A 23-year-old woman was
robbed and raped in a Buffalo nature preserve. Vincent H. Jenkins, aka
Warith Habib Abdal, was sentenced 20 years to life in prison for the
crime and served 17 years before he was cleared by a DNA test in 1999.
Jenkins was the 61st inmate to be exonerated by DNA testing.
(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A3)
1983 Jan 1, Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo
(b.1932) succeeded Hugh Carey as governor of New York. Cuomo served 3
terms as the state’s 56th governor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Cuomo)
1983 Feb 26, Short-wave pirate
Radio USA in Wellsville, NY, began transmission.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1983 Dec 27, A propane gas fire
devastated 16 blocks of Buffalo, NY. The fire killed five firefighters,
two civilians, destroyed about a million in fire equipment, and leveled
several city blocks, as well as the infamous fire alarm box # 29 also
known as the Hoodoo Box.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Fire_Historical_Museum)
1983 Federal prosecutor Rudolph
Giuliani won a 43 year sentence against Silvia Baraldini for a series
of armored car robberies that included the 1981 Brinks robbery in
Nyack, NY, where a guard and 2 policemen were killed. Baraldini was
transferred to Italy in 1999.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A14)
1985 Jan 1, The 1st US mandatory
seat belt law went into effect in NY.
(www.nysgtsc.state.ny.us/seat-ndx.htm)
1985 May 31, Some 41 tornadoes
swept through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario,
Canada, during an eight-hour period killing 88 people with over 1,000
injured.
(AP, 5/31/05)
1985 Jul 13, Lt. Cmdr. Michael
Gershon, a Navy Blue Angel pilot, was killed when 2 planes collided
during an air show at Niagara Falls, NY.
(SFC, 10/29/99,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Cochran)
1985 Nov 21, Yonkers, NY, was
found guilty of intentional discrimination in its housing and schools.
(http://tinyurl.com/2oegnj)
1986 Mar 30, Actor James Cagney
(86) died at his farm in Stanfordville, N.Y.
(AP, 3/30/97)
1986 Jul 26, Averell Harriman
(b.1892), statesman and former New York Governor, died at age 94 in
Yorktown Heights, NY. He left his fabulous art collection, fortune, and
influence in the Democratic Party to his wife, Pamela Churchill
Harriman. She was later appointed by Pres. Clinton as ambassador to
France. In 1996 Sally Bedell Smith wrote her biography: "Reflected
Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E6)(AP, 7/26/06)
1987 Feb 19, New York Governor
Mario Cuomo declared that he would not run for president in the next
election.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1987 Mar 22, A garbage barge,
carrying 3,200 tons of refuse, left Islip, N.Y., on a six-month journey
in search of a place to unload. The barge was turned away by several
states and three countries until space was found back in Islip.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1987 Apr 5, In New York state the
Schoharie Creek Bridge, a New York State Thruway bridge over the
Schoharie Creek near Fort Hunter, collapsed killing 10 people.
(SFC, 4/11/09,
p.D12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoharie_Creek_Bridge_collapse)
1987 Tawana Brawley (16) charged
that 6 white law-enforcement officers abducted and raped her. Her
claims were declared a hoax by a grand jury. 9 years later a related
trial opened in a defamation suit brought by a former prosecutor
against the Rev. Al Sharpton and 2 other advisers to Brawley.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A7)
1988 Aug 17, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Jr. (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), died on his 74th birthday.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1988 Sep 7, Seymour (62) and
Arlene (54) Tankleff were bludgeoned to death in their Long Island
home. Their adopted son, Martin Tankleff (17), initially confessed to
the crime after a detective falsely told him the father had implicated
him. Martin quickly withdrew the confession, but was sentenced to 50
years following one of the nation’s first televised trials. In 2007 he
was released after detectives turned up witnesses that implicated a
business partner of his father.
(SFC, 12/28/07,
p.A3)(www.courttv.com/news/2007/1228/tankleff_ap.html)
1988 Nov 2, A computer worm, named
Morris, unleashed by a Cornell University graduate student began
replicating, clogging thousands of computers around the country, but
causing no real damage. The virus infected an estimated 6,000
university and military computers over the Internet.
(AP, 11/2/98)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.C3)
1988 Dean Kamen, inventor, bought
North Dumpling Island, 3 acres off the Connecticut coast. His
inventions included the 1st portable insulin pump.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.B3)(http://tinyurl.com/2pntdd)
1989 Apr 12, NY State leaders
agreed to raise unemployment benefits to $245 per week.
(http://tinyurl.com/zevt2)
1989 Jun 10, Easy Goer won the
Belmont Stakes in New York, denying the Triple Crown to Kentucky Derby
and Preakness winner Sunday Silence.
(AP, 6/10/99)
1989 Jun 30, NY State Legislature
passed the Staten Island secession bill.
(http://tinyurl.com/htf9r)
1989 Dec 25, Billy Martin (61),
former baseball manager, died in a truck crash in Fenton, NY.
(AP, 12/25/99)
1989-1991 Robert Creeley served as the State Poet.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A21)
1990 Jun 9, "Go and Go" won the
122nd running of the Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/9/00)
1990 Sep, The Ellis Island
Immigration Museum opened following a 6-year, $170 million restoration.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T11)
1991 Jan 18, Former New York
Congressman Hamilton Fish Senior died in Cold Spring, New York, at age
102.
