Brash, bold, and ahead of their time, the Loco Focos, like the switch match they were named after, burned briefly and brightly on the New York political scene during the 1830s. On March 6, 1837, they rallied 30,000 people to City Hall Park to bring down the banking system, and they nearly succeeded. The Loco…
“My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking…” The United States was in the darkest days of the Great Depression on March 6, 1933, when recently elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a “Bank Holiday,” shutting down the entire U.S. banking system for more…
Today’s U.S. Congress may be a bunch of hot-aired do-nothings, but the first session conducted under the U.S. Constitution shows how much Congress is capable of getting done. On March 4, 1789, the House of Representatives met for the first time at Federal Hall in New York City, under the leadership of Speaker Frederick Muhlenberg (PA). The first…
Last night’s Guides Association of New York City Awards Ceremony was a blast. The guides certainly know how to throw a good party. It was my first time at Bar Thalia, the cute side space to the Leonard Nimoy Theater. Nimoy, who passed away recently, was instrumental in reviving the Symphony Space Theater. I am pleased to…
On March 3, 1931, Harlem big band leader Cab Calloway recorded “Minnie the Moocher,” the classic tale of chasing opium that made Calloway a national star and put Harlem’s big band sound on the map. Born on Christmas Day in 1907, Calloway had moved to Harlem to break into the jazz scene, and soon won the…
Trying to write poetically about the death of Anthony Mason has been a struggle. The same few thoughts rotate through my head over and over: He was my favorite player as a kid. He couldn’t shoot, and that’s why he fought so hard to be good at everything else. He died at 48 years old, which…
Rudy Giuliani has been making the news recently for his crazed attacks on President Obama’s patriotism, a sad chapter for the former mayor, who became a national hero for his response to the September 11th attacks. His leadership during that period erased local memory of his disastrous campaign for the U.S. Senate against then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.…
Seven score and fifteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln gave what was then the biggest speech of his career, and he gave it in New York City, at Cooper Union. Originally slated to speak at Rev. Henry Ward Beecher’s church, Lincoln was redirected by the Young Men’s Republican Union to a fairly new institution, Cooper Union. The…
Today we continue our preview of the upcoming Guides Association of New York City Awards Ceremony by looking at the nominees for “Outstanding NYC Website,” “Outstanding Achievement in Support of NYC Preservation,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Support of NYC Tourism.” The Awards Ceremony is on Monday, March 2. Check out my look into the world of NYC tour…
Many know that South African apartheid was brought down in part by an aggressive international divestment campaign, but fewer know of the important role played by New York City. On February 26, 1985, the City Council unanimously passed anti-apartheid legislation, kickstarting a national movement. The bill had been pushed by a broad coalition of unions, activists…
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