Jan
Eastman Kodak introduces its high-speed ColorEdge copier.
Jan 9
A U. S. presidential task force blames last October's Wall Street
plunge on computerized trading.
Jan 11
U. S. atomic physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi dies in New York City
at the age of 89.
Jan 12
New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission holds a public
hearing on a proposal to create a Central Park West historic district.
Jan 15
The Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS] fires sports commentator
Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder for making racist remarks on
the air.
Jan 21
A homeless Joyce Brown, sent to a New York City mental institution
in October, is released by court order.
Jan 24
CBS news anchor Dan Rather and presidential hopeful George Bush
get into an argument on the air.
Jan 27
Syracuse University's Minnowbrook Conference Center in the Adirondacks
burns to the ground. It had been one of the last of the great
Adirondack Camps.
Jan 28
The Crooked Lake Historical Society meets with representatives
of Hammondsport's Curtiss Museum to discuss an affiliation agreement.
Feb 2
The directors of the New York Stock Exchange vote to ban computerized
trading on volatile market days. ** Temperatures in New York City
climb to 59 degrees F, highest here for this date.
Feb 5
Robert Wallace Jr., on the run for killing a businessman in New
York City with a karate kick, is arrested in San Francisco.
Feb 9
$6,000,000 worth of paintings are stolen from a New York City
gallery.
Feb 12
Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants opens in New York City.
Feb 20
Newspaper unions grant $22,000,000 in concessions to save the
New York Post.
Feb 25
The Federal Reserve and the New York State Banking Boards approve
a sale of Irving Trust to the Bank of New York. ** The Crooked
Lake Historical Society Board decides to submit any proposals
from the Curtiss Museum to their members.
Feb 26
A New York City rookie cop guarding a drug witness is murdered.
Feb 29
New York Mayor Ed Koch calls Ronald Reagan a 'wimp" on drugs.
March
Hedda Nussbaum is sent to a Katonah psychiatric facility for her
part in the death of Lisa Steinberg, her illegally adopted daughter.
** New York State teenager Tawana Brawley claims to have been
raped by a Dutchess County assistant district attorney. ** New
York Post gossip columnist Suzy writes a description of
a party she does not attend. ** The conversion of the apartment
building at 45 East 66th Street to co-ops is completed.
Mar 4
The Fourth International Cat Show opens at New York City's Madison
Square Garden.
Mar 21
Homeless woman Joyce Brown is back on the streets of New York.
Mar 24
Temperatures in New York City rise to 76 degrees F, highest here
for this date. ** The body of 27-year-old Dorothy Blackburn is
found in Sweden, New York's Northampton Park, Arthur Shawcross's
first victim.
Mar 25
Robert Chambers pleads guilty to first-degree manslaughter in
the death of Jennifer Levin in Central Park.
Mar 28
A Brooklyn judge orders a convicted heroin dealer to pay $2,000,000
for addict assistance programs.
April
New York City's Williamsburg Bridge is closed to vehicular traffic
when structural problems are discovered. ** Eastman Kodak also
announces it will buy IBM's copier service business and contracts.
Kodak already has copier sales of $1,000,000,000.
Apr 6
Strict smoking curbs are put into effect in New York City.
Apr 14
Real estate tycoons Harry and Leona Helmsley are indicted on income
tax evasion charges.
Apr 18
The Banca Commerciale Italiana offers to buy a majority of Irving
Trust stock as part of Irving's restructuring.
Apr 19
Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis wins the New York State
Democratic primary.
Apr 21
Christopher Plummer and Glenda Jackson open on Broadway in Macbeth.
Apr 24
Lea Lake, owner of New York City's Sweet's restaurant, dies.
May 2
A fire in Rochester's Ellison Park Apartments injures seven people,
mostly firefighters, when an gasoline explosion destroys a garage.
May 4
Broadway musical actor George Rose is murdered, in Santo Domingo.
His adopted son Domingo Antonio Ralfe Vazquez is the prime suspect.
May 6
Irving Trust's shareholders re-elect the banks directors despite
a legal challenge of proxy votes by the Bank of New York.
May 15
The Broadway musical version of Stephen King's Carrie flops
after five performances.
May 22
The Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society hosts an
open house to mark the publication of Fred G. Amsbury's glass-plate
negatives of the Finger Lakes, entitled Caught in Time -- a
View of the 1890s.
May 24
Tawana Brawley's mother refuses to answer a grand jury subpoena
to testify in her daughter's rape case.
