Geneva1949Geneva Jan 16 The television dramatic anthology ABC Television Players, premieres, fed to New York from Chicago via coaxial cable. 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. 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. 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. State Arch Merrill's Land of the Senecas is published. ** The wings added to Geneva's Nester House (Geneva-on-the-Lake) are completed. ** Abner Lakey's 1832 Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra is restored. Buffalo Joseph Mruk is elected the city's first Polish-American mayor. 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. 1950 Jan 3 The temperature reaches 58 degrees in New York City. Mar 14 New York City hires a rainmaker. 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. Sep 7 Batavia's Holland Land Office is re-opened as the Holland Purchase Historical Society's headquarters. City Mayor William O'Dwyer resigns to become ambassador to Mexico. City council president Vincent J. Impellitteri is named actring 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 Rosiere joins Cartier. ** London's Hambro Trading Corporation opens the Hambro House of Design on 54th Street, to sell fine European furniture, houehold 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. 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. Batavia Mary Sweetland closes her Berry Patch restaurtant. Buffalo Television station WBEN-TV (WVIB today) discontunes the use of footage of Myles Hughes' Apostolic Clock to begin its Sunday broadcast day. ** Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building is demolished for a parking lot. Rochester Sam Urzetta wins the national amateur golf championship. ** The city annexes more land for an arport extension, incresing its own size to 36.19 square miles. Syracuse The approximate date the Leavenworth House, at the corner of James and McBride Streets, is demolished. 1951 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 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 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. 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. 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 Julliard, 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. 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 premieres. 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 2,00 people - the Brighton Disaster. 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. 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. 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 sercretary of state, dies, donating the family home in Auburn to the public. ** The Hall of Fame of the Trotter opens in a Goshen former stable. Batavia Batavia Hospital changes its name to Genesee Memorial Hospital. ** Lawyer Alice Day Gardenr 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. Rochester A citizens' committee explores the use of federal funds for urban development of the Crossroads area. Copyright 1997 David Minor / Eagles Byte NYNY files through the year 1754 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