This day in history: New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates on this day in 1901. My first reaction when reading this was "of course they were." New York has been the least free state in the country for a long time. Economic freedom is New York's greatest weakness, but the state has not kept up with the rest of the country on personal freedoms either. New York is also the worst state on regulatory policy, land-use freedom is very low, primarily because of the economically devastating rent control law in New York City. New York’s local tax burden is double that of the average state, and NY also suffers from a lack of “school choice.” Exorbitant prices on tobacco leads to selling cigarettes as singles, and forget about getting a gun there. More people leave New York than any other State.
"New York has been the least free state in the country for a long time. In fact, the Empire State has been the worst state for freedom in every year since our data set began in 2000. Economic freedom is the most significant weakness, but the state has not kept up with the rest of the country on personal freedom either. It belies the “blue” state stereotype in that it is No. 50 on economic freedom and personal freedom." Source
This Day in History: American serial killer and rapist Richard Cottingham, who murdered a minimum of 12 young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980, was born on this day in 1946. He was nicknamed The Torso Killer and The Times Square Killer. In 2009, nearly 30 years after being convicted of five murders in New Jersey and New York in 1981–1984, Cottingham admitted to a journalist that he had committed at least 80 to 100 "perfect murders" of women in various regions of the United States, of which, since 2009, six have been subsequently confirmed and their cases closed. Cottingham was convicted of five murders, two in New Jersey and three in New York, plus multiple charges of kidnapping and sexual assault and other charges. Four surviving victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the abduction-rape survivor cases and acquitted in one.
He earned the nicknames the “Torso Killer” and “Times Square Torso Ripper,” after two victims were found savagely dismembered and decapitated, then set on fire, in a Times Square motel in 1979.
The remains incarcerated at the state prison in New Jersey to this day.
This Day in History: The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, was arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs on this day in 1957.
George Peter Metesky (November 2, 1903 – May 23, 1994), better known as the Mad Bomber, was an American electrician and mechanic who terrorized New York City for 16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explosives that he planted in theaters, terminals, libraries and offices. Bombs were left in phone booths, storage lockers and restrooms in public buildings, including Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the RCA Building, and in the New York City Subway. Metesky also bombed movie theaters, where he cut into seat upholstery and slipped his explosive devices inside.
Angry and resentful about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier, Metesky planted at least 33 bombs, of which 22 exploded, injuring 15 people. The hunt for the bomber enlisted an early use of offender profiling. He was apprehended based on clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. He was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.
According to History & Headlines the top 10 most famous/infamous bombers are:
10. Richard Colvin Reid “The Shoe Bomber”
9. Edward Teller “The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”
8. J. Robert Oppenheimer “The Father of The Atomic Bomb”
7. William Boeing (whose planes dropped more bombs than anyone else’s, ever, anywhere)
6. Alfred Nobel (the man that invented dynamite)
5. Tsarnaev Brothers (Boston Marathon bombers)
4. George P. Metesky (see above)
3. Timothy Mcveigh (Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing)