May 27
Jazz composer-arranger-bandleader Sy Oliver dies, in New York
City. ** New York State and the Long Island Lighting Company agree
to close the Shoreham nuclear power plant.
June
New York State's Brunswick Historical Society moves into new headquarters
in Cropseyville's Garfield School.
Jun 3
American League baseball umpires vow to curb controversial New
York Yankees manager Billy Martin.
Jun 6
Tawana Brawley's mother Glenda is sentenced to thirty days in
jail for refusing to testify.
Jun 11
Risen Star wins the Belmont Stakes.
Jun 14
Suffolk County becomes the first U. S. county to impose health
rules on computers in the workplace.
Jun 23
The New York Yankees fire manager Billy Martin for the fifth time.
July
Federal undercover agent Robert Mazur attempts to intercept $10,000,000
from the Don Chepe drug group meant for laundering by the Bank
of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), in Manhattan, but
he's recognized and the sting falls through. ** Eastman Kodak
announces it will build the headquarters of its Copy Products
Division at it's Elmgrove plant in Rochester.
Jul 2
The 120-ton Finger Lakes excursion boat Keuka Maid begins
dinner cruises on the lake she is named for.
Jul 6
A state court strikes down part of the Irving Trust's poison pill
strategy.
Jul 12
Broadway producer Joshua L. Logan, 79, dies.
Jul 24
The New York Mets retire Tom Seaver's number, 41.
August
Broadcaster David Burke leaves ABC to become president of CBS
News.
Aug 1
A despondent Geoffrey Brown blows up a Jersey Street home in Rochester,
injuring 9 people and damaging over sixty homes in the area. Brown
dies several days afterwards from burns.
Aug 11
New York City grocer Louis Balducci, 89, dies of leukemia, in
Flushing, Queens.
Aug 15
A state grand jury decides to subpoena Tawana Brawley.
Aug 19
The Federal Reserve Board rules that the Banca Commerciale Italiana
must supply more financial data in its bid for Irving Trust.
Aug 29
Banca Commerciale Italiana withdraws its bid for Irving Trust.
Sep 9
The City of Yonkers agrees to integrate its neighborhoods with
low-cost housing when a Federal judge imposes fines of millions
of dollars a day.
Sep 11
The skeletal remains of Anna Marie Steffen, 27, are found on the
banks of the Genesee River at on Rochester's Driving Park Avenue.
She will be a suspected victim of Arthur Shawcross.
Sep 26
Journalist Paul Cowan, 48, dies of complications from leukemia,
in New York City.
Sep 29
Cartoonist Charles Addams, 76, dies of a heart attack, in New
York City. ** Jazz impresario Barney Josephson, 86, dies of gastrointestinal
bleeding, in New York City.
Oct 4
The state Supreme Court upholds the lower court ruling against
part of Irving Trust's poison pill strategy.
Oct 5
Irving announces it now supports a revised takeover bid by the
Bank of New York.
Oct 6
A New York grand jury determines that Tawana Brawley was lying.
Oct 19
A New York grand jury holds Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in contempt
of court for failing to appear in connection with allegations
the couple embezzled millions of dollars while in the Philippines.
Oct 20
New York Jets defensive lineman Mark Gastineau announces he's
retiring from football.
Oct 21
Marcos and his wife are indicted on racketeering charges.
Oct 22
Two Mexican police officers are arrested in New York City as part
of a heroin smuggling operation.
Oct 31
Imelda Marcos appears in a New York court to deny her guilt in
embezzling Philippine funds.
November
Kodak's Ektar film in introduced, in Europe. ** New York City
police close down the Happy Land Social Club, a Bronx gathering
place for Hispanics, due to a lack of anti fire precautions. It
soon reopens. ** Cornell University graduate student Robert T.
Morris, Jr. launches the first computer virus, eventually crashing
over 6,000 machines. He will be the first person convicted of
violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Dec 7
Soviet chairman Mikhail Gorbachev, addressing the United Nations
General Assembly, announces that Russia will remove 500,000 troops
and 10,000 tanks from Europe over the next two years. He and Reagan
say their farewells on New York City's Governor's Island, and
president elect George Bush joins them for a luncheon.
Dec 12
Temperatures in New York City plunge to 5 degrees F, a record
low here for this date.
Dec 13
3 men complete a 29-hr subway ride in New York City, traveling
through all 466 stations.
Dec 21
Pan Am flight 103 flying from London to New York explodes over
Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 people aboard as well as
eleven on the ground. Sabotage is suspected.
