Representative Hakeem Jeffries
Credit: © lev radin/Shutterstock

On Tuesday, January 3, 2023, Hakeem Jeffries became the first Black person to lead a party in the United States Congress. As the leader of the Democratic Party in Congress, Jeffries will fill the role formerly held by Representative Nancy Pelosi, who was speaker and minority leader of the House of Representatives since 2003. His success was overshadowed by the dramatic chaos of Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy’s campaign to be elected Speaker of the House, which continued for days for the first time in a century. In 2022, the Democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives elected Jeffries minority leader. Jeffries became a member of the House in 2013. He represents a district of New York that includes the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

A Brooklyn native, Hakeem Sekou Jeffries was born on Aug. 4, 1970. His father was a substance abuse counselor, and his mother was a social worker. Jeffries graduated from New York’s Binghamton University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He continued his studies, earning a master’s degree in public policy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Jeffries returned to New York City to enroll in the New York University School of Law, graduating with honors in 1997.

After law school, Jeffries clerked for Judge Harold Baer, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He then practiced law at a private firm. He later served as litigation counsel for the media companies Viacom Inc. and CBS. Jeffries ran for the New York State Assembly in 2000 and 2002, losing to the incumbent Roger Green. When Green vacated the post in 2006, Jeffries ran and won the election, serving in the role for three terms.

In 2012, Jeffries was elected to his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Budget Committee. In 2018, Jeffries was appointed to serve as the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus for the 116th Congress. In 2020, he served as impeachment manager for the Senate trial of former President Donald Trump. Jeffries’s political priorities include criminal justice reform and economic and health care security.

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York

Kathy Hochul became the first woman governor of New York state on Aug. 24, 2021. Hochul, a Democrat and the state’s former lieutenant governor, replaced Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned under investigation for sexual harassment. She has held a variety of local, state, and federal government positions.

Kathleen Courtney was born Aug. 27, 1958, in Buffalo, New York. She spent summer vacations volunteering for local politicians. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. She completed a law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., three years later. In 1984, she married the American lawyer William Hochul. Kathy Hochul spent nearly a decade working as a private practice attorney and legislative aide in Washington, D.C., before moving back to New York.

Hochul’s political career began in 1994, as a member of the town board for Hamburg, New York. After nine years on the board, she was appointed deputy clerk of Erie County. In 2007, she was appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer to fill a vacancy as Erie County clerk. She was reelected to the office later that year, serving until 2011. In that year, she was elected U.S. representative for New York’s 26th Congressional District. She replaced Representative Christopher Lee, a Republican, following his resignation. Hochul’s win was unexpected in the traditionally Republican district.

Hochul served as representative from 2011 to 2013. She lost reelection in 2012 to Republican Chris Collins. Following her defeat, Hochul joined the private sector, serving as vice president for government relations at M&T Bank.

Hochul ran for lieutenant governor in 2014, eventually joining a ticket with Cuomo. During her time as lieutenant governor, Hochul spearheaded a campaign against sexual assaults on college campuses, under the slogan “Enough Is Enough.” She also was appointed by Cuomo to chair the state’s Heroin and Opioid Task Force, along with a number of regional investment councils.

July 24, 2019

On Sunday, July 21, the Major League Baseball (MLB) greats Harold Baines, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martínez, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera, and Lee Smith were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Rivera, the MLB career leader in saves, was the first player unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame, having received 100 percent of the possible votes in his first year of eligibility. Halladay, an outstanding starting pitcher who died in an airplane crash in 2017, was also elected on the first try. Voters named him on 85 percent of the ballots, well above the 75 percent required for election. Martínez, a slugging infielder and designated hitter, made the Hall with 85 percent of the vote on his tenth and final time on the ballot. Mussina, another starting pitcher, earned 77 percent of the vote on his sixth try. The former pitcher Lee Smith and the outfielder-designated hitter Harold Baines were elected in December 2018 by the Modern Baseball Era Committee. Joining the players were the broadcaster Al Helfer and the sportswriter Jayson Stark.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum honors players and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the sport. It is located in Cooperstown, New York. Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Some 55,000 people packed the grass field outside the Hall of Fame’s Clark Sports Center, where a ceremony initiates the exclusive club’s newest members each year. On stage with the newcomers were 53 members elected in previous years and decades. “Moose” Mussina was the first to take the stage and deliver an acceptance speech. Mussina pitched 18 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees from 1991 to 2008. A durable and consistent winner, Mussina started at least 24 games, pitched at least 150 innings, and had at least 11 wins from 1992 to the end of his career. He led the AL in wins in 1995 (19), made five All-Star teams, won seven Gold Gloves as his league’s best fielding pitcher, and reached the 20-win mark for the first time in 2008, his last season in the majors. Mussina retired with 270 wins and a career 3.68 earned run average (ERA).

