Let me guess…you’re a born & bred Newark native. Your parents are born & bred Newark natives. Your grandparents moved to Newark in the ’50s from the south. No? OK. Well maybe you moved to Newark recently. Or you have family in Newark. Or you work in Newark. Whatever the case I’m betting there are few things you didn’t know about this city. Here are 15 cool things we uncovered that we thought you’d like to know.
PEOPLE
Brian De Palma, director of films including Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and many more was born in Newark, NJ.
Musician, actor, and singer-songwriter Paul Simon was born in Newark, NJ.
Infamous gangster Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Flegenheimer) was gunned down on October 23, 1935 at the Palace Chop House in Newark, NJ and died a day later in Newark City Hospital.
New Jersey governor, Chris Christie was born in Newark, NJ.
Major League Baseball star Jose Canseco played for the Newark Bears Atlantic League baseball team in 2001.
Tracy Lauren Marrow (better known to you as actor, rapper, and singer, Ice-T) was born in Newark, NJ.
PLACES
Although the city was incorporated in 1836, Newark was originally established in 1666, makin it the nation’s third-oldest city, behind only New York and Boston. That’s right, its older than Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
The Passaic River, which borders Newark, was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.
Branch Brook Park, noted for the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States is the oldest county park in the US.
Contrary to what most people (in Newark and outside Newark) realize, the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is not a cathedral. It was elevated to a basilica (it says it right there!) in 1995 by Pope John Paul II.
Rutgers-Newark has the nation’s most ethnically diverse student body.
THINGS
Patent leather was introduced to the world by famed inventor Seth Boyden in Newark in 1818.
In 1978, email…..that’s right, email, was invented by VA Shiva Ayyadurai in Newark, NJ. On August 30, 1982, he received the first US Copyright for “EMAIL” for the “Computer Program for Electronic Mail System”. On February 16, 2012, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History accepted his code, papers and artifacts demonstrating his work on EMAIL.
Shoe manufacturer Johntson & Murphy originated in Newark – a partnership between two Newark businessmen James Johnston and William A. Murphy.
The Wars of America Monument in Military Park was created by John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, the American artist and sculptor who is also responsible for the monumental presidents’ heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota; the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia.
