Geneva1952Geneva
Jan 20
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier becomes engaged to Wall Street broker John G. W.
Husted, Jr.
Jan 21
William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of The New
Yorker.
Feb 29
New York City erects its first "Don't Walk" signs, in Times Square.
Mar 3
The U. S. Supreme Court, upholding a New York State law, bars political
subversives from teaching in public schools.
Apr 4
The United Nations Security Council meets in its new New York City
headquarters for the first time.
May 26
The Supreme Court lifts New York State's ban on the film The
Miracle.
June
The Genesee storage dam at Mount Morris is dedicated.
Jun 1
Philosopher-educator John Dewey, 92, dies in New York City.
Aug 17
Soprano Gianna Rolandi is born in New York City.
Aug 30
The Museum of Modern Art displays a model of R. Buckminster Fuller's
Geodesic Dome House.
Sep 30
The new Cinerama film projection process debuts in New York City.
Oct 7
The New York Yankees win their third World Series in a row, defeating
the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2.
Oct 22
Andre de Toth's film Springfield Rifle debuts in New
York City.
City
Gordon Bunshaft's Lever House is completed. ** The garden of the
London Terrace apartments is paved over and interrupted by architect
Philip Birnbaum's walkway. ** Art and architectural historian
Richard Krautheimer becomes a fullprofessor of art history at New York
University's Institute of Fine Arts. ** Forest Hills developer
Morton Pickman purchases Queens' Oakland Golf Club, intending to erect
high-rise apartments on the site. The plan is blocked. ** The
Knoedler Gallery sells its Charles M. Russell collection to Amon G.
Carter. ** The diaries of 19th century New York City lawyer and
music lover George Templeton Strong are published. ** Various
batteries of the 52nd Artillery Brigade are assigned to protect the
city area. ** City native George Jorgensen, Jr. travels to
Denmark to become the world's first sex change patient.
State
The Star Headlight & Lantern Company locates its electronics division
in Honeoye Falls. ** Troy's Rensselare County Historical Scoiety
moves into new quarters at the Hart-Cluett Mansion, given to the
organization by Albert E. Cluett.
Rochester
Orator Francis Woodward, Jr., son of the founder of the Genesee Pure
Food Company (Jello), dies in a fall from a window at the Hotel
Sheraton. ** Henry Clune's By His Own Hand, a
biography pf photography pioneer George Eastman. ** The city's
subway system eliminates Sunday and Holiday service and cuts back on
evening and Saturday service.
1953
Apr 10
House of Wax, the first feature-length 3-D movie in
color, premieres in New York City.
Apr 19
Mickey Mantle hits the longest recorded major league home run - 565
feet.
Jun 19
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed as spies at Ossining's Sing
Sing Prison.
October
Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine strikes out 14 New York Yankees,
breaking the World Series record set by Howard Ehmke in 1929.
Dec 25
Broadway producer Lee Shubert dies at the age of 78.
City
New York State assemblyman for Harlem Hulan E Jack is elected borough
president of Manhattan, the first black to hold the post. ** Pace
College moves into its new headqaurters in the former New York Times
building on Park Row. The school is authorized to grant BAs. **
Manhattan borough president Robert F. Waghe
Democratic ticket, defeats Republican Harold Riegelman and
Liberal-Independent Rudolph Halley to become mayor, serving
through1965. ** The Museum of Modern Art holds a major exhibition
of contemporary automobile design. ** Mad Bomber George Metesky
plants a bomb in Loew's Lexington Theatre. The bomb fails to go off and
is not discovered until 1957, nine months after Metesky's arrest.
State
Saratoga Springs' Grand Union Hotel is torn down. ** A new cutoff
for Route 5 reroutes traffic past Silver Creek.
Niagara Falls
The Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation sells its land by the
Love Canal to the Niagara School Board for $1.00. The deed includes a
disclaimer for chemical damage. The board will build a school on the
property.
Rochester
Port of Rochester exports 868,000 tons of coal.
1954
Jan 16
The final Broadway performance of South Pacific is
given, ending a four-and-a-half year run.
Feb 1
Edwin H. Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio, leaps to his death from
his New York City apartment.
Feb 6
The New York City Ballet performs George Ballanchine's production of
Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
Feb 7
Poet Maxwell Bodenheim, 64, and his wife Ruth, 33, are found murdered
in New York City's Greenwich Village, in the apartment of acquaintance
Harold Weinberg. Weinberg is convicted of their deaths and committed to
an asylum.
Feb 11
A 750,000-watt electric bulb is lit at Rockefeller Center, to celebrate
the 75th anniversary of Edison's first bulb.
Apr 3
Italian-born conductor Arturo Toscanini gives his farewell performance
as leader of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Apr 12
Bill Haley and the Comets record Thirteen Women and
(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock for Decca Records
at New York City's Pythian Temple Studio.
Apr 17
3,000 U. S. troops, out of Korea, land in New York City.
Apr 29
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is born in Brooklyn.
May 10
Automatic coffee makers are introduced, in New York City.
May 13
George Abbott's production of The Pajama Game opens on
Broadway.
May 19
Composer Charles Ives dies in New York City at the age of 79.
May 28
Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder premieres, in New
York City.
June
Mario M. Cuomo graduates from St. John's University.
Jun 5
Cuomo marries Matilda Raffa.
July
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club's Venture II defeats the Rochester Yacht
Club's Iskareen.
Jul 16
New York City police begin the use of a "drunkometer" to detect
intoxicated drivers.
Aug 10
Ground is broken for the Saint Lawrence Seaway, at Cornwall, Ontario,
and Massena, New York.
Aug 27
The New York State Thruway is completed.
Sep 6
Vic Seixas and Doris Hart win the U. S. singles tennis titles, at
Forest Hills.
Sep 8
Alan Freed begins a rock and roll program on New York City's radio
station WINS.
Sep 9
Marilyn Bell becomes the first person to swim across Lake Ontario.
Sep 27
The New York Giants' Willie Mays leads his team to the National League
pennant.
Sep 30
English musical comedy actress Julie Andrews makes her New York City
debut in The Boy Friend.
Oct 2
Leo Durocher's New York Giants defeat the Cleveland Indians to take the
World Series, a four game shutout.
Oct 20
Mary Martin opens in Peter Pan at Broadway's Winter
Garden Theater.
Nov 4
Harold Rome, S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan's Fanny,
based on stories by Marcel Pagnol, opens at Broadway's Majestic
Theater.
Nov 12
Ellis Island, the U. S. immigration station in New York City harbor,
closes.
Nov 22
Russia's United Nations spokesman Andrei Vishinsky dies in New York
City of an acute stenocardiac attack while preparing an address to the
General Assembly.
Dec 16
Giants baseball star Willie Mays is named Most Valuable Player.
Dec 18
An Italian Airways airliner crashes at New York City's Idlewild
Airport, killing 26 people.
City
The city begins a slum clearance project around Manhattan's Columbus
Circle. ** Construction is begun on the Coliseum. **
Gordon Bunshaft's Manufacturers Hanover Bank on Fifth Avenue at 43rd
Street is completed. ** Former child film star Freddie
Bartholomew goes to work for the Benton & Bowles advertising agency.
** New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams marries Barbara Barb. His
cartoon collection Home Bodies is published. **
Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg's film On the
Waterfront. ** The 52nd Artillery Brigade begins
receiving Nike Ajax missiles. ** Gian Carlo Menotti's opera
The Saint of Bleeker Street.
State
W. Averell Harriman is elected governor. ** Minneapolis wins the
National Basketball Association (NBA) title, defeating Syracuse 4 games
to 3.
Rochester
A total eclipse of the sun is seen. ** A Committee on Italian
Migration is formed in an attempt to draw craftsmen to the city from
Italy. ** The city annexes Chili's Fire and Police Academy,
Greece's School No. 38, and Brighton's School No. 48, incresing its own
size to 36.29 square miles.
Copyright 1997 David Minor / Eagles Byte
NYNY files through the year 1759 are now on the Eagles Byte WWW site:
http://home.eznet.net/~dminor
David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Rochester, New York
716 264-0423
http://home.eznet.net/~dminor