March 4th in New York City History - Happy Birthday, US Constitution! Happy Birthday, Harlem!
Posted: Mar 4, 2013 | 1:16 AM
1658: The village of Nieuw Haarlem (New Harlem) was incorporated. Nieuw Amsterdam Governor/Mayor/CEO Peter Stuyvesant created the village as a northern outpost to protect the larger colony of New Amsterdam.
Like original Haarlem which is about eight miles from Amsterdam, Nieuw Haarlem was about eight miles from Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam).
1789: Happy Birthday U.S. Constitution!
Congress convened in its National Capitol in NYC as the Constitution enacted.
We celebrate the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Presidency on my Colonial NYC tours, my Downtown tour, my Financial District tour, and my George Washington's NYC tour.
1933: Frances Perkins joined the F.D. Roosevelt administration cabinet as Secretary of Labor, the first woman in a Presidential Cabinet.
Perkins' rise to prominence began as she became an occupational safety activist and commissioner in the wake of the Triangle manufacturer fire disaster that she witnessed in 1911. Her reforms as a result of that tragedy played out over twenty years. These reforms continue to better millions of lives and have saved countless lives over the past century.
We visit the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Manufacturing Company on Greenwich Village tours as well as the extended version of my WTC Deep History tour.
1943: Jimmy (James) Cagney, of Avenue D and 8th Street, down my block, won the Best Actor Oscar for "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
1989: Time Inc. and Warner Communications announced a merger.
At the time it was a funny combination: a stodgy WASPy print empire with a Jewish mobby (parking lots) and entertainment empire.
1993: The first arrests happened for the Feb. 26th 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.