Jan 26
Former Vice-President and New York State governor Nelson Rockefeller,
70, dies in his New York City office.
Jan 28
Arthur Kopit's play Wings opens in New York City.
Feb 18
Temperatures in New York City drop to 0 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
May 31
The newly-refurbished Radio City Music Hall opens.
Jun 25
Photographer Phillipe Halsman dies in New York City.
July
An archaeological research team begins examining records around
the city for information on the former Dutch Stadt Huys site.
August
Archaeologists Nan Rothschild and Diana Wall spend a week taking
core samples at the Dutch Stadt Huys site. By the end of the month
they present their study and excavation plan to the Landmarks
Preservation Commission, which approves the application, allowing
them to work the site until the end of the year.
September
New York City deputy mayor Herman Badillo resigns, resumes his
law practice.
October
Batavia's City Hall is placed on the National Register of Historic
Sites.
Oct 10
Rothschild and Wall begin full-scale field work at the Stadt Huys
site.
Oct 14
The deposed Shah of Iran undergoes gall bladder surgery in a New
York City hospital.
Oct 26
Governor Hugh Carey decides to relocate 561 additional Love Canal
families.
November
A Federal report declares that one out of every ten Love Canal
residents could contract cancer.
Nov 23
Richard H. Rovere, reporter for The New Yorker, dies of
emphysema at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, aged 64.
Nov 24
New York City temperature records for the date are broken when
the thermometer climbs to 73 degrees F.
Nov 25
The temperature in New York City climbs to 73 degrees F for the
second day in a row, breaking another record for the date.
Dec 9
U. S. archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 84, dies in New York City.
Dec 20
The U. S. Justice Department files a suit for $124,500,000 against
the Hooker Corporation for toxic waste pollution at Love Canal.
Dec 26
New York gold prices top $500 an ounce for the first time.
City
The Bilbo & Tannen antiquarian book store closes. **
A Barnard College freshman is killed by falling masonry at Columbia
University, prompting city legislation in 1980. ** Pace
University begins a doctoral program in school and community psychology.
** Pharmacist Mohammed Siddiqui buys Harlem's Graham Court
apartments, promising to pay $150,000 in back taxes. He will fail
to do so. ** Eli Wilentz closes his Eighth Street Bookshop
and retires. ** Mafia boss Carmine Galante, a Bonanno family
godfather, is gunned down in a Brooklyn restaurant. **
Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears from a Soho street. **
Kenneth Tynan writes a tribute to former star Louise Brooks
in the New Yorker, recalling her to the public's memory.
** Eugene T. Maleska succeeds Will Weng as crossword puzzle
editor at the New York Times . ** Steve Rubell and
partner Ian Schrager, owners of the Studio 54 discothèque,
are arrested on charges of tax evasion. ** Murderer Salvador
(Cape Man) Agron is paroled. ** Tom Stoppard's Night
and Day opens on Broadway. ** Producer-actor John Houseman's
second memoir, Front and Center, is published. **
Norwegian runner Grete Waitz wins the New York City Marathon
in a record 2:27:33. The event is televised for the first time.
** Police close the books on the 1930 disappearance of Judge
Joseph Crater. ** Former Queens County assistant district
attorney Geraldine Ferraro is elected to the U. S. House of Representatives.
** The Dollar Savings Bank acquires a parcel of vacant land
in lower Manhattan at Broad and Pearl streets where the Dutch-era
Stadt Huys once stood. ** Novelist Mary Higgins Clark earns
her bachelor's degree in philosophy from Fordham University's
Lincoln Center branch. ** An office tower for Goldman Sachs
is proposed for the former site of the Dutch-period Stadt Huys.
State
Pat Cunningham brings commercial white water rafting to the upper
Hudson River. ** The Avon Inn is severely damaged by
fire. ** The Lombardi family establishes a winery at the
neglected Esperanza mansion in Branchport.
Batavia
The post of Assistant to the City Manager is created.
Buffalo
Grease Pole Festival, the city's first Puerto Rican festival,
is held for the first time. ** A group of women form the
Hispanic Women's League to provide scholarship money for Latina/Hispanic
women going on to higher education. ** Delaware North Companies,
Inc. purchases the home at 672 Delaware Avenue designed by Stanford
White, from Sportsystems, Inc. Over the next twelve years they
will spend close to $9,000,000 on renovations to turn the building
into corporate offices.
Irondequoit
The Town Board requires all new public utility lines be installed
underground in road reconstruction projects. ** High School
students ratify a new constitution written last year by a Student
Political Committee of seniors.
Rochester
Ron Vandenbush opens a downtown sports card/memorabilia store.
** The Wegmans supermarket chain introduces Wegmans Brand
items chainwide. ** A new wing is added to the Jewish Home
on St. Paul Street.
Feb 21
Liechtenstein skier Hanni Wenzel becomes her country's first Olympic
gold medal winner, at Lake Placid, winning the giant slalom.
Feb 22
The U. S. ice hockey team upsets the Russian team in a come-from-behind,
4-3 victory - the Miracle on Ice.
