On this date, there were two similar occurrences in New York City. Riots. In 1863 during the Civil War – not long after the Battle of Gettysburg in nearby Pennsylvania – there were three days of draft riots. The fighting was not that far off and yet, in the North, there were riots over the prospect of men being drafted to fight – a fight that involved a real war on their shores, near their neighborhoods. More than a century later, in 1977, a nearly 24-hour power outage caused financial panic and widespread fires and looting. Chaos erupted when people were without power and light.
There were bright spots on this date as well. 1930 brought the inaugural FIFA World Cup in Urugary, 1956 brought the Dartmouth workshop – the first conference on artificial intelligence, and 1985 brought the Live Aid concert.
Notables born on this date include the long-lived, long-heard voice of Jeopardy announcer Johnny Gilbert (1924), Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heroes fame (1928), Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart (1940), and Star War’s Harrison Ford (1942), and the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube Hungarian Erno Rubik (1944).
We bid farewell to mountain man and first GOP presidential nominee John C Fremont (1890), Austrian-American modern expressionist composer and painter Arnold Schoenberg (1951), film producer Richard Zanuck (2012), and French-American pianist, composer, and conductor Lorin Maazel (2014). And timely notice of the passing of Manhattan Project director – General Leslie Groves (1970) – just in time for the release of the movie about it – Oppenheimer.
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