Timeline of New York City

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of New York City, New York, United States of America.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 18th century

Main article: History of New York City (prehistory–1664)

• 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to see New York Harbor arrives and names it Nouvelle-Angoulême.
• 1614 – Dutch settle on Manhattan Island.
• 1623 – Dutch fort built.
• 1625 – New Amsterdam is founded by the Dutch West India Company.
• 1626 – Lenape sell Manhattan Island to Dutch.
• 1643 – Kieft's War between Lenape or Wappinger and Dutch colonists. Events partially took place within what would become the five boroughs.
• 1652 – City of New Amsterdam incorporated.
• 1653 – "Burgher government" established.
• 1656 – Streets laid out.
• 1664 – September 24 – New Amsterdam is ceded by Peter Stuyvesant to England who renamed it New York after James, Duke of York.
• 1665 – June 12: Thomas Willett was appointed as the city's 1st mayor.
• 1666 – Thomas Delavall was appointed as the city's 2nd mayor.
• 1667
  • Town becomes part of England per Treaty of Breda (1667).
  • Thomas Willett became mayor for the 2nd time, and only the 3rd overall mayor of the city.
• 1668
  • First yellow fever epidemic in the city.
  • Cornelius Van Steenwyk was appointed as the 4th mayor of the city.
• 1672 – Boston Post Road constructed.
• 1673 – The Dutch regain New York, renaming it "New Orange".
• 1674 – The Dutch cede New York permanently to England after the Third Anglo-Dutch War, per Treaty of Westminster (1674).
• 1678 – Thomas Delavall was reappointed as mayor for the 3rd and last time, and 11th overall.
• 1691 – Fish market established.
• 1696 – King's Arms coffee house in business.
• 1698 – Population: 4,937.

18th century

Main articles: New Amsterdam and History of New York City (1665–1783)

• 1702 – Yellow fever epidemic kills more than 500 people.
• 1703 – Federal Hall, New York's city hall, built.
• 1712 – April: New York Slave Revolt of 1712.
• 1723 – Population: 7,248.
• 1733 – New York Weekly Journal begins publication.
• 1735 – Paul Richard became the city's 38th mayor.
• 1752 – St. George's Chapel built.
• 1754 – King's College established.
• 1756 – Population: 13,046.
• 1762 – Queen's Head Tavern in business.
• 1765 – October: Stamp Act Congress meets in city.
• 1766 – St. Paul's Chapel built.
• 1767 – John Street Theatre opens.
• 1771 – New York Hospital founded.
• 1774 – Population: 22,861.
• 1776
  • David Mathews became the city's 43rd mayor.
  • July 9: Statue of George III demolished at Bowling Green.
  • August 27: Continental Army routed by British troops in the Battle of Long Island, aka the Battle of Brooklyn.
  • September 15: British troops capture lower Manhattan following the Landing at Kip's Bay.
  • September 15: American troops stand off British troops in Battle of Harlem Heights.
  • September 21: Approximately 1000 houses, a quarter of the city, are destroyed in a fire a week after British troops captured the city during the American Revolution. Arson is speculated (with George Washington and the British being among those blamed) and, during a round-up of suspicious persons by British forces, Nathan Hale is arrested.
  • September 22: Execution of Nathan Hale.
  • November 16: Battle of Fort Washington; British in power.
• 1778 – August 3: Fire near Cruger's Wharf destroys 64 homes.
• 1783 – November 25: British troops depart; New Yorkers celebrate Evacuation Day, the day George Washington returned to the city and the last British forces left the United States.
• 1785 – New York Manumission Society founded.
• 1787
  • October 27: The Federalist Papers begin publication.
  • New-York African Free-School founded.
• 1789
  • Richard Varick became the city's 45th mayor.
  • March: 1st United States Congress begins.
  • April 30: Inauguration of Washington as U.S. president.
• 1790
  • February: Supreme Court of the United States convenes.
  • Population: 33,131.
• 1794 – Minor yellow fever epidemic leads to creation of Bellevue Hospital.
• 1795 – Yellow fever epidemic kills 732 between July 19 and October 12, from a total population of about 50,000.
• 1796
  • Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church founded.
  • December 9: The "Coffee House Slip Fire" burns from the foot of Wall Street and East River to Maiden Lane.
• 1797 – Newgate Prison built.
• 1798
  • The "great epidemic", a major yellow fever epidemic, kills 2086 people from late July to November. Epidemics occur in several other years, but this was the worst of them all.
  • New Theatre opens.

19th century

1800s–1840s

Main article: History of New York City (1784–1854)

• 1800 – Population: 60,489.
• 1801 – New York Evening Post newspaper begins publication.
• 1802 – American Academy of the Fine Arts founded.
• 1804 – New–York Historical Society founded.
• 1805 – Yellow fever epidemic occurs, during which as many as 50,000 people are said to have fled the city.
• 1807 – College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York established.
• 1809
  • Abyssinian Baptist Church established.
  • Irving's fictional History of New York published.[14]
• 1810 – Scudder's American Museum in business.
• 1811
  • May 19: Close to 100 buildings burn down on Chatham Street.
  • Commissioners' Plan of 1811 lays out the Manhattan grid between 14th Street and Washington Heights.
• 1812 – New York City Hall built.
• 1816 – American Bible Society founded.
• 1817 – New York Stock & Exchange Board established.
• 1818 – Lyceum of Natural History established.
• 1819 – Yellow fever epidemic occurs.
• 1820 – Apprentices' Library established.
• 1821
  • September 3: Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane causes a storm surge of 13 ft in one hour, leading to widespread flooding south of Canal Street, but few deaths are reported. The hurricane is estimated to have been a Category 3 event and to have made landfall at Jamaica Bay.
  • African Grove theatre founded.
• 1822 – Last major outbreak of yellow fever in the city occurs.
• 1824
  • May 15: The boiler of steamship Aetna explodes as the ship is en route in New York Harbor. At least 10 passengers are killed, and many more seriously injured.
• 1825
  • Juvenile House of Refuge begins operating.
  • Population: 166,136.
  • Up the Hudson River, Erie Canal begins operating.
• 1826 – Lord & Taylor clothier in business.
• 1827 – Delmonico's cafe in business.
• 1828 – American Institute of the City of New York founded.
• 1831 – University of the City of New York incorporated.
• 1832 – Cholera pandemic reaches North America. It breaks out in New York City on June 26, peaks at 100 deaths per day during July, and finally abates in December. More than 3500 people die in the city, many in the lower-class neighborhoods, particularly Five Points. Another 80,000 people, one third of the population, are said to have fled the city during the epidemic.
• 1833 – Harper & Brothers publisher in business.
• 1834
  • July: Anti-abolitionist riots (1834).
  • Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color held.
  • Park Avenue Tunnel (roadway) opens.
  • Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence becomes mayor.
• 1835
  • December 16: New York Stock Exchange and hundreds of other buildings are destroyed by the Great Fire, which rages for two days in the Financial District. Efforts to stop the fire are limited by sub-zero temperatures, which freeze water in hoses, wells, and the East River. Twenty-three insurance companies are wiped out by the resulting claims.
  • School of Law of the University of the City of New York established.
• 1836
  • Union Theological Seminary founded.
  • Astor House hotel in business.
• 1838
  • Rutger's Institute established.
  • Halls of Justice built.
  • Tombs Prison begins operating.
• 1839
  • Astor Library founded.
  • Sunday Mercury newspaper begins publication.
• 1841
  • July 25: Mary Cecilia Rogers, a young woman known popularly as "The Beautiful Cigar Girl", disappeared and her dead body was found floating in the Hudson River three days later. The details surrounding the case suggested she was murdered. The death of this well-known person received national attention for weeks. The story became immortalized by Edgar Allan Poe in his story "The Mystery of Marie Roget". Despite intense media interest and an attempt to solve the enigma by Poe, the crime remains one of the most puzzling unsolved murders of New York City.
• 1842
  • Croton Aqueduct begins operating.
  • Barnum's American Museum and Dodworth dancing school in business.
  • Philharmonic Society of New York and Board of Education established.
• 1844
  • Brady photo studio in business.
  • New York Yacht Club founded.
• 1845
  • Bowery Theatre opens.
  • New York City Police Department, and New York Art Union established.
  • Fire.
• 1846 – Stewart Dry Goods Store built.
• 1847
  • Free Academy of the City of New York founded.
  • Madison Square Park and Astor Opera House open.
  • Grace Church built.
• 1848
  • December: Cholera outbreak begins, its spread initially limited by winter weather. By June 1849, it reaches epidemic proportions. 5071 city residents are killed.
  • Associated Press established.
  • Trow's Directory of New York City begins publication.
  • Goupil Gallery branch in business.
• 1849 – May 10: Astor Place Riot.

1850s–1890s

Main article: History of New York City (1855–97)

• 1850
  • Winter Garden Theatre built.
  • Harper's New Monthly Magazine begins publication.
  • John Wiley & Sons publisher in business.
  • Population: 550,394.
• 1851
  • New-York Daily Times newspaper begins publication.
  • Singer & Co. sewing machine manufacturer and Kiehl's pharmacy in business.
• 1852 – American Geographical Society headquartered in city.
• 1853
  • Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations held.
  • New York Clipper begins publication.
  • Steinway & Sons piano manufacturer in business.
• 1854
  • Cholera epidemic kills 2,509.
  • Academy of Music opera house opens.
• 1855 – Fernando Wood becomes mayor.
• 1857
  • June 16: New York City Police Riot.
  • July: Dead Rabbits Riot.
  • American Institute of Architects headquartered in city.
• 1858
  • Central Park opens.
  • Saturday Press begins publication.
  • Lehman Brothers in business.
• 1859
  • Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art established.
  • Weekly Anglo-African begins publication.
• 1860
  • New York World newspaper begins publication.
  • Population: 813,669.
• 1861
  • College of St. Francis Xavier incorporated.
  • G. Schirmer Inc. music publisher in business.
• 1863
  • July 13–16: Approximately 50,000 people riot in protest of President Abraham Lincoln's announcement of a draft for troops to fight in the American Civil War. Over 100 are killed and many African Americans flee the city. The film Gangs of New York takes place during the draft riots.
  • Manhattan College incorporated.
  • Great American Tea Company in business.
• 1865
  • Metropolitan Fire Department established.
  • The Nation begins publication.
• 1866
  • City College of New York active.
  • Cedar Tavern and A.A. Vantine (shop) in business.
  • Steinway Hall built.
  • Cholera epidemic kills "only" 1137, its spread having been limited by the efforts of the new Metropolitan Board of Health, and enforcement of sanitation laws.
• 1867 – The first elevated transportation line was constructed by the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway Company along Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue.
• 1868 – Pike's Opera House opens.
• 1870
  • Daily Female Normal and High School opens.
  • Population: 942,292.
  • Schwarz Toy Bazaar in business.
  • Lotos Club founded.
• 1871
  • July: Orange Riot.
  • July 30: A boiler explosion aboard the Westfield II Staten Island Ferry kills 125 among hundreds of Manhattanites making a weekend trip to the beaches.
  • Tweed scandal.
  • Grand Central Depot opens.
  • Washington Square Park redesigned.
  • Salmagundi Club founded.
• 1872
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
  • Bloomingdale's shop and Carl Fischer Music in business.
• 1873 – New York Society for the Suppression of Vice founded.
• 1874
  • January: Tompkins Square Riot (1874).
  • Young Men's Hebrew Association founded.
• 1875 – Art Students League of New York and Coaching Club founded.
• 1876
  • December 5: A stage lamp ignites scenery and starts the Brooklyn Theater Fire during a performance of "The Two Orphans", killing at least 276 people, primarily patrons in the upper gallery.
• 1877
  • Museum of Natural History building opens.
  • New York Society for Ethical Culture founded.
• 1878
  • October: Robbery of Manhattan Savings Institution.
  • St. Patrick's Cathedral opens.
  • New York Symphony Society founded.
• 1879 – Sullivan & Cromwell law firm in business.
• 1880
  • Metropolitan Opera Company founded.
  • Workingman's School active.
  • Population: 1,206,599.
• 1882
  • January 13: A train wreck occurs just south of Spuyten Duyvil Creek when a local train from Tarrytown crashes into the tail end of an express from Albany, which had stopped on the tracks to make an emergency repair. At least 10 persons were killed, including a state senator.
  • September 4: Pearl Street Station (electric power plant) begins operating.
  • Goldman and Sachs and Luchow's restaurant in business.
• 1883
  • May 24: Brooklyn Bridge opens.
  • May 30: A rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that kills 12.
  • November 18: Day of two noons.
  • Metropolitan Opera House (39th St) opens.
  • Life magazine begins publication.
• 1884
  • New York Cancer Hospital, Brearley School, and Grolier Club founded.
  • Hotel Chelsea and The Dakota built.
• 1885 – Standard Oil Building constructed.
• 1886
  • October 28: Statue of Liberty dedicated.
  • Aguilar Free Library established.
• 1887
  • Teachers College founded.
  • Scribner's Magazine begins publication.
• 1888
  • March 12–13: Great Blizzard of 1888, or "White Hurricane", paralyzes the Eastern seaboard from Maryland to Maine; in New York City causing temperatures to fall as much as 60 degrees. About 21 inches (53 cm) of snow fall on the city, but enormous winds whip it into drifts as much as 20 feet deep. Regionally, over 400 people are said to have died in the storm's path.
  • Washington Bridge built.
  • Iceland Brothers Delicatessen in business.
• 1889 – American Fine Arts Society incorporated.
• 1890
  • Publication of Riis' How the Other Half Lives.
  • Population: 1,710,715.
• 1891
  • Carnegie Hall opens.
  • Gristedes grocery and Batten Company (advertising agency) in business.
• 1892
  • Washington Square Arch and Decker Building constructed.
  • Spence School, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and New York School of Applied Design for Women founded.
  • U.S. Immigrant Inspection Station begins operating on Ellis Island.
  • Vogue fashion magazine begins publication.
• 1893
  • December 16: Premiere of Dvořák's New World Symphony.
  • Municipal Art Society founded.
• 1895 – New York Public Library established.
• 1896
  • August 5–13: 1896 Eastern North America heat wave prostrates the city, with temperatures exceeding 90 °F for nine days both day and night, with stagnant air and oppressive humidity. In all, 420 people die, mostly in crowded tenements in areas such as the Lower East Side.
  • Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, and City History Club established.
• 1897
  • February 10: Bradley-Martin Ball held.
  • September 21: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus newspaper editorial published.
• 1898
  • January 1: City of Greater New York created, consolidating the existing City of New York with the eastern Bronx, Brooklyn, most of Queens County, and Staten Island.
  • January 1: Robert A. Van Wyck becomes mayor.
  • National Arts Club founded.
• 1899
  • September 13: Henry H. Bliss becomes the first person killed in an automobile accident in the United States when he steps off a streetcar at West 74th Street and Central Park West and is struck by a taxicab.

20th century

1900s–1940s

Main article: History of New York City (1898–1945)

• 1900
  • International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union founded.
  • Spuyten Duyvil Bridge rebuilt.
  • Population: 3,437,202.
• 1901
  • Bergdorf Goodman (shop) in business.
  • Rockefeller Institute and Chapin School established.
  • National Negro Business League headquartered in city.
• 1902
  • January 8: A train collision in the original Park Avenue tunnel kills 17 and injures 38.
  • Macy's Herald Square and Algonquin Hotel in business.
  • Flatiron Building constructed.
• 1903
  • New York Highlanders baseball team active.
  • Williamsburg Bridge, New Amsterdam Theatre, and Lyric Theatre open.

File:GeneralSlocum 04.jpg

Wreck of the General Slocum, 1904

• 1904
  • June 15: Steamboat General Slocum, carrying 1300 to a picnic site on Long Island, catches fire and sinks while on the East River alongside Astoria, Queens. Over 1000 passengers are killed, a major factor in the demise of the Little Germany neighborhood.
  • New York City Subway begins operating.
  • Stuyvesant High School and Hispanic Society of America established.
• 1905
  • March 14: Fire swept through an overcrowded tenement at 105 Allen Street on the Lower East Side, killing at least twenty people and injuring numerous more.
  • Institute of Musical Art founded.
  • Columbus Circle laid out.
  • Ratner's restaurant in business.
  • 291 (art gallery) opens.
• 1906
  • June 25: Stanford White is shot and killed by Harry Kendall Thaw at what was then Madison Square Gardens. The murder would soon be dubbed "The Crime of the Century".
  • Hammerstein Ballroom opens.
  • DeWitt Clinton Park laid out.
  • Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise established.
• 1907
  • December 31: Times Square Ball drop begins.
  • Plaza Hotel in business.
  • Japan Society founded.
  • Ziegfeld Follies active.
  • Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House and Audubon Terrace built.
• 1908 – Singer Building constructed.
• 1909
  • September/October: Hudson-Fulton Celebration of the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River and the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton's first successful commercial application of the paddle steamer.
  • New York Amsterdam News begins publication.
  • Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower built.
  • International Women's Day held.
• 1910
  • August 9, 1910 – Reformist Mayor William Jay Gaynor is shot in Hoboken, New Jersey by former city employee James Gallagher. He eventually dies in 1913.
  • Pennsylvania Station built.
  • Gimbels shop in business.
• 1911
  • March 25: 146 employees, mostly women, are killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire near Washington Square Park, some by being forced to jump from the building by the fire.
  • July: 1911 Eastern North America heat wave.
  • New York Public Library Main Branch building constructed.
  • Negro Society for Historical Research established.
  • Winter Garden Theatre opens.
  • The Masses begins publication.
  • Gun control Sullivan Law takes effect in New York State.
• 1912
  • Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism established.
  • New York Call begins publication.
  • Heterodoxy (group) formed.
  • Citarella's market and Automat eatery in Times Square in business.
  • Aeolian Hall and Audubon Ballroom built.
  • 48th Street Theatre opens.
  • New York Highlanders changed their team's name to the New York Yankees.
• 1913
  • International Exhibition of Modern Art held.
  • Grand Central Terminal rebuilt.
  • Grand Central Oyster Bar and Prentice Hall publisher in business.
  • Vanity Fair magazine begins publication.
  • Municipal Reference Library and Federal Reserve Bank of New York established.
• 1914
  • July 4: Lexington Avenue bombing.
  • Woman's Peace Party of New York City organized.
  • Hunter College High School active.
  • Russ & Daughters food shop in business.
• 1915
  • January 25: First transcontinental telephone call occurs (San Francisco-New York).
  • May 1: Ship Lusitania departs.
  • September 22: 25 are killed during construction of the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line in a collapse between 23rd and 25th Street.
  • Merrill, Lynch & Co. and Knopf publisher in business.
  • Anti-Militarism Committee organized.
• 1916
  • October 16: Margaret Sanger opens her first birth control clinic in Brooklyn
  • July 30: Black Tom explosion set off by German saboteurs at a munitions arsenal on a small island in New York Harbor kills seven in Jersey City, New Jersey and causes damage as far as the Brooklyn waterfront and Times Square.
  • 1916 Zoning Resolution.
  • Auto-Ordnance Corporation gun manufacturer in business.
• 1917
  • New York City Water Tunnel No. 1 begins operating.
  • McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. in business.
• 1918
  • The "Great Influenza Pandemic" rages across the country and worldwide. On one particularly virulent October day, 851 people died in New York City alone.
  • November 1: The actions of a substitute motorman filling in during a strike lead to a subway crash in Flatbush. The Malbone Street Wreck kills 97 people heading home from work and injures a hundred more.
  • Okeh Records in business.
  • Selwyn Theatre opens.
• 1919
  • September 10: US Army 1st Division returns from war.
  • New School for Social Research founded.
  • Daily News begins publication.
  • Algonquin Round Table active.
  • 135th Street YMCA opens.
• 1920
  • September 16: Wall Street bombing kills 38 at "the precise center, geographical as well as metaphorical, of financial America and even of the financial world". Anarchists were suspected (Sacco and Vanzetti had been indicted just days before) but no one was ever charged with the crime.
  • Apollo Theatre (42nd Street) opens.
  • Gotham Book Mart in business.
  • Population: 5,620,048.
• 1921
  • Port of New York Authority established.
  • Council on Foreign Relations headquartered in city.
  • October 1: 833 AM, became the 1st radio broadcast station in the city to signed on the air, under the call letters WJZ (now WABC (AM) 770).
• 1922
  • February 22: WOR (AM) 833 (now 710) signed on the air for the first time.
  • March 2: WEAF 660 AM (now WFAN) signed on the air for the first time.
  • September: Straw Hat Riot.
  • Brooklyn Technical High School established.
  • Roseland Ballroom built.
• 1923
  • Museum of the City of New York incorporated.
  • Cotton Club (nightclub) and Barneys clothier in business.
  • Duke Ellington Orchestra active.
  • New York Yankees won their 1st World Series championship.
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters building and Mecca Temple constructed.
• 1924
  • February 12: Premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
  • WNYC radio begins broadcasting.
  • Pierpont Morgan Library established.
  • New York Daily Mirror and New York Evening Graphic newspapers begin publication.
  • Saks Fifth Avenue shop and Simon & Schuster publisher in business.
  • Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade begins.
  • September 20: 920 AM signed on the air for the first time, under the call letters WAHG (now WCBS (AM) 880).
• 1925
  • February 6: WMCA 570 AM signed on the air for the first time.
  • May: Air conditioning installed in the Rivoli cinema.
  • The New Yorker magazine begins publication.
  • Tannen's Magic Shop in business.
  • New York Giants football team (founded by original owner Tim Mara) was one of the five teams to join the NFL.
• 1926
  • Savoy Ballroom and Paramount Theatre open.
  • Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance established.
• 1927
  • June 26: Coney Island Cyclone rollercoaster begins operating.
  • November 13: Holland Tunnel for automobiles opens.
  • December 4: New York Giants won their 1st NFL championship, after finishing the season with the best record.
  • New York County Courthouse and Sherry Netherland Hotel built.
  • Roxy Theatre, and Ziegfeld Theatre open.
  • New York Yankees won their 2nd World Series championship, sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in 4 games.
