New York Events

1775 May 10 Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
On May 10, 1775, Fort Ticonderoga was captured by a small force of American Patriots led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold. They surprised and captured, without significant injur...
1776 Sep 15 British Occupation of New York
On September 15, 1776, General Howe landed at Kip's Bay. General Washington's troops were spread so thinly here that he had to retreat and again saved many troops from being captured. Mea...
1776 Sep 16 Battle of Harlem Heights
On the morning of September 16, Washington received word that the British were advancing. Washington, who had been expecting an attack, sent a reconnoitering party of 150 men under the co...
1776 Oct 11 Battle of Valcour Island
Carleton's fleet, commanded by Captain Thomas Pringle, which included 50 unarmed support vessels, sailed onto Lake Champlain on October 9. Moving cautiously, the British advanced up the l...
1776 Oct 18 Battle of Pell's Point
At dawn, the British began to land on the shore, an advance guard of 4,000 British and Hessian troops landing first. Inland, opposing them, was a brigade of some 750 men under the command...
1776 Nov 16 Battle of Fort Washington
Before dawn on November 16, the British and Hessian troops moved out. Knyphausen and his troops were ferried across the Harlem River on flatboats and landed on Manhattan. The flatboatmen ...
1777 May 23 Meigs Raid
Meigs Raid (also known as the Battle of Sag Harbor) was a guerrilla raid by American forces on the British at Sag Harbor, New York on May 23, 1777 during the American Revolutionary War in...
1777 Jul 2
to 1777 Jul 6
 Battle of Ticonderoga
The 1777 Battle of Ticonderoga occurred between 2 and 6 July 1777 at Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of Lake Champlain in the state of New York. In military maneuvers that more cl...
1777 Aug 6 Battle of Oriskany
The Battle of Oriskany, fought on August 6, 1777, was one of the bloodiest battles in the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. Early in the si...
1777 Aug 16 Battle of Bennington
The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place on August 16, 1777, in Walloomsac, New York, about 10 miles (16 km) from its namesake Bennington, V...
1778 May 30 Battle of Cobleskill
In 1778 the settlement of Cobleskill, New York consisted of twenty families living in farms spread out along Cobleskill Creek. As it was on the frontier with Iroquois territory, the settl...
1778 Sep 17 Attack on German Flatts
On September 17, 1778 during the American Revolution, German Flatts was attacked by Loyalists and Iroquois. A force of several hundred men from Butler's Rangers under the command of Wi...
1779 Jul 16 Battle of Stony Point
Washington’s plan called for a two-pronged, pincer-type, nighttime attack on the fortifications to be carried out by 1,200 men of his Corps of Light Infantry. According to 18th Century mi...
1779 Jul 19
to 1779 Jul 22
 Battle of Minisink
Later that day, riders from Peenpack reached the village of Goshen, telling of Brant's raid and the destruction of the town. A militia formed immediately, under the reluctant command of L...
1779 Sep 13 Boyd and Parker Ambush
During the next day the scouting party spotted a group of four Indians along the trail and a brief gun fight occurred. One Indian was killed, and Boyd and Parker started to return to Sull...
1783 Nov 25 British Evacuate New York
In mid-August 1783, Sir Guy Carleton received orders from London for the evacuation of New York City. He told the President of the Continental Congress that he was proceeding with the wit...
1788 Jul 26 New York Ratifies the US Constitution and is the 11th State Admitted to the Union
WE the Delegates of the People of the State of New York, duly elected and Met in Convention, having maturely considered the Constitution for the United States of America, agreed to on the...
1826 Joseph Smith Jr. Is Put On Trial As A 'Disorderly Person'
The evidence from published accounts and public records seem to allow one to be fairly certain in concluding that JS was detained and brought before Judge Neely under the disorderly perso...
1827 Jan 18 Joseph Smith Jr. Elopes With Emma Hale
Emma first met her future husband, Joseph Smith, Jr., in 1825. Smith lived near Palmyra, New York, but boarded with the Hales in Harmony while he was employed in a company of men hoping t...
1832 Douglas Enrolls at Canandaigua Academy
Douglas moved to a farm near Clifton Springs, New York and studied at Canandaigua Academy in 1832-33 (where he was honored posthumously in 1996 as a "Graduate of Distinction".) He then mo...
1847 Dec 3 Douglass Establishes Abolitionist Paper - The North Star
He used his oratorical skills in the ensuing years to lecture in the northern states against slavery. He also helped slaves escape to the North while working with the Underground Railroad...
1848 Aug 19 New York Herald Reports on the Discovery of Gold in California
The gold mine discovered in December last, on the South branch of the American fork, in a range of low hills forming the base of the Sierra Nevada, distant thirty miles from New Helvetia,...
1851 Sep 18 New York Times Founded
The New York Times was founded on September 18, 1851, by journalist and politician Henry Jarvis Raymond, the second chairman of the Republican National Committee, and former banker George...
1853 Josephine Clofullia (The Bearded Lady) Begins Performing at Barnum's American Museum
Madame Clofullia was born Josephine Boisdechene in Switzerland. She was born hairy and reputedly had a two-inch beard at the age of eight. At the age of fourteen she began to tour Europe,...
1858 Oct 27 Theodore Roosevelt is Born
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in a four-story brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City, the second of four children of The...
1861 May Editor and Author Thomas Jordan Spies for Confederacy
On May 22, 1861, Jordan resigned from the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a captain in the fledgling Confederate army. Promotion came rapidly, and by June 1861, he had become a lieutena...
1862 George Washington Morrison Nutt, aka 'Commodore Nutt' Appears at Barnum's American Museum
When Nutt was 17 years old he was brought to New York City to be exhibited at Barnum's American Museum that stood at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street. The museum, owned by P.T. Barnu...
1864 Jul 15 Shohola Train Wreck
The Great Shohola train wreck occurred on July 15, 1864 during the American Civil War on the broad gauge Erie Railroad 1½ miles west of Shohola, Pennsylvania and killed at least 60 people...
1865 Feb 24 Confederate Spy John Yates Beall Executed
John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 - February 24, 1865) was a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York and executed at Governors Island, New Yo...
1865 Jul 13 Barnum's American Museum Destroyed In Massive Fire
Music has ceased forever in Scudder's balcony, not because of rain but of fire. When Barnum's Museum burned, a few days since, one of the few interesting, and from Halleck's lines we may ...
1867 Dec 18 The Angola Horror
The bridge crossing the Big Sister creek is about a quarter of a mile east of the village of Angola. The train to which the accident happened was two hours late, having been detained by a...
1873 Apr 1 Sinking of the RMS Atlantic
On 20 March 1873 the Atlantic departed on her 19th voyage from Liverpool with 952 people onboard, of whom 835 were passengers. En route, the crew decided to make port at Halifax, Nova Sco...
1873 Nov 22 Wreck of the SS Ville du Havre
On 15 November 1873, the Ville du Havre sailed from New York with 313 passengers and crew on board, under the command of Captain Marino Surmonte. After a week's steaming across the Atlant...
1876 Dec 5 Brooklyn Theater Fire
Miss Kate Claxton reclined on a pallet of straw as she played the part of Louise, the blind girl in the popular melodrama of the times, “The Two Orphans.” It was shortly after 11 p.m., ju...
1878 Aug 21 Foundation of the American Bar Association
The ABA was founded on August 21,1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York, by 100 lawyers from 21 states. The legal profession as we know it today barely existed at that time. Lawyers were gen...
1884 Fedor Jeftichew, aka Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy, Begins Performing With P. T. Barnum
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1868, Fedor Jeftichew suffered from the medical condition hypertrichosis. He toured with his father, Adrian, who suffered from the same ailment and had p...
1884 Jun 6 Tesla arrives in the United States
On 6 June 1884, Tesla first arrived in the United States, in New York City with little besides a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a former employer. In the letter of recom...
1886 Oct 28 Statue of Liberty Dedicated
The Statue of Liberty National Monument officially celebrated her 100th birthday on October 28, 1986. The people of France gave the Statue to the people of the United States over one hund...
1891 Jan 26 'The Duchess of Padua' Opens in New York
Wilde finishes his second play, the five-act poetic drama The Duchess of Padua, and sends it off to an American manager who had contracted for it. But it is rejected both by the manager a...
1894 Houdini Meets Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner
When Houdini met Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner in 1894, she was performing as one of the Floral Sisters at the Sea Beach Palace in West Brighton Beach, New York. Married soon after they met,...
1897 Sep 21 "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" is Published in the New York Sun
The editorial was the New York Sun’s lyrical and timeless paean to childhood and the Christmas spirit, “Is There A Santa Claus?” It was written by Francis Pharcellus Church (photo right),...
1898 Nov 8 Theodore Roosevelt Elected Governor of New York
On leaving the Army, Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1898 as a Republican. He made such a concerted effort to root out corruption and "machine politics" that Republican boss...
1899 Jan 17 Al Capone Born
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Garden City, New York to Gabriel (December 12, 1864 – November 14, 1920) and Teresina Capone (December 28, 1867 – November 29, 1952), on January 17, 18...
1904 Jun 15 General Slocum Disaster
The General Slocum worked as a passenger ship, taking people on excursions around New York City. On Wednesday, June 15, 1904, the ship had been chartered for $350 by St. Mark's Evangelica...
1904 Dec 31 First New Year's Eve Celebration in Times Square, New York, NY
The first New Year's Eve celebration in what is now known as Times Square was held on New Year's Eve 1904. The New York Times had opened their new headquarters at One Times Square (at the...
1906 Nov 8 Fred A. Dobson Begins Filming The Skyscrapers Of New York
On November 8, 1906, cameraman Fred A. Dobson began filming The Skyscrapers of New York atop an uncompleted skyscraper at Broadway and 12th Street. The American Mutoscope and Biograph Com...
1911 Mar 25 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Women and girl machine operators jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors in groups of twos and threes into life nets and their bodies spun downward from the high windows of the bu...
1911 May 23 Dedication of New York Public Library
President William Howard Taft presided over the dedication of the New York Public Library on May 23, 1911. Built on the site of the Croton Reservoir, the immense marble Beaux-Arts stru...
1912 Jul 7 Houdini Performs Overboard Box Escape
Another one of Houdini's most famous publicity stunts (Dalton) was to escape from a nailed and roped packing crate after it had been lowered into the water. Houdini first performed the es...
1918 Jan 7 Houdini Performs Vanishing Elephant Illusion at New York's Hippodrome Theatre
When Houdini spread the "front" curtains and opened the "back" doors they were "faced" toward opposite wings. Jennie then strolled on stage, had her sugar with Houdini by the footlights a...