Today in New York History
Cities in New York: Buffalo - New York City - Rochester - Yonkers
Historical Events
Results 1 - 100 of 178
1524-04-17 - Giovanni Verrazano, a florentine navigator, discovers New York Bay
1608-07-30 - At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1653-02-02 - New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
1665-06-12 - England installs a municipal government in New York City (the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).
1673-01-22 - Postal service between New York & Boston inaugurated
1683-11-01 - The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
1774-07-04 - Orangetown Resolutions adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts
1777-04-20 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1783-03-15 - In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'etat never takes place.
1790-12-06 - The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1792-10-12 - First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York
1799-03-29 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
1801-11-16 - 1st edition of New York Evening Post
1808-04-08 - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore was promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
1813-07-05 - War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York begin.
1817-03-08 - The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
1825-06-11 - The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.
1827-11-17 - The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, was founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
1830-03-16 - New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded)
1830-03-26 - The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
1831-12-31 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
1835-05-06 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1837-05-10 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
1843-02-06 - The first minstrel show in the United States The Virginia Minstrels opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
1849-02-14 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
1851-09-18 - New York Times starts publishing (2 cents a copy)
1855-07-04 - In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published.
1859-04-04 - Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
1860-02-27 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
1861-01-05 - 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Ft Sumter
1864-04-29 - The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
1864-04-30 - New York becomes 1st state to charge a hunting license fee
1865-01-04 - The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
1866-02-26 - New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health
1867-12-02 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1868-03-27 - The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.
1870-02-10 - The YWCA is founded (New York City).
1871-10-13 - The Delphic Fraternity is founded as the Delphic Society at the State Normal School in Geneseo, New York.
1872-09-26 - The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City.
1873-03-01 - E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1874-01-01 - New York City annexes the Bronx
1876-02-02 - Baseball's National League forms with teams in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, St Louis
1876-06-04 - An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
1890-08-06 - At Auburn Prison in New York murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1890-10-13 - The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
1894-03-08 - The state of New York enacts the nation's first dog-licensing law.
1896-03-23 - The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.
1899-01-03 - The first known use of the word automobile, was seen in an editorial in The New York Times.
1899-12-10 - The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1900-03-24 - New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1901-04-25 - New York becomes 1st state requiring auto license plates ($1 fee)
1904-12-31 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1905-04-17 - The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which held that the "right to free contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
1906-01-08 - A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
1906-11-18 - Langdon Mitchells "New York Idea," premieres in NYC
1907-11-07 - Delta Sigma Pi is founded at New York University.
1909-06-09 - Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, in fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California.
1909-11-26 - Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.
1912-04-18 - The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
1912-09-25 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York, New York.
1913-04-24 - The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City is opened.
1913-11-26 - Phi Sigma Sigma is founded at Hunter College in New York City.
1914-02-26 - New York Museum of Science & Industry incorporated
1914-05-30 - The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1914-11-28 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
1916-04-10 - The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.
1917-03-17 - Delta Phi Epsilon is founded at New York University Law School.
1922-02-20 - WOR-AM in New York City begins radio transmissions
1922-03-18 - The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1924-11-27 - In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
1925-02-21 - 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published
1928-06-29 - The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York both opened.
1930-05-27 - The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1930-05-28 - The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.
1931-10-01 - The second (and current) Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is opened in New York.
1933-11-07 - Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
1934-01-26 - The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.
1934-02-09 - -14.3°F (-25.7°C), coldest day in New York City
1934-07-10 - 2nd All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 9-7 at Polo Grounds, New York
1938-09-21 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people.
1938-10-31 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
1939-04-20 - New York World's Fair opens
1939-07-11 - 7th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 3-1 at Yankee Stadium, New York NY Yankee/AL maanager Joe McCarthy starts 6 Yankees
1940-11-18 - New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
1942-07-06 - 10th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 3-1 at Polo Grounds, New York
1942-08-01 - Race riots in Harlem, New York
1943-01-23 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1943-08-31 - 1st battle of Essex/new Yorktown: US assault on Marcus Island
1944-01-18 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1946-06-06 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
1948-01-02 - WNDT (now WNET) TV channel 13 in New York-Newark, NY (PBS) begins
1948-08-10 - WABC TV channel 7 in New York, NY (ABC) begins broadcasting
1948-08-20 - US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin
1951-05-16 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1951-05-21 - The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition - a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.
1952-12-01 - The New York Daily News reports the first successful sexual reassignment operation.
1953-02-18 - "Bwana Devil," the 1st 3-D movie, opened in New York
1954-01-07 - Georgetown-IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
1954-08-10 - At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway is held.
