New York Icons: Prologue

The Island at the Center of the World.

33 min readDec 29, 2019

About

The “Big Apple” is the most populous (over 8 million, twice as many as second-place Los Angeles) and densely-populated (11,000 per square km) megacity in the United States — spanning over 300-square-miles on one of the world’s largest natural harbors at the mouth of the Hudson River, it lies approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Formed at the edge of an ice sheet by the Wisconsin glaciation between 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, created the elevated Brooklyn areas (Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Crown Heights), separated Long and Staten islands, and provided shallow bedrock as a foundation for most the city’s skyscrapers. Broad St, Maiden Ln, Minetta St, Beaver St, Sixth Ave and Canal St were all originally streams.

Contains hundreds of distinct neighborhoods across five boroughs — Manhattan (from the Lenni Lenape manaháhtaan or “the place where we get bows”), Brooklyn (from the Dutch Breuckelen or “marshland”), Queens (named after the Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England), Staten Island (from the Dutch Staaten Eylandt or “States Island” in honor of the Dutch parliament) and The Bronx (named after the first European settler in the area, Jonas Bronck, and the only borough part of the continental United States). If independent, Brooklyn would be the third-largest city in the US; Queens fourth; and Manhattan sixth!

Manhattan’s skyline is universally recognizable, and with almost 6,500 high-rises (third worldwide) it contains many of the tallest buildings in the world. It’s also known the cast-iron facades and tenements of Manhattan; plus brownstones (thin layer of brown stone) and Tudor of Brooklyn. Over 28,000 acres of municipal parkland and 14 miles of public beaches.

Once the primary entry point for immigration (Ellis Island), over 800 languages spoken make it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The largest Chinese and Jewish populations outside the respective countries. As of 2010, the population was 33% white, 28% hispanic (Nueva York), 23% black, 12% asian and 0.7% Native American — with 33% foreign-born and 50% non-English speaking at home. Religions are Christianity (59%), Judaism (18%), and Islam (10%). Home to one of the most recognizable accents within American English — known as “Brooklynese” or “New Yorkese.”

The financial (NYSE and NASDAQ), cultural (over 2,000 arts organizations, 500 galleries, and 120 colleges/universities), fashion, and diplomatic (United Nations) capital of the US (and possibly the world). The annual GDP of $1.9 trillion would rank it 12th in the world (if independent), with the most millionaires (4.6%) and billionaires (103) of any city. One of the world’s most expensive cities with a high degree of income disparity (almost 80,000 homeless).

The largest single-operator transit system in the world with 472 rail stations spanning 233 miles. Each day 750,000 people flow through Grand Central; 500,000 through Penn Station; 300,000 cars over the George Washington Bridge (world’s busiest); 200,000 over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; 180,000 over the Queensboro Bridge; 130,000 over the Brooklyn Bridge; and 120,000 through the Lincoln Tunnel (world’s busiest vehicular tunnel). Each year 1.75 billion subway rides and 19 million ferry rides. Each workday Manhattan’s population doubles!

Has three of the world’s ten most visited tourist attractions (Times Square, Central Park and Grand Central). Other notable tourist destinations include the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Broadway, UN, MET, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller, Fifth Avenue, Guggenheim, Unisphere, Coney Island, and Brooklyn Bridge. Annual events include the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Pride March, Halloween Parade, St. Patrick’s Day Parade, MET Gala, Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Fashion Week, NYE ball drop, and Central Park Summerstage.

Second-largest TV and film (200 feature films annually) production in the US, with offices of Time Warner, News Corp., ABC, CBS, NBC, AOL, Viacom, MTV, Fox News, HBO, Showtime, AMC, Comedy Central, 7/8 top advertising agency HQs, 2/3 top record label HQs, 200 newspapers and 350 magazines (The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Village Voice, New Yorker). Featured in a large number of film and TV.

Headquarters of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS and has continuously hosted professional sports since the birth of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1882. Contains four of the ten most expensive stadiums ever built worldwide (MetLife Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Citi Field).

Coined the terms “a New York minute” (fast-paced lifestyle), and “bridge and tunnel” (Steve Rubell of Studio 54 of people from Queens or Staten Island).

Notables

Birthplace of Tin Pan Alley (1885–1930, music), Harlem Renaissance (1920s, literature and visual art), certain forms of jazz (1940s), abstract expressionism (1950s, also known as the New York School), salsa (1960s), hip-hop (1970s), disco music (1970s), punk and hardcore (1970s and 1980s), and freestyle dance music (1980s).

Notable inventions include the commercial steamboat (1807), dentist chair (1840), Jell-O (1845, Peter Cooper), pin tumbler lock (1848), potato chip (1853, originally Saratoga Chips), toilet paper (1857), hot dog (1860s), breakfast cereal (1863, “granula”), pneumatic railway (1870s), Tom Collins (1874), baked Alaska (1876), Kodak camera (1884), tuxedo (1886, at the Tuxedo Club), eggs Benedict (1894), club sandwich (1894, at the Saratoga Club-House), Chop Suey (1896, contested), remote control (1898, Tesla), air conditioning (1902), teddy bears (1902, after President Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear), coal-fired pizza (1905), Pyrex (1908), Reuben Sandwich (1914, contested), serrated knife (1919), pacemaker (1919), bloody Mary (1920s), flight simulator (1929), Scrabble (1931), chicken ’n’ waffles (1938), loafers (1938), ATM (1939), credit cards (1946), synthetic penicillin (1948), chicken nuggets (1950s), Mr. Potato Head (1952), General Tso’s Chicken (1970s), spaghetti primavera (1977), and the cronut (2013).

New York is also responsible for modern Christmas! Pilgrims banned Christmas in 1659, New Amsterdam revived Sinterklaas (with gift-giving), Twas the Night Before Christmas published in 1823, promoted by merchants becoming the busiest shopping period by the 1830; Thomas Nast created the cartoon image of Santa Claus in 1881; and finally Coca-Cola added the white-trimmed red suit in the 1930s.

Notable musicians (50 Cent, Christina Aguilera, Azealia Banks, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Action Bronson, Cardi B, Sammy Davis, Jr., Neil Diamond, Duke Ellington, Art Garfunkel, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jay-Z, Billy Joel, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Carole King, Lenny Kravitz, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper, Jennifer Lopez, Yo-Yo Ma, Barry Manilow, Notorious B.I.G., P. Diddy, Wu-Tang Clan, Ramones,Lou Reed, A$AP Rocky, Sonny Rollins, Tupac Shakur, Paul Stanley, Steven Tyler), athletes (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carmelo Anthony, Nate Archibald, Marv Albert*, Lou Gehrig, Rocky Graziano, Michael Jordan, Jake LaMotta, Chris Mullin, Alex Rodriguez, Barbra Streisand, Mike Tyson, The Ultimate Warrior), actors/directors (Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Hank Azaria, Humphrey Bogart, Mel Brooks, James Caan, Billy Crystal, Macaulay Culkin, Tony Danza, Larry David, Pete Davidson, Rosario Dawson, Robert De Niro, Vin Diesel, Robert Downey Jr., Fran Drescher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Jesse Eisenberg, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mel Gibson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Ron Jeremy, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, Stanley Kubrick, Burt Lancaster, Lucy Liu , Lindsay Lohan, Walter Matthau, Alyssa Milano, Casey Neistat, Cynthia Nixon, Al Pacino, Regis Philbin, Christopher Reeve , Paul Reiser, Mickey Rooney, Martin Scorsese, Brooke Shields, Sylvester Stallone, Ben Stiller, Oliver Stone , Meryl Streep, Ed Sullivan, Liv Tyler, Christopher Walken, Sigourney Weaver, Mae West), business (John Jacob Astor III, Joseph Barbera, Malcolm Forbes, Peggy Guggenheim, Peter Cooper Hewitt, Cornelius Vanderbilt), comedians (George Burns, George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, Jimmy Fallon, Jim Gaffigan, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Kimmel, Eddie Murphy, Joan Rivers, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Adam Sandler, Amy Schumer, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Jon Stewart), writers (Washington Irving, Stan Lee, Eugene O’Neill, Mario Puzo, J. D. Salinger, Maurice Sendak, Aaron Sorkin), criminals (Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel), scientists (Richard Feynman, Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson), judges (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), socialites (Paris Hilton), activists/politicians (Jane Jacobs, Harvey Milk, Boris Johnson!, Jacqueline Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt , Theodore Roosevelt, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, William Tweed), designers (Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren), and artists (Barbara Kruger, Roy Lichtenstein, Norman Rockwell, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney).

Native American Era (until 1614)

Inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, in an area known as Lenapehoking — which comprised Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx, western Long Island, and lower Hudson Valley.
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano (Italian sailing for France) the first documented European visitor, who claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême).
In 1525, Estêvão Gomes (Portuguese sailing for Spain) charted the Hudson River and named it Río de San Antonio (Saint Anthony’s River).
In 1527, the first scientific map of the North American East Coast — Padrón Real.
In 1578, the first recorded use of the word “America” (after the Italian explorer of South America) in France Antarctique — originally a reference to the natives and denoting the New World. Expanded to include European in the 1600s.
Frosbinger about natives. Noun applied to person in 1600s very rare. Dutch were New Netherlanders, New Englanders, Virginians
In 1608, William Brewster the Pilgrim leader was imprisoned in England for trying to leave England. His followers escaped to the Netherlands.
In 1609, Henry Hudson (English sailing for Netherlands’ Dutch West India Company) “rediscovered” New York Harbor over ten days while searching for a northwest passage from the Orient. He named the river Mauritius (after the Prince of Orange), then North River (by the Dutch), before eventually Hudson River.
In 1613–14, the first non-Native American inhabitant was Juan Rodriguez — a merchant from Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent and representative of the Dutch. Broadway 159th to 218th street is named Juan Rodriguez Way in his honor.

Van der Donck (1659) — presented to the States General

Dutch Era (1614 to 1664)

The melting pot port town with tentacles stretched across the globe and shaped by two bitter rivals — the military man Peter Stuyvesant and the activist Adriaen van der Donck. Between lawlessness and tyranny.

The foundation of American (and especially New York) liberty, religious tolerance, diversity (America’s first mixed society), worldliness, economy and law are direct descended from the Dutch. Little remnants of Dutch culture can also be seen in things such as towns (Rotterdam, Amsterdam), families (Van Burens, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts), district attorney (no such thing under the British system, van der Donck one of the first), cook-yehs (“little cakes” or cookies, not biscuits), baas (boss, no class system but someone in charge), kool-sla (“cabbage salad”, coleslaw), and Christmas (saint’s feast day, Sinterklaas).

Overlooked significance based on missing records (volumes lost during transit, saved from fire by being tossed out the window, mold from being kept on a ship during the war, moved to Tower of London, 1911 state library fire), poor translations (1818 attempt rushed by a blind man with faulty grasp of English and never published before burning in a fire, 1911 attempt unpublished for half a century, 1974 effort only completed in 1999 and considered a national treasure), the narrative of Puritan beginnings, and an anti-Dutch bias from the English (“history is written by the winners”).

