Manhattan History Timeline

• 1610-06-10 1st Dutch settlers arrive (from NJ), to colonize Manhattan Island
• 1626-05-06 Dutch colonist Peter Minuit organizes the purchase of Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of goods, believed to have been Canarsee Indians of the Lenape
• 1654-08-22 Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam (modern day Manhattan) aboard the Peartree, one of the first Jewish colonists
• 1728-12-17 Congregation Shearith Israel of New York purchases a lot on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan to build the city's first synagogue
• 1730-04-08 Congregation Shearith Israel opens the 1st North American synagogue in New York City on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan
• 1751-04-29 The New York Gazette and Post Boy carries first public report of a cricket match played in America; New York XI v London XI on the site of what is today the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan, NYC
• 1770-01-19 Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan)
• 1776-08-29 Americans withdraw from Manhattan to Westchester
• 1776-08-30 Continental Army evacuates Long Island and falls back to Manhattan, NYC
• 1776-09-15 British forces capture Kip's Bay, Manhattan, during Revolution
• 1799-09-01 Bank of Manhattan Company opens in NYC (forerunner to Chase Manhattan)
• 1844-09-25 Canada defeats USA by 23 runs in the first cricket international match at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in Manhattan, NYC
• 1845-04-18 Whaling ship the Manhattan captained by Mercator Cooper is the first ship officially permitted visit Edo, Japan, in 220 years rescuing shipwrecked sailors

• 1855-05-05 New York State Commission on Emigration assumes lease of Castle Garden (now known as Castle Clinton), at the lower tip of Manhattan, to be used for immigration [1]
• 1877-09-20 Chase National Bank opens in NYC (later merges into Chase Manhattan)
• 1882-03-03 NY Steam Corp begins distributing steam to Manhattan buildings
• 1895-06-17 US Ship Canal (W 225th St) in the Bronx completed; cutting Marble Hill off from Manhattan
• 1896-08-07 New Jersey fishermen George Harbo and Frank Samuelson are the first to row across the Atlantic arriving in Le Havre (left Manhattan June 6) [1]
• 1900-03-24 New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• 1903-04-30 NY Highlanders (Yankees) inaugural home opener at Hilltop Park, Manhattan; beat Washington Senators, 6-2
• 1903-12-19 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn and Manhattan
• 1904-10-27 First section of New York subway - Lower Manhattan to Broadway Harlem, opened by Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), fare one nickel

• 1909-03-30 New York's Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens
• 1909-06-09 Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the 1st woman to drive across the US, in a Maxwell 30, drives 3,800 miles from Manhattan to San Francisco in 59 days
• 1911-04-13 Polo Grounds grandstand & left field bleachers go up in flames in Manhattan, New York City
• 1919-01-25 The Hotel Pennsylvania, at the time the world's largest, opens in Manhattan
• 1922-10-05 NY Yankees and NY Giants play out a controversial 3-3 tie in 10 innings in Game 2 of Baseball World Series at Polo Grounds, Manhattan, NYC; Giants win series, 4-0-1
• 1930-02-26 1st red & green traffic lights installed in Manhattan, NYC
• 1932-12-27 Radio City Music Hall, designed by Edward Durell Stone and Donald Deskey opens at Rockerfeller Center in Manhattan, New York City
• 1936-07-11 Triborough Bridge linking Manhattan, Bronx and Queens opens
• 1937-12-22 Lincoln Tunnel, under the Hudson River, opens to traffic, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan, New York City
• 1940-11-15 NY Midtown tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opens to traffic
• 1940-11-18 George Matesky, New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.

