March 22nd in NYC: A nation conceived; A star is born; Lights on Broadway; Bringing it all back home; Greenwich Village, spiritual home for honest life,sharing true self, connecting the universal.

1765:  After the French and Indian War, Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies to pay for their security.  The associated abuses led the colonies, in New York City, that year to convene the Stamp Act Congress in what was to become Federal Hall.  A precursor to the American Revolution.  I speculate that Canada did not have a violent break from Britain partially due to this divergent policy.

We see Federal Hall on Colonial NYC tours, Wall Street tours, Financial District tours, George Washington's New York tours, and my Santa's NYC tour.


1874:  The YMHA, Young Men's Hebrew Association formed, founding the prominent 92nd Street Y, whose spiritual leader will marry me and Amanda this summer 2013


1930:  Stephen Sondheim, Broadway theater composer and lyricist born.


1948:  Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway and London theatre composer born.


1948:  Wolf Blitzer, CNN's broadcast journalist born.


1952:  Sportscaster Bob Costas born.


 

1962:  Barbra Streisand

she debuted on Broadway debut at age 19 in the musical "I Can Get it For You Wholesale" at the Shubert Theater, her supporting role got her a Tony nomination.
 

1965:  Bob Dylan's album "Bringing It All Back Home," was released.  It featured his first electric guitar as well as more personal and surrealistic lyrics.


We visit where Bob Dylan lived on Greenwich Village tours.


Regarding Bob and Barbra:  

Both made their career beginnings in Greenwich Village where personal honesty,
Dylan's lyrics and raw voice, and
Barbra Streisand not changing her name or nose to something WASPy,
reflect that;
along with the likes of comedians like Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor and Woody Allen baring their souls 'as if a magic lantern threw their nerves in patterns on a screen;'
Beat poets recounting their life experiences;
Jazz musicians, black and white, playing bebop soaring solos for audiences black and white;
Edna St. Vincent Millay, the original Carrie, recounting her dating life in poems about being young and pretty in the city;
Eugene O'Neill changing drama, making it about real life in intimate theaters;
Edward Hopper painting what he saw, not Historical Figures, Myths, Biblical themes or enchanted landscapes, But real life, personal experiences, personal perceptions, personal feelings, personal art.  
Gays and Lesbians arriving from Kansas, living lives in rose and rainbows in Oz.
Greenwich Village is about being your true self.



Back to historical reality,
on this day in

1995:  Colin Ferguson sentenced to life for killing six on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in 1993.