(AP, 1/18/01)
1991 Aug 12, The National Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, began hosting a two-day reunion
of former Negro League players.
(AP, 8/12/01)
1991 Dec 20, New York Gov. Mario
Cuomo announced he would not be a candidate for the Democratic
presidential nomination, saying his first responsibility was to deal
with his state's budget problems.
(AP, 12/20/01)
1991 The film "New York City" was
produced by George Jackson (d.2000 at 42). The film portrayed the rise
and fall of a drug dealer in Harlem and caused fights around the
country where it played.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.C2)
1991 Ithaca established a local
currency called Ithaca Hours to promote local spending.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, Par p.17)
1991 The president of Rochester
Inst. of Technology (RIT) resigned following a scandal over CIA
influence on research and curriculum, and his own work for the agency.
(WSJ, 10/4/02, p.A1)
1992 May 19, In Massapequa, New
York, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by teen-ager
Amy Fisher (17), who claimed to be having an affair with Mrs.
Buttafuoco's husband, Joey, an allegation the Buttafuoco's denied. Joey
later pleaded guilty to 3rd degree rape and admitted to the affair. In
1998 Mr. Buttafuoco planned to premier a TV show on public cable access
for "people jammed up in the media."
(AP, 5/19/97)(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A6)
1992 Dec 1, In Mineola, N.Y., Amy
Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting and
seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Fisher was released in 1999
after serving 7 years.
(AP, 12/1/97)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A9)
1992 Dec 29, New York Gov. Mario
Cuomo commuted the prison sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer
of "Scarsdale Diet" author Herman Tarnower.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1993 Mar 13, A deadly blizzard
paralyzed much of the East Coast, leaving more than 100 dead in its
wake. Syracuse, NY, was covered with fresh snow 43 inches thick.
(AP, 3/13/98)(SFC, 3/13/09, p.D8)
1993 Jun 29, Joel Rifkin pleaded
innocent at an arraignment in Mineola, N.Y., to one count of murder, a
day after police found a woman's body in his pickup truck. Rifkin, who
later confessed to killing 17 women, is serving multiple life
sentences.
(AP, 6/29/98)
1993 Nov 15, A judge in Mineola,
N.Y., sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory
rape of Amy Fisher, who is serving a prison sentence for shooting and
wounding Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo.
(AP, 11/15/98)
1993 Dec 24, The Rev. Norman
Vincent Peale, who had blended Christian and psychiatric principles
into a message of "positive thinking," died in Pawling, N.Y., at age
95.
(AP, 12/24/98)
1993 H. Carl McCall was appointed
as State Comptroller by Gov. Mario Cuomo. He went on to get elected to
the 4-year post.
(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.1)
1994 Oct 29, NY Lotto paid over
$60 million.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1994 Aug 4, Howard Stern dropped
out of the NY gubernatorial race.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1994 Aug 4, A truck carrying
millions of bees overturned on NY parkway.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1994 Aug 12, Woodstock '94 opened
in Saugerties, N.Y.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1994 Aug 14, Rain turned the final
full day of Woodstock '94 in Saugerties, N.Y., into a mudbath.
(AP, 8/14/04)
1994 The nuclear power plant at
Shoreham, NY, begun in 1973, was decommissioned without ever providing
commercial service. It was completed and tested but never allowed to
start due to local opposition. Most of the $6 billion in costs were
passed to customers of the local utility.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.71)
1995 Mar 7, New York Gov. George
Pataki signed a death penalty bill into law. NY became the 38th state
to adopt the death penalty. It became effective Sep 1.
(AP, 3/7/00)(www.nycdo.org/)
1995 Jun 10, "Thunder Gulch" won
the Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/10/00)
1995 Aug 27, A wildfire in the
Hamptons, the largest in 50 years, ended after 4 days. A 16-alarm at
the St. George Hotel complex began in Brooklyn.
(www.emergency.com/hampton.htm)(www.fdnewyork.com/stgeorge.asp)
1995 Sep 1, The death penalty in
NY State, signed into law on March 7, became effective.
(www.nycdo.org/)
1996 Apr 2, A federal appeals
court rejected New York state laws banning doctor-assisted suicide,
saying it would be discriminatory to let people disconnect life support
systems while refusing to let others end their lives with medication.
(AP, 4/2/01)
1996 Griffiss Air Force Base near
Utica, which employed 5,000 military and civilian workers, was shut
down.
(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A1)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in Centereach,
Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James Halverson, a
firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders was later turned
in to police by his father after admitting to him the murder. Sodders
was said to be influenced by the film "Natural Born Killers." Halverson
left a wife pregnant with twins and a 4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jun 1, Betty Shabazz (61),
the widow of Malcolm X, was severely burned in a fire set by her
grandson (12) in her Yonkers, N.Y., apartment. She died of the burn
wounds on Jun 23.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A3)(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A15)(AP, 6/1/98)
1997 Oct 27, Authorities in
Chautauqua County, N.Y., said Nushawn Williams (20), an HIV-positive
man who allegedly traded drugs for sex with young women and teens, had
infected a number of them with the AIDS virus. Later 48 partners were
identified and 13 women and girls tested positive. Williams struck a
plea bargain, after only 2 victims agreed to testify, and was sentenced
to 4-12 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A5)(AP, 10/27/98)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A2)
1997 In Le Roy, N.Y., the Jell-O
Museum opened.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1998 Jan 8-1998 Jan 9, The US
Northeast and Canada were hit with a severe ice storm and at least 16
people were reported killed. Millions of people were left without power
in upper New York, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A3)(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A8)
1998 May 26, The US Supreme Court
ruled that Ellis Island is mainly in New Jersey, based on an 1834
border agreement between New York and New Jersey.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 13, A jury in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ruled that the Rev. Al Sharpton and two others had
defamed a former prosecutor by accusing him of raping Tawana Brawley.