  • Random House publisher, Strand Bookstore, Russian Tea Room, Caffe Reggio, and Sardi's restaurant in business.
• 1928
  • August 24: A subway crash caused by a defective switch below Times Square kills 16 and injures 150.
  • New York Yankees won their 3rd World Series championship.
• 1929
  • May 19: Two people were killed and scores injured in a stampede at Yankee Stadium by a crowd seeking to avoid a thunderstorm.
  • October: Wall Street Crash of 1929.
  • November: Museum of Modern Art opens.
  • Stork Club and 21 Club in business.
  • CBS radio broadcasting of Cotton Club performances begins.
• 1930
  • August 6: New York Supreme Court associate justice Joseph Force Crater disappears, last seen entering a taxicab. He was declared legally dead in 1939. His mistress Sally Lou Ritz (22) disappeared a few weeks later.
  • Chrysler Building constructed.
  • Carlyle Hotel in business.
• 1931
  • December: Bank of United States closes.
  • Empire State Building and Seamen's House YMCA built.
  • Whitney Museum of American Art and Group Theatre founded.
  • Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts begin.
  • Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in business.
• 1932
  • Radio City Music Hall opens.
  • September 20: Lunch atop a Skyscraper photographed.
  • D'Agostino market opens.
  • New York Yankees won their 4th World Series championship.
• 1933 – RCA Building constructed.
• 1934
  • Rainbow Room restaurant, Tavern on the Green, and Zabar's food retailer in business.
  • School of American Ballet founded.
  • Fiorello H. La Guardia becomes mayor.
  • December 9: New York Giants won their 2nd NFL championship, defeating the Chicago Bears 30-13.
• 1935
  • March 19: The arrest of a shoplifter inflames racial tensions in Harlem and escalates to rioting and looting, with three killed, 125 injured and 100 arrested.
  • New York Passenger Ship Terminal built.
  • Premiere of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.
  • Frick Collection (museum) opens.
• 1936
  • Triborough Bridge opens.
  • New York City Water Tunnel No. 2 begins operating.
  • High School of Music & Art and Photo League established.
  • Ford Foundation headquartered in city.
  • New York Yankees won their 6th World Series championship, the 1st World Series Championship, under the leadership of rookie player Joe DiMaggio.
• 1937
  • August 11: Heavy rains cause a tenement in New Brighton to collapse, killing 19.
  • Lincoln Tunnel opens.
  • New York Journal-American newspaper begins publication.
  • Carnegie Deli and Stage Deli in business.
  • New York Yankees won their 7th World Series championship.
• 1938
  • January 16: Benny Goodman performs at Carnegie Hall.
  • August 26 Fire Fighter (fireboat) is launched as the world's most powerful fireboat.
  • September 21: New England Hurricane of 1938 strikes Long Island and continues into New England, killing 564. In New York City, ten people are killed and power is lost across upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
  • December 11: New York Giants won their 3rd NFL championship, defeated the Green Bay Packers, 23–17.
  • Bronx High School of Science and The Cloisters museum established.
  • New York Yankees became the 1st team in Major League Baseball history to win their 3rd straight World Series championship.
• 1939
  • April: 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
  • July: 1st World Science Fiction Convention held.
  • July 4: New York Yankees celebrating Lou Gehrig appreciation day. That day, Gehrig (who was diagnosed with ALS) spoke in his farewell address by saying: "... today, I considered myself, the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
  • Rockefeller Center built.
  • New York Municipal Airport opens.
  • American Ballet Theatre active.
  • October 8: New York Yankees won their 4th consecutive World Series title, and their 8th in franchise history, by sweeping the Cincinnati Reds in 4 games.
• 1940
  • November 16: "Mad Bomber" George Metesky plants the first bomb of his 16-year campaign of public bombings.
  • American Negro Theater founded.
  • Population: 7,454,995.
• 1941
  • The first two television stations in the city signed on the air for the first time. The first was WNBT Channel 1 (now WNBC Channel 4), to signed on the air. And the second was WCBW (now WCBS-TV) Channel 2, to signed on the air.
  • October 6: New York Yankees won their 9th World Series championship.
  • Le Pavillon restaurant in business.
• 1942
  • Art of This Century gallery opens.
  • Burning and capsizing of the French transatlantic ocean liner the SS Normandie in Pier 88
• 1943
  • August 1: Race riot erupts in Harlem after an African-American soldier is shot by the police and rumored to be killed. The incident touches off a simmering brew of racial tension, unemployment, and high prices to a day of rioting and looting. Several looters are shot dead,with blood everywhere, and about 500 persons are injured and another 500 arrested.
  • New York City Opera company founded.
  • New York Fashion Week begins.
• 1944
  • Fashion Institute of Technology established.
  • May 2: WABD Channel 4 (now WNYW Channel 5) became the 3rd television station in the city to signed on the air for the first time.
• 1945
  • July 28: A B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 13 people.
  • December 17: WABD moved from Channel 4 to Channel 5.
  • Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. becomes U.S. representative for New York's 22nd congressional district.
• 1946
  • January 12: New York City Victory Parade of 1946.
  • May 20: a United States Army Air Forces C-45 Beechcraft airplane crashed into the 58th floor on the north side of 40 Wall Street killing 5.
  • June 25: Fire destroys the St. George terminal of the Staten Island Ferry, killing 3 and injuring 280.
  • November 1: Channel 2 changed its call letters from WCBW to WCBS-TV.
  • Living Theatre founded.
  • Balducci's grocery in business.
• 1947
  • Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers crosses the baseball color line.
  • Actors Studio founded.
  • Premiere of Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
• 1948
  • May 4: 95.5 FM signs on the air for the first time, under the call sign WJZ-FM (now WPLJ).
  • June 15: WPIX Channel 11 became the 5th television station in the city to signed on the air for the first time.
  • August 10: Channel 7 signed on the air for the first time, as WJZ-TV (now WABC-TV).
  • New York City Ballet is founded.
  • The Ed Sullivan Show (television programme) begins broadcasting.
  • New York International Airport dedicated.
  • Korvettes department store in business.
  • Premiere of Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate.
  • Paris cinema opens.
  • 98.7 FM facility station signs on for the first time, as WOR-FM (now WEPN-FM).
• 1949
  • February 10: Premiere of Miller's play Death of a Salesman.
  • May 13: Holland Tunnel fire caused by exploding truck carrying eighty 55-gallon drums of carbon disulfide seriously damages the tunnel's infrastructure and injures 66, with 27 hospitalized, mostly from smoke inhalation.
  • October 9: New York Yankees won 12th World Series title, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in five games.
  • October 11: Channel 9 became the last VHF station in the city to sign on the air as WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV)
  • Birdland (jazz club) in business.
  • School of Visual Arts established.