Feb 23
Wenzel wins her second gold medal in the slalom. ** U. S. speed
skater Eric Heiden becomes the first athlete to win five medals
at one Winter Olympics when he wins the gold medal in the 10,000-meter
race.
Feb 27
Prompted by last year's accidental death at Columbia University,
New York City passes the Facade Law, requiring the examination
of buildings in the city for structural damage to their facades.
Mar 25
Poet James Arlington Wright dies in New York City at the age of
52.
Apr 21
New York runner Rosie Ruiz becomes the first woman to win the
Boston Marathon - almost. She's disqualified when its discovered
she hadn't run the entire distance. At the upcoming New York City
marathon runners will be videotaped at the start and beginning
of the race.
Apr 28
New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams files a $635,000,000
lawsuit against Hooker Chemicals' parent company Occidental Petroleum
Corporation for their part in the Love Canal disaster.
May 4
A sparsely-attended memorial service is held in New York's Booth
Theater for Broadway producer Jed Harris. Among those present
are his illegitimate son Jones Harris, Jones's mother actress
Ruth Gordon, and her husband playwright Garson Kanin and Jones'
friend, author Norman Mailer. Also present are playwright Marc
Connolley, drama critic Richard Watts, film director John Huston,
actresses Martha Scott and Lillain Gish, and attorney L. Arnold
Weisberger, Harris's lawyer.
May 17
The Federal government announces 710 more Love Canal families
should be moved.
Jun 14
Jazz trumpeter-vocalist Herman Autrey dies in New York City at
the age of 75.
Jun 28
Gym teacher John Marino arrives in New York City, having ridden
his bicycle from Santa Monica, California, in twelve days, three
hours and forty-one minutes.
Jul 23
Metropolitan Opera stagehand Craig Steven Crimmins murders violinist
Helen Hagnes by throwing her down an airshaft after raping her
on top of the Lincoln Center theater.
Aug 6
The George Washington Bridge is shut down for the only time when
a tank truck carrying 9,000 gallons of propane gas springs a leak
on the structure.
September
New York City's St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church announces plans
to sell its air rights.
Sep 20
Syracuse University's Carrier Dome indoor football stadium opens
as Syracuse beats Miami University of Ohio.
Sep 21
Quarterback Richard Todd of the New York Jets sets a National
Football League (NFL) record, completes 42 passes in 60 attempts.
The Jets still lose to the San Francisco 49ers 37-27.
Nov 9
The Rochester Chamber of Commerce Building is imploded to make
way for the new convention center.
Nov 12
New York mayor Ed Koch admits to trying marijuana.
Nov 13
Syracuse University's John D. Archibold Theater opens.
Dec 2
An explosion and 200-foot high fireball in Rochester's Kodak Park
facility injures seven people.
Dec 8
Former Beatle John Lennon is shot to death in New York City, by
Mark David Chapman. The death is announced by Howard Cosell on
Monday Night Football. Chapman is given a life sentence.
Dec 20
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) tries broadcasting a football
game, between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, with no
commentary. The experiment flops.
Dec 25
Temperatures in New York City plunge to -1 degree F, the lowest
temperature here for this date.
City
The National Reinsurance Company (formerly the Eagle Insurance
Company) moves its headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut. ** Morocco-born
Sheik Daoud Ahmed Faisal, co-founder with his wife Sayedah (Mother)
Khadijah Faisal of Brooklyn Heights' Islamic Mission of America
mosque, dies. ** 82,800,000 vehicles use the George Washington
Bridge, in each directions. ** The Alumni Garden of Brooklyn's
Packer Collegiate Institute wins the National Nurserymen's Prize
for best urban school garden. ** Hotel magnate Harry Helmsley
names his wife Leona president of Helmsley Hotels. ** Robert Crandall
becomes president of American Airlines. ** Advance Publications
buys Random House publishers. and sells five television stations
to the Times Mirror for $82,000,000. ** Union Carbide moves
its headquarters to Danbury, Connecticut. ** Mayor Edward Koch
issues Mayor's Executive Order 50, forbidding discrimination against
people because of their sexual orientation, by agencies receiving
city funds. ** A New York court blocks efforts to isolate mentally
retarded school children from other pupils for fear of hepatitis
B. ** British-born historian Marcus Cunliffe becomes University
Professor at George Washington University. ** The American Electric
Power Company moves its corporate headquarters to Columbus, Ohio.
** The Astoria Motion Picture and Television Foundation gives
development rights for Astoria Studios to real estate developer
George Kaufman. ** Federal chief judge Irving Kaufman retires,
remains on the circuit as a regular judge. ** Opera singer Beverly
Sills is named director of the New York City Opera Company. **
Bruce Hlibok's play Going Home opens Off-Broadway. ** Norway
runner Grete Waitz wins the New York City Marathon, breaking his
own record with a time of 2:25:42. ** Bella Abzug serves as a
delegate to the Democratic National Convention, for the second
time.
State
The state legislature establishes the Seaway Trail along the state's
northern borders, from Niagara Falls to Rooseveltown. ** The Glover's
Mills Energy Center, in East Randolph, asks the U. S. Department
of the Interior for a Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services
grant to preserve the Gladden Windmill in Napoli, receives $20,210.