• 1948-01-15 Richard Lewine, Hassard Short, and Arnold Horwitt's musical comedy revue "Make Mine Manhattan", featuring Broadway debut of Sid Caesar opens at Broadhurst Theater, NYC; runs for 429 performances
• 1949-01-08 "Make Mine Manhattan" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 429 performances
• 1951-01-10 UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY
• 1953-12-31 Hulan Jack sworn in as Manhattan Borough president
• 1955-03-31 Merger of Chase National Bank (3rd largest bank) and Bank of the Manhattan Company (15th largest bank) forms Chase Manhattan
• 1956-01-27 NFL's New York Giants move their home from the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan to Yankee Stadium in The Bronx
• 1956-03-03 Manhattan Borough President Hulan Jack makes plans for a new 110,000-seat stadium to entice Giants to stay in NY
• 1958-05-22 Influential modernist skyscraper the Seagram Building designed by Mies van der Rohe officially opens in Manhattan, New York
• 1964-04-10 Demolition begins in Upper Manhattan, New York City on Polo Grounds sports stadium (home to MLB Giants, 1891-1957, Mets, 1962-63, and NFL Jets, 1960-63) to clear way for housing project

• 1965-02-23 Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough president
• 1968-03-08 Bill Graham's New York rock venue Fillmore East opens in Manhattan
• 1973-04-03 1st mobile phone call is made in downtown Manhattan, NYC by Motorola employee Martin Cooper to the Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey
• 1982-06-22 Manhattan institutes bus-only lanes
• 1983-09-07 Drury Gallagher sets fastest swim around Manhattan (6h41m35s)
• 1985-10-15 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
• 1989-09-19 Chase Manhattan Discovery Center at Brooklyn Botanic Garden opens

• 1991-08-07 Manhattan Cable final day of amnesty to return illegal cable boxes

• 1994-10-29 National Museum of American Indian joins the Smithsonian Institution and moves to the George Gustav Heye Center in Lower Manhattan (NYC) [1]
• 1995-03-16 Manhattan upsets 4th seeded Oklahoma 77-67
• 2005-06-28 A final design for Manhattan's Freedom Tower is formally unveiled

• 2016-01-15 American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan unveils newest exhibit replica skeleton of a Titanosaur dinosaur (found 2010 Argentina), largest known dinosaur at 70 tons, 37m

• 2021-04-21 Manhattan district attorney's office announces it will no longer prosecute prostitution, dismissing 914 open cases, part of growing movement to change approach to prostitution
• 2021-11-29 British socialite and former girlfriend of Jeffery Epstein Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty of sex trafficking in a federal court in Manhattan [1]
• 2022-05-23 New York City removes its last public payphones in Midtown Manhattan, they will become part of a museum display [1]

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 124

• 1808-02-25 James Bowen, American Major General (Union Army), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1886)
• 1813-04-18 James McCune Smith, African-American doctor and abolitionist, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1865)
• 1837-05-28 Tony Pastor, American vaudeville performer, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1908)
• 1853-02-18 August Belmont Jr., American financier (construction of New York subway, NY Jockey Club), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1924)
• 1856-03-09 Eddie Foy Sr. [Edwin Fitzgerald], Irish-American actor, singer and dancer (A Favorite Fool), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1928)
• 1868-06-20 Helen Miller Shepard, American philanthropist who established Hall of Fame, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1938)
• 1869-01-23 Herbert David Croly, American author (Promise of American Life), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1930)
• 1869-02-27 Alice Hamilton, American physician, scientist and social advocate (workmen's compensation laws, occupational illnesses), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1970) [1]
• 1873-12-30 Alfred "Al" Smith, American politician, 4 time Governor of New York (1919-20 and 1923-28), and 1st Catholic nominee for US President (1928), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1944)
• 1880-05-16 Julius Tannen, American vaudeville comedian (Great Moment), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1965)
• 1881-07-02 Royal H. Weller, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1929)
• 1885-10-03 Langley Collyer, American hoarder, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1947)
• 1888-10-03 Roy Webb, American film score composer (films of Val Lewton), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1982)

• 1894-02-07 Joe Devlin, American actor (Sam-Dick Tracy), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1973)
• 1895-12-20 Susanne Langer, American philosopher and educator (Philosophy in a New Key), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1985)
• 1898-05-25 Bennett Cerf, American publisher (Random House) and panelist (What's My Line), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1971)
• 1900-02-28 Laura Z. Hobson, American writer (Gentleman's Agreement), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1986)
• 1900-11-13 Edward Buzzell, American film director (Child of Manhattan), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1985)
• 1907-07-04 Howard Taubman, American music and theater critic, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1996)
• 1907-08-14 Stanley Adams, American lyricist and songwriter (What a Diff'rence a Day Makes), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1994)
• 1909-01-15 Elie Siegmeister, American composer (The Plough and the Stars), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1991)
• 1909-06-25 Daniel Fuchs, American screenwriter (Summer in Williamsburg), born in Lower East Side, Manhattan (d. 1993)
• 1910-05-26 Laurance Rockefeller, American CEO (Chase Manhattan Bank) and philanthropist, born in New York City (d. 2004)
• 1910-08-01 Walter Scharf, American film composer (Jerry Lewis movies; The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2003)

• 1911-07-15 Robert H. Harris, American actor (Jake-The Goldbergs, Mirage), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1981)
• 1915-06-12 David Rockefeller, American CEO (Chase Manhattan Bank) and philanthropist, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1916-03-13 Jacque Fresco, American industrial designer and founder of the Venus Project, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1917-04-02 Lou Monte [Scaglione], Italian-American novelty song singer-songwriter (Peppino the Italian Mouse; Dominick the Donkey), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1989)
• 1917-04-28 Robert Anderson, American writer (Tea & Sympathy, I Never Sang for My Father), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2009)
• 1917-11-04 Leonardo Cimino, Italian-American actor (The Monster Squad, V, Dune, Waterworld, Hudson Hawk), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2012)
• 1918-03-03 Arnold Newman, American photographer (Faces USA), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2006)

• 1919-01-03 Herbie Nichols, American jazz pianist and composer ("Lady Sings the Blues"), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1963)
• 1920-01-14 George Herman, American journalist (CBS-TV), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2005)
• 1920-02-06 James H. Scheuer, American politician (Rep-D-NY, 1965-73, 75- 93), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2005)
• 1920-09-19 Roger Angell, American literary editor and baseball journalist (The New Yorker), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2022)
• 1920-10-24 Julius Youngner, American scientist, helped develop Salk polio vaccine, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1920-12-04 Ray Robinson, American magazine editor and biographer (Lou Gehrig), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1921-11-08 Douglas Townsend, American composer, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2012)

• 1922-11-05 Violet Barclay, American illustrator, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2010)
• 1923-04-20 Tito Puente, American mambo and Latin jazz bandleader ("Oye Como Va"), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2000)
• 1924-02-20 Gloria Vanderbilt, American fashion designer, artist, heiress and socialite, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2019)

• 1925-10-20 Tom Dowd, American recording engineer and producer (innovator of multitrack recording), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2002)
• 1925-11-18 William Mayer, American composer (A Death in the Family; Brief Candle; Octagon), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1925-12-22 Lewis Glucksman, American financier, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2006)
• 1927-11-08 Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., American magazine publisher (Parade, Vogue, Vanity Fair), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1928-01-30 Harold Prince, American producer and director (West Side Story, Evita), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2019)
• 1928-03-29 Vincent Gigante, Italian-American mafioso, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2005)
• 1928-04-04 Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian (Estelle Costanza - Seinfeld; Toy Story), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2022)

• 1928-08-23 Marian Seldes, American actress (A Delicate Balance, Father's Day), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2014)
• 1928-12-12 Helen Frankenthaler, American abstract expressionist artist (Arden), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2011)
• 1929-04-04 Patricia McBride Lousada, American ballerina (Ballet Society/ New York City Ballet, 1946-51), and cookbook author (Pasta Italian Style), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2019)
• 1929-05-17 George Weinberg, American psychotherapist (coined "homophobia"), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1929-09-15 Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist who predicted quarks (1969 Nobel Prize for Physics for theory of elementary particles), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2019)
• 1929-10-28 John Hollander, American poet and literary critic, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2013)
• 1929-11-14 Gilbert Rogin, American journalist and author (The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1930-09-04 Norman Dorsen, American lawyer, human rights advocate and president of the American Civil Liberties Union, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1931-04-26 Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent, manager and producer (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2008)

