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New
York Almanac ->
April
New York City in APRIL
Fifth Avenue Easter Parade, 1900.
In your Easter bonnet,
with all the frills upon it
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade. - Irving
Berlin
This Month:
....Average monthly temperature in April : 55°
...
the
Yankees
and Mets
gear up for another winning season of classic American baseball
on opening day. Get ya peanuts hear! .....meanwhile,
check out the latest concept cars coming down the assembly
line at the New
York International Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention
Center.
....and
watch for loads of bees attracted to Fifth avenue as bonnet-topped
ladies join New
York's Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue ...
April 1
...the
town's first Sunday school "for the teaching of adult
colored women" is opened by the Quakers in New York
City in 1811 ....
April 2
...a small fleet of sailboats constitute what is the first
Staten
Island ferry service, introduced this day in 1713. Almost
immediatley residents begin complaining about late or infrequent
service ...
April 3
Boss
Tweed, depicted in a Thomas
Nast cartoon that helped expose the
the 19th century Tweed Ring.
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April 3
...corrupt Democratic party leader Boss
Tweed is born this day in 1823 at No. 1 Cherry Street
....
April 4
...sporadic violence and looting is reported this day in
1968 with the news that civil rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr. has been assasinated in Memphis, Tennessee...
April 5
...street magician David
Blaine begins one of his earliest stunts, "Buried
Alive" this day in 1999 entombed in a plastic coffin
underneath a 3-ton tank of water. Over the span of 7 days,
almost 80,000 New Yorkers come to see if Blaine will survive
the ordeal. He does.
April 6
...excluded from schools, not allowed to own land, and forbidden
to strike "a Christian or a Jew", a group of slaves
ignite the Negro
Riot this day in 1712 on Maiden Lane, running rampant
through town with swords, guns and hatchets. Six New Yorkers
are killed and six injured. A militia finally quells the
riot, resulting in the hanging of 21 slaves.
April 7
...New York mobster "Crazy"
Joe Gallo is celebrating his 43rd birthday when his
gunned down at Umberto's Clam House on Mulberry Street in
Little Italy this day in 1972. Although the Colombo or Genovese
gangs are fingered in the slaying, Crazy Joe's demise remains
a mystery to this day...
April 8
...the whole city is buzzing with the news that the partly
decomposed body of Langley Collyer has been found weeks
after his older brother, Homer, was found dead in their
garbage-strewn Harlem brownstone. It takes workmen weeks
to clear out tons of newspapers, bundles of cardboard and
other junk the Collyer
brothers had accumulated during their lifetimes...
April 9
...the Brooklyn Dodgers play their first game in Ebbets
Field which opens this day in 1913....Mae
West starts a scandal in 1928 when she opens tonight
on Broadway in "Diamond Lil" at the Royale Theater.
The plot surrounds a gay nineties Bowery sexpot, a role
which the actress later reprises in the Hollywood film sensation,
"She Done Him Wrong" co-starring a young Cary
Grant.
April 10
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April 10
...New York City mechanic and inventor Walter
Hunt files a patent for the safety pin this day in 1849.
He later sells the rights to his invention for a whopping
$400 ...
April 11
....the first Sunday law is passed in Dutch New Amsterdam
this day in 1641. It striclty forbids "Amusement,
Drunkeness, frequenting Taverns or Tippling Houses, Dancing,
playing Ball, Cards, Tricktrack, Tennis, Cricket or Ninepins,
going on pleasure parties on a Boat, Cart or Wagon before,
between or during the Divine Service..."
April 12
...a latter-day Radio City Music Hall known as The
Hippodrome opens this day in 1905 as the city's largest
theater on Sixth Avenue, between 43rd and 44th Streets.
The cavernous showplace is able to seat an astounding 5,300
people who come to see lavish spectacles and musical extravaganzas
complete with circus animals, diving horses, and 500-member
choruses. Later converted to a movie house, the once-opulent
Hippodrome is torn down in 1939.
April 13
....a mob is marching on Columbia University this day in
1788 after rumors circulate that medical students are using
cadavers for medical instruction purchased from local body
snatchers. Hundred run rampant through laboratories and
offices destroying medical schools and specimens. Later,
the incensed mob turn their attention to neighborhood doctors.
