Official portrait, 2016

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (/ˈbeɪdər ˈɡɪnzbɜːrɡ/ BAY-dər GHINZ-burg; née Bader; March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed "the Notorious R.B.G.", a moniker she later embraced.

Ginsburg was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Just over a year later her older sister and only sibling, Marilyn, died of meningitis at the age of six. Her mother died shortly before she graduated from high school. She earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University and married Martin D. Ginsburg, becoming a mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the few women in her class. Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated joint first in her class. During the early 1960s she worked with the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure, learned Swedish, and co-authored a book with Swedish jurist Anders Bruzelius; her work in Sweden profoundly influenced her thinking on gender equality. She then became a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field. (Full article...)

Downtown Newburgh from Beacon,
across the Hudson River

Newburgh is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area. Located 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Albany on the Hudson River within the Hudson Valley Area, the city of Newburgh is located near Stewart International Airport, one of the primary airports for Downstate New York.

The Newburgh area was first settled in the early 18th century by the Germans and British. During the American Revolution, Newburgh served as the headquarters of the Continental Army. Prior to its chartering in 1865, the city of Newburgh was part of the town of Newburgh; the town now borders the city to the north and west. East of the city is the Hudson River; the city of Beacon is across the river and it is connected to Newburgh via the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge. The entire southern boundary of the city is with the town of New Windsor. Most of this boundary is formed by Quassaick Creek. In May 2016, the city requested help for its PFOS contaminated water supply under Superfund. (Full article...)

Portrait by Abraham Bogardus, c. 1880

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was the 21st president of the United States, serving from 1881 to 1885. He was a Republican lawyer from New York who previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield. Assuming the presidency after Garfield's assassination, Arthur's presidency saw the largest expansion of the U.S. Navy, the end of the so-called "spoils system", and the implementation of harsher restrictions for migrants entering from abroad.

Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the American Civil War. Following the war, he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political organization. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him as Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party. In 1878, following bitter disputes between Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes over control of patronage in New York, Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system. In June 1880, the extended contest between Grant, identified with the Stalwarts, and James G. Blaine, the candidate of the Half-Breed faction, led to the compromise selection of Ohio's Garfield for president. Republicans then nominated Arthur for vice president to balance the ticket geographically and to placate Stalwarts disappointed by Grant's defeat. Garfield and Arthur won the 1880 presidential election and took office in March 1881. Four months into his term, Garfield was shot by an assassin; he died 11 weeks later, and Arthur assumed the presidency. (Full article...)

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) was established in 1845 and is currently the largest police force in North America, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City. The NYPD is considered to be one of the first "modern" style police departments in the United States along with the Boston Police Department.

• June 16: Wikinews interviews candidate for New York City mayor Vitaly Filipchenko
• August 13: Water main bursts in White Plains, New York, US
• June 19: On the campaign trail in the USA, May 2020
• February 15: California lawyer Michael Avenatti convicted of attempted extortion
• October 17: Hundreds arrested for 'dark web' child porn by international task force
• October 10: U.S. judge orders release of President Trump's tax records, appeals court issues delay
• September 29: Fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist demands justice at UN General Assembly
• September 21: NYC Mayor de Blasio ends US presidential campaign

• ...that the Trolley Museum of New York had no permanent home during the early years after its founding in 1955?
• ...that Al Smith was the first Roman Catholic and Irish American to run for President as a major party nominee?
• ...that the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, toll road in New York City is the longest underwater vehicular tunnel in North America at 9,117 feet?

• Murder of Grace Brown (March 20, 1886 – July 11, 1906) was the murder of a New York-raised American skirt factory worker and became the basis of Roberta Alden, a character from the novel An American Tragedy.
• Billy Collins (March 22, 1941) is an American poet who has previously been recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and New York State Poet for 2004.
• Arent S. Crowninshield (March 14, 1843 - 1908) was an admiral of the United States Navy.
• Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was a Democratic Party politician from New York who served as the Governor of New York from 1933 until 1942.