The first court case is recorded in Newtown Township court records. Someone stole a wheel of cheese.
August 1664
William Hallett visited Astoria and bought a large tract of land from Chief Mattano, sachem of the Staten Island & Noyack (Fort Hamilton) Indians, for 58 fathoms of wampum, seven coats, one blanket and four kettles. The tract was 2,200 acres and extended from Bowery Bay to Sunswick Creek, encompassing all of modern Astoria and Steinway. The deed for this transaction was signed by four Indian chiefs by marks and witnessed by three white men. It still exists in the State Archives in Albany.
August 1730
An extreme drought makes pastures unable to support livestock in Queens. Desperate farmers feed cattle the first hay crop. But doing so only postpones disaster. It is now inevitable that their herds will starve in the coming winter.
August 1776
After the Battle of Long Island in the summer of 1776, the British army moved into Queens and by the beginning of September, occupied all the major communities. Major General Robertson wrote his official report of the battle to the British parliament while encamped in Elmhurst, and sent troops to Hell Gate to watch the Americans entrenched near present day Gracie Mansion.
In the following weeks both sides exchanged long artillery duels across the East River. The British moved their command to the head of Newtown creek near the location of St Saviour’s church. On October 12, 1776, General von Heister and his German Hessian troops, who were mercenary troops paid by the British, marched from Newtown Village (Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst) first to Jamaica, then along Kissena Boulevard to Flushing, pursuing the Americans who had retreated to Westchester, he crossed the East River on 53 flatboats and landed at Throgg’s Neck.
The war was over in Queens and the occupation began. It would last seven long years.
August 1776
Nelly Cornell looked out of an upper window of her house and called out to an officer at the American encampment in Far Rockaway and told him that she saw “trees rising from the ocean.”
He called another officer and observed, “that’s the British fleet; down with the tens, and let’s be off to the ferry.”
Wagons were impressed to convey baggage, and all the cattle were driven off. The Americans lost the Battle of Long Island later in the month, and Queens was occupied by the British for the remainder of the Revolutionary War.
August 28, 1776
A British regiment near Carpenter’s Tavern in Hollis captured American general Nathaniel Woodhull. When he refused to say “God save the King!” Woodhall was slashed on the head by a British officer and bayoneted through the arm. He was sent to a British prison ship in Wallabout Bay, where he later died of his wounds.
Estimates of deaths on those prison ships range as high as 11,000. If so, this would be more than half of all American casualties during that war.
August 29, 1861
On August 29, 1861, a group of citizens from (Newtown) Elmhurst tried to organize a meeting to support a ‘Peace Convention’ with the intention of sending delegates to a National Convention which would seek to end the Civil War. They wanted to end the bloodshed by negotiating ‘on the honorable course of conciliation’ with the southern states that had seceded. A group of irate pro-Union citizens, upon hearing of plans for the appeasement meeting, paid for a special train that left Flushing. It brought over 200 persons to the conference.
That evening, when over 1,200 people (including a group from Jamaica and other outlying hamlets) surrounded the hall, the meeting was canceled. After a series of fiery speeches, the mob proceeded to the meeting’s organizer, and after forcing him from his home, made him raise an American flag in his front yard. The next morning he found his yard littered with dead cats.
August 1869
The Steinway Free Circulating Library opens. It is later absorbed into the Long Island City Public Library, then the Queensborough Public Library.
Today, the portrait of founder William Steinway still watches from the wall of the main Reading Room of the library's Steinway Branch.
August 29, 1881
The high point of the summer season at Bay View Pavillion in Corona occurred . The Grand Annual Regatta was open to all boating enthusiasts, whose craft were divided into five classes. The boats had to sail from the Pavillion to and around Riker’s Island twice. There was a prize for each class and an elegant piece of silverplate, presented by Harry Hill (the owner of the Pavillion), went to the best boat irrespective of class. The weather was ideal and the spectacle attracted attracted huge crowds to the Pavillion, just as Harry Hill had anticipated.
August 1882
Long Island City, plagued with numerous lawsuits on assessments, defaults on city bonds. The Mayor is charged with embezzlement.
August 10, 1884
An earthquake, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, one of the largest ever recorded in the city, struck the eastern United States. It was felt in Queens and as far away as Maine and Virginia. Unlike most earthquakes in this area, this one did have enough force to “throw down chimneys.”