In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay (including New Jersey) claimed by the Netherlands and named Nieuw-Nederland (New Netherland). The Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland on authority granted by the Dutch States General (i.e. parliament).
In 1620, pilgrims leave Netherlands (not England!) on the Mayflower bound for America because the Protestant atmosphere was too liberal for their Puritan beliefs — and for fear of war between Netherlands and Spain.
In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was founded.
In 1624, first permanent European presence — a Dutch fur trading settlement — sailing aboard the New Netherland arrived on Noten Eylandt (“Nut Island” now Governors Island). Twelfth-oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental US.
In 1625, construction started on a citadel and fort in Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam) — current-day lower Manhattan. The date is commemorated on the official Seal of New York City.
In 1626, Williem Verhulst (responsible for the selection of Manhattan as a permanent place of settlement and for situating Fort Amsterdam) was replaced as the company director-general by Peter Minuit.
In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit “purchased” Manhattan for the Dutch West India Company for 60 guilders (around $900, not $24 as commonly believed). Minuit tribes did not have a concept of land ownership and did not understand they were giving the land away in perpetuity.
In 1628, Dutch instituted the patroon system (free land for patrons who brought 50 colonists) to grow population. The program had little success.
In 1637, Peter Minuit (third Governor of New Amsterdam) founds New Sweden (on behalf of Sweden) in Wilmington, Delaware (near Philadelphia) — are area claimed by the Dutch. Over the years population rose to around 600 and eventually moving south through the Appalachians and the originators of the “American” log cabin.
In 1638, Willem Kieft becomes director of New Amsterdam, forming a council of twelve men but ignoring their advice and instead attempted to tax locals (without representation) to fund an unpopular war against Native Americans.
In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch West Indies). Population of 270.
In 1641, Adriaen van der Donck arrives on the Den Eykenboom (The Oak Tree) to oversee a plantation (now Albany), but promptly ignored many of his duties in favor of integration with local Indians, political activism (trying to get Kieft recalled) and dissent (a major force in pushing to be the first Dutch outpost with representation — foreshadowing the American Revolution).
By 1643, eighteen languages spoken in a population of only five hundred.
In 1643, formation of the United Colonies of New England (or New England Confederation) — a short-lived alliance between colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven — that outnumbered the Dutch ten-to-one. All but Massachusetts participated against New Netherland in the First Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1643, Kieft ordered a massacre (129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children) in Pavonia and Corlears Hook sparking Kieft’s War.
In 1643, Deborah Moody became the first female landowner in the New World and only woman to found a village (Gravesend, Brooklyn) in colonial America (after she was excommunicated from Massachusetts for her religious beliefs).
From 1643 to 1645, Kieft’s War is one of the earliest conflicts between settlers and Indians in the region. In 1,500 Indians (unification of tribes) destroyed villages, farms, killed settlers, and erased decades of labor. Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek Indians in retaliation.
In 1644, Kieft recruited a militia and killed more than 1,000 Indians, including 500 to 700 in the Pound Ridge Massacre.
In 1646, van der Donck helped Kieft mend relations with the Indians and was rewarded with 24,000 acres (locals referred to him as the Jonkheer or “squire” which became current-day Yonkers).
In 1647, Kieft fired and rather than yield to the colonists’ requests for local government the Dutch West India company decided that a stronger director would squash political dissent and appointed Peter Stuyvesant under the title Director-General of New Netherland, Curacao, Bonaire, and Aruba. A tyrannical military leader, he improved law and order by regulating liquor sales, attempted to control the church, and blocked other religious groups (including Quakers, Jews, and Lutherans).
In 1647, Kieft dies in a shipwreck near Swansea, Wales, en route to Amsterdam to defend himself!
In 1648, formation of “Board of Nine” (or council of “Nine Men”) advisory, with van der Donck emerging as the leader. Soon afterwards Stuyvesant places van der Donck under house arrest for keeping a journal of grievances for the Dutch States General.
In 1648, end of 80 years of war between the Dutch and Spanish.
In 1649, Nine Men members sign the Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland requesting economic freedom and local government. Van der Donck one of three selected to travel back to the Netherlands to present the request — along with a written description of the colony, Remonstrance of New Netherland.
In 1649, Stuyvesant sailed a ship filled with soldiers (Trojan-horse style) to New Haven on the premise of delivering a ship and commandeered the St. Beninio and sailed it back to New Amsterdam on the claim it was in Dutch territory (Connecticut and New Haven a result of expansion and had no official sanction in England).
In 1649, West India Company — after initially refusing — started in the slave trade due to financial difficulty.
In 1650, van der Donck printed Remonstrance of New Netherland and a Jansson-Visscher map of the colony (used for over a century).
In 1650, Stuyvesant met the English in Hartford to agree on a “permanent” boundary, but in reality a bluff as English had all the power. The Hartfird Treaty gave away what had already been lost (New Haven, Connecticut) in exchange for recognition of sovereignty. Dutch retained trading post in Hartford.
In 1650, population approximately 1,000 — including around 35 slaves.
In 1650, cousin of the Prince of Orange marches 10,000 troops across Holland on a failed attempt (bad weather) to take Amsterdam by force. Turmoil delays any decision on Manhattan.
In 1650, Stuyvesant’s representative to the States General, Cornelis van Tienhoven, flees to New Amsterdam with his mistress following a sex scandal, and vanished in 1656 (unsolved mystery).
In 1652, after three years van der Donck to personally deliver the States General decision to recall Stuyvesant and form a local government, but before he can leave the First Anglo-Dutch War (sparked by refusal by Dutch captain to lower his flag to the English, leading to a bloody battle at Dover) broke out and the decision was rescinded (as the West India Company was a valuable ally). Struggle for control of international trade in the first era of globalization that would dominate the century.
In 1652, van der Donck went from patriot to radical overnight and wrote another book, Description of New Netherland, unpublished until around his death in 1655 (as not to draw attention to the colony for fear of invasion).
In 1653, after four years van der Donck permitted to return to New Amsterdam on the condition he retire from public life and practicing law (on the grounds he was the only lawyer in the colony!).
In 1653, a petition from the residents of Long Island (both Dutch and English Quakers) for self-government presented in English, but followed Dutch legal forms suggesting the movement was Dutch-driven.
In 1653, received municipal government (based on Roman-Dutch law), thereby becoming a city. Inherited ancient European form of local citizenship named burgher, which nearly everyone took (as opposed to 20% in New England). West India Company prevented guilds leading to artisans and American upward mobility (e.g. Frederick Flipsen arrived a carpenter in 1657, died one of the wealthiest in 1702). The political foundation of America.
In 1653, Stuyvesant had a 12-foot wooden stockade erected along Wall Street by “company negroes” to protect against British attack (not Native Americans). A slave auction block on the East River end of Wall St as New Amsterdam was a big slave port (harbor didn’t freeze over like Boston) between Barbados, Jamaica and London.
In 1654, the first Jewish community (23 bankers fleeing Brazil) arrived.
In 1655, with military assistance from the West India Company, Stuyvesant captures and incorporated New Sweden into New Netherlands for taking control of Dutch forts (although the Swedish settlers were allowed local autonomy). On surrender the Swedish negotiator told Stuyvesant “today it’s me, tomorrow it will be you” — prophetic as in 9 years the English would give the same ultimatum!
Directly leads to the Peach Tree War (named after an Indian woman murdered for stealing a peach, but in actuality a retaliation to the attack on New Sweden) in which 600 Native Americans over the course of a few weeks destroyed 28 farms, took 150 prisoners, and killed 100 settlers — including van der Donck at age 37. Stuyvesant indirectly responsible for the death of his nemesis.
In 1666, 300 settlers leave to start a second colony New Amstel (New Castle) in Delaware.
In 1657, the Flushing Remonstrance (one of the foundational documents of American liberty and precursor to the first amendment of religious freedom) — based on the Dutch constitution — signed. Stuyvesant responds with a series of arrests.
In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant establishes Nieuw Haarlem (Harlem) — rural farms tended by freed and enslaved African Americans.
By 1660, the colony’s second city Beverwyck (Albany) has 1,000 residents.
In 1661, Connecticut governor John Winthrop spends 13 days in New Amsterdam as a guest of Stuyvesant secretly gathering information on the military capabilities of New Amsterdam to pass to the English. He also secretly convinced the King Charles II to grant Connecticut everything south of Massachusetts to the (uncharted) pacific — including Dutch territories!
In 1661, English ambassador to The Hague George Downing negotiates a trade treaty with the Dutch while secretly planning changeover of Manhattan, consolidation of the colonies, and ramping up slave trade.
From 1647 to 1664, the population grew from 2,000 to 8,000 — including around 300 slaves. Quarter of marriages were mixed (e.g. Dutch-Swedish, remarkable for the time), the common language was Dutch, strong belief in the Netherlands slavery was wrong, a number of Africans owned property, slaves has some legal rights,

