New York

Today in History 08/15 (India Independence)

Leave a Comment
Jawaharlal Nehru salutes the flag as he becomes independent India's first prime minister on Aug 15, 1947 during the Independence Day ceremony at Red Fort, New Delhi, India (© AP)(1947) British Empire’s former ‘jewel in the crown’ breaks free
British Crown Rule ends in one of the most populous places on the planet, the vast, diverse country of India. Although the Dutch, Danish, and French were there before them, Britain has had a presence on the vast subcontinent since 1612. Today, however, India gains its freedom.
India, also called the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Founded: Aug 15, 1947
GDP: $2.85 trillion USD (2018)
Population: 1.34 billion (2017)
Calling code: 91
Area: 1.27 million sq miles
Travel tip: From the beaches of sun-soaked Goa to the frenetic bazaars of Mumbai, India offers wealth of vastly different, yet equally enthralling, experiences. Explore the sparkling lakes and palaces of Udaipur, watch traditional Indian dance in Kochi, or buy brilliantly-colored silk saris at a market in Varanasi… no matter how much you … @tripadvisor

India (orthographic projection)
Area controlled by India shown in dark green;claimed but uncontrolled regions shown in light green
wiki/India
4.13.j18

(1947) British Empire’s former ‘jewel in the crown’ breaks free.
Also on this day,

1483 | Consecration for a chapel with a heavenly view
Pope Sixtus IV consecrates a chapel in Rome after painters, including Botticelli, have finished their frescos. The ceiling, however, still needs a little work, and 25 years later a new pope will hire Michelangelo to paint what will be considered one of the greatest artworks of all time.
1914 | A channel carved through rock and jungle joins oceans
Thirty-three years of toil comes to a close as one of the greatest engineering achievements in human history, a 51-mile-long channel carved through the Isthmus of Panama, opens to maritime traffic. The new shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic will speed transport and remake the global economy.
1969 | Three days of peace and music begin in Bethel, New York
Max Yasgur’s farm fills with masses of music lovers as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair kicks off its first day. Before the event is through, 400,000 will revel in rainstorms and mud, some of history’s best rock bands will jam, and a counterculture will consider itself transformed.

Today in History 08/15/17

Opening of the Panama Canal when the American Steamship SS Ancon entered the Pedro Miguel locks from Culebra Cut, Panama, Aug 15, 1914 (© PhotoQuest/Getty Images)(1914) A channel carved through rock and jungle joins oceans
Thirty-three years of toil comes to a close as one of the greatest engineering achievements in human history, a 51-mile-long channel carved through the Isthmus of Panama, opens to maritime traffic. The new shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic will speed transport and remake the global economy.
The Panama Canal is an artificial 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 metres above sea level, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 33.5 metres wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo.
Length: 47.90 miles (77.10 km)
Bridges: Bridge of the Americas · Centennial Bridge, Panama · Atlantic Bridge, Panama
Panama Canal Map
Map of the Panama Canal

wiki/Panama_Canal
4.4.j17


Today in History 08/11 (Watts Riots)

Leave a Comment
Fires burn in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood during the fourth day of rioting and looting that began on Aug 11, 1965 (© Bettmann/Corbis)(1965) South Central Los Angeles engulfed in flames and rioting
Spurred by poverty, racism, and tension between residents and the city’s police, riots break out in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood. Lasting six days, the worst rioting yet seen in the city’s history will count more than 3,000 people arrested, over 1,000 injured, and 34 dead.
The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion, took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, an African-American motorist on parole for robbery, was pulled over for reckless driving. A minor roadside argument broke out, and then escalated into a fight with police. False rumors spread that the police had hurt a pregnant woman, and six days of looting and arson followed. Los Angeles police needed the support of nearly 4,000 members of the California Army National Guard to quell the riots, which resulted in 34 deaths and over $40 million in property damage. The riots were blamed principally on police racism. It was the city’s worst unrest until the Rodney King riots of 1992.
Start date: Aug 11, 1965
End date: Aug 16, 1965

Burning buildings during Watts Riots
Burning buildings during the riots
wiki/Watts_riots
4.13.j18

(1965) South Central Los Angeles engulfed in flames and rioting.
Also on this day,

1973 | DJ Kool Herc’s Bronx party kick-starts hip-hop music
Clive ‘Kool Herc’ Campbell is throwing a party in the rec room of his South Bronx, New York, apartment building and he plays dance music on the ‘Merry Go Round,’ two manually-controlled turntables. It’s a great success, and DJ Kool Herc will be hailed by many as the father of hip-hop.
1973 | ‘American Graffiti’ cruises into theaters
Writer/director George Lucas takes moviegoers back to the early 1960s with stories of drive-ins, high-school sock hops, and cruising the strip. The cast includes Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Mackenzie Phillips, and Cindy Williams, as well as a cameo from another future TV star.
2016 | Japan first celebrates Mountain Day
A law passed two years earlier takes effect, and Mountain Day is an official holiday in Japan. The idea came from hiking groups who wanted a holiday to celebrate the country’s terrain and geography. This date (8/11) was chosen since the Kanji character for 8 looks like a mountain, and 11 looks like two trees.

Today in History 08/11/17

German flags in front of the of Reichstag building in Berlin (© Westend61/Getty Images)(1919) From the ashes of war Germany's first democracy emerges
A constitutional assembly in Weimar, Germany, adopts a parliamentary democracy, the first in the country's history, replacing centuries of imperial rule. The massive chaos and loss caused by German defeat in World War I has led to the Weimar Republic, but Nazi rule is less than 15 years away.
Weimar Republic was an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich; it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was usually known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, and adopted on 11 August 1919. In its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, as well as contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country's defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, and organized the railway system. Weimar Germany fulfilled most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles although it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the western borders of the republic, but continued to dispute the Eastern border.
Founded: Nov 09, 1918
Dissolved: 1933
Population: 62.41 million (1925)
Area: 181,000 sq miles (468,787 km²)
Capital: Berlin
Official language: German
Map of the German Reich, (Republic of Weimar/Third Reich) 1919–1937
Map of the German Reich, (Republic of Weimar/Third Reich) 1919–1937

wiki/Weimar_Republic
4.4.j17


Daily Pic 07/26/18 (Letchworth State Park)

Leave a Comment
Posnov/Moment/Getty Images

Exploring the wilder side of New York

New York state isn’t all skyscrapers and teeming crowds. The Empire State is home to a diverse geography, including some remarkably scenic places that were around back on July 26, 1788, when New York officially joined the Union. In honor of New York’s statehood day, we’re at Letchworth State Park, a picturesque expanse near Rochester that follows the Genesee River some 17 miles through a deep gorge that’s known as the ‘Grand Canyon of the East.’

Daily Pic 07/26/17

Wilson Peak
© Grant Ordelheide/Tandem Stills + Motion

Wilson Peak seen from Alta, a ghost town in Colorado



Today in History 07/26 (New York Statehood)

Leave a Comment
A parade in New York City celebrating the ratification of the Constitution on July 26, 1788 (© MPI/Getty Images)(1788) New York is 11th state to ratify the Constitution
Influenced in part by Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers, New York delegates vote 30-27 to ratify the federal Constitution. The Constitution will go into effect that September with the remaining two states ratifying within two years.
New York is a state in the northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.8 million residents in 2015, it is the fourth-most-populous state in the United States. To differentiate it from the city of the same name, it is sometimes called New York State.
Website: www.ny.gov
Population: 19.85 million (2017)
Area: 54,556 sq miles
Colleges and universities: Columbia University · New York University · Cornell University · Syracuse University · Rockefeller University · United States Military Academy · Binghamton University · University at Albany, SUNY · Hamilton College · University at Buffalo · Fordham University · Sarah Lawrence College · Stony Brook University · University of Rochester
Capital: Albany
Senators: Kirsten Gillibrand · Chuck Schumer
Governor: Andrew Cuomo

NY State Flag
Flag of New York
NY State Seal
Seal of New York
wiki/New_York
4.13.j18

(1788) New York is 11th state to ratify the Constitution.
Also on this day,

1908 | Roosevelt and Bonaparte bring about a bureau
United States Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, acting on ideas he’d hashed out with President Teddy Roosevelt, has hired staff for a new bureau, and today he officially orders them to report to the Chief Examiner. This will later be marked as the start of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI.
1951 | ‘Alice in Wonderland’ premieres
A daydreaming Alice gives chase to a white rabbit sporting a dapper waistcoat, following him down a rabbit hole and into movie history as Disney premieres its 13th animated film, based on Lewis Carroll’s books. Initially panned, it will come to be regarded as one of the best ‘Alice’ film adaptations.
1975 | Disco era hustles onto the scene with a chart-topper, ‘The Hustle’
Inspired by a line dance already popular in Manhattan discotheques, songwriter Van McCoy’s mostly instrumental homage hits the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. ‘The Hustle’ will kick-start disco music’s rise, win a Grammy, and become one of the definitive grooves of the ’70s.

Today in History 07/26/17

Charles Bonaparte in 1903 (Public domain)(1908) Roosevelt and Bonaparte bring about a bureau
United States Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, acting on ideas he'd hashed out with President Teddy Roosevelt, has hired staff for a new bureau, and today he officially orders them to report to the Chief Examiner. This will later be marked as the start of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, formerly the Bureau of Investigation, is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.
Website: fbi.gov
Founders: Theodore Roosevelt · J. Edgar Hoover · Charles Joseph Bonaparte
Address: 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20535
Customer service: +1 800-225-5324
Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Seal of the FBI
FBI Field Divisions Map
FBI Field Divisions Map

wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation
4.3.j17