New York celebrated Independence Day in 1926 with packed beaches, exploding fireworks, stray bullets, and at least one violent confrontation between police and revelers.
An estimated 600,000 people crowded Coney Island, setting a seasonal attendance record, while accidents unfolded elsewhere across the city.
A teenage amateur chemist was badly injured while trying to make gunpowder.
A man was struck by a stray bullet.
Children suffered burns and mangled fingers from firecrackers and toy cannons.
Despite those incidents and the brutal attack of a patrolman, the day was described as having produced an “unusually small number of accidents,” offering a revealing glimpse at just how dangerous an ordinary Fourth of July celebration could be a century ago.
New York Reports Few Victims of 4th
New York’s millions celebrated Independence Day yesterday with an unusually small number of accidents.
The exodus to nearby resorts which began Friday continued yesterday and the season’s attendance record at Coney Island was broken when 600,000 persons jammed the beach. Only a third of this number was able to get a dip in the surf.
An amateur chemist, Elliot Harris, 15, was seriously injured when chemicals with which he was attempting to make gunpowder exploded.
Pietro Pampallone, 29, was shot in the stomach by a stray bullet.
A 9-year-old boy lost the ends of four fingers when a cartridge shell in which he had put a lighted firecracker exploded.
An overcharged toy cannon burst and burned two boys on the hands and face.
Patrolman John Taeschner was beaten unconscious and stabbed by a crowd of celebrants when he ordered them to stop swimming in Glove Lake, Staten Island.
Source: Evening Star. Washington, D.C. July 5, 1926.
