Jan 25th in NYC History -
Posted: Jan 24, 2013 | 10:07 PM
1776: Congress authorized the nation's first national memorial, for General Richard Montgomery who died at the Battle of Quebec, and it has been in NYC at St Paul's Chapel since 1788. Here is an adaptation of a piece in History.com:
"When word of his death reached Philadelphia, Congress voted to create a monument to Montgomery's memory and entrusted Benjamin Franklin to secure one of France's best artists to craft it. Franklin hired King Louis XV's personal sculptor, Jean Jacques Caffieri, to design and build the monument. ... In 1788, it was installed under the direction of Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant [who redesigned St Paul's interior, the first national capitol on Wall Street, and later Washington DC]. [It is] beneath the portico of St. Paul's Chapel, which served as George Washington's church during his time in New York as the United States' first president in 1789, and where it remains to this day. Montgomery's body, which was originally interred on the site of his death in Quebec, was moved to St. Paul's in 1818.'
We see the General Montgomery Memorial on my Colonial NYC Tour and my World Trade Center tours.
1890: New York World's pioneering investigative reporter
Nellie Bly triumphantly returned to New York after traveling around the world in 72 days, faster than Jules Verne's fictional 80 days.
1915: Alexander Graham Bell made the first transcontinental telephone call from New York to San Francisco.
1947: Brooklyn-born Al Capone died at 48.
1959: The Jet Age for the begins in the USA from New York to Los Angeles. American Airlines flew the new Boeing 707.
1972: Brooklyn Democratic Congressional Representative Shirley Chisholm declared her candidacy for Democratic candidate for President of the the U.S. Four years after becoming the first black woman in Congress, she was the the first African American woman to seek a major party's presidential nomination.
1981: Singer, songwriter, producer, actress, and pianist Alicia Keys born (and raised) in Manhattan. Her given name: Alicia Augello Cook.
1986: The USS Intrepid designated as a national landmark. It is the home of the National Sea, Air, and Space Museum.