1956-01-21 - William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of New Yorker
Famous Birthdays
Results 1 - 50 of 50
1661-11-28 - Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (d. 1723)
1754-10-16 - Morgan Lewis, Governor of New York (1804-07) (d. 1844)
1758-12-23 - Nathan Wilson U.S. Representative from New York
1800-09-11 - Daniel S. Dickinson, New York senator (d. 1866)
1806-10-14 - Preston King, U.S. Senator from New York (d. 1865)
1812-06-14 - Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (d. 1881)
1821-07-24 - William Poole, American gang member (New York City's Bowery Boys) (d. 1855)
1843-08-29 - David B. Hill, Governor of New York (d. 1910)
1849-07-20 - Robert Anderson Van Wyck, Mayor of New York City (d. 1918)
1892-03-13 - Janet Flanner, journalist (New Yorker)
1897-03-18 - Betty Compson, actress (Big City, Docks Of New York)
1903-05-06 - Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)
1904-01-08 - Peter Arno, NYC, cartoonist (New Yorker)
1907-03-17 - Sonny Werblin, former owner of the New York Jets (d. 1991)
1909-10-07 - Erastus Corning 2nd, American politician, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (d. 1983)
1912-01-07 - Charles Addams, cartoonist (New Yorker, Addams Family)
1914-06-15 - Saul Steinberg, Romania, cartoonist/illustrator (New Yorker)
1914-10-04 - Brendan Gill, writer/critic (New Yorker magazine)
1916-08-14 - Wellington Mara, Co-Owner of the New York Giants (d. 2005)
1917-01-12 - Walter Hendl, West New York NJ, conductor
1922-01-22 - Howard Moss, poet/editor (New Yorker)
1926-08-07 - Amo Houghton, (Rep-R-New York)
1929-08-14 - Louise M Slaughter, (Rep-D-New York)
1930-08-14 - Gerald B H Solomon, (Rep-R-New York, 1979- )
1934-07-21 - Edolphus Towns, (Rep-D-New York, 1983- )
1935-12-05 - Calvin Trillin, author (New Yorker)
1937-07-05 - Nita M Lowey, (Rep-D-New York)
1938-10-27 - Maurice Hinchey, (Rep-D-New York)
1943-10-24 - Jose Serrano, (Rep-D-New York)
1944-04-05 - Peter T King, (Rep-R-New York)
1950-01-05 - Chris Stein, rock guitarist and co-founder of Blondie (Heart of Glass, Call Me) born in Brooklyn, New York
1951-04-13 - Jack Quinn, (Rep-R-New York)
1951-11-03 - Ed Murawinski, American cartoonist, New York Daily News
1953-03-28 - Nydia M Velazquez, (Rep-D-New York, 1993- )
1953-11-21 - Tina Brown, journalist publisher (New Yorker, Tattler)
1953-12-21 - Tina Brown, journalist (New Yorker)
1954-04-29 - Bill Paxon, (Rep-R-New York)
1954-07-06 - Willie Randolph, former New York Mets manager
1958-05-30 - Steve Israel, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives (D-New York)
1958-10-29 - David Remnick, American writer and editor of The New Yorker
1963-09-04 - Sam Yaffa, Finnish musician (Hanoi Rocks, New York Dolls)
1967-11-30 - Margaret Platt, New York City NY, golfer (1995 Healthsouth-9th)
1971-10-18 - Tammy Harris, Williamstown NY, Miss America-New York State (1997)
1972-05-08 - Keelin Curnuck, Miss New York USA (1996)/Ms Venus Swimwear (1994)
1975-07-01 - Liv Tyler, New York City, actress and daughter of Aerosmith's frontman, Steven Tyler (Stealing Beauty)
1976-11-30 - Cypher Zero, American circus innovator (New York Circus Arts)
1977-07-07 - Felix Vasquez, New York City Housing Authority employee
1979-01-27 - Jessica Lynn Ferdinand, Miss New York Teen USA (1997)
1979-08-21 - Aiesha Lee Hendrick, Miss New York Teen USA (1996)
1980-10-31 - Alondra de la Parra, Mexican founder and artistic director of the New York-based Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas
Famous Deaths
Results 1 - 21 of 21
1744-08-13 - John Cruger, Dutch-born Mayor of New York (b. 1678)
1774-07-11 - Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, Irish-born New York pioneer
1855-03-08 - William Poole, Infamous member of New York City's Bowery Boys gang (b. 1821)
1881-02-14 - Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
1910-10-20 - David B. Hill, Governor of New York (b. 1843)
1944-03-04 - Louis Capone, New York organized crime figure (b. 1896) (executed)
1967-12-03 - Harry Wismer, American original owner of the New York Jets (b. 1913)
1972-11-06 - Billy Murcia, rocker (New York Dolls), chokes to death at 21
1975-10-04 - Joan Whitney Payson, owner of New York Mets, dies at 72
1983-05-28 - Erastus Corning 2nd, American politician, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (b. 1909)
1985-10-01 - Charlotte White, US author (New Yorker, Charlotte's Web), dies at 86
1991-03-09 - Jim Hardin, former Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves pitcher (b. 1943)
1992-12-08 - William Shawn, US editor-in-chief (New Yorker, 1952-87), dies at 85
1993-09-28 - Peter De Vries, cartoonist (New Yorker), dies at 83
1994-10-09 - Fred Lebow, US founder of New York Marathon, dies of cancer
1995-01-12 - George Price, cartoonist (New Yorker), dies at 93
1999-01-06 - French Jazz piano virtuoso Michel Petrucciani dies in New York following a brief respiratory illness at age 36
2000-05-03 - John Joseph Cardinal O'Connor, Catholic Archbishop of New York (b. 1920)
2001-02-10 - Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
2003-07-23 - James E. Davis, New York City councilman (murdered) (b. 1962)
2008-07-12 - Bobby Murcer, center fielder for the New York Yankees,San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs from 1965-1983(b. 1946)