1950s–1970s

Main article: History of New York City (1946–77)

• 1950
  • Port Authority Bus Terminal opens.
  • August 31: William O'Dwyer resigned from office as mayor, because of the city's police corruption scandal; Vincent R. Impellitteri appointed acting mayor.
  • November: Impellitteri elected 101st mayor, the first since the consolidation of greater New York in 1898.
  • November 22: Kew Gardens train crash kills 78 people, injuring 363 others.
• 1951
  • October 3: New York Giants won the NL Pennant, with a famous walk-off home run by Bobby Thomson, which was called the hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball).
  • October 10: New York Yankees won their 3rd consecutive World Series title, and 14th overall in franchise history, defeated the New York Giants in 6 games.
• 1952
  • United Nations Headquarters and Pier 57 built.
  • October 7: New York Yankees tied the record, winning their 4th straight World Series championship, and 15th overall in franchise history, by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in 7 games.
• 1953
  • October 5: New York Yankees won a record 5th consecutive World Series championship, and 16th overall in franchise history.
  • Hulan Jack elected Manhattan borough president.
• 1954
  • January 1: Robert F. Wagner, Jr. became the city's 102nd mayor.
  • Shakespeare in the Park begins.
  • Veselka diner, and Fairway Market in business.
• 1955
  • The Village Voice newspaper begins publication.
  • Sotheby's branch office in business.
• 1957
  • February 1: Northeast Airlines Flight 823 crashes on Rikers Island on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, killing 21 of the 101 on board.
  • September 26: Premiere of musical West Side Story.
  • Bronx Community College established.
• 1958
  • Puerto Rican Day Parade begins.
  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company formed.
  • Seagram Building constructed.
  • August 12: Great Day in Harlem musicians' portrait photographed.
• 1959
  • February 3: American Airlines Flight 320 crashes in the East River on approach to LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.
  • Guggenheim Museum building opens.
  • Cafe Wha? and The Four Seasons Restaurant in business.
  • Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts construction begins.
  • Premiere of play A Raisin in the Sun.
• 1960
  • December 16: Mid-air collision between TWA Flight 266 (inbound to Idlewild Airport, now JFK) and United Airlines Flight 826 (inbound to LaGuardia Airport) over Miller Field, Staten Island. The TWA aircraft crashed at the site, killing all aboard, while the United aircraft continued flying for about eight miles until it crashed in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, narrowly missing a school. All 134 aboard the aircraft died, along with six persons on the ground in Brooklyn.
  • Bleecker Street Cinema active.
  • Sister city relationship established with Tokyo, Japan.
  • Population: 7,781,984.
• 1961
  • 1961 NYC Zoning Resolution implemented.
  • City University of New York and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club established.
  • New York Yankees won their 19th World Series title.
  • Lutèce (restaurant) in business.
• 1962
  • March 1: American Airlines Flight 1 crashes immediately after takeoff from Idlewild Airport, killing all 95 on board.
  • October 3: 23 are killed and 94 injured when an improperly maintained and operated steam boiler explodes and rips through a New York Telephone Company building cafeteria at lunchtime in the Inwood section of Manhattan.
  • November 30: Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 crashes when trying to make a go-round after failing to land at Idlewild Airport in the fog. 25 of the 51 on board are killed.
  • December 8: 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike begins.
  • Philharmonic Hall and Delacorte Theater open.
  • Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem in business.
  • New York Yankees won their 20th World Series title.
  • Pan Am Building constructed.
  • New York Mets baseball team, and Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano founded.
• 1963
  • April 20: Three brush fires on Staten Island destroy 100 homes.
  • August 28: The Career Girls Murders: Emily Hoffert and Janet Wylie, two young professionals, are murdered in their Upper East Side apartment by an intruder. Richard Robles, a young white man, was ultimately apprehended in 1965 after investigators erroneously arrested and forced a false confession from a black man, George Whitmore, who was completely innocent of the crime. Although Whitmore was compelled to wrongfully spend many years incarcerated, he was eventually released after his innocence was established, while Robles remains in prison as of 2013.
  • New York Film Festival begins.
  • American Folk Art Museum opens.
  • Elaine's restaurant and New York Hilton hotel in business.
• 1964
  • March 13: Kitty Genovese is stabbed 82 times in Kew Gardens, Queens by Winston Moseley. The crime is witnessed by numerous people, none of whom aid Genovese or call for help. The crime is noted by psychology textbooks in later years for its demonstration of the bystander effect, although an article published in The New York Times in February 2004 indicated that many of the popular conceptions of the crime were instead misconceptions. Moseley remains incarcerated as of 2013.
  • April: 1964 New York World's Fair opens.
  • May 16: Antiwar protesters burn draft cards.
  • July 18: Riots break out in Harlem in protest over the killing of a 15-year-old by a white NYPD officer. One person is killed and 100 are injured in the violence.
  • New York State Theater and Shea Stadium open.
  • Pennsylvania Station rebuilt.
• 1965
  • February 8: Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes at Jones Beach when after takeoff from JFK it is forced to evade inbound PanAm Flight 212. All 84 on board are killed.
  • February 21: Black nationalist leader Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom by three members of the Nation of Islam.
  • August 15: The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium.
  • October: Pope Paul VI arrives as the first Catholic pope to ever visit the U.S. and gives his "war never again" speech against U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
  • November 9: New York City is affected as part of the Northeast Blackout of 1965.
  • The Velvet Underground musical group formed.
  • WINS (AM) 1010 changed its format from standard pop to all news.
  • Max's Kansas City nightclub and Oscar de la Renta in business.
  • New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and Chelsea Theater Center established.
• 1966
  • January 1: New York City Transit workers strike for 12 days following failed contract negotiations between TWU Local 100 and the MTA.
  • January 1: John Lindsay sworn in as the 103rd mayor.
  • October 17: A fire across 23rd Street from Madison Square kills 12 members of the New York City Fire Department when a floor collapses beneath them. It was the worst day in the FDNY's history until September 11, 2001.
  • November 28: Black and White Ball held.
• 1967
  • October 8: James "Groovy" Hutchinson, 21, an East Village hippie/stoner, and Linda Fitzpatrick, 18, a newly converted flower child from a wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut family, are found bludgeoned to death at 169 Avenue B, an incident dubbed "The Groovy Murders" by the press. Two drifters later plead guilty to the murders.
  • Public Theater and Paley Park open.
  • South Street Seaport Museum founded.
  • Premiere of musical Hair.
• 1968
  • June 3: Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol.
  • July 3: Man opens fire in Central Park, killing a 24-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man before being gunned down by police.
  • New York magazine begins publication.
  • Madison Square Garden (arena) and Performing Garage open.
  • Studio Museum in Harlem and Liberty Plaza Park established.
  • Ford Foundation Building constructed.
  • Columbia University protests of 1968
  • New York City teachers' strike of 1968.
• 1969
  • June 28: A questionable police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar, is resisted by the patrons and leads to a riot. The event helps inspire the founding of the modern homosexual rights movement.
  • El Museo del Barrio founded.
  • Javits Federal Building and Gulf and Western building constructed.
  • Interview magazine begins publication.
  • Sesame Street children's television program begins broadcasting.
• 1970
  • March 6: Greenwich Village townhouse explosion: Three members of the domestic terrorist group the Weathermen are killed when a nail bomb they were building accidentally explodes in the basement of a townhouse on 18 West 11th Street.
  • May 8: Hard Hat Riot.
  • LGBT Pride March begins.
  • New York Knicks won their 1st NBA championship.
  • Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, and International Peace Academy established.
  • Knapp Commission begins its investigation of police corruption.
• 1971
  • May 21: Two NYPD officers, Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini, are gunned down in ambush by members of the Black Liberation Army in Harlem. The gunmen, Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom, still in prison as of 2012, were rearrested in jail in connection with the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer.
  • Bella Abzug becomes U.S. representative for New York's 19th congressional district; Charles B. Rangel becomes U.S. representative for New York's 18th congressional district.
• 1972
  • April 7: Mobster Joe Gallo is gunned down at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy. The incident serves as the inspiration for the Bob Dylan's epic "Joey" recorded in 1975.
  • August 22: John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Natuarale hold up a Brooklyn bank for 14-hours, in a bid to get cash to pay for Wojtowicz' gay lover's sex change operation. The scheme fails when the cops arrive, leading to a tense 14-hour standoff. Natuarale is killed by the police at JFK Airport. The incident served as the basis for the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
  • Queens Museum of Art founded.
  • Quad Cinema and H&H Bagels in business.
• 1973
  • February 10: 40 workers are killed in an explosion while cleaning an empty LNG tank in Bloomfield, Staten Island.
  • March 3: The 102-year-old Broadway Central Hotel at 673 Broadway collapses, killing four residents.
  • World Trade Center towers built.
  • B&H Photo shop, CBGB music club, Gray's Papaya, and Times Square TKTS booth in business.
  • New York Knicks won their 2nd NBA championship.
  • Nuyorican Poets Café active (approximate date).
• 1974
  • August 7: Petit's highwire stunt performed atop World Trade Center.
  • Village Halloween Parade begins.
  • International Center of Photography founded.
  • W. R. Grace Building constructed.
  • Bayview Correctional Facility in operation.
• 1975
  • January 24: Fraunces Tavern, a historical site in lower Manhattan, is bombed by the FALN killing 4 people and wounding more than 50.
  • June 24: Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 from New Orleans strikes the runway lights at Kennedy airport, probably due to wind shear. 113 of the 124 people on board are killed.
  • December 29: A bomb explodes in the baggage claim area of the TWA terminal at LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 and injuring 74. The perpetrators were never identified.
  • City fiscal crisis.
  • Museum of Broadcasting founded.
  • Talking Heads musical group formed.
• 1976
  • July 12–15: The 1976 Democratic National Convention was held at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan.
  • July 29: David Berkowitz (aka the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.
  • November 25: NYPD officer Robert Torsney fatally shoots unarmed 15-year-old Randolph Evans in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Torsney is found not guilty by reason of insanity the following year and is released from Queens' Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in 1979, only to be denied a disability pension.
  • Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design opens.
  • Mortimer's restaurant in business.
  • New York City Department of Parks and Recreation formed.
• 1977
  • May 16: A New York Airways helicopter idling at the helipad on the MetLife Building – then the PanAm Building – toppled over and its rotor blade sheared off. The blade killed four people on the roof and then fell over the edge and down 59 stories and a block over to Madison Avenue where it killed a pedestrian.
  • May 25: A fire at the Everard Baths at 28 West 28th Street in Manhattan killed 9 patrons.
  • July 13–14: New York City again loses electrical power in the blackout of 1977. Unlike the previous blackout twelve years earlier, this blackout is followed by widespread rioting and looting. Many neighborhoods, most notably Bushwick, were almost completely devastated.
  • October 12: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning." During Game 2 of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, a fire rages out of control at an abandoned elementary school near Yankee Stadium. The images and a dramatic statement on national television by sportscaster Howard Cosell is widely seen as the symbolic nadir of a dark period in city history. The story of 1977 in New York City is later featured in such works as the film Summer of Sam by Spike Lee, the best-selling book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning, and the television drama The Bronx is Burning.
  • Drawing Center established.
  • Studio 54, Dean & DeLuca food shop, Big Apple Circus, Smith & Wollensky restaurant, and Christie's branch office in business.
  • I ♥ NY advertising campaign begins.
  • City premiere of musical Annie.
  • New York Yankees won their 21st World Series championship.
• 1978
  • January 1: Ed Koch becomes the 105th mayor.
  • January 9: New newspaper – The Trib
  • July 28: Woman gives birth at top of Empire State Building.
  • October 12: Rocker Sid Vicious allegedly stabs his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death in their room in the Hotel Chelsea.
  • Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five musical group formed.
  • New York Yankees won their 22nd World Series championship.
• 1979
  • February 13: The Guardian Angels are formed in Brooklyn by Curtis Silwa.
  • May 25: Six-year-old Etan Patz vanishes after leaving his SoHo apartment to walk to his school bus alone. Despite a massive search by the NYPD the boy is never found, and was declared legally dead in 2001.
  • October 2: Catholic pope visits city.
  • New York Theatre Workshop founded.
  • Geraldine Ferraro becomes U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district.
  • New York Yankees come from behind to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4, on a day when they buried their team captain Thurman Munson, with a game-winning 2-run hit by Bobby Murcer.
  • Performance Space 122 opens.