British Era (1664 to 1765)

Baton passing from the waning Dutch to the rising English empire — a new society based on Dutch tolerance and free trade mixed with English self-government. A colony caught in a century of Dutch-English rivalry that changed hands five times in three decades!

In 1664, King Charles reneges on his 1661 charter to Connecticut with “The Duke’s Charter” that assigned vast stretch of North America to his brother, the Duke of York.
In 1664, while England and the Dutch Republic were at peace four English frigates commanded by Richard Nicolls sailed into the harbor and demanded surrender. Stuyvesant was dealing with Mohawk issues at Fort Orange after having been reassured from Amsterdam the frigates were on a different mission. He sailed back immediately.
In 1664, after initially sending back the surrender letter because it was unsigned, then tearing it to pieces, the heavily outnumbered (five hundred against a thousand, plus another thousand English on Long Island), outgunned (fort canons low on gunpowder) and unsupported (93 residents signed a petition to surrender, including his own son) Stuyvesant begrudgingly (“I would much rather be carried out dead”) agreed to negotiate. The people of New Amsterdam had no intention of dying for a company that had left them defenseless.
In 1667, generous terms (essentially unchanged i.e. free trade, religious liberty, political representation) were negotiated at Stuyvesant’s farm under the Articles of Capitulation — ironically many of van der Doncks freedoms Stuyvesant had fought against. A military procession led by Stuyvesant out of the fort, Nicolls (the first governor) and his troops coming ashore, English flag on the flagpole, and promptly renamed New York after James, the Duke of York — brother of King Charles II and future King James II (Fort Amsterdam was renamed Fort James). The 1,500 residents of New Amsterdam (and 10,000 New Netherlands colony overall) were now under English rule in the only port city connected to the world’s two major trading empires. Takeover helps ignite the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1667, Stuyvesant summoned to the States General to face criminal charges of surrendering, exiled, then eventually allowed to return.
In 1667, the transfer was confirmed in the Treaty of Breda, which concluded the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1672, “The General” Stuyvesant dies in New York age 62.
In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch captain Anthony Colve seized the colony of New York from England and rechristened it “New Orange” after the Prince of Orange.
In 1674, returned to England under the Treaty of Westminster!
Between 1660 and 1670, several intertribal wars and epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizable population losses.
In 1686, New York City Charter — the launch of the modern city.
In 1688, New York and the Jerseys (East and West) to the administrative Dominion of New England.
Between 1689 to 1691, Leisler’s Rebellion was a band of militia that seized control of New York and Albany before being hung, drawn and quartered for high treason.
By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200.
In 1702, a yellow fever epidemic (one of several in the 18th century) killed ten percent of the population (500 people).
By 1730, 42% of households held slaves — the highest percentage outside of Charleston. Slavery became integrally tied to the economy through the labor of slaves at the port, and commerce tied to the American South. In the 1990s, a burial ground with tens of thousands of Africans was discovered near Foley Square in Manhattan.
In 1750s, Dutch still the only European language spoken by Native Americans.
In 1735, the trial and acquittal of a libel case (criticizing the governor) helped establish freedom of the press in North America.
In 1754, Columbia University founded under charter by King George II as King’s College.
In 1754, New York Society Library — the oldest cultural institution in New York founded (Library of Congress and city library).