Although a truly strong earthquake has never struck the immediate area in recorded history, both Boston and Charleston, South Carolina, experienced severe temblors in colonial times that were felt as far away as New York.
August 31, 1886
“Twenty-five houses are going up in Woodhaven,” declares the Brooklyn Eagle on August 31, 1886, calling it the &ldqo;most prosperous place” on Long Island. “Many more will soon be needed, ” the article goes on.
The Grosjean tin factory, employing 800, was expanding and was ready to soon employ another 200 men. The village was to be lighted with gas (having completed arrangements with the Union Gas Company of East New York) and a public hall was going up. A residence with school accommodations was soon to open for the Ursuline Sisters. The opening of rapid transit was credited with doing much to open the community and its neighbor to the south, Ozone Park.
August 1895
The Brooklyn Parks Department purchases the first parcel for what is today known as Forest Park. The park grows with acquisitions through 1898.
August 1907
In August 1907, the steelwork on the Queensboro Bridge was complete. Building the bridge, the longest over the East River, took eight years, from 1901 to 1909. Unlike the graceful suspension spans on the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, or Manhattan Bridges, the Queensboro is a double cantilever truss bridge.
The bridge had had an immediate and profound effect on the development of Queens when it opened in 1909. With its graceful symmetry, the bridge has long been a source of inspiration for artists, songwriters, and authors. Queens natives Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel made it an icon for the 1960s with the song “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” and more recently it was featured in the movies Manhattan and Spiderman.
August 03, 1925
New York & Queens Railway Company ran the last trolley through the streets of Corona on August 3, 1925. A generation before, in the 1890s, the company had realized the long coveted goal of a trolley between Flushing and the Hunters Point ferry. Riders could choose Northern Boulevard (where the line ran on the outer roadbed), or the more roundabout route through Elmhurst. The line was doomed when, after the city notified the rail company that it intended to lay a sewer on 43rd Avenue, they calculated that more than $100,000 was needed to reroute the line. As the newly opened #7 elevated train through Corona had absorbed much of the trolley’s patronage, and it was losing money, the rail company decided to abandon the line.
August 03, 1926
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in Astoria. Mr. Benedetto,
better known as Tony Bennett, is famous for such musical hits as 1962's "I
Left My Heart In San Francisco." Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole influenced
his easy and natural style. While working with Pearl Bailey, he met Bob Hope,
who suggested he change his name from his then stage name, Joe Bari.
August 1930
America's first supermarket opens in a vacant garage on Jamaica Avenue
in Queens. King Kullen Grocery Company is an immediate success.
August 1935
Former Queens resident Will Rogers and his pilot Wiley Post were killed in a plane crash near Point Barrow in Alaska. Rogers, well known cowboy humorist, philosopher, court jester and serious advisor to United States Presidents, was a former resident of both Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. He first came to Queens in 1918, when he leased a house in Forest Hills for a year. While living there he aided a local charity by putting on a cowboy show that was a tremendous neighborhood success. He later rented another house in Kew Gardens. Tragically, his car once accidentally struck and killed a grocery clerk on Northern Boulevard in Flushing. Although, the incident was an accident, Rogers investigated and found that the clerk was struggling to support a wife and twelve children. He became a continuing contributor of clothing and money to the family.
August 26, 1935
Geraldine Ferraro was born in Newburg, New York. Ferraro was elected to the House of Representatives from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens in1978 and served three two-year terms, compiling a generally liberal voting record on social and economic issues. In 1984, Ferraro became the first (and, to date, only) woman to be nominated on a major party ticket for the Vice Presidency of the United States. She and fellow Democrat Walter Mondale were defeated in a landslide by the re-election campaign of President Ronald Reagan and Vice-President George H. W. Bush in the 1984 general election.
August 1953
The first ‘Walk-Don't Walk’ traffic lights were installed at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street in Flushing. First displayed in green and red, then about 1980 changed to white and red, these ubiquitous signals on every corner lasted unchanged until the summer of 2001.
With astonishing speed, every traffic light in the borough was updated and pedestrian signals were replaced with the international symbols of a red hand (‘Don't Walk’) and a white outline of a walking man (‘Walk’).
Authorities felt symbols were easier to understand and cheaper to operate.
August 27, 1958
On August 27, 1958, Hebert Stempel, of Forest Hills, and former champion on the quiz show Twenty-One, walked into the office of Manhattan prosecutor Joe Stone and stated the show was rigged. He had been dethroned by Charles Van Doren, a Columbia University literature professor.
Stempel was angry that Van Doren, who got his picture on Time Magazine, was a national hero, while he was quickly forgotten. At first ignored, evidence supporting his claim began to slowly trickle in.
Thus began the quiz show scandal that rocked television.
August 1962
The United States Public Health Service warned about the dangers of “glue sniffing,” which doctors warned could cause permanent liver damage.
In July, 10 teenagers had been arrested in Queens on juvenile delinquency charges stemming from glue sniffing. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers ridiculed labeling glue sniffing as just another adolescent craze.
They explained, “Unlike other relatively harmless activities, such as telephone booth-stuffing, glue inhalation appears to carry with it a potential for significant detriment to the child’s physical and emotional health.”
August 1964
At the World’s Fair, the seventy-two foot Cities Service bandwagon is a success. Its fifty-member band plays jazz, classics, military marches and a popular dance craze of the time, the twist. Fair attendees also enjoy fireworks displays in the evening at the Fountain of Planets.
August 15, 1964
Actress and Queens native Debi Mazar, known for her trademark Jersey girl image and brash New York attitude, started in small independent films, but quickly made the switch to major release movies and television. The edgy, sharp tongued actress began her career in the industry as a makeup artist for a star studded clientele. Discovered by one of those clients (and former Queens resident) Madonna, Debi’s first television appearance was in a pilot for hip-hop dance show.
Madonna later cast Debi in some of her music videos launching her career. With over 70 major roles listed to her credit, Debi has appeared in Goodfellas, LA Law, CSI Miami, NYPD Blue, Ugly Betty, Friends and is a voice over in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto.
Debi Mazer was born August 15, 1964.
August 15, 1964
The British rock group The Beatles performed at Shea Stadium in Flushing. The band had a sell-out crowd of 55,600, a world record for attendance at an outdoor concert. It was also the Beatles' largest crowd on any tour.
Most tickets were for $5.65 while some in the upper level were as cheap as $4.50. The band earned a $160,000 share of the $304,000 gross receipts, also a record at the time.
August 14, 1965
The last ship to be launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard slid down the ways in a shower of champagne, spray and probably tears. Mrs. Bruce Solomonson, daughter of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, christened the USS Duluth, and at the same time sounded the death knell for the 164-year-old shipyard. It was scheduled to be closed by June 30, 1966.
Cited as an economy measure by the Defense Department, many New York businessmen criticized the move that was estimated to result in a $1.5 billion loss to the local economy. In its heyday, the shipyard was the largest employer in the city producing, among many others, the battleships Maine, Arizona, and Missouri.
August 15, 1966
TWA Flight 782, on an approach to JFK Airport, lost a nine-foot section of wing flap that fell on 156th Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets in Howard Beach. There were no injuries, however TWA failed to report the incident to the FAA. The plane landed safely, and there was no property damage associated with the incident.
August 08, 1978
The federal government gave New York City $134.5 million in transit grants, most of which was slated for the 63rd Street line and an underground connection between the IND Queens Boulevard line and the new station in Queensbridge (at 21 Street). At the time, it was felt that the line could be open by 1981. In fact, the line to Queensbridge did not open until October 1989. Construction of the connection to the Queens Boulevard line did not begin until 1994 and was completed in 2001, at a cost of $645 million.
August 1981
Street clocks on Steinway Street and Jamaica Avenue are declared New
York City Landmarks.
August 2000
Tennis great Arthur Ashe is memorialized with a bronze statue, Soul
in Flight. Sculpted by Eric Fischl, and sponsored by the United States Tennis
Association, it stands in Flushing Meadow Park.
August 14, 2003
At about 4:30 pm, a massive blackout struck the east coast of the United States and part of Canada. Unlike the blackout of 1977, when there was widespread looting, New Yorkers seemed to be primarily interested in finding a way home and partying. Power was restored to most of the city and Queens by the afternoon of the following day.
