Month: January 2018

January 18

474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later. 1591 – King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Mingyi Swa of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day. 1778 – James Cook is the first...
Seth Low was an American educator and political figure who served as mayor of Brooklyn, as President of Columbia University, as diplomatic representative of the United States, and as 92nd Mayor of New York City.

Waterfront Woes

The Tuesday meeting of Waterfront, Parks, and Development Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) was the venue for a spirited discussion about the City’s plan to demolish a South Street Seaport structure that many preservationist believe has significant historic value, along with the process that led to this decision. All of which has inspired calls...
The 1939 New Market Building, which many preservationist believe has significant historic value, but the City's Economic Development Corporation plans to demolish.

January 16

27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. 1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy. 1547 – Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia. 1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain. 1786 – Virginia...
Buckminster Fuller "Call me Trim Tab"

Seeking the Line Between Acknowledgement and Endorsement

A commission appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to advise City Hall on what to do with historical monuments that raise complicated moral questions has recommended leaving in place a Lower Manhattan plaque that marks a parade honoring a figure later judged by history to be a villain, rather than protagonist. The same panel chose...
Charles Lindbergh is honored with a ticker tape parade through Lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes after his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

January 12

1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London. 1908 – A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time. 1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate. Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway was an American political figure who became the first woman elected...
Hattie Caraway in 1914

All Our Yesterdays

The Skyscraper Museum (39 Battery Place, near the corner of First Place) is opening its doors on Sunday (January 14) to invite residents of Lower Manhattan to view, free of charge, its current exhibit, “Millennium: Lower Manhattan in the 1990s.” Today, the southern tip of Manhattan is one of the fastest growing, and most economically...