Jan 16
The television dramatic anthology ABC Television Players,
premieres, fed to New York from Chicago via coaxial cable.
Feb 15
Temperatures in New York City rise to 73 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Mar 27
Temperatures in New York City rise to 75 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Apr 29
Giants manager Leo Durocher is suspended by the Baseball Commission
for attacking a fan during a game.
May 9
Composer-pianist William Martin (Billy) Joel is born in Hicksville,
Long Island.
June
The Brooklyn Dodgers win nine straight games.
Aug 27
A Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, to earn defense money for
six New Jersey blacks sentenced to the electric chair, turns into
riots.
Sep 4
Another Paul Robeson concert is held in Peekskill. More riots
ensue.
Sep 21
The Dodgers arrive in St. Louis for a three game series with the
Cardinals.
Nov 11
The temperature in New York City reaches 74 degrees F, highest
temperature there for this date.
Dec 22
Temperatures in New York City rise to 63 degrees F, warmest here
for this date.
Dec 27
Temperatures in New York City again rise to 63 degrees F, highest
here for this date.
City
Ole Singstad's Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is completed. ** Democrat
incumbent William O' Dwyer defeats Republican-Liberal-Fusion candidate
Newbold Morris and American Labor candidate Vito Marcantonio,
to win re-election, serving through 1950, when he resigns to become
ambassador to Mexico. ** Commissioner of Investigations John M.
Murtagh cracks down on Broadway ticket scalpers, rescinding the
licenses of many ticket brokers. ** Lawyer William Eaton is admitted
to the state bar. He becomes an associate with White & Case.
** Future gossip columnist Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Smith arrives
in the city. ** Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe is named
baseball's rookie of the year. ** Newcombe pitches against New
York Giant Henry Thompson at Ebbets Field, the first time in Major
League baseball that a black batter faces a black pitcher. **
Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella leads his peers with a .287 batting
average, 22 doubles and 22 home runs. ** Choreographer Gower Champion
wins his first Tony, for 'Lend an Ear", which introduces
Carol Channing.
State
Arch Merrill's Land of the Senecas is published. ** Abner
Lakey's 1832 Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra is restored.
** The Aluminum Company of America plant, largest remaining industry
on Niagara Falls' Hydraulic Canal, closes.
Buffalo
Joseph Mruk is elected the city's first Polish-American mayor.
Geneva
The Hobart and William Smith colleges debating society Collegium
Oratorium ends an undefeated season with a victory over Columbia
University. ** The international Elizabeth Blackwell Centennial
Convocation is held at the colleges and citations are presented
to 12 women physicians. ** The wings added to Geneva's Nester
House (Geneva-on-the-Lake) are completed.
Rochester
A strip of film is cut to officially open the George Eastman House.
** The city annexes the County Home (Iola) increasing its own
size to 36.02 square miles. ** All subway cars are converted to
one-man operation. ** Robert Wegman converts his family's grocery
stores to self-service.
Jan 3
Temperatures in New York City reach 60 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Jan 6
Temperatures in New York City reach 63 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Jan 26
Temperatures in New York City rise to 72 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
February
Rochester's car-ferry Ontario II is only making two or
three trips to Coburg, Ontario, a week.
Feb 17
31 [29?] people are killed in a Long Island Rail Road train crash
in Rockville Center.. Future author Doris Kearns Goodwin, a young
girl, views the wreckage.
Feb 20
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas arrives in New York City for his first
U. S. tour. ** Temperatures in New York City drop to 7 degrees
F, lowest here for this date.
Mar 14
New York City hires a rainmaker.
April
The Ontario Car Ferry company withdraws its freight/passenger
ferris Ontario I and Ontario II from service on
Lake Ontario. In few months the Ontario I will be scrapped
at Humberstone, Ontario; the Ontario II at Port Dalhousie,
Ontario. ** Black Buffalo photographer and minister Willie P.
Seals shoots a gala party of The Artistic Club.
Apr 14
Temperatures in New York City drop to 26 degrees F, lowest here
for this date.
Apr 28
The car-ferry Ontario II makes her last voyage between
Charlotte, New York, and Coburg, Ontario.
May
Peoples Artists, Inc. publishes the first issue of Sing Out!,
the folk singers magazine.
May 25
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel under the East River opens.
Jul 1
Trolley service in Buffalo is ended with a parade down Broadway.
Jul 4
A young boy in Manhattan fires a pistol from a rooftop in the
direction of the Polo Grounds, killing Bernard Lawrence Doyle,
while Doyle watches a baseball game.
