Month: June 2013

June 12: Bird Sim Coler, who served as the first comptroller of Greater New York in 1898, and later was the Brooklyn Borough president, died on this date in 1941.

June 11: On this date in 1861, Clarence Mackenzie, a twelve-year-old drummer boy who had gone off to take part in the Civil War, was killed in Annapolis, Maryland, in a drilling accident.

June 10: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, pioneering pediatrician who received her M.D. from the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1864, died on this date in 1906.

June 9:Thure de Thustrup, great illustrator for Harpers Weekly and other publications, died on this date in 1930.

June 8: On this date in 1865, Mollie Fancher was severely injured when her skirt became entangled as she tried to climb down from a Brooklyn streetcar and she was dragged along the street; she would go into a 9-year coma, come out of it, and survive in her bed for 50 years, becoming known as “The Psychic Marvel” and “The Brooklyn Enigma.”

June 7: John Brougham, actor, producer, theatre-owner, and dramatist, died on this date in 1880 at the age of 66.

June 6: On this date in 1896, Norwegian immigrants George Harbo (left) and Frank Samuelsen (right) left New York City to row across the Atlantic Ocean; 55 days later, hungry and exhausted, they completed their voyage in their 18-foot  boat, becoming the first to row the 3000 miles across that body of water.

June 5: In 1841, just three years after its founding, the Green-Wood Cemetery on this date formed a committee to draw up its “Rules and Regulations.”

June 4: Alexander Ector Orr, who was the president of the Rapid Transit Board when New York City’s first subway opened in 1904, died on this date in 1914.

June 3: “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888,” a baseball poem by Ernest Thayer, was first published on this date in that year. It was popularized by DeWolf Hopper , who estimated he gave 10,000 dramatic performances of it.