Posted: May 31, 2013 | 9:02 AM
by Jared Goldstein
Walt Whitman was born 1819 in West Hills, Long Island
Full Story
Posted: May 27, 2013 | 12:22 AM
1647: Peter Stuyvesant takes office as Director General (CEO, Governor, Mayor) of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. He will hold this office through tremendous changes for nearly 20 years and survive the change to New York City and the colony of New York. Pegleg closed taverns earlier, raised taxes, and instituted Blue Laws banning drinking on Sundays. He also attempts to limit the colony's diversity.
We learn of Stuyvesant's life on Downtown walking tours, Colonial NYC walking tours, New Amsterdam private walking tours, and Nieuw Amsterdam private walking tours. We also experience Stuyvesant on East Village tours, and Flushing, Queens tours.
1794: Sea shipping and railroad Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt born in Staten Island.
His story is recounted on Harbor tours, especially my Staten Island Ferry tours, and my Grand Central tours.
1819: Julia Ward Howe, author, reformer and songwriter of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" born in NYC.
1836: Jay Gould, Railroad and Financial mogul, born. He died 1892.
1894: Dashiell Hammett, author of hard-boiled detective novels turned into popular films, including the Maltese Falcon, born in Maryland. He died in 1961 in New York City.
1923: Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Viacom Inc. born.
1923: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger born in Germany. After escaping the Nazis he settled in Washington Heights
1963:
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan released, including Blowin' In the Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.
On Greenwich Village private walking tours we can get you in the picture.
Posted: May 25, 2013 | 11:16 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1803: The cornerstone is laid for New York's new City
Hall building at between what is now known as Broadway and Park Row. The location is chosen because it's thought it would always be the city's northern-most point. This is America's oldest City Hall and New York's fourth.
1837: Colonel Washington Roebling, Civil Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge born in PA. He died 1926.
1886: Al Jolson, stage and film singer and comedian born. He died October 23rd 1950.
1896: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was first published. The average price of the 11 initial stocks was 40.94.
1913: The Actors' Equity Association, a union for stage actors, is created when 112 performers adopted their constitution in an era of actors being economically abused. They now have 39,000 members.
1964: Lenny Kravitz, Rock musician, born in Manhattan.
1977: George Willig, 'the Human Fly,' captivated us, climbing up WTC2 for three-and-a-half hours
up the south tower of
the World Trade Center.
Police in a window washing vehicle monitor him.
He was arrested at the top of the 110-story building, like Philip Petit, who tightroped in between the towers three years prior. Petit balances a knife on his nose as Willig signs autographs at a celebratory dinner the next evening at Windows on the World atop WTC North Tower 1. Mayor Beame fined Willig $1.10. A penny per floor.
This is the Opposite of Terrorism.
I remember this feat happening. My Mom needed a crowbar to get me out of the house onto the school bus where this was the talk as well. The Principal announced progress at the 77th floor and when he reached the top.
The World Trade Center Tour, Heroes of the 9/11 Memorial, The World Trade Center 360 Walking Tour, World Trade Center private guided tour.
1998: The Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island, the historic immigrant processing center and, now, National Monument, is mainly in New Jersey, not New York, despite that the island is two-thirds landfill from the development of the NYC Subways.
Posted: May 25, 2013 | 7:47 PM
by Jared Goldstein
7th and C: Trendy Bavarian Beer Garden with a line down the block to get in at opening time. I think a big German Soccer Game is on TV.
7th and B: Elderly Chinese ladies line up for Free Lunch In the Park.
Full Story
Posted: May 25, 2013 | 12:53 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1878: Stage and screen song-and-dance man Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
was born in Va. He died 1949.
1879: America's first Cardinal, John McCloskey, dedicated the new St. Patrick's Cathedral after more than 20 years of construction.
James Renwick's gothic revival masterpiece is the centerpiece for American Catholics. Archbishop "Dagger" John Hughes was its visionary and guiding force. The cathedral's cost was $7 million, $70 million in today's value. The cathedral is undergoing a $70 million renovation in 2013, and G*d could use a large donation.
We experience this marvelous edifice on Catholic New York coach bus tours, James Renwick coach tours, and midtown mso tours or midtown step on tours.
1897: "Gene" Tunney World Heavyweight Champion boxer from 1926-1928, who defeated Jack Dempsey twice, in 1926 and 1927, born in Manhattan.
1898: Bennett Cerf the publisher who founded Random House, a punster, frequent What's My Line guest, businessman, humorist, and writer, born in Manhattan.
1926: Miles Davis,
the jazz trumpet genius born. He died Sept. 28, 1991.
1935: Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career.
1943: Actress Leslie Uggams born in NYC.
1944: Muppeteer and film director Frank Oz born in UK.
1950: The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel opened. At nearly two miles long, it's the United States' longest underwater motor vehicle crossing, and once the world's.
1951: Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays made his major league debut with the New York Giants.
1969: The film "Midnight Cowboy" opened at the Baronet Theater on the Upper East Side.
1975: Happy Birthday R&B singer, Lauryn Hill.
1979: Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared in SoHo as he headed to school. He was one of the first of the missing children depicted on milk cartons. Decades later crazy drifters continue to emerge as suspects.
Posted: May 23, 2013 | 11:30 PM
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge, the Eighth Wonder of the World, linking the 'twin cities' of Brooklyn and New York (Manhattan), was opened to traffic and celebrated by thousands.
There is a lot I can say here, about a two-hours Brooklyn Bridge walking tour's worth.
1626: Dutch Purchase Manhattan.
1630: The beginning of a great medical heritage: Harem Van De Bogaert arrived in New Amsterdam as the colony's first surgeon.
We explore our colonial heritage on Nieuw Amsterdam walking tours, New Amsterdam private walking tours, Colonial NYC tours, Downtown walking tours, and Financial District walking tours.
1870: Benjamin Cardozo, Supreme Court justice from 1932-8, born. He was from an old prominent New York City Jewish Family.
His relatives are associated with Chinatown tours, Downtown tours, Jewish New York tours, and Upper West Side walking tours.
1941: Bob Dylan, Rock singer, songwriter, and writer, born.
I cover some Bob Dylan history in Greenwich Village walking tours, as well as in my developing Bob Dylan tour.
1974: Harlem's elegant yet danceable Jazz maestro "Duke" Ellington died in New York at 75. Sir Duke wrote more than 6,000 musical pieces.
I liken the stately rhythmic art deco of 42nd Street and Rockefeller Center to Duke Ellington on
Rockefeller Center private walking tours
and 42nd Street walking tours.
We cover Duke Ellington's neighborhood on Harlem private tours.
1983: Millions celebrated the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial.
1994: Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. I love that they were not given the death penalty, which would have made them martyrs in the eyes of some hatefuls.
I have several World Trade Center walking tours.
Posted: May 21, 2013 | 2:01 PM
by Jared Goldstein
Gustav Lindenthal 5/21/1850 - 7/31/1935 Austrian-born American civil engineer; designed
the Hell Gate Bridge.
His assistant, Othmarr Ammann, inspired by has fanciful North River Bridge, designed the cost-friendly GW.
1856: Grace Hoadley Dodge, philanthropist, supporter of womens' rights and industrial education, born in NYC.
1902: Marcel Breuer, Architect of
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the 1966 Whitney Museum, born in Austria. He died in NYC in 1981.
1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean
1952...The Brooklyn Dodgers score 15 runs in the first inning en route to a 19-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
1959The musical "Gypsy" starring Ethel Merman opened on Broadway.
1970...Mayor John Lindsay appoints the Knapp Commission to investigate charges of widespread corruption within the New York Police Department.
1999Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera "All My Children," won her first Daytime Emmy Award for best actress in the 19th straight year she was nominated.
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