1980s–1990s

Main article: History of New York City (1978–present)

• 1980
  • March 14: Ex-Congressman Allard Lowenstein is assassinated in his law offices at Rockefeller Center by Dennis Sweeney, a deranged ex-associate.
  • April 1–11: Second New York City Transit strike lasts 11 days.
  • August 11–14: The 1980 Democratic National Convention was held at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan.
  • December 8: Ex-Beatle John Lennon is murdered in front of his home in the Dakota.
  • ABC No Rio social centre founded.
  • The Wooster Group (theatre troupe) active.
  • Sister city relationship established with Beijing, China.
• 1981
  • Run–D.M.C., Sonic Youth, and Beastie Boys musical groups formed.
  • Helmsley Palace Hotel in business.
• 1982
  • January 1: Ed Koch is sworn into his second term as the city's 105th mayor.
  • June 22: Willie Turks, an African American 34-year-old MTA worker, is set upon and killed by a white mob in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn.
  • Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum opens.
  • Late Night with David Letterman television programme begins broadcasting.
  • Sister city relationships established with Cairo, Egypt, and Madrid, Spain.
• 1983
  • September 15: Michael Stewart is allegedly beaten into a coma by New York Transit Police officers. Stewart died 13 days later from his injuries at Bellevue Hospital. On November 24, 1985, after a six-month trial, six officers were acquitted on charges stemming from Stewart's death.
  • October 6: Terence Cooke, Catholic archbishop of New York, dies at 62.
  • Def Jam Recordings in business.
  • Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center incorporated.
  • Coney Island Mermaid Parade begins.
  • Sister city relationship established with Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
• 1984
  • April 15: "Palm Sunday Massacre" – Christopher Thomas, 34, murders two women and 8 children at 1080 Liberty Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn.
  • June 23–29: Billy Joel performed seven live shows at Madison Square Garden, in the second North American leg of the An Innocent Man Tour.
  • October 29: 66-year-old Eleanor Bumpurs is shot and killed by police as they tried to evict her from her Bronx apartment. Bumpurs, who was mentally ill, was wielding a knife and had slashed one of the officers. The shooting provoked heated debate about police racism and brutality. In 1987 officer Stephen Sullivan was acquitted on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide stemming from the shooting.
  • December 22: Bernhard Goetz shoots and wounds four unarmed black men on a 2 train on the subway who tried to rob him, generating weeks of headlines and many discussions about crime and vigilantism in the media.
  • New York Center for Independent Publishing founded.
  • Paper magazine begins publication.
  • Wigstock begins.
  • Fictional Cosby Show (television program) begins broadcasting.
• 1985
  • June 12: Edmund Perry, returning graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, is shot to death in Harlem by undercover officer Lee Van Houten after Perry and his brother, Jonah, attacked Van Houten to get money for a film. Van Houten was acquitted the following month.
  • September 27: Hurricane Gloria made landfall with a broad of poorly defined center right passed John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, Queens.
  • November 5: Ed Koch is elected to a third and final term as mayor by a landmark margin, this time defeating New York City Council President Carol Bellamy.
  • December 16: Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano is shot dead in a gangland execution on E. 46th Street in Manhattan.
  • Palladium nightclub and Union Square Cafe in business.
  • Poets House established.
  • Artworld Guerilla Girls pranksters active.
• 1986
  • January 1: Ed Koch is sworn in to his third and final term as the city's 105th mayor.
  • March 7: Channel 5 changes its call letters from WNEW-TV to WNYW.
  • March 17: St. Patrick's Day – Rosanna Scotto joined WNYW Channel 5 as a news reporter for the station's 10 P.M. weeknight newscast. At the time, she said: "In Manhattan, Rosanna Scotto, Channel 5 News".
  • July 7: A deranged man, Juan Gonzalez, wielding a machete kills 2 and wounds 9 on the Staten Island Ferry. In 2000 Gonzalez was granted unsupervised leave from his residence at the Bronx Psychiatric Hospital.
  • August 26: The "preppie murder": 18-year-old student Jennifer Levin is murdered by Robert Chambers in Central Park after the two had left a bar to have sex in the park. The case was sensationalized in the press and raised issues over victims' rights, as Chambers' attorney attempted to smear Levin's reputation to win his client's freedom.
  • October 27: New York Mets won their second World Series title in franchise history, defeating the Boston Red Sox in 7 games.
  • November 19: 20-year-old Larry Davis opens fire on police officers attempting to arrest him in his sister's apartment in the Bronx. Six officers are wounded, and Davis eludes capture for the next 17 days, during which time he became something of a folk hero in the neighborhood. Davis was stabbed to death in jail in 2008.
  • November 24: 2 Port Authority police officers and a holdup we're seriously shot and wounded in a shootout at a Queens diner.
  • December 20: A white mob in Howard Beach, Queens, attacks three African-American men whose car had broken down in the largely white neighborhood. One of the men, Michael Griffith is chased onto Shore Parkway where he is hit and killed by a passing car. The killing prompted several tempestuous marches through the neighborhood led by Al Sharpton.
  • Four World Financial Center built.
  • Le Bernardin restaurant in business.
• 1987
  • January 25: New York Giants win Super Bowl XXI at the Rose Bowl (stadium) in Pasadena, California, defeating the Denver Broncos, 39–20; it was the Giants first NFL Championship since 1956. Phil Simms was named the MVP of the game.
  • May 19: 11-year-old Juan Perez is mauled and killed by two polar bears after he and his friends sneak into the enclosure at the Prospect Park Zoo that night.
  • November 2: Joel Steinberg and his lover Hedda Nussbaum are arrested for the beating and neglect of their six-year-old adopted daughter Lisa Steinberg, who died two days later from her injuries. The case provoked outrage that did not subside when Steinberg was released from prison in 2004 after serving 15 years.
  • The New York Observer begins publication.
  • Knitting Factory cultural venue and Restaurant Aquavit in business.
  • Tibet House founded.
  • Dia Center for the Arts opens.
• 1988
  • New York City Campaign Finance Board and Lower East Side Tenement Museum established.
  • Human Rights Watch headquartered in city.
• 1989
  • April 19: Central Park jogger Trisha Meili is violently raped and beaten while jogging in Central Park. The crime is attributed to a group of young men who were practicing an activity they called "wilding", with five of these teens convicted and jailed. In 2002, after the five had completed their sentences, Matias Reyes – a convicted rapist and murderer serving a life sentence for other crimes – confessed to the crime, after which DNA evidence proved the five teens innocent.
  • August 23: Yusuf Hawkins, an African-American 16-year-old student is set upon and murdered by a white mob in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn in one of the city's worst-ever racial attacks.
  • November 7: David Dinkins, Manhattan Borough President, is elected as the city's first African-American mayor.
  • December 29: The funeral of former New York Yankees great Billy Martin is held at St. Patrick's Cathedral (Manhattan).
  • Angelika Film Center opens.
  • City Commission on Public Information & Communication created.
  • Fictional Seinfeld television programme begins broadcasting.
• 1990
  • January 1: David Dinkins became the city's first African-American mayor.
  • January 25: Avianca Flight 52 to Kennedy airport crashes at Cove Neck, Long Island, after missing an approach and then running out of fuel. 73 of 158 passengers are killed.=
  • March 8: The first of the copycat Zodiac Killer Heriberto Seda's eight shooting victims is wounded in an attack in Brooklyn. Between 1990 and 1993, Seda will wound 5 and kill 3 in his serial attacks. He is captured in 1996 and convicted in 1998.
  • March 25: Arson at the Happyland Social Club at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the East Tremont section of the Bronx kills 87 people unable to escape the packed dance club.
  • September 2: Utah tourist Brian Watkins is stabbed to death in the Seventh Avenue – 53rd Street station by a gang of youths. Watkins was visiting New York with his family to attend the US Open Tennis tournament in Queens, when he was killed defending his family from a gang of muggers. The killing marked a low point in the record murder year of 1990 and led to an increased police presence in New York.
