Thirty Years Young

The local non-profit that provides Lower Manhattan with after-school programs, summer camps, athletic leagues, classes for seniors, indoor and outdoor recreation space, swimming lessons, arts enrichment and more is marking 30 years of service. On Saturday (September 24), Manhattan Youth will host a Birthday Beach Party on Pier 25, in the Hudson River Park, near...

Today in History

1692 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged; the remainder of those convicted are all eventually released. 1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published. Up until 1905, the magazine had no photographs at all– It was a text-based scientific journal about geography. 1857...

Letters

To the editor: On the topic of the BPCA Board – I can understand that the Board has business to attend to and that the members are not paid for their service on the Board so they want their meetings to run efficiently. Dennis Mehiel knows that if community comment were to be allowed, much...

Growing Up Suddenly

Helaina Hovitz was a 12-year-old middle school student attending I.S. 289 on September 11th, 2001. The events and experiences that are part of collective memory for Lower Manhattan residents were a very real part of Helaina’s life, and are still vivid in her memory today: the sickening thud of falling bodies hitting cars, the crumbling...

Today in History

455 – Emperor Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army and consolidates his power. 1776 – Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces. 1792 – French Revolution: The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the absolute monarchy. 1934 – A large typhoon hits western Honshu, Japan,...
A little after midnight on September 21, 1776, the Fighting Cocks Tavern on Whitehall Street caught fire. The revelers inside the tavern were unable to contain it and soon it raged into a dangerous inferno, spreading up the west side of Manhattan.