Timeline

The New England Society is founded on May 6. James Watson, successful merchant and U.S. Senator, is elected first NES President.

First Annual Dinner was held on December 21 at the City Hotel on Broadway with 154 members in attendance; 18 toasts were made.

Thomas Jefferson is President of the United States.

New York City population: 75,770.

A Charity Committee is established at the November 14 Board Meeting, and 50 loads of oak firewood are ordered for the “suffering poor from New England”.

Meriwether Lewis & William Clark conclude their exploration of the Louisiana Territory & Pacific Northwest.

War of 1812 begins.

President James Madison is reelected.

On December 22, NES hosts its Annual Dinner. After 18 toasts were made, guests U.S. Naval Officers, Commander Stephen Decatur, Jr. and Captain Isaac Hull, both War of 1812 heroes, retired early. An additional 23 toasts were enjoyed.

Annual Dues: $2.50 with a $5 initiation fee; Life Membership category established at $50.

James Monroe is elected 5th U.S. President.

First annuity of $50 was paid to the widow of Captain Sherry

Harvard Law School founded.

Mississippi becomes the 20th state.

New York City population: 123,706

Daniel Webster, statesman and orator, speaks for the first time at the Annual Dinner. There is no record of this address, but those of 1843 and 1850 are preserved.

Charles Carroll, last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies at 95.

NES Treasury contains $11,301.94.

Texas War for Independence begins. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is published.

Members travel to Boston by steamboat and train to take part in the June 17 dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument.

First major wagon train with 1,000 pioneers sets out from Missouri on the Oregon Trail.

Central Park opens.

Trans-Atlantic cable laid.

William M. Evarts, founder and president of the New York Bar Association, Secretary of State and U.S. Senator, is elected 11th NES President.

Bust of Daniel Webster by sculptor Thomas Ball was presented to NES by William H. Aspinwall, Esq. Now on loan to Dartmouth College, this bust was the basis for Ball’s statue of Webster located near the West 72nd Street entrance to Central Park.

Ulysses S. Grant is elected 18th U.S. President.

Essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his last public address at the New England Society's 65th Annual Dinner.

Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge.

First NES reception with Ladies was organized on February 6th at Delmonico’s with 400 people. Tickets: $4 for gentlemen and $3 for ladies. The event netted a $281.15 profit and all agreed to hold it annually.

Yellowstone National Park is created.

President Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman attend the 70th Annual Dinner. The New York Times provides lengthy coverage of the event.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is a guest and speaker at the Society’s 71st Annual Dinner. He delivers a speech The Weather of New England.

National League of Baseball founded.

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.

Ulysses S. Grant, victorious commander of the Union Army and U.S. President (1869-1877), speaks at the 1880 Annual Dinner.

New York City population: 1,206,299.

June 6 is the unveiling ceremony of the Pilgrim Statue by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward, a gift to New York from NES erected at the East 72nd Street entrance to Central Park.

J. P. Morgan, noted financier, book collector and philanthropist, is elected 26th NES President.

Grover Cleveland, 22nd U.S. President, is inaugurated.

Washington Monument completed.

Benjamin Harrison becomes 23rd U.S. President.

North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington become states.

Jane Addams founds Hull House.

Binney & Smith sell their first box of Crayola crayons.

NES Treasury contains $150,000.

Theodore Roosevelt is U.S. President.

First electric ball is dropped in Times Square.

NES donates $50,000 to build a fireproof portico for Pilgrim Hall Museum (U.S. Register of Historic Places) in Plymouth, MA. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest public museum in the country.

The Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote is ratified.

NES appropriates $5,000 for the relief of sufferers from the Vermont floods.

Charles Lindberg makes first transatlantic flight.

The Jazz Singer, the first “talkie” (motion picture with sound), is released.

New York City population: 6,930,446.

Empire State Building opens on May 1.

NES helps fund a replica of the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne, MA on Cape Cod. The post (est. 1627) encouraged trade with Pilgrims and Native Americans.

NES launches the College Students’ Loaning Fund to provide emergency loans to New England college and university students. The Fund runs through 1990.

NES establishes the Reginald T. Townsend Award to recognize outstanding achievement and the finest attributes of the New England character.

Dwight Eisenhower is elected 34th U.S. President.

Debut of the Today Show.

The NES Scholarship Program is launched to fund New York City students attending New England colleges and universities.

Dr. Jonas Salk announces successful trials for his polio vaccine.

The Annual Dinner scheduled for November 25 is postponed due to the death of NES Member President John F. Kennedy.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated on November 22 in Texas.

The Central Park Conservancy is founded.

Ronald Reagan is inaugurated for a second term.

Rededication Ceremony for the 100th anniversary of the Pilgrim Statue in Central Park.

NES celebrates its 200th Anniversary, and receives citations from Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman to serve as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The New England Society Book Awards are launched to recognize books that honor New England culture.

Space shuttle Atlantis touches down at Kennedy Space Center, ending the 30-year U.S. shuttle program.