THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS (THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden. THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

THE FIRST AMERICAN PILGRIMS

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.

(THE PILGRIM FATHERS)

The year conventionally known as the starting year for massive immigrations to Northern America. Previously, Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587 (120 colonists).

Reasons for leaving England

Puritan religious beliefs were considered intolerable under James I

Marriage was considered a civil affair, not a religious sacrament (to be handled by the state). Marriage was a contract, mutually agreed by man and woman, for procreation and avoidance of adultery.

icons and religious symbols were rejected

rejection of (Catholic) Church hierarchy

no celebration for Christmas and Easter (celebrations invented by man to remember Jesus); no work on Sundays

Mayflower left Plymouth on September 6, with 102 passengers (three of which were pregnant women), and a crew of about 30 on board. They arrived on November 9 the same year. The Pilgrims were planning to build their settlement around the mouth of the Hudson's River near present-day Long Island, New York (for which location they had the permission of the King James I of Britain) but they finally settled for Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact an official document drawn up to allow the pilgrims to establish a government there (temporary solution).

More immigrants came on the ship Anne in 1623.

Prior to this pilgrimage, very few women had ever made the voyage across the ocean.

Only five women survived the first winter. 

Duties of the husband

head of the household

authority in front of wife, children and servants

beating a wife for discipline was not appropriate or productive (pastor John Robinson)

protecting the household and family from danger

Duties of the wife

to be fully submissive to her husband (she must obey her husbands lawful commands)

to be obedient and courteous

to dress and to behave modestly, and to speak with meekness

commanded the children

had to have the husbands consent before disposing of jointly-owned property

teacher for her children in their first years

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY

(Internet sources)

America before the Europeans

Discovery and Exploration 1492-1650
Colonial Era 1650-1765
Boone & Crockett's America (Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett symbols for the daring adventurer)
Revolutionary Era 1765-1783
Constitutional Era 1783-1800
Early National Period 1800-1830
The Age of Jackson 1830-1855
The Coming of the War 1850-1860
The Civil War 1860-1865
Reconstruction 1865-1876
The Gilded Age, 1876-1900

20th Century

THANKSGIVING

Turkey may be the food most associated with Thanksgiving, but the whole notion of this holiday has its roots not in turkey but in corn (Maize = the Native American name for it). 'Our corn did prove well, and God be praised,' wrote Edward Winslow shortly following the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621.

In modern times it is celebrated in the fourth Thursday in November.

Tribes throughout North America held calendrical thanksgiving ceremonies focused on regional agricultural cycle of growing and harvesting sacred corn.

Many Native American traditions, stories and ceremonies surround corn

The Green Corn Dance (or Green Corn Ceremony or Busk), is the only ancient ceremony that survived into the 20th century. It was the beginning of the New Year. It was a time when people gave thanks for the corn crop, which they identified with the continuation of life for them and all people.

Thanksgiving was not as we know it; it was instead a traditional European harvest celebration often held around the end of the grain harvest. In rural England, all who helped with the harvest celebrated the Harvest Home, observed on last day of bringing in the harvest. It was also called the 'Ingathering' or 'Inning', and in Scotland 'Kern'.

The harvest feast coincided with Algonkian tribes green corn festival to give thanks for the ripening corn.

It was only in the nineteenth century that this event became identified with the American Thanksgiving holiday.

It is traditionally believed that Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited the leaders of the Wampanoag Indians, and their immediate families to join them for a celebration in their honour. The Wampanoag Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game.

U.S.A. CITIES

INTERNET SOURCE: DCpages.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the city, thought of it as the Capital City. Jefferson referred to it as Federal Town. Washington, however, considered this undignified, and instead used the name Federal City.

During the Revolutionary period the Continental Congress was a somewhat nomadic body. At different times within a single year, , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York had the distinction of being the seat of Congress.

On October 7, 1783, Congress called for surveys of land near Georgetown on the Potomac River, and land near Trenton on the Delaware River, the resolution being later modified to provide for the building of two 'Federal towns', one on each river.

On March 4, 1789, the First Congress of the United States convened in New York City.

The initial plot of land authorized by the Constitution in 1791 for the seat of the US government was a 100-square mile area. The first commissioners appointed to acquire the property for the new capital and construct the first government buildings made the obvious choice and named the city Washington. At the same time, they decided to call the entire 100 square-mile area the District of Columbia. Congress later went along with this decision through legislative references to the area.

Washington history necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the 'Co-hon-ho-roo-ta', to the Spanish as the 'Espiritu Santo'; to the first English explorers as the 'Elizabeth'; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the 'St. Gregory.'

The '10 mile square'; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors. Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland.

L'Enfant set the President's House (i.e., the Capitol) on the nearing hill Jenkins Hill; and to connect this with the President's House he planned a highway 160 feet wide, later designated the Avenue of Pennsylvania. L'Enfant planned for two series of broad avenues named for the states, and that would converge into circular intersections, which were intended to complete long vistas and give direction and character to the city.

'Perhaps the dominant element in L'Enfant's designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House,' (Britannica).

By the end of 1798, the exterior of the President's House was completed, the Senate wing of the Capitol was under roof, and a contract placed for the first departmental building--the Treasury.

Philadelphia ceased to be the seat of National Government on June 11, 1800, and Washington took up the honor of becoming the US Capital City.

NEW YORK

When was New York founded?

Native Americans (The Lenape Indians) inhabited the area long before Europeans arrived.

In 1524, the first European to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing for the French. The French never colonized the area.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, rediscovered it. (Like other explorers, Hudson was actually looking for a shortcut to Asia.)

In 1624, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians, famously, for a few dollars worth of beads and ribbons. This became the colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1625. (Niewe Amsterdam)

New Amsterdam separated the English colonies of New England from the other English colonies in the south. Clashes between the Dutch and the English were inevitable. England's Charles II claimed all the Dutch land, and in 1664 he gave it to his brother, the Duke of York. The English immediately named New York after the Duke of York, in his honor.

The Dutch weren't prepared to fight the English, so in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Important dates in New York history

: It is believed that Giovanni da Verrazzano, hired by France, sailed into (New York) Bay and reached the (Hudson) River.

: Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River and claimed it as land of the Netherlands. 

: The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians

: Peter Stuyvesant was Mayor of Niewe Amsterdam (first modernization efforts)

: England captured New Amsterdam, changed its name to New York

: New York approved the Declaration of Independence

: the city planning of Manhattan began according to new rules, as there was no space provided for parks and playing grounds

: The New York Stock Exchange was founded (the legend says that 26 major business men gathered under an old chestnut tree on Wall Street and made the decision)

: Following the death of billionaire John Astor in the Titanic tragedy, his son tore down the Astor Hotel and had the Empire State Building on the same site (for a long time, the tallest building in the world)

: The Guggenheim Foundation (Peggy and Solomon Guggenheim)

Why is NYC referred to as the 'Big Apple?'

Three main variants

In the early 1920s, 'apple' was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races - as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

Jazz musicians in the 1920s and 1930s used to refer to a gig (=show, appearance) in New York as 'playing the Big Apple'. There was a jazz club in Harlem called 'the Big Apple' which is where this phrase may have originated.

It has nothing to do with the jazz club, others say; the phrase has been used long prior to the 1920s jazz cats. It originated when the city was quite young, and was in reference to an upper class whore house

How did Times Square appear?

Around 1878 the section of Broadway and 7th Avenue in Manhattan was the city's carriage-trade center, and was then known as Longacre Square - Longacre being the carriage center in London.

In 1904 Longacre Square was officially renamed Times Square, after the New York Times Building, which became the central building of the new district.

The History of Wall Street

When the Dutch settled in New York and the settlement was originally built there was a dividing wall between the settlers and the native Injuns. The street which bordered this wall was named Wall Street.

Eventually the wall was taken down, but pieces of it still remain. This is also the reason why the area around Wall St. is so oddly shaped compared to the rest of Manhattan, which is generally in a grid-like manner.

The fame of Wall Street as one of the most important financial centres in the world was established in 1903, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded.

Why Madison Square Garden was called a 'garden'

The 'building' was an oval arena with brick walls and no roof. In 1875 the famous bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (a composer and bandleader) obtained the lease and opened Gilmore's Garden.

He converted the space into a garden with flowers, trees, and waterfalls, and held promenade concerts there.

In 1879 William Vanderbilt regained control of the property and changed its name to Madison Square Garden.