January 6th in NYC History:
Teddy and Dizz Died;
E.L.Doctorow and the Telegraph Born;
the importance of Morristown, NJ;
Elvis waist up;
Wires submerged;
Free-Agents Capped.
Posted: Jan 6, 2013 | 12:34 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1777: After recent victories, Washington sets up camp 33 miles east of New York City, in Morristown, N.J. This helped inspire 17,000 New Yorkers to join the militia.
1838: Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph, in Morristown, N.J. He died famous and wealthy in New York City April 2, 1872, at 80. On my Greenwich Village Tour, we see NYU where he was a Professor of Painting and Sculpture.
1890: NYC completed the massive project to move most communications lines underground. This was two years after the Blizzard of 1888 caused havoc when the rainforest of telegraph and telephone wires were grounded.
This didn't work out after 2012's Super Storm Sandy Surge. As of this date, there are still businesses Downtown without Verizon phone service. 122 years of uptime isn't bad, though.
1919: NYC's Teddy Roosevelt,, the 26th president of the United States, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60.
1933: E.L. Doctorow, New York writer, born.
1947: Courts uphold NYC's ability to require rent control.
1957: Elvis Presley performs his last time on The Ed Sullivan Show. The uproar over his previous performances result in filming him only from the waist up. We see the Ed Sullivan Theater on my John Lennon's NYC Tour.
1993: Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie died after 75.
1993: The NFL granted players free agency, and owners a salary cap.
1996: Blizzard of 1996 begins, among many others on the East Coast, there are deaths in Harlem beneath a collapsed church roof.