** Triplets David, Dennis and Duane Sullivan enter New York State's
Genesee Community College. ** E. L. Doctorow's Loon Lake is published.
** The final Fox Hollow Folk Music Festival is held, in Rensselaer
County. ** The office of Monroe County Sheriff changes from a
three-year to a four-year post. ** Buffalo's El Charro restaurant
opens, on Parkside Avenue. ** Avon's 1876 St. George Hotel is
razed. ** History buff Ed Nizalowski investigates Tioga County's
Oakley Corners State Forest, finds a spot where he believes African-Americans
were buried in the 1870s.
Rochester
The city's school board revives the practice of paddling, with
parents' consent.
Jan 12
Temperatures in New York City drop to 2 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
Jan 21
New Yorker Bernard Goetz is mugged on a subway train.
Feb 18
Temperatures in New York City rise to 68 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Apr 3
Temperatures in New York City rise to 81 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Apr 18
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, begins a baseball game against Rochester.
The game ends in a tie.
Apr 23
The Pawtucket-Rochester game ends after 3 days, 8 hours and 25
minutes of play, with Pawtucket winning 3-2; the longest professional
baseball game to date.
May 9
Secretary of State Alexander Haig gives the commencement address
at Syracuse University. Dozens of graduating students walk out
in protest.
Jun 11
The New York State Health Department reports that ex-Love Canal
residents do not have abnormally high cancer rates.
Jul 18
Paroled author Jack Henry Abbott stabs New York City waiter Richard
Adan to death.
Jul 29
Builder-planner Robert Moses dies.
Oct 27
Jazz trumpeter-vocalist Louis Metcalf dies in Jamaica, Long Island,
at the age of 76.
November
Van Gordon Sauter is named president of CBS News.
City
Arthur E. Imperatore buys 350 acres of New Jersey waterfront from
the Penn Central Railroad, intending to re-establish trans-Hudson
River ferry service. ** The corporation managing the Gainsborough
Studios co-op elects to spend close to $100,000 to restore the
building's lobby. ** Future Verrazano Narrows Bridge general manager
James Fortunato begins his career there as a toll collector. **
A stolen tractor-trailer carrying 14,000 pounds of frozen chicken
parts overturns on the roadway of the George Washington Bridge.
** Incumbent mayor Edward I. Koch, running on the Democrat-Republican
ticket, defeats Unity candidate Frank J. Barbaro, to win a second
term. ** Deaf actor Bruce Hlibok's Silent Dancer, about
his deaf sister's experiences at the Joffrey Ballet School, is
published. ** The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) reports 121,268
emergency room visits and 2,825 deaths, related to drug abuse,
in only one sixth of the country's emergency rooms and excluding
New York City. ** Vartan Gregorian is named president of the New
York Public Library system. ** The U. S. War Department lifts
its ban on John Huston's post-World War II documentary Let
There Be Light after thirty-five years. It premieres at the
Thalia Theater. ** The Off-Broadway musical March of the Falsettos
opens. ** Walter Cronkite retires as CBS anchorman, is succeeded
by Dan Rather. ** National Broadcasting Company (NBC) news anchorman
David Brinkley leaves the network to go with the American Broadcasting
Company (ABC), which creates the program This Week with David
Brinkley for him. ** Semi-retired British ballerina Dame Margot
Fonteyn appears as a guest artist in New York City, in the La
Scala Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, playing Lady Capulet.The newly-completed
Humber Bridge in Humberside, England, becomes the world's longest
suspension bridge, beating the previous record holder - New York
City's Verrazano Narrows Bridge - by 366 feet. ** Records are
broken at the New York City Marathon, as U. S. runner Alberto
Salazar beats the men's with a time of 2:08:13 and Allison Roe
of New Zealand breaks the womens' with 2:25:29. ** The Robins
shipyard ceases operations in the Erie Basin. ** The U. S. Army
Corps of Engineers issues a permit for dredging and landfilling
for the construction of Westway. President Reagan presents Mayor
Koch with a symbolic $85,000,000 check for the highway right of
way.
State
Laura and Roxanna Salvania buy a restaurant on Batavia's Jackson
Street from the Fratterigo family, rename it Sylvania's. ** The
Room of the Immortals opens at Goshen's Hall of Fame of the Trotter,
dedicated to the memory of driver Peter D. Haughton. ** Buffalo's
Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera visual arts organization
is formed to foster Latino/Caribbean artists. ** Lewis Stone opens
the Railroad Shop in Ravena, dealing in railroad memorabilia.
Albany
72-year-old Erastus Corning, 2nd, is elected to his eleventh consecutive
four-year term as mayor. ** Historian Paul Grondahl arrives at
the State University of New York to begin graduate school.
Rochester
Ron Vandenbush moves his downtown sports card/memorabilia store
to Jefferson Road in Henrietta, names it Big League. ** New Bausch
and Lomb CEO Daniel Gill begins divesting some core operations,
including prescription eyeglasses and industrial instruments.
** Father Robert F. McNamara retires from his position as full
professor of church history at St. Bernard's Seminary, is awarded
the honorary title of doctor of divinity.
© 2002 David Minor / Eagles Byte