  • November 5: Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, is assassinated at the Marriott East Side Hotel at 48th Street and Lexington Avenue by El Sayyid Nosair.
  • Population: 7,322,564.
• 1991
  • January 24: Arohn Kee rapes and murders 13-year-old Paola Illera in East Harlem while she is on her way home from school. Her body is later found near the FDR Drive. Over the next eight years, Kee murders two more women before being arrest in February 1999. He is sentenced to three life terms in prison in January 2001.
  • July 23: The body of a four-year-old girl is found in a cooler on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Inwood, Manhattan. The identity of the child, dubbed "Baby Hope", was unknown until October 2013, when 52-year-old Conrado Juarez is arrested after confessing to killing the girl, his cousin Anjelica Castillo, and dumping her body.
  • August 19: A Jewish automobile driver accidentally kills a seven-year-old African-American boy, thereby touching off the Crown Heights riots, during which an Australian Jew, Yankel Rosenbaum, was fatally stabbed by Lemrick Nelson.
  • August 28: A 4 train crashes just north of 14th Street – Union Square, killing 5 people. Motorman Robert Ray, who was intoxicated, fell asleep at the controls and was convicted of manslaughter in 1992.
  • December 28: Nine people were crushed to death trying to enter the Nat Holman gymnasium at CCNY. The crowd was trying to gain entry to a celebrity basketball game featuring hip-hop and rap performers including Heavy D and Sean Combs.
• 1992
  • February 26: two teens were shot to death by 15 year-old Khalil Sumpter inside Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn) an hour before a scheduled visit by then mayor David Dinkins. Sumpter was paroled in 1998 at the age of 22.
  • March 22: Ice buildup without subsequent de-icing causes USAir Flight 405 to crash on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. 27 of the 51 on board are killed.
  • December 10–13: A noreaster strikes the US Mid-Atlantic coast. The storm surge causes extensive flooding along the city shoreline.
  • December 17: Patrick Daly, Principal of P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn is killed in the crossfire of a drug-related shooting while looking for a pupil who had left his school. The school was later renamed the Patrick Daly school after the beloved principal.
  • Guggenheim Museum SoHo opens.
  • Labyrinth Theater Company founded.
  • Sister city relationships established with Budapest, Hungary, and Rome, Italy.
• 1993
  • February 26: A bomb planted by terrorists explodes in the World Trade Center's underground garage, killing six people and injuring over a thousand, as well as causing much damage to the basement. See: World Trade Center bombing
  • June 6: The Golden Venture, a freighter carrying 286 illegal immigrants from China runs aground a quarter-mile off the coast of Rockaway, Queens killing 10 passengers.
  • December 7: Colin Ferguson shoots 25 passengers, killing six, on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train out of Penn Station.
  • City Public Data Directory published.
  • New Yorkers Against Gun Violence headquartered in city.
  • Sister city relationship established with Jerusalem, Israel.
• 1994
  • March 1: Brooklyn Bridge shooting.
  • March 1: 1994 New York school bus shooting – Rashid Baz, a Lebanese-born Arab immigrant, opens fire on a van carrying members of the Lubavitch Hasidic sect of Jews driving on the Brooklyn Bridge. A 16-year-old student, Ari Halberstam later dies of his wounds. Baz was apparently acting out of revenge for the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, West Bank.
  • June 14: New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup, ending their 54-year drought. Brian Leetch became the first American to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
  • August: Hackers On Planet Earth conference begins.
  • August 31: William Tager shoots and kills Campbell Theron Montgomery, a technician employed by NBC, outside of the stage of the Today show. Tager is also identified as one of possibly two men who assaulted CBS News anchor Dan Rather on Park Avenue in 1986.
  • December 15: Disgruntled computer analyst Edward J. Leary firebombs a 3 train with homemade explosives at 145th Street, injuring two teenagers. Six days later, he firebombs a crowded 4 train at Fulton Street, injuring over 40. Leary is sentenced to 94 years in prison for both attacks.
  • December 22: Anthony Baez, a 29-year-old Bronx man, dies after being placed in an illegal chokehold by NYPD officer Francis X. Livoti. Livoti is sentenced to 7 and a half years in 1998 for violating Baez' civil rights.
  • Rudy Giuliani becomes mayor.
  • New York Underground Film Festival and Hackers on Planet Earth conference begin.
• 1995
  • December 8: A long racial dispute in Harlem over the eviction of an African-American record store-owner by a Jewish proprieter ends in murder and arson. 51-year-old Roland Smith, Jr., angry over the proposed eviction, set fire to Freddie's Fashion Mart on 125th Street and opened fire on the store's employees, killing 7 and wounding four. Smith also perished in the blaze.
  • City website online (approximate date).
  • Luna Lounge in business.
  • Dahesh Museum of Art established.
• 1996
  • March 4: Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl is shot and killed during a robbery. The murder of this popular deli owner and East Village fixture remains unsolved as of 2013.
  • June 4: 22-year-old drifter John Royster brutally beats a 32-year-old female piano teacher in Central Park, the first in a series of attacks over a period of eight days. Royster would go on to brutally beat another woman in Manhattan, rape a woman in Yonkers and beat a woman, Evelyn Alvarez, to death on Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In 1998, Royster was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
  • July 17: TWA Flight 800 departs Kennedy airport and crashes in the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island, killing all 230 people on board.
  • October 26: New York Yankees won the 23rd World Series championship, their first in 18 years, defeated the Atlanta Braves in 6 games.
  • Magnolia Bakery in business.
  • The Daily Show (television programme) begins broadcasting.
  • Skyscraper Museum established.
• 1997
  • February 23: 1997 Empire State Building shooting.
  • May 11: Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov chess match held.
  • May 30: Jonathan Levin a Bronx teacher and son of former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin is robbed and murdered by his former student Corey Arthur.
  • August 9: Abner Louima is beaten and sodomized with a plunger at the 70th Precinct house in Brooklyn by several NYPD officers, who were led by Justin Volpe.
  • November 7: A Manhattan couple, Camden Sylvia, 36, and Michael Sullivan, 54, disappear from their loft at 76 Pearl Street in Manhattan after arguing with their landlord over a lack of heat in their apartment. The landlord, Robert Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, larceny and credit card fraud following the missing persons investigation. The couple is presumed dead.
  • Chelsea Market, Balthazar (restaurant), and The Mercer Hotel in business.
  • Center for Urban Pedagogy established.
• 1998
  • January 14: 1998 Bank of America robbery.
  • May 17: David Wells pitched a perfect game, as he and the New York Yankees defeat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0. It was the 2nd perfect game in Yankees history.
  • September 2: Swissair Flight 111 departs Kennedy airport and crashes off the coast of Nova Scotia.
  • October 21: New York Yankees won their 24th World Series championship, sweeping the San Diego Padres in 4, finishing with their highest ever with 125 wins, and just 50 losses.
  • Fictional Sex and the City television programme begins broadcasting.
  • The Strokes musical group formed.
• 1999
  • January 3: 32-year-old Kendra Webdale is killed after being pushed in front of an oncoming subway train at the 23rd Street station by Andrew Goldstein, a 29-year-old schizophrenic. The case ultimately led to the passage of Kendra's Law.
  • February 4: Unarmed African immigrant Amadou Bailo Diallo is shot and killed by 4 New York City police officers, sparking massive protests against police brutality and racial profiling.
  • March 8: Amy Watkins, a 26-year-old social worker from Kansas who worked with battered women in the Bronx, is stabbed to death in a botched robbery near her home in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Her two assailants were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
  • October 31: EgyptAir Flight 990 departs Kennedy airport and crashes off the coast of Nantucket.

