Month: November 2018

Today in History November 15

1532 – Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca Empire leader Atahualpa for the first time. 1660 – First kosher butcher licensed in New Amsterdam to Asser Levy. Levy successfully challenged Peter Stuyvesant to allow Jews to serve as soldiers and trade in Albany. With his purchase of land on...
Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation

Whatever the Traffic Will Bear

Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing for a study by the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) of traffic at the intersection in northern Battery Park City, as a preliminary step toward having traffic control measures (such as a stop sign or traffic light) installed there. “We’re asking for a traffic control study at the intersection...
River Terrace

Today in History November 14

1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Blue Nile. 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the United States. 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside’s plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg. 1886...
Replica of Robert Fulton's Clermont in 1909

Cass Gilbert and the Evolution of the New York Skyscraper

Everyone knows Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building. But not everyone knows it’s the last of three Lower Manhattan office buildings he designed between 1900 and 1912. Seen together, they reveal the rapid advance in the structural and architectural development of the New York office building. With Gilbert’s two earlier buildings, we can see him working through...
Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) designed seven New York City landmarks between 1900 and 1934.

November 13

AD 54 – Roman emperor Claudius dies from poisoning under mysterious circumstances. 409 – Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania. 1332 – Rinchinbal Khan becomes the Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty, reigning for only 53 days. 1710 – Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls...
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, emits a green laser marking the Prime Meridian

Giving Greed a Grade

Today (Tuesday, November 13), concerned parents, community leaders, and local elected officials — including City Council member Margaret Chin, State Assembly member Deborah Glick, and State Senator Brian Kavanagh — will lead a rally to protest the planned closure of P.S. 150, an award-winning local elementary school that has educated generations of Downtown kids. The...
P.S. 150 in Tribeca