1.
Brooklyn
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Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle
2.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
3.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
4.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
5.
Troy
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The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the Iliad, a new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually in the Byzantine era and these excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Troy VII has been identified with the city that the Hittites called Wilusa, the origin of the Greek Ἴλιον. Today, the hill at Hisarlık has given its name to a village near the ruins. It lies within the province of Çanakkale, some 30 km south-west of the provincial capital, the map here shows the adapted Scamander estuary with Ilium a little way inland across the Homeric plain. Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Ancient Greek historians variously placed the Trojan War in the 12th, 13th, or 14th centuries BC, Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Duris of Samos to 1334 BC. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII, in the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the River Scamander, where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, recent geological findings have permitted the identification of the ancient Trojan coastline, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy. In November 2001, the geologist John C, kraft from the University of Delaware and the classicist John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin, presented the results of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the major work attributed to Homer. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, the Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and there made sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, with the rise of critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were, for a long time, consigned to the realms of legend. However, the location of ancient Troy had from classical times remained the subject of interest. The Troad peninsula was anticipated to be the location, leChavaliers location, published in his Voyage de la Troade, was the most commonly accepted theory for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known, the hill, near the city of Çanakkale, was known as Hisarlık. In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık, in 1871–73 and 1878–79, he excavated the hill and discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period
6.
Cleveland
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Cleveland is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the states second most populous county. The city proper has a population of 388,072, making Cleveland the 51st largest city in the United States, Greater Cleveland ranked as the 32nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city is the center of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border. Clevelands economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Residents of Cleveland are called Clevelanders, Cleveland has many nicknames, the oldest of which in contemporary use being The Forest City. Cleaveland oversaw the plan for what would become the downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning home. The first settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, the Village of Cleaveland was incorporated on December 23,1814. In spite of the swampy lowlands and harsh winters, its waterfront location proved to be an advantage. The area began rapid growth after the 1832 completion of the Ohio, growth continued with added railroad links. Cleveland incorporated as a city in 1836, in 1836, the city, then located only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854, the citys prime geographic location as a transportation hub on the Great Lakes has played an important role in its development as a commercial center. Cleveland serves as a point for iron ore shipped from Minnesota. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, other manufacturers located in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included White and Gaeth, as well as the electric car company Baker. Because of the significant growth, Cleveland was known as the Sixth City during this period, by 1920, due in large part to the citys economic prosperity, Cleveland became the nations fifth largest city. The city counted Progressive Era politicians such as the populist Mayor Tom L. Johnson among its leaders, many prominent Clevelanders from this era are buried in the historic Lake View Cemetery, including President James A. Garfield, and John D. Rockefeller. In commemoration of the centennial of Clevelands incorporation as a city, conceived as a way to energize a city after the Great Depression, it drew four million visitors in its first season, and seven million by the end of its second and final season in September 1937. The exposition was housed on grounds that are now used by the Great Lakes Science Center, following World War II, the city experienced a prosperous economy. In sports, the Indians won the 1948 World Series, the hockey Barons became champions of the American Hockey League, as a result, along with track and boxing champions produced, Cleveland was dubbed City of Champions in sports at this time
7.
New York Mutuals
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The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention and it was a charter member of both the first professional league in 1871 and the National League in 1876. Failing on the field and in the coffer, it declined to make its last western trip of the inaugural season, for the transgression it was expelled in December, and soon found itself defunct. The Mutuals chose open professionalism in 1869–70 after NABBP liberalization and they joined the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, for its 1871 to 1875 duration. In 1876, the Chicago White Stockings initiated the National League and recruited its members from West to East, the Mutuals were one of eight charter members, six of whom were from the National Association. Weak and cash-poor, the club refused to complete its playing obligations in the West, on May 13,1876, the Mutuals executed the first triple play in major-league history in a game against the Hartford Dark Blues. Union Grounds proprietor William Cammeyer, often listed today as the Mutual club owner, the team was effectively a one-year replacement for the defunct Mutuals, and was sometimes called Hartford of Brooklyn. The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870, jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4 New York Mutuals reenactors 1876 Mutuals at Baseball Reference
8.
Union Grounds
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Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15 and it was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing proprietor William Cammeyer or his tenant to charge admission. This permitted paying customers to watch the games from benches in a stand while non-paying spectators could watch from embankments outside the grounds. The ball grounds was built on a block bounded by Harrison Avenue, Rutledge Street, Lynch Street. A writer for the Brooklyn Eagle described the field in 1862, The buildings occupied last winter are left standing, near these a long wooden shed has been erected, capable of accommodating several hundred persons, and benches provided for the convenience of the fair sex. Several acres more have added to the enclosure, which is fenced in with a board fence six or seven feet in height. On the southeast corner a large and commodious club house has been erected, the field is now almost a perfect level, covering at least some six acres of ground, all of which is well drained, rolled, and in a few weeks will be in splendid condition. Several flagstaffs have been put up, from which floated the banners of the clubs oer shadowed by the nations ensign. During its early years Union Grounds was the field for several ballclubs. In 1868, the Mutual Club of New York moved in from Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, long-time home of Manhattan clubs but never enclosed. The ballparks entrance was on Rutledge Street, and a building in right field,350 feet away from home plate, was in play. It also served as field for the Hartford of Brooklyn team during the 1877 National League season. On July 26,1878, the major league game was played on the grounds. The grounds continued to host barnstorming major league clubs, amateur clubs, the park did not sit idle during the winter. Its field was flooded and served as the rink for an ice skating club, an unusual feature of the park was the presence of a pagoda in center field. Union Grounds was demolished in July of 1883, green Cathedrals, by Philip J. Lowry,1986. Ballparks of North America, by Michael Benson,1989, name, Union Grounds Long Before the Dodgers, by James L. Terry,2002 BrooklynBallParks. com
9.
New York Knickerbockers
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The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. The team was founded by Alexander Cartwright, considered one of the developers of modern baseball. In 1851, the New York Knickerbockers wore the first ever recorded baseball uniforms, while a member of Knickerbocker Engine Company No.12 of the New York City Fire Department, Alexander Joy Cartwright became involved in playing town ball on a vacant lot in Manhattan. In 1845, the lot became unavailable for use, and the group was forced to look for another location. They found a field, the Elysian Fields, a large tree-filled parkland across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey run by Colonel John Stevens. In order to pay the fees, Cartwright organized a ball club so that he could collect the needed money. The club was named the Knickerbockers, in honor of the company where Cartwright was a member. The Knickerbockers club was organized on September 23,1845, the first officers were Duncan F. Curry, president, William R. Wheaton, vice-president, and William H. Tucker, secretary-treasurer. Creating a club for the players called for a formal set of rules for each member to adhere to. Wheaton and Tucker formalized the Knickerbocker Rules, a set of twenty rules for the team, Members must strictly observe the time agreed upon for exercise, the bases shall be from home to second base, forty-two paces, from first to third base, forty-two paces, equidistant. No stump match shall be played on a day of exercise. If members appear after the game is commenced, they may be chosen in if mutually agreed upon, the game to consist of twenty-one counts, or aces, but at the conclusion an equal number of hands must be played. The ball must be pitched, not thrown, for the bat, a ball knocked out of the field, or outside the range of first or third base, is foul. Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is an out, if not caught is considered fair. If a ball be struck, or tipped, and caught, either flying or on the first bound, a player running who shall prevent an adversary from catching or getting the ball before making his base, is a hand out. Players must take their strike in regular turn, all disputes and differences relative to the game, to be decided by the Umpire, from which there is no appeal. No ace or base can be made on a foul strike, a runner cannot be put out in making one base, when a balk is made by the pitcher. But one base allowed when a ball out of the field when struck
10.
Henry Eckford (shipbuilder)
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Eckford was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, to Henry Eckford and Janet Black on 12 March 1775, the youngest of five sons. The family soon moved to nearby Irvine, where he attended school and became a friend of schoolmate John Galt. As a boy, Eckford trained as a ships carpenter somewhere in Ayrshire, Eckford proved to be a hard worker and quick learner, with a flair for shipbuilding and ship design. In 1794, Eckford joined a Freemason Lodge in Kingston, beginning an association with Freemasonry. In 1796, Eckford reached the age of 21 and completed his apprenticeship and he emigrated to the United States that year, settling in New York City – a booming city with a flourishing shipbuilding industry – to work as a journeyman in a boatyard on the East River. In April 1799, the 24-year-old Eckford married 20-year-old Marion Bedell, Sarah Eckford married the noted American poet Joseph Rodman Drake in 1816, and the couple gave Eckford his first grandchild in 1819. Janet Eckford married the American zoologist James Ellsworth De Kay, in 1799 or 1800, Eckford moved into a house on Long Island and opened his own shipyard on the East River in Brooklyn. He designed and built his first ship, the three-masted Sportsman of 324 gross tons, around 1802, he sold his yard and moved back across the river to New York City, where he and Edward or Lester Beebe opened a new shipyard together. The yard prospered, turning out a series of ships that were handy and seaworthy and he also befriended the successful New York shipbuilder Christian Bergh, and on 10 June 1803, became a United States citizen. Eckford built the three-masted ship Beaver for Astor in 1805, later in the year, he constructed the ship Magdalen for Astor, and in 1808 he built the brig Sylph for him. Eckford did his first shipbuilding work for the US Navy beginning in 1806, in July 1808, Christian Bergh invited Eckford to join him in building the 14-gun US Navy brig USS Oneida at Oswego, New York, on Lake Ontario. Returning to New York City in 1809, Eckford bought out his partner Beebe, for Astor, he built the brig Fox in 1809 and the ship Hannibal in 1810. It was the speed of his ships thanks to their hull form that gained Eckford great fame in the 19th century. In September 1810, Eckford took on 16-year-old Isaac Webb as an apprentice at his yard, in thus spreading naval architecture and shipbuilding expertise, Eckford made a significant contribution to the growth of American shipbuilding. After the War of 1812 began in June 1812, Eckford offered his services to United States Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton in a letter of 8 July 1812 and he was the first of the men at the meeting to arrive on the Great Lakes. Noah Brown later moved to Lake Champlain, and later still to Sackets Harbor, by 1814, the Sackets Harbor yard had converted some Great Lakes merchant vessels to carry guns and also had launched eight new purpose-built warships. Using prefabrication in New York City and on-site assembly in Sackets Harbor, the Sackets Harbor yard also built smaller ships in record time, the schooner USS Sylph took only 21 days from keel-laying to launch in 1813. With both the Browns and Eckford active at Sackets Harbor, it has become a bit murky as to what extent Eckford was involved in the building of some of the ships there
