Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We’ll get a look at what’s being planned for July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the 13 colonies declaring their independence from Britain. We’ll also get details on why the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein could face new sex crimes charges in Manhattan.
While you were watching fireworks last week, Christopher O’Brien was practicing saying “semiquincentennial.”
It’s the term for a 250th anniversary. O’Brien is the president of Sail4th250, a nonprofit that is focused on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Continental Congress’s approval of the Declaration of Independence.
Sail4th250’s plans for a “once-in-a-generation celebration” include a parade of tall ships in New York Harbor with vessels from more than 30 nations.
That brings to mind the Bicentennial, in 1976, when the city was mesmerized by a flotilla that was watched by millions from the streets of Lower Manhattan and pleasure boaters on 10,000 small craft. There were so many that the Coast Guard dispatched cutters to clear the way for the schooners and square-riggers.
But about that word. O’Brien acknowledged that “bicentennial” was easier to say than “semiquincentennial.”
Semiquincentennial “takes a little practice,” he said. “It doesn’t lend itself to that instant interpretation that we got with the Bicentennial.” In everyday conversation with government agencies and military authorities involved in the planning, he said, “we abbreviate it ‘semiquin.’”
The ships paying calls in 2026 won’t all be tall-masted vessels. Sail4th250 expects the procession to be joined by the Queen Mary 2, which was the longest, tallest, widest and heaviest nonmilitary vessel in history when it went into service 20 years ago. Also taking part in the flotilla will be naval vessels from around the world, including some from countries, like Britain and Greece, that O’Brien said do not operate tall ships.
The dates for Fleet Week in 2026 will be shifted to coincide with the semiquincentennial, and an air show is being planned.
There will be fireworks on the Hudson. And if the parade of ships is not enough, O’Brien noted that a FIFA men’s World Cup game is scheduled to be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 5.
Sail4th250 is the successor to Operation Sail Inc., the group that had planned harbor events since the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and O’Brien has been counting down to 2026 for several years. Sail4th250’s first planning session with foreign attachés took place in April 2020, a month after Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor at the time, ordered nonessential businesses in the state closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. “We were all figuring out how Zoom worked,” O’Brien recalled.
He sees New York Harbor as an appropriate place for a semiquincentennial because its role in American history predates the nation itself. The explorer Henry Hudson was looking for the Northwest Passage when he found the river that has carried his name since the mid-17th century.
A century later, the harbor had become a strategic stronghold: George Washington slipped across the East River after the colonists lost the Battle of Brooklyn. The harbor was teeming with British ships — the largest armada of warships the world would see until the D-Day invasion, according to Sail4th250.
By Operation Sail in 1976, the harbor was a much different place than it was when Washington made his getaway. The Times called it “magnificent but underused” as it described “a great Bicentennial carnival” that captivated the city.
It was a strikingly upbeat moment after the uncertainty of a fiscal crisis had brought the city close to bankruptcy. The tall ships sailed in eight months after The Daily News ran the immortal headline “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD,” about President Gerald Ford’s decision to deny federal assistance to help the city. A week after Operation Sail, the Democratic National Convention opened at Madison Square Garden and nominated Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in November.
Now, almost 50 years later, O’Brien is facing a question for 2026: Where to put the ships? “What pier space is available is contracted for commercial purposes like the cruise lines and the commuter ferries,” he said, adding that some piers “have been turned into beautiful parkland but can’t accept ships.”
For large ships like the Queen Mary 2, O’Brien said that Sail4th250 has been negotiating with cruise lines to use their piers. He said his group is also looking to places like Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Sail4th250 could make “temporary arrangements” for gangways and barges “on the old piers that are there.” Sail4th250 is lining up corporate sponsorships to pay for such short-term makeovers. It is also seeking grants from New York and New Jersey, as well as federal support from the United States Semiquincentennial Commission, also known as America250.
Weather
Expect a partly sunny day with a chance of showers and temperatures in the high 80s. At night, showers might continue with temperatures in the high 70s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B’Av).
The latest Metro news
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Racketeering Charges: George Norcross III, for years a widely feared political figure in New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he had manipulated land and development deals in Camden to benefit from government tax breaks.
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Anger on 28th Street: A block on East 28th Street Manhattan street erupted in anger when a man in a wheelchair was taken into custody in the killing of a 31-year-old woman whose body had been found wrapped in a blue sleeping bag.
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A street brawl and a stabbing spree: Amid buzzy restaurants and high-end real estate, a triple stabbing on a troubled section of 14th Street in the East Village reflected the city’s struggles to manage problems that are all but uncontrollable.
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Menendez trial: In closing arguments at the corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, his lawyer accused federal prosecutors of relying on “half-truths” and speculation to tar a veteran public servant.
Prosecutors are “actively pursuing” new allegations against Weinstein
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was “actively pursuing” a fresh prosecution against Harvey Weinstein, the movie producer whose case helped drive the #MeToo movement. A prosecutor said the new case could be ready for trial in the fall.
Nicole Blumberg, an assistant district attorney, said in Manhattan criminal court that her office had identified accusations of rape and sexual assault against Weinstein that had occurred within the statute of limitations. She said there were women in 2020, when Weinstein was tried on felony sex charges in New York, “who were not ready to proceed with the legal process.”
“Some of those women are now ready to proceed,” she said.
Weinstein was found guilty, but the conviction was overturned in April in a bitterly divided ruling by New York State’s highest court. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said shortly after the decision that his office would retry Weinstein, even though an appellate ruling had limited the evidence from the first trial that prosecutors would be able to introduce.
Weinstein, who is being held at the Rikers Island jail complex while he awaits another trial, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair on Tuesday. He was found guilty of forcible rape and two other charges in a separate case in Los Angeles in 2022 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison there.
METROPOLITAN diary
Special Guest
Dear Diary:
I was in New York for a legal proceeding in summer 1980. During a lunch break one day, I rushed to Lincoln Center, where Richard Burton was reprising his role as King Arthur in the musical “Camelot.”
I wanted to get a ticket. I loved the music and the story and had been listening to the original Broadway cast recording for nearly 20 years.
I must have looked crushed when the man at the ticket booth informed me that there was no performance on Mondays. It was a Monday, and I had to fly out the next morning.
After a few seconds, the ticket agent told me he had two tickets, front-row center, to that night’s performance of the Berlin Ballet, and that he would split them up and sell me one.
I mumbled that I had never been to the ballet.
“Trust me,” he said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
I bought the ticket and joined in the collective gasp that night when Rudolf Nureyev, appearing as a guest soloist, literally flew through a window in the stage set and landed with a startling thud about 15 feet from me.
I will never forget his face.
— James Miller
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Good to be back after vacation. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Francis Mateo, Hurubie Meko and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post What’s a Semiquincentennial? You Have 2 Years to Find Out. appeared first on New York Times.
