January
The Corning Painted Post Historical Society acquires the former
Benjamin Patterson Inn for use as a museum.
Jan 13
The late Henry Flipper, first black graduate of West Point, is
exonerated of embezzlement charges, largely due to the efforts
of white Pennsylvania schoolteacher Ray MacColl.
Feb 17
Temperatures in New York City rise to 67 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 1
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is reinstated to baseball after
being suspended for illegal campaign contributions to Richard
Nixon.
Mar 9
Women are accepted for the first time at West Point military academy.
Mar 15
Broadway scenic designer Jo Mielziner dies at the age of 74.
Apr 1
The U. S. government creates the Consolidated Rail Corporation
(Conrail) out of the Penn Central, Reading, Erie Lackawanna, Central
of New Jersey, Lehigh Valley, Ann Arbor, and Lehigh and Hudson
River railroads.
Apr 17
Temperatures in New York City rise to 91 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Apr 19
Temperatures in New York City rise to 92 degrees F, setting another
daily record.
Jul 4
Anonymous members of Canandaigua's Bicentennial committee fire
off a sunrise cannon on Arsenal Hill.
Oct 9
New York City's Museum of Broadcasting opens.
Nov 9
The temperature in New York City drops to 24 degrees F, the lowest
on record for this date.
Nov 10
The temperature in New York City drops to 24 degrees F for the
second day in a row, the lowest on record for this date.
Dec 3
Temperatures in New York City plummet to 9 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
Dec 14
Temperatures in New York City drop to 12 degrees F, the lowest
temperature here for this date.
Dec 22
35 couples belonging to the Unification Church are married in
a single New York City ceremony.
City
An aerial cable car system begins service partway across the East
River, linking Manhattan with Roosevelt Island. ** Pace
University begins a law school and opens a midtown campus.
** Fire guts the Eighth Street Bookshop. ** A campaign
is begun to raise money to restore Astoria Studios. The buildings
are declared city landmarks. ** A blaze in the Westbury
Hotel kills television producer Louis G. Cowan and his wife Pauline
Spiegel Cowan, parents of journalist Paul Cowan. ** Liz
Smith becomes gossip columnist for the Daily News. **
Michael Bennett wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A
Chorus Line. ** Doubleday buys Delacorte and Dell publishing
houses. ** New York City Marathon organizer Fred Lebow expands
the race to include all five boroughs, in honor of the bicentennial.
1,549 of the initial 2,090 finish. ** The bark Peking
goes on display at the South Street Seaport Museum. **
Three-time U. S. Representative Bella Abzug does not run for re-election,
campaigns instead for the U. S. Senate, unsuccessfully.
State
Reputed Mafia don Carlo Gambino, the model for Mario Puzo's The
Godfather, dies of natural causes in Massapequa. **
The Minnewaska Hotel in the Catskills is sold at auction. **
U. S. congressman Frank Horton is arrested for drunk driving,
pleads guilty and is jailed for a few days. ** Binghamton
businessman Rob Salamida creates State Fair Spiedie Sauce, for
preparing the Italian specialty. ** A wing is added to the
Skenesborough Museum at Whitehall, as a memorial to locally-born
Supreme Court Justice John O'Brien. ** The Merritt Estate
Winery is established, in Forestville. ** The Genesee Country
Museum, near Mumford, opens to the public. ** The National
Maritime Historical Society moves its headquarters from New York
City's South Street Seaport Museum to Croton-on-Hudson. **
U. S. Olympic sailing trials are held at Henderson Harbor.
** The people of Poland present a statue of General Kazimierz
Pulaski to the city of Buffalo in honor of the U. S. Bicentennial.]
** Historian regionalist Carl Carmer dies. ** The
Tonawanda-Kenmore Historical Society locates in Tonawanda's former
St. Peter's Evangelical and Reformed Church, the oldest building
still standing in the city.
Batavia
Sunny's Restaurant opens in the Genesee Country Mall. **
The Lions Club donates and erects an identifying sign in front
of City Hall.
Geneva
Dr. Robert E. Doran donates the manuscripts of Geneva diarist
Josephine Matilda deZeng to the Geneva Historical Society.
** Hobart and William Smith Colleges' London Term-Abroad Program
begins; 65 students and 4 faculty members will participate.
** The schools' Department of Geoscience lake-research vessel
is christened the HWS Explorer.
Rochester
The Central Church of Christ moves into the church vacated by
the First Presbyterian Church.
Jan 19
Lake Erie entirely freezes over for the first time in modern history.
Jan 28
Western New York is struck by a blizzard.
Mar 9
Temperatures in New York City drop to 25 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
Mar 30
Temperatures in New York City rise to 79 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Apr 9
Temperatures in New York City drop to 25 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
Apr 10
Temperatures in New York again drop to 25 degrees F, lowest for
a second day.
Apr 26
New York City discotheque Studio 54 opens.
May 23
Troupsburg town supervisor Herman J. Bates dies at the age of
90.