Steven Pagones won a $345,000 judgment.
(AP,
7/13/08)(www.cnn.com/US/9807/13/brawley.verdict.02/)
1998 Aug 20, In Southampton, N.Y.,
townspeople met to express their concerns over the construction of a
110,000 square foot home by Ira Rennert, a businessman who bought
troubled companies and leveraged them for the next purchase. The spread
was to be the largest home in America.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.A7)
1998 Sep 2, Investigators in
Poughkeepsie arrested Kendall Francois for the murder of Catina
Newmaster (25), one of 8 women missing since 1996. The bodies of 3
women were pulled from his house.
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 7, At the New York State
Fair in Syracuse two people were killed during a heavy storm. Gov.
George Pataki declared a disaster emergency in 9 counties.
(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Oct 23, Dr. Barnett Slepian,
an obstetrician, gynecologist and abortion practitioner, was gunned
down in his kitchen in Amherst, N.Y. James Charles Kopp (44), aka
"Atomic Dog," was later sought in relation to the killing. In 1999 a
warrant was issued for Kopp's arrest. Kopp was arrested in France in
2001. Kopp was returned to the US in 2002 and pleaded not guilty. In
2003 Kopp was found guilty of 2nd degree murder.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/98, p.A7)(SFC,
5/6/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A3)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A5)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)
1998 Nov 6, Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (d.2008 at 76), D-N.Y., announced he would not run for
re-election in 2000.
(AP, 11/6/08)
1998 Margot Magowan and Naomi Wolf
purchased 368 acres in upstate New York and founded the Woodhull
Institute to help women spur each other to success.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.E7)
1999 Apr 11, In Yonkers, NY, some
400 Americans prepared to fly to Albania to fight as volunteers with
the KLA.
(SFC, 4/12/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar, A Staten Island woman,
Donna Fasano, was reported to have given birth to 2 boys, one black and
one white due to an error by the embryologist who performed in vitro
fertilization. Deborah Perry-Rogers and Robert Rogers, genetic parents
of the black child, filed suit seeking custody of the black child.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A3)
1999 May 9, In Salamanca Penny
Brown (39), a nurse and midwife, was killed by a teenage member of the
Seneca tribe.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C14)
1999 Jun 5, "Charismatic" failed
in his bid to win racing’s Triple Crown, finishing 3rd, with fractures
in the lower left front leg, behind "Lemon Drop Kid" and "Vision and
Verse" in the Belmont Stakes.
(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A20)(AP, 6/5/00)
1999 Jul 16, US Representative
Michael Forbes of New York announced his switch from the Republican to
the Democratic Party.
(SFC, 7/20/99, p.A5)
1999 Jul 23, The 3-day Woodstock
'99 music festival began at the decommissioned Griffiss Air Force Base
in Rome, NY, with some 225,000 people. The $35-38 million production
ended in chaos with hundreds of concertgoers burning fires, looting and
vandalizing.
(USAT, 7/26/99, p.1D,5D)(SFC, 7/26/99, p.E3)(SFC,
7/27/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 28, The 109th Washington
County Fair was held. Over 600 visitors later reported illness from E.
coli contamination and at least 3 people died.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep, The story "Ship of
Fools" by Theodore Kaczinski was scheduled for print in the Off!
Magazine by students at State Univ. of NY at Binghampton.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A2)
1999 Four leaders of the New
Square community of Rockland County were convicted of stealing over $30
million in government funds. They received prison sentences from 2
½ to 6 ½ years. In 2001 Pres. Clinton reduced their
sentences to 2 and 2 ½ years.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A1)
2000 Jan 7, Johnny Ely (66), a
short-order cook, won the New York State Lottery Millennium Millions
$100 million jackpot. He elected a one-time pay out of $44 million with
$17 million in taxes.
(SFC, 1/8/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 3, A regional director of
the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students who
work as teaching and research assistants at New York Univ. may organize
a union.
(SFC, 4/4/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 20-21, A sudden snow
storm dropped 25 inches on Buffalo. A state of emergency was declared
in the area as schools and government buildings were closed.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.S3)
2001 Jan 5, Frank Wright, a
Suffolk county police officer, was suspended without pay after 3 women
came forward with stories of how he had forced them to strip after they
had failed alcohol breath tests in order to avoid drunk driving charges.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A6)
2001 Jan 9, The Giuliani
administration agreed to pay up to $50 million so settle a class-action
suit on behalf of tens of thousands of people who were illegally strip
searched by jail guards between 1996-1997.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Mar 12, An anonymous donor
pledged a no-strings-attached $360 million to Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI), the largest donation to a university in US history.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A4)
2001 Mar 29, James Kopp, the
fugitive wanted in the 1998 slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo,
N.Y., abortion provider, was captured in France. Kopp was convicted in
2003 of killing Slepian and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life.
