Month: November 2016

November 28

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license. They were married in 1582, when he was 18 and she was 25 years old. She outlived her husband by seven years. 1660 – At Gresham College, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir...
Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare

What Is Lower Manhattan's Third Language?

Broadly speaking, New York City has three languages: English, Spanish, and Other. The first two are almost universally applicable, about as prevalent in the northern Bronx as in the stretches of Brooklyn and Staten Island that face the Atlantic Ocean. But the third is the most interesting, because it varies dramatically by location. In Astoria,...
An interactive map of Lower Manhattan showing the third-most common local language in each Census Tract_ with green signifying Chinese_ light blue representing French, and dark blue denoting "other Indo-European languages."

What Is Lower Manhattan’s Third Language?

Broadly speaking, New York City has three languages: English, Spanish, and Other. The first two are almost universally applicable, about as prevalent in the northern Bronx as in the stretches of Brooklyn and Staten Island that face the Atlantic Ocean. But the third is the most interesting, because it varies dramatically by location. In Astoria,...
An interactive map of Lower Manhattan showing the third-most common local language in each Census Tract_ with green signifying Chinese_ light blue representing French, and dark blue denoting "other Indo-European languages."

November 22

845 – 845 : The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon. 1794 – Strasbourg Alsace-Lorraine, prohibits circumcision & wearing of beards 1809 – Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore patents a steel pen 1842 – Mount St Helens in Washington, erupts 1919 –...
John F. Kennedy in Dallas

Demography In Action: Young and Old in Lower Manhattan

(Editor’s Note: This is part an occasional series that will seek insights about life in Lower Manhattan by looking at data available from the City’s Data2Go.NYC website. This installment focuses on statistics about age.) Demographic information about age in any residential area is broken into zones called “census tracts,” established by the federal government for...

November 21

1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact 1783 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight. 1861 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war. 1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a...
Group portrait of the Piltdown skull being examined. Note the portrait of Charles Darwin on the wall. Painting by John Cooke, 1915