Revolutionary War Era (1765 to 1861)

Hamilton’s Federalists versus Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicants.

In 1765, The Stamp Act Congress met as the Sons of Liberty. Over the next ten years skirmished with British troops stationed there.
In August 1776, The Battle of Long Island (largest battle of the American Revolutionary War) if fought in Brooklyn and saw defeat by the British, who used New York as their military and political base. It was a haven for Loyalists and as many as 10,000 escaped slaves (promised freedom for fighting for the British). Merchants were ambivalent about severing ties with London (as it was in their interests to continue trade).
On September 11 1776, the only attempt at a peaceful solution to war took place at Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates (including Benjamin Franklin) and British general Lord Howe.
On September 15 1776, British troops capture lower Manhattan. American troops stand off British troops in Battle of Harlem Heights.
On September 21 1776, the Great Fire of New York destroyed around a quarter (1,000) of all buildings. The 21-year-old American spy Nathan Hale uncovered in the aftermath two weeks after arriving (he planned to disguise himself as a Dutch schoolteacher but did not travel under an assumed name and reportedly carried with him his Yale diploma bearing his real name!) and was executed the following day.
On November 16, the Battle of Fort Washington.
In 1783, British evacuated and resettled 3,000 freed slaves in Nova Scotia, England and the Caribbean. Evacuation Day (November 25) celebrated annually until the rise of Thanksgiving.
From 1785 until 1790, the capital city.
In 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital as the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation and first capital under the Constitution of the United States.
In 1787, New York delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia insisted on the Bill of Rights.
In 1789, George Washington inaugurated as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The first assembly of the United States Congress and Supreme Court of the United States drafted the Bill of Rights.
By 1790, New York had surpassed Philadelphia to become the largest city in the United States.
In 1790, the first State of the Union Address by George Washington. Capital moved to Philadelphia in accordance with the Residence Act.
In 1791, the first US shares. In 1792, Panic of 1792!
In 1798, worst yellow fever epidemic kills over 2,000.
In 1799, the Gradual Abolition Act where children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated, but held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties.
In 1799, Aaron Burr introduced a bill to pipe fresh water from The Bronx, but did the bare minimum with some wooden pipes. His ulterior goal was to create the Manhattan Company Bank (current-day Chase, blue logo depicts interlocking water pipes).
In 1800, population over 60,000.
In 1804, VP Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in New Jersey.
In 1811, Commissioners’ Plan expanded the city street grid to encompass almost all of Manhattan.
Between 1816 and 1825, John Jacob Astor illegally supplied opium to China — helping create the world’s first widespread opioid epidemic.
In 1820s, the customs house duties collected are sufficient to fund the entire federal budget!
In 1823, The Night Before Christmas poem first published anonymously.
In 1825, completion of the Erie Canal through central New York connected the Atlantic port to the American interior via the Hudson River and Great Lakes. Pioneered investment banking, crucial to financing future large infrastructure projects.
In 1827, slavery completely abolished within the state (on Independence Day).
By 1829, an estimated 100 tons of excrement ever day disposed into vacant lots or the East River. The city is dotted with pumps while the wealthy build houses along a private water system.
In 1830s, passed Mexico City as the hemisphere’s most populated city.
In 1830s, Jacob Little the “Napoleon of Wall Street” invents the manipulated short sale — selling shares of stock he didn’t own at a future price after manipulating the market. Also pioneered cornering the market.
In the 1830s and 1840s, several prominent American literary figures lived in New York including William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, John Keese, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Edgar Allan Poe.
1832, the first cholera outbreak (ships were not quarantined because of the impact to trade!). Half the city fled and over 3,500 died.
1834, another cholera outbreak resulted in a fire but not enough water to put it out! Insurance paid out $1 million in damages, which led to the construction of the Croton Aqueduct.
In 1835, while the Croton Aqueduct is being built, the Great Fire (seen from Philadelphia) raged for two weeks and caused $18–26 million in damages — sending 23 of 26 fire insurance companies bankrupt!
In 1840s, “white gold” cotton picked in the South is sent to New York. (Lehman Brothers started as a cotton brokerage in 1850). Port is busier than all other US ports combined.
1840s, Margaret Fuller the first professional book critic in America.
In 1841, death of Mary Cecilia Rogers remains one of the great unsolved murders.
In 1842, Croton Aqueduct completed with the largest (5 miles) parade to-date. Caused a toilet-building frenzy by the rich, leading to overflowing (since no sewers yet). Access to more water meant locals just used more of it.
In 1851, Moby Dick published to famously bad reviews.
In 1852, Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations World’s Fair in current-day Bryant Park.
In 1857, Central Park the first landscaped park in an American city.
By 1860, over 200,000 Irish immigrants (quarter of the city population) aided by influx from the Great Irish Famine. Germans fleeing revolutions comprised another quarter of the population.