(AP, 3/29/02)
2001 Jun 9, Point Given won the
Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/9/02)
2001 Jun 28, Gov. George Pataki
signed legislation that banned the use of handheld cell phones by
drivers, effective Nov 1. Emergencies were exempted.
(SFC, 6/29/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 5, Heywood Hale Broun
(83), sports commentator, died in Kingston, N.Y.
(AP, 9/5/02)
2001 Nov 1, A NY state cell phone
law went into effect. It required motorists to use hand-free systems
for use while driving.
(WSJ, 10/31/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 12, American Airlines
Flight 587, bound for the Dominican Republic, crashed in Belle Harbor
in the Far Rockaway district of Queens just after takeoff from JFK
Airport. All 260 crew and passengers were killed as well as 5 people on
the ground. The A300-600 plane appeared to have fallen apart. The
vertical tail section cracked off when composite fittings failed
possibly due to turbulence from a preceding 747. In 2004 a safety board
said the pilot’s “unnecessary and excessive“ use of the rudder
contributed to the crash.
(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A14)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A19)(SFC,
10/27/04, p.A3)(AP, 11/12/05)
2001 Dec 4, The Bush
administration ordered tons of PCBs removed from the upper Hudson
River. Dredging was expected to cost GE $500 million.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 28, Buffalo, NY, dug out
from a 5-day storm that left nearly 7 feet of snow.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A6)
2002 Mar 12, In Lynbrook, NY, Rev.
Lawrence Penzes (50) was shot dead at Our Lady of Peace Church on Long
Island along with Mrs. Eileen Tosner (73) sitting in a pew. Penzes
(b.1952), ordained in 1978, was shot in the back as he turned to sit
just after finishing the homily next to the altar. Long Island police
soon captured mentally-deranged Peter J. Troy (34), who had fired at
least six shots from a.22-caliber rifle.
(SFC, 3/13/02,
p.A7)(www.safran-arts.com/42day/history/h4mar/h4mar12.html#deaths)
2002 Mar 20, At Fort Drum, NY, a
soldier was killed and 14 were injured when 2 artillery shells fell far
short of their target.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A5)
2002 Apr 1, Pres. Bush said he
would sell Governor's Island in NY Harbor to NY state and NYC for a
nominal charge.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 20, A 5.1 earthquake was
centered near Plattsburgh.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A2)
2002 Jun 1, President Bush told
West Point graduates the United States would strike pre-emptively
against suspected terrorists if necessary to deter attacks on
Americans, saying "the war on terror will not be won on the defensive."
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 6/1/03)
2002 Jun 8, Sarava, a 70 to 1
longshot, won the 134th running of the Belmont Stakes. Favored War
Emblem came in 8th.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 15, Larry Rivers (78),
painter, sculptor, jazz musician and poet, died in Southampton, NY.
Rivers was born as Yitzroch Grossberg in Bronx, NY.
(SFC, 8/16/02, p.A25)(NW, 8/26/02, p.9)
2002 Aug 23, New York publicist
Lizzie Grubman pleaded guilty in a hit-and-run crash that injured 16
people outside a Hamptons nightclub. Grubman ended up serving 37 days
of a 60-day sentence at the Suffolk County, N.Y., Jail, with time off
for good behavior.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2002 Sep 14, In Lackawanna, New
York, 5 men of Yemeni descent were charged with supporting foreign
terrorist organizations. They trained in an al Qaeda camp run by Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaida network in the spring of 2001. A 6th member of the
cell was arrested in Bahrain. All 6 were indicted Oct 21. In 2003
Mukhtar al-Bakri was sentenced to 10 years, Yasein Taher to 9 years.
All terms ranged from 7-10 years.
(AP, 9/15/02)(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 10/22/02,
p.A7)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 11, A US Army
Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Fort Drum, NY, and 11 of 13 soldiers
were killed.
(SFC, 3/12/03, p.A5)
2003 Mar 26, Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (76), former NY Senator (1976-2000) and scholar, died. He
wrote or edited some 18 books.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 7, Syracuse beat Kansas
81-78 in the NCAA Basketball finals.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 8, Kidnapper-rapist John
Jamelske, was arrested. He had imprisoned 5 women and girls, one after
another, as sex slaves inside a makeshift dungeon in his DeWitt, NY,
home.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2003 Jun 10, In NY state John
Jamelske (68) pleaded guilty to holding 5 women captive as sex slaves
in a bunker at his home in Syracuse.
(SFC, 6/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 9, The Dutch cargo ship
Stellamare capsized at the Port of Albany, NY.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.D10)
2003 Dec 25, In Schenectady, NY,
2 home fires left 5 people dead. At least 4 people in one fire
were killed by shotgun blasts.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A5)
2004 Jan 20, NY Gov. Pataki
proposed funding cuts to low-income families as part of his proposed
budget.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.12A)
2004 Jan 22, It was reported that
Kodak, headquartered in Rochester, NY, planned to cut its work force by
as much as 21% by the end of 2006.
(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 2, NY state filed charges
against the mayor of New Paltz for marrying gay couples.
(WSJ, 3/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 5, Smarty Jones lost to
Birdstone (36-to-1) at the 136th running at Belmont Park.
(SSFC, 6/6/04, C1)
2004 Jul, Homeland Security
officer Robert Rhodes subdued Zhao Yan (38), a Chinese businesswoman,
who was touring Niagara Falls near the Canadian border. In 2005 Rhodes
was found not guilty of violating her civil rights. Zhao Yan filed a
$10 million lawsuit against the US government.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2004 Aug 15, In NY Spencer Tunick,
photographer, gathered 1,826 people at Buffalo’s old Central Terminal
for a group session of nude photographs.
