1504 – The Treaty of Lyon ends the Italian War, confirming French domination of northern Italy, while Spain receives the Kingdom of Naples. 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James. 1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through […]
Archives for January 2019
“Confection Defection”
To the editor: In your (BroadsheetDAILY)January 21st article, “Confection Defection,” Matthew Fenton wrote that “But one of the member nations of the G20 is Saudi Arabia. Although this fact has never inspired controversy in any of the dozens of other sites where Candy Nations has been exhibited in the last eight years, a predictable furor […]
To Renovate or Enervate
Community Board 1 (CB1) is taking a dim view of a developer’s plan to modernize a trio of historic structures in Tribeca. The buildings are located at the Leonard Street and West Broadway. Because all three buildings (29 and 31 Leonard Street, and 198 West Broadway) fall within the Tribeca West Historic District, they are […]
January 30
1607 – An estimated 200 square miles along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths. 1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded. 1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than […]
Don’t-Drink-the-Water Street
The square-block parking lot in the South Street Seaport district purchased by Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) last summer as a development site may be contaminated with multiple toxins. At the January 2 meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1), Manuel Romero, co-chair of that panel’s Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committee reported that the site […]
Today in History January 29
757 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang dynasty and emperor of Yan, is murdered by his own son, An Qingxu. 1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne. 1834 – President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute. […]
The Pace of Change
Lower Manhattan’s Pace University, held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday to unveil the recently completed first phase of a multi-year plan to upgrade its campus: the extensive modernization to its signature Downtown structure, One Pace Plaza (built in 1969), and the adjacent historic structure, 41 Park Row (which dates from 1857). The renovation, which began […]
January 28
814 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious as king of the Frankish Empire. 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu’izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the […]
‘You Know Best’
The New York Law School, located in Tribeca, hosted a panel discussion on January 18 that featured Jonathan Lippman, who served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 2009 through 2015, and later headed up the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. That panel’s recommendations — […]
January 25
*AD 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. *1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. *1765 – Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands at the southern tip of South America, is founded. *1858 – The Wedding […]
“Year round community use of our parks should always be our goal”
To the editor: re: Goodbye Monkey Bars, Hello Imagination Marsh (BroadsheetDAILY January 17) The pictures look wonderful. Equally wonderful will be the final completion of the project before those tots go off to college. But questions: 1. Is there a built in use for winter activities in any of this? Maybe one of those slides could […]
Fiat Lux, But Maybe a Little Less?
Lower Manhattan may be on the verge of wrestling yet another title from Midtown, but one that few who live Downtown would wish for: The profusion of lighted building facades, LED displays, and animated digital signs on the local streetscape is beginning to remind some residents of Time Square, and inspire less-than-glowing reviews. The illuminated […]
January 24
AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento. 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchillconclude […]
The Madding Crowd
Another office building conversion to residential use will soon bring an additional 345 apartments to the Financial District. The building at Two Washington Street (also known as 17 Battery Place North) will soon undergo a partial reconfiguration into dwellings, its owner, the Moinian Group, has announced. The remainder of the structure, located between Battery Place […]
January 23
393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor. 971 – Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao. 1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000. […]
That’s Entrée-Tainment
The herd of food-festival spaces coming to Manhattan is beginning to look like a stampede. In a story first reported by Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post, the owners of 28 Liberty Street have partnered with Legends Hospitality to create a new food hall and music venue at the based of the archetypal Modernist […]
Today in History January 22
613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople. 1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican. 1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution. […]
EYES TO THE SKY January 21 – February 3, 2019
All week, and into next, there is a dance taking place on the celestial dome; the glittering partners move close to each other, change their positions, flirt with a crescent moon, and part. Tomorrow is the culmination of this winter’s unfolding relationship between brilliant planet Venus and radiant Jupiter: they arrive at conjunction – closest […]
Ferry Good Deeds
Last week marked the tenth anniversary of the Miracle on the Hudson — the dramatic landing of a disabled passenger jet in the frigid waters between Midtown Manhattan and Weehawken, New Jersey. But sometimes overlooked in the nostalgic reverie about heroic aeronautics by US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger was the role played by an armada […]
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 […]