New York Almanac -> November

New York City in November

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

This Month: ....Average monthly temperature in November : 47° ... this month, watch as thousands of runners participate - and thousands more New Yorkers cheer - the New York Marathon in early November...

...and bring the kids to the NYC's official kick-off to the holiday season featuring giant balloons, floats (and the arrival of Santa!) at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ...

...followed by the spectacular Christmas Tree Lighting at Rockefeller Center ...

November 1

...first time lucky: The New York Knicks actually win the first-ever Basketball Association of America game this day in 1946, beating the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, 68-66...

November 2

...under the will of James Henry Roosevelt, (uncle to President Teddy Roosevelt), the hospital bearing his name officially opens this day in 1871...

November 3

... poking fun at the steam-driven and electric contraptions on view at the first New York Auto Show at Madison Square Garden, the popular press cries "get a horse! this day in 1900...

November 4

... folk singer Bob Dylan makes his concert debut this day in 1961 at Carnegie Chapter Hall at 57th Street and 7th Avenue, drawing a crowd of about 50 people. Admission at the door: $2 ....

November 5

... New Amsterdam delegate Peter Schagen reports back on the town's progress this day in 1626: " our people out there are of good courage, and live peaceably. Their women, also, have borne children there, [and} they have bought the island of Manhattes from the wild men for the value of 60 guilders...."

November 6

.. Lily Langtry fever strikes New York today when the London actress, (best known for her loose ways and a sordid affair with the Prince of Wales) hits the stage tonight in 1882 at Wallack's Theater at Broadway and 13th Street in “An Unequal Match” ...

November 7

... the city is scandalized to learn that the body of millionaire department store owner A.T. Stewart has gone missing this day in 1878, with his widow receiving a purpoted ransom note demanding $200,000. Several months later, the body is returned and reburied on Long Island in a secure vault rigged with an alarm system....

November 8

... the Manhattan Brewing Company on Thompson and Broome Streets opens its doors today in 1984, sparking the modern trend toward boutique mini-breweries ...

November 9

...Where we you when the lights went out? It happens in New York City at 5:27 pm this night during the Northeast Blackout of 1965, plunging New York, New Jersey and most of New England into darkness..

November 10

...New York Herald reporter, Henry Mortan Stanley, finds explorer David Livingstone in Africa this day in 1871 uttering the now immortal "Dr. Livingstone, I presume..."

November 11

... Armistice Day following World War I is greeted with mass hysteria, a ticker tape parade, and effigies of the German Kaiser carried in mock coffins marked "Resting in Pieces" this day in New York in 1918...

November 12

... "'mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam"... Home Sweet Home is sung for the first time this day in 1823 at the Park Theatre at Chatham Street, now Park Row...

November 13

...after seven years of constructions and price tag of $48 million, the Holland Tunnel opens in 1927. On its first day in operation, 51,694 vehicles each paying a 50 cent toll pass through the tunnel connecting lower Manhattan with Jersey City, NJ, ..

November 14

...22-year-old New York World investigative reporter Nelly Bly starts a sensation this day in 1889 by embarking on a 24,899-mile journey in hopes of besting the currently popular Jules Verne novel, "Around the World in 80 Days." While male readers bet against her, Nelly takes 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds, and sets a world record for circling the globe....

November 15

... a local paper advertises a 7-legged calf on view for the wonder and amusement of all New Yorkers this day in 1762...

November 16

...Margaret Corbin becomes one of the nation's first heroines when she takes over firing the cannon of her fallen husband during a British attack on Fort Washington in upper Manhattan this day in 1776...

November 17

...for decades the clock by which businessmen set their pocket watches, the clock in Trinity Church clock tower on Wall Street is installed today in 1846...

November 18

... Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michton starts a craze by naming a cuddly stuffed toy the "teddy bear" after popular New York-born President Teddy Roosevelt this day in 1902...

November 19

....the newspaper founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801 is purchased by Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch this day in 1976 for $30 million, transforming the staid old New York Post with sensational feature stories and screaming headlines...

November 20

...civic improvements commence following the English takeover of New Amsterdam, New York gets a new shipping dock, the town's first street lamps and, on this day in 1677, the opening of its very first insane asylum...

November 21

...at a cost of more than $320 million, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island is the longest bridge in the world when it opens this day in 1964...

November 22

..the supersonic Concorde arrives on its maiden voyage from London, touching down in New York's JFK airport in just under 3 1/2 hours this day in 1977....

November 23

...little Billy McCarty, later known as Western outlaw Billy the Kid is born Allen Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side this day in 1859...

November 24

...the Banana War ends this day in 1968 after more than two years of murder, mayhem and mysterious disappearances within the Bonnano crime family — as Don Joe Bonanno decides he's had enough and retires to Arizona ...

November 25

... Jubilation!! Americans everywhere celebrate Evacuation Day in 1784 when the last vestiges of British authority in the U.S. departs Manhattan via New York Harbor.

... this day also marks the last shot fired in the Revolutionary War, as jeering crowds along the shores of Staten Island are fired upon by a British gunner. The cannon shot, however, falls far short of its intended target and drops harmlessly into the harbor ...

November 26

... convicted on various charges of theft, New York city hangman Ben Johnson is himself sentenced to hang this day in 1673. However, it's quickly discoverd that there is no one left in town qualified to do the job. Red-faced city officials immediately reduce the sentence to "39 lashes, loss of an ear, and banishment from the colony..."

November 27

...the New York Times reports today on a diabolical Confederate Fire Plot plot hatched during the Civil War in 1864 to burn down the entire city — beginning with the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Barnum's Museum, and a dozen more prominent establishments. The plot is foiled when fires are quickly extinguished or attempts are luckily discovered before they begin...

November 28

... promising not to frighten the horses, Curtis P. Brady is issued the first speical permit to drive an automobile through Central Park this day in 1899 ...

November 29

...more than 2,000 New Yorkers are lost to a yellow fever epidemic that raged throughout the summer - as the city's wealthy, who have evacuated to the countryside, start returning home this day in 1795...

November 30

...it's -5° out there as New Yorkers wake up to the severest cold snap on record this day in 1875 ...

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