Towering over New York for 75 years...
New York City's Empire State Building would become the tallest structure ever erected in the U.S. when President Herbert Hoover pushed the button that turned on the lights of the big building on the night of May 1st, 1931. This event was so big it was carried live on the radio. If we had television 75 years ago, all the networks would've covered it as well. Can't you just see Katie and Matt camped out on the observation deck for a week spewing out factoids ad nauseam and Al Roker holding an umbrella testing the winds and fate ?
The Empire State Building stood tall against the New York City landscape at 102 stories or 1,454 feet from the top of its lightning rod to its base at ground level. Speaking of factoids, chew on this
- the land was acquired for $20,500 by one of John Jacob Astor's sons...
- construction of the building took only 14 months to complete...
- number of windows: 6,500...
- number of steps (from the lobby to 102nd floor): 1,860...
- number of elevators: 73...
- number of suicides: more than 30...
- the 200-foot television antenna was added in 1953 and several radio stations had antennas there...
- on a clear day, you can see 15 to 20 miles although some have sighted buildings or mountains (the Pocono's) as far as 40 to 80 miles away...
- if a coin were dropped from the top of the building, most likely the wind currents and updrafts would blow it back toward the building and it would travel to the 81st floor , not reaching the ground but if the object is light enough it could go as far as the Hudson River a half mile away...
The Empire State Building has had its share of tragedies, the worst being the B-25 bomber that crashed into the 79th floor on a foggy Saturday in July of 1945, killing 14. Damage to the building was minimal. The building has had its share of intruders, as recently as last week when some joker, disguised in a mask and "fat suit" tried to parachute from the observation deck but was stopped by New York's finest...
The Empire State Building was the tallest building in New York until the World Trade Center buildings went up in 1972. On September 11, 2001, once again it was the tallest building in New York...
More May 1 Memories...
1707] England, Wales and Scotland are united to form Great Britain...
1822] John Phillips (no relation) becomes Boston's 1st mayor...
1867] Reconstruction of the South begins with black voter registration...
1883] William F. Cody a.k.a. "Buffalo Bill" holds his 1st Wild West Show...
1922] Charlie Robertson of the Chicago White Sox pitches a perfect no-hit, no-run game against Detroit. Another perfect game doesn't come around for 46 years...
1931] The Empire State Building opens (feature story)...
1939] Batman comics hit the street...
1941] General Mills introduces Cheerios (I love the Honey Nut Cheerios)...
1941] The Orson Welles film "Citizen Kane" premieres at the RKO Palace on Broadway...
1951] Mickey Mantle hits his 1st home run (it comes against the White Sox in Chicago)...
1952] Mr. Potato Head is born...
1957] Larry King broadcasts his 1st radio show...
1960] The Soviet Union shoots down an American U-2 spy plane and captures pilot Francis Gary Powers...
1961] The 1st U.S. airplane is hijacked to Cuba...
1965] The Supremes release "Back In My Arms Again"...
1967] Elvis Presley serenades Priscilla Beaulieu with "Love Me" as they walk down the aisle in Las Vegas...
1971] Amtrak combines 18 intercity passenger railroads and goes into service...
1971] The Rolling Stones release "Brown Sugar"...
1974] The Carpenters sing for President Richard Nixon and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt at the White House...
1989] Police in California are called to what they think is a robbery at a jewelry store but it turns out to be Michael Jackson shopping in a disguise (and we're suprised because ?)...
1991] Rickey Henderson of Oakland passes Lou Brock with his 939th stolen base (in a game against the Yankees) setting a new career record for stolen bases...
1991] 44-year old Texas pitcher Nolan Ryan upstages Henderson by pitching his 7th no-hitter (against Toronto). No other pitcher in baseball history has as many...
1992] On the 3rd day of the L.A. riots, Rodney King asks: "Can we all get along ?"...
1999] The Mercury space capsule, Liberty Bell 7, piloted by Gus Grissom in 1961 is found in the Atlantic Ocean 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral...
2000] The "Barbie for President" doll goes on sale (both Republicans and Democrats claim party affiliation. Al Gore demands a re-count)...
2003] President George W. Bush lands in a jet on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, barely missing the mines planted by Democrats and in a speech to the nation, declares major combat in Iraq is over (Al Gore demands a re-count)...
2004] Smarty Jones wins the Kentucky Derby, the 1st unbeaten Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]
Commentary...
On February 23, 1997, a former classmate of my son Rob, Daniel Gross and his brother Matt visited the observation deck of the Empire State Building. That date would produce one of the tragedies connected to the building. A gunman found his way to the observation deck while Danny and Matt were there and started firing randomly. One tourist would suffer a fatal wound and 6 others would be hit, one of them was Matthew Gross. Matt, shot in the head would spend a week in a coma, critically wounded. 27-year old Matt would survive the wounding and his brother Daniel sprang into action, quitting his maketing job at J. Walter Thompson to set up an anti-gun violence organization to prevent future shootings. Daniel Gross is co-founder of PAX, now one of the largest and most successful non-profit gun violence prevention organizations in the nation. If you would like to help in this most worthy cause, contact the organization at: www.paxusa.org
Happy Birthday To...
1916] Glenn Ford (one of his most famous movies was "Blackboard Jungle")...
1925] Former astronaut Scott Carpenter...
1929] Country singer Sonny James...
1939] Judy Collins...
1945] Rita Coolidge...
1967] Tim McGraw...
"E-mails, we get e-mails. We get lots and lots of e-mails..."
Harvey Mednick commenting on Roget of Thesaurus fame (who was mentioned in the weekend blog) "discovered the phenomenon of persistence of vision in which an image stays on the retina for a millisecond after being viewed, therefore making movies and tv possible". Hey Harv: now find out why wheels on a car appear to be going backwards while really going forward...
[Today is the 121st day of 2006 with 244 days left in the year and 28 days remaining until Memorial Day]...