(SFC, 8/17/04, p.E5)
2004 Sep 30, Love Canal, NY, was
formally removed from the Superfund list. The land was deemed safe only
for industry. In the center a 16-acre canal dump site remained fenced.
(SFC, 10/1/04, p.A8)
2004 Oct 14, NY Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer in a civil suit accused insurance broker Marsh &
McLennan of cheating corporate clients.
(WSJ, 10/27/04, p.C1)
2005 Jan 31, Marsh & McClennan
Cos. reached an $850 million settlement of civil fraud charges with NY
state’s attorney Eliot Spitzer and the state insurance department.
(WSJ, 1/31/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 29, New York’s top court
ruled that an out-of-state programmer must pay state taxes on his full
salary despite working mostly via computer. On Oct 31 the US Supreme
Court declined to hear the case and the ruling against Thomas Huckaby
stood.
(WSJ, 3/30/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/1/05, p.D1)
2005 Jun 13, Leonard Pickell,
former president of the James Beard Foundation, was sentenced 1 to 3
years in prison in NY state for stealing over a $1.1 million from the
foundation.
(SFC, 6/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 28, Arthur Zankel,
financier and philanthropist, fell to his death from his ninth-floor
apartment on NYC’s Upper East Side. Police called it an apparent
suicide. In 2006 details of his will indicated donations of $120
million that included some $40 million for Skidmore College in Saratoga
Springs, NY, and $22 million to Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall.
(www.nysun.com/article/17769)(WSJ, 6/2/06, p.W2)
2005 Sep 19, L. Dennis Kozlowski
(58), former Tyco International Ltd. CEO, was sentenced to up to 25
years in prison for looting the company of hundreds of millions of
dollars. Tyco's former finance chief, Mark Swartz (44) received the
same sentence. NY State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus ordered the
defendants to pay a total of $134 million in restitution to Tyco. In
addition, the judge fined Kozlowski $70 million, and Swartz $35 million.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Sep 26, In Mineola, NY,
ex-Roslyn schools chief Frank Tassone (58) admitted he stole millions
of dollars in taxpayer money to finance everything from his breakfast
bagel to European jaunts on the Concorde. Records showed that Tassone
and a former school official withdrew the district's money from ATMs
almost every day between February 2001 and October 2002, with Tassone
taking out a monthly average of $21,747. As part of a plea bargain
Tassone will spend four to 12 years in prison and pay back an estimated
$2 million.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Oct 2, In New York the
40-foot boat the Ethan Allen capsized on Lake George over so quickly
that none of the 47 passengers from Michigan could put on a life
jacket. 20 people were killed.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 29, Saint Liam won the
Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park.
(AP, 10/29/06)
2005 Oct 31, The US Supreme Court
declined to hear an appeal by, Thomas Huckaby, a Tennessee man who was
charged by NY state for taxes on all of his income derived from his
employer in NY.
(WSJ, 11/1/05, p.D1)
2006 Jun 10, In New York Jazil
cruised to victory, holding off Bluegrass Cat in the Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2006 Jun 29, East Coast rains,
which began over the weekend, have been blamed for five deaths in
Pennsylvania, four in Maryland, one in Virginia and three in New York.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jul 6, New York's highest
court ruled that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting
arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates their
constitutional rights.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Emmanuel "Toto"
Constant (49), an elusive former strongman from Haiti, accused of
sanctioning rape to silence dissent there in the early 1990s, was
arrested in a mortgage fraud scheme on Long Island, NY.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 15, Robert Wilson (64),
theater and opera director, opened his $12 million Watermill Center on
Long Island, NY. The arts center was setup to host conferences, student
workshops and serve as an intercultural exchange.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.82)
2006 Jul 24, Power companies
worked to restore electricity to thousands of customers throughout
California as a scorching heat wave threatened to push the state into a
power emergency with the potential for more blackouts. Storm problems
cut power to areas of New York and Missouri.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 23, Annie Donnelly (38)
of Long Island, NY, pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million (1.2
million pounds) from her employers. She spent the money on lottery
tickets, buying as much as $6,000 worth of tickets a day in a bid to
hit the jackpot.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 28, Five people were
killed and dozens injured after a Montreal-bound Greyhound bus from New
York City overturned on a highway in upstate New York.
(Reuters, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 31, In New York 2 state
troopers were shot while staking out the property of a former
girlfriend of escaped convict Ralph Phillips. Trooper Joseph Longobardo
(32) died from his wounds on Sep 3. Phillips, a 44-year-old career
thief who has spent 20 of the past 23 years in state prison,
surrendered Sep 8 without firing a shot.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Oct 13, In New York a
record-breaking early snowstorm walloped the Buffalo area, leaving
thousands without power and 12 people left dead.
(AP, 10/14/06)(WSJ, 10/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 19, A NY state judge
ruled that Richard Grasso, former head of the NYSE, must return as much
as $100 million of his $187.5 compensation package. In 2008 a state
appeals court ruled that Mr. Grasso can keep all of his compensation.
