February 5th in NYC History:
Ten Years Ago: Colin Powell takes one for the Bush Team, and so does the world;
8 birthdays, 6 of which are excellent;
1 death;
1 terrorism trial; and 
a SuperBowl for the Gints.

1663:  A "great earthquake" is recorded throughout the New Netherland colony.


1776:  Continental Army General Charles Lee takes control of New York City.  His army camped outside town, where City Hall Park is now, and barricaded the town against the expected British attack.

We see this historic spot on Colonial NYC tours, and George Washington's New York City tours.


1849:  City College opened on East 23rd Street, offering a free education to New York City's public school graduates.


1906:  Actor John Carradine born in Greenwich Village.


1914:  Writer, actor, unredeemed junky William S. Burroughs born.  While he was in New York City he fostered the literary potential of the Columbia scenesters who became 'the Beats.'


1915:  Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize winning physicist and pride of City College, born in NYC.  He died in 1990 at Stanford.


1926:  Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former publisher of The New York Times, born.


1944:  Possibly the greatest musician you never heard of, or confused with Alice Cooper, Al Kooper born in Brooklyn.  

See this curmudgeon in concert and you'll realize how many great songs of his you know.  He also performed organ on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," founded Blood Sweat and Tears, discovered and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, played for the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Jimi Hendrix, for examples.


1948:  Actor, director, writer, musician, and screenwriter Christopher Guest born in NYC.  After graduating from Bard's High School of Arts and Music then Tisch, he was on SNL, then became famous as Nigel Tufnel in This is Spinal Tap.  


1964:  Actress Laura Linney born in NYC.  She attended Julliard and performed on Broadway before making it in movies.


1967:  Chris Parnell, Actor and comedian from "Saturday Night Live" born.


1968:  Roberto Alomar, Baseball Hall of Famer, and New York Met for part of his career, born in Puerto Rico.


1972:  Marianne Moore, poetesse , died in Brooklyn where she made her career in letters, which garnered her the Pulitzer and Bollingen Prizes, and a National Book Award.  She was born in St. Louis in 1887.

Sometime in between, Moore was a professor of English who taught Jim Thorpe at Carlisle College.


2001:  The African Embassies Bombers' trial commences in NYC's Federal Court.

Their trial was supposed to continue on 9/11/01, but it was postponed due to the attacks on the World Trade Center about five blocks away.

Bin Laden, their leader, was never indicted for the 9/11 attacks, only for the African embassies' bombings.


2003:  Colin Powell took one for the Bush Team's war campaign, falsely alleging to the United Nations that

his vial,

diagrams, and satellite images were evidence and analogies demonstrating that Iraq was associated with the sort of terrorism that visited the US on 9/11/01.  This case led to war which we are still fighting and paying for today and many years to come.


Harlem's, the Bronx', and City College's Colin Powell backed by Brooklyn's and Columbia's School of International Affairs' CIA Director George 'Slam Dunk' Tenet at the United Nations asserting a case for war, possibly the US's worst international mistake and disaster.


2012:  The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots at Super Bowl XLVI.