National Baseball Hall of Fame logo.
Credit: © National Baseball Hall Of Fame

Up next was Brandy Halladay, who represented her late husband, Roy. “Doc” Halladay pitched 16 seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies from 1998 to 2013. Halladay stumbled through his first few MLB seasons, but he harnessed his talent in 2002 with a 19-7 record and a 2.81 ERA. In 2003, he won 22 games and the Cy Young Award as his league’s best pitcher. Halladay went on to make eight All-Star teams and win a second Cy Young Award in 2010. Injuries hampered his last seasons and he retired with 203 wins, 67 complete games, 20 shutouts, and a career 3.38 ERA.

Harold Baines then spoke for 10 minutes, a lengthy time for the soft-spoken slugger. Baines played 22 MLB seasons from 1980 to 2001. He spent the majority of his career with the Chicago White Sox, but he logged significant time with four other teams during his long career. Baines played outfield before transitioning into a full-time designated hitter. A remarkably consistent and productive hitter, Baines hit 20 or more home runs 12 times and drove in 80 or more runs 11 times. He made six All-Star teams and retired with 2,866 hits, 384 home runs, 1,628 RBI’s (runs batted in), and a career .289 batting average.

Edgar Martínez took the podium after Baines. Martínez played 18 seasons with the Seattle Mariners from 1987 to 2004. He did not earn regular playing time until 1990, when he started at third base and hit .302. Two years later, he hit .343 to win the American League (AL) batting title. In 1995, by then primarily a designated hitter, Martínez led the league in hitting again with a stout .356 average. He went on to hit .312 for his career, during which he was named to seven All-Star teams. He retired with 2,247 hits, 309 home runs, and an outstanding career on-base percentage of .418.

Lee Smith, a dominant closing pitcher, took the role of set-up man at Sunday’s ceremonies. Smith played 18 seasons from 1980 to 1997. Known best for his early years with the Chicago Cubs, Smith pitched for seven other teams during his career. Smith led the National League (NL) in saves in 1983 (29) and averaged 33 saves his next four seasons with the Cubs. Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, Smith led the NL in saves in 1991 (47) and 1992 (43). In 1994, at age 36, he led the AL in saves (33) with the Baltimore Orioles. Smith retired with a career 3.03 ERA and a then-MLB record 478 saves, a mark that was later passed by Mariano Rivera—who fittingly wrapped up the day’s speeches.

In 2019, Mariano Rivera became the first player unanimously voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Credit: © Scott Anderson, Dreamstime

Rivera, the greatest closing pitcher in MLB history, played 19 seasons for the Yankees from 1995 to 2013. Rivera started 10 games his rookie season, but quickly shifted to the bullpen, where he became the team’s regular closer in 1997. Rivera saved 43 games that season, and went on to record at least 28 saves in 15 consecutive seasons (averaging 40 over that period). He retired as the all-time career leader in saves (652). Rivera made 13 All-Star teams, was a key part of five Yankees World Series titles, and posted a sparkling 2.21 career ERA.

Major League Baseball (MLB) Logo.
Credit: © Major League Baseball

Al Helfer, who called games for eight MLB teams from 1933 through 1969, joined the Hall of Fame as the 2019 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters. Jayson Stark, a beat writer for the Phillies for 20 seasons before covering baseball for ESPN and then The Athletic online magazine, earned entry as the 2019 winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”

Hall of Fame voting is based upon a player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played. Votes are cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which consists of writers with 10 consecutive years of service in the association. To be eligible, ballplayers must have spent at least 10 seasons in the majors and been retired for 5 years (exceptions are made in the case of severe injury or sudden death, such as with Roberto Clemente). Eligible players remain on the Hall of Fame ballot for 10 years, after which they can gain entry only though the select eras committees. The eras committees, made up of former executives, managers, players, and umpires, also choose nonplayers such as Helfer and Stark for entry into the Hall of Fame.

March 13, 2019

March is Women’s History Month in the United States. In honor of the celebration, World Book looks at U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, AOC—she is often referred to by her initials—became the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. She turned 29 less than one month before her election victory in November 2018. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat from the Bronx borough of New York City.

In 2018, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She is 29 years old. Credit: U.S. House of Representatives

Ocasio-Cortez was born on Oct. 13, 1989, in the Bronx. Her father was from the Bronx, and her mother came from Puerto Rico. The family later moved to Westchester County, New York. Ocasio-Cortez graduated from high school in 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics at Boston University in 2011. While a college student, she worked as an intern for Senator Edward Kennedy, focusing on immigration issues. After college, AOC returned to the Bronx, where she worked for a nonprofit organization promoting education and literacy. She also started a company that published children’s books emphasizing positive aspects of the Bronx, much of which has historically been troubled by crime and poverty. For several years, Ocasio-Cortez also worked as a waitress and bartender.

Ocasio-Cortez later became an organizer for the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In 2017, AOC announced that she would challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Crowley for the party’s 2018 nomination for New York’s 14th Congressional District. The district includes parts of Bronx and Queens counties in New York City. During the campaign, Ocasio-Cortez described herself as a democratic socialist. In democratic socialism, a democratically elected government enacts policies that encourage private companies to act in the public interest. Millions of users of the social media site Twitter followed AOC because of her lively, confident personality and her criticisms of both President Donald J. Trump and her own Democratic Party.

Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley in the Democratic primary held in June 2018. As a candidate for Congress, she advocated for universal health care, tuition-free public college, and increasing the income tax rate paid by Americans who earn more than $10 million per year. Since taking her seat in the House in January 2019, AOC has promoted a number of major reforms, including a platform known as the “Green New Deal,” which calls for a system in which all the nation’s electricity would be produced by renewable sources such as the sun and wind.

October 26, 2018

On this date in 1825, the Erie Canal was completed in upstate New York in the northeastern United States. The Erie Canal was the first important national waterway built in the United States. It crossed New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany to Troy on the Hudson River. The canal joined the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes system. It provided a route over which manufactured goods and settlers could flow into the Midwest without passing through Canada, and over which timber and agricultural products could be transported back to the East Coast.

Many boats, like these in Fairport, New York, continue to navigate the Erie Canal. The canal opened 193 years ago today on Oct. 26, 1825. Credit: © Leonard Zhukovsky, Shutterstock

For a hundred years before the Erie Canal was built, people had been talking about a canal that would join the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The man who planned the Erie Canal and carried the plans through was De Witt Clinton. Clinton was mayor of New York City for most of the period between 1803 and 1815. He was governor of the state from 1817 to 1822 and again from 1825 until his death in 1828. Those who opposed the canal laughingly called it “Clinton’s Ditch.”

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The Erie Canal crosses New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Troy and Albany on the Hudson River. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 1816, after failing to secure federal funding, Clinton petitioned the New York State Legislature to build the canal. His petition won so much support that the governor appointed a canal commission and made Clinton its head. Clinton became governor in 1817, and shortly afterward, on July 4, 1817, broke ground for the canal in Rome, New York, then a village on the Mohawk River. The canal opened after eight years of construction on Oct. 26, 1825. The first barge to travel its entire length, Seneca Chief, left Buffalo with Clinton on board on that day. It arrived in New York City on November 4 and was greeted all along the way by enthusiastic crowds.

The building of the canal was paid for by the state of New York. It cost $7,143,789, but it soon earned its price many times over. The canal cut freight rates between Buffalo and New York City by more than 90 percent and strengthened New York City’s position as the nation’s largest city and principal port. As the canal traffic grew, towns along its course prospered. Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo became major cities.

The canal was enlarged several times between 1835 and 1862. But business began to fall off in the 1870’s as railroads became the main long-distance carriers of freight and passengers. In 1903, the people of New York voted to build a great modern waterway, linking the Erie Canal with three shorter canals in the state to form what now is called the New York State Canal System. This system, which is 524 miles (843 kilometers) long, opened in 1918.

August 30, 2016

On Sunday, August 28, an all-star baseball team from Maine-Endwell, New York, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Seoul, South Korea, 2-1. The Little League World Series is a competition played each year in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, among kids aged 11 to 13. The tournament, first played in 1947, includes 16 Little League teams from the United States and the rest of the world. Little League Baseball is the world’s largest organized youth-sports program with nearly 180,000 teams. Endwell’s Little League title was the first for a U.S. team since 2011, and the first for a New York team since Staten Island won in 1964.

On Aug. 28, 2016, New York’s Ryan Harlost scores on a passed ball in the fourth inning of the Little League World Series title game against South Korea in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. New York defeated South Korea 2-1. Credit: © Rob Carr, Getty Images

Pitching and defense dominated the title game at South Williamsport’s Howard J. Lamade Stadium. Endwell’s Ryan Harlost and Seoul’s Junho Jeong mowed down hitters and both teams made sparkling defensive plays to help keep the game scoreless through three innings. New York’s first hits came in the decisive fourth as the team pushed two runs across on three singles and a passed ball. South Korea’s Yoomin Lee homered in the fifth, narrowing the score to 2-1. The Seoul Little Leaguers kept the pressure on in the sixth and final frame, putting two runners aboard with two outs. Harlost fanned young Minho Choi to end the game, however, and Endwell hats and gloves flew into the air before a miniature team pile formed near home plate. A raucous and happy home crowd cheered the New York champions, who gathered with the gracious South Koreans for a group jog and wave around the ball field. U.S. President Barack Obama took a few minutes from his busy schedule to place a congratulatory phone call to the champs after the game.

The Seoul all-stars rolled through the international bracket of the tournament, downing a tough Panama team 7-2 to advance to the World Series title game. The undefeated Endwell ball club won the U.S. championship 4-2 over the all-stars of Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The tournament’s 32 games drew a total of nearly 500,000 fans.