Men of the 6th New York Volunteer Infantry pose for a photo in 1862.

Civil War Era (1861 to 1938)

Between 1860 and 1890, city population doubled.
In 1862, the first national currency — Greenbacks — printed in New York.
In 1863, prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, four million slaves were worth as much as all American real estate. Many New York bankers and brokers on the side of the South.
In 1867, first elevated transportation line constructed along Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue.
In 1871, a boiler explosion aboard the Staten Island Ferry kills 125.
Starting 1871, Boss Tweed’s downfall begins.
In 1872, Victoria Claflin Woodhull nominated by the Equal Rights Party as the first woman Presidential candidate.
In 1876, a stage lamp ignites scenery and starts the Brooklyn Theater Fire killing at least 276 people.
In 1882, the first commercial (coal) central power plant in the US supplying 400 lamps for 82 customers.
In 1883, Brooklyn Bridge opens and days later after a rumor of collapse causes a stampede that kills 12.
In 1886, Statue of Liberty.
In 1892, immigration begins on Ellis Island.
In 1896, heatwave kills 420 (mostly in LES tenements).
In 1898, consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of Greater New York.
In 1899, the first person killed in an automobile accident in the US (struck by a taxi).
By end of 19th century, city flying an unofficial flag featuring a round blue seal on a white field.
By 1900, the largest manufacturing center in the world. Industries consolidate into new entities known as corporations.
In 1900, population 3.5 million.
In 1902, Flatiron building.
In 1903, Williamsburg Bridge.
In 1904, opening of the subway.
In 1904, a fire on the steamship General Slocum in the East River kills 1,021 people (most of Little Germany).
In 1906, Stanford White shot and killed at Madison Square Gardens in “the Crime of the Century.”
In 1907, first Times Square ball drop.
In 1908, The Melting Plot play runs on Broadway for 136 weeks and introduced the phrase into the lexicon.
In 1909, two week Hudson–Fulton Celebration (parades, 500,000 light bulbs installed).
In 1910, van der Donck house discovered (behind Van Corlandt House gardens) and archeologically excavated in 1990.
In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city’s worst industrial disaster, took the lives of 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.
In 1911, the Sullivan Act required licenses for concealable guns and made it illegal to sell other dangerous weaponry.
In 1913, Grand Central rebuilt.
In 1913, the Armory Show (or International Exhibition of Modern Art) the first large exhibition of modern art in America.
In 1914, Lexington Avenue explosion killed conspirators planning to blow up John D. Rockefeller’s Tarrytown home.
In 1915, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the first English mayor of New York the first official flag with “colors are Dutch, the arms are English, the crest is distinctively American.”
In 1915, first transcontinental telephone call occurs between New York and San Francisco.
by 1916, home to the largest urban African diaspora in North America.
In 1916, following the Equitable Building a Zoning Resolution required setbacks in new buildings and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size (to allow sunlight to reach the streets below).
In 1917, completion of the first Delaware Aqueduct tunnel — with the entire project one of the largest and most expensive public works projects in the world.
In 1917, 10,000 African-Americans participate in the Negro Silent Protest Parade (Silent Parade) down 5th Avenue.
In 1918, self-appointed Special Deputy Police Commissioner for Traffic John Harris devised and installed (at his own expense) the city’s first traffic lights, first US pedestrian crossing, formalized the concept of a no-parking zone, and proposed the “marginal highway” that later became the West Side Highway. Also suggested converting the East River into a five-mile system of highways, subways, parking spaces and shops!
In 1918, the Great Influenza Pandemic kills 850 in a single day. Subway crash in Flatbush kills 97.
In 1919, Spanish Flu kills 30,000.
In 1920s, New York overtakes London to become the most populous urbanized area in the world.
In 1920, law introduced to eliminate property taxes for a decade unleashing a construction frenzy across Brooklyn and Queens in the prevailing Tudor style (emulating housing of the wealthy).
In 1920, Wall Street Bombing kills 38.
In 1921, immigration restrictions. First radio station WJZ (now WABC).
In 1923, first Yankees World Series win.
In 1924, first Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
In 1925, first New Yorker magazine. Giants one of five teams to join the NFL. Largest (7,774,000) city in the world (until Tokyo in 1965).
In 1927, Coney Island Cyclone and Holland Tunnel.
In 1929, the largest stock market crash in history (four days, almost $400 billion dollars lost today) triggers the Great Depression. Leads to the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Glass-Stegall Act to regulate the financial sector.
In 1930, Chrysler Building.
In 1931, Empire State Building.
In 1932, famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper photo taken.
In 1936, completion of the second Delaware Aqueduct tunnel.
In 1937, Lincoln Tunnel.
In 1939, New York World’s Fair (Queens).
In 1930s, metropolitan area surpasses 10 million people, becoming the first megacity in human history.

