LaMarcus Adna Thompson
(March 8, 1848 – May 8, 1919)

By the spring of 1965, Bob Dylan’s presence in the world of
music was beginning to be felt well outside the boundaries
of his nominal genre. Within the world of folk music, he had
been hailed as a hero for several years already, but now his
music was capturing the attention and influencing the
direction of artists like the Byrds, the Beatles and even a
young Stevie Wonder.

With Dylan as a direct inspiration, popular music was about
to change its direction, but so was Dylan himself. On June
16, 1965, on their second day of recording at Columbia
Records’ Studio A in Manhattan, he and a band featuring
electric guitars and an organ laid down the master take of
the song that would announce that change: “Like A Rolling
Stone.” It would prove to be “folksinger” Bob Dylan’s
magnum opus and, arguably, the greatest rock and roll
record of all time.

Bob Dylan had his 83rd birthday in May.

More than 1,000 people taking a pleasure trip on New York City’s
East River were drowned or burned to death when a fire swept
through the boat. This was one of the United States’ worst
maritime disasters.

The riverboat-style steamer General Slocum was built in 1890
and used mostly as a vehicle for taking large groups on day
outings. On June 15, the St. Mark’s German Lutheran Church
assembled a group of 1,360 people, mostly children and teachers,
for their annual Sunday School picnic.

The picnic was to take place at Locust Point in the Bronx after
a cruise up the East River on the General Slocum.

At about 9 a.m., the dangerously overcrowded boat left its dock
in Manhattan with Captain William Van Schaik in charge. As the
boat passed 83rd Street, accounts indicate that a child spotted
a fire in a storeroom.

Wembley, one of the largest tie manufacturers in the U.S.,
was founded in 1936 in New Orleans.