Richard Bruntnel receives a land grant in Dutch Kills. His farm embraces the modern communities of Sunnyside and Blissville.
July 1756
A devastating hurricane sweeps through the Hell Gate and storms across Queens leaving a 15 mile path of destruction.
July 12, 1771
Dow Ditmars, Astoria’s most famous doctor, was born. After graduating from Princeton, he took up medicine and practiced in South America for a while. He moved to Astoria in 1816 and established a medical practice that continued until his 90th year. He died in Astoria in 1860. The present-day Ditmars Boulevard is named after him.
July 04, 1776
Francis Lewis of Whitestone voted for independence at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. A few weeks later he signed the Declaration of Independence.
Born in Wales, he immigrated to the United States in 1735 and established mercantile houses in New York and Philadelphia. He participated in the French and Indian War, when he was captured, and taken as a prisoner to France. On his return the colonial government gave him 5,000 acres of land in recognition of his services.
His estates were lost during the American Revolution and he died in poverty, aged 90 and was interred in Trinity Churchyard.
July 20, 1776
The Provincial Congress resolved that the live stock on Long Island be collected into convenient places where they could be driven to the interior of the island and there guarded or even killed, if necessary, to prevent them falling into the enemy’s hands. Each farmer was to be left one pair of horses. Every large family was allowed to keep three milk cows, a middling family two and a small family one. One-fourth of the militia and minute-men of Long Island were to be drafted immediately to execute these resolutions.
July 1848
Calvary Cemetery receives its first internment. Today it contains over three million internments making it one of the largest cemeteries in the country.
July 25, 1859
The New York and Jamaica Railroad Company, a company formed by the Long Island Railroad, began construction of a new railroad from Winfield Junction (in present day Woodside) to Hunters Point. At the Hunters Point terminus of The railroad, construction began on car houses, engine houses, machine shops and the depot required for the new railroad. Many believed that a flourishing village would grow up around this locality and, of course, the village of Hunters Point did.
July 13, 1895
A cyclone destroyed Public School #2 in Woodhaven. The two-story red brick structure had been built in the late 1880’s. The school board opted to level what was left of the old structure and build a new and larger one. Construction on the new building began on February 17, 1896, and the building was opened on September 8, 1896. It accommodated 700 students.
July 19, 1911
The toll on the Queensboro Bridge was abolished. According to those interested in the automobile business, this would give Long Island City one of its biggest boosts. “Automobilists” had found that they could locate their factories here and escape the high rentals in Manhattan and still be in reach of the bit automobile center around Broadway and Fifty-ninth street. It was understood that three other firms were looking for space in Long Island City, while six big factories were already located in Long Island City, which was predicted to become one of the most important automobile centers in the country.
July 1912
Permits for public baths along the East and Hudson Rivers, including those in Astoria, were issued for the summer by a reluctant Board of Health. It was feared that this might be last year for this.
The Health Commissioner was reluctant to phase out the baths without a substitute because they were the only way that the poor could enjoy open-air bathing. The Health Department did have clear evidence of pollution, but did not have clear evidence of how detrimental to health this was. The benefit of immersion in cool water could not be denied, but some thought that even a few cases of typhoid or severe eye damage would justify closing the baths permanently.
One line of thinking to remedy the situation was that the city build large natatoriums (buildings with swimming pools and maybe locker rooms inside). The pools would be filled with fresh water from the new Catskill aqueduct.
July 06, 1921
Nancy Davis was born in Queens. When she was six, her family moved to Chicago. After graduation from college, she became a professional actress and married Ronald Reagan in Los Angeles in 1952. She was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989 during Ronald’s presidency. She coined the phrase, “Just Say No!”, as an effort to stem the growing use of drugs in the United States
July 1930
The first traffic lights in Queens are switched on along the 'el' structure
along Queens Blvd. in Sunnyside between 34th Street and 49th Streets.
July 11, 1936
The $ 60.3 million Triborough Bridge, connecting Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, opened. The bridge is not simply a single span, but rather is a complex comprised of three long-span bridges, a number of smaller bridges and viaducts, fourteen miles of approach highways and parkways, parks and recreational facilities, and administrative offices for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. It was designed by the famous bridge designer Othmar Ammann.
July 1939
A strike halts construction on the Queens Midtown Tunnel after
150 sandhogs refuse to report for work. Demands include one union run by union
men for all workers, a right to hold meetings and determine union policy, 30
minute lunch break in the open, and reinstatement of all workers fired for union
activity. These men were paid $12 for each 8 hour day. In the caissons they
receive $13.50 for each 4 hour period. Later in the month, over 11,000 WPA men
in Queens lay down their tools protesting new work guidelines. The biggest project
halted was the North Beach Airport.
July 1943
During World War II, rubber and gas shortages bring back 5 A.M. milk delivery by horse carts in Flushing. The Oakland Golf Club uses a tally-ho wagon to shuttle golfers from the LIRR station in Bayside.
July 1951
During “operation marijuana,” Sanitation Department crewmen descended on Maspeth to wipe out the biggest marijuana farm found anywhere in the city.
It was estimated that enough plants to make 2,000,000 “reefers” were destroyed. About 2,000 pounds of the “dope weed” were yanked out and carted away to an incinerator. Some of the plants were as much as eight feet high.
Even without the Maspeth farm, Queens’ marijuana crop was the largest of any borough. It was estimated at 11,000 pounds, enough to make 11,000,000 “reefers”, worth at least $5,500,000 on the drug market.
July 1955
An ancient College Point landmark, the Eskotter Hotel, was demolished. The sprawling 68 year-old hotel at 14th Avenue and 110th Street had been a mecca for political clam bakes and organization picnics on its shady grounds. It was known far and wide as a beer hall.
One of its most famous guests was Charles Lindberg, who visited there some months after becoming the first person to fly the Atlantic solo.
The site was purchased early in the year by the Edo Aircraft Corporation for construction of an annex to its plant. Edo manufactured parts for airplanes and boats for the Navy, mostly under secret contract.
July 1966
The Finast Supermarket on 31st Street in Astoria offers 100 S&H stamps for a $7.50 purchase, and 100 free stamps if the checkout clerk doesn't say ‘Thank You.’ Corned beef sold at 59 cents, round roast at 79 cents and ten cans of lemonade went for 89 cents.
July 06, 1975
At a few minutes to 6 pm two horses went to the post at Belmont
Park in New York. This was an extraordinary race matching Ruffian, the Champion
two year old filly of 1974 and Foolish Pleasure, the Champion two year old colt
of 1974. Both horses had gone through their seasons undefeated. Ruffian was
½ a length in front of the colt when her leg snapped. It took 30 strides
to stop her, but it was too late. A broken leg for a thoroughbred horse is too
often a death sentence. The following day, Ruffian was put to sleep. The race
proved that only death could beat her.
July 13, 1977
At about 9:30 PM, Queens and the rest of New York City were plunged into darkness in the 1977 Blackout. The blackout was confined to New York City, so power was restored to Queens by
1:45 PM the next day, but not before there was widespread looting in the borough and other parts of the city.
