This month in New York Life history—November.

At New York Life

2021
Nov. 17: Craig DeSanto named CEO-elect of New York Life.

2019
Nov. 28: New York Life’s Toy House of Marvelous Miracles float debuted at Macy’s 93rd Thanksgiving Day Parade® in honor of our 175th anniversary.  The float was designed to evoke the timeless themes of looking onward and upward, dynamic and diverse families, and bringing people together.

2015
Nov. 19: The Shared Grief Project launched. The website dedicated to sharing stories of childhood bereavement from celebrities was made possible in part from a $75,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation.  

2011
Nov. 4: The Grief Reach Program was born when New York Life Foundation announced $750,000 in two-year grants. The money went to 22 bereavement providers who worked with children. As of 2018, Grief Reach had supported 236 organizations and committed over $7.1 million.

1932
Nov. 8: Herbert Hoover (Republican) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat) ran against each other for the U.S. presidency. Roosevelt won the election. Hoover would go on to join the New York Life board of directors in 1934, while Roosevelt was a policy owner.

1928
Nov. 16: New York Life began moving into its new Home Office Building at 51 Madison.  During a dedication ceremony for the new site, New York Life President Darwin Kingsley called the future building a “Cathedral of Insurance...to the better development of the science of society.”  In 2000, the Home Office building was designated a historic landmark by New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

1856
Nov. 19: New York Life purchased its first Home Office Building, on the 100 block of Broadway Avenue.

Around the World

1995
Nov. 1: The first all-race local government elections took place in South Africa, marking the end of the apartheid system.

1993
Nov. 1: The European Union came into existence as a result of the Maastricht Treaty.

1890
Nov. 4: The first electrified underground railway system was officially opened in London.

1863
Nov. 19: President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during ceremonies dedicating 17 acres of the Gettysburg Battlefield as a National Cemetery. Famed orator Edward Everett of Massachusetts preceded Lincoln and spoke for two hours. Lincoln then delivered his address in less than two minutes. Although many in attendance were at first unimpressed, Lincoln's words have come to symbolize the definition of democracy itself.

1800
Nov. 17: The U.S. Congress met for the first time in the new capital at Washington, D.C. President John Adams then became the first occupant of the Executive Mansion, later renamed the White House.

1789
Nov.  26: The first American holiday occurred, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American republic.

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