A militia is finally called to quell what later becomes
known as the Doctor's
Riot resulting in eight killed and many more wounded.
Weeks later, the state legislature passes a law strengthening
penalties against the tomb raiders. The law makes an exception
for hanged criminals, upon whom dissection for medical research
is still allowed ...
April 14
...the entire city is in mourning this day with the news
of the sinking
of the Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912.
April 15
...Jackie
Robinson becomes the first black player in the major
leagues when he joins the Brooklyn Dodgers this day in 1947.
On road trips, Jackson receives death threats, and several
teams threaten not to play against the Dodgers. He was never
permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same
places as his white team members. Two years later, Robinson
is the National League's Most Valuable Player and later
helps the Brooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series
championship in 1955.
April 16
...The
Contrast is America's first home-grown stage comedy
performed at the John Street Theatre in New York City this
day in 1787. The play's theme centers around the contrast
between American down-home dignity and effite British foppery.
The play is later published in book form, a copy of which
is bought by President George Washington.
April 17
...Shea
Stadium opens this day in 1964 and in a bizarre "blessing"
is christened with Dodgers’ Holy Water from the Gowanus
Canal in Brooklyn, as well as Giants’ Holy Water from
the Harlem River at the location where it flowed passed
the Polo Grounds. Amen....
April 18
...this day in 1872 the Bloomingdale
brothers open the East Side Bazaar at 56th Street and
Third Avenue. They later move uptown to 59th Street and
Lexington to established one of the city's early "department
stores" catering to the city's elite with imported
European fashions and "gents furnishings". By
the 1920's, Bloomingdale's occupies an entire city block.
April 19
...the 7th
Regiment headquartered at its armory on 66th Street
and Park Avenue, march off to Washington, DC this day in
1861 responding to President Lincoln's call to guard the
nation's capitol against Confederate invasion.
April 20
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April 20
...the first kinetoscope
parlor opens in New York CIty this day in 1884 heralding
the first ever "moving picture" show. Thomas Edison's
newest invention eventually leads to the kinetograph, the
world's first motion picture camera ...
April 21
...paupers are buried in what was once a Potters Field in
Madison Square. Today in 1884 its reopens as Madision
Square Park ...the hit musical Annie
based on the cartoon strip Little Orphan Annie opens tonight
in 1977 at the Alvin Theater and goes on to play for 2,377
performances....
April 22
...the New
York World's Fair opens this day in Flushing, Queens
in 1964.
April 23
...this day in 1785, Samuel
Fraunces sells his tavern after 23 years in business
catering to the likes of George Washington and other early
American patriots during and after the Revolutionary War...
April 24
...a gothic-spired "Cathedral of Commerce", the
Woolworth
Building opens this day in 1913.
April 25
...with the help of maverick cop Frank
Serpico, a scandal is about to errupt with tales of
crooked cops and extortion splattered across the front page
of the New York Times this day in 1970. The story leads
to the appointment of the Knapp Commission to investigate
widespread police corruption...
April 26
...the
anti-war movement reaches fever pitch when thousands
of students boycott classes this day in 1968. Thousands
more planning to march through the streets tomorrow in protest
against America's continued involvement in the Vietnam War....
April 27
...baseball legend Babe
Ruth, diagnosed with terminal cancer, bids farewell
at a special ceremony at Yankee Stadium this day in 1947.
April 28
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April 28
...the future of Central
Park is in the hands of landscape architects Frederick
Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux when their entry is selected
as the official design for landscaping a large swath of
mid-Manhattan as a playground for New Yorkers this day in
1858 ...
April 29
...after months of performances in Greenwich Village, the
musical Hair
opens on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre tonight in 1968.
The first "nude" musical, the show goes on to
play for 1,844 performances .... Yankee owner George Steinbrenner
lets Yogi
Berra go after only 16 games this day in 1985 and rehires
BIlly Martin for his fourth stint at managing the Bronx
Bombers ...
April 30
...shy and withdrawn military man George
Washington delivers his first inaugural address this
day in 1789 before a joint session of Congress assembled
at Federal Hall on Wall Street in the nation's new capital.
The newly-elected president talks in a halting, low voice
that exhibits what one observer can only describe as "manifest
embarrassment..."
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