Lake Placid, N.Y. — Thirty years ago, a group of college kids and one 22-year-old united the United States like never before. Families were gathered around the television set, or spending as much time reading the sports page as they were the world and national news pages, wondering if this team will win again and could he skate to another Olympic gold medal. Each time the answer was yes, as the U.S. hockey team stunned the world winning gold and Eric Heiden won five Olympic speedskating gold medals, making the 1980 Olympic Winter Games one of the most memorable events in all of sports history. Read more »

Port Byron, N.Y. - The Office of the Historian announces that a bible donated by Port Byron farmer Amos Scott King to President Abraham Lincoln will be coming back home after 149 years.  The gift was inspired when Amos King read the then President Elect’s Farewell Address made at Springfield, IL on Feb. 11, 1861 as he bid farewell to his family and friends prior to boarding the inaugural train.  Read more »

Elmira, N.Y. - The year 2010 will mark the 175th anniversary of Twain’s birth, the Centennial of his death, and the 125^th anniversary of the release of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Elmira, New York, also known as Mark Twain Country, will be celebrating his life with a year of Twain themed events and special promotions.

The following events will take place from April 21, the death date, through April 24, the day he was laid to rest at Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery: Read more »

Albany, NY  - Claire Puccia Parham, Ph.D., author of The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project: An Oral History of the Greatest Construction Show on Earth (ISBN: 978-0-8156-0913-1, $34.95; 328 pages; Syracuse University Press), will give a free presentation and sign copies of her book on Weds., Dec. 16th from 12:15-1:15 p.m. at the Librarians’ Room on the 7th floor of the NYS Library’s Cultural Education Center as part of the Noontime Speaker Series.

The Clifton Park resident’s current book, which took four years to complete, reveals the human side of the Seaway project in the words of 53 engineers, carpenters, laborers and their wives. It highlights the dangerous and brutal working conditions, Read more »

Lake Placid, NY - 150 years ago, abolitionist John Brown was condemned to death by hanging, an action that would lead to his ultimate burial at his farm just outside the village of Lake Placid, NY. His last speech at the trial, and his many letters sent over the next four weeks until his execution at the Charlestown (WV) gallows, gave him an opportunity to articulate his vision, his reasons for his actions, and turned him from a man facing death for treason to a martyr dying to end slavery. Read more »

Kingston, NY - Eileen McAdam, Director of The Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley, will be the featured speaker during the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Senate House on Wednesday Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Senate House Museum, 312 Fair Street in Kingston.  Ms. McAdam has made it her mission to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the Hudson Valley through recorded sound. Her Sound and Story Project includes oral history interviews, but it also encompasses many unusual sound recordings that portray this region, including the now-silenced bells of early American churches, or the sounds of bats in the caves of Rosendale. McAdam will talk about the art and method of capturing and preserving the sounds of the Hudson Valley, and the history they offer us. Read more »

Albany, N.Y. — The Capital City on the Hudson River has a November that’s packed with special events and great performances.

The celebration of the 400^th anniversary of Albany’s discovery by explorer Henry Hudson continues with special lectures, art displays and more. At the Empire state Plaza, the 38^th Annual Festival of Nations takes place on November 1, with the site of the nation’s first Shaker settlement holding its annual Christmas Craft Fair.

Throughout November, The Egg welcomes performances by Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Arlo Guthrie and other fabulous performers. The Palace features the Dark Star Orchestra and The Wiggles as they “Go Bananas”. At the Times Union Center, Metallica and PHISH are  in concert, while River Rats’ hockey settles in for a long stretch on home ice. My Fair Lady opens at Capital Repertory Theatre, and while Michael W. Smith brings his New Hallelujah World Tour to the Washington Avenue Armory.

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