Monmouth County Timeline
May 22, 1919
Gender Integration of the Army Advanced at Fort Monmouth
Editor’s note: On May 22, 1919, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett presented the Distinguished Service Medal to Grace D. Banker of Passaic, N.J., at U.S. Army Headquarters in Coblenz, Germany, during World War I. Her citation read, in part,...
October 22, 1919
U.S. President Warren G. Harding’s Illegitimate Daughter is Born in Asbury Park
By Mark A. Wallinger On October 22, 1919, Elizabeth Ann Christian (later Blaesing) was born in Asbury Park. She was the new baby daughter of the sitting president of the United States. Never heard of President Christian, or President Blaesing? That’s...
June 7, 1921
James Bradley, Founder of Asbury Park and Bradley Beach, Dies at 91
On June 7, 1921, James A. Bradley, founder of the Monmouth County communities of Asbury Park and Bradley Beach, died at age 91, just three weeks before he could see a statue of him erected near Convention Hall to commemorate...
January 31, 1923
Norman Mailer
On January 31, 1923, Norman Kingsley Mailer, novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and liberal political activist, was born at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch. His grandfather, Chaim Yehudah Schneider, was known as the town’s “unofficial rabbi.” Mailer’s family...
May 17, 1923
Monmouth County’s Official Song is “Monmouth County”
On July 5, 1939, the song “Monmouth County” was formally adopted as our county’s official song by the chosen freeholders. With lyrics written by Captain Cyril A. Smack of Sea Bright, and music by his sister, Gertrude Smack Seaman of...
August 17, 1923
The Ku Klux Klan Recruits the Women of Monmouth County
On August 17, 1923, the Ku Klux Klan held its first-ever open-air initiation ceremony in New Jersey, in Allenwood, in Wall Township. With 900 men and 700 women in robes and hoods looking on, 434 women were welcomed into the...
November 25, 1923
End of the Line for Bill McCoy, King of the Rum-Runners
On November 25, 1923, Bill McCoy, possibly the most celebrated bootlegger of the Prohibition era, found his career as a smuggler at an end at the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard, off Sandy Hook. He was born William Frederick...
April 21, 1924
The Rum Line: The Beginning of the End of Bootlegging Along the Monmouth County Shore
On April 21, 1924, the United States Congress extended the territorial limit of U.S. jurisdiction in international waters from three miles to 12. The move was designed to enhance law enforcement efforts during Prohibition, especially in and around Monmouth County,...
August 11, 1924
New Monmouth Timeline Mystery: Did Harry Houdini Perform Here or Not?
On Monday, August 11, 1924, the legendary escape artist and entertainer Harry Houdini gave what may have been his one and only performance in Monmouth County. Unless it never happened. It’s entirely possible that, despite our region being home to...
June 22, 1926
The Little Silver Free Public Library
On June 22, 1926, the Little Silver Public Library was established by resolution of a meeting of the Mayor and Council. County Librarian Eleanor Randall and Estella T. Rothwell, principal of the Little Silver School, had appeared before the governing...
November 11, 1926
The Count Basie Theatre
The Count Basie Center for the Arts originally opened as the Carlton Theater on November 11, 1926. The theater was one of the highlights of nightlife in downtown Red Bank for many years. In 1970, after the Strand, Palace, Empire,...
October 13, 1927
Babe Ruth Versus Lou Gehrig: The Bronx Bombers Come to Asbury Park
Editor’s note: In 1926, legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth brought a barnstorming team to Monmouth County for a pair of exhibition games, one on October 11 in Bradley Beach, and the second on October 23 in Highlands. Both...
June 11, 1929
The President of the Red Bank Aero Club Crashes His Plane into the Governor’s Residence
By Joseph G. Bilby ©2022 Oops. In the early evening of June 11, 1929, William Taft of Red Bank, New Jersey, “president of the Red Bank Aero Club,” decided to take a couple of friends, Mrs. William Jeanine and...
October 16, 1929
Bootlegger Compound Raided in Former Middletown Home of Oscar Hammerstein Sr.
On October 16, 1929, at the height of Prohibition, federal agents raided an isolated house atop the ridge in the Navesink section of Middletown, overlooking Sandy Hook Bay (pictured above...the person in the photo is unidentified). Before 1920, the house...
January 1, 1930
Paramount Theatre
On New Year's Day, 1930, a showing of the 1927 film "Wings" marked the opening of the new Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. The Paramount is co-located with the Asbury Park Convention Hall on the boardwalk along the Atlantic Ocean....
March 24, 1930
Red Bank Airport – An Aviation Hub for Monmouth County
Editor’s note: On March 24, 1930, the aviation facility then known as Airview Field was the scene of an accident, quite possibly for the first time, when an airplane attempting a night landing overturned, wrecking the aircraft. Luckily, the three...
July 5, 1930
Explosion at Neptune Fireworks Plant Kills Four, Injures Four
On July 5, 1930, at 4:30 p.m., an explosion erupted at Frank Cimino’s fireworks factory in Neptune Township, killing four people and injuring four. The blast could be heard for miles and was followed immediately by a series of additional...
September 4, 1931
The Curious Origin of the “Seven Presidents” of Monmouth County
Editor’s note: This research project owes much to three people who deserve acknowledgement: Janice Grace, Long Branch historian, Library Associate and History Room Manager of the Long Branch Free Public Library; Robert Waitt, president, Historical Society of Ocean Grove; and Randall...
March 23, 1933
Gangster Al Lillien’s Unsolved Murder in Middletown Ends his Criminal Organization
On March 23, 1933, Alexander (Al) Lillien Jr. (born February 28, 1897), a "master liquor-runner,” was found murdered in his Middletown mansion. Lillien, 36, along with his brother William, controlled a bootlegging gang that extended from Montreal down to Virginia,...
May 4, 1933
Karl G. Jansky, the Father of Radio Astronomy
On May 4, 1933, Bell Labs announced that one of their scientists working in the Holmdel facility had succeeded in detecting radio waves from the Milky Way galaxy, a breakthrough that signaled the birth of a new field of science...