The Sleeping Sentry of World War I

Location:   The Western Front
Year:   1918

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's concern for ordinary soldierrs became well-known when he pardoned a man who had fallen asleep on picket duty. "The Sleeping Sentry" was spared from a firing squad, and became an important symbol to the Union Army. 
 

A similar event occurred fifty years later. Oliver Richter (1891-1976) of St. Lawrence County, New York, was a doughboy in World War I. Richter was assigned to night guard duty. During the Middle Watch, his replacement failed to show up. Although Richter dutifully stood post until dawn, he finally fell asleep as the sun came up. When he was found sleeping, Richter's commanding officer drew up court martial papers against him.   When Richter was asked who he wished to have represent him, he stunned his commander when he said General John J. 'Black Jack' Pershing, commanding general of all U.S. forces in Europe. 

Richter was allowed to contact General Pershing, who was furious with Richter's commander. Instead of berating Richter for falling asleep at his post, Pershing gave Richter a commendation for staying at his post for an extra 10 hours, and gave a severe dressing-down to his commanding officers for not sending someone to relieve him when they first noticed that he was missing.

At that point in the war, Richter had already seen a great deal of combat. He had previously been gassed while at the front in September 1918. He was on the verge of death for ten days, and, although he was cleared for duty and sent back into action, his never fully recovered for the rest of his days.

Zen Mountain Monastery

Location:   Mount Tremper
Year:   1980

Zen Mountain Monastery, also known as Doshinji (Temple of the Way of The Mind) is a Zen Buddhist monastery on a 230-acre forested property in the Catskill Mountains. It was founded by John Daido Loori Roshi, a student of Hakuyu Taizan Roshi, the founder of the White Plum Asanga, and is the parent house of the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO),  an umbrella organization inspired by the teachings of Zen Master Dogen as found in his interpretations of the "Mountains and Rivers Sutra." The monastery has full-time residents, part-time residents, regularly scheduled retreats and Zen services, and Zen cultural activities. The monastery was originally built as Camp Wapanachki in the 1930s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Beef on Weck

Location:   The Niagara Frontier
Year:   1840s

A large influx of German immigrants came to the United States in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s seeking either religious freedom (such as the Amish, Mennonites, and Dunkers), the chance to establish Utopian Communities (such as The Amana Collective), or political freedom (especially after the revolutions that wracked Germany in 1848). The vast majority of  German immigrants  settled in the Midwest (including the Western Tier of New York State). They brought their local cuisine (and beer-brewing prowess) to America.  

Among the Germans' innovations was "Beef on Weck," a sandwich made with fine roast beef and horseradish served on a kummelweck roll topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Beef on Weck is a delicious, blood-pressure raising mainstay of western New York's culinary heritage.

"Buffalo is a perfect living hell."

Location:   Erie County, New York
Year:   Circa 1890

Peripatetic writer and social reformer Jack London, who was born and died in California, having circled the world in between, was arrested for vagrancy in Buffalo, New York as a teenager. He described Erie County's New York's jail system as "a perfect living hell." No doubt his jail experiences influenced his writings such as The Iron Heel, a dystopian novel about an America turned fascist.   

Enough to Kill a Horse . . .

Location:   Auburn, New York
Year:   1890

William Kemmler of Buffalo was the first man in U.S. history to be executed in the electric chair. Kemmler was convicted in 1889 for the hatchet murder of Tillie Ziegler, his common-law wife. 

On August 6, 1890 in New York's Auburn Prison, following an unsuccessful appeal regarding the legality of his sentence, Kemmler was put to death in the chair. By all accounts, his execution was unusually gruesome. Kemmler wasn't pronounced dead until eight minutes after an initial charge of 1,000 volts was administered (this voltage level had been tested the previous day on a horse, and was believed to be adequate). 

Several of the seventeen witnesses remaining in the room when he died reported that Kemmler's body caught fire, and that his veins ruptured, causing blood to explosively splatter the death chamber. 

Regardless of Kemmler's hideous end, 694 people followed Kemmler to the chair between 1890 and 1983.  The electric chair is still the legal form of execution in New York State, although the highest Court in New York State, the Court of Appeals, ruled the State's death penalty statute unconstitutional in 2004. 

The Manhattan Solstices

Location:   Manhattan, NY
Year:  Four Times a Year

The Manhattan grid pattern produces an effect known as “Manhattanhenge” (like Stonehenge) as, on four days  of the year near the solstices --- around May 28th and around July 12th for sunset --- when the sun is directly aligned with the street grid pattern. This means the sun can be seen setting exactly over the centerline of every Manhattan street. A similar effect occurs during sunrise on December 5th and January 8th. It is also called "Manhattan Solstice."  The effect was first noticed and the term coined by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson in 2002.

Crimelessness

Location:   New York City
Year:   2012

For the 24 hours comprising Nov. 28, 2012, and for the first time ever in recorded history,  not a single murder, shooting, stabbing, rape, or other incident of violent crime was reported in New York City.