April 8th in NYC History
Posted: Apr 8, 2013 | 12:01 AM
1880: Millionaires Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and other wealthy New Yorkers founded the Metropolitan Opera after they were shut out from obtaining
the Academy of Music's conspicuous box seats.
1880...After they are unable to get box seats at the Academy of Music on 14th Street, millionaires Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould join other wealthy New Yorkers to form another company – The Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan will open in three-and-a-half years. See October 22nd.
We see where the 14th Street locations of the Academy of Music were on East Village tours, Union Square tours, Irving Place tours, and Gramercy Park tours. We see the Metropolitan Opera on Upper West Side tours, and MSO tours aka Manhattan Step On Guide Tours, aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.
1992: Beloved Tennis player and activist Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS from a blood transfusion. He died in 1993.
We see where Ashe volunteered in philanthropy at the Commonwealth Foundation, in the gorgeous old Harkness Mansion on Upper East Side tours, and Manhattan Step-on tours (MSO), aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.