Jul 11
Broadway and film composer and librettist Buddy George Gard Desylva
dies at the age of 55.
Jul 18
New York City's Fort Clinton is designated a National Monument,
saving it from demolition.
Aug 3
Canadian-born black beauty shop franchiser Martha Matilda Harper
dies in Rochester at the age of 92.
Sep 7
Batavia's Holland Land Office is re-opened as the Holland Purchase
Historical Society's headquarters.
Aug 18
30,000 people watch as Canandaigua mayor George W. Urstadt cuts
the ribbon to inaugurate the city's newly refurbished main thoroughfare,
the "Million Dollar Main Street".
Nov 8
An early morning fire ruins New York's Central Park carousel.
City
Mayor William O'Dwyer resigns to become ambassador to Mexico.
City council president Vincent J. Impellitteri is named acting
mayor. Heading the ticket for the Experience Party, he defeats
Democrat-Liberal Ferdinand Pecora and Republican Edward Ciorsi
to win the post on his own, serving to 1953. ** Jewelry executive
Paul de Rosière joins Cartier. ** London's Hambro Trading
Corporation opens the Hambro House of Design on 54th Street, to
sell fine European furniture, household goods and food. ** Frank
Loesser's musical Guys and Dolls opens. ** The Times
begins publishing a daily crossword puzzle. ** Publisher Sid
Silverman, son of Variety founder-publisher Sime Silverman,
dies at the age of 51. ** The city begins experimenting with alternate-side-of-the-street
parking regulations, on the Lower East Side. ** Carol Channing
stars in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". ** Mary Martin
wins the Tony Award for "South Pacific".
State
Edwin S. Underhill joins the staff of his family's newspaper,
the Corning Leader. ** Rosebud Frantz, great grandniece
of Sitting Bull, leaves her post as director of the Indian Village
at Jones Beach State Park. ** The NYS barge Lockport is
built at the American Boiler Works of Erie, Pennsylvania, at a
cost of $36,500. ** The Baseball Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown
is enlarged. ** Arthur C. Parker's Red Streak of the Iroquois.
Batavia
Mary Sweetland closes her Berry Patch restaurant.
Buffalo
Television station WBEN-TV (WVIB today) discontinues showing footage
of Myles Hughes' Apostolic Clock to begin its Sunday broadcast
day. ** Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building is demolished for
a parking lot. ** The National Guard gives a demonstration of
military equipment, on Broadway. Willie B. Seals photographs the
event, as well as Pattie's Delicatessen on Broadway and Walnut,
and his son-in-law John Jones.
Rochester
Sam Urzetta wins the national amateur golf championship. ** The
city annexes more land for an airport extension, increasing its
own size to 36.19 square miles. ** Irondequoit's new high school
on Cooper Road is dedicated.
Syracuse
Population 220,000. ** The approximate date the Leavenworth House,
at the corner of James and McBride Streets, is demolished. **
Druggist Alfred S. Wright, 1945 purchaser of the General Hutchinson
House on Onondaga County's West Seneca Turnpike, sells the house
to O. Collins Martin.
Jan 6
In the longest National Basketball Association (NBA) game in history
the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Rochester Royals 75-73, after
six overtimes, before the advent of the 24-second clock to prevent
stalling.
Jan 10
An Avro jetliner flies from Chicago, Illinois, to New York City
in one hour and 42 minutes.
Jan 19
Temperatures in New York City rise to 64 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Jan 20
Temperatures in New York City reach 62 degrees F, another daily
high record.
Jan 21
New York City breaks a third daily record in a row when temperatures
reach 60 degrees F.
Jan 31
U. S. pilot Charles Blair Jr., flying a converted Mustang fighter
plane, sets the New York-to-London flight record of seven hours
and forty-eight minutes.
Feb 13
Temperatures in New York City rise to 64 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
Feb 16
The New York City Council passes a bill barring race discrimination
in housing projects.
Feb 28
U. S. pop composer Henry W. Armstrong, 71, dies in the Bronx.
Mar 7
The Ethel and Julius Rosenberg spy trial begins, with federal
judge Irving Kauffman presiding.
Mar 8
The Fred Astaire-Jane Powell film Royal Wedding opens in
New York City.
Mar 11
Olivia de Haviland and Douglas Watson open on Broadway in Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet.
Mar 12
Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee begins hearings
in New York City.
Mar 21
The Rosenberg defense opens. ** The Kefauver hearings close.
Mar 29
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway.
Mar 30
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are found guilty of espionage.
April
The month ends with the Brooklyn Dodgers in first place and the
New York Giants at the bottom.
Apr 5
The Rosenbergs are sentenced to death for espionage. Co-defendant
Martin Sobel is given 30 years.
Apr 11
The Museum of Modern Art opens a show on Modigliani.
Apr 20
General Douglas MacArthur, returning from Korea after having been
relieved of his command by President Truman, is given a ticker
tape parade in New York City, delaying the opening game of the
first series between the Giants and the Dodgers.
May 2
RCA makes the first color television broadcast, from New York's
Empire State Building.
May 8
The play Stalag 17 opens on Broadway.
May 24
Baseball outfielder Willie Mays joins the Giants.
June
Harriet and Mortimer Spiller buy Batavia's P and C Market location
and open the Joyell Real Estate Office.
Jun 2
Author-musician and former president of Juilliard, John Erskine,
71, dies.
Jun 12
The Ford Foundation launches a study of television's affect on
culture.
Jun 22
A Pan Am airliner headed for New York with 40 passengers disappears
over West Africa.
Jun 25
CBS begins commercial color television transmissions, broadcasting
from New York to four other cities.
Jun 30
A DC-6 Denver to New York airliner crashes in the Rocky Mountains,
killing all fifty people aboard.
August
Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine throws a 7-hit, 3-1 victory
over Cincinnati, in his first major league start.
Aug 5
William Hill, Jr., attempting to go over Niagara Falls in an inner
tube capsule, is killed.
Aug 23
Ninety cadets at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point are
dismissed for cheating on exams.
Aug 28
George Stephens' film A Place in the Sun, based on Theodore
Dreser's An American Tragedy, premieres, in New York.
September
Labine wins three straight victories for the Dodgers.
Sep 19
Elia Kazan's film of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named
Desire premieres, in New York.
Sep 21
An underground gas explosion in a Rochester suburb, kills three
people, destroys or badly damages 44 homes and causes the evacuation
of 2,000 people - the Brighton Disaster.
Sep 30
The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 3-2, on their own
territory, moving up to first place, for the first time this year.
October
The Genesee River storage dam at Mount Morris is completed.
Oct 3
The Giants capture the National League pennant on a home run by
Bobby Thompson.
Oct 15
The British film The Lavender Hill Mob opens in New York.
Oct 17
The film The Desert Fox opens in New York.
Nov 1
Johnny Mercer's Broadway musical Top Banana debuts at the
Winter Garden Theater, runs for 350 performances.
Nov 10
Operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, 64, dies in New York City.
Nov 12
Lerner and Loew's Paint Your Wagon opens on Broadway at
the Shubert Theater.
Dec 5
New Yorker editor Harold Ross dies.
Dec 12
Jazz pianist-vocalist Mildred Rinker (Bailey) dies in Poughkeepsie
at the age of 44.
Dec 16
A bagel makers' strike hits New York City.
Dec 24
Downtown buses in Rochester cause a massive traffic jam.
Dec 31
Temperatures in New York City reach 62 degrees F, highest here
for this date.
City
Pace College buys the New York Times building on Park Row.
** Architect Charles W. Buckham, designer of duplex apartment
houses, dies. ** Raphael Levy is named director of public relations
for the National United Jewish Appeal. ** Laurence Olivier appears
on Broadway in Antony and Cleopatra and Caesar and Cleopatra.
** George Abbott's adaptation of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn opens on Broadway. ** Mystery writer Anthony Boucher
becomes editor of the Criminals at Large column for the Times.
** Herman Badillo receives his bachelors' degree from City College
of New York. ** Ethel Merman wins her only Tony Award for Call
Me Madam.
State
The termite-ridden Mead Farm House in Rye is demolished. ** Timber
companies stop operations on the upper Hudson River. ** William
Henry Seward III, grandson of the secretary of state, dies, donating
the family home in Auburn to the public. ** The Hall of Fame of
the Trotter opens in a former Goshen stable. ** Additions are
made to Lewiston's Oakwood Cemetery. ** A new dining hall/student
union (Gulick Hall) and three new dormitories (Bartlett, Durfee
and Hale Halls) are opened at Geneva's Hobart College. ** Rockville
Centre's 46-man police force make 139 arrests this year, most
for minor infractions.
Batavia
Batavia Hospital changes its name to Genesee Memorial Hospital.
** Lawyer Alice Day Gardner retires from the family firm of Day
and Gardner, at the age of 78.
Niagara Falls
A housing development is begun along the Love Canal. ** Demolition
of the Aluminum Company of America plant on the Hydraulic Canal
is begun.
Rochester
A citizens' committee explores the use of federal funds for urban
development of the Crossroads area.
Copyright 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte