New York Almanac -> July

New York City in July

Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular

This Month: ....Average monthly temperature in July : 77° ... Fireworks barges sail in along the East River, South Street Seaport and the Statue of Liberty for an evening spectacular celebrating American Independence Day with Macy's July Fourth Fireworks

... and throughout the month Lincoln Center is the place to be for nights filled with the music of Mostly Mozart - along with Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, and other classical and Baroque favorites... plus don't miss our complete list of Summer Events in NYC ...

July 1

....Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale is in his neighborhood speakeasy when he gets a cryptic call that his wife Lucy needs him at home. He speeds off in his Lincoln coupe when several occupants of a Buick overtake him and riddle Yale's car with buckshot and machine gun fire this day in 1928.

The mobster's funeral includes a $15 million silver casket, 110 limos to carry the mourners - and 23 others just to haul the floral arrangements - in one of Brooklyn's most opulent mob farewells ...

July 2

Joe DiMaggio hits a 3-run homer against arch-rivals the Boston Red Sox this day in in 1941 to break the record for hitting in the most consecutive games within a season — and he doesn't stop there. This summer he goes on to eventually get hit in a record 56 straight games....

July 3

...Hetty Green, "the Witch of Wall Street" is famous for spending a frugal life subsisting on only lukewarm oatmeal and cheap meat pies while making a fortune investing in stocks and bonds. She spends her later years in fear that she will be kidnapped, but this day in 1916 goes on to her final reward the richest woman in the world, leaving a fortune estimated at $100 million ...

July 4 - American Independence Day

...notorious 19th century streets gangs, The Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys, come to blows this day in 1857, rioting through the infamous Five Points District for two straight days before overwhelmed police enforce a truce ...

July 5

...famous for having looked out on the streets of New York and uttering "There's a sucker born every minute", showman P.T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum is born in Bethel, Connecticut this day in 1810 ...

July 6

...New York's "Boy Mayor", John Purroy Mitchel is only 34 when he is elected as the city's youngest mayor ever. After failing to get reelected, he later joins the Signal Corps Army Air service and plummets 500 feet out of his aircraft to his death this day in 1918 on a routine training exercise. It's generally believed that he failed to fasten his seat belt...

July 7

... four nights of Anti-Abolition rioting ensue in 1834 as mobs rampage through the streets damaging homes & churches, mostly belonging to the city's black population, with cries heard for their nationwide deportation from the U.S. ...

July 8

...in one of the most epic scams in city history, a pair of schemers by names of Lozier & DeVoe convince the city that due to a building boom, the tip of Manhattan is about to sink into the harbor this day in 1824.

Lozier, a carpenter, and DeVoe, a butcher, make plans to saw it off, turn it around, and reattached it firmly. Even the mayor is convinced the plan will work, and helps secure funds for the project.

Weeks later, hundreds of workers assemble with saws, pick axes and shovels to begin the project — except for Lozier & DeVoe, who have skipped town with a hefty fortune ....

July 9

... General George Washington has the Declaration of Independence read to his troops in New York City this day in 1776 ...

July 10

"The baseball team ahead tonight usually wins the pennant fight..."

- Old New York Baseball Wisdom

July 11

... Vice President Aaron Burr, who feels "defamed" by former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, challenges his old rival to a famous duel this day in 1804 across the river in Weekhawken, N.J. When the smoke clears, Hamilton lays mortally wounded, leaving 7 children and $55,000 in debts. Burr flees the city and heads South ...

July 12

... members of the shoemakers' union go on trial in New York City for striking to win wage increases. They are later fined $1 each ...

July 13
... Irish mobster Legs Diamond is presiding over the Hotsy Totsy Club this night in 1929 when shots ring out across the dance floor and patrons run for the exit. Within days, several waiters and a manager go mysteriously missing and, out of approximately 50 other witnesses, nobody's talkin' ...

July 14

...legendary director D.W. Griffith gets his start this day when his first film, The Adventures of Dollie premieres in New York in 1908 amid much success. His studio immediately awards him a one-year contract and a whopping $500 a month salary...