WWII American Era (1939 to 2000)

In 1940, consolidation of the three subway companies (IRT, BMT and IND).
In 1940, “Mad Bomber” George Metesky plants the first bomb of his 16-year campaign of public bombings.
In 1941, first two television stations — WNBT Channel 1 (now WNBC Channel 4), then WCBW (now WCBS-TV).
In 1942, SS Normandie the largest and fastest passenger ship caught fire while being converted into a troopship and capsized at Pier 88 (eventually scrapped). New York at War military parade up 5th Avenue the largest largest (500,000, 2.5 million spectators) city parade to-date.
In 1944, New York flag date changed from 1664 (New York) to 1625 (New Amsterdam).
In 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 13 people. Victory over Japan Day celebrated in Times Square with famous kiss photograph.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers the first African-American professional baseball player. Blizzard of 1947 kills 77.
In 1948, The Ed Sullivan Show begins.
In 1950, Kew Gardens train crash kills 78 people, injuring 363 others.
In 1951, famous Brooklyn Dodgers “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
In 1952, United Nations Headquarters completed.
In 1957, Northeast Airlines Flight 823 crashes on Rikers Island after takeoff killing 21.
In 1958, A Great Day in Harlem photo taken of 57 jazz musicians.
In 1959, American Airlines Flight 320 crashes in the East River killing 65.
In 1960s, downturn of the blue-collar industry. Sister city with Tokyo. Mid-air collision kills all 134 on board along with six on the ground in Brooklyn.
In 1962, American Airlines Flight 1 crashes immediately after takeoff killing all 95 on board. Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 crashes killing 25. Steam boiler explosion at New York Telephone Company kills 23. Andy Warhol opens first Factory.
In 1963, critically acclaimed Pennsylvania Station demolished.
In 1964, World’s Fair (Queens).
In 1965, immigration restrictions lifted with the Immigration and Nationality Act. Blackouts caused by a tripped breaker. Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes at Jones Beach killing all 84 aboard. Malcolm X assassinated. The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium. Pope Paul VI visit.
In 1966, Harper’s magazine the first commercial publisher in US to use stereotyping for high-volume printing. First New York City Transit Strike (11 days).
In 1968, attempted assassination of Andy Warhol by Valerie Solanas. Madison Square Garden opens. Singer Building demolished.
In 1969, Mets first World Series title.
In 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring and globalization led to economic problems and rising crime rates. Subway graffiti started. Knicks first championship.
In 1972, Mobster Joe Gallo gunned down at Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy. John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Natuarale hold up a Brooklyn bank for 14 hours (basis for the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon).
In 1973, the 102-year-old Broadway Central Hotel collapses, killing four residents. World Trade Center built.
In 1974, Philippe Petit illegally tight-rope walks between the two World Trade Towers.
In 1975, city on the brink of bankruptcy (a famous headline read “Ford to City: Drop Dead”). Fraunces Tavern bombed killing 4. Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 kills 113. Bomb explodes in the baggage claim area at LaGuardia killing 11.
In 1976, “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz kills first victim.
In 1977, Milton Glaser designs the famous I ♥ NY — a riff on Robert Indiana’s 1960s LOVE sculpture. Helicopter falls 59 stories off the MetLife Building killing 5 people. Studio 54 opens. Blackout caused by two bolts of lightning.
In 1978, woman gives birth at top of Empire State Building.
In 1979, mainstream hip-hop with release of Rapper’s Delight.
In 1980, John Lennon assassinated. Second New York City Transit Strike (11 days).
From 1981, AIDS epidemic claimed tens of thousands including Alvin Ailey, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Klaus Nomi, and Steve Rubell. Run–D.M.C., Sonic Youth, and Beastie Boys formed.
In 1982, Intrepid, Cats and Late Show with David Letterman.
In 1983, Michael Stewart killed by New York Transit Police officers.
In 1984, first Cosby show.
In 1985, Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano shot dead in a gangland execution outside Sparks Steak House. Guerilla Girls start.
In 1986, Juan Gonzalez kills 2 with a machete on the Staten Island Ferry.
From 1987, crack cocaine epidemic.
In 1988, AIDS quilt in Central Park.
In 1989, Central Park Jogger case. Seinfeld starts.
In 1990s, the Glass-Stegall Act is lifted by the Clinton administration.
In 1990, Avianca Flight 52 crashes killing 73. Copycat Zodiac Killer Heriberto Seda injures first victim. Arson at the Happyland Social Club kills 87. Record 2,245 murders.
In 1991, 9 people crushed to death trying to gain entry to a celebrity basketball game featuring Heavy D and Sean Combs. Wu Tang Clan formed.
In 1992, USAir Flight 405 crashes killing 27.
In 1993, World Trade Center bombing kills 6. Staten Islanders vote in favor of secession from the city.
In 1994, Friends debut. Disgruntled computer analyst Edward J. Leary firebombs two trains injuring over 40.
In 1996, TWA Flight 800 crashes killing all 230 aboard.
In 1997, Empire State Building shooting. Second Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov chess match.
In 1998, Sex and the City debut. Strokes formed. $1.6 million Bank of America robbery.
In 1999, over 75,000 AIDS-related deaths in the city.
In 2000, population 8 million.

9/11 Era (2001 to present)

Gentrification driving diversity, qualities that defined areas, and complexity out.

