July 13

When people refer to the 60s, they generally think of the 1960s with its anti-war protests, tempers flaring all over the place and invariably landing on the new carpet and widespread anti-government activism. They were all of that and much more. The 1960s pale, however when you turn your gaze back a century. On July 13, 1863, New York City, indeed much of the northeast, was embroiled in a series of anti-draft riots which make the 1960s look like a cakewalk; the most dramatic of these riots engulfed the entire City of New York for three days. In the 1960s about the only things that lasted three days were the hangovers.