July 15

...city residents are agog at being the first Americans ever to see the strange and amazing Australian duckbilled platypus up close today in 1922 when it debuts at the Bronx Zoo ...

July 16

... the sensational three-year Becker Trial culminates in police lieutenant Charles Becker being sentenced to the electric chair this day in 1914 for his involvement with West Side gamblers and criminals along with rubbing out a key witness, one "Beansie" Rosenthal ...

July 17

...pilot Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan goes down in the annals of American folk heroes this day in 1938 when he flies from New York to Long Beach, California in the wrong direction.... and lands in Dublin, Ireland. Says Corrigan on touch-down, "Just got in from New York. Hey, where am I?" His colossal mistake gives a Depression-era public a good laugh and results in a popular catch phrase whenever anyone veers off course ( i.e., "Hey, I'm doing a Corrigan!...")

July 18

...it's the year of "the long hot summer" when riots break out in Harlem after an off-duty cop shoots a black teen resident. There are 114 injured (including 35 police), 120 businesses damaged, and 185 arrests before order is restored this day in 1964 ...

July 19

....more than 300 buildings are destroyed and four lives lost in the "Great Fire" this early morning in 1845 when a factory fire in the Wall Street area touches off a conflagration that reaches from from river to river. Atop an exploding building on Broad Street, fireman Francis Hart, Jr. sails with the rooftop and is safely deposited on the street four stories below ...

July 20

Given the go-ahead by President Thomas Jefferson, and in the presence of several naval experts, Robert Fulton demonstrates the power of his new invention, the Nautilus "submarine", by successfully blowing up a brig in New York Harbor this day in 1807...

July 21

...the New York State Legislature approves a bill designating 843-acres of prime New York City real estate for "a great public park" bounded by Fifth and Eighth Avenues, from 59th to 106th Streets this day in 1853. Central Park later extends to 110th street after yet another piece of land is purchased 10 years later ...

July 22

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

...New Yorker Emma Lazarus is born this day in 1849...

July 23

... the old New York expression "to pull a Brodie" is born when, on a $200 bet, saloonkeeper Steve Brodie jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge 135 feet into the East River this day in 1886 ...

July 24

...New Amsterdam has its first recorded lawyer this day in 1653 in Adriaen van der Donck, who is permitted only to advise clients. He is sensibly barred from actually pleading cases since there are no other lawyers in town to present opposing arguments ...

July 25

... Mary Cecilia Rogers leaves her downtown boarding house this day in 1841, telling her boyfriend she is heading uptown to visit her aunt. She never returns. Three days later, her bruised and broken body is found floating in the Hudson River. The news makes headlines for weeks and inspires local writer Edgar Alan Poe to transform the story into his detective tale, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" ...

July 26

...the city's last horse-drawn street car makes its last run down Bleeker Street this day in 1917...

July 27

In one of the shortest runs in New York City theater history, "Broadway Opry '79" opens tonight in 1979 and closes after only 2 performances ...

July 28

... flying through dense fog while piloting a 10-ton B-25 bomber, Lt. Colonel William Smith tries to avoid the Empire State Building looming up before him this day in 1945, but it is already too late.

This morning at 9:49 am the plane hits the north side of New York's tallest skyscraper with flames from the fuel explosion hurtling down the building

While one engine and the landing gear fly through the 79th floor, most of the plane remains lodged on the eighteen feet wide and twenty feet high hole left on impact.

Along with Smith and two crewmen, 11 office workers lose their lives in the crash that costs an estimated $1,000,000....

July 29

...The serial killings by Son of Sam begins this day in 1976, terrorizing the city for the next year....

July 30

..the worst accident in the history of the Staten Island ferry occurs this day in 1871 when a boiler explosion aboard the ferryboat Westfield II kills over 125 passengers and injures over 200 as it departs its South Ferry slip in Manhattan ...

July 31

..the MGM lion first roars this day in 1928 before the start of the movie "White Shadows of the South Seas" thanks to ad man and Columbia University graduate Howard Dietz, who creates the distinctive logo on his alma mater's fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar"...

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