November 14th in NYC History: Nelly Bly around the world on The World, Mickey Mantle #1, Streetcars, NYC's first pizzeria!
Posted: Nov 14, 2012 | 5:03 AM
1765: Robert Fulton the steamship inventor born. He died in 1815. Other cities claim different steamship inventors, but this is my town.
1832: NYC's first streetcar rolled. It was horse-drawn, running on the Bowery between 14th St and Prince St. The fare was 25c. This is back when Union Square was emerging as the new center of town, and the Bowery was fancy.
For over 150 years the Bowery was skid row, and now it is back.
1851: Herman Melville's epic Moby Dick published. In those days he was best known for his poetry. Melville was a downtown figure, descended from Dutch gentry, working on the streets of his shipping ancestors as a customs bureaucrat with dreams of the sea. He died even more obscurely. The New York Times got his name wrong.
1889: Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, the greatest paper in its day, in the world's tallest building, sponsors writer Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane)'s journey around the world in 72 days.
1900: All-American classical composer Aaron Copeland born in Brooklyn.
1905: Lombardi's Pizza opens, the USA's first official pizza parlor. It has been back in operation since the 1990s after a hiatus. Most of the time, the pizza there is great, sometimes life-changingly good. Word has it that they could not source mozzarella locally then, so it was imported from Italy! Were they making cheese on the ships?
1922: Former U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali celebrated his happy happy birthday, and he still is.
1943: Watch out for understudies. Leonard Bernstein debuts as conductor of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra when he comes in as a substitute at age 25. He was a smash hit.
1947: Writer P.J. O'Rourke born. He is alive and drinking.
1956: Yankees' Centerfielder Mickey Mantle, was unanimously selected the American League's MVP Most Valuable Player. He'll be selected again in 1957 and 1962.
1972: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 1,000 for the first time. In 2012 it trades around 13,000.
1986: The Securities Exchange Commission fined Ivan F. Boesky $100 million for insider stock trading.
1999: The United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan for refusing to hand over terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
2012: Mets Pitcher R.A. Dickey won the National League Cy Young Award at age 38 after finally mastering the obscure fast knuckleball. He was 20-6 with a 2.73 earned run average for the Mets, leading the National League in innings pitched, strikeouts, complete games and shutouts.