In 2001, 9/11 leads to the largest (50,000) maritime evacuation. 108 million tons of rubble are transported to Fresh Kills. American Airlines Flight 587 crashes into Queens killing all 265 on board and 5 on the ground. Baseball returns to Brooklyn for the first time since the 1957 departure of the Dodgers.
In 2003, blackout caused by a surge across eight states. Anti-war protests draw 300,000 to 400,000 people. Othniel Askew shoots to death political rival in New York City Council. Staten Island ferry collides with a pier killing 10.
In 2005, How I Met Your Mother debut. After over 190 years in Manhattan the Fulton Fish Market moves to Hunts Point in the Bronx. Third New York City Transit strike (3 days).
In 2006, rather than give the house to his ex-wife, a 66-year-old Dr. Nicholas Bartha commits suicide by blowing up his townhouse at 34 East 62nd Street.
In 2008, Times Square bombing (no injuries). Bernie Madoff arrested.
Between 2008 and 2015, no Croton Aqueduct water to the city while a water treatment plant built under Van Cortlandt Park to combat local contamination. Completed nine years behind schedule and four times over budget!
In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 lands in the Hudson River (no deaths).
In 2011, smoking ban in public outdoor areas.
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy causes blackouts and $19 billion in damages and killing 43. Brooklyn Nets play first game at Barcalys.
In 2013, completion of the third (and final) Delaware Aqueduct tunnel. Ceremony held in City Hall Park above the old Collect Pond. Since 1980s, spilled enough water for 500,000 people every day! Estimated to be fixed in 2020!
In 2014, 49 whale sightings in the harbor. Gas explosion in Harlem kills 8. The .nyc domain established. 432 Park Avenue becomes the tallest building in New York City by roof height and tallest residential building in the world. One World Trade opens as tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by architectural height.
In 2015, Hamilton premier. 34th Street–Hudson Yards the first new subway station in 25 years.
In 2016, bomb exploded in Chelsea injuring 29.
In 2017, Trump elected. Terrorist truck attack on bike path kills 8.
In 2018, 289 murders — lowest since first recorded in 1928!

Quotes

“Isolation can be a state of mind in a space of coexistence.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“USA is best thought as an empire, not a nation.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“The city that is a goal.” — E.B. White
“If you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere.” — Frank Sinatra
“Disneyland on meth.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“What happens locally…is treated…as something that happened onstage, while the rest of the country or world is regarded as sort of backstage or maybe an audience for the show. The lights are bright onstage; everyone can see you; you can’t see the audience; you have visibility but perhaps not as much vision.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“Major thoroughfares are sometimes called arteries, but if New York is the heart, all the modes of transit are veins and arteries and capillaries, and its population the lifeblood.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“One of the complicating factors for large cities is that the people who keep them running can’t afford to live in them, and so they serve a city that does not serve them. New York is a center that pulls people in and a centrifuge that spins them out into the world.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“The centrality of banking was enshrined, right next to the Bill of Rights, at the heart of the American Experiment.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“American’s inordinate appetite for gain” — Jacob Barker
“On the long road to elite success, with rewards along the way. Equality is often imagined as a flat landscape, a level playing field.” — Nonstop Metropolis
“American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country…He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world…Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, SELF-INTEREST: can it want a stronger allurement?…Here religion demands but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. — This is an American.” — Letters From an American Farmer : Letter III

Riots

1712 Negro Riot. The first social upheaval (20 hanged, 3 burned at the stake).
Conspiracy of 1741. Slaves escaped ship and alleged to have burned down a number of houses — including the Governor’s mansion (161 blacks and 20 whites arrested, 17 blacks and four whites hanged, 13 blacks burned at the stake, 70 blacks banished from New York, 7 whites deported).
1788 Doctor’s Riot. Sparked by medical students digging up bodies from Negroes Burial Ground followed by a newspaper article alleging the body of a white woman was dug up (hospital attacked, 20 killed).
1801 Eagle Street Riot. Attempt to free 20 slaves.
1834 Anti-Abolitionist Riots. Ransacked an abolitionist home and attacked the Bowery Threatre — whose manager appeased the mob by sending out an actor in blackface to sing “Zip Coon.”
1835 Five Points Riot.
1849 Astor Place Riot.
1857 Dead Rabbits vs Bowery Boys Riot.
1862 Brooklyn Cigar Factory Riot. Alleged assault on white woman.
1863 Draft Riot. Started against the rich buying their way out of the draft before growing into the largest and most destructive (raged for 3 days) riot against the black community (attacked African American establishments, 11 lynched, at least 120 killed). Stopped when the military stepped in. In the aftermath many blacks moved to Brooklyn.
Tompkins Square Park Riot (1874). 46 arrests.
1935 Harlem Riot. Looted stores, 75 arrests, 3 deaths.
1943 Harlem Riots. 500 arrests, 400 injured, 5 deaths, $5 million in damages.
1964 Harlem Riot. 15-year-old shot dead by cop.
1969 Stonewall Inn Riots. Catalyst of the gay liberation movement.
1973 Jamaica Riot (Queens). 10 year-old boy shot dead by cop; later acquitted.
1977 Blackout. 50 new Pontiacs driven out of the showroom!
1989 Bensonhurst Riot. 16-year-old shot by a white gang.
1991 Crown Heights Riot. Jewish driver accidentally killed a 17-year-old African American teenager leading to retaliation. Australian rabbinical student stabbed to death.
2011 Occupy Wall St.
2014 Climate March. World’s largest (400,000).

References

The Island at the Center of the World (2004).
I Never Knew That About New York (2013).
Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas (2016). Typo page 55 (“I once saw spend several”).
Bowery Boys
Atlas Obscura
Untapped Cities
Wikipedia, Google.