July 10th: a Virtual NYC Walking Tour through History
Posted: Jul 10, 2013 | 1:56 PM
1856: Nikola Tesla, scientific pioneer and New Yorker,
born in Austro-Hungary. He died 1/7/1943.
1921: Jake LaMotta, Boxing Hall of Famer, Happy Birthday.
1927: Former Mayor (1990-1994) David Dinkins, born. Dinkins is credited as NYC's first Black Mayor. What is less known about him is that he prevailed upon the Republican dominated NY State Legislature to increase the NYPD to 50,000. This is half the number of US Troops in Afghanistan at the peak of our war there. Dinkins did not completely prevail, though, the State legislature kept the funding bottled up until after his re-election campaign, helping enable his Republican opponent Rudolph Giuliani to prevail. He got to take advantage of the huge force increase and take credit for it.
1931Jerry Herman, Broadway composer ("Hello Dolly"), turns 82
1943, Arthur Ashe, the tennis star who was the first black man to
win a major championship, was born. Following his death on Feb. 6,
1993
Tennis Hall of Famer, died in NYC at 49 after a life of activism addressing racism in sports, bias against AIDS, and excellence in sport.
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/ashe
http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-ashe-9190544
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tennis-great-arthur-ashe-dies-of-aids
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0710.html
1945 Ron Glass, Actor ("Barney Miller") born.
1992...A jury in New York finds Pan Am liable for
damages resulting from the 1988 terrorist bombing of Flight 103, which
exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, en route to New York City, killing
270.