Categories
Health and Living

Earth Day in New York City 1970

Mayor John Lindsay pulled out all the stops for the first official Earth Day on April 22, 1970, with such a show that one could be mistaken in the belief that the holiday was created here. (It was officially sanctioned in San Francisco the year before.) In honor of the inaugural environmental holiday, Lindsay authorized Fifth Avenue closed… Read More

Categories
Mad Men

‘Mad Men’ notes: The numbing horror of the New Haven line

The train gang: Grand Central Terminal, 1961, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt (LIFE images) WARNING The article contains a couple spoilers about last night’s ‘Mad Men’ on AMC. If you’re a fan of the show, come back once you’re watched the episode. But these posts are about a specific element of New York history from the… Read More

Categories
Queens History

Mitt Romney visits the New York World’s Fair, May 1964

Apparently there’s some controversy involving the latest campaign ad from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.  The ad, aimed at Michigan primary voters, displays the photograph at top while Mitt’s voiceover discusses ‘going to the Detroit auto show’. That may have just been some unfortunate sound editing, as Mitt was not in Detroit, but rather at the New York… Read More

November ’65: The night the lights went out in New York

ABOVE: Liberty keeps her lights on during the blackout of November 9, 1965Photos courtesy Life Magazine, via the Blackout History Project Forty-five years ago, during the 5pm rush hour, the entire American Northeast and parts of Canada were attacked by Unidentified Flying Objects from outer space who used their intergalactic powers to cause an electrical… Read More