Fans of Frank Sinatra rioted at the Paramount Theater on Columbus Day 1944, at the height of his popularity.
Thirty thousand bobbysoxers rioted at the New York theater where Sinatra was performing.
It was reported that cries of “Frankie, Frankie!” could be heard blocks away.
In 1992, the words “Pan Am” were replaced by “MetLife” on the crown of the Pan Am Building at 200 Park Avenue, New York City. The change marked the final end of Pan American World Airways, which ceased operations in December 1991 but had housed offices in the building. It was also more accurate, since…
Yes, the man behind the “Sherman Anti-Trust Act” was related to the man behind “Sherman’s March to the Sea”. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, passed in 1890, was sponsored by John Sherman, the younger brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. It was the latter Sherman who, as a Union general, led the destructive march across Georgia in…
The slogan “Africa for the Africans at home and abroad” was made famous by Jamaica-born black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), who came to New York in 1916. Garvey built a mass movement calling for an end to oppression of blacks in Africa and the United States. Convicted of mail fraud (a charge he denied),…
John F. Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century, on May 29, 1917.
Emma Lazarus (1849-87), a New York Jewish poet, wrote the poem “The New Colossus” with its words, “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It was written in honor of the planned Statue of Liberty in 1883, but the poem was not part of the statue when it was…
Yes, an airplane has indeed crashed into the Empire State Building. On July 28, 1945, a U.S. Army bomber crashed into the New York landmark, killing 13.