08/25 - First article in the NY Sun's famous "Moon Hoax" series. (Web link on "Moon Hoax": http://www.historybuff.com/library/refmoon.html); (Link to "Moon Hoax" in Reminiscences of an Octogenarian - quotation from same: "[it was a] recital of ... the construction of a telescope by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, [supposedly] copied from a philosophical journal of Edinburgh. ... the surface of the moon was as clearly shown as if it was but a few miles distant; ... the ... inhabitants was shown, and they were bats, evidently, from his description, of the ordo cheiroptera; ... some papers published the main features of Locke's article, asserting that it was copied by them from the designated Edinburgh journal. ... [It inspired an ]extravaganza ... at the "Bowery" Theatre, entitled "Moonshine, or Lunar Discoveries."
12/16 - the great fire, ... broke out between eight and nine o'clock at No. 25 Merchant Street, now Hanover Street. The area covered by it was computed at fifty acres, being bounded by South Street, Coenties Slip, Broad and Wall streets, including ... the Merchants' Exchange, the Postoffice, and two churches. ... In the efforts to save property, horses and carts were purchased at prices that seemed fabulous, ... In many instances goods that were transported to an apparent place of safety were there burned, and in some instances others were removed a second and a third time. The thermometer indicated a temperature of ten degrees below zero, the fire hydrants in most cases were frozen, and where they were not, the water from them froze in the hose. Moreover, the water in the slips was so low, from long prevalence of a strong northwest wind, that it could not be reached from wharves with the suctionpipes. The engines froze tight when they were not worked constantly, and many became inactive from this cause. From Reminiscences of an Octogenerian.