Month: November 2018

Today in History November 12

1330 – Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army by ambush. 1439 – Plymouth becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament. 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined. 1893 – Abdur Rahman Khan accepts the Durand Line as the border between Afghanistan and the British Raj. 1912...
A U.S. Marine patrol crosses the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal in September 1942

EYES TO THE SKY November 12 – 25, 2018

Out for a walk one late afternoon on a recent weekend away from home, I looked up to appreciate the Sun. My senses were heightened in response to arriving on the sandy shore of the Great Paconic Bay that divides the North and South Forks of Long Island. As I played at the water’s edge,...
Credit: Dann Blackwood Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. Public domain. Via USGS

Dulce et Decorum Est…

In dissonant contrast with today’s observance of Veteran’s Day, Community Board 1 (CB1) recently grappled with the question of whether an intersection in Tribeca should be named in honor of James D. McNaughton, who, on August 2, 2005, at age 27, became the first New York City Police officer to be killed in action while...
New York City Police Officer and U.S. Army Staff Sergeant James McNaughton: born April 13, 1978; died August 2, 2005

November 8

1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezumawelcomes him with a great celebration. 1602 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public. 1614 – Japanese daimyō Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian. 1861 – The USS San Jacinto...
Civil Works Administration workers on the Denver Capitol building

Amalthea’s Horn Arrives in Lower Manhattan

The largest outdoor food market in the United States, Smorgasburg, is coming to the Oculus Plaza of the Word Trade Center complex for three days, starting today (Thursday, November 8) and continuing through Saturday. Smorgasburg, which brings more than 100 vendors to at open-air locations in Williamsburg and Prospect Park in Brooklyn each week, and...
The highly regarded outdoor food fest, Smorgasburg (shown here at its home base, in Williamsburg) begins a three-day cuisine-apalooza at the World Trade Center today.

November 7

1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France. 1775 – John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord...
The Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background , Vincent Van Gogh, housed in the MoMA