THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM

Today, The Grandma has visited one of the most wonderful and amazing libraries of the world, the New York Public Library.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States, behind the Library of Congress, and the third largest in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing.

The library has branches in the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island and affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the New York metropolitan area. The city's other two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are not served by the New York Public Library system, but rather by their respective borough library systems: the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of circulating libraries. The New York Public Library also has four research libraries, which are also open to the general public.

The library, officially chartered as The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, was developed in the 19th century, founded from an amalgamation of grass-roots libraries and social libraries of bibliophiles and the wealthy, aided by the philanthropy of the wealthiest Americans of their age.

The New York Public Library name may also refer to its Main Branch, which is easily recognizable by its lion statues named Patience and Fortitude that sit either side of the entrance.

The branch was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and designated a New York City Landmark in 1967. At the behest of Joseph Cogswell, John Jacob Astor placed a codicil in his will to bequeath $400,000, equivalent of $11.6 million in 2018, for the creation of a public library. After Astor's death in 1848, the resulting board of trustees executed the will's conditions and constructed the Astor Library in 1854 in the East Village. The library created was a free reference library; its books were not permitted to circulate.

By 1872, the Astor Library was described in a New York Times editorial as a major reference and research resource, but, Popular it certainly is not, and, so greatly is it lacking in the essentials of a public library, that its stores might almost as well be under lock and key, for any access the masses of the people can get thereto.

An act of the New York State Legislature incorporated the Lenox Library in 1870. The library was built on Fifth Avenue, between 70th and 71st Streets, in 1877. Bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox donated a vast collection of his Americana, art works, manuscripts, and rare books, including the first Gutenberg Bible in the New World. At its inception, the library charged admission and did not permit physical access to any literary items.

More information: New York Public Library

The notable New York author Washington Irving was a close friend of Astor for decades and had helped the philanthropist design the Astor Library.Irving served as President of the library's Board of Trustees from 1848 until his death in 1859, shaping the library's collecting policies with his strong sensibility regarding European intellectual life.

Subsequently, the library hired nationally prominent experts to guide its collections policies; they reported directly to directors John Shaw Billings, who also developed the National Library of Medicine, Edwin H. Anderson, Harry M. Lydenberg, Franklin F. Hopper, Ralph A. Beals, and Edward Freehafer (1954–70).

They emphasized expertise, objectivity, and a very broad worldwide range of knowledge in acquiring, preserving, organizing, and making available to the general population nearly 12 million books and 26.5 million additional items. 

The directors in turn reported to an elite board of trustees, chiefly elderly, well-educated, philanthropic, predominantly Protestant, upper-class white men with commanding positions in American society. They saw their role as protecting the library's autonomy from politicians as well as bestowing upon it status, resources, and prudent care.

Representative of many major board decisions was the purchase in 1931 of the private library of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847–1909), uncle of the last tsar. This was one of the largest acquisitions of Russian books and photographic materials; at the time, the Soviet government had a policy of selling its cultural collections abroad for gold.

More information: NYPL Overdrive

The military drew extensively from the library's map and book collections in the world wars, including hiring its staff. For example, the Map Division's chief Walter Ristow was appointed as head of the geography section of the War Department's New York Office of Military Intelligence from 1942 to 1945. Ristow and his staff discovered, copied, and loaned thousands of strategic, rare or unique maps to war agencies in need of information not available through other sources.

In the 1990s, the New York Public Library decided to relocate that portion of the research collection devoted to science, technology, and business to a new location. The library purchased and adapted the former B. Altman department store on 34th Street.

In 1995, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the library, the $100 million Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates of Manhattan, opened to the public. Upon the creation of the SIBL, the central research library on 42nd Street was renamed the Humanities and Social Sciences Library.

Today there are four research libraries that comprise the NYPL's research library system; together they hold approximately 44,000,000 items. Total item holdings, including the collections of the Branch Libraries, are 50.6 million.

The Humanities and Social Sciences Library on 42nd Street is still the heart of the NYPL's research library system. The SIBL, with approximately 2 million volumes and 60,000 periodicals, is the nation's largest public library devoted solely to science and business. The NYPL's two other research libraries are the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, located at 135th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, located at Lincoln Center.

In addition to their reference collections, the Library for the Performing Arts and the SIBL also have circulating components that are administered as ordinary branch libraries.

More information: The Nation

The New York Public Library was not created by government statute. From its earliest days, the library was formed from a partnership of city government with private philanthropy. 

As of 2010, the research libraries in the system are largely funded with private money, and the branch or circulating libraries are financed primarily with city government funds.

Until 2009, the research and branch libraries operated almost entirely as separate systems, but that year various operations were merged. By early 2010, the NYPL staff had been reduced by about 16 percent, in part through the consolidations.

The NYPL, like all public libraries in New York, is granted a charter from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and is registered with the New York State Education Department. The basic powers and duties of all library boards of trustees are defined in the Education Law and are subject to Part 90 of Title 8 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations.

The NYPL's charter, as restated and granted in 1975, gives the name of the corporation as The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

The library is governed by a board of trustees, composed of between 25–42 trustees of several classes who collectively choose their own successors, including ex officio the New York City Mayor, New York City Council Speaker and New York City Comptroller.

More information: The New York Times

 

 

 The library is the temple of learning,

and learning has liberated more people

than all the wars in history.

Carl T. Rowan

'WE SHALL OVERCOME', THE SONG THAT CRIES RIGHTS

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma have been talking about one of the most popular songs of the American civil rights movement, We shall overcome.

Before, they have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Relative Pronouns and Shall.

More information: Relative Pronouns

More information: Shall

We Shall Overcome is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the American civil rights movement. 

The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from I'll Overcome Some Day, a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley that was first published in 1901.

The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike in Charleston, South Carolina. 

In 1947, the song was published under the title We Will Overcome in an edition of the People's Songs Bulletin (a publication of People's Songs, an organization of which Pete Seeger was the director), as a contribution of and with an introduction by Zilphia Horton, then-music director of the Highlander Folk School of Monteagle, Tennessee (an adult education school that trained union organizers). Horton said she had learned the song from Simmons, and she considered it to be her favorite song. According to Horton, one of the stanzas of the original hymn was 'we will overcome'. ... It sort of stops them cold silent.

She taught it to many others, including Pete Seeger, who included it in his repertoire, as did many other activist singers, such as Frank Hamilton and Joe Glazer, who recorded it in 1950.

The song became associated with the civil rights movement from 1959, when Guy Carawan stepped in with his and Seeger's version as song leader at Highlander, which was then focused on nonviolent civil rights activism. 

It quickly became the movement's unofficial anthem. Seeger and other famous folksingers in the early 1960s, such as Joan Baez, sang the song at rallies, folk festivals, and concerts in the North and helped make it widely known. Since its rise to prominence, the song, and songs based on it, have been used in a variety of protests worldwide.

The U.S. copyright of the People's Songs Bulletin issue which contained We Will Overcome expired in 1976, but The Richmond Organization asserted a copyright on the We Shall Overcome lyrics, registered in 1960.

In 2017, in response to a lawsuit against TRO over allegations of false copyright claims, a U.S. judge issued an opinion that the registered work was insufficiently different from the We Will Overcome lyrics that had fallen into the public domain because of non-renewal. 

In January 2018, the company agreed to a settlement under which it would no longer assert any copyright claims over the song.

Most people know that Pride Month is in June, however, many don't realize that's because on June 28, 1969, the catalyst for the LGBT movement occurred in riot form at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall Inn was a well-known, mafia-run gay night club which hosted an array of illegal activities from an absent liquor license and prostitution to dealing drugs. While the bar owners were normally tipped off about police raids, on the night of the 1969 riot, they weren’t told anything would be happening. The police barricaded the 200+ patrons and employees in the bar and began to arrest all the transvestites they could find.

As the cops were arresting patrons, to their surprise, bystanders began to push back against the heavy police presence in the form of verbal taunts and thrown bottles. At that point, raids on gay bars were becoming routine and, for the LGBT community, the raid on the Stonewall Inn was the last straw. As police were dragging people into their paddy wagon, the crowd began to boil and violence soon erupted. Bricks and bottles were being thrown at the cops as more people from around the neighborhood began to join in on the protest, forcing the police into a rare retreat. While some of the crowd turned violent, many others committed to nonviolence in the form of jokes, kick-lines and songs.

As an unstable riot occurred all around, the protest hymn We Shall Overcome echoed through the streets long into the night. For days following the Stonewall riot, more protests, mostly nonviolent, began to pop up all around the city. A gay community began to form and within six months two gay activist organizations were established in New York.

The movement was given legs, and by June 28 of the following year, the first gay pride marches took place in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco to commemorate the anniversary of the riots.  

We Shall Overcome was a vital tool used to demonstrate nonviolence throughout each protest.

More information: The Kennedy Center

We shall all be free, we shall all be free,
We shall all be free someday.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.

Charles Albert Tindley

TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT'S 'WELCOME TO NEW YORK'

Today, The Grandma has been listening to some songs written by Taylor Swift, and she has enjoyed one of them, especially, "Welcome to New York".

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. 

Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting -often inspired by her personal life- has received critical praise and widespread media coverage. 

Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed a songwriting contract with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2004 and a recording deal with Big Machine Records in 2005, and released her eponymous debut studio album in 2006. 

"Welcome to New York" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). 

The song was written and produced by both Swift and Ryan Tedder, with additional production from Noel Zancanella. It was released on October 20, 2014 as a promotional single for the album, through Big Machine Records. A synth-pop, disco, and electropop song equipped with pulsating synthesizers, it explores Swift's newfound freedom, inspired by her relocation to New York City in March 2014.

Contemporary music critics criticized the lyrics, arguing that the song lacks substance compared to popular New York tribute songs. A number of others defended the song, noting its mention of LGBT equality, and praised the production. 

The song reached the top 10 in New Zealand, and entered the top 20 of the charts in Canada, Hungary, and Scotland. In the United States, "Welcome to New York" reached number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

More information: Taylor Swift

Swift donated all proceeds from the sales to the New York City Department of Education.

Walkin' through a crowd, the village is aglow
Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats
Everybody here wanted somethin' more
Searchin' for a sound we hadn't heard before
And it said

Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York
Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York

It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore
The lights are so bright, but they never blind me, me

Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York

When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors
Took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer
Everybody here was someone else before
And you can want who you want
Boys and boys and girls and girls

Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York
Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York

It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore
The lights are so bright, but they never blind me, me

Welcome to New York (New York), it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York

Like any great love, it keeps you guessing
Like any real love, it's ever-changing
Like any true love, it drives you crazy
But you know you wouldn't change anything, anything, anything

Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York
Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York

It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat
The lights are so bright, but they never blind me

Welcome to New York (new soundtrack), it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York (the lights are so bright but they never blind me)
Welcome to New York (so bright, they never blind me)

Welcome to New York
Welcome to New York

More information: Song Facts

People haven't always been there for me,

but music always has.

Taylor Swift

CONEY ISLAND, WE ARE ENJOYING AN AMAZING DAY!

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma have visited Coney Island, an entertainment area in Brooklyn, New York City.

Before this visit, The Grangers have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Present Continuous.

More information: Present Continuous

Coney Island is a peninsular neighbourhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The neighbourhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north and includes the subsection of Sea Gate on its west.

More broadly, Coney Island or sometimes for clarity the Coney Island peninsula consists of Coney Island proper, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach. This was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.

The origin of Coney Island's name is disputed, but the area was originally part of the colonial town of Gravesend. By the mid-19th century it had become a seaside resort, and by the late 19th century, amusement parks had also been built at the location.

The attractions reached a historical peak during the first half of the 20th century. However, they declined in popularity after World War II and, following years of neglect, several structures were torn down.

Various redevelopment projects were proposed for Coney Island in the 1970s through the 2000s, though most of these were not carried out. The area was revitalized with the opening of MCU Park in 2001 and several amusement rides starting in the 2010s.

Coney Island had around 32,000 residents as of the 2010 United States Census. The neighbourhood is ethnically diverse, and the neighbourhood's poverty rate of 27% is slightly higher than that of the city as a whole.

The original Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape, called this area Narrioch, possibly meaning land without shadows or always in light in reference to its sunlit south-facing beaches. A second possible meaning is point or corner of land.

The island was originally several smaller historical islands, each being given a name by Dutch settlers, with the westernmost sand spit or point being given named Conyne Eylandt in early-17th-century Dutch maps, starting with the 1639 Manatus Map.

More information: Coney Island History

Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sight the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson.  Anthony Janszoon van Salee was the first New Netherlands settler to acquire land adjacent to Coney Island, in 1639.

The Native American population in the area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southern tier of present-day Brooklyn, from Gowanus Creek to Coney Island to Gerritsen Creek, was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for goods. The goods were not recorded in the deed, but later accounts mention a gun, a blanket, and a kettle.

Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. Its development as an amusement area was concurrent with the erection of urban amusement parks elsewhere in the United States, which changed amusement from a passive to an active concept.

Coney Island has two amusement parks, Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, as well as several rides that are not incorporated into either amusement park. These are owned and managed by several different companies and operate independently of each other.

Coney Island also has several other visitor attractions such as skeeball and ball tossing, as well as a sideshow, that contains shooting, throwing, and tossing skills. The area hosts renowned events as well.

Coney Island's amusement area is one of a few in the United States that is not mostly owned by any one entity.

There is a broad public sand beach that starts at Sea Gate at West 37th Street, through the central Coney Island area and Brighton Beach, to the beginning of the community of Manhattan Beach, a distance of approximately 4.3 km.

The beach is continuous and is served for its entire length by the broad Riegelmann Boardwalk. Numerous amusements, as well as the aquarium and a variety of food shops and arcades, are directly accessible from the landward side of the boardwalk.

The boardwalk in Manhattan Beach, located within Manhattan Beach Park, is not connected with the Riegelmann Boardwalk.

More information: Ultimate History Project

I'd go to Coney Island to hang out,
and I saw a magician doing a rope trick
on the boardwalk. I was fascinated.
I guess that's how it started.

David Blaine

KNICKS VS. NETS, ENJOYING BASKETBALL IN NEW YORK

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma has been reading about the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, the two American professional basketball teams based in New York City, one in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn.Before this, they have studied the Comparative.

The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. 

The team plays its home games at Madison Square Garden, an arena they share with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL).

They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City; the other team is the Brooklyn Nets. Alongside the Boston Celtics, the Knicks are one of two original NBA teams still located in its original city.

The team, established by Ned Irish in 1946, was one of the founding members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which became the NBA after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949.

More information: Comparative of Superiority

More information: One/Ones

The Knicks were successful during their early years and were constant playoff contenders under the franchise's first head coach Joe Lapchick. Beginning in 1950, the Knicks made three consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, all of which were losing efforts. Lapchick resigned in 1956 and the team subsequently began to falter.

It was not until the late 1960s when Red Holzman became the head coach that the Knicks began to regain their former dominance. Holzman successfully guided the Knicks to two NBA championships, in 1970 and 1973. The Knicks of the 1980s had mixed success that included six playoff appearances; however, they failed to participate in the NBA Finals.

The playoff-level Knicks of the 1990s were led by future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing; this era was marked by passionate rivalries with the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and Miami Heat. During this time, they were known for playing tough defense under head coaches Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy, making NBA Finals appearances in 1994 and 1999. However, they were unable to win an NBA championship during this era.

Since 2000, the Knicks have struggled to regain their former successes, but won their first division title in 19 years in 2012-13, led by a core of forwards Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire. They were eventually eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Indiana Pacers, and had failed to make the playoffs for eight years until 2020-21 when they were led by forward Julius Randle and sophomore RJ Barrett, who was selected third overall in the 2019 NBA draft.

More information: New York Knicks

The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.

The team plays its home games at Barclays Center.

They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City; the other is the New York Knicks. The club was established in 1967 as a charter franchise of the NBA's rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA).

They played in New Jersey as the New Jersey Americans during their first season, before relocating to Long Island, New York, in 1968 and changing their name to the New York Nets. During this time, the Nets won two ABA championships (in 1974 and 1976).

In 1976, the ABA merged with the NBA, and the Nets were absorbed into the NBA along with three other ABA teams (the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Denver Nuggets), all of whom remain in the league to this day.

In 1977, the team returned to New Jersey and played as the New Jersey Nets from 1977 to 2012. Led by star point guard Jason Kidd, the Nets reached the finals of two consecutive NBA seasons (2001-02 and 2002-03), but failed to win either title.

In the summer of 2012, the team moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, becoming the first major sports franchise in the borough since the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1957. Since moving to Brooklyn, the Nets have qualified for the playoffs on six occasions, including trips to the Conference Semifinals in 2014 and 2021.

The Brooklyn Nets were founded in 1967 and initially played in Teaneck, New Jersey, as the New Jersey Americans. In its early years, the team led a nomadic existence, moving to Long Island in 1968 and playing in various arenas there as the New York Nets.

Led by Hall of Famer Julius Dr. J Erving, the Nets won two ABA championships in New York before becoming one of four ABA teams to be admitted into the NBA as part of the ABA–NBA merger in 1976. Unlike the other three ABA teams entering the NBA, who played in cities without any NBA presence, the Nets were required by the NBA to pay an encroachment fee of $4.8 million (equivalent to $23 million in 2021) to the New York Knicks.

The team financed that payment by selling Erving's contract to the Philadelphia 76ers; and the Nets went from winning the last ABA title in 1975-76 to having the worst record in the NBA in 1976–77.

The team then moved back to New Jersey in 1977 and became the New Jersey Nets. During their time in the state, the Nets played in two consecutive NBA Finals in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons, led on the court by point guard Jason Kidd.

After playing 35 seasons in New Jersey, the team moved back to the state of New York, changed its geographic name to Brooklyn, and began playing in the new Barclays Center, starting with the 2012-13 NBA season. The team's move from New Jersey to Brooklyn was approved unanimously by the NBA Board of Governors on April 13, 2012.

More information: Brooklyn Nets

When I played with the Knicks,
I was just as important or just as smart
as any other of the guards I played with.
I still had to call out plays, notice schemes,
know the systems, do everything they had to do.

Patrick Ewing

IF YOU GO AWAY... GOOD LUCK IN YOUR PROJECTS, MARIO!

Dear Mario,

 
What a friendly companion!

It is a pleasure to know that you have a new job. Congratulations for it. We hope you do well with this change in your life. Nowadays, it is an important thing.

 

We have had some memorable moments playing with the bombs. Don't worry, you can continue practising English as well in your new job.

 
As you will work near Chinatown, take the opportunity to visit it.

Our family will miss you, but we are very happy for this good news about your new adventure in Little Italy. We hope your brother Luigi will help you with the pasta business.

We want to thank you your company, kindness and good energy. We wish bless in your new job. We'll remember you as the ambassador of pizzas and as the person who opened our thermos.

Good luck in your new stage and don't get fat with the Italian food.

We send you a big hug, and our best wishes.

Best regards, bro. Ciao bambino.

If you go away as I know you must
There'll be nothin' left in the world to trust
Just an empty room full of empty space
[...]
But if you stay I'll make you a day
Like no day has been or will be again

Jacques Brel

AL CAPONE, THE FAMOUS GANGSTER OF NEW YORK CITY

Today, The Grandma has gone to the library to search information about Alphonse Gabriel Capone, best known as Al Capone, the American gangster, businessman, co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit.

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899-January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname Scarface, was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. 

 

His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he went to prison at age 33.

Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian immigrant parents. He joined the Five Points Gang as a teenager, and became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol -the forerunner of the Outfit- and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana.

A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone.

Capone apparently reveled in attention, such as the cheers from spectators when he appeared at ball games. He made donations to various charities and was viewed by many as modern-day Robin Hood. However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven gang rivals were murdered in broad daylight, damaged Chicago's and Capone's image, leading influential citizens to demand government action and newspapers to dub Capone Public Enemy No. 1.

The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and prosecuted him in 1931 for tax evasion. During a highly publicized case, the judge admitted as evidence Capone's admissions of his income and unpaid taxes during prior and ultimately abortive negotiations to pay the government taxes he owed. He was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

More information: FBI

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 1899. His parents were Italian immigrants Gabriele Capone (1865–1920) and Teresa Capone (1867–1952). His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress, both born in Angri, a town in the Province of Salerno.

Capone initially became involved with small-time gangs that included the Junior Forty Thieves and the Bowery Boys. He then joined the Brooklyn Rippers, and then the powerful Five Points Gang based in Lower Manhattan. During this time, he was employed and mentored by fellow racketeer Frankie Yale, a bartender in a Coney Island dance hall and saloon called the Harvard Inn.

Capone inadvertently insulted a woman while working the door at a Brooklyn night club and was slashed by her brother Frank Gallucio. The wounds led to the nickname Scarface which Capone loathed.

When he was photographed, he hid the scarred left side of his face, saying that the injuries were war wounds. He was called Snorky by his closest friends, a term for a sharp dresser. At about 20 years of age, Capone left New York for Chicago at the invitation of Johnny Torrio, who was imported by crime boss James "Big Jim" Colosimo as an enforcer.
  

Capone began in Chicago as a bouncer in a brothel, where he contracted syphilis. Timely use of Salvarsan probably could have cured the infection, but he apparently never sought treatment.

In 1923, he purchased a small house at 7244 South Prairie Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood on the city's south side for US$5,500. In the early years of the decade, his name began appearing in newspaper sports pages where he was described as a boxing promoter. Torrio took over Colosimo's crime empire after Colosimo's murder on May 11, 1920, in which Capone was suspected of being involved.

Torrio headed an essentially Italian organized crime group that was the biggest in the city, with Capone as his right-hand man. He was wary of being drawn into gang wars and tried to negotiate agreements over territory between rival crime groups.

The smaller North Side Gang led by Dean O'Banion, also known as Dion O'Banion, was of mixed ethnicity, and it came under pressure from the Genna brothers who were allied with Torrio. O'Banion found that Torrio was unhelpful with the encroachment of the Gennas into the North Side, despite his pretensions to be a settler of disputes. 

More information: The Mob Museum

 

In a fateful step, Torrio either arranged for or acquiesced to the murder of O'Banion at his flower shop on November 10, 1924. This placed Hymie Weiss at the head of the gang, backed by Vincent Drucci and Bugs Moran. Weiss had been a close friend of O'Banion, and the North Siders made it a priority to get revenge on his killers.

Al Capone was a frequent visitor to RyeMabee in Monteagle, Tennessee when he was traveling between Chicago and his Florida estate in Miami.

The protagonists of Chicago's politics had long been associated with questionable methods, and even newspaper circulation wars, but the need for bootleggers to have protection in city hall introduced a far more serious level of violence and graft.

Capone is generally seen as having an appreciable effect in bringing about the victories of Republican William Hale Thompson, especially in the 1927 mayoral race when Thompson campaigned for a wide open town, at one time hinting that he'd reopen illegal saloons.

Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in an attempt to eliminate Bugs Moran, head of the North Side Gang.

Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors Vincent Drucci and Hymie Weiss had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader Dean O'Banion.

On March 27, 1929, Capone was arrested by FBI agents as he left a Chicago courtroom after testifying to a grand jury that was investigating violations of federal prohibition laws. He was charged with contempt of court for feigning illness to avoid an earlier appearance.

On May 16, 1929, Capone was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for carrying a concealed weapon. On May 17, 1929, Capone was indicted by a grand jury and a trial was held before Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge John E Walsh.

Following the entering of a guilty plea by his attorney, Capone was sentenced to a prison term of one year. On August 8, 1929, Capone was transferred to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. A week after his release in March 1930, Capone was listed as the number one Public Enemy on the unofficial Chicago Crime Commission's widely publicized list.

In April 1930, Capone was arrested on vagrancy charges when visiting Miami Beach; the governor had ordered sheriffs to run him out of the state. Capone claimed that Miami police had refused him food and water and threatened to arrest his family. He was charged with perjury for making these statements, but was acquitted after a three-day trial in July.

In September, a Chicago judge issued a warrant for Capone's arrest on charges of vagrancy, and then used the publicity to run against Thompson in the Republican primary. In February 1931, Capone was tried on the contempt of court charge.

More information: Smithsonian

In court, Judge James Herbert Wilkerson intervened to reinforce questioning of Capone's doctor by the prosecutor. Wilkerson sentenced Capone to six months, but he remained free while on appeal of the contempt conviction.

On June 16, 1931, at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Judge James Herbert Wilkerson, Capone plead guilty to income tax evasion and the 5,000 Volstead Act violations as part of a two and a half year prison sentence plea bargain.

Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary in May 1932, aged 33. Upon his arrival at Atlanta, the 110 kg Capone was officially diagnosed with syphilis and gonorrhoea. He was also suffering from withdrawal symptoms from cocaine addiction, the use of which had perforated his nasal septum.

Capone was competent at his prison job of stitching soles on shoes for eight hours a day, but his letters were barely coherent. He was seen as a weak personality, and so out of his depth dealing with bullying fellow inmates that his cellmate, seasoned convict Red Rudensky, feared that Capone would have a breakdown. 

Rudensky was formerly a small-time criminal associated with the Capone gang, and found himself becoming a protector for Capone.

The conspicuous protection of Rudensky and other prisoners drew accusations from less friendly inmates, and fueled suspicion that Capone was receiving special treatment. No solid evidence ever emerged, but it formed part of the rationale for moving Capone to the recently opened Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco, in August 1934. On June 23, 1936, Capone was stabbed and superficially wounded by fellow-Alcatraz inmate James C. Lucas.

At Alcatraz, Capone's decline became increasingly evident as neurosyphilis progressively eroded his mental faculties, his formal diagnosis of syphilis of the brain was made in February 1938. He spent the last year of his Alcatraz sentence in the hospital section, confused and disoriented.

Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California to serve out his sentence for contempt of court. He was paroled on November 16, 1939, after his wife Mae appealed to the court, based on his reduced mental capabilities diagnosed.

The main effect of Capone's conviction was that he ceased to be boss immediately on his imprisonment, but those involved in the jailing of Capone portrayed it as considerably undermining the city's organized crime syndicate. Far from being smashed, the Chicago Outfit continued without being troubled by the Chicago police, but at a lower level and without the open violence that had marked Capone's rule.

More information: All That's Interesting

Organized crime in the city had a lower profile once Prohibition was repealed, already wary of attention after seeing Capone's notoriety bring him down, to the extent that there is a lack of consensus among writers about who was actually in control and who was a figurehead front boss. Prostitution, labor union racketeering, and gambling became moneymakers for organized crime in the city without incurring serious investigation.

In the late 1950s, FBI agents discovered an organization led by Capone's former lieutenants reigning supreme over the Chicago underworld.

Due to his failing health, Capone was released from prison on November 16, 1939. A very sickly Capone left Baltimore on March 20, 1940, after a few weeks of inpatient and a few weeks of outpatient care, for Palm Island, Florida. In 1942, after mass production of penicillin was started in the United States, Capone was one of the first American patients treated by the new drug. Though it was too late for him to reverse the damage in his brain, it did slow down the progression of the disease.

In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist examined him and concluded that Capone had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone spent the last years of his life at his mansion in Palm Island, Florida, spending time with his wife and grandchildren.

On January 21, 1947, Capone had a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve, but contracted bronchopneumonia. He suffered a cardiac arrest on January 22, and on January 25, surrounded by his family in his home, Capone died after his heart failed as a result of apoplexy. His body was transported back to Chicago a week later and a private funeral was held. He was originally buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago.

In 1950, Capone's remains, along with those of his father, Gabriele, and brother, Salvatore, were moved to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

More information: ThoughtCo

 

They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money.

Al Capone

THE WORDS ON THE PROPHETS ON THE SUBWAY WALLS

Today, The Grandma has been remembering the Anti-Vietnam War protests held in Central Park in the 1960s. 

In the 1960s, several be-ins were held in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City to protest against various issues such as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and racism.

During the 1960s America was involved in the Vietnam War. This war was a controversial one because many people were against the United States' involvement in South Vietnam. 

Adding to the tension of the Americans against the war was the emergence of a generation of people who were a part of the counter-culture and believed that they should do anything possible to go against the establishment.

The counter-culture generation decided that Central Park would be the perfect host for their demonstrations.

In 1965, citizens of New York experienced their first blow against their freedom of speech as Commissioner, Newbold Morris, refused to give them a permit that they would need in order to use a section of the park for anti-war speeches. Opponents of the ban called it a form of discrimination. 

In 1967, Parks Commissioner August Heckscher II said that Central Park would no longer be allowed to serve as a venue for mass demonstrations because they were disruptive and caused damages to the park which were costly. After Hecksher was met with great opposition by protestors who held up unauthorized banners and burned draft cards in the park anyway, he decided to set up designated areas just for these types of demonstrations such as Randall's Island. As a part of the compromise made by the New York Civil Liberties Union, a separate area in Central Park was set aside for big demonstrations.

More information: Museum of the City of New York

On New Year's Eve 1967, a group of one thousand people accompanied by music and geese burned down a Christmas tree in Central Park. The city's parks commissioner, Thomas P.F. Hoving, was present at the event. About this demonstration, he stated, We're going to do this again... you know, it's old hat to go to Times Square when we can have such a wonderful happening in Central Park.

The Easter 1967 be-in was organized by Jim Fouratt, an actor; Paul Williams, editor of Crawdaddy! magazine; Susan Hartnett, head of the Experiments in Art and Technology organization; and Claudio Badal, a Chilean poet and playwright. With a budget of $250 they printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Peter Max and distributed them around the city. The Police and Parks Departments quietly and unofficially cooperated with the organizers. An estimated 10,065 people participated in the event at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

The majority of participants were hippies. They were joined by families who had attended the Easter parade and members of the Spanish community who were notified of the event by Spanish language posters.

