Seven years after Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit, and just six weeks after the U.S. space probe Ranger 7 sent back the first close range photos of the moon, civic leaders and Nobel Laureates gathered in Flushing Meadow, Queens, on a hot September day in 1964 to dedicate the World's Fair Hall of Sciences as a permanent structure committed to science education and exploration in New York City.

Preservation is moving toward center stage in the audio world, and nowhere is this more patent than at the AES Convention. Marquee names (Chuck Ainlay, Bob Ludwig) are expressing concern over the legacy of their work, and their talks are increasingly well attended by the rank-and-file membership, who increasingly face challenges that require coordinated solutions.

The second installment of the Archives' celebration of Thanksgiving continues today with a 1952 show focusing on cayenne peppers, featuring Mrs. Gannon, WNYC's Mistress of Markets. Tune in to learn all about incorporating this "pepper-upper" into your diets -- and be sure to catch her recipe for cheese croquettes!

Three years before he was elected President of the United States, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his book Profiles in Courage, which he co-wrote with his adviser and speechwriter Ted Sorensen. The day the award was announced, May 6, 1957, Senator Kennedy addressed a special Overseas Press Club event honoring the accomplishments of members of the foreign press, which was broadcast over WNYC on May 31, 1957.

Howdy, Homemakers! Welcome to the first in a special holiday series of Annotations featuring a few culinary highlights from the WNYC radio collection. Today the crew at the Department of Markets brings you their program on "food and rationing with a silver lining," featuring the wisdom of Commissioner Daniel P. Wooley and the experience of Frances Foley Gannon, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Services.

This week's Studio 360, "Making Better People," takes a look at man's preoccupation with improving man. Featuring interviews with Greg Stock, author of Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, and others, the program considers how we might better nature through engineering. Meanwhile, in the Archives we found a WNYC program exploring the same topic ...almost exactly sixty-two years earlier.

Forty-nine years ago today activist, politician and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt passed away at the age of 78. An outspoken advocate of civil rights, the Chairman of the President's Commission on the Status of Women and a former delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, Mrs. Roosevelt spent her final years speaking to groups around the country and raising money for various charitable organizations.

In this 1964 episode of Around New York, the inimitable Tony Schwartz presents an aural portrait of New York City’s subway.  

Contrary to prevailing belief, the Jewish Daily Forward's first radio program was not on WEVD (a leader in Jewish and Yiddish radio programming in the 1930s and 40s), but on WNYC!  The Yiddish newspaper marked the May 21, 1926 broadcast nine days later by printing the photos on the left with the following caption:

"The First Forward Radio Concert --Isa Kremer, the world famous balladiste, who was the featured soloist of the Forward radio hour May 21, from WNYC. (Left) The famous Stringwood Ensemble, which rendered a program of classical music."*

Theodor Adorno was a key figure in the German refugee-led Institute for Social Research when it resettled at Columbia University before the U.S. entry into World War II.  At Columbia he was also associated with the Office of Radio Research and headed up the Music Division of what became known as the Princeton Radio Project (1937-1941), studying the effects of mass media on society. Beginning in late April, 1940 he presented a new series of music programs on WNYC. The announcer introduced them this way:

What was WQXR's worst nightmare in 1948? Was it to have their supposedly long hair* cut? No -- as it turns out, it was to be part of a big network.

Celebrated each year on October 24, United Nations Day commemorates the day in 1945 when the UN Charter was made effective. United Nations Day was first celebrated in 1948, and in 1949 the cornerstone of the United Nations building between First Avenue and the East River was laid. Among those present to mark the event were Carlos P. Romulo, President of the General Assembly, Secretary General Trygve Lie, President Harry Truman and New York City Mayor William O'Dywer.

WNYC and WQXR kicked off our fall pledge drive on Monday, and among the tote bags and mugs offered as premiums there appears a charming poster from the Archives (with thanks to the New York Transit Museum). The poster, which originally appeared in the city's subways, was designed in the early 1950s by the illustrator Oppy. Set against the city skyline and WNYC's then-home, the Municipal building, the poster promotes the show "Around New York."

On October 7, 1945, New York City's Mayor La Guardia solemnly celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Charter of the Town of Flushing from the historic home of John Bowne, who played a major role in abolishing New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant's limitations on religious freedom in the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

QSL postcards were used to confirm reports that a station had been heard. QSL is a "Q" code from amateur and radiotelegraph jargon that means "I confirm contact with you."

Community leaders gathered this past Tuesday to dedicate a statue of 19th century social reformer and abolitionist  Frederick Douglass.

In 1949, the State of New York's Board of Water Supply was in the middle of constructing the Delaware Aqueduct as a means of augmenting New York City's water supply. During this time, residents and officials were deeply concerned with how all of the city's water was used -- or wasted.

On the occasion of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 150th anniversary, we look back at its younger days, 70 years ago.

Richard Hamilton, the "Father of Pop Art", Dies at 89

September 6th marked a great loss to the film community with the death of underground filmmaker George Kuchar.