GenevaNYNY 1916 Apr 11 War correspondent and novelist Richard Harding Davis dies, in Mount Kisco. Apr 16 60,000 members of New York City's International Ladies' Garment Workers Union walk off the job. They will win ILGWU recognition, standardized collective bargaining agreements, and binding two-year contracts. Apr 22 Violinist-conductor Yehudi Menuhin is born in New York City. Apr 23 The Socialist Party, meeting in New York City, nominates Arthur E. Reimer and Caleb Harrison. Jun 12 The Ziegfeld Follies of 1916 opens at New York's New Amsterdam Theatre, featuring Will Rogers. July New York City's first comprehensive zoning ordinances are passed. Jul 2 Henrietta (Hetty) Howland Green, the richest woman in the United States, dies, in New York City leaving a $100,000,000 estate. Aug 7 3,000 members of New York City's Actors Equity Association (AEA) walk off the job. Aug 16 New York City's Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees (AASERE) walk off the job. Sep 6 Actors Equity members return to work, having gained a closed shop and an eight-performance week. Sep 17 AASERE workers return to their jobs, having gained little. Oct 6 Mystery writer Stanley Ellin is born in New York City. Oct 16 Margaret Sanger opens the first birth-control clinic, in Brooklyn. Nov 7 Jazz composer-pianist-trumpeter Joseph "Joe" Bushkin is born in New York City. City The New York Central & Harlem River Railroad switches all passenger traffic to Grand Central Terminal, carrying it through Spuyten Duyvil and along the Harlem River. ** Typhoid outbreaks cause the condemnation of Staten Island oyster beds. ** City resident Toyohiko Takami graduates from Cornell University Medical College. State A barn is built at the Shaker colony in Albany, to replace one recently destroyed by a fire. ** Buffalo clockmaker Myles Hughes completes the apostolic clock he began in 1881. ** Wyoming, New York, breath mint manufacturer and politician Martin Van Buren Ferris dies. ** Jell-O inventor Pearl Bixby Wait dies at the age of 42. Batavia When Grand Rapids, Michigan, railroad executive Daniel McCool dies, his widow Kate Fisher McCool returns to Batavia, her home town, to live with her mother Alice Fisher. ** Anna Dailey, owner of the Dailey Furniture Store and mother of pianist Monica Dailey, dies. Her daughter Anna takes over the business. Rochester The U. S. government turns down a request by the city for $500,000 to be used for port improvements. ** Residents of Charlotte approve the village's annexation by the city, which also annexes Lake Avenue, increasing its own size to 26.28 square miles. ** Claude Bragdon's Chamber of Commerce building opens. ** The Genesee River floods the downtown area. ** Nearly half (983) of those enrolled in the city's citizenship classes, are Italian. ** New York State Railways purchases new cars from the Cincinnati Car Company. These Peter Witt 1220 series cars are nicknamed submarines, due to a vague resemblance to German U-Boats. 1917 May An elevated line is completed to New York City's Jackson Heights neighborhood. Jun 12 The Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 opens at the New Amsterdam Theatre, features Eddie Cantor. Aug 3 Jazz composer, arranger, vocalist and trumpeter Charles James "Charlie"Jefferson is born in New York City. Aug 16 Rida Johnson Young and Sigmund Romberg's Maytime opens at New York's Shubert Theatre. Aug 28 Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome Kern's Leave It to Jane opens at New York's Longacre Theatre. Sep 19 New York's Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Railway interurban is reorganized as the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad. Sep 24 Jazz vocalist and bass player James H. "Jimmy" Butts is born in New York City. Sep 30 Jazz drummer-vocalist Bernard "Buddy" Rich is born, in Brooklyn. City The city begins drawing its water supply from the Catskill Mountains when the tunnel is completed. ** The co-op at 121 Madison, on 30th Street, is converted to rental apartments. ** Brooklyn politician John Francis Hylan, running on the Democratic ticket, defeats incumbent John Purroy Mitchel and Socialist Morris Hillquit to become mayor; serves 1918 1925. ** Richard F. Walsh starts as an apprentice electrician in Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Theater. ** Composer W. C. Handy arrives from Memphis, Tennessee. State Amateur archaeologist Max Schrabisch arrives in Woodstock and is suspected of being a German agent. He's vouched for by State Supreme Court judge Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater in Kingston. ** The former Protestant Reformed Dutch Church building in Geneva is sold by its owner, the Catholic Church, and becomes a Masonic Temple. ** A terminal building is built on the Champlain Canal at Whitehall (Skenesborough). It will become the Skenesborough Museum, site of today's Urban Cultural Park Visitor Center. ** The New York State Barge Canal opens, replacing the Erie. Batavia St. Jerome Hospital opens. ** The city's Brisbane Mansion is inspected, with an eye toward future municipal use. ** Troop A of the New York State Police is established. Rochester The city annexes the Lake Ontario port village of Charlotte. ** Nearly 1000 of the city's Italian population receive full citizenship. 1918 Feb 5 Batavia's Ellicott Hall, center of the village's government, burns to the ground, probably due to an overheated furnace. The mayor will move into temporary Ferris Street quarters and the superintendent of public works will move to the Municipal Building. Feb 6 Batavia's government records are found to be safe, in a basement vault. Mar 23 Builder Frank Homelius is given the contract to convert Batavia's Brisbane Mansion to a City Hall. May 10 The Barge Canal bypass at Rochester opens. Sep 28 The conversion of Batavia's Brisbane Mansion to a City Hall is completed, and the building is opened for public inspection. October Father Victor Fasella, pastor of Batavia's St. Anthony's Church, dies of influenza. November The Reverend William Kirby is named to replace Father Fasella. City Houses along St. John's Park are destroyed during a street-widening project. ** Anarchist Mollie Steimer is arrested for agitating against U. S. troop landings in Russia. ** Dr. Toyohiko Takami steps down as head of the Japanese Mutual Aid Society. State The New York State Barge Canal is completed. Downtown Utica is bypassed. Batavia Ely's European Restaurant is sold and the name is simplified to Ely's (later The Metropolitan). ** The Buffalo Cut Glass Company closes. ** George Day and his sister Alice Day Gardner change the name of their late father Harris Day's law firm, which they've run since his 1904 death, to Day and Gardner. Rochester Claude Bragdon is chosen to design Peterborough, Canada's Hunter Street Bridge. ** The city buys up resorts at Charlotte and converts the property into a public beach. David Minor Eagles Byte Historical Research Rochester, New York 716 264-0423 http://home.eznet.net/~dminor