The New York Times described them as poets from the Bronx, dropouts from the East Village, interior decorators from the East Side, teachers from the West Side and teeny boppers from Long Island and said that they wore carnation petals and paper stars and tiny mirrors on foreheads, paint around the mouth and cheeks, flowering bedsheets, buttons and tights.

During 1968, the Peace Rally and the Easter Be-In were combined into a single event. In April, about 90,000 people ranging from veterans to religious groups to African Americans to Puerto Ricans to women groups to labor groups to students gathered at Sheep Meadow.

During the early 1969 Be-In/Peace Rally, The Village Voice reported that there was said to be between 15,000 and 20,000 people in attendance.

On June 28, 1970, there was a massive Gay Be-In held in Sheep Meadow to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The Gay march went from Washington Place in Greenwich Village uptown on Sixth Avenue to end with a gay-in in Sheep's Meadow.

More information: Zinn Education Project

The Sound of Silence, originally The Sounds of Silence, is a song by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel. 

The duo's studio audition of the song led to a record deal with Columbia Records, and the original acoustic version was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia Studios in New York City for their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. 

Released on October 19, 1964, the album was a commercial failure and led to the duo disbanding; Paul Simon returned to England, and Art Garfunkel to his studies at Columbia University.

More information: Far Out

 And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel

SIMON & GARFUNKEL, THE CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK

Today, The Grandma has been walking across Central Park. She loves this place, and she has remembered when she was there on September 19, 1981 listening to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in an unforgettable concert where they played one of her favourite songs, A heart in New York.

Meanwhile, The Grangers have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Too/Enough and Comparative of Equality.

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More information: Comparative of Equality

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The Concert in Central Park is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records.

It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City, where the pair performed in front of an audience reported at the time as 500,000 people.

Later estimates determined that the maximum number of people who could fit in the park space was 48,500. A film of the event was shown on TV and released on video. Proceeds went toward the redevelopment and maintenance of the park, which had deteriorated due to lack of municipal funding.  

The concert and album marked the start of a three-year reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

The concept of a benefit concert in Central Park had been proposed by Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis and promoter Ron Delsener. Television channel HBO agreed to carry the concert, and they worked with Delsener to decide on Simon and Garfunkel as the appropriate act for this event. Besides hit songs from their years as a duo, their set-list included material from their solo careers, and covers.

The show consisted of 21 songs, though two were not used in the live album. Among the songs performed were the classics The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, and The Boxer; the event concluded with a reprise of Simon's song Late in the Evening. Ongoing personal tensions between the duo led them to decide against a permanent reunion, despite the success of the concert and a subsequent world tour.

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The album and film were released the year after the concert. Simon and Garfunkel's performance was praised by music critics and the album was commercially successful; it peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album charts and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The video recordings were initially broadcast on HBO and were subsequently made available on Laserdisc, CED, VHS and DVD. A single was released of Simon and Garfunkel's live performance of The Everly Brothers's song Wake Up Little Susie, which reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982; it is the duo's last Top 40 hit.

New York City's Central Park, an oasis that functions as the city's green lung, was in a state of deterioration in the mid-1970s. Though Central Park had been designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, at the start of the 1980s, the city lacked the financial resources to spend an estimated US$3,000,000 to restore or even to maintain the park. The nonprofit Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980, and began a successful campaign to raise renovation funds.

The concert took place on Saturday, September 19, 1981, on the Great Lawn, the central open space of Central Park. The first spectators, many carrying chairs or picnic blankets, arrived at daybreak to secure a good spot.

The Parks Department originally expected about 300,000 attendees. Although rain fell throughout the day and continued until the start of the concert, an estimated 500,000 audience members made this the seventh-largest concert attendance in the United States in history. Later estimates determined that the maximum number of people who could fit in the park space was 48,500.

More information: Ultimate Classic Rock

 New York, to that tall skyline I come, flyin' in from London to your door

New York, lookin' down on Central Park

Where they say you should not wander after dark

New York, like a scene from all those movies

But you're real enough to me, but there's a heart

A heart that lives in New York

A heart in New York, a rose on the street

I write my song to that city heartbeat

A heart in New York, love in her eye, 

an open door and a friend for the night
New York, you got money on your mind
And my words won't make a dime's worth a difference, 

so here's to you New York.

 

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel