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New York’s Birth Date: Don’t Go by City’s Seal
NY Times ^ | July 14, 2008 | SAM ROBERTS

Posted on 07/14/2008 3:49:35 AM PDT by Pharmboy

For decades, the proud seal of New York City, with its depiction of a sailor and a Manhattan Indian, of beavers and flour barrels and the sails of a windmill, has celebrated 1625 as the year the city was founded.

There’s just one problem: Most historians say the year has hardly any historical significance.

The first settlers arrived in what would become part of New York City on a Dutch ship as early as 1623; some say 1624. The Dutch “purchased” Manhattan in 1626. The first charter was granted in 1653.

And the most notable event of 1625? Dutch settlers moved their cattle to Lower Manhattan from Governors Island.

“It is simply wrong,” Michael Miscione, the Manhattan borough historian, said of 1625 as the city’s birth date. “The first founding settlers of New York City landed here in 1624.”

snip...

Nobody complained much about the date until 1974, when Paul O’Dwyer, the Irish-born and Anglophobic president of the City Council, figured that the 700th anniversary of the founding of Amsterdam in the Netherlands was as good a time as any to strip the British of the distinction of having founded the city and bestow it instead on the Dutch.

snip...

But some scholars apparently persuaded Mr. O’Dwyer that if the pretext was to honor the Dutch contribution, 1624 might be difficult to justify. The first settlers who arrived in 1624 in the Dutch West India Company ship Nieuw Amsterdam were mostly Walloons from Belgium, who had sought asylum in the Netherlands from religious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition. (A 1623 provincial seal refers in Latin to “New Belgium.”) Also, many moved on to Albany.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: colonialhistory; dutch; english; godsgravesglyphs; heereatthewall; newamsterdam; newyork
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I vote for 1624
1 posted on 07/14/2008 3:49:36 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: indcons; Chani; thefactor; blam; aculeus; ELS; Doctor Raoul; mainepatsfan; timpad; ...

The Flag of NYC

The RevWar/Colonial History/Gen. Washington ping list

Freepmail me to get ON or OFF this list

2 posted on 07/14/2008 3:52:21 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy
Perhaps that was when the Emperor's Club was originially founded.


3 posted on 07/14/2008 3:55:07 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Pharmboy
That's the New York STATE flag. PLEASE do not confuse New York with New York CITY. :-)



New York City flag...

4 posted on 07/14/2008 4:06:08 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Diogenesis
Perhaps that was when the Emperor's Club was originially founded.

Okay...and now what about the sailor, Indian, flour barrels, and windmill?

5 posted on 07/14/2008 4:06:30 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring
Okay...and now what about the sailor, Indian, flour barrels, and windmill?

Wow. That is just sick and twisted.

6 posted on 07/14/2008 4:11:49 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Pharmboy

1927


7 posted on 07/14/2008 4:11:53 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring

Thanks for the correction. Dumb mistake on my part...I should know better!


8 posted on 07/14/2008 4:48:20 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy

Will they also rename the city back to its original, New Amsterdam?


9 posted on 07/14/2008 5:02:51 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: Pharmboy

FWIW ...use of Gregorian v Julian calendars makes for some confusion

An important note about dates during the Dutch colonial period: it is common to see dates listed as March 11/21, 1712, for example. This is due to the Dutch adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, the date it was enacted by Pope Gregory XIII. This act added days to the calendar to correct for centuries of “drift” and to realign the vernal equinox with the 25th day of March, in addition to making 1 January the official first day of the year. The British, meanwhile, continued to follow the Julian calendar until 1752, noting March 25 as the first day of each year. After September 2 of that year, the split notation of dates ceased to be necessary.


10 posted on 07/14/2008 5:32:43 AM PDT by Daffynition
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To: CarrotAndStick; Pharmboy
Will they also rename the city back to its original, New Amsterdam?

Only if Istanbul goes back to Constantinople:

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

11 posted on 07/14/2008 5:38:05 AM PDT by Constitution Day (This tagline is a Designated Whine-Free Zone)
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To: Pharmboy

bttt


12 posted on 07/14/2008 6:12:29 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: Pharmboy

Funny thing about buying the island from the Indians. Those Indians didn’t own the land to start with.

They were just passing through at the right time.

(according to Mayflower by Philbrick anyway)


13 posted on 07/14/2008 8:32:28 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: Constitution Day
Istanbul was originally Byzantium (Byzantion).

New Amsterdam (and the entire colony of New Netherland) was captured by the English, and became part of a large swath of territory King Charles II granted to his brother the Duke of York (the later King James II of England and King James VII of Scotland). That's when the city and colony began to be called New York.

Eboracum is the Latin name for York, England, so on the seal New York is referred to as Novum Eboracum.

York is where Constantine was proclaimed emperor in 306, to tie things back to Istanbul...

14 posted on 07/14/2008 9:12:26 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Pharmboy

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks Pharmboy. It would make most sense, IMHO, to observe the anniversary of the founding of New York, and have a separate observation for the founding of New Amsterdam. :') Of course, I have roots in all three (English, Dutch, and Irish, and then some). No ping, just adding.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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15 posted on 07/14/2008 10:12:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: Verginius Rufus

Nicely done...


16 posted on 07/14/2008 10:18:36 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy

My 9th great grandmother Adrienne Cuvellier Vigne son was the first European child born in New Amsterdam (New York)
in early 1620s
My 9th great grandparents lived near the present Wall and Pearl Sts. in NY

Have many 9th great who came to New Amsterdam in 1620s
Dutch, Flemish Walloons and French Huguenots


17 posted on 07/14/2008 1:05:08 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Don't Blame Me - I Supported Duncan Hunter)
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To: SoCalPol

Nice...I love New Amsterdam history. Any artifacts from the old days make into your family after all these years?


18 posted on 07/14/2008 2:43:13 PM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy

No artifacts but researching the various families is just great for loving history.

The history of early New York is so varied and interesting.

Have read letters on line from a Dutch Rev. late 1600s trying to explain what he sees and the people in New Amsterdam. Interesting reading his take on all this.


19 posted on 07/14/2008 6:08:43 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Don't Blame Me - I Supported Duncan Hunter)
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To: Gondring
"Perhaps that was when the Emperor's Club was originially founded."
Okay...and now what about the sailor, Indian, flour barrels, and windmill?

What you do in your private life or semi-private commercial transactions are your business. For heaven's sake please remember that this is a family friendly forum!
20 posted on 07/14/2008 6:37:08 PM PDT by rmlew (Liberalism is like AIDS; it destroys the natural defenses of a nation or civilization.)
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