New York Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

Looking for New York trivia? Try our list New York little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The R.T. French Co. created its yellow mustard in Fairport (pop. 5,740), a suburb of Rochester. It was introduced with hot dogs at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

Noah John Rondeau, a hermit in the Adirondack’s Cold River valley during much of his adult life, kept extensive journals, most of them in undecipherable code.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The country’s first roller coaster, designed by Lemarcus Thompson, a former Sunday school teacher, opened in 1884 at Coney Island.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

In 1922, Malcolm E. Gray, founder of Rochester’s Atlantic Stamping Co., was one of the country’s first factory owners to grant workers a five-day work week.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

Hiram Sibley, with his partners, formed Western Union in Rochester in 1856, eventually expanding the telegraph company to 4,000 offices across the country. Later, during a trip to Russia, Sibley telegraphed word to the U.S. government that Alaska was for sale.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

Rochester resident Jesse Hatch gave the world baby shoes in the 1840s. He also invented a machine for sewing the uppers to the soles of shoes.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Mayor of Buffalo in 1882 and later governor of New York, Grover Cleveland was the only president to leave the White House and be re-elected four years later. His terms were 1885-1889 and 1893-1897.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

The state Thruway, covering 641 miles from New York City to the western upstate New York border, is one of the longest toll superhighway systems in the United States.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

Stone Arch Bridge Historical Park near Kenoza Lake has one of the few three-arched stone bridges in the country. It was built in 1880 by two Swiss stonemasons.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

One of the earliest transcontinental airmail routes was established in 1921 between New York City and San Francisco. When the first plane—a World War I surplus bomber—took off from Long Island, it carried 350 pounds of mail.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

The area immediately east of Lake Ontario receives an average of more than 200 inches (nearly 17 feet) of snow each winter, making it one of the Northeast’s snowiest regions.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Historians estimate the population of the area that became New York State was about 26,000 in 1700. The state’s population today is more than 18 million.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad ran its first passenger service Aug. 9, 1831, the first passenger train in the state. It connected Albany and Schenectady and consisted of a locomotive, a car to carry wood, and three passenger cars.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

The National Soccer Hall of Fame, established in 1979, opened a new $7.2 million facility June 12, 1999, in Oneonta (pop. 13,292). Among its attractions is a “kicks zone” where visitors can try out their soccer skills.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Martin van Buren, the eighth president of the United States (1837-1841), was the first to be born a United States citizen—in Kinderhook on Dec. 5, 1782.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

F. W. (Frank Winfield) Woolworth (1852-1919), the famous retailer, opened his first “five cent” store in Utica on Feb. 22, 1879. It failed, but he opened another in Pennsylvania, and his five and dime stores soon spread across the country.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

At the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck (pop. 3,077), visitors can fly in an open-cockpit airplane built in 1929. Rhinebeck is one of the country’s earliest airports and a living museum of old-time flying machines.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

According to the state’s tourism office, 80 million people visit New York State annually.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

The principal scenes for the 1997 movie The Horse Whisperer, directed by and starring Robert Redford, were shot in Saratoga County.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, (1855-1931) a Baptist minister and a graduate of the University of Rochester. It was first published in the magazine The Youth’s Companion in 1892.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

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