Month: March 2017

March 27

196 BC – Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt 1513 – Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida 1625 – Charles I, King Of England, Scotland and Ireland, ascends English throne 1668 – English king Charles II gives Bombay to East India Company 1790 – The modern shoestring (string and shoe holes) invented...
Ferry Porsche, Austrian automobile manufacturer (b. 1909) created, among other masterpieces, the Porsche 356 and 911. He died in 1998 on this day.

Safety of Our Children

Dear Neighbors, I am writing to you at this time to both alert you and ask for your support in writing to BPCA about the current issues, regarding the safety of our children. As you are aware in BPC of late, there has been a group of teens coming into BPC and terrorizing our children...

Your Word Is Their Bond

At the March 22 meeting of the board of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), chairman Dennis Mehiel noted that, “our triple-A rating was reaffirmed. So our credit is better than the U.S. government. Not bad.” He was not exaggerating. On March 17, Fitch Ratings (one of the “big three” credit rating agencies that review...

March 24

1664 – Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island 1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach opens his Brandenburg Concerts 1765 – Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers 1832 – Mormon Joseph Smith beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio 1883 – First telephone call between New York...
John Harrison with H-4 his Chronometer

Remembering Rockefeller: A Personal Appreciation

(Editor’s Note: The passing of David Rockefeller earlier this week struck a personal chord for one person who helped create Lower Manhattan in its modern form — Charles J. Urstadt, who, as State Commissioner of Housing and County Renewal in the 1960s and 70s, founded and built Battery Park City, along with several other government-sponsored...
David Rockefeller presents plans for a revitalized Lower Manhattan in the mid-1960s. Visible at lower left is an early mockup of Battery Park City, while a preliminary rendering of what would become the World Trade Center can be seen in the upper left. Both were projects that Mr. Rockefeller championed.

March 23

1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia. 1801 – Tsar Paul...
Otis' free-fall safety demonstration in 1854.