1907Actress Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Conn.


1925Yogi Berra, Baseball Hall of Famer


1986...Wall Street whiz Dennis Levine, a senior vice president at Drexel Burnham Lambert, is indicted in the largest insider trading case ever. Levine's cooperation with authorities eventually leads to the conviction of famed trader Ivan Beosky.

1647...Peter Stuyvesant becomes governor of New Amsterdam – and the colony's last Dutch leader. He surrenders to the British 17 years later

East Village walking tours, Colonial NYC tour, New Amsterdam tour,  Nieuw Amsterdam tour.



1858Minnesota became the 32nd state.  It started in NYC in 1789 at Federal Hall, which we see on private tours of Wall Street, financial district walking tours, and George Washington's New York City tours.
[ Northwest Ordinance picture ]


Irving Berlin 5/11/1888 - 9/22/1989
Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals

Ellis Island tours, immigration tours, Theater District tours.


??  1894, Martha Graham, the American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer of modern dance, was born. Following her death on April 1, 1991,  ??


1949Israel was admitted to the United Nations.
United Nations on 42nd Street tours.

1977...A federal judge overturns the ban on Concorde flights to Kennedy Airport, over the objections of Queens residents who had protested against the jet's supersonic roar.

1997The Deep Blue IBM computer defeated Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match between man and machine in New York.

William Grace 5/10/1832 - 3/21/1904
Irish-born American shipowner; founder of W. R. Grace & Company.  We see
[ 3 images Grace ]
the Grace Company's graceful building on 42nd St,

and its twin, the 9 West 57th St Solow Building on


midtown tours, and learn why there are two.


1849...Thousands of anti-British protesters riot outside the Astor Place Opera House over the appearance of English actor William Macready, a rival of famed American actor Edwin Forrest. The protesters throw rocks and set fire to the building in what later becomes known as the Astor Place Riot. Soldiers and police finally restore order, but not before 27 are killed during the violence, which stirs heated debate about American nationalism and Anglo elitism.

We visit this area on private walking tours of the east village.

1899Actor-dancer Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Neb.  We see his NYC apartment house on private walking tours of the Upper West Side.


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1902, David O. Selznick, who produced "Gone With the Wind" and other highly successful films, was born. Following his death on June 22, 1965,  jewish lower east side walking tours??


1978Kenan Thompson, Actor ("Saturday Night Live"  We see where SNL happens on private walking tours of Rockefeller Center.


2003The New York Times announced that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, had "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud."  We see the NYTimes headquarters on midtown tours.

??1926Don Rickles, Comedian??


1944The first "eye bank" was established, in New York City.


1945...The city bursts with joy as thousands pack Times Square to celebrate the Nazi surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.


1970:  World Trade Center "Hardhat" Construction Workers rioted, brutalizing peace protestors on Wall Street.



1978..."Son of Sam" David Berkowitz pleads guilty in Brooklyn to a year-long reign of terror that left six young people dead and a city paralyzed in fear.



1993...Impersonating an MTA motorman, teenager Keron Thomas gets behind the controls of an A train and takes it for a joyride from Manhattan, through Brooklyn, to Queens and back. Thomas, who says he has a passion for subway trains and learned how to operate them by watching and reading, becomes a minor celebrity – but promises a judge he will never steal another train.  Here is more about that day and what became of Keron Thomas.


2000...Mourners gather in St. Patrick's Cathedral to bid a final farewell to John Cardinal O'Connor, five days after his passing at the age of 80. Among the dignitaries on hand are President and Mrs. Clinton, former President Bush, and his son, presidential candidate George W. Bush. At the end of the service the cardinal is laid to rest in a crypt below his beloved cathedral.

Marcus Loew 5/7/1870 - 9/5/1927  film executive and movie theatre chain owner


1789...The first inaugural ball is held in Manhattan for President and Mrs. George Washington.


1851...Swedish soprano Jenny Lind begins her final New York engagement with a concert at Castle Garden in Battery Park. The singer is wildly popular with American audiences, who still look to Europe for high-brow culture.


??Archibald MacLeish 5/7/1892 - 4/20/1982
American poet, playwright and government official

??

1626...The Dutch West India Company is granted ownership of Manhattan when Peter Minuit strikes a deal with the Algonquin Indians to buy the island for $24 worth of trinkets.


Rudolph Valentino 5/6/1895 - 8/23/1926
Italian-born American silent screen actor



1915, Orson Welles, the film, stage, and radio actor; director, producer and writer who combined his talents in the highly regarded movie "Citizen Kane," was born. death on Oct. 10, 1985.  born and died elsewhere.  Hollywood, Radio and Broadway drama.


1915Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit the first of his 714 major league home runs in a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds.


??
1930  Willie Mays born. baseball great Willie Mays, born in 1931.
??


1945...Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia announces he will not seek a fourth term.Today's New Yorker birthdays include

??
1959  Actor George Clooney

??
1972Martin Brodeur, Hockey player
??

2002"Spider-Man" became the first movie to make more than $100 million in its opening weekend.2004The final first-run episode of "Friends" aired on NBC.

Frederick Barnard 5/5/1809 - 4/27/1889
president of Columbia College (1864-1889)

??
Peter Cooper Hewitt 5/5/1861 - 8/25/1921
American electrical engineer; invented the mercury-vapor lamp

Christopher Morley 5/5/1890 - 3/28/1957
American novelist and columnist for the Saturday Review (1924-41)
??


1891...Carnegie Hall – then known simply as the Music Hall – opens on 57th Street and Seventh Avenue with a concert conducted by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
1891Carnegie Hall (then named Music Hall) opened in New York City.


1893Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange; by year's end, the country was in the throes of a severe depression.


1955...The original "Damn Yankees," starring Gwen Verdun, makes its debut on Broadway.


1960 NBC News anchor Brian Williams born


1979Vincent Kartheiser, Actor ("Mad Men"),



2010Preliminary plans for a mosque and cultural center near ground zero in New York were unveiled, setting off a national debate over whether the project was disrespectful to 9/11 victims and whether opposition to it exposed anti-Muslim biases.


2011...Celebrated writer and director Arthur Laurents – the co-creator of musical theater classics like "Gypsy" and "West Side Story" – dies in Manhattan at age 93.

1626Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on what is now Manhattan.


??
Horace Mann 5/4/1796 - 8/2/1859
American educator and philanthropist
??


1895...The permanent Washington Arch in Washington Square is completed. It replaces the wooden original.



1905...40,000 pack the opening of Belmont Park. The feature race ends in a dead heat, with film courtesy of Thomas Edison.


??
Audrey Hepburn 5/4/1929 - 1/20/1993
Belgian-born motion-picture and stage actress

??


??
1937Ron Carter, Jazz bassist, turns 751937Dick Dale, Rock musician, turns 75
??


1950...Police display a year's worth of illegal drugs captured in raids and later incinerated. The total haul is worth about $100,000.


1958:  Artist Keith Haring born in PA.


???
2006A federal judge sentenced Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison for his role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
???

1668... 16 families settle in a wooded area that later will become the town of Fordham in the Bronx.

1744... The city's first sanitation code forces skinners, tanners and starch makers to stop pouring residual gunk into the streets.


1903  ?  Bing Crosby 5/3/1903 - 10/14/1977
American singer, actor and songwriter

???
May Sarton 5/3/1912 - 7/16/1995
American poet, novelist and essayist60William Inge 5/3/1913 - 6/10/1973
American playwright; awarded Pulitzer Prize for "Picnic" in 195367Sugar Ray Robinson 5/3/1921 - 4/12/1989
American boxer; world champion six times between 1946 and 1960
???

1920  Folk singer Pete Seeger 


1934Frankie Valli, ? Singer (The Four Seasons), turns 78


1936Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.

1949... Giants manager Leo "The Lip" Durocher is reinstated after a five-day suspension for punching a fan at the Polo Grounds.


1960The musical "The Fantasticks" opened off-Broadway, beginning a record run of nearly 42 years.


2001The United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.


2010Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad was apprehended aboard a flight preparing to depart New York for Dubai.