• 1932-06-14 Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, American pianist, arranger, jazz and classical composer (For Bird, With Love), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2004)
• 1935-01-29 Roger Payne American biologist, environmentalist, and whale conservationist (Songs of the Humpback Whale), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2023) [1]
• 1939-02-11 Jane Yolen, American sci-fi and children's literature author and poet (Spider Jane; Heart's Blood), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1939-05-07 Johnny Maestro, American rock vocalist (Crests - "16 Candles"; Brooklyn Bridge), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2010)
• 1939-08-02 Benjamin Barber, American political theorist (Jihad vs. McWorld), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1940-02-04 Theodore "Ted" Stanley, American anesthesiologist and medical entrepreneur (created the fentanyl lollipop), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
• 1940-05-05 Lance Henriksen, American actor (Aliens; Pumpkinhead; Knights; Hard Target), born in Manhattan, New York City
• 1940-09-11 Tom Gallagher, American diplomat, gay activist, and 1st Foreign Service officer to publicly come out in 1976, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2018)
• 1940-11-06 Ruth Messinger, Manhattan Borough President and President of the American Jewish World Service, born in New York City
• 1941-04-27 Jennings Michael Burch, American writer (They Cage the Animals at Night), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2013)

• 1942-09-22 David Stern, American basketball executive (NBA commissioner 1984-2014; longest-tenured commissioner in history of major North American sports leagues), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2020)
• 1942-09-23 Jeremy Steig, American jazz flutist ("Howlin' for Judy"; "Wayfaring Stranger"), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2016)
• 1944-04-05 Peter T. King, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from New York, born in Manhattan, New York
• 1944-06-14 Laurie Colwin, American author (Happy All the Time), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1992)
• 1944-07-04 Harvey Brooks [Goldstein], American rock, blues, and folk session bassist (Bob Dylan; The Electric Flag), and record producer (Karen Dalton), born in Manhattan, New York

• 1946-09-24 Jerry Donahue, American guitarist and producer (Fairport Convention; The Hellecasters), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1947-03-08 Carole Bayer Sager, American singer-songwriter ("On My Own"; "That's What Friends Are For"), and wife of Burt Bacharach, born in Manhattan, New York
• 1947-06-28 Mark Helprin, American writer (A Soldier of the Great War), born in Manhattan, New York

• 1952-01-20 Paul Stanley [Stanley Eisen], American rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer (KISS - "Rock and Roll All Nite"), born in Manhattan, New York City
• 1952-09-19 Rhys Chatham, American guitarist, trumpeter, and composer (An Angel Moves Too Fast To See; A Crimson Grail), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1953-10-14 Shelley Ackerman, American astrologer, writer and singer, born in Manhattan, New York
• 1955-02-18 Tim Hankinson, American soccer coach (Alabama A&M, Syracuse University; Tampa Bay Mutiny, Colorado Rapids), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2022)
• 1955-08-02 Caleb Carr, American novelist and military historian, born in Manhattan, New York
• 1956-07-28 Carol Higgins Clark, American suspense novelist (Regan Reilly series), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2023)
• 1956-07-30 Soraida Martinez, American painter and creator of Verdadism, born in Manhattan, New York
• 1956-08-04 Gerry Cooney, American boxer (5 x World Heavyweight title loser), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1956-09-11 Tony Gilroy, American screenwriter and director (Bourne), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1959-03-09 Lonny Price, American actor (Muppets Take Manhattan), born in New York City
• 1960-09-14 Melissa Leo, American actress (All My Children), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1961-05-08 Bill de Blasio, American politician and NYC Mayor (2014-21), born in Manhattan, New York
• 1961-06-06 Sydney Walsh, American actress (Maureen "Mo" DeMott in Hooperman), born in Manhattan, New York

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