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.D3)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.B1)(WSJ,
7/2/08, p.A1)
2006 Nov 7, Eliot Spitzer defeated
John Faso to become the first Democratic governor of New York since
1994. He faced budget gaps of almost $7 billion over the next 2 years
along with a bloated Medicaid program.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycxm58)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.37)
2006 Brooke A. Masters authored
“Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer.”
(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.W4)
2006 Robert Congel of Pyramid
Companies, planned to develop a $20 billion mall named Destiny in
Syracuse, New York. He hoped to accompany it with a 325-acre research
and development park just north of the city.
(Econ, 5/6/06, p.35)
2007 Jan 17, A US snow and ice
storm was blamed for at least 64 deaths in nine states. These included
20 deaths in Oklahoma, 9 in Missouri, 8 in Iowa, 4 in New York, 5 in
Texas, 4 in Michigan, 3 in Arkansas, and 1 each in Maine and Indiana.
(AP, 1/17/07)(SFC, 1/18/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 12, In upstate New York
intense lake-effect snow squalls that buried communities along eastern
Lake Ontario for nine straight days started up again. Unofficially, the
squalls have dumped 12 feet, 2 inches of snow at Redfield.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 14, Sleet stung the faces
of pedestrians in New York and snow and ice coated windshields and
streets as a Valentine's Day blizzard roared out of the Midwest and
shut down parts of the Northeast.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Mar 14, New York Gov. Eliot
Spitzer signed legislation authorizing “civil confinement” of certain
sex offenders who have finished their prison terms, but were still
considered a threat.
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.37)
2007 Apr 11, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo said he will announce a settlement with a
"significant" student lender as a probe into a college loan scandal
continued to broaden.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 15, Airlines canceled 300
flights as a hard-blowing nor'easter gathered strength along the East
Coast and threatened to deliver some of the worst flooding to coastal
Long Island in 14 years.
(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Jun 2, Four Muslim men were
arrested and in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a jet
fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs
through residential neighborhoods.
(AP, 6/2/07)(AP, 6/2/08)
2007 Jun 9, In NY the filly Rags
to Riches outdueled Preakness winner Curlin in a breathtaking stretch
run and won the Belmont Stakes by a head.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2007 Aug 13, Brooke Astor
(b.1902), philanthropist, died at her Holy Hill estate in NY.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 27, Police arrested Paul
Devoe III (43) in Shirley, NY, following 5 recent murders in Texas and
one in Pennsylvania. On December 19, 2007, the Texas Travis County
District Attorney announced his office's intention to pursue the death
penalty. In 2009 Devoe was sentenced to death for the 2007 slaying of
two Jonestown, Texas, teenage girls.
(SFC, 8/28/07,
p.A6)(www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/us/28texas.html)(SFC, 10/9/09, p.A4)
2007 Oct 5, Marion Jones (31),
three-time Olympic gold medalist, pleaded guilty in White Plains, NY,
to lying to federal investigators when she denied using
performance-enhancing drugs, and announced her retirement. Jones said
she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was
told by her then-coach Trevor Graham that she was taking flaxseed oil
when it was actually "the clear." Jones also pleaded guilty to a second
count of lying to investigators about her association with a
check-fraud scheme.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 27,
The Bush administration and NY state cut a deal to create a new
generation of super-secure driver’s licenses, which would also allow
illegal immigrants to get a version.
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A6)
2007 Dec 18, In New Jersey
authorities broke up a major organized crime ring that took in $2.2
billion in gambling bets over the last 15 months and supplied drugs and
cell phones to gang members in a New Jersey state prison. 2 ruling
members of New York’s Lucchese crime family and 30 others were arrested.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.A4)
2008 Jan 30, It was reported that
bats were dying off by the thousands as they hibernated in caves and
mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers scrambling to
find the cause of mysterious condition dubbed "white nose syndrome." Up
to 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and many more were showing
signs of illness this winter.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 13, NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer
hired a prostitute in Washington, DC, and paid her $4,300. News of this
broke on March 10, when he apologized to his family and the public.
(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 13, A prosecutor in
Buffalo, NY, announced that a woman, who spent 13 years in prison after
being convicted of strangling her 13-year-old daughter, was exonerated
by forensic evidence showing she died of a cocaine overdose. Lynn DeJac
(44) insisted that a former boyfriend was responsible.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Mar 10, New York Gov. Eliot
Spitzer admitted to his role in a prostitution scandal. He faced
mounting calls to resign. The governor first came under suspicion
because of cash payments from several bank accounts to an account
operated by a call-girl ring.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 12, NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer
announced his resignation effective March 17, completing a stunning
fall from power after he was nationally disgraced by links to a
high-priced prostitution ring. This put Lt. Gov. David Peterson in
place as the nation’s first legally blind governor.
(AP, 3/12/08)(SFC, 3/12/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 17, In New York David
Paterson was sworn in almost exactly a week after allegations first
surfaced that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was "Client 9" of a high-priced
call girl service. Paterson tried to come clean about his own skeletons
just hours after assuming office by acknowledging a years-old affair.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Apr 23, New York’s Gov. David
Paterson signed into law a $1.25 per pack tax hike on top of the
state’s $1.50 per pack cigarette tax. NYC has an additional $1.50 per
pack tax. By July 1 smokers will be paying an average $9.00 a pack for
legal cigarettes. The taxes have encouraged major criminal smuggling.
(WSJ, 5/7/08, p.A17)
2008 May 30, A jury in Syracuse,
NY, found Hewlett-Packard guilty of infringing a patent for data
processing held by Cornell Univ. and ordered the company to pay Cornell
$184 million.
(SFC, 6/4/08, p.C5)
2008 Jun 4, In New York Thomas
Gioeli (Tommy Shots), said to be the acting boss of the Colombo
organized crime family, was arrested along with 8 other suspected
gangsters on federal charges of coast to coast Mafia crimes.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 7, In New York Nick Zito
saddled 38-1 long shot Da' Tara to a 5 1/4-length upset at Belmont. Big
Brown, the favorite, came in last.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 9, In New York Samuel
Israel III (48), the former chief executive of hedge fund firm Bayou
Management LLC, was supposed to begin serving a 20-year prison term.
Israel had pleaded guilty in 2005 for losses that cost investors some
$400 million. His car was found near the Bear Mountain Bridge over the
Hudson River. The words “suicide is painless” were written in the dust
on the hood. Israel surrendered to police in Massachusetts on July 2.
(WSJ, 6/11/08, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/08, p.C3)
2008 Jun 26, In New York Varsha
Sabhnani (46), a millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two
Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves in her Long Island
mansion, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She had been convicted
with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that
included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring
aliens.
(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jul 24, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo sued banking giant UBS for fraud, accusing the
company of marketing tens of billions of dollars of auction-rate
securities as safe even when they knew the investments were in trouble.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 29, New York’s Gov. David
Paterson delivered a special address on the state’s deteriorating
fiscal condition. His new budget placed the state’s deficit at $6.4
billion.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.36)
2008 Aug 5, John A. "Junior" Gotti
(44) was arrested at his Long Island home on charges linking him to
three New York murders. In 1999 Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to
racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud.
He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Oct 28, In Serbia Miladin
Kovacevic (21) was detained on suspicion that he "inflicted severe
bodily harm" on Bryan Steinhauer during the fight in a bar in upstate
New York last May. Steinhauer (22) only recently emerged from a coma.
In 2010 prosecutors filed assault charges against Kovacevic. The
beating left Steinhauer with skull fractures and a severe brain injury.
(AP, 10/28/08)(AP, 3/2/10)
2008 Oct 29, In upstate New York,
more than 40,000 customers remained without power, a day after the
season's first big snowstorm blew through the region.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 8, On Long Island, NY, 7
students from Patchogue-Medford High School attacked Marcelo Lucero
(38), an immigrant from Ecuador. Jeffrey Conroy (17) stabbed and killed
Lucero as he struggled to defend himself. Police soon arrested the 7
teens.
(SFC, 11/22/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 28, In New York Jdimytai
Damour (34), a Long Island Wal-Mart worker, was killed after a crowd of
post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at the suburban
Valley Stream store and knocked him down. In 2009 Wal-Mart agreed to
pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as
part of a deal with prosecutors that avoids criminal charges in the
trampling death.
(AP, 11/29/08)(AP, 5/6/09)
2008 Dec 13, In New Hampshire
370,000 customers still had no electricity following a huge ice storm.
Utility crews worked through a night of hand-numbing cold in the
Northeast but they still had a long way to go before restoring power to
all of the more than 1 million homes and businesses blacked out by the
storm. Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine
and New York.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2009 Jan 4, In Syracuse, NY, Shawn
Rhines (15) killed public works department employee Casimir Snyder
(47). Police later said Ja-Le Johnson and Rhines would often hang out
in an attic across the street and shoot target practice with rifles
from a window. Police recovered two rifles from the attic. Rhines
confessed and faced 10 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 23, Gov. David Paterson
picked Democratic US Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York's vacant
US Senate seat, a day after Caroline Kennedy abruptly withdrew from
consideration.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Joseph Bruno (79),
former majority leader of the New York Senate, was indicted on federal
corruption charges.
(SFC, 1/24/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 26, Nicholas Cosmo,
founder of Agape World Inc., was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme
that bilked investors of an estimated $370 million. His Long Island,
NY, firm promised profits of 48-80% a year.
(WSJ, 1/28/08,
p.A12)(www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1874283,00.html)
2009 Feb 12, A commuter plane,
Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., coming in for a
landing nose-dived into a house in suburban Buffalo, sparking a fiery
explosion that killed all 49 people aboard and a person in the home. It
was the nation's first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2
years. Historian Alison Des Forges (66), prominent human rights
advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was among the victims of
the crash.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In New York Aasiya
Hassan (37) was found beheaded at the Bridges TV offices. Muzzammil
Hassan, founder and CEO of Buffalo, NY-based Bridges TV, was charged
after reporting the death of his wife. He had launched Bridges in 2004
with a mission to show Muslims in a more positive light.
(Reuters, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Canandaigua, New
York, Kimberly and Christopher Glatz were killed at their home. Mary
Silliman (23) was slain along with Randall Norman (41) a motorist who
intervened when he saw her being roughed up in the parking lot in a
pre-dawn attack outside Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport. In
August Frank Garcia, a nursing supervisor, was convicted of the Glatz
killings and faced another trial for the Brockport killings. On Sep 1
Garcia was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/myhxsv)(SFC,
9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 25, The FBI arrested
money managers Paul Greenwood (61) of North Salem, NY, and Stephen
Walsh (64) of Sands Point, NY, on charges of conspiracy, securities
fraud and wire fraud. They ware accused of misappropriating at least
$553 million.