21st century

See also: History of New York City (1978–present)

2000s

• 2000
  • March 24: Patrick Dorismond is shot and killed by an NYPD officer in a case of mistaken identity during a drug bust.
  • Acela Express train begins operating between Washington, D.C. and Boston, stopping at New York Penn Station.
• 2001
  • May 10: Actress Jennifer Stahl is killed with two other people in an armed robbery in her apartment above the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan. The victims were bound and shot point-blank in the head.
  • September 11: The two 110-story World Trade Center towers and several surrounding buildings are destroyed by two jetliners in part of a coordinated terrorist attack by radical terrorists ("9/11"), killing 2,606 people who were in the towers and on the ground.
  • November 12: American Airlines Flight 587 crashes into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens shortly after takeoff from Kennedy airport, killing all 265 on board and five persons on the ground.
  • Neue Galerie New York opens.
  • Institute of Culinary Education active.
  • Sister city relationship established with London, United Kingdom.
  • Population: 8,008,278.
• 2002 – Michael Bloomberg becomes mayor.
• 2003
  • January 24: Four teenage boys drown in the Long Island Sound near City Island when their overloaded dinghy sinks. A communication misunderstanding between them and the 911 dispatcher contributed to their deaths
  • February 15: Between 300,000 and 400,000 people participate in the February 15, 2003 anti-war protests.
  • July 23: Othniel Askew shoots to death political rival City Council member James E. Davis in the City Hall chambers of the New York City Council.
  • August 14: New York loses power in a blackout that affects eight states as well as parts of Canada.
  • October 15: The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi collides with a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing ten people and injuring 43 others.
  • Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music established.
  • Time Warner Center built.
  • City 3-1-1 hotline and NYC TV launched.
  • Bill passed requiring online access to all city reports and publications.
  • wd~50 restaurant in business.
  • Sister city relationship established with Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 2004
  • August 30 – September 2: 2004 Republican National Convention held.
  • Momofuku restaurant in business.
  • Sister city relationship established with Brasília, Brazil.
• 2005
  • January 27: Nicole duFresne, an aspiring actress, is shot dead in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan after being accosted by a gang of youths.
  • October 31: Peter Braunstein sexually assaults a co-worker while posing as a fireman, later leading officials on a multi-state manhunt. Braunstein was later sentenced to life and will be eligible for parole in 2023.
  • December 20: Third New York City Transit strike lasts three days due to stiff penalties imposed to TWU Local 100 under the Taylor Law.
• 2006
  • January 11: 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown dies after being beaten by her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, in their Brooklyn apartment. Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in March, 2008.
  • February 25: Criminology graduate student Imette St. Guillen is brutally tortured, raped, and killed in New York City after being abducted outside the Falls bar in the SoHo section of Manhattan. Bouncer Darryl Littlejohn is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • April: One World Trade Center construction begins.
  • April 1: New York University (NYU) student Broderick Hehman is killed after being hit by a car in Harlem. Hehman was chased into the street by a group of black teens who allegedly shouted "get the white boy". The death of Hehman echoed the death of Michael Griffith (manslaughter victim) 20 years earlier in Queens.
  • May 29: Jeff Gross, founder of the Staten Island commune Ganas, is shot and wounded by former commune member Rebekah Johnson. Johnson was captured in Philadelphia on June 18, 2007 after being featured on America's Most Wanted.
  • July 10: 66-year-old Romanian immigrant Dr. Nicholas Bartha commits suicide by blowing up his townhouse at 34 East 62nd Street in Manhattan while in the basement of the building. Bartha chose to demolish his home rather than relinquish it to his ex-wife as ordered by the courts.
  • July: Parts of Queens suffer a blackout during a heat wave.
  • July 25: Jennifer Moore, an 18-year-old student from New Jersey is abducted and killed after a night of drinking at a Chelsea bar. Her body is found outside a Weehawken motel. 35-year-old Draymond Coleman was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 50 years in 2010.
  • October 8: Michael Sandy, a 29-year-old man, is hit by a car on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn after being beaten by a group of white attackers. Sandy died of his injuries on October 13, 2006. The attack, which is being investigated as a hate crime hearkened back to the killing of Michael Griffith in 1986.
  • October 11: A general aviation aircraft owned by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashes into the 31st floor of the Belaire Apartments on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Lidle, 34, is killed in the crash along with his flight instructor.
  • November 25: Four NYPD officers fire a combined 50 shots at a group of unarmed men in Jamaica, Queens wounding, two and killing 23-year-old Sean Bell. The case sparks controversy over police brutality and racial profiling.
  • New York City Global Partners established.
  • Gun offender registration ordinance enacted.
• 2007
  • March 14: 32-year-old David Garvin goes on a shooting rampage in Greenwich Village, killing a pizzeria employee and two auxiliary police officers before NYPD officers fatally shoot him.
  • July 18: A steam pipe explosion kills one and wounds twenty others near the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 41st Street in Manhattan.
  • The New York Times Building is finished.
  • Beaver José spotted in Bronx River.
• 2008
  • February 12: Psychologist Kathryn Faughey is brutally murdered in her Manhattan office by a mentally ill man whose intended victim was a psychiatrist in the same practice.,
  • March: 2008 Times Square bombing.
  • March 15: A crane collapse at a construction site in Turtle Bay kills seven and damages adjacent buildings.
  • September 15: Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt.
  • December 2: 25-year-old aspiring dancer Laura Garza disappears after leaving a Manhattan nightclub with a sex offender named Michael Mele. Her remains are found in Olyphant, Pennsylvania in April 2010. On the first day of his trial in January 2012, Mele admits to killing Garza and pleads guilty to first degree manslaughter.
  • December 11: Ponzi schemer Madoff arrested.
• 2009
  • January 15: US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River after both engines fail; all 150 passengers are successfully evacuated.
  • Times Square begins pedestrianization.
  • High Line Park Phase I and Bank of America Tower completed.
  • Kickstarter in business.
  • Citi Field and new Yankee Stadium open.
  • New York Yankees win the World Series, first since 2000 and 27th overall.
  • Iraq Veterans Against the War headquartered in city.
  • NYC BigApps contest begins.

2010s

• 2010
  • May: 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt.
  • May: 2010 Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held at UN.
  • September 16: Strong thunderstorms and a possible tornado hit Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, killing one woman when a tree fell onto her car on the Grand Central Parkway.
  • Humans of New York begins publication.
  • Fictional Louie (TV series) begins broadcasting.
  • Population: 8,175,133; metro 18,897,109.
  • FoodCorps headquartered in city.
• 2011
  • February 11: Maksim Gelman goes on 28-hour rampage, killing 5 and wounding 6 others throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. He is sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • May 17: Weiner sexting scandal first reported.
  • May 23: Smoking ban takes effect in all parks, boardwalks, beaches, recreation centers, swimming pools and pedestrian plazas.
  • June: High Line Phase II opens.
  • July 13: – The body of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky is found dismembered in two locations in Brooklyn after he was allegedly murdered by a 35-year-old Orthodox Jewish clerk.
  • September 12: National 9/11 Memorial opens.
  • September 17: Occupy Wall Street begins.
• 2012
  • February 5: New York Giants win Super Bowl football contest.
  • August 24: 2012 Empire State Building shooting.
  • October 29–30: Hurricane Sandy brings flooding and high winds that result in several deaths and widespread power outages. The New York Stock Exchange, public schools, and all mass transit service were closed as a result. At least 43 deaths have been directly attributed to the storm in New York City alone.
• 2013
  • December 1: 4 people are killed and scores injured after a Metro-North Railroad train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.
  • 21st Century Fox headquartered in city.
  • Population: 8,405,837.
• 2014
  • January 1: Bill de Blasio becomes mayor.
  • March 12: 8 people are killed and over 70 others are injured when an explosion in Harlem destroyed two five-story buildings. A gas leak is suspected as the likely cause of the explosion.
  • March 20: .nyc internet domain name established.
  • May 21: National 9/11 Museum opens.
  • July 17: Death of Eric Garner.
  • September: High Line Phase III opens.
  • October 23: 2014 Queens hatchet attack.
  • October: 432 Park Avenue topped out, becoming the tallest building in New York City by roof height.
  • November 3: One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by architectural height, opens.
  • December 20: 2014 killings of NYPD officers; two police officers are killed.
• 2015
  • January: Premiere of Miranda's musical Hamilton.
  • March 26: Two people are killed and 22 people are injured in the East Village of Manhattan after another gas explosion likely caused by a gas leak leveled three buildings.
  • July: Disability Pride Parade held.
  • Whitney Museum moves to Gansevoort Street.
  • Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 headquartered in city.
  • New York City Football Club established.
• 2016 – World Trade Center Transportation Hub built.

Annual events

• Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show (along the East River)
• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (along Central Park West and Broadway)
• Puerto Rican Day Parade (along Fifth Avenue)
• Israel Day Parade
• Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting
• San Gennaro Festival (in Little Italy)
• Times Square Ball Drop (on New Year's Eve)
• Von Steuben Day September 17 – Celebration of German-Americans
• Labor Day Carnival celebration of West Indian heritage along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn

Murders by year

See also: Crime in New York City

Chart of murders in the NYC area by year

Year	Murders
1928	404
1929	425
1930	494
1931	588
1932	579
1933	541
1934	458
1935	n/a
1936	510
1937–1959	n/a
1960	482
1961	483
1962	631
1963	548
1964	636
1965	634
1966	654
1967	746
1968	986
1969	1043
1970	1117
1971	1466
1972	1691
1973	1680
1974	1554
1975	1645
1976	1622
1977	1557
1978	1504
1979	1733
1980	1814
1981	1826
1982	1668
1983	1622
1984	1450
1985	1384
1986	1582
1987	1672
1988	1896
1989	1905
1990	2245
1991	2154
1992	1995
1993	1946
1994	1561
1995	1177
1996	983
1997	770
1998	633
1999	671
2000	673
2001	649
2002	587
2003	597
2004	570
2005	539
2006	596
2007	494
2008	522
2009	471
2010	534
2011	515
2012	414
2013	332

See also

• History of New York City
• List of mayors of New York City
• List of ticker-tape parades in New York City
• National Register of Historic Places listings in New York County, New York
• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
• Timeline of New York

Boroughs

• Timeline of the Bronx
• Timeline of Brooklyn
• Timeline of Queens
• Timeline of Staten Island

Bibliography

See also: Books about New York City

Published in the 19th century

Published in the 20th century

Published in the 21st century

• (+ 1st ed., 1995, via Internet Archive)
• Includes Chronology.

External links

• Items related to New York City, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America)
• (maps)
• . (Photographic "examples of public space transformation from car-oriented to pedestrian friendly. Viewed through Google Streetview")