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New York Yacht Club Drops Anchor!

7/31/2015

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On this day, July 30th, 1844 the New York Yacht Club forms.
The private club was founded by nine prominent sportsmen and was 
based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.

The New York Yacht Club is located at W44th st in NYC and as of 2011 had over 3,000 members. 
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Today was It! Clara Bow Born

7/30/2015

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Picture
Clara Bow, Courtesy, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts / Billy Rose Theatre Division Digital ID: 89661
On this day, July 29th, in 1905, Clara Bow was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Born and raised in a tenement in Prospect Heights, Bow rose to stardom during the era of Silent Films.

Her role in the film, "It" brought her international fame and Bow became "The It Girl" replacing her previous nickname, "The Brooklyn Bonfire".

At the height of her fame it is said that Bow received up to 45,000 fan letters a week.
Bow died at the age of 60 of a heart attack at her Los Angeles residence.






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Final Curtain for "Kiss me, Kate"

7/29/2015

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On this day, July 28th, 1951, "Kiss me, Kate" closes after 1,070 performances at the New Century theather.
The show then went on to the London Coliseum to run for another 400 performances.
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Shea Plans to Bring Baseball Back to NYC

7/28/2015

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Picture
William Alfred "Bill" Shea, New York City Photograph, 1959 Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c27301
On this day, July 27th, 1959, William Alfred "Bill" Shea announces plans to bring baseball back to New York City. Shea was a prominent New York lawyer and also the founder of the the Continental League which is accredited to bringing Major League Baseball back to New York.

The New York Mets were formed officially in 1962 and played at Shea Stadium for 45 years. 

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New York Enters the Union

7/27/2015

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Picture
Steamer Albany and Poughkeepsie Bridge Poughkeepsie, New York, between 1900 and 1910. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
On this day, July 26th, 1788 the Convention of the State of New York voted to ratify the Constitution of the United States. With this vote, New York became the eleventh of the original thirteen colonies to join together as the United States of America. The convention was held in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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Christine Quinn Born

7/26/2015

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On this day, July 25th, 1966, Christine Quinn, former Speaker of the NY City Council was born.

Quinn was born in Glen Cove, New York.  She was on the NY City Council since 1999 representing the Third District, which consists of the Manhattan neighborhoods of, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Hell's Kitchen, and parts of SoHo and Murray Hill.  She was Speaker from 2006-2013. 

Quinn ran for Mayor of New York City in 2013, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg's third term ended.
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Bill the Butcher Born

7/25/2015

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Picture
Uncle Sam's youngest son, Citizen Know Nothing / Sarony & Co., lith., 117 Fulton St., N.Y. A bust portrait of a young man representing the nativist ideal of the Know Nothing party. He wears a bold tie and a fedora-type hat tilted at a rakish angle. The portrait is framed by intricate carving and scrollwork surmounted by an eagle with a shield, and is draped by an American flag. Behind the eagle is a gleaming star. The flag hangs from a staff at left which has a liberty cap on its end. The Citizen Know Nothing figure appears in several nativist prints of the period (for instance "The Young America Schottisch," no. 1855-5) and is probably an idealized type rather than an actual individual. The publishers, Williams, Stevens, Williams & Company, were art dealers with a gallery on Broadway. Courtesy Popular Graphic Arts, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-02603
On this day, July 24th, 1821 William Poole a/k/a Bill the Butcher was born.

Originally from New Jersey, his parents moved to New York City in 1832 to open a butcher store in Washington Market. Poole learned his father’s trade and eventually took over the family store. In the 1840s Poole started the Washington Street Gang and became an infamous member of the Bowery Boys, a New York City Gang.
 
Poole became known for his bare-knuckle boxing and for being a leader of the Know Nothing political movement. The movement was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to republican values and controlled by the Pope in Rome.
 
Poole was the inspiration for the character of William, “Bill the Butcher” Cutting in Martin Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York. Although Scorsese took creative license with the character, incidents from newspaper clippings such as The Brooklyn Eagle and The New York Daily Times were taken from Poole’s life.
 
Poole met his demise when he was shot by a rival at Stanwix hall, a popular bar located near the corner of Prince and Broadway on February 26th, 1855.  He died over a week later, in his home on Christopher Street.  His last words allegedly were, "Good-bye boys;  I die a true American."  Three days later on March 11, Poole was interred in an unmarked (later marked in 2004) grave in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
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Vanessa Williams' Title Succumbs to Scandal

7/24/2015

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Picture
Vanessa Williams at pre-opening of Otarian NYC September, 11th, 2010Vanessa_Williams.jpg: motfemme derivative work: Tabercil (talk)
On this day, July 23rd, 1984, Miss America winner, Vanessa Williams resigns after scandalous photos are published by Penthouse. The photographs were taken during Williams' pre-pageant days as an assistant and makeup artist for New York photographer Tom Chiapel. Only ten months after winning the pageant, she received an anonymous phone call alerting her to the publishing of the photos, which were not authorized. 

The unfortunate event did not stifle Williams' career as she would go on to become a successful singer, actress and record producer. Williams grew up in Tarrytown, New York the daughter of music teachers. Williams studied the piano and French horn while growing up but her true passion was singing and songwriting.
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Brooklyn Bridge Designer Dies

7/23/2015

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Picture
John Augustus Roebling, Courtesty Wikimedia
Picture
Brooklyn Bridge, c1896, by George P. Hall & Son. Courtesy Panoramic Photographs, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-119639
Picture
New York entrance of Brooklyn Bridge, and insert of head-and-shoulders portrait of J.A. Roebling. Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, May 26, 1883, p. 321. Courtesy Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-108303
On this day, John Augustus Roebling, died in his home in Brooklyn Heights.

Roebling, was born on June 12, 1806 in Mühlhausen, in the Kingdom of Prussia (modern Germany). He studied engineering in Germany, and came to the USA in 1831, purchasing land with his brother Carl in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  Having come to the US with a technological utopist, Johann Etzler, the brothers intended to create a utopian settlement, called Saxonburg.  The Roeblings had split from Etzler just prior to obtaining their land.

Roebling initially did not pursue engineering, but rather farmed his land.  By 1837, when Carl died, and his first child was born, Roebling had resumed working as engineer, as farming did not satisfy him.

Roebing's first project was surveying for a railway line across the Allegheny Mountains for the State of Pennsylvania.  In 1840, he offered assistance to suspension bridge desinger Charles Ellet, Jr, in his work on a bridge in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

In 1841, he started to produce wire rope in Saxonburg.   This was initially to replace the thick hemp rope used to move railroad cars up and down inclines on the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

It was around this time that he started work on a number of aqueducts in Pennsylvania, and for the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

In 1867, Roebling started design work on what would be his masterpiece, the Brooklyn Bridge. 

In 1869, while standing on a dock to determine the proper location for the Brooklyn Bridge to be built, his foot was injured by an arriving ferry.  Having refused some further treatment, and trying alternative methods of curing his foot, he died as a result of tetanus 24 days later on, July 22, 1869. 

Roebling was interred in the Riverview Cemetery in Trenton, NJ.
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Garry Trudeau is born

7/21/2015

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On this day, July 21st, 1948 Garretson Beekman Trudeau is born in New York City.
Trudeau is the creator of Doonesbury, a popular comic strip, known for its political commentary.
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