(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 2, A massive late winter
snow storm roared out of the Southeast and into the Northeast
overnight, idling hundreds of flights and making the morning rush
treacherous as motorists contended with nearly a foot of snow in spots.
Some 950 flights were canceled at the three main New York area
airports, an almost 300 canceled in Philadelphia.
(AP, 3/2/09)(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 17, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo said AIG, the troubled insurance giant, paid
bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no
longer work for the company.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 19, In New York Hank
Morris, a political advisor, and David J. Loglisci were indicted on
allegations of extracting improper fees in exchange for investments
from New York state’s pension fund.
(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/crt5kx)
2009 Mar 19, Howard Feldman (67),
an American psychiatrist, was arrested in the Philippines on charges of
tricking an upstate New York couple into wiring him $70,000 for a bogus
liver transplant, that the husband died waiting for. Feldman has been
on the run since 2001.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 24, New York’s Gov. David
Paterson ordered layoffs that could total over 4% of state workers
after unions refused concessions.
(WSJ, 3/25/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 3, In Binghampton, NY,
Jiverly Wong (41) barricaded the back door of a community center with
his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a
citizenship class, killing 13 people before apparently committing
suicide. Officials the next day said the man, believed to be Vietnamese
immigrant, was depressed and angry over losing his job and about his
poor English skills.
(AP, 4/3/09)(AP, 4/4/09)(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.A15)
2009 Apr 6, Andrew Cuomo, NY
state’s attorney general, filed a civil suit against J. Ezra Merkin, a
New York philanthropic leader and former chairman of GMAC, on
allegations that he betrayed hundreds of investors by repeatedly lying
to them about how he invested their money. Merkin had funneled $2.4
billion from universities and nonprofit organizations into the firm of
Bernard Madoff, now in jail for running a multibillion dollar Ponzi
scheme.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 29, In New York Teresa
Tambunting of Scarsdale was charged with grand larceny and criminal
possession of stolen property. Prosecutors said she had stolen over $12
million in gold over six years from the Queens jewelry manufacturer
where she worked. Police found 450 pounds of gold at her home.
(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2009 May 2, Jack Kemp (b.1935),
Republican politician, died of cancer at his home in Maryland. A former
quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, Kemp represented western NY
for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful
presidential bid in 1988.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A16)
2009 May 23, It was reported that
millions of bats in at least 7 US states (Connecticut, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia) have
died from white-nose syndrome, a fungal diseases.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.36)
2009 Jun, Sludge containing PCBs,
released into the Hudson River between 1946-1977 by 2 General Electric
plants, began to be shipped for disposal to West Texas. The sludge
along 197 miles had been declared a Superfund site. Cleanup of the
Hudson River began in 2009 at an estimated cost of $750 million, to be
paid by GE.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(SFC,
6/22/09, p.A9)
2009 Jul 14, Episcopalians meeting
in Anaheim, NY, declared gays and lesbians eligible any ordained
ministry.
(SFC, 7/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Jul 23, Federal prosecutors
arrested over 40 people in New Jersey and New York as part of a major
corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe. They
included New Jersey Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Hoboken Mayor Peter
Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Jersey City Deputy
Mayor Leona Beldini. Several rabbis in New York and New Jersey were
also arrested. Some were accused of laundering tens of millions of
dollars and of black-market trafficking of kidneys and fake Gucci
handbags.
(AP, 7/23/09)(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, In New York a car
crash in Briarcliff killed 8 people including 4 children. Diane Schuler
(36) was drunk and high on marijuana when she went the wrong way on
Taconic State Parkway and crashed into an SUV.
(SFC, 7/27/09, p.A4)(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Dec 7, In New York a federal
jury convicted Joseph Bruno, a former NY state Senate leader, on 2
counts of corruption.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2010 Jan 21, New York State police
found the body of Dean Pierson (59) in his Copake barn. They said the
upstate dairy farmer had shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his
barn before turning the rifle on himself.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 25, In New York 2
Canadian men who pleaded guilty to conspiring to buy anti-aircraft
missiles and other equipment for the Tamil Tigers rebel group in Sri
Lanka were sentenced to 25 years in a US prison. Thiruthanikan
Thanigasalam (41) and Sahilal Sabaratnam (30) were among four men
arrested in Long Island, New York, in 2006 in an FBI sting operation as
they tried to buy surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers and
hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles to be used against Sri Lankan forces.
(Reuters, 1/26/10)
2010 Feb 4, The New York Attorney
General’s filed civil charges against Bank of America and former CEO
Ken Lewis for misleading investors about Merrill Lynch before it
acquired the Wall Street firm in early 2009.
(SFC, 2/5/10, p.D4)
2010 Feb 26, An unceasing winter
storm unleashed multiple dangers across the Northeast, blasting the
coast with hurricane-force winds that fanned a New Hampshire hotel
fire, flooding parts of Maine, dropping 2 feet of snow on parts of New
York, and cutting power to more than a million homes and businesses.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 26, New York Gov. David
Paterson abandoned his campaign for a full term as state governor.
(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 8, The resignation of New
York Rep. Eric Massa (50) took effect following an ethics
investigation. He had earlier cited health reasons but added that
Democratic House leadership forced him out due to his opposition to the
House version of the Health Care bill.
(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 13, A storm battered
parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut with gusts
of up to 70 mph.
(AP, 3/14/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = New York
End of file.