June
Rochester's Mounted Police patrol, disbanded in 1932, is reestablished
Officer Gary Cicoria is given command.
Jul 13
A two-day blackout hits New York City when lightning strikes an
upstate power grid.
Aug 10
Yonkers postal worker David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) is arrested
and charged with committing six murders.
Aug 31
Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle moves from its third
floor newsroom in the Gannett Newspapers building to the top floor
of a four-story addition.
December
Batavian Samuel McNear is convicted by a jury of raping two girls
and attempting to rape another. Judge Robert Noonan sentences
him to the maximum 42 years in state prison, as well as another
three years on a burglary conviction.
Dec 31
Congressman Herman Badillo resigns to become deputy mayor of New
York City.
City
Democrats Edward I. Koch and Mario M. Cuomo outpoll incumbent
mayor Abraham D. Beame, as well as Bella Abzug, Percy Sutton and
Herman Badillo in the party primary. Koch wins the runoff, goes
on to defeat Cuomo, running on the Liberal ticket, and Republican
Roy M. Goodman. Koch serves as mayor through 1989. ** Mount
Sinai becomes the first U.S. hospital to use platinum for the
treatment of ovarian cancer. ** John Bayley's wing for the
Frick Museum is completed. ** Olympia & York purchases
the office tower at 60 Broad Street from the Uris Corporation.
State
Pace University acquires the Briarcliff College campus. **
The Legislature initiates the Urban Cultural Park (UCP) System,
to be administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic
Preservation. The 14 parks are located in Buffalo, Rochester,
Syracuse, Seneca Falls, Susquehanna, Sackets Harbor, Whitehall,
Saratoga Springs, Hudson-Mohawk, Schenectady, Albany, Kingston,
Ossining and New York City. ** An east wing is added to
Batavia's Holland Land Office building, as a headquarters for
the Genesee County Historian's office. ** The Shaker Heritage
Society is formed at Albany to preserve the history of the local
settlement, disbanded in 1938.
Albany
Political boss Peter O'Connell dies at the age of 91.
Rochester
The Triphammer Mill building at Brown's Race is destroyed by fire.
** Former mayor Frank T. Lamb retires from the city council
and leaves the Colonial Gas and Oil Co. to join the state as a
industrial development representative in the Department of Commerce.
** Former native Robert L. King returns to the area from
California and joins the law firm of Harris, Beach, Wilcox, Rubin
and Levey, but soon becomes assistant Monroe County district attorney.
January
Edward Irving Koch is inaugurated as mayor of New York City, serves
through 1989. ** Herman Badillo takes office as deputy mayor
of New York City. ** Mr. and Mrs. Donato Marchioli sell
Batavia's Penthouse Restaurant and retire. ** Koch makes
a river-to-river victory walk on 42nd Street.
Feb 14
Bella Abzug runs unsuccessfully for the Ninety-fifth Congress
in a special election.
Oct 27
Workmen digging in lower Manhattan uncover the remains of a ship,
buried in landfill, probably dating back to 1758.
Nov 9
Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle begins using computer
display terminals to compose articles.
Nov 21
The Berta becomes the first schooner to leave New York
City with a cargo since 1943.
City
Joseph Papp's Off-Broadway production of the Elizabeth Swados
play Runaways opens. Deaf actor Bruce Hlibok is in the
cast. ** Running in 80-degree weather Norwegian Grete Waitz
sets the New York City Marathon women's record at 2:32:30. Multiple
start and finish lines and bar codes are used for the first time.
** Assistant district attorney for Queens County Geraldine
Ferraro quits because she's paid less than male colleagues.
** 6 former executives of the McCann-Erickson advertising
agency form the Backer and Spielvogel agency. ** Bella Abzug
is named co-chair of the National Advisory Committee for Women.
** Mayor Ed Koch and Governor Hugh Carey strike a deal on
Westway. A state park will be added to the highway project and
the state will support a mass transit fare freeze at 50¢,
through the end of 1981. ** Democratic Albany political
boss Dan O'Connell dies.
State
The Minnewaska Hotel is destroyed by fire. ** Angelica's
Park Circle Historic District is listed in the National Register
of Historic Places. ** Joan and Harold Koster move from
Vestal to Barker to start a sheep farm. Larry and Peggy Frederick
of Hawleyton buy a 150-acre dairy farm in Barker. ** John
Cryan co-founds the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. **
The DeMonstoy Log Cabin, in storage for the last three years,
is given to the Corning Painted Post Historical Society, for use
at the Benjamin Patterson Inn Museum complex.
Batavia
The city buys the Ellicott Street bar owned by Louis Canale (the
former Palmer's Restaurant), eventually demolishes it for a parking
lot.
Rochester
City offices in the Broad Street City Hall are moved to the newly-renovated
Church Street Federal Building. ** Genesee Hospital's nursing
school closes. ** The Rochester School for the Deaf has
phased out the Rochester Method of signing and adopted American
Sign Language.
© 2002 David Minor / Eagles Byte