City
New York loses Paine Webber back offices to Weehawken, New Jersey,
but persuades Drexel Burnham to build new offices in the city
and in Kew Gardens, New York, by offering a $85,000,000 package
of concessions. ** French actor-singer Yves Montand is given a
special tribute by the Film Society at Lincoln Center. ** Only
39% of the city, mostly Manhattan, is wired for cable television.
** The National Distillers and Chemical Corporation (the former
National Distillers Products Corporation) drops its distillery
products and changes its name to the Quantum Chemical Corporation.
** The Metropolitan Museum mounts retrospectives of Gustave Courbet,
Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin. ** The R. H. Macy department store
chain buys I. Magnin and Bullock's stores, borrowing $1,100,000,000.
** Mount Sinai Hospital demonstrates the way asbestos causes cancerous
changes in the DNA of cells. ** Bruce Hlibok's The Deaf Mute
Howls opens Off-Broadway. ** The Random House publishing company
only just breaks even this year. ** Researchers Jan van Bracht
and Günter Schilder re-date the Jan Jansson map of New Amsterdam,
previously supposed to be dated 1651, to 1650. ** When environmentalists
and community leaders oppose Westway II (Son of Westway) as being
too ambitious, the Department of Transportation agrees to evaluate
the task force's recommendations as well as others.
State
Cropseyville's Garfield School is placed on the National Register
of Historic Places. ** 342 oil spills in the Hudson River and
the waters around New York City total 165,936 gallons. ** Buffalo's
Polish Genealogical Society is founded. ** John Degrew and a five-man
crew begin restoring Hammondsport's Elmwood Cemetery. ** A book
is found listing the first items given to the Steuben County Agricultural
Society for display at the Bath Fair, dating back to the 1820s.
Rochester
Bausch and Lomb acquires Dental Research Corporation, manufacturer
of the Interplak home dental care appliance. ** A new Driving
Park Avenue Bridge across the Genesee River is built, with two
lanes in each direction.
January
A New York State Hazardous Waste Siting Board turns down an application
to begin dredging PCBs from the bottom of the Hudson River, because
the proposed landfill site is unsuitable.
Jan 7
Dr. Kathryn Hinnant, a pathologist at New York City's Bellevue
Hospital is murdered in her office laboratory.
Jan 18
Syracuse holds a community-wide memorial ceremony for the local
victims of the Lockerbie, Scotland, airline bombing.
Jan 30
New York City lawyer Joel Steinberg is convicted of first-degree
manslaughter of his illegally adopted daughter Lisa.
Feb 1
Temperatures in New York City reach 67 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 2
Syracuse University's Center for Science and Technology opens.
Mar 17
Dorothy Hayden Cudahy becomes the first woman to lead New York
City's St. Patrick's Day parade.
Mar 18
Temperatures in New York City rise to 77 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
May
New York City declares that all of its subway cars are now clean
of graffiti.
May 7
Western New York gets over six inches of snow.
July
New York City police arrest the bartender of the Bronx's Happy
Land Social Club for selling liquor without a license.
Jul 19
New York City mayoral hopeful David N. Dinkins refers to a "city
under siege", promises to hire 1300 more police officers.
Aug 23
Black New York City teenager Yusuf Hawkins is gunned down by a
group of white youths in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.
November
Random House president Robert Bernstein resigns.
Nov 7
David N. Dinkins defeats Rudolph W. Giuliani, running on the Republican-Liberal
Independent Union ticket, to become New York City's first black
mayor.
Nov 12
Luther Davis, Robert Wright and George Forrest's Grand Hotel
opens at the Martin Beck Theater.
Nov 29
Rochester police chief Gordon Urlacher announces that a recent
series of stranglings may be the work of a serial killer.
Dec 11
Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman and David Zippel's City of Angels
premieres at Broadway's Virginia Theater.
City
The harbor has 368 oil spills during the year. ** The Metropolitan
Transit Authority begins Operation Enforcement to keep the homeless
out of subways and into shelters, and enforce rules of behavior
on the cars. ** Homeless people begin selling their own newspaper,
Street News, to make money. ** Chinese immigrant Dong Lu Chen
bludgeons his wife to death. He is given five year's probation
on the grounds of cultural differences - the first Cultural Defense.
** Stanford Realty Associates net leases the apartment house at
121 Madison from Crystal Management and begins repairing the building.
** David N. Dinkins defeats three-term mayor Edward I. Koch, Harrison
J. Goldin and Richard Ravitch to win the Democratic mayoral primary.
** Wells Rich Greene creative director Donald M. Sterzin joins
Carlson & Partners when the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation
account switches agencies. ** Felipe Hernandez joins the staff
of the Hispanic AIDS Forum. ** E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate
is published. ** Arthur E. Imperatore founds a second trans-Hudson
River ferry service, connecting Hoboken, New Jersey, with Manhattan.
** The Wall Street investment firm of Merrill Lynch loses $213,000,000
for the year. ** Peter Lynch publishes One Up on Wall Street.
** A restored Lawrence of Arabia opens. ** A record 97.3
percent of entrants in the New York City Marathon finish the run.
** Random House only breaks even for the second year in a row.
** A developer seeks to purchase piers number 1 through 5 of Brooklyn's
New York Dock Company facility from the Port Authority, for mixed-use
development. Community groups object.
State
Chef Alex Giuliani opens Alex's Place on Park Road in Batavia,
near Batavia Downs, on the former site of Hanley's Bar. ** A replacement
for Syracuse University's Minnowbrook Conference Center in the
Adirondacks, destroyed last year in a fire, opens.
Rochester
Eastman Kodak is given a special Academy Award for 100 Years of
Service to the Motion Picture Industry. ** Kodak copier sales
near the $1,700,000,000 mark.
January
James Robinson III, chairman of American Express, forces the resignation
of Peter Cohen, chairman of the company's subsidiary Shearson
Lehman Hutton, after a number of junk bond buyouts fall through.
** A hand-carved fish decoy sells for $18,700 at New York City's
Sotheby's Auction House. ** Deborah Norville replaces Jane Pauley
as co-host of the Today show.
Jan 1
David N. Dinkins, New York City's first black mayor, is inaugurated.
** In his New York Times column William Safire lists state Court
of Appeals chief judge Sol Wachtler among possible candidates
for governor. Wachtler shows no interest in running.
Jan 3
Dinkins says he will delay the hiring of new police officers.
Jan 18
Temperatures in New York City rise to 66 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
February
New York City warehouseman Julio Gonzalez loses his job. ** New
York's Port Authority begins issuing begging permits.
Feb 1
Mayor Dinkins proposes further delays in hiring police officers,
due to budgetary constraints.
Feb 9
Temperatures in New York City reach 63 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Feb 10
Temperatures in New York City set another daily record, again
reaching 61 degrees F.
March
Film star Greta Garbo, 84, dies of complications from kidney disease,
In New York City.
Mar 13
Temperatures in New York City rise to 85 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 15
Temperatures in New York City rise to 77 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 16
Temperatures in New York City rise to 82 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 25
Wall Street superstar Peter Lynch resigns as head of the Fidelity
Magellan Fund. ** Julio Gonzalez sets fire to the Bronx's Happy
Land Social Club after he is ejected from the premises. 87 patrons
and staff of the Hispanic club die in the fire. Gonzalez is arrested
in his room twelve hours later. He will be sentenced to 25 years
to life.
Apr 6
State senator Alphonse D'Amato is refused entrance into Lithuania
at the Polish border.
Apr 8
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love has its U. S. premiere
in New York's Broadhurst Theater.
Apr 28
Temperatures in New York City climb to 90 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
May 24
Mayor Dinkins budgets a preliminary 500 additional police officers.
August
Abbott Laboratories announces the creation of a compound that
may inhibit AIDS.
Aug 1
Dinkins rejects a City Council plan for adding hundreds of new
police officers after a number of city children are killed by
random gunfire. ** Fifteen-year-old Palmyra babysitter Cynthia
Lewis and her 17-month-old charge Curtis Rizzo disappears from
his home.
Aug 2
The bodies of Lewis and Rizzo are found behind Palmyra-Macedon
Middle School.
Aug 3
Fourteen-year-old Chad Campbell is charged with the murders of
Lewis and Rizzo.
Aug 6
Dinkins responds to mounting pressure by agreeing to hire 1,058
new police officers.
Aug 8
Architect Gordon Bunshaft, 81, dies of a heart attack in New York
City. ** Chad Campbell pleads innocent.
Aug 11
Performance artist James Roy (Ethyl)Eichenberger, 45, suffering
from AIDS, commits suicide at his Staten Island home, by slashing
his wrists.
Aug 13
Magazine editor Hedley Donovan, 76, dies of an infected lung,
in New York City.
Aug 19
Steven Smith, campaign manager for John F. Kennedy, Robert F.
Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, dies at age 62 in New York City.
Sep 27
Close to 1200 people attend a presentation on satanism at Palmyra-Macedon
High School.
Oct 2
Research and Development magazine singles out Rochester doctor
Kenneth Ouriel's invention for recycling blood lost in surgery
as one of the 100 most important inventions of the year.
Oct 3
James Foley, defense lawyer for accused teenage murderer Chad
Campbell, announces that his office is being bombarded with rumors
about satanic cult connections to his client.
Oct 12
A Federal judge orders the Eastman Kodak Company to pay $9,09,500.000
to the Polaroid Corporation for patent infringement.
Oct 18
Rochester police chief Gordon F. Urlacher is arrested for embezzling
$58,000 from city funds. Four of his top officers (including Captain
James W. O'Brien and Sergeant Mark Blair) and a civilian, Joseph
Franco, are suspended with pay. Roy A. Irving is named as acting
chief.
Oct 25
Two Rochester narcotics officers are transferred to administrative
duty at the police training academy.
Nov 1
Susan Beyea of Macedon files a complaint against her son Michael
Hutchinson threatens to get the occult after her and kill the
rest of the family.
Nov 5
Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, 58, is assassinated
at a rally while visiting New York City. His assailant, El Savyid
Nosair, shoots and wounds two men nearby afterwards, is acquitted
of homicide.
Nov 6
New York State governor Mario M. Cuomo wins reelection to a third
term.
Nov 8
Urlacher submits a letter of resignation.
Nov 19
Wayne County Court judge Maurice Strobridge denies a request to
move the Chad Campbell trial to Family Court.
Nov 30
Michael Hutchinson is found dead in a Macedon creek, a suicide
by overdose of an over-the-counter drug.
Dec 4
The price of gas in New York City goes up to $1.60 per gallon,
due to the crisis in the Persian Gulf.
Dec 6
Urlacher is indicted by a federal grand jury. It's announced the
department's vice squad is also under investigation for possible
civil rights violations.
Dec 11
Mobster John Gotti is arrested along with three members of the
Gambino crime family, on New York City's Mulberry Street.
Dec 13
Rochester serial killer Arthur Shawcross is convicted of killing
ten area women. ** Rochester police narcotics investigator Scott
D. Harloff is suspended with pay.
Dec 14
Rochester police sergeant Thomas W. Alessi is suspended with pay
from the Narcotics Unit.
Dec 19
Rochester mayor Tom Ryan names acting chief Irving to officially
head the police force.
Dec 23
Temperatures in New York City rise to 66 degrees F, the highest
here for this date.
Dec 24
Temperatures in New York City rise to 63 degrees F, the highest
here for this date two days in a row.
Dec 27
Joseph Franco is fired from his civilian job with the Rochester's
police force.
City
The mansard roof of the 1902 Dorilton apartment house is related
and repairs are made to some of the detailing. ** Patricia O'Donnell
Ewers is named president of Pace University, succeeding William
B. Sharwell. ** Marathon founder Fred Lebow is diagnosed with
cancer, undergoes chemotherapy and radiation therapy. A fund in
his name raises $1,200,000, which is matched by government money.
** The Metropolitan Museum mounts a Claude Monet retrospective.
** The city loses Mobil Oil headquarters to Fairfax, Virginia.
** The data processing center of New York City's Securities Industry
Automation Corporation moves from Manhattan to Brooklyn. ** Utah
tourist Brian Watkins is stabbed to death in the subway while
defending his parents from a robbery attempt. ** A. J. Antoon's
Wild West version of The Taming of the Shrew plays at Joseph
Papp's Central Park Shakespeare festival. ** Advance Publications,
Inc. (the Newhouse company) cuts titles at their Pantheon book
publishing company. Managing director Andre Schiffin and some
senior editors resign. ** Time and Warner Communications merge
to become New York City's largest cable television provider. **
The Off-Broadway musical Falsettoland opens. ** Alberto
Vitale is named to replace Random House president Robert Bernstein,
who resigned last November. ** Saatchi and Saatchi, the world's
largest agency, drops to second place after a period of selling
off assets due to a decline in revenues.
State
Batavia city manager Vilas S. Gamble leaves the city and is replaced
by his assistant William Reemsten. ** The black population of
the Buffalo area totals 121,956. ** Ted Corbett steps down as
director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation. ** Dennis
Whittaker and his father begin tending the long-neglected Rawson
Hollow Cemetery, in the Tioga County town of Caroline.
© 2000, 2002 David Minor / Eagles Byte