June 12, 1665: New what?

On this day in 1665, the English renamed New Amsterdam, New York.

New Amsterdam was the first permanent European settlement in the area, founded in 1624 by the Dutch East India Company at the mouth of the Hudson River on the southern part of Manhattan Island. The city would be the capital of New Netherland from 1626 till its capture by the British in 1664.

When England and Holland’s vie for economic supremacy spread to the American colonies it was no mystery that New Amsterdam, the pearl of the New Amsterdam Colony, would be a target. Five hundred professional soldiers, aboard four English warships arrived at the harbor on August 18, 1664. The current governor of New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant, wanted to prepare for battle and fight but the citizens had something else in mind. Resentful of his autocratic rule and with the best navy in the world at the time at their doorsteps they refused to fight and surrender. New Amsterdam was conquered quickly and without a fight.

In 1665 the English renamed the city (or more like a large town at the time) New York in honor of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II of Britain. The name was later applied to the entire colony.

Consolidated in 1898, New York City now consists of five boroughs: Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The city has become a major economic and cultural hub for the country hosting (to name just a few) the New York Stock Exchange, 40 Fortune 500 companies, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an array of sports teams such as the Yankees, Mets, Rangers, Giants, and Knicks. NYC is the largest city in the United States, with a current population of over 8.2 million people (excluding its metropolitan areas), which is more than double that of L.A., the second largest city in the U.S. (bet the Dutch wish they fought a little harder for it now).

June 10, 1752: Franklin's Kite

On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm to prove that lightning was an electrical force found in nature. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States one would think that he would be smarter than to test this theory out on himself, but nonetheless he carried it out. Franklin did not invent electricity with this experiment; he just discovered that lighting was a form of electricity and not some mysterious force sent as a punishment from God (as most people back then thought).

To reach high enough into the storm clouds Franklin used a kite. In order to produce a current he attacked a small piece of metal to the top of his kite and a metal key to the base of the string. He then tied the kite string to an insulating piece of ribbon to the knuckles of his hand. When the lightening struck the kite it traveled down the kite string to the key. When Franklin touched the key with his knuckle there was a spark of electricity between the two of them. His son William was the only witness to the experiment. The first record of the experiment was fifteen years later by another man, which has caused some theories to emerge saying that he never actually performed it (I just think they’re jealous).

Franklin’s fascination with electricity began in the mid-1740s, resulting in almost a decade spent conducting electrical experiments (and countless electrical shocks). He developed the single-fluid theory of electricity and introduced many of the terms used to descried electricity today: battery, conductor, condenser, charge, discharge, positive, negative, electrician, and electric shock.

Understanding the power and danger of lightning, he went on to invent the lighting rod. This metal conductor is attacked to a high point on usually a building or ship and leads to the ground, protecting the object from destruction by lightning.

As a prominent scientist, inventor, and politician it is no surprise that Franklin was one of the most well known and widely recognized people of his time, and still so today. Creating such items as the bifocals, day light savings time, fire departments, and political cartoons he is